Neifion

I was looking to see whether people got bored in the middle or not, so thanks for pointing that out. I may end up shortening it, if I can gather the courage to break up a war haka between two Maori tribes. Yeah, I took it kind of easy (coughlazycough) on the ol' modwheel for the strings because they're primarily taking a backseat to whatever is going on at the moment, harmonizing and filling out the frequencies and whatnot. I'll probably play around and see what can be done. Maybe bring out the violin ostinatos more at the end since they're so much fun (BTW, I highly recommend Cinematic Strings 2 for anyone). Thank you for the feedback!

Link fixed!

You know that Omega "co-axial chronometer" commercial you've probably seen a hundred or so times? Well, it's originally from the Man On Fire soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams, and ever since I heard it I had an idea for an epic world reimagining. Sort of in the vein of The Lion King, Baba Yetu, etc. https://soundcloud.com/kekopro/mene-inspirational-cinematic The war haka in the middle is a little nod to my few years spent in Polynesia. Wonderful places, wonderful people. EDIT - I figured I should post the original version for comparison:

Yeah, I've learned not to rely on EWQL's "canned" patches so much. Sometimes it sounds good on paper to have things like sampled trills or vibrato because, hey, they recorded a real performer, right? The problem is that when they recorded the sample, they don't know how you're going to use it. Mainly with regards to tempo. That's why I prefer algorithmic articulations for vibrato, tremolo, trills, etc, because I get to say when, how fast, how intense, etc. I can morph the sample to my taste. And that's where I completely agree with you about Kontakt. In fact, that's why I'm gradually drawing away from EWQL and gravitating towards the more customizable stuff out there for Kontakt, especially with solo instruments. The new start-up Embertone has some great stuff already, such as the Friedlander violin. Looks like I wasn't clear about the dynamics part; I wasn't referring to the trills, but rather the sustains. (Changing the dynamics midway on a short trill would be weird, lol, and of course trills don't have vibrato, so it wouldn't make sense to have a DXF patch for it.) But as for the sustains, especially in an action-y piece, making use of some crescendos on the brass or swells on the strings to close out a section adds not just realism but nice cinematic excitement. On second thought though, I've tried some of the DXF patches on Platinum Strings, and some of it sounds pretty bad. This is a case where you can definitely blame the programmers. What they apparently did was layer two patches on top of one another: vibrato and non-vibrato. Moving the mod wheel up simply fades the volume down on one, while increasing the volume on the other. The problem is that it totally sounds like two different patches playing at the same time. Some of the better Kontakt libraries out there like LA Scoring Strings, VSL, and Garritan Personal Orchestra have amazing-sounding algorithmic vibrato, but all of those are really expensive. So while I've replaced my solo violin, cello, viola, etc. with the good Kontakt stuff, I'm still stuck with EWQLSO for my big ensemble patches. Seriously, first chance I get, I'm updating my orchestra library.

It may not sound fake to you, but it sounded fake to me. Simply saying that you "used the articulation" shouldn't be a free pass to blame the manufacturer. Often times shaping the sound yourself is required to break the instruments out of the mold. For instance, many instruments have vibrato intensity mapped to the mod wheel, vibrato speed to CC 67 or aftertouch, dynamics to CC11, and portamento speed to velocity, to name a few. EWQL is admittedly notorious for it's rigidity (baked-in vibrato speed, no control for portamento speed, sometimes iffy legato scripts), but I know from experience that there are DXF patches for vibrato, and they all definitely respond to CC11 for expression. If that still doesn't solve the problem, then it may be your playing technique. Or the note choices themselves. Or the tempo bearing on the inflection rate. But you should work through all of those first before passing it off to bad programming. Of course, that's just my feeling on it. When someone says "fully orchestral", I think of just an orchestra. If you said "I used a full orchestra", then I wouldn't have a disagreement. Guess I just interpreted your words differently. I know the trumpet was quiet at 1:39, and that's fine. The problem was that even though it was quiet, I still heard the problems just fine. Again, using various articulations doesn't automatically equate to natural, realistic sound. Not matter how many articulations and controls you use, if it sounds fake, it sounds fake. Of course, I'm just one person. It may sound fake to my ears, but less or more so to someone else. To me, it's not really even close; the trumpet honestly sounds similar to the one David Wise used in Krook's March from DCK2. From 2:22 to 2:38, soprano referred to the approximate pitch of the melody instrument, not the name of an instrument patch you may or may not have used. You did some sustains with what I thought sounded like trumpets or some other sort of brass, in large part because of the sharp, brassy sounding attack of the notes. Then it sounded like you doubled the brass with some string sustains underneath. If there truly wasn't any brass there, then that further implies more problems with the sound of your strings; perhaps you used an articulation with too much accent, giving it somewhat of an unnecessary sforzando attack. Like I said before though, I think you did a good job. I think the writing is great, the mixing is flawless, and like I already said, the electronic stuff is exciting and gets the blood flowing in a good way. Lots of nice, action-y cinematic imagery, which is what you wanted to convey, and I think you pulled it off in spades. My critiques were all technical, and I just wanted to point out some of the orchestral bits that could have sounded more realistic in order to bring those parts level with the rest.

I like this. Smooth and very chill. Flutes sounded kind of fake, especially at 0:54 and when you do the trills at 1:25 and 3:06. I felt like I could almost see the keys being pressed. Strings also sounded fake ever since their introduction at 0:58. There's no noticeable dynamics; no expression dynamics or changes in vibrato intensity/frequency, and I felt like such could have been put to good use. Also, the same-note rebow at 1:02 sounds very noticeably fake, like you literally just took your finger off the key and then hit it again. Some natural rebow dynamics followed by a gradual swell throughout the rest of the sustain might work. In addition, many of the notes overlap too much so that we get a fake-sounding slur instead of a natural legato, such as at 1:03. The brass beginning at 1:39 sounds like you may have used a single articulation and didn't shape the dynamics by hand. This is especially noticeable at 2:00 onward, and really rears its head at the brief staccatos at 2:08 and 2:35 and the soprano sustains starting at 2:22. The electronic parts of the song are really good; not much to comment on there. Some of the glitching and effects remind me of Geometry Wars, which totally gets the blood pumping. Not sure about calling this song fully orchestral since it makes liberal use of electronic instruments, but again, pretty good overall. Just needs work on the orchestral stuff, mainly introducing more realism and dynamics to the instruments.

Cool, thanks for the feedback!

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/kekopro/life-is-bazaar

I really like the work the Track Team did on Avatar, so that's a big deal for me. Now to polish it up and send it in!

I like this! Electronic isn't my forte, so I don't really have anything to add in terms of critique, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Thanks Rozovian. I'll go ahead and make those adjustments. After that do you think I should re-post, or just go ahead and submit it?

I think if you're into end-game content like raids, PvP, and getting top tier gear, then you might consider subscribing. If you don't care about all that and just want to experience the class storylines, you can do all that without a subscription. As far as the quality of the game, you've no doubt discovered for yourself that the gameplay is basically WoW with lightsabers. The full voice acting and group conversations are intriguing, but after a while they're not that spectacular since the decisions don't last beyond the current mission. I'm a big Star Wars fan, but personally, I'm enjoying Guild Wars 2 quite a bit more. I still play TOR now and then, but as far as space MMOs go, I'm really looking forward to Star Citizen.

Thank you! It certainly helped that the source material was so beautiful; when I first heard the melody I instantly felt I had to do a remix.

New version: https://soundcloud.com/matandteresa/romance-of-the-two-worlds-ni-1 Big thanks to my wife Teresa, who provided constant editing feedback and suggested pretty much all the major changes from the old version, including the addition of the cello.

All right, my new version is up! Updates include: A reworked intro, featuring an improved violin (both in sample quality as well as playing technique). Also with true legato. I got rid of the erhu in the beginning to allow the violin more time to express itself. I think it better establishes the stark, lonely feeling, and plus I like the dramatic effect of the low strings creeping in behind it. With the erhu coming in later, it provides for a more dramatic progression. All-around tweaking, polishing, and adjusting of note position, lengths, and velocities of practically all instruments in order to better simulate the tendencies of real performers. Additional EQ and improved panning for a clearer, more pleasant listen. Light compression and mastering for a fuller sound. Added a subtle crescendo at the end for a more satisfying send-off. * * * And now switching back to Mod Review! * * * EDIT: Some issues I'm aware of in this latest revision after listening on more speaker types... Violin toward the end of the intro gets a little too quiet. Bass on the low strings is too weak and sounds a bit hollow. Must EQ. Mid-high detache strings leading into the finale are a bit quiet. A little too much compression is pulling things down in places in the finale. I'm a bit busy with summer classes starting up, so I've taken down the updated version until I'm happy with it.

Thanks Brandon. You've been my virtual sifu throughout this whole process, and I can't be more appreciative. I also really owe a lot to my wife; she's an awesome music editor and second ear. Watching some great violin performances on YouTube just now got me inspired to improve the violin even further, so I'm once again switching off of mod review while I finish these latest tweaks.

All right, I did quite a bit of fixing up on the violins in the beginning. I think the results are much better! There are now much more natural note transitions, more appropriate swelling (including a nice emotional swell at 0:23), and I also lowered the volume of the violin about 1.2 db, which really gives a nice space for the creeping in of the erhu. You'll also notice that I slowed the intro down a tad; a lot of the problems were caused by a feeling of being somewhat rushed. This caused the articulations to sound a bit unnatural. Now, the violin and erhu have the time they need without being forced along. This also allowed me to extend certain sustains a tad for more dynamism. All this goes along with the aforementioned tweaks such as more EQ on the choir to give the low strings more room, high EQ on the violin to make it easier on the ears (and a slight lowering at 0:39), and panning the erhu so it sits more on the right.

Taking this off of mod review temporarily to address the rest of the changes that Brandon suggested (mainly, making the violin more natural).

I EQed the highs in the violins to reduce the harshness and panned the erhu a bit more to the right. Also, bumping this for Mod Review.

Yeah, I think some natural panning should be my Plan A before any further EQ. I'm hesitant to EQ any more of the low strings because I think I'd start losing that nice rumbly contrabass/cello power, but if I need to I can probably reduce the mids a bit to provide more room for the choir.

Silk is pretty awesome, I have to admit. But yeah, it's pretty expensive and is definitely more about quality than quantity. For the erhu alone (that's the one you're hearing in the song) there's dozens of articulation patches. For more variety, RA has a lot of the same instruments as Silk plus many others including percussion. Back on topic, I completely agree. I'm a lot more natural with the erhu and violin once the song gets going and they start to explore and weave. I think in the beginning, I got too locked into the mentality of "this is the intro melody, gotta be spot-on". I already have fixes in mind, but I'll wait for a mod review first of course. Mixing wise, I think it might be good to try panning the string ensemble a bit to the right (since that's where the cellos and contrabasses hang out in a real orchestra). I think EQ a bit more of the bass frequencies out of the choir could be in order to give them more of their own space. I liked the piercing of the swelling violin at 0:39 but I understand it might be a bit much, lol. Thanks again for your feedback!

Thanks for providing multiple feedbacks for me, I really appreciate it. I look forward to hearing what you think.

I did some additional tinkering to the violin playing, got rid of the remaining pitch bends, and EQed the string ensemble and choir further to make things less muddy. Since I don't reckon there'll be any more user critiques, and I completed the fixes that people requested, I'm switching this to Mod Review!

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