Midi compositions/orchestration

[mickomoo]

I needed advice with improving my compositions, I feel stuck. But rather than just me posting some tracks and getting feedback I wanted this to be broader topic for individuals who primarily compose with midi so feel free to post a piece or two for discussion purposes. Ideally person should critique the post above them if it contains music, but if you just want to post critiques that is cool too.

I'll start. This is the last good thing I made, Im not really proud of it though. I normally write my own music, but this a cover because I'm trying to use familiar music to teach myself better orchestration techniques/writing:

https://soundcloud.com/mickomoo/time-to-pretend-mgmt

[Necrox]

I am not familiar with the source material, so I don't know how much you added onto the strings, but I can say that your percussion felt very awkward. The timpani roll at the start cut off very quickly and that clicky instrument (claves?) was overbearing the strings on its first hit. The cymbal was fine, but I felt like the rest of the percussion was just off and it hurt the flow of the song. I would reccomend spending more time playing around with the percussion until you can get it to a spot where it can complement the strings well. If this your entry into composing, don't feel bad; I think a lot of my own stuff isnt all that great too.

[mickomoo]

I am not familiar with the source material, so I don't know how much you added onto the strings, but I can say that your percussion felt very awkward. The timpani roll at the start cut off very quickly and that clicky instrument (claves?) was overbearing the strings on its first hit. The cymbal was fine, but I felt like the rest of the percussion was just off and it hurt the flow of the song. I would reccomend spending more time playing around with the percussion until you can get it to a spot where it can complement the strings well. If this your entry into composing, don't feel bad; I think a lot of my own stuff isnt all that great too.

With the percussion at the beginning I was trying to emulate the intro of the source. There's a light bell like synth that's repeatedly off time, but I totally get that the woodblocks don't make it translate well lol (and I forgot to equalize the volumes of everything).

[Necrox]

I would like to hear your original stuff too. I have a lot of troubles with melodies so maybe we can help each other. You did say you wanted this to be more than a feedback thread, after all.

[mickomoo]

For some of my recent work (which weren't revisions of my older work) I had trouble finishing my melodies too. These 3 songs are incomplete:

https://soundcloud.com/mickomoo/sets/incomplete-compositions

I'm probably going to rework these later, but I'm in the process of revising all my older work. Though I do take breaks from time to time to allow myself to practice with new ideas. I find my problems change depending on the circumstance like I wrote a song this weekend and the bass instruments have a nice progression but there's really no melody here:

https://soundcloud.com/mickomoo/cold-creepy-corridors

Anyway post some of your music and I'll do my best to help!