A Helping Hand (Orchestral)

[Dissidia]

The ending is a placeholder for now. Need ideas where to take it and also critique on production & composition.

http://tindeck.com/listen/voth

[Dissidia]

http://soundcloud.com/williamthurin/a-helping-hand

Made some changes and uploaded it to my soundcloud.

Also, BUMP.

[Sealunar]

Cool stuff man. How old are you?

[Dissidia]

Thanks, I'm 19.

[dannthr]

Hey Dissidia,

Sounds good, I like the melody, I like that you keep the timbres fresh by moving the melody to new instrument groups, I like that you give us some relief with an alternate section, I like your medieval percussion--all good stuff.

If I were your teacher, I would suggest getting rid of the piano. I feel you rely too much on the piano to provide you with harmonic detail when you should be fleshing out your harmonies and rhythms with other instruments (creating a thicker and richer sound palette).

Currently, it feels thin because of this.

Also, your brass is sucking. What I mean to say is that your brass does not have any natural tail (it sounds like an awkward legato script), and because it does not have this tail, it creates a sucking sensation, as if the air is being sucked out of the sound and space the brass occupy.

But for now, I would work on your orchestration.

[Dissidia]

Good advice. Just the kind I want, ty.

The piano mostly plays the chord progression so that could be replaced and made more interesting by other instruments (and fuller like you said).

The brass I don't know how to change but I'll look into it. (There are only keyswitches, no legato Kontakt 5 lib).

Yes my orchestration needs more practice

[TroisNyxEtienne]

Sounds good, I like the melody, I like that you keep the timbres fresh by moving the melody to new instrument groups, I like that you give us some relief with an alternate section, I like your medieval percussion--all good stuff.

I agree.

If I were your teacher, I would suggest getting rid of the piano. I feel you rely too much on the piano to provide you with harmonic detail when you should be fleshing out your harmonies and rhythms with other instruments (creating a thicker and richer sound palette).

Currently, it feels thin because of this.

I would keep the piano, but I would agree that you need to concentrate on fleshing out your harmonies and rhythms with other instruments. The piano by itself is insufficient. Plus, you could actually use the piano for more epic parts of the piece (here's an example: melody line in octaves? For a climactic section?)

The brass is slightly hard on the ears, though it's just me. I imagine part of the reason it is so is because that brass would work well with a fully-fledged orchestral arrangement. Pizzicato strings, standard strings, sub-melodies with winds. You could do a lot with this piece.

I do love where this is going, and I'm glad you had an A-B-A kind of progression. Another thing I like about this piece is that your use of instruments sounds natural -- at least, I can say they're far better than my usually automated-sounding FL Studio mouseclicking.

Knock out the kinks, and you'll have an outstanding piece in no time!

[Dissidia]

Ok so I tried to flesh it out but I think I need more practice with clear instruments because right now I'm having some problems getting space for everything to make it full. The difference is most notable in the beginning in the middle I think. I might come back to this piece when I'm better at orchestrating.

(replaced song in the link)

http://soundcloud.com/williamthurin/a-helping-hand