H36T

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ANhsfBOceY_ZcAMzc6bSl2GDTMRHAiBk/view?usp=drivesdk updated 10/9/22 I actually started this awhile ago but never really did anything with it. I guess recently I had some new ideas that came to fruition and I can finally post the first part for feedback. I know the second part will just be the first part but with a more aggressive vibe but I'm unsure how the whole thing will go after that. Hopefully I can do something interesting haha. Edit: This was asked for resubmission earlier this year by the judges. After some time and thought I finally took back to it and it's almost ready. Asking for a new review before I send it back.

Honestly I really dig the approach. I especially like the horns and what you did with em. Really funky and I'm getting almost like a marvel vs Capcom vibe or some type of late 90s early 2000s Capcom 2D game. Personally the staccato notes you added don't do it for me or maybe it's just the instrument/synth being used for them. May I suggest something like Spitfire Labs' mandolin or moon guitar? And maybe make it less straight forward? Like a eighth and two sixteenths type of beat with maybe some twang on it as well. It could definitely just be my ears but as it is now it just sounds distracting. Besides that though I like this. It's definitely got me jamming a bit. Thanks for sharing and I'd like to hear more!

Needed an outline before I start doing more funky stuff with it. Unfortunately I'm running out of RAM at this juncture so I need to figure out what to do about that first. 16GB isnt enough! In the meantime I'll work on instrument balance and EQ and developing more unique ideas to make it my own/a proper remix. But for now, a nice sketch.

Sorry I didn't give feedback! I saw a section for comments but I was worried the comments would somehow show up in public if I made any in the box when I voted. But now I see they only show after the voting period is ended. I'll give my comments here soon and in the future I'll do them where they are supposed to be!

I just wanna make it to the finish line properly this time haha.

Yeah I figure it has to do with the conversions and stuff. I'm thinking of using davinci in the future to see if it helps me get better results. That's a nice setup btw! Can't wait to get my old setup back. Couldn't bring it with me to Japan.

Vote in!

One thing to keep in mind is conversions, mastering, and such. Even though YT technically supports a higher nitrate, I seldom get good sound quality from it personally. Even at 128 sound cloud still gives me decent enough depth in audio that I want to share with others. I dunno why, it could just be how I make videos and uploads but it always manages to sound like somehow the soul of my music got sent to the shadow realm on YT.

I haven't listened yet but fit wise, I think so. I don't see why it wouldn't and there are plenty of more classically oriented arrangements that have made it. As long as it fits within the rules and standards, why not?

I got really busy and tired so I couldn't finish 100% but here is my submission. I also got locked out of registration and then realized where the answers were posted haha...Oh well. The link should be okay for download. https://drive.google.com/file/d/166qewkUBGGLapLYh_8dnHzStdGnmcvOL/view?usp=sharing

Thank you! The woodwinds actually showed me a lot in sound profile. I am really enjoying working more with them after I got spitfire woods.

I'll be entering this one! Never played the game but I like the feel of this song

I don't...know what I was expecting but it wasn't that hahaha. This was cool though, thanks for sharing. What were the instruments/synths used?

Thank you for sharing the track! I think it was a really good effort and I like the production values. To be honest, I'm not a fan of this kind of music in general (even though I take a lot of inspiration from it personally!) but I think I always appreciate the effort that goes into it. Here, I really like that you keep it more melodic and less just...wave of sound and add X cool effect here for "epicness." Great job! Some personal critiques that just come to mind. Highly subjective things mind you. I personally would have liked to see some variation in the string run motif that goes on in the back. Mostly harmonically. I think from what I hear it mostly stays the same. I am a fan of sort of a static pulse that builds and is always there but I think this one could benefit from some variation. Like instead of using what sounds like an arpeggiated modal chord of some sort, maybe add in a major or minor arpeggio once in a blue moon to go with the overall harmonic progression? I think it could add a really powerful effect, especially when the intensity changes in the song. Another thing to mind, and this is really subjective, is the adding of the choir toward the end. As is, it just seems kinda thrown in toward the end. Now, I think this would be more palatable for me personally if this was a part of a bigger motif in other songs? But since this is a trailer song it seems kinda just...thrown in? But maybe that's actually kind of hard to rectify now that I think about it. Still, to me, they kinda just come in for a bit and then the song ends. Maybe give them some simple chords earlier? Some really warm "Mmm" vowels with some pretty chords would be nice? Just something to think about. Anywho, take this with a grain of salt haha. It's just my opinion and I'm no pro. Even if I was, it is your song and it is well made. Thanks again for sharing!

Yep! I would be interested as well. Always looking for new goodies to mess with. Edit: I only use Kontakt w/ Pro Tools so if there were a way to get it to work in those that'd be great ;-;

Hmm, keep in mind I am unfamiliar with the source material but I'll try my best. Things that are worth thinking about. 1. The one big agreement I had with the above is that this just seems like a hell of a journey. Like at no point was I able to sort of...pin down a melody or a sort of feeling. Maybe put another way I felt like it was a rollercoaster of a journey and I had no time to stop and appreciate some of the more beautiful aspects of the track. There were some really beautiful chords and moments but I think I needed more time to process them. 2. Speaking of those pretty chords. Around 2:42 starts this beautiful play on this chord progression. I'm unsure if it is supposed to be open fifths with a hint of the thirds just aren't coming out. Maybe you purposefully don't want them to be strong? I feel like here it would really benefit from that time slowing down and being able to let me gush over that little progression/motif. The same thing with the ending of that section before the next vocals. I almost feel like...it is meant to be a major chord but the the full triad is being suffocated there somehow? If this is a stylistic thing though then no worries! 3. There is a bit of an issue with the lower frequencies...which is a bit odd since the lower range seems like it isn't really being hammered a lot...I wonder why? EQ or a filter would help but I'm thinking maybe it is one instrument that might be the culprit. Maybe a bad sample...hm, curious indeed. Try EQ first or a pass filter and see what happens. Don't want it sounding empty though so be careful. Lastly though, I wanna praise the amount of work that has gone into this. Obviously you put an immense amount of time making a lot of wonderful instrumentation and taking us along this journey. Surely a lot to see and take in and some real beauty there. I wish I knew more about the source so I could comment on what is being done exactly, but as a song in and of itself it surely has a lot of substance and I think you and Souperion are to be commended for that. Still, I think I come away having wondered what was it I listened to because it was so much! Give us some time to chew on a few things I think. More than anything, I think doing more with a little less here will let me really just dig into this more. Congrats on a wonderful start and I look forward to hearing more soon!

Ahh, that makes sense now. The orchestra samples sounded familiar yet...not like something I've used before. I have BBCSO discover. Despite also having my fair share of other orchestral libraries (Ark, Nucleus, Albion, and Spitfire strings) I still find myself reaching for it a lot! Great product. Look forward to hearing more.

You've gotten a ton of advice on orchestration and I think I'll let that be for now until you drop a newer version. I just want to say that all the suggestions were great there and I second them. I think to add to what has already been said, I would have appreciated maybe a little more subtlety in certain parts. I think one that really stands out to me in right before Lavos' iconic scream. I think maybe a dimenuendo would have been great right before. i guess it depends on your image though! Speaking of Lavos, while that scream is iconic, maybe you could try your hand at making your own sound for it using the orchestra? I've actually been trying to experiment with it and it is well, hard haha. Depending on your VST library you may be able to pull it off. in the battle section I was actually quite surprised by the synths there. Didn't expect it to be added to the mix. I think the panning you've done with it is really great and the balance seems good enough. I'm wondering though if maybe you could add more effects throughout to maybe hint at the synthetic element being added later on? Depending on how you feel about it, there could be an opportunity to add a little motif here and there. Just something to think about to maybe help connect the two sides of the track some. If I think of anything else I'll be sure to chime in!!

I can't wait to return home today and see what is going on here! From what I can hear on my headphones it sounds good! But I would like to give more useful feedback haha.

Hello again! I'm doing a transcription challenge for this month's February Album Writing Month and my second song was this guy here I had a lot of fun experimenting with the percussion since I'm...really bad at it to say the least haha. The vocalist within me also couldn't help himself and added some tidbits there too. I won't take this any further since I can't really fathom how to make this song OCRemix worthy in terms of adding enough of my own flavor to make it original. Still, it was fun! I also lost a lot of quality on YouTube so if you want the HQ version here is a link to that as well. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eIT-B2M19X8rm32ZCvvJBtwrwLCzbwBa/view?usp=sharing edit: as an aside, I'll say I know its rather loud of a recording (the HQ version at least). So maybe turn it down if you wish lol

Hey guys, maybe some of you guys know of this page already, but I recently discovered Vienna Symphonic Library's Instrumentology section here https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Academy/Instrumentology I often compose using at least somewhat of an Orchestral profile (not necessarily well lol) and one of the things I can struggle with is the roles of the instruments in the orchestra. My background is choir mostly so this to me has been a great help. Particularly helpful though is the sound combinations section for each instrument. I'm mostly familiar enough with the instruments individually but combinations I highly struggle with. I hope maybe some of you guys can find use in this as well! I'll probably never own their library (nor do I need it really) but what a heck of a resource. Be curious to see if it helps anyone else as well.

Thank you for your perspectives as always! I actually never use a xylo or a glock in this piece but there is a Celesta. The rest are pianos layered with effects to create a sound very similar to the the instruments you listed though. I think it helped soften the sound but still give the ringing tone of those instruments. I'll try and give some personalization for Melody and other things too in the future. As seems to be my call, I like to uhh, stay in the lines when I make things initially. I need to learn to spread my wings some more!

Thanks for the perspective! Things will open up a lot more as I go I think. I'll try and keep in mind the things you said as I develop the track!

What an amazing analogy at the end. That is so helpful in thinking about how musicians as individuals like to approach their own works. Thank you for your kind and attentive words. Thank you for sharing your experiences! It really does have this dual feeling when you have someone comment on what they like about what you're doing or what feel it has. As a classically trained musician (singer) I feel as though I need to like, be able to compose in proper orchestral settings at least sometimes and be able to succeed at it. Especially if I cite John Williams as one of my key inspirations. But on the flip side, the other three musicians I see explicitly in my music are Yoko Kanno, Nobuo Uematsu, and Eric Whitacre. I think the outcome so far is that I lean more towards a atmospheric sound a lot of the times. Like you, I want to be able to challenge myself and write other things. Not just as a challenge, but because I like all sorts of music. Michael Jackson is my favorite artist and I have musical roots as a listener in hip hop, R&B, and gospel as well. I also really enjoy prog rock and electropop. I want to make music that sounds like all that too! And yet, I haven't been successful so far. Moreover, it's not the music that tends to pour out of me to the point where I hit the keys and fire up pro tools. Maybe some of the problems I and others have is we don't know how or are unsure of ourselves when trying to Branch out. I don't know how to make beats...but I can make 30 bars of classical ish sounding music. I think it's why I get VSTs I rarely use. Hoping I'll one day just learn as I fiddle with them. I never made music with sound effects either but I learned/am learning. I guess the journey continues on! Edit: I just want to add that in thinking on it more, there may be a big difference between our musical influences as opposed to what one of the guys from spitfire coined as our musical heritage. Maybe...think of it as what or whose music is transparent in and actively affects our pieces being our influences. This is opposed to our inspirations and surroundings that we consumed and used to direct our paths toward music being our heritage. It more passively affects what we make and why. Something to think about.

Wrote this last night as just kind of an exercise but I think I want to take it to the next level. As written it's mostly just straight forward and in rhythm. Really quantized. I think though I can take some time, play some of the parts myself and really humanize it—take it slow and add feeling. There are some issues with frequencies being cluttered with the vocals but that is fixable. I'd appreciate any feedback on this take as I move forward making it feel more alive.