# At the stars



## sherief83 (Oct 15, 2013)

Hey guys,
Just wanted to share this dreamy piece. Its always exciting whenever I get in the mood to make them. Nothing really new musically speaking but it was a nice soothing experience to make for a day's work.



would love to hear everyone's feelings about it.

Hope you all enjoy it.

Sherief.


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## Hannes_F (Oct 15, 2013)

Great work, Sherief! I absolutely enjoyed the musical language/writing, the overall mood/architecture/arc and your command on execution/performance/sound. Definetely a keeper that can be digested many times again.

The end left me a bit surprised.


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## SymphonicSamples (Oct 15, 2013)

Hey Sherief , lovely piece . Hannes said it all .


> I absolutely enjoyed the musical language/writing, the overall mood/architecture/arc and your command on execution/performance/sound.


 There were some lovely moments and I enjoyed your string writing/voicing . Thanks for sharing . If you don't mind , what libraries did you use ?


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## TGV (Oct 15, 2013)

Fascinating work. I thought the first fortissimo with the trumpets was a bit out of character, and sometimes the repetition of the two-note phrase in the strings was a bit too strict, but overall very well structured (ending somewhat abrupt), and orchestrated, with good melodic fragments.


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## synergy543 (Oct 15, 2013)

Nicely done Sherief! Very lovely and uplifting piece though I agree with Hannes_F that the end left me puzzled...is it finished?

And is it really "a day's work" only? If so, that's rather mind boggling (I'd love to hear the other days work too!). 

Can you talk a bit about your process (do you score to paper, sketch, or work to DAW?) 

And can you talk about the harmonic progressions in this piece which I think are what make it most interesting to me along with your lovely orchestration. The mysterious meandering harmonic progressions are very ethereal. How are you arriving at these?

Also I like your use of woodwinds (Wow, someone still uses ww! - you are old school my friend and I love it) reminds me of Daphis sequences in some spots. Quite inspiring and thanks for sharing, Greg


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## Rob (Oct 15, 2013)

Bravo Sherief, thanks for posting the piece...


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## Alastair (Oct 15, 2013)

Genuinely inspiring. I'd love to have your command of the orchestra, the instrumentation and harmony is lovely.


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## sherief83 (Oct 16, 2013)

Hannes_F @ Tue Oct 15 said:


> Great work, Sherief! I absolutely enjoyed the musical language/writing, the overall mood/architecture/arc and your command on execution/performance/sound. Definetely a keeper that can be digested many times again.
> 
> The end left me a bit surprised.



Thank you Hannes! I'm deeply touched. The ending is very open. The philosophy is that it never ends and it continues on.



SymphonicSamples @ Tue Oct 15 said:


> Hey Sherief , lovely piece . Hannes said it all .
> 
> 
> > I absolutely enjoyed the musical language/writing, the overall mood/architecture/arc and your command on execution/performance/sound.
> ...



Thank you Matthew! I really appreciate it. Libraries where Hollywood Strings diamond eastwest, Woodwinds is All Vsl except for one Flute patch that was from symphobia. percussion was project sam as well. 



TGV @ Tue Oct 15 said:


> Fascinating work. I thought the first fortissimo with the trumpets was a bit out of character, and sometimes the repetition of the two-note phrase in the strings was a bit too strict, but overall very well structured (ending somewhat abrupt), and orchestrated, with good melodic fragments.



Thank you TGV for your thoughts on it. We can never really nail the real deal can we? lol We keep on trying...always a reminder VST orchestra will never really replace the real deal.


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## sherief83 (Oct 16, 2013)

synergy543 @ Tue Oct 15 said:


> Nicely done Sherief! Very lovely and uplifting piece though I agree with Hannes_F that the end left me puzzled...is it finished?
> 
> And is it really "a day's work" only? If so, that's rather mind boggling (I'd love to hear the other days work too!).
> 
> ...



Greg Thank you for your kind words and enthusiasm. Your questions had me wanting to think about it for two days...lol 

My process for pieces like this is that I perform the orchestra instruments using the sample library directly into DAW. No sketches. everything is a Random take after the other and with no rules or restrictions of theory on it. The only restriction applies if your writing for real orchestra and if its possible or not.

As for the Harmonic progression on the piece. Usually I start with very chromatic chords and then connect the dots and Randomly mess around. Its important to me that nothing is perfect and everything can be interpreted that its full of mistakes. Its human and easy to identify with on an emotional level Vs having a strict On beat Structure.

I Honestly can't explain how I arrive at them but I know why I did and its because of my influences and my love for their works. The piece above can be classified as impressionistic piece with a slight romantic era in it (As usual for me) I keep asking my self how far can I go with that style? and that's where my quest is. 

Yes I love woodwinds so much. How can anyone not?!?! So much you Can do with that class of instruments.

I hope I answered all your questions Greg, if you anymore Ask away!




Rob @ Tue Oct 15 said:


> Bravo Sherief, thanks for posting the piece...



Thank you so much Rob I really Appreciate it a lot!



Alastair @ Tue Oct 15 said:


> Genuinely inspiring. I'd love to have your command of the orchestra, the instrumentation and harmony is lovely.



Thank you Alastair! I really appreciate your enthusiasm! Very touching sir!


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## synergy543 (Oct 17, 2013)

Thanks for sharing your insights Sherief. I find it intriguing that you compose such a fluid piece directly to DAW without a even a mere sketch. The reason it intrigues me is working with the DAW seems to make many composers work in a more mechanical way and seems to encourage working in more repetitive patterns. Clearly you've shown this doesn't have to be the case. I look forward to hearing more from you and believe there is still much to explore with this style.


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## BenG (Oct 17, 2013)

Fantastic piece, thanks for sharing!


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## Mike Marino (Oct 18, 2013)

Great writing and really nice mix and performance of the instruments. Very fluid with a nice, full low end from the basses. As stated above, I, as well, really enjoyed the harmonic fluctuations throughout the piece. Awesome stuff!


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## DanielBeijbom (Oct 18, 2013)

Such wonderful writing! Love it! 

Can't believe you did this in one day...makes me re-think the way I work.

"Its important to me that nothing is perfect and everything can be interpreted that its full of mistakes" 

I can learn a lot from that quote!


Great piece, Sherief!


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## itskylerobertson (Oct 19, 2013)

Wonderful work, Sherief!


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## sherief83 (Oct 19, 2013)

synergy543 @ Thu Oct 17 said:


> Thanks for sharing your insights Sherief. I find it intriguing that you compose such a fluid piece directly to DAW without a even a mere sketch. The reason it intrigues me is working with the DAW seems to make many composers work in a more mechanical way and seems to encourage working in more repetitive patterns. Clearly you've shown this doesn't have to be the case. I look forward to hearing more from you and believe there is still much to explore with this style.



I'm glad it helped! Let me share something with everyone. My background in music has always been centered around keyboards and Piano performance. But I love keyboards! I used to literately pray and dream about the latest Korg or Roland. I love the idea of knobs and controllers and that I can just twist here and there and gets me somewhere no body expected without click buttons or moving a mouse.

With that being said, what is helping my process to be fast, is that I got to know my sample patches very well and assigned all the controls I need to control many of its aspects (I.e expression CC) that are available or came/created with the sample patch.

The String lines from Eastwest Hollywood strings for instant, I perform the music(melody lines/anything) with my right hand with the 1st Violin and the left side I have my left hand on the expression and Vibrato controls. So I'm essentially controlling the Dynamics and the expression of those strings live without having to mess with curves later on. The only thing i need my mouse for is final mix and Volume Control and EQ. Everything else is Performed with all its dynamics and pedaling live.

The process needs practice and also needs that you get to know the quirks of all the sample patches your using. But at some point, performing a melody is just as easy as Hit Record on your DAW and perform the melody like a real player would, And do more takes if the first one wasn't a hit, again just like the a player would if they were being recorded for whatever instruments they are using.

I Think that definitely helped my flow be Faster instead of Clicking my music in which is going to make the entire process mechanical and programmatic instead of musical and joys. 

I hope all that made sense. If anyone has any questions, let me know!



BenG @ Thu Oct 17 said:


> Fantastic piece, thanks for sharing!



Thanks Ben! Really Appreciate it!



Mike Marino @ Fri Oct 18 said:


> Great writing and really nice mix and performance of the instruments. Very fluid with a nice, full low end from the basses. As stated above, I, as well, really enjoyed the harmonic fluctuations throughout the piece. Awesome stuff!



Thanks mike! I really appreciate your thoughts and glad you enjoyed it!


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## sherief83 (Oct 19, 2013)

SilentBob @ Fri Oct 18 said:


> Sherief, what can I say except: I absolutely fall in love with your music. Tone Poems in the pure sence and meaning of the word. I have listened to the piece three times, and just explored another, "a moment in heaven". Such wonderful music. Lying on the bed, putting on the headphones and closing my eyes, just enjoying. A pure pleasure. Never mind that these are samples, fully unimportant, it's the music.
> 
> Sorry for sounding like a fanboy, but this is what i am now. So i have to listen to all of your other music. Please continue your work, it's outstanding and truly inspiring.



Bob, Your words are deeply touching Sir Thank you so much! I want you to know that I definitely appreciate it and enthusiasm like yours and everyone inspire me to keep going and keep improving and be hopeful about my musical career. I lose my inspiration and direction very easily because I just never know what people really think of what I do and I definitely have more misses than hits, But words like yours just give me hope that I'll do something right eventually.

Thank you again SilentBob! P.s I'm a huge Kevin smith fan...lol




DanielBeijbom @ Fri Oct 18 said:


> Such wonderful writing! Love it!
> 
> Can't believe you did this in one day...makes me re-think the way I work.
> 
> ...



Daniel, Thank you so much for your kind words. I really appreciate it! There is always so much to learn from everyone and I learn something new everyday on this forum from everyone! I hope it helpes!



itskylerobertson @ Sat Oct 19 said:


> Wonderful work, Sherief!



Thank you for your comments and I see this is your first post!! wow! welcome to this lovely Board! Explore around! huge talent here and I mean HUGE!


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