Eugene Latsko - Butterfly Chooses a Cage
- Thread starter Grim_Universe
- Start date
shawnsingh
Senior Member
Really beautiful! Words I thought of while listening - "glowing darkly" "a brooding flourish" and "harrowing beauty". And now I realize yeah, "butterfly chooses a cage" fits really well.
Feels very much like a Ravel/Debussy/Vaughn Williams piece if they were in a dark mood =)
I like the chords, and the way that a lot of the chords run over each other in beautiful connected ways. As a listener the just a nice balance between "simple enough to be accessible" and "complex enough to be rich and interesting and unique". Also really like the assignment of little flourishes to various sections / soloists, like around 1:13-1:30 really beautiful. But, I'm a sucker for those particular kinds of chords in that passage.
A matter of personal taste - I think it would have worked really well to have a slightly more exaggerated "climax" growing into 2:55, where all sections swell a bit louder than the rest of the piece and in a higher register. And then, still personal taste - I would have loved to hear the next phrase (until 3:14) dramatically quieter and more rubato with a fermata around 3:14 just before recapping on the D-F-D-F...
Did you have a soft compressor on a bus somewhere? If so I'd suggest maybe even taking it off. I think the piece would really glow and brood in a magical way if the micro-dynamics were way more exaggerated. I feel like I can imagine a conductor stopping the orchestra asking for more dynamic range like that.
But yeah, great piece =)
Feels very much like a Ravel/Debussy/Vaughn Williams piece if they were in a dark mood =)
I like the chords, and the way that a lot of the chords run over each other in beautiful connected ways. As a listener the just a nice balance between "simple enough to be accessible" and "complex enough to be rich and interesting and unique". Also really like the assignment of little flourishes to various sections / soloists, like around 1:13-1:30 really beautiful. But, I'm a sucker for those particular kinds of chords in that passage.
A matter of personal taste - I think it would have worked really well to have a slightly more exaggerated "climax" growing into 2:55, where all sections swell a bit louder than the rest of the piece and in a higher register. And then, still personal taste - I would have loved to hear the next phrase (until 3:14) dramatically quieter and more rubato with a fermata around 3:14 just before recapping on the D-F-D-F...
Did you have a soft compressor on a bus somewhere? If so I'd suggest maybe even taking it off. I think the piece would really glow and brood in a magical way if the micro-dynamics were way more exaggerated. I feel like I can imagine a conductor stopping the orchestra asking for more dynamic range like that.
But yeah, great piece =)
OP
OP
Grim_Universe
Active Member
@shawnsingh thank you very much for your detailed post and kind words! I really appreciate it.
I can only agree with you, in such music I have to use a very soft method of compressing, probably I overcompressed the piece a bit. Actually it's not only my fault, because I used 0-40 CCs numbers for the whole track, I really wanted to achieve this pp\p soft sound, and I had to tweak not only dynamics, but volume too.. So I thought +\-6 db tweaks besides 0-40CC dynamics will be enough, but yeah, now I can hear the piece lacks dynamics a bit.
Great tips about tempo, I will definitely remember them.
I really glad that you liked harmony of the track, because lately I thought a lot about personal style and concluded that I want it to be accessible, modern and rich at the same time. I always loved impressionists and their approach to music. I remember when I listened to Debussy for the first time and in one of his compositions I heard a simplest chord progression after a very modern and chromatic part.. I could not believe how such contrasts can work well, and I understood that one of the ways to refresh our perception of simple and beautiful chords is to make them a part of something complex.
Thanks again!
I can only agree with you, in such music I have to use a very soft method of compressing, probably I overcompressed the piece a bit. Actually it's not only my fault, because I used 0-40 CCs numbers for the whole track, I really wanted to achieve this pp\p soft sound, and I had to tweak not only dynamics, but volume too.. So I thought +\-6 db tweaks besides 0-40CC dynamics will be enough, but yeah, now I can hear the piece lacks dynamics a bit.
Great tips about tempo, I will definitely remember them.
I really glad that you liked harmony of the track, because lately I thought a lot about personal style and concluded that I want it to be accessible, modern and rich at the same time. I always loved impressionists and their approach to music. I remember when I listened to Debussy for the first time and in one of his compositions I heard a simplest chord progression after a very modern and chromatic part.. I could not believe how such contrasts can work well, and I understood that one of the ways to refresh our perception of simple and beautiful chords is to make them a part of something complex.
Thanks again!
OP
OP
Grim_Universe
Active Member
@batonruse
Thank you, my friend!
Thank you, my friend!
Thomekk
electicism
A really haunting, dark piece! I like it with all its progressions. And that there are lots of them!
just minor picks ->
At 0:54 - 1:12 the rhythmic extra staccato part seemed to stand out a little shy for the part of its being.
I agree with shawnsingh on the thing of getting rid (finetuning) of the compression. Just an impression, I'm not sure how much could be changed for the dynamics taking more "glue".
just minor picks ->
At 0:54 - 1:12 the rhythmic extra staccato part seemed to stand out a little shy for the part of its being.
I agree with shawnsingh on the thing of getting rid (finetuning) of the compression. Just an impression, I'm not sure how much could be changed for the dynamics taking more "glue".
OP
OP
Grim_Universe
Active Member
@Thomas Kallweit
Thank you! It is actually a good question how to control dynamics of music better while making it cleaner and better in terms of mixing and balance. I don't use compressors that affect the whole frequency range of an instrument, but I use limiters and I think that that's the problem right here.
Thank you! It is actually a good question how to control dynamics of music better while making it cleaner and better in terms of mixing and balance. I don't use compressors that affect the whole frequency range of an instrument, but I use limiters and I think that that's the problem right here.
