Neifion

You just described why it's awesome. Like you said, you can win, but most of the time, you'll fail miserably. Several Widowmakers/Hanzos can make short work of a bunch of "raining" Pharahs (and maybe a Tracer to take care of Mercy). And a team of Tracers can all zip by the spawn-camping Bastions and take the point before the Bastions can all reconfigure, lumber over, set up again, and try to pin down all the blinking Tracers. About 99% of the time, I see well-balanced teams because honestly, teams of multiples are usually really easy to counter since they lack the versatility and adaptability of a balanced team, not to mention the synergy of having distinct heroes combo off each other. So at least in my experience, the system works because it favors the well-balanced team, so the vast majority of teams choose a balanced composition. It's only those few outlier matches with the crazy combinations, but those often fail spectacularly if the opposing team knows what they're doing. I do agree that McCree's and Reaper's ultimate damage is a bit much. Though McCree needs to stand still for a long time, making him really easy to kill before he fires. And you can easily see the tell-tale warning of Reaper's ultimate because he'll often wraith-form into a bunch of your teammates, so putting sights on him as he's coming out of wraith form, you can mow him down fairly quick (and he's squishy to boot).

I'm having lots of fun with it. I think the ability to have as many of one character as you want is great; trying out crazy combinations without restriction is one of the greatest things about the game. One time on Gibraltar we had four Winstons, a Reaper, and a Lucio and we totally owned. Another time, on Hanamura, my time was defending against a team with five Tracers and a Hanzo, with them apparently thinking that they could zip past us to the points and win quickly. They got completely torn apart against our two Torbjorns set up with turrets. It makes for some really addicting and unpredictable play! Balancing-wise I think they could tone down Bastion's damage a tad. Yes, he's somewhat squishy and there are counters to him, such as Tracer's pulse bomb, but he's still just a bit OP, IMHO.

Thanks MES. I used Cubase and the following libraries: Woodwinds: Spitfire BML and CineWinds, Berlin Woodwinds for some of the trills and runs Brass: CineBrass Percussion: Spitfire Percussion Harp: Spitfire Skaila Kanga Piano: Hans Zimmer Piano Strings: Soaring Strings, Sable, Mural, Spitfire Solo Strings

Every once in a while I like to mock up a John Williams cue for study and practice, and this time I decided to do my favorite theme from The Force Awakens. http://kekomusic.net/track/1017096/the-jedi-steps-star-wars-the-force-awakens-sample-mockup?feature_id=154326 Comments and critique are most welcome.

True, but I think most people pick a couple of styles they're comfortable with instead of attempting every possible style out there. It's not unreasonable to have two or three libraries that give you a good sound and workflow for the style you're currently working in. The best libraries are the ones designed toward a certain approach of writing instead of trying to be good at everything.

Nothing is going to beat a great live player, but I think I got pretty good results from Embertone's Sensual Sax (sax begins at 1:13): "Lost Level" - Tom Vs. The Armies of Hell OST

Hey everyone, Been a while since I posted anything up, but I thought I'd share a piece I did about a year ago. One of my more fun, eclectic composing experiences thus far. Comments and critique appreciated! "Trudy's Fire"

Knights of Sidonia: Aldnoah.Zero:

Coming out of carbonite for this one. I'm not going to go all point-for-point here, but honestly, I just felt it was okay. Acting was pretty good, dialogue was pretty solid, story was familiar but overall passable. My problem is mainly that, besides seeing really cool puppetry and real locations, it didn't excite me much. It seemed like safe, paint-by-numbers, committee filmmaking. A few new concepts here and there, but nothing that really pushes the series forward in a way big enough. My biggest disappointment by far was the music. I was hoping for a return to melodic form for Williams, yet even the prequels had much more memorable themes (I always liked the Trade Federation march and Duel of the Fates, of course). The Phantom Menace also had a lot of nice, warm string cues centered around Naboo and Anakin's home. TFA had a nice motif in Rey's theme, although it sounded more at home in a film like Memoirs of a Geisha. Speaking of which, I feel like Williams hasn't pulled out a memorable score since Geisha, and a truly great one since Jurassic Park. Still, it was pretty fun overall.

DUELING DESTINIES Following "Heroes of the Rebellion", my Star Wars: Rogue Squadron suite, I arranged this suite for another LucasArts great: Knights of the Old Republic. As with the previous effort, this suite includes some highlight themes from the score and weaves in some of John Williams' themes from the films. Thanks for listening!

Just for the record though, I think all these tracks sound quite different from each other. http://www.kekomusic.net/track/723676/aires-and-graces-elegant-english-waltz?feature_id=153947&trackship_id=822110autostart=true http://www.kekomusic.net/track/775667/13-the-system-is-down-tom-vs-the-armies-of-hell-vol-1?feature_id=172027&trackship_id=898511autostart=true http://www.kekomusic.net/track/723672/liang-jiang-epic-chinese-adventure-film-theme?feature_id=153947&trackship_id=822106autostart=true http://www.kekomusic.net/track/775670/15-business-casual-tom-vs-the-armies-of-hell-vol-1?feature_id=172027&trackship_id=898514autostart=true

It's not everyone's cup of tea for sure, but I am glad to hear there are aspects you liked about it, and I do appreciate the feedback and the time you took to provide it. Like a fellow entrant in this competition said, you can make the best rocky road ice cream, but if they want vanilla.

Hello Paul, Thank you for listening, and for the critique. I have actually composed in many different styles, everything from rock to jazz to classical and quite a bit of ethnic; you can check out my portfolio if you like: www.kekomusic.net/listen Although if you're referring to just within that video in particular, I'd disagree and say there are a fair amount of different styles and approaches utilized, especially in consideration of modulation, time signature, moods, textures, and techniques. Mostly though my main goal was to convey the emotional quality of the story, done primarily through the establishment of the "home" theme (adventurous and triumphant) and returning back to it at the end (intimate and touching); the same place, just from the new perspective of a changed Emma having gone through the adventure. I am actually a professional composer, but I had some time available to do this and thought it would be fun. I mostly used Spitfire Sable and Mural for the strings, Spitfire Horns, CineBrass, CineWinds, Berlin Woodwinds, Spitfire Percussion Redux, and Soundiron Venus and Mars for choir.

Thanks timeaus. I agree, but we weren't allowed to alter/add any black after that quick fade out (contest rules). So it had to end right where it ends, unfortunately.

It is indeed a dynamically lower note; it was intended to be performed lower than the surrounding notes, but perhaps it came off a bit lower than desired. Good catch there. Thank you guys for listening and I'm glad it could tap into a bit of that nostalgia for you, Hayeser.

Glad you liked it Hayeser! Someone else said they thought it was bit too wet, but like you said, personal taste.

Hey guys, Wanted to share my entry for this year's Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest. We were provided an animated short film with no music and asked to compose an original score. Love to hear what you think!

In honor (and excitement) of the next installment of the Jurassic Park series coming to theaters, I decided to do a mockup of John Williams' "Theme from Jurassic Park". Like my Hook mockup from last year, I did this by ear without score sheets. I think it's better than last year, though of course like that one there is a lot of room for improvement. It's far from perfect, comes nowhere close to the original, and could benefit if I had more time to spend on it, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless and I got some good practice with my samples. Let me know what you think! https://soundcloud.com/kekopro/theme-from-jurassic-park

The track was meant to be somewhat murky. That might sound like a cop out, but honestly I didn't want things to be crystal clear (hence the fuzzy soundscape introduced in the beginning). I was going for grimy, seedy, kind of shady quality. Yeah, I know that synth at 0:56 was low, but that's how I wanted it. I had a story in my head; like a guy walking down the street passing by a shady club. He can kind of pick out some of the melody, but it's indistinct, fuzzy. At 1:44 is a synth bass drop to accent that moment, and at 2:01 is a bass drum. I listened again, but I didn't notice any clashing. Anyway, thanks for taking the time listen and offer some thoughts. I think they're mostly a matter of taste; I do a lot of hybrid cinematic and orchestral stuff and I think that lends to favoring a slightly dirty, not precisely pristine sound.

Am I wrong in thinking this would be awesome? Favorite songs: The Red Wedding, Closer To Home, Rastafarian Targaeryan

Hey, thanks for listening! I hear you, though the client wanted there to be a distinct Nordic element and it was kind of fun to bust out a nyckelharpa sound.

I composed this for a client who wanted a concept/mood track for his upcoming action/RPG game set in a dystopian cyber-futuristic Scandanavia. Love to hear your thoughts on it!

I think it sounds like a nylon guitar.

Thanks! I was going for an intimate, close-up sound, so that nylon-y quality coming through was important.

https://soundcloud.com/kekopro/daguerreo Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk-spdn-1aU