# Awakening : Platinum Play - What to improve?



## Nino Rajacic (Jan 7, 2010)

Hi everybody!

I'm reading forums for a while and I really admire amount of great professionals and veterans in production with virtual instruments, present around here. For some reason I never posted here, and I don't have any good excuse for that. 

I would like to have some feedback on track I did as excersize with Platinum Play I've bought recently.

http://www.3peakaudio.com/music/Awakening.mp3

Thanks in advance for your feedback

Nino


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## nikolas (Jan 7, 2010)

Hey Nino! Welcome to VI! May your stay here be prolonged and happy! :D

On the track. 

I liked it, especially the beginning, before the strings kicked in and became a little too "EW" for my taste. I'm a long user of EW libraries and I am getting tired of that sound (LASS has saved me in that regard). 

I'm listening from crappy hi-fi speakers, so can't really comment too much on mixing, etc, but found the rest of the strings (apart from the 1st violins) to be rather low in volume in general. 

The piece itself is very nice, the orchestration if very confident and right on spot.

Again welcome and all the best,

Nikolas

PS. Are you part of 3peak audio, or just using for some reason their webspace for hosting? I do know Jaap but I'm afraid I can't recall the rest of the team... :-/


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## Nino Rajacic (Jan 13, 2010)

*Re: New Composer Around: Awakening - Platinum Play*

Cheers Jaap  o-[][]-o 

Just Nikolas commented, Is it that bad guys? :(


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## JohnG (Jan 13, 2010)

I like the piece but I find that for too much of it you have both the melody, the accompaniment, and the string sustains in exactly the same register, so it feels cluttered; for film music, I think you need greater clarity than that.

But it's an intriguing piece, and intrigue is an enormously valuable asset.


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## lux (Jan 13, 2010)

This is nice Nino, i expecially liked the dramatic buildup.

A couple of things i've noticed. One is that the mid-low range of the orchestra is sometimes too empty to my ears, expecially in the early part, where i hear mostly high range melodies and bits and bass. Another thing is that i would try to refine a bit the interlude between oboe, high strings and bells to give a more coherent flowing and significance. Personal impressions of course.

Its a good work, keep posting
Luca


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## lux (Jan 13, 2010)

damn John beat me to it :mrgreen:


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## JohnG (Jan 13, 2010)

naner-naner


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## madbulk (Jan 13, 2010)

The best point is JG's about it being heavy in the one register. And I won't add anything as valuable as that. 

In general the perc is too forward, for me.

a gently proposed nit pick: early on, more notes and more variation in the accompaniments, rhythmically, subtle stuff that doesn't change the feeling you've set up, will support the samples better. Sparse and repetitive is hard mockup wise. No great revelation on my part.

It's a beautiful melody but there are points just in the intro, like where you go to the sixth in the bells and later in the melody. I would consider those intervals. That harmony may sound thick and awesome later on, but here in the intro section, I wouldn't press it. I'm not suggesting changing the melody of course. Just maybe don't play a minor second in another voice on the same exact beat?

It's a very nice piece. I love the EW sound myself.  Those cymbals all seem a little close, and maybe a few too many swells? Make the swell a grander rarer gesture?

I'd love to hear a departure section. The stuff around 1:40 is great, but I wish there were a section that didn't begin on the tonic. And truly, that's a compliment to all the work you've done. I want the theme to come back huge. And it's pretty huge, but it would be huger if it came back FROM somewhere.

All humbly submitted and very ignorable.

Did you read this far?  Nice piece man.


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## theheresy (Jan 13, 2010)

very nice work. I agree the cymbal explosions sound a little too close to the front, there doesn't seem to be any 3d depth or space. and POSSIBLY the horns sound a little too up front also but that can be arguable. oh and the others are right there's almost no low end to the piece


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## Nino Rajacic (Jan 14, 2010)

Thanks guys for the listening and nice words about my piece! 

I was expecting more butchering and slaughtering to be honest  All of the comments you made are very valuable for me. I'll try to reply, but please keep in mind that I'm not native English speaker so if sometimes sounds harsh it is not my intention to justify myself or argue. Just to explain what I was trying to do and maybe have some more good advice from your direction.

@ John
I tried to make dense and not too bright orchestration to give the piece right feel. But I agree on your point, and now I know that I have to find better ways to achieve that.

@ Luca
Since John beat you on mid-low register comment i wish you better luck next time  I'm not sure that I understand what you meant by refining interlude to make it coherent? Using not so different material in the voices you mentioned? 

@ Brian
Nice points, thanks. Generally I also prefer perc moved to the back and I agree on that, this piece was more experiment with new orchestral template and setup I've made for Platinum so I experimented. I've composed directly in sequencer, which is not my preference, I like to compose in "old fashioned" way - in Finale to get familiar with my notes first.  This is why I was focused on samples more then on a composition itself, and that's always bad. I'm aware that good piece and good orchestration are step no 1 for good sounding mock. 
I totally agree on varying notes and too many cymbal rolls, I'm familiar with those rules, but thanks for pointing to that. I've used swells too often to hide runs in violins (in first part of the piece), which I couldn't make sounding right. I wanted to keep those runs of course, and they are there, but with swells I think I've managed to cover their crappy midi sound, but they are still present and contributing to sound. Maybe you could suggest better way for hiding such stuff?
I don't find your comments humble neither ignorable 

@ theheresy
Horns are close indeed since I've tried to position them that way, rather than to their traditional place. Do you feel that they sound bad as they are or just non conventional? 

Thanks guys again, this piece was written some time ago and I won't redo it since I'm working on some new stuff. I'll keep on posting in the future, before I fully finish my pieces.


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