Beach

Hello all.

http://www.nikolas-sideris.com/stuff/beach.mp3

This is a track from a game.

For full orchestra. No score out there, but hope you'll enjoy it.

Nikolas

Obviously, there's no surprise at the quality of this, Niko.
I really like how it is "tonal" yet not quite, the amount of unexpected chromatic movement, and even the semi-cluster-ish texture in parts (I loved that rising woodwind phrase near the end).

This is yet more proof that there's still breath left in that old horse "tonality". There's still a way of making beautiful music that is lyrical and yet reflects the times in which we live.

Hey nikolas,

+1 to everything QC said!

The climaxes reminded me a little of George Fenton's scores for "The Blue Planet" and "Planet Earth" but with more original harmony, very nice.

I think you could make the sounds a little nicer/smoother by tweaking and playing with different patches in your sequencer.

But yeah I enjoyed listening to this alot,

Chris

Thank you guys It is one of my favourite pieces actually.

Chris: Can you define a bit further the nicer/smoother sound you mean, cause I used plenty of patches and generally think that it's a very "nice" rendering, if I may say so myself. :p

I've just listened to it again and the only places where I thought it was noticeable was around 0:30 in the violas but I don't like the East West viola samples anyway. Also the flute intro at 0:33 sounds a little abrupt. The low strings at around 1:00 are also a little abrupt but when the rest of the strings come in at 1:12 it works well. I think there could be a little more separation sonically; I just chuck most of my pieces through a stereo expander as a master just to get a little more depth.

TBH the viola section in East West really winds me up and I think I judged the whole piece on that one section, listening again it does sound awesome. I mean the opening woodwind melody is amazingly well passed around, as are the glisses (which I know are a nightmare to get right on sample libraries).

Overall the things that annoy me are very small and my dislike of the viola section is very irrational.

As expected from you Nik - this was awesome

Recently I've been going over all of the music on your site - love all the game stuff, and even 'My Fucking Life' is starting to grow on me

Quality and professional, just like all your other music. The dissonances after 1:20 were great. How long did it take to compose this?

Nikolas

You make it obvious as to why you get paid to do this and I am a teacher of math.

Pity you didn't ask for insults!

The major problem I have with the piece is its length.

Bravo!!!!

Ron

Chris: thanks for the feedback. I'll take a closer look on those points, but tbh, I actually enjoy the sound of the violas in EW, and do find them true to reality in general. So... But yes, another critical mind is always good to have.

Mark, Nigel: thanks. Nigel, it took quite a while cause I worked on pencil and paper, then on Finale and then on Cubase... Not... weeks, but days, certainly.

Ron: Honoured for your listening buddy! And thank you for your compliment! Length: Between you and me, this is from a game (obviously), but the thing is that it's part of an adaptive system of music, which requires and extra 2 layers of the same track to work. If this is 2 minutes (roughly) long, then I need to compose another 4. If it was 3 minutes, I would have to compose 6. I did attempt to keep it "small", but full, since it is a freeware game and I'm not getting paid for this. (<-which btw, also answers your great compliment why I get paid and you are a math teacher (although I've told you to attempt competitions).

EDIT to QCC: I never properly replied to you:

I do think that there is life to tonality, or at least not everything should be ugly ununderstandable music (no tpyo there! ). I think that one can write beautiful music, and there is no harm in doing so. And I have no problem (as you can very well see) in going semi-tonal, or quartal tonal, or totally tonal, actually. Thank you, very much, for listening.

Damn that's good