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Stars & moon (orchestral)

sherief83

Active Member
Hello friends,

wanted to share piece #4 of 7 (part of my Up coming Quixotic Love IV Album) i've posted the others here before, night & day, paradise Vally, human journey.



Let me say, the main melody which comes around 2:33, is what the piece is built around. i'd say if the length of the piece is a turn off, I understand, but i do highly recommend letting the 2:33 melody come by, if its still bad, abandon ship at your convenience.

from technical point of view, I'd say, i have a few more MIDI note fixes to do and a few orchestration beefing in some areas but at the moment it escapes me..which makes it time to let it out and see how you all feel about it. but technical feed back if any of you want to take this journey is welcome.
 
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Great work! You are a fan of chromaticism, I take? :grin:

Any feedback on something of this scale can only be taken as nitpicking, overall this is some seriously impressive level of writing and rendering.

For the writing, my only observation would be that the mid section feels like it drags a tiny bit, as the whole central chunk is not so much developing as it is restating, even with the few buildups. Then again, maybe that is the intention in which case it is perfect - otherwise I would introduce some sort of "episode," something away from the continuing chromatic ondulation perhaps, like a rhythmic or harmonic tangent, just so that when the opening gestures return they feel refreshed and ready to evolve into the finale. Or maybe not... again, this is purely subjective.

The sample work ranges from impeccable to adequate - the strings are especially great, while the winds have the least convincing tone and feel a bit phasey at times. A lot of buildup in the mids and some resonance in a few spots. Around 6:35 the winds sound pinched - they don't quite "sing" like they should in the mix. Again, very minor... feel free to ignore.

Overall, fantastic work - I enjoyed listening for the whole 15 minutes.

Out of curiosity: do you score the whole thing first or do you just build the piece in the sequencer?
 
Thank you apessino! Genuinely appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.

I think I understand your point of view. A few passages there (mostly for the main repeating melody) could use a musical or thematic break and then go back fresh which would help their appreciation further. Issue is, it would be even longer lol which I was fighting hard. I’ll explore it though as I felt what you stated but ignored it.

I’ll work on the woodwinds further. I was experimenting with a few panning and reverb tricks but it may have taken something from them.

For the composition. It all starts with the main melody and the harmonical language that goes with it. I develop that first on the side and then dive deep into the form and structure of the piece in the daw it self.

Thank you again!
 
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It is a really good piece, sumptuously orchestrated, but I understand apessino's comments. It feels meandering in the middle, which is not an issue if there are programmatic notes or if it accompanies images, but then providing descriptions of the sections along the track might help focus attention. It might even help to stay in the same key for a while and follow a simple progression, because each modulation feels significant, but is hard to understand.

Don't let this stop you from following and developing your own vision, though, because that is of high artistic quality, executed with great craftsmanship.
 
Thank you guys, genuinely appriciate your words!

@MA-Simon
Those were recorded floor samples from years and years ago that I collected. I believe they may have been posted here if i remember. But yeah they are white noise and floor creek noises.
 
This piece - especially the mixing/reverb and the background noise - is truely inspirational for my future work of music. I have to try this some day!

How did you do the reverb part?
 
Yes, this is great, and adds so much realism to the track, which is beautiful, by the way. Want it! :P

Thank you! Genuinely appreciate it! Thought this thread was dead so glad you enjoyed it!

This is so beautiful!! You have captured a feeling that I really enjoyed listening to. Great:)
Cheers!

Thank you Max, coming form you sir, genuinely appreciate it!

This piece - especially the mixing/reverb and the background noise - is truely inspirational for my future work of music. I have to try this some day!

How did you do the reverb part?

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! all reverb are from altiverb. Did a bit of a complex routings to describe but it’s all using altiverb.


Man, that was beautiful.

Thank you very much! :)
 
Thank you! Genuinely appreciate it! Thought this thread was dead so glad you enjoyed it!



Thank you Max, coming form you sir, genuinely appreciate it!



Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! all reverb are from altiverb. Did a bit of a complex routings to describe but it’s all using altiverb.




Thank you very much! :)

Would you happen to have any tutorials you can recommend for routing reverb the way you do? Or if you have any mixing tips you can share. Something about your mix sounds very "real". I really enjoy listening to your compositions. Do you still use CSS primarily for your strings?
 
There are some very, very... inspiring moments of beauty in this piece...

I found the overall mix a little harsh.. in the 500 Hz to 2 k region.. only in a few places.

Really great work,

Ryan :)
 
Really lovely, full of nice touches and interesting details. Has a very "live performance" vibe, to my ears. Very much enjoyed it.
 
Would you happen to have any tutorials you can recommend for routing reverb the way you do? Or if you have any mixing tips you can share. Something about your mix sounds very "real". I really enjoy listening to your compositions. Do you still use CSS primarily for your strings?

Thank you! no tutorials, it was all experimentation on my part. but what I was guided by is grouping the instruments together and isolating them on their own, then understanding where they are in the orchestra stage. a Basic idea is, your strings are always on your left, woodwinds always somewhere in the middle, cellos on right, brass is back end a bit, and percussion back end a bit as well.

So I grouped each instruments, i.E Violins, cellos/bass, woodwinds, brass, percussion, routed the output of each section to an individual altiverb plugin, used the same reverb type for all altiverb, but now I had control on each section's where about, parameters, etc. if you own Altiverb, you'll understand what i mean once you mess with it, it has lots of lovely features.

so that is the basic idea, but that always highly relies on the libraries you purchased and how they were recorded, some libraries like css (yes i have it) has that natural placement recording, but then i tampered with it a bit, so its a fight with how these sample libraries are recorded. I can tell you i've been back and fourth about it for a year and half now trying to fine tune it and i don't personally believe i nailed it, i think it'll take a-lot more fine tuning, the worst part about it is each individual piece of music I go through, specifically dynamics, demands I tamper with the parameters of each altiverb, sends, Eqs, so fourth exclusively for each piece, so it can be alot of work, but the outcome...is very worth your time.

I hope that gives you a general idea.


I'm more interested in the room tone. :P

Does anyone know how to get some good ones?

here is one you can try, its only 37 seconds but you can loop it and edit it to your needs.

https://www.sheriefmusic.com/noise.zip (www.sheriefmusic.com/noise.zip)


There are some very, very... inspiring moments of beauty in this piece...

I found the overall mix a little harsh.. in the 500 Hz to 2 k region.. only in a few places.

Really great work,

Ryan :)

Thanks Ryan, I'll probably be working on the mix as I go before final release on Album, I think I feel what you mentioned but i'm always afraid of taking away too much from that range, I may need to go back to the master file and re export after some less harshness.


Great How long did it take you to write this piece?

B

About a week and half. once the main idea is in place, orchestrating comes in quick.


Really lovely, full of nice touches and interesting details. Has a very "live performance" vibe, to my ears. Very much enjoyed it.

Thank you very much:)
 
Woah. Excellent work, Sherief! I really enjoyed it. Some of it reminded me of something I'd hear in old classic Disney cartoon movies.
 
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