# Remembrances - (Cinematic Studio Strings)



## Fer (May 19, 2017)

Hey guys,
this is my first CSS work, i hope you enjoy it!


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## Silence-is-Golden (May 19, 2017)

very dramatic and melancholic...and very well done to my ears! You know your mockup chops, orchestration skills and it sounds gorgeous.


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## Steve Martin (May 19, 2017)

Hi Fer,

It's beautiful  thank you for sharing.


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## jon wayne (May 19, 2017)

Really enjoyed the Piece!!


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## Grim_Universe (May 19, 2017)

Harmonies are golden, but you need a little more inner dynamics and movement in your voices. Climax at around 2-45 doesn't work in terms of dynamcs. It feels very empty, so you need to start with string close harmony voicings and then progress to string wide voicings with brass close voicings (I hope it makes any sense) or start with strings wide voicings and brass close v-ings. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that he never uses wide harmony voicings with orchestra playing louder than mf, and I support him with this statement. Still I'm in love with the piece, gratz!
By the way, check this piece at 9:31 : 
Orchestration is similar to yours, but climax works so good!


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## Maxfabian (May 20, 2017)

Well done! Sounds really good. Keep up the good work!


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## Fer (May 20, 2017)

Hey Silence, Steve and Jon, im glad you liked it! thanks for listening : )
@Grim_Universe thanks a lot for taking the time to comment, i apreciate your feedback and the analytic listening! Im not sure if i am understanding you correctly, so let me explain what i did here, starting in 2:42; i have a Cmaj7-Bmin-Amin progression in the strings (in open position). After Cmaj7 is resolved in Bmin, the horns are echoing that Bmin triad (they are playing it in close position tough). Anyway I think you are right in relation to the dynamics in that part, the inner voices in that progression could (or should) be performed louder...


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## Grim_Universe (May 20, 2017)

@Fer Yeah, I can hear close position voicings performed by your horns, but it's too late.. Fer, you have mf-f dynamics at 2:42 and I can hear only 3 main voices from 1st vlns, 2nd vlns and clos. Yeah, I know that you have vlas there and harp and so on, but I almost can't hear anything, chords feel very empty. I can understand that you want your horns later to echo Bmin triad, but I think you should help yourself with ww or maybe soft trombones (but hearable) at 2:42.
One more example, listen around 1:10+. That's how your strings should sound at climaxes. Look at the first chord and how it works.

P.S. One little advice from the guy who loves and uses CSS all the time: use multiband compressors to compress 250-500 hz. Use exciters to brighten your sound. CSS are great, but it takes time to make them sound nice. You'll have much better balance after right multiband compressing and limiting (yes, don't be afraid of limiting, because multiband limiters will clean mud of your sound and you won't lose any dynamics. We feel the dynamics in HIGH frequencies, so don't be afraid of that. Your sound isn't tight right now)


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## Fer (May 20, 2017)

Hey Grim, yes... i agree really... the full chord is not developed in its full power; The css sound here is the sound out of the box (with rvrb); im very new to this library, i will try your tip mix, thanks!… (btw i find it outstanding and special too… a single note can tell you a whole story  )


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## Paul T McGraw (May 20, 2017)

Fer said:


> Hey guys,
> this is my first CSS work, i hope you enjoy it!




Great composition, great sound.


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## Rodney Money (May 20, 2017)

Wonderful, great job, Fer. I hear more Mahler influence, especially Symphony No. 5, movement 4, and I enjoyed your piece much more than the JW example, but thank you to Grim for sharing. It's always nice to follow a score even when GL's dialog keeps getting in the way.


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## Erik (May 21, 2017)

This is a wonderful composition as well as mockup. Bravo!


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## Fer (May 21, 2017)

Hey, thanks a lot to everyone for hearing! it really means a lot if this music tells something to you.
Rodney, thanks for your warm words; you know... the joy of making music is not limited to the composition process, altough it is extended when someone out there enjoy the same stuff that made you happy while composing it.
: )


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## artomatic (May 21, 2017)

Listening to your piece without the comprehensive insight into the fundamental notions of music theory was such a thrilling experience. I thoroughly enjoyed this musical journey. Thanks for sharing!


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## dariusofwest (May 22, 2017)

Great piece Fer! :D


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## byzantium (May 22, 2017)

Fer, I think this is absolutely beautiful. Wonderful. Bravo. 
Wish there was more of this kind of music and compositions around. 
I'm totally in love with that (to me) Hermann-seque opening, and Mahler-esque section thereafter.

I think CSS just kinda blows everything else out of the water for this kind of music, it's so wonderful and "alive". I love the sound you've created. And it sounds like you've spent a lot of time getting your CC levels right. Is it just the standard CSS 'mix' mic with perhaps a touch of some reverb? 
Well done again.


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## ctsai89 (May 22, 2017)

Yes! We need more Wagnerian compositions just like these


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## FabioA (May 22, 2017)

Great job, in terms of composition, voice leading, programming. 
Concerning the production, may I ask if you added reverb and/or eq to CSS?


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## JBacal (May 22, 2017)

Lovely!


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## jjmmuir (May 22, 2017)

Unhurried loveliness! Super work. Enjoyed the space and flow. Production for me sounded 'right' as is. I wouldn't compress this necessarily.


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## Fer (May 23, 2017)

Hey, @byzantium and @FabioA ...I didnt use any eq here or any other plugins (im very good destroying the sound when i try to improve it); just a single instance of valhallaroom on top of everything and a limiter in the master output. The space inbetween the different sections is based on the natural different ambients of the libraries: css default mic setup (“mix”) plus Mark Brass and WW default mic setup (with much more backed ambient) and finally the bass drum (pushing back the instrument just by boosting a lot the surround mics).
About the CC curves, i recorded them on the fly and then i tweaked them with the pencil when needed… 



byzantium said:


> I think CSS just kinda blows everything else out of the water for this kind of music, it's so wonderful and "alive".


I find it awesome. The legato is the most cohesive that i have heard and the vibrato was captured like if the musicians were in the middle of the most emotive Miklos Rozsa performance…


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## Ashermusic (May 23, 2017)

Just terrific.


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## byzantium (May 23, 2017)

Thanks @Fer, the whole piece is excellent. It's amazing how good CCS is out of the box when it's played like that, in a composition like that. PS As a matter of interest, did you use the default (max) vibrato setting as well, or ride that fader a bit too? (I discovered one has to be careful not to move the mod wheel too much or rather too quickly with CSS).


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## Emmanuel Rousseau (May 23, 2017)

Speechless. Congrats, friend !


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## Fer (May 23, 2017)

byzantium said:


> PS As a matter of interest, did you use the default (max) vibrato setting as well, or ride that fader a bit too? (I discovered one has to be careful not to move the mod wheel too much or rather too quickly with CSS).


@byzantium i used the vibrato layers most of the time. Just in one ocasion i did a crossfade (slighly) to non-vibrato.
@Ashermusic , @whitewasteland thanks friends!


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