# City of the Sword - big orchestral piece (featuring CSB)



## jeremiahpena (Dec 11, 2018)

I wrote this track last week in Dorico, then mocked it up in Cubase. Originally I used Berlin Brass+Metropolis Ark+Hollywood Brass for the brass sections, but I just re-worked it to now be solely Cinematic Studio Brass.

And here's a score if you want to see it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ktdkjubwxjdp41b/City%20of%20the%20Sword%20Score.pdf?dl=0



Woodwinds are Berlin (Legacy), Strings are CSS+Soaring Strings+Hollywood Strings.


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## TheSigillite (Dec 11, 2018)

Wow! Excellent piece. great use of CSB.


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## Grim_Universe (Dec 11, 2018)

Nice theme. I liked it. CSB sounds great!


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## kleotessard (Dec 11, 2018)

Excellent ! Thank you for sharing.


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## MA-Simon (Dec 11, 2018)

Awesome instrumentation. But the composition is to simple for me. There are fills in between but the repeating of the theme is to much.


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## Loïc D (Dec 11, 2018)

Wow. I like the style and writing a lot.
Congrats.
Not to say that it’s an excellent demo for CSB and BWW !


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## Kony (Dec 11, 2018)

Excellent Jeremiah! What perc did you use btw?


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## jeremiahpena (Dec 11, 2018)

Kony said:


> Excellent Jeremiah! What perc did you use btw?



HZ Perc (Timpani, Low Boom, Piatti), and Hollywood perc for the cymbal rolls. Oh, and L&S Concert Grand.


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## Maxfabian (Dec 11, 2018)

jeremiahpena said:


> I wrote this track last week in Dorico, then mocked it up in Cubase. Originally I used Berlin Brass+Metropolis Ark+Hollywood Brass for the brass sections, but I just re-worked it to now be solely Cinematic Studio Brass.
> 
> And here's a score if you want to see it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ktdkjubwxjdp41b/City%20of%20the%20Sword%20Score.pdf?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ktdkjubwxjdp41b/City of the Sword Score.pdf?dl=0)
> 
> ...



Really nice piece Jeremiah! You are truly talented. Cheers


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## whiskers (Dec 11, 2018)

Great orchestration. Loved it. Would have maybe liked to see a bit more movement/variation on the main motif, but sounds great!


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## Andoran (Dec 11, 2018)

Enjoyed this, the brass has such great dynamic range and sound, and is blending nicely with the strings. Very skillful execution throughout. I have a new 1tb 860 Evo coming, and will be downloading CSB upon it's arrival . Did you mostly layer the string libraries, or did you use different ones in different places based on the articulation/sound you wanted? I purchased CSS/CSSS over black friday and have yet to see how it blends with HWS diamond.


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## jeremiahpena (Dec 11, 2018)

Andoran said:


> Did you mostly layer the string libraries, or did you use different ones in different places based on the articulation/sound you wanted? I purchased CSS/CSSS over black friday and have yet to see how it blends with HWS diamond.



All of the strings lines are done with CSS, then I go back through and layer in other libraries if I need something more to it, mostly to add some brightness and looseness. Soaring Strings does a good job of adding some shimmer to CSS legato while retaining CSS's body (Hollywood Strings legatos have a similar tone, but don't blend quite as well). CSS's shorts are sometimes too tight/crisp for their own good, so HWS's shorts layered in help with that.


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## Assa (Dec 11, 2018)

Some truely lovely moments in there  I really enjoyed it, thanks for sharing !


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## leon chevalier (Dec 11, 2018)

It sound absolutely great ! 
You got me curious, do you mind sharing your Berlin Version ?


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## jeremiahpena (Dec 12, 2018)

Here's the original mockup. Keep in mind there's a lot of layering with 3 different brass libraries to get it to the sound here: https://clyp.it/amtrixbz

And for fun, here's the Noteperformer version, which is what I heard while writing: https://clyp.it/2csmfwq4


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## leon chevalier (Dec 12, 2018)

jeremiahpena said:


> Here's the original mockup. Keep in mind there's a lot of layering with 3 different brass libraries to get it to the sound here: https://clyp.it/amtrixbz
> 
> And for fun, here's the Noteperformer version, which is what I heard while writing: https://clyp.it/2csmfwq4


Thanks !
(My favorite is the studio brass one !)


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## Andoran (Dec 12, 2018)

leon chevalier said:


> Thanks !
> (My favorite is the studio brass one !)


I would agree, I prefer the tone of CSB in this, including the softer dynamics, and the range is amazing.


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## Fer (Dec 12, 2018)

Hi Jeremiah, i really enjoyed your piece; also i think i have to say that i never heard a brass library sounding so huge and natural at the same time. In the score i see four part harmonies for the horns; Did you aproached the mockup of those divisis using the same solo horn multiple times (perhaps with some kind of tweaking to avoid the exact same sound) or is just the a4 horns playing chords?


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## jeremiahpena (Dec 12, 2018)

Fer said:


> Hi Jeremiah, i really enjoyed your piece; also i think i have to say that i never heard a brass library sounding so huge and natural at the same time. In the score i see four part harmonies for the horns; Did you aproached the mockup of those divisis using the same solo horn multiple times (perhaps with some kind of tweaking to avoid the exact same sound) or is just the a4 horns playing chords?



The first mockup I did split it across Berlin's different players (although with layering from HWB and MetArk it makes it less clear), but with the CSB mockup I used the Solo Horn/Trumpet/Trombone patches for chords. At 0:20 I split them up into separate instances so they could all have legato, but the rest of the piece it's just the solo horn patch with 4 voices in it. This also means that the CSB mockup is always true to the number of players in the score, but the original one would sometimes have 12 trumpets or 6 trombones and such.


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## DMDComposer (Dec 12, 2018)

Excellent mockup man. The piece was quite lovely too and your orchestration really made the brass punch through well.

Just curious how much mixing you had to do for this on the CSB version? Eqs, multiple mics, compression etc? Or this just out of the box with your layering of libraries?


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## Kyle (Dec 12, 2018)

The motif reminds me of something from from Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Not entirely sure why :D

I really like the way you've used the repetition throughout to be honest. Though the regular changes in tone, texture etc definitely make it feel like more of a cue to fit a specific scene rather than a generic library track or classical piece. 

CSB is absolutely as good as I was hoping, incredible clarity without sounding synthy. Great work.


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## jeremiahpena (Dec 12, 2018)

DMDComposer said:


> Just curious how much mixing you had to do for this on the CSB version? Eqs, multiple mics, compression etc? Or this just out of the box with your layering of libraries?



CSB was out of the box. No EQ, no compression, mixed mic. Just some added reverb.


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## Saxer (Dec 12, 2018)

Great theme! Cinematic impressionism. Big smile at 02:21
Brass sounds superb. The strings are a bit too soaring for my taste.
Very individual composition. Fun to listen. Well done!

Astonishing how much of the music already comes out of Noteperformer!


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## Paul T McGraw (Dec 19, 2018)

@jeremenard awesome work. A bit too repetitive for me, but otherwise wow. Good compositional arc, great harmonies, I know how hard it is to work with constantly shifting time signature and you did great with that. The mix and sound are terrific. You have a lot to be proud of with this track.

Thank you for including the score. I always get more out of listening with a score. Also thanks for letting us hear the NotePerformer version. I am constantly impressed by Wallander.


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## Illico (Dec 20, 2018)

As often, I love your orchestration and colors experiments.
How do you achieve constantly shifting time signature? What is the stuff that guides you? Why do you shift from 5/4 to 4/4 then 5/4? Or, could you point me some guide?

EDIT: Thanks for the score link...


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## axb312 (Dec 20, 2018)

If you're up for it, I'd love to see a walkthrough of this piece - from and orchestration and mixing POV. Good work @jeremiahpena .


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## jeremiahpena (Dec 20, 2018)

Illico said:


> How do you achieve constantly shifting time signature? What is the stuff that guides you? Why do you shift from 5/4 to 4/4 then 5/4? Or, could you point me some guide?



I mostly just go with what feels right. Dorico has a feature where you can write in free time without any time signatures, and then divide it up into bars after the fact. The main motif is generally 9 beats long, but 9/4 seems unwieldy to me. It could be split as 5/4+4/4, or 4/4+5/4, but the former would have a quarter note "pickup" into the 4/4 bar, placing the emphasis on the second quarter note. I wanted it on the first note, so I chose to start with 4/4.


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## Henu (Dec 20, 2018)

Kyle said:


> The motif reminds me of something from from Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Not entirely sure why :D



Because this! Now stand aside, worthy adversary!


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