Launch Time Go

[Ben Hawkins]

This was the first tune I composed ever and did it after having covid in December of 2021. A few thousand of dollars later in music equipment and sundry plugins, I have very little to show for it! But I still have fun piddling at the computer and coming up with unfinished ideas. I do have a background in music—French horn major years ago and music teacher for nearly a decade. I have made a living as a graphic designer for a while now and do music solely for fun now.

The goal of this tune was to compose a piece in 7/8 and practice orchestrating for each main section (strings, brass, woodwinds, not so much percussion) to some degree. I envisioned it being some sort of tv theme for an imagined sci-fi/adventure show. I did the mixing and mastering myself—and surely have a lot to learn there. Since this piece I have mostly gone down the synth rabbit hole, but look forward to coming up for air soon!

Sorry for the cheesy title and thank you so much for listening.

Click to read more...

 

[ChickenWhisperer]

Sorry for the cheesy title and thank you so much for listening.

The title of a track is very important if you want it to stick out on a multimedia platform, it will make it more likely for people to check it out of curiosity. And it's definitely more awesome and creative than just adding a thumbnail with an AI generated image for clickbait. The music itself isn't as cheesy as the title though, it's a good track, it's built around the French horn so your experience does help you a lot, but I also like the pizzicato strings, it leads you somewhere and gives the track a structure. I would have liked some runs to spice things up, but I know that it is hard, I myself am struggling with that and I feel like my tracks are missing a lot due to lack of runs. I also misread what you said, when you said that this is your first track I didn't read the part where you said you were a music teacher for 10 years, and at first I was like "Is this freaking Mozart? How could you make something like that without knowing nothing about music?" . But then I read more carefully and now I know how you achieved your skills. Many people here (including myself) do not have a music background and do this as a hobby and when I started writing music my first tracks were almost random noise and took me a long of time to make something that sounds decent.
Anyway your track is a very interesting one, and the cheesy title only complements it, it does not take anything away from it. I have an older track that starts a bit dark but then goes bright and happy and I want to name it "Come to the dark side, we got cookies!" so naming a track with a cheesy name or a pun is an art itself.

 

[Ben Hawkins]

The title of a track is very important if you want it to stick out on a multimedia platform, it will make it more likely for people to check it out of curiosity. And it's definitely more awesome and creative than just adding a thumbnail with an AI generated image for clickbait. The music itself isn't as cheesy as the title though, it's a good track, it's built around the French horn so your experience does help you a lot, but I also like the pizzicato strings, it leads you somewhere and gives the track a structure. I would have liked some runs to spice things up, but I know that it is hard, I myself am struggling with that and I feel like my tracks are missing a lot due to lack of runs. I also misread what you said, when you said that this is your first track I didn't read the part where you said you were a music teacher for 10 years, and at first I was like "Is this freaking Mozart? How could you make something like that without knowing nothing about music?" . But then I read more carefully and now I know how you achieved your skills. Many people here (including myself) do not have a music background and do this as a hobby and when I started writing music my first tracks were almost random noise and took me a long of time to make something that sounds decent.
Anyway your track is a very interesting one, and the cheesy title only complements it, it does not take anything away from it. I have an older track that starts a bit dark but then goes bright and happy and I want to name it "Come to the dark side, we got cookies!" so naming a track with a cheesy name or a pun is an art itself.

Thanks for listening! More so than teaching music (middle/high school band) I would say most of what I tend to dream up musically is derived from having been an attentive listener to a ton of orchestral music growing up and playing in an orchestra (in some form or fashion) for half of my life. Having a good foundation of what the orchestra can do and the colors it can achieve goes a long way when you are beginning. Thanks again for your time and consideration. Best regards in your own composing endeavors!

 

[Composery]

Stupid me thought the title was "Lunch Time Go". I couldn't figure it out. What's this got to do with getting lunch, I thought. Nice music, by the way. As a music teacher you'll know what I mean if I tell you I would have enjoyed a more interesting harmony and more creative voice leading or contrapuntal patterns instead of shifting chords. Although it's always possible you held back on purpose.

 

[Jim of Seattle]

Thanks for posting! The first and most standouty thing I noticed was the whole mix is really low and rumbling. Here's a FREE plugin you absolutely need to add to your sundry collection: Voxengo Span. I think it does other things, but I only use it to monitor the frequency output of whatever I put it on. In this case, if you put it on the master track, you'll immediately see these big mounds dominating the lower frequencies. Another big help in that regard is to listen from multiple sources (earbuds, speakers, in the car, etc.) then you'll really start to hear what I'm talking about.

I echo the other commenters about a little more movement in the parts adding some interest. My comment is simpler though: I need a melody. The thing you repeat in the strings at the outset and keep repeating is a very cool ostinato, but isn't enough to carry the piece. And the slower lines in the brass aren't interesting enough to serve as a memorable theme. (At one point I imagined that this was the backing track but the lead soloist just hadn't been called in yet, and then the piece seemed to make more sense!) . I like your chord choices a lot. And your unexpected harmonic choice at the very end was really nice. ended too quickly for me. If this were my piece I'd stretch that last 7/8 bar out to maybe three bars. Right now it's like you slammed on the brakes.

Thanks, fun listen!

 

[Ben Hawkins]

Thanks for posting! The first and most standouty thing I noticed was the whole mix is really low and rumbling. Here's a FREE plugin you absolutely need to add to your sundry collection: Voxengo Span. I think it does other things, but I only use it to monitor the frequency output of whatever I put it on. In this case, if you put it on the master track, you'll immediately see these big mounds dominating the lower frequencies. Another big help in that regard is to listen from multiple sources (earbuds, speakers, in the car, etc.) then you'll really start to hear what I'm talking about.

I echo the other commenters about a little more movement in the parts adding some interest. My comment is simpler though: I need a melody. The thing you repeat in the strings at the outset and keep repeating is a very cool ostinato, but isn't enough to carry the piece. And the slower lines in the brass aren't interesting enough to serve as a memorable theme. (At one point I imagined that this was the backing track but the lead soloist just hadn't been called in yet, and then the piece seemed to make more sense!) . I like your chord choices a lot. And your unexpected harmonic choice at the very end was really nice. ended too quickly for me. If this were my piece I'd stretch that last 7/8 bar out to maybe three bars. Right now it's like you slammed on the brakes.

Thanks, fun listen!

Thanks for listening! I'll check out Voxengo Span.

 

[Ben Hawkins]

Stupid me thought the title was "Lunch Time Go". I couldn't figure it out. What's this got to do with getting lunch, I thought. Nice music, by the way. As a music teacher you'll know what I mean if I tell you I would have enjoyed a more interesting harmony and more creative voice leading or contrapuntal patterns instead of shifting chords. Although it's always possible you held back on purpose.

Ha! I have read it that way too before. Main purpose for me was to orchestrate for key sections over the repeating harmony. Yes, I think there are more opportunities to add some transitions that might go somewhere else harmonically and come back to the existing main sections if I ever come back to it.

A sincere thanks for listening! I hope you have an exciting lunch tomorrow!

 

[ChickenWhisperer]

The first and most standouty thing I noticed was the whole mix is really low and rumbling. Here's a FREE plugin you absolutely need to add to your sundry collection: Voxengo Span. I think it does other things, but I only use it to monitor the frequency output of whatever I put it on. In this case, if you put it on the master track, you'll immediately see these big mounds dominating the lower frequencies.

I tried Voxengo Span myself and I do not see it as helpful as other people do, in the end you still got to use your ears to figure out what's missing or not. But in a very complex orchestral piece it might become relevant. And I do agree with the fact that you should listen to your tack on multiple devices, if you only listen to it in your headphones your ears might get used to the track and you won't be able to pick up the dynamic flaws or stereo separation issues that might be present.

 

[Jim of Seattle]

I tried Voxengo Span myself and I do not see it as helpful as other people do, in the end you still got to use your ears to figure out what's missing or not. But in a very complex orchestral piece it might become relevant. And I do agree with the fact that you should listen to your tack on multiple devices, if you only listen to it in your headphones your ears might get used to the track and you won't be able to pick up the dynamic flaws or stereo separation issues that might be present.

Span isn't like other plugins that let you actually do things to the music, it's mostly just for looking at. How I find it helpful is I will hear that my piece is maybe too rumbly, but rather than wander around with my EQ until it sounds right, I can quickly go in and see what frequencies are overrepresented and go right into the EQ and reduce those frequencies. A lot of times I THINK I'm hearing an EQ problem at a specific frequency but then I'll look in Span and it will show me that no it's a different range, and that's super helpful.

Regarding listening on multiple devices, I have to always remind myself that much of the time my audience will be listening on a crappy system, but I still want it to sound good on that crappy system!

 

[ChickenWhisperer]

Regarding listening on multiple devices, I have to always remind myself that much of the time my audience will be listening on a crappy system, but I still want it to sound good on that crappy system!

Yeah I absolutely agree, I want my tracks to sound good on any device as well but the speakers I use are a bit "weird" because even the music that I like from other artists sounds quite bad on my speakers. So I don't know if you can make it sound good on any device without compromising it on others as some devices play certain frequencies enhanced (like those enhanced bass headphones) or lack in high end frequencies output quality (most average priced speakers). But playing it on speakers is very important because not everyone will listen to music on headphones. I see lots of occasions when music is played on speakers, like a party, or when working out. I know this is not the case of orchestral music (although I like to work out on orchestral music, though it has to be a dark epic crazy track) but it still has to sound decent in a room setting. Writing music for a movie might be a more practical situation in this case because most people who watch a movie will use a surround speakers system and it has to sound good on these devices. So in this instance I would focus more on the speakers themselves, maybe just sketch the track on headphones and do the mixing and mastering on the speakers.
And regarding SPAN I know it does nothing to the track itself, it's just a monitoring tool. And yes it can help you find out where a track is more of a mess and that can be very helpful. But I saw it many times used as a tool to let you know what gaps are in the orchestra. But that just seems dumb to me because you shouldn't have to use this tool to find out that you forgot to use cellos in a string ensemble for example. You should know the instruments and what register they use and you achieve that by practicing. So in the end you will use your ear to fill up the frequency band and use SPAN just for conflicting situations between instruments.

 

[Jim of Seattle]

Well, I think you're talking about two different things. I would never use Span to find something like a missing instrument. Two different phases of the project, really. Your arrangement can be impeccable and still SPAN helps find problems, and if you've got a missing cello part, you might have trombones and a bassoon that hide that omission in SPAN.

Regarding crappy speakers, I totally agree that it's not likely one is going to make something sound good on every system. I sometimes will test something on an inferior system and think "Oh no, this sounds terrible!", then I will realize that EVERYTHING sounds terrible on that particular system.

"most people who watch a movie will use a surround speakers system" - I don't know for sure but I would take exception to that. I don't think there's a "most" for any sound setting.