mickomoo
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Posts posted by mickomoo
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I was wondering what options everyone used for reverb. I write acoustic music with vsts, predominately orchestral so I was looking into ewql spaces to start with. But my fear is that it's not versatile/reliable beyond the "big hollywood" sound, I'm also (slowly) expanding to other acoustic genres (big band/jazz) and might even be using live instruments sometime in the future. Give my direction what kinds of reverbs should I look into?
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I'm looking for arpeggators and/or means to emulate strumming with midi data. Does anyone have any recommendations or either? Ideally I'm looking for freeware but if it's not too expensive I'll look into paying. I mostly use vst samples, are there any samplers that might offer this functionality too?
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Thanks again for the feedback everyone I finished the story that prompted me to post this in the first place.
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I love the main expression. the first like 40 seconds for me are damn near awesome
0:15-16: odd drumming error idk if it's the velocities or timing
Some of the transitions are oddly blank, idk how to explain it, like around 0:50 (but I love how it picks up at 1:08. Also hated the "empty" transition to the low string at 1:56. I think it's that I'm not feeling eased into it.
Also I don't know what to say about the cluttering the others mention (I have absolutely the same problem in my work) but if you must have several distinct voices in the same section, how I've gotten around that is panning within the instance of my vst then paning the actual tracks to give the overall play a wide spacious feeling. It's something that doesn't always work but when it does it's great.
I feel the transition at 2:10 deviates from the motif and groove you had going and when you bring it back at 2:52 it just doesn't feel natural, it felt like everything between then felt like filler. I don't know if I'm projecting my own compositional woes onto you, but this is why my "best music" is either unfinished or shorter than 2 minutes. The longer it is, the more likely I am to add stuff that potentially deviates from my main rhythm or melody. Especially if the song's core is a key rhythm or phrase (as seems to be the case with yours)
Anyway I feel you pain. I never studied music so our process might be similar. That said, don't be too hard on yourself. I've been composing midi for about 3 years and the greatest fun was just dicking around composing things resembling music. But very surely (and slowly) you will improve if you take the time to listen more to others, do a bit of theory here and there, etc. Imo the song as it is now is fairly coherent and "passable" I've made and heard worse stuff so don't be hard on yourself, just know you can only go up from here (which isn't a bad place)
P.S. Can this fit scenes from Shadow of Legends?
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Massive. Or just look at some other Native Instrument stuff
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Thanks for the responses everyone, that was pretty quick. I kinda figured that was the case, I'm preparing to do a freelance writing career and I already know that I have to be prepared to get a day job or starve. So I figured it might be similar for music.
@XPRTNovice: You're awesome, you're basically doing everything I want, minus the voice acting... although you never know. Idk if I should PM you, but I was wondering how do you have a life/work/ hobby balance? How demanding is your job and life in relation to writing music and fiction?
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This is more for my personal interests, I'm writing a story about a young freelance composer to pratice my writing skills and was curious what the daily routine might be like. Though I'd like to be a composer maybe when I retire...
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For some of my recent work (which weren't revisions of my older work) I had trouble finishing my melodies too. These 3 songs are incomplete:
https://soundcloud.com/mickomoo/sets/incomplete-compositions
I'm probably going to rework these later, but I'm in the process of revising all my older work. Though I do take breaks from time to time to allow myself to practice with new ideas. I find my problems change depending on the circumstance like I wrote a song this weekend and the bass instruments have a nice progression but there's really no melody here:
https://soundcloud.com/mickomoo/cold-creepy-corridors
Anyway post some of your music and I'll do my best to help!
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Yeah I want the convience of key switching, but the depth created by layering... there are just some instances in which my music sounds flat despite using articlations. I think part of it is a lack of the reverb I want, but it seems to be also something else... I cannot put my finger on it
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Do you layer keyswitches master patches with one another or with individual patches?
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I made a breakthrough in terms of composition a year ago, but I've felt stagnant ever sense. I needed again, a brief series of whatever tips available.
Also I had a question to start this off. For those of you who use libraries, do you avoid the "master" samples that allow you to switch articulations on the fly (via keyswitch or whatever) and instead hand pick the articulations and tones from the actual sample sets themselves? That is for example, instead of having a master keyswitch patch for a violin you would literally pick out legato, sticcato, ect. patches and treat them as different instruments? I'm getting all sorts of different tips from people and their processes
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I'm an amateur composer who likes writing themes for his writings. I just followed you. Good luck in your pursuits!
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I am not familiar with the source material, so I don't know how much you added onto the strings, but I can say that your percussion felt very awkward. The timpani roll at the start cut off very quickly and that clicky instrument (claves?) was overbearing the strings on its first hit. The cymbal was fine, but I felt like the rest of the percussion was just off and it hurt the flow of the song. I would reccomend spending more time playing around with the percussion until you can get it to a spot where it can complement the strings well. If this your entry into composing, don't feel bad; I think a lot of my own stuff isnt all that great too.
With the percussion at the beginning I was trying to emulate the intro of the source. There's a light bell like synth that's repeatedly off time, but I totally get that the woodblocks don't make it translate well lol (and I forgot to equalize the volumes of everything).
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Yeah, that's what I thought at first, too, and it was making me really frustrated, heh. Playing around with the decay, sustain, and release of the instruments helps, as does turning off their release trails.
Ah, I'll definitely try that. I'd rather mix them with my own verb than be kind of boxed into the massive hall it's drenched in by default. Good work man.
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The library is EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Gold. The samples sound super wet right out of the box, so I always have to adjust them a bit to get them to blend to my liking.
This is EWQL? How'd you get them this dry? I thought I'd have to purchase the mic positions to do something like this...
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I needed advice with improving my compositions, I feel stuck. But rather than just me posting some tracks and getting feedback I wanted this to be broader topic for individuals who primarily compose with midi so feel free to post a piece or two for discussion purposes. Ideally person should critique the post above them if it contains music, but if you just want to post critiques that is cool too.
I'll start. This is the last good thing I made, Im not really proud of it though. I normally write my own music, but this a cover because I'm trying to use familiar music to teach myself better orchestration techniques/writing:
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This is really nice I really like composition and the kind of intimate feel of the instruments (I've been listening to far too many wet booming "Hollywood" mixes or attempts at that rather) what library is this?
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the program already has everything I need it seems lol
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The whole "producing" part with mixing and stuff. No good at it and don't even like doing it.
Other than that, sometimes actually finishing songs is the hardest part. I have so many unfinished songs it's insane.
Music Theory, how to maximize the potential of melodies/chords using Music Theory.Mixing the low end, for me too. Not necessarily the low-mids, mainly the bass and sub bass. I tend to have trouble bringing the bass out, and I have to check between my Grados with clear bass and okay sub bass, and my Skullcandies with muddy bass but good sub bass. I have literally no good way of testing my bass.Other than that, just finding ideas to write a song at all. I didn't start listening to music until the 7th grade, so I have almost no inspiration other than ocremix and a few oldie artists.
When I do find my inspiration, it tends to flesh itself out rather easily, within 3-30 days, depending on how complicated the ideas my brain wanted to create.Getting over "the hump" of taking my original ideas for a remix and fleshing them out to get a nicely constructed, cohesive track. It's far to easy to get stuck in a rut 2-3 hours into a song and not know where to take it next.Mastering is a bitch.Inputting every single note everything by mouse/hand is a bitch.
Listening to the same section of a song 600+ times over and over can definitely be a bitch.
It makes the going very slow.
Transitions. Hands down. I don't know why I have so much trouble with them, but I do. I have a hard time going from a certain pattern to something completely different, yet staying true to the key I'm in. I've had a couple successful instances, but it seems to be rare for me. I also compose very leisurely, so I'm not as up to par as I could be. o.0I know those feels... all of those feels. And I dont know how to get better =/
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I love these! lol I have to say you have a greater confidence and familiarity with woodwinds than I do.
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Has anyone tried adding reverb to the already wet hall samples of gold lol? I was thinking of getting spaces since I have a student discount. It's my last year of school so I'm trying to nab as much stuff as I can at reduced price.
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Is it seriously important having a library with dry samples so that you can mix it with other libraries? I have the EWQL gold and there's no more mic position add ons so unless I upgrade to platinum this is my library. But it seems that having dry samples adds some flexibility that I might currently be lacking? Is it that big of a deal, or have those of you with gold found it to be good enough on its own?
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I like your stuff. For this track, idk if it's just me but the instruments (specifically the brass) seem all equally as loud and not super spread out. I'm an amateur to midi composition as well so I'm not quite sure what it is. But if you haven't panned or played around with the volume levels of each instrument that might be it. I definitely look forward to whatever else you produce though.
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I think I'm now enrolled in like 6 courses at once, and realizing that it was a very silly idea. I didn't even really finish digital sound design completely. I am going to rip all the videos for all the classes I'm in, I think.
Same
I couldn't care less about the "certificates". They should post their vids on YTDitto.
Btw do you think song writting would help with like choral lyric writing. I so rarely engage with writing anything, but at some point in the future I wanted to use symphonic chiors...
Reverb Pulg-ins
in Music Composition & Production
Posted
Thanks for the quick replies. I have SIR and reverberate LE, debating if I should get the full version of either or just stick to the freeware versions, buy spaces and try some combination of everything I already have.