FF5 Main Theme - Saxophorchestra

[Nutritious]

Hey guys, here's a new song I've been working on a lot the past couple weeks:

http://nutritious3.googlepages.com/FF5-MainTheme_6.mp3

It encorporates parts of both the Main Theme (Ahead on our Way) and Four Valiant Hearts songs from FF5. Premise is cinematic orchestral with a saxophone solo lead.

Eventually, the saxophone will be recorded live (when I have time, ugh), so I'm only looking for feedback on the rest of the orchestraction (production as well as arrangement) and the arrangement on the saxophone part.

Only other exception is the 4-note run near 2:44 when the saxophone plays completely solo: That'll end up being just a free solo for whatever I come up with at the time, while the orchestra waits until it finishes to come back in - the 4 notes are just placeholders.

[Nutritious]

Wow, so, yeah... I can see that this hasn't gotten much attention so far. Anyway, live saxophone:

http://nutritious3.googlepages.com/FF5-MainTheme_6a_2.mp3

[Tensei]

Hah, I feel bad for you having no responses yet so I'll try my best even though this isn't exactly my forte. First off, great concept, a saxophone concerto is definitely an original twist on the somewhat stale orchestral genre. Great textures going on throughout and a fine orchestration as per your usual.

My only gripe is that while this feels generally good throughout I can't help but feel it could be expanded. I would love to hear the woodwinds a bit more; IMO you're holding on to the Strings+ Brass too much, while a lot of instruments feel left-out, and the lack of variation in tone colour is what gives the backing orchestra the kind of cheesy epic movie score quality. This is only my personal preference though, so feel free to ignore it altogether, I'm just trying to give some nice feedback :3

[Sil]

Starting at 0:36 there should probably be trombones playing in octaves (tuba doubling the lower octave) where there is timpani, and while I think modern timpanists could play what you've written, you don't want to oversaturate the bass range with it.

1:08

Never forget to use pizz bass during the "softer" moments where other bass instruments drop out.

1:27

The ostinato in the violins sounds good, it'd work with a real orchestra, but it sounds like you're using a staccatos sample when tremolo usually works better for this sort of thing. This is a good part to have runs in instruments like the piccolo. It sounds like you're using xylophone here, but maybe an octave too low. Also, the timpani should have some help from lower staccato strings, similar to the next bit, but...

1:42

The bass here sounds a bit simple rhythmically. Maybe you could have low cellos playing something similar to the violins, also tremolo (trem is good for ostinatos.) The trumpets samples sound really good, but I'm wondering if chords would work better.

2:13

Yes, you have the right idea with the bass line here, I like it. I'd still emphasize it with cellos and double basses playing in octaves with the trombones, but maybe you want it brass-only, so see if you can get a deeper bass with a tuba or bassoons even. Again, tremolo violins might work better here too.

The ending sounds good too.

[Rozovian]

Sorry Nutri, I would have replied earlier, but for some reason didn't. First seconds are very promising, and after half a minute, I still feel it's great. The pitch bend feels too artificial tho. Theme is clearly recognizeable, and executed quite well. It's feels stale, tho, but idunno what you should do about that.

1:20 hm... Tempo change might be too quick. Might.

1:30 Nice! Brass towards 1:45 feels fakey, you probably need lower brass too. It's also very dry. Add a slight cutoff?

2:30, great!

The rest is just exciting and great. Man, I like this. It's beyond my skill level to critique this accurately, so I'll back off with these lil comments.

[HoboKa]

This is pretty good, feels like an epic movie piece lol.

[Uboichi2]

Try listening to Jeremy Robson's Piano Concerto in A minor. At 2:09, 3:22 and 5:26 the orchestra takes over the main tetris theme from the piano and the piano moves away from the melody. I suggest you put in a countermelody part for your saxophone where the rest of the orchestra focuses on the main melody. I think it would make your arrangement a lot more interesting.

Of course you can play the main melody on the sax for a part, but a lot more variation in melody is needed if you want to let one instrument have such an important role.

Other than that I'm missing parts where I can catch my breath, figurly speaking ofc. It's so heavy throughout the piece.imo you should try making the solo longer and then just let the celesta play the melody while the sax stays quiet. And maybe just let the sax end its solo on the secunde instead of the tonica. And instead of the strings playing along with the celesta you could have them play tremolo notes are a counter melody even. I think you should expand this part a bit. I think you can make it a lot lighter without letting the song lose its momentum.

You're going the right way! Keep it up =)