# Short Suite from a WWII film I scored recently



## SymphonicSamples (May 1, 2017)

Hello fellow VI'er, I thought I'd share a short OST suite from a World War II film I scored recently. As a film virgin, it's was my first score and was given very little time to complete. This section was taken from a battle scene. As always any thoughts much appreciated.


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## Nils Neumann (May 1, 2017)

Wow, love the beginning! Great job


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## SymphonicSamples (May 1, 2017)

Cheers Nils thank you, and thanks for taking the time to listen and share your thoughts


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## Jaap (May 1, 2017)

Great writing Matt, some really strong moments you have created and curious to see it in its context to be honest!


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## SymphonicSamples (May 1, 2017)

Jaap said:


> Great writing Matt, some really strong moments you have created and curious to see it in its context to be honest!



Hey Jaap, thanks, much appreciated, I'll try and share the section with music/visuals when possible


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## Cass Hansen (May 2, 2017)

One of the nicest uses of col legno I've heard in a while at the beginning with the cellos hits and then in double time with the violin section making it sound like a "clock" or "time running out" kind of urgency. As always with your tracks, great job with orchestration and overall stage acoustics and mixing. 

More me personally, I felt you didn't have big enough range of dynamics in this mix. A very emotive piece such as this should have great swells and crescendos separating the musical sections. Several times I felt you missed the mark of "impact" on the listener. For instance, at 1:00 you have a solo strings playing and then horns join in and ten seconds later at 1:15 you have full orchestra punching it out but the crescendo between 1:05 and 1:15 seemed lack luster; not really that much change in dynamics. If you are using a compressor, then I would scale it back some at these sections. 

I realize that film, TV, music to be listened to in cars and other noisy settings require this and I'm coming from a concert hall background. So this might be perfectly mixed for your application. Tell me what you think. I would be interested in hearing your feedback on this Matt.

But like I said, everything else is perfection and quite professional sounding.
Cass


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## Jaap (May 2, 2017)

SymphonicSamples said:


> Hey Jaap, thanks, much appreciated, I'll try and share the section with music/visuals when possible



Awesome Matt, looking forward to that to be honest


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## patrick76 (May 2, 2017)

Nice work! I too would like to see the film. Agree with Cass about the excellent orchestration and stage sound.


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## novaburst (May 2, 2017)

SymphonicSamples said:


> Hello fellow VI'er, I thought I'd share a short OST suite from a World War II film I scored recently. As a film virgin, it's was my first score and was given very little time to complete. This section was taken from a battle scene. As always any thoughts much appreciated.




Yer nice plucks on the strings with the entrance, its a very nice piece I like the way it started big and dynamic then went into a nice softer part that was well executed and it did not sound out of place it fitted the piece.

its well thought through and love the way you used the female choir to repeat the melody, I know this isn't one of those epic pieces but it did sound epic in its own way so epic does not only belong to the huge bombastic any thing can sound epic and this is an example.
thanks for post


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## zacnelson (May 2, 2017)

Beautiful work Matt! The mix is exceptional. Did you use a combination of different string libraries?


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## H.R. (May 3, 2017)

Excellent! I really enjoyed it.
What are the libraries used in this one?


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## SymphonicSamples (May 3, 2017)

patrick76 said:


> Nice work! I too would like to see the film. Agree with Cass about the excellent orchestration and stage sound.


Thank you Patrick !!



Jaap said:


> Awesome Matt, looking forward to that to be honest


Thanks Jaap !!


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## SymphonicSamples (May 3, 2017)

novaburst said:


> Yer nice plucks on the strings with the entrance, its a very nice piece I like the way it started big and dynamic then went into a nice softer part that was well executed and it did not sound out of place it fitted the piece.
> 
> its well thought through and love the way you used the female choir to repeat the melody, I know this isn't one of those epic pieces but it did sound epic in its own way so epic does not only belong to the huge bombastic any thing can sound epic and this is an example.
> thanks for post


Hey Nova , thanks man. Epic without Epicness can still be Epic 



zacnelson said:


> Beautiful work Matt! The mix is exceptional. Did you use a combination of different string libraries?


Thanks Zac, you mixes especially on your songs are awesome quality, so thank you.


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## SymphonicSamples (May 3, 2017)

Cass Hansen said:


> One of the nicest uses of col legno I've heard in a while at the beginning with the cellos hits and then in double time with the violin section making it sound like a "clock" or "time running out" kind of urgency. As always with your tracks, great job with orchestration and overall stage acoustics and mixing.
> 
> More me personally, I felt you didn't have big enough range of dynamics in this mix. A very emotive piece such as this should have great swells and crescendos separating the musical sections. Several times I felt you missed the mark of "impact" on the listener. For instance, at 1:00 you have a solo strings playing and then horns join in and ten seconds later at 1:15 you have full orchestra punching it out but the crescendo between 1:05 and 1:15 seemed lack luster; not really that much change in dynamics. If you are using a compressor, then I would scale it back some at these sections.
> 
> ...



Hey Cass, cheers man, thanks for sharing your thoughts much appreciated. You know on the dynamic side of things I completely understand what your saying. I experienced a crash course in dynamics last night at Han Zimmer's concert in Sydney, as Robin said in the original TV series "Holy strawberries Batman! We're in a jam!" one big musical jam. I've never heard such a dynamic range in a concert ever  Ok , back to the real world. To be honest if I wrote this as a standalone suite of music I would approach it very differently. This was discussed with the director and he was very specific in his mind on this. In previous sections of music that come before this there is much more of a dynamic range. I ended up having less than 2 weeks to complete the music so I originally sent off my first draft set of musical ideas after about a week in which everything was positively received by the director which included the col legno section, but the last 2 thematic ideas were very much different originally to this and in a completely different direction musically. He was very specific in what he wanted with style of music , lengths, where he wanted transitions to occur /dynamics and so on. So I binned a bunch of music and wrote those 2 sections of music and did my best to achieve his vision. Granted I know they are somewhat generic in nature, but tired to work within the framework of what he wanted and at the same time do something I enjoyed. I was tempted to take a couple of days off work, the old 9-5 gets in the way of creativity at times given music is part time for me at this point, although late nights is normally where I'm most productive anyway. Ultimately, it was great fun playing around with ideas and given more time I would have tried a few different approaches  



H.R. said:


> Excellent! I really enjoyed it.
> What are the libraries used in this one?


Hey HR, thanks man. I'll get back to you on the libraries tomorrow and also strings RE: Zac, will have to load the project and see what I actually ended up using from my template which I butchered on this project


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## AdamKmusic (May 3, 2017)

Damn that was very impressive, love those plucks at the start. How did you do them?


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## wbacer (May 3, 2017)

Perfect, I'll bet they're glad they hired you.
Sounds like you have a full career ahead of you.


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## SymphonicSamples (May 4, 2017)

AdamKmusic said:


> Damn that was very impressive, love those plucks at the start. How did you do them?



Cheers Adam, thank you. The Col Legno were from the original SF Mural, and the only reason I remember that is because it was the first time I've ever used the library in a project since I bought it  Just one of those libraries I never used until this piece, and as I was looking through the strings I have for Col Legnos I loaded the Mural patches and loved them.


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## SymphonicSamples (May 4, 2017)

wbacer said:


> Perfect, I'll bet they're glad they hired you.
> Sounds like you have a full career ahead of you.


Thanks man, much appreciated  The elusive career, that's the dream.


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## Rowy (May 5, 2017)

It's a nice fit to a world war (the first two and the next one). The only thing that bothers me, is that you chose the epic part of your music. Most (young) composers present themselves with rather noisy music. I wonder why.


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## mwarsell (May 5, 2017)

SymphonicSamples said:


> Hello fellow VI'er, I thought I'd share a short OST suite from a World War II film I scored recently. As a film virgin, it's was my first score and was given very little time to complete. This section was taken from a battle scene. As always any thoughts much appreciated.



Oh SymphonicSamples, you bring symphonic samples to life! Fantastic drive and themes. I want to see the film now.


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## Cass Hansen (May 5, 2017)

Hey Matt,

One’s got to do what one’s got to do. Totally different when someone else is pulling all the strings and you have a time restraint to boot. Not all directors are equal and some don’t excel in the music slice of the film whole. Film is definitely a gestalt and music is only one aspect of that pie. We composers tend to see the music slice larger than it should be in the scheme of things but in most cases, the director does get it right---that is, to achieve that perfect balance of between music and visual.

Anyway, the director is the captain and it sounds like you were on board and provided him with exactly what he wanted. So bravo on your first collaboration with a director and many more to come I hope. He should be extremely happy with what you came up with here. Excellent work!!

Cass


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## SymphonicSamples (May 7, 2017)

Rowy said:


> It's a nice fit to a world war (the first two and the next one). The only thing that bothers me, is that you chose the epic part of your music. Most (young) composers present themselves with rather noisy music. I wonder why.


Hey Rowy, the main reason I used the sections I did was simple I don't really have anything like that on my website/soundcloud so it was a good time. Take a listen to AlphaPlanet Z from the signature linked below, maybe you'll like that


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## SymphonicSamples (May 7, 2017)

mwarsell said:


> Oh SymphonicSamples, you bring symphonic samples to life! Fantastic drive and themes. I want to see the film now.


Hey Miika, cheers man, much appreciated. Luckily we compose in a time where some great libraries / tech / software are available to us


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## SymphonicSamples (May 7, 2017)

Cass Hansen said:


> Hey Matt,
> 
> One’s got to do what one’s got to do. Totally different when someone else is pulling all the strings and you have a time restraint to boot. Not all directors are equal and some don’t excel in the music slice of the film whole. Film is definitely a gestalt and music is only one aspect of that pie. We composers tend to see the music slice larger than it should be in the scheme of things but in most cases, the director does get it right---that is, to achieve that perfect balance of between music and visual.
> 
> ...



Hey Cass, thank you. Hopefully I have a chance to explore writing completely different scores in the future. Going back to your original thoughts on dynamics, I recently wrote a Requiem for my father who passed away earlier in the year and it's certainly full of a wide range of dynamics using all sections of the orchestra / choir, but of course that was my ship to sail alone  I might post that one at some stage soon. As you said the director is the captain, and I'm hoping to work with some different captains in the near future, traveling on different seas


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## desert (May 7, 2017)

As always, midi orchestration on point! Fantastic track Matt!

Edit: Did you go to the meet and greet?


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## SymphonicSamples (May 8, 2017)

desert said:


> As always, midi orchestration on point! Fantastic track Matt!
> 
> Edit: Did you go to the meet and greet?



Cheers,man, thank you!! As for the Zimmer Concert, no, the choice was simple for me, it ceased to be a Meet & Greet and was more a Eat Or Greet, I decided starving and killing the budget for a few weeks was not the best option  Did you do the meet and greet ??


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## Rowy (May 9, 2017)

SymphonicSamples said:


> Hey Rowy, the main reason I used the sections I did was simple I don't really have anything like that on my website/soundcloud so it was a good time. Take a listen to AlphaPlanet Z from the signature linked below, maybe you'll like that



I listened to AlphaPlanetZ, but it's epic too. Perhaps epic music is in fashion because it's usually young men who use virtual orchestras to make music. Or they all want to be Gustav Holst... sorry, I mean John Williams... Nope, I guess I mean Hans Zimmer, or Zimmerman, or Zimmerhammer, whatever...

Or nowadays virtual instruments aren't good enough and you have to make a lot of noise, otherwise people can tell. You used virtual instruments in your orchestration that I removed from my pc because of the poor quality. Just saying.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about your music, but about your production. Anyone's production, including my own.


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## Hugh Harrer (May 9, 2017)

Matt. Excellent work.
Congrats on your first feature.
One miniscule thing but it hit me every time I listened: The transition from the "Epic" Col Legno intro to the String section at about 1 minute - I thought the strings were a bit dry initially. Very abrupt change to such intimacy.
Perhaps this was what the picture called for.
Hugh


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## SillyMidOn (May 9, 2017)

Congrats, Matt


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## sazema (May 9, 2017)

Have no words, have no words  Just brilliant! Thanks for sharing with us.


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## SymphonicSamples (May 10, 2017)

Hugh Harrer said:


> Matt. Excellent work.
> Congrats on your first feature.
> One miniscule thing but it hit me every time I listened: The transition from the "Epic" Col Legno intro to the String section at about 1 minute - I thought the strings were a bit dry initially. Very abrupt change to such intimacy.
> Perhaps this was what the picture called for.
> Hugh


Cheers Hugh, funny you should mention that. Originally I had 2 reverbs in my strings master channel and also a reverb on the master orchestra channel to glue everything together and things were certainly more wet and it was something that came up in conversation with the director, I ended up deciding to reduce the reverb as the focus shifted from a larger group of actors to a couple which seemed more effective in context with the visuals


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## SymphonicSamples (May 10, 2017)

SillyMidOn said:


> Congrats, Matt



Thank you SillyMidOn, your name is certain something I understand very well indeed 



sazema said:


> Have no words, have no words  Just brilliant! Thanks for sharing with us.



Thank you sazema, much appreciated !!


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## SillyMidOn (May 10, 2017)

SymphonicSamples said:


> Thank you SillyMidOn, your name is certain something I understand very well indeed


Good man, a fellow cricket lover 

Vegemite or Marmite? I think I know your answer... hahaha....

"I said, "Do ya speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich" etc...

But seriously, well done on landing that job, and the excerpt posted sounds really good.


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## Jeffrey Peterson (May 10, 2017)

Hugh Harrer said:


> Matt. Excellent work.
> Congrats on your first feature.
> One miniscule thing but it hit me every time I listened: The transition from the "Epic" Col Legno intro to the String section at about 1 minute - I thought the strings were a bit dry initially. Very abrupt change to such intimacy.
> Perhaps this was what the picture called for.
> Hugh



I thought this too. Great work overall!


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## SymphonicSamples (May 12, 2017)

SillyMidOn said:


> Good man, a fellow cricket lover
> 
> Vegemite or Marmite? I think I know your answer... hahaha....
> 
> ...



"Howzat" for a reply mate. When I first posted the thread I thought it was going to go straight through to the slips  Cheers SillyMid On.



Jeffrey Peterson said:


> I thought this too. Great work overall!



Thank you Jeffrey.


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