new track!! (orchestral) PLEASE PLEASE JUDGE ME!!!

[musicMan]

hey guys,

i posted a track a week back, or something like that, and the general replies where that it is was excellent  
but then i was challenged to make an orchestral or slow or jazz track... (my last one was a dance/electronic type thing)

i've tried orchestral stuff before, but those projects where never finished..... here is my first orchestral track ready to be judged!!!! please!!! all feedback  is welcome and WANTED!!!
http://www.esnips.com/doc/c1f36064-824a-4540-b847-27813ce7c033/LOTR-Style-Song

[None]

 
EPIC.

It's an awesome track, feels like something that would be playing on the title menu.
Or in the opening credits of a Harry Potter Movie.
Or as you posted, LOTR.

GREAT JOB...
Again the only thing I find annoying is that in places the synth sounds 'tinny' but that's EXTREME CRITIQUE.

[musicMan]

wow!  thanks alot for your kind words!  maybe with some EQ i can fix that tinny sound you are describing...?
again, thanks ALOT!

[Phemar]

It's a nice track, but if you really want some critiscm, here I go!

Firstly I'd recommend rather uploading to a site like box.net - I can't see many people waiting 90 seconds before they get a download link.
As for the track, the first thing that struck me was that it was pretty obviously synthesized. Now I know there's not much you can do about that if you don't have a full size orchestra in your house, but maybe in the future try using some better patches or look into sampling.
Secondly I would try varying the velocity on a lot of the notes. When people play instruments in real life not every note is the same volume, and it would help it to sound less robotic or synthesized.
Musically, the track is very nice and works well as ambient music. The dynamics are nice and I like how it breaks down and builds itself up again. However if you want the track to stand out a bit more I'd give a little bit of a stronger melody - right now it's the same pattern over different chords over and over. (Which isn't bad, but if you want it to stand out, try varying a little bit. The dynamics of the track make up for it a bit though.)
The only other thing I didn't like was the solo instrument right at the end from around 2:25 onwards. I like the fact that it's playing solo - but maybe a different patch would work better.

All in all it's a very nice track and sorry if I was a bit harsh, but you did scream at me to judge you!

[Anian]

...Secondly I would try varying the velocity on a lot of the notes. When people play instruments in real life not every note is the same volume, and it would help it to sound less robotic or synthesized.
....
The only other thing I didn't like was the solo instrument right at the end from around 2:25 onwards. I like the fact that it's playing solo - but maybe a different patch would work better.

Ah, same critique that came to mind. While the middle is quite interesting and good, the begining and the end sound a bit artificial (though only if you really concentrate on hearing it, if it was with a video, I might not even notice).

Btw it sounds to me more like some Danny Elfman/Harry Potter than a LOTR snippet.

[arj0n]

It sounds to me as a theme during the end credits of lords of the ring.
Great job, absolutely loving it.
I let it play when a friend came by and he had exactly the same thoughts about it.
As just a song I missed a bit of an outro within the song, but I don't know if that is necessary.

[musicMan]

thanks guys.
thats the kind of criticism i really like.  i'll take that all on board.......... cheers!!
also, i'm now using a different host..... esnips..... as suggested by another member.

[thomasregin]

Hey Musicman,

When you're writing/recording orchestral music, you need to imagine how each instrument would play their parts. This piece is clearly the result of a piano/keyboard-player playing each instrument like he would play the piano. And the result is a rather static, synthetically sounding bowl of  musical "spaghetti". There are several ways to make this a better performance. First of all you could get some better sounding samples, but more importantly you need to learn how to work with Expression, Velocity and Dynamics. Expression can be added either by changing the master volume of a track by automation or through designated MIDI controller parameters like CC#11 (the standard for most professional sample libraries). What expression does is that it gives you the possibility to control the attack and volume of an instrument. Most humanly played instruments don't start playing at max-volume, because usually the instruments want to blend in and not take center stage all the time. Changing the velocities of individual notes ensures that it gets a "human touch", since no player in the world can play at the exact same velocity throughout a tune. Take your harp for example, that is a fine example of something that is almost impossible for a harpist to play. Those very fast staccatos without much change in velocity would make any player's fingers bleed in no time! And your violins sound like they've been recorded using a sustain pedal which is totally impossible in the real world! For violins in particular velocity and expression are of utmost importance.

Consider these two quick examples I've made here:

18 violins - no expression

18 violins - expressive

This is the exact same melody line. For the latter version I've added expression and adjusted the individual velocities. Although not perfect it sounds a lot less synthesized than the first one.

Changing the dynamics of the orchestra keeps the listener interested. Some parts should be played lower and some parts louder, so that it doesn't become a "wall of sound".

Sorry for using my own music as an example, but listen to this: An adventurous piece using dynamics

It starts pretty low key and builds up continuously. That's changing dynamics. It's a loop - and mp3 doesn't handle that very well, so it'll have a small gap at the end. Sorry about that.

Anyway, your piece is not bad as such. Nice melodies and nice thematic development!

Take my advice with a grain of salt - I'm simply just trying to give you a few pointers on how to improve your work! :-)

Thomas.

[Nikolas]

That's a great reply Thomas, even though the original poster didn't seem to notice... Thanks for your post!