Neifion

I can see why the double-build is not to everyone's taste. Thanks for listening!

Greetings, This is my interpretation of Trisection, one of the battle themes from Final Fantasy Tactics. Still obviously in the orchestral genre, but playing around with some different instrumentation, movement, reharmonization and the like. Also testing out an “adventure” template. My version: Original: Thank you for listening!

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I posted, as the Army has been keeping me busy. This is supposed to be the Stark theme arranged in a sort of war movie hymn style. Thank you for listening.

Oh, and To The Moon, The Witch’s House, and Valiant Hearts.

Journey.

Pick a song and mock it up. Import the original into your DAW, map the tempo, and reconstruct it one instrument at a time. Match the dynamics, phrasing, and energy. A/B the original and your track constantly to hear if you’re getting the same feelings. It’s great ear training and mix training as well, since you have a mix reference right there. If your transcribing skills aren’t the greatest yet, consider buying the score so you can check your accuracy. I’ve mocked up several John Williams cues and every time, I find I’ve not only learned so much about orchestration, but also performance and getting samples to sound like an actual expression of emotion rather than a Frankenstein patchwork of static recorded snapshots. Lastly, emotion always trumps realism. Yes, you need a certain level of realism and control in your samples to be able to express that emotion, but if you can get your listeners to believe that there is feeling and intent in your music, (which you can achieve even with mediocre samples as long as they have dynamic control), that’s paramount.

The 5-inch probably, but the 7-inch is well balanced for my purposes (mostly orchestral).

I currently use a pair of Yamaha HS monitors (7-inch model). Very happy with them. https://soundreview.org/studio/yamaha-hs8-active-studio-monitor/

I'd been wanting to tackle "Bonus Room Blitz" for years, and I always had it in mind to arrange it in a classical style. I ultimately decided on a more contemporary piano and string quartet. Also incorporated are bits of "Island Swing" and from DKC2, "Cranky's Conga". Hope you enjoy and thank you for listening!

King's Quest VI (all the funny puns!): Donkey Kong Country (so soothing!): Raptor: Call of the Shadows (don't have the vid for it unfortunately!)

Drop the WAV or MP3 of the song into your DAW and play in the parts one at a time, muting and unmuting the original track as you go. Then, once you have all the MIDI in, it will be easier to transcribe because you'll have piano roll of each instrument to look at when transcribing. Another thing is to get the sheet music, if available. Transcribe as much as you can by ear and check your work against the sheet music, and use the sheet music to help you out if you have trouble separating the harmonies/instruments.

Hey there Flurry, thanks for listening and the kind words. The strings are samples (Spitfire Chamber Strings and Spitfire Sacconi Quartet) and for the realism I tend to spend a good amount of time on the programming. I play everything in by hand on the keyboard and control the MIDI CC faders in real time. I also try to play it with a performance in mind; I imagine the players in my mind bowing and try to emulate that. Finally, I write to the strength of the samples; I've gotten a lot of use out of them by now and so I know their strengths and limitations.

I've done a few action-y, parkour-type assassin themes before so I wanted to go for a more mysterious, slightly "off" sound with this. Also wanted to bring it in a bit closer with the mics. Thank you for listening!

For this song the client asked me to take their piano sketch and create an orchestral piece from it. Basically it's a theme for a man who was a terrible person but is now struggling to do the right thing. For every good moment he has, there's a dark one lurking, waiting to tempt him back into foul deeds because giving in is so much easier than the eternal hell of trying to scrub one's soul clean. So I tried to make it sound hopeful in the middle, but then go dark at the end, where a phrase repeats and emphasizes his "unending path". Anyway, don't want to get more explanatory, so here it is: Thank you for listening!

Growing up with the ol' gray brick Game Boy, my mom's philosophy was pretty effective: "You break it or lose it, you're not getting another one." Had that thing forever.