Short Action Cue

So this is my first post. I'm a 15 year old high-school student. My instrument is classical piano. I've been composing pieces for a long time (started after a couple years of piano lessons); most of my recent work has been for film scoring.

This is one of those more recent pieces, made for a short war film. It starts off with fast-paced percussion rhythms and staccato strings. Gradually, it lightens up. In the final half, the main theme of the film comes back on the piano.

Here's the link:
ActionCue

I'd really appreciate any feedback you have, and am looking forward to meeting some other composers.

-Clarence

Nice piece. It certainly sounds very action-y and sounds like very typical movie music, which would be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. I thought the small flute solo (at least I think it was a flute) was a little strange and came in rather suddenly but again, awkward transitions in music can work when used with a movie. Overall, I thought the sound quality was pretty good but something about the percussions come off as a little artifical to me. I felt the transition into the piano section as well was rather sudden but it was my favorite section of the entire piece. I'm not entirely sure how such a rapid mood shift would work in a movie but eh...maybe I have no imagination. Anyway, this is good work for a 15 year old. It's always nice seeing composers just about my age around here and what sort of music they're composing. Even if in most cases, it makes me feel dreadfully inferior.

A turn off for a lot of new members around here is that they will post a work, not get much of a response (regardless of the quality of their music), then leave without every logging in again. The best way to combat this is to comment on other people's music first. It doesn't always work but I personally make it a point to comment on anyone's music who has commented on mine (provided they have music posted on here). But I digress...

Welcome to the forums! Hope you stick around.

Ummm...this is kind of amazing.
Sorry to be so blunt, but I really enjoyed it. Maybe because it screamed "THIS IS FILM MUSIC" and that makes it familiar but it sounded so cool. But if we get to the nitty gritty, some of the transitions are a little weird, but overall you had some nice (typical) orchestration, but it works. The flute part was kind of weird, but I really enjoyed the piano theme. I feel like it should be more legato, but thats just me. You can see there is real talent here. Keep it up!

Welcome to YC!! As Nirvana said, go around, comment on the works of others, be friendly, we are very welcoming here.
Have fun!!

Scott.

Fantastic! Would love to hear it recorded with all the "treatment".

Were you writing to picture? If "yes", did you have a rough sound mix to work with? Is it possible to upload the clip somewhere?

I'm imagining the sudden shift to flute might be to reflect what's happening on-screen. Aftermath with smoke rising from ruins? Lull in the fighting? Close-up of soldier's face as he thinks of ... would be very interested to see the finished article!!

The transitions are admittedly strange, especially the flute (I never liked the timing on it, but didn't feel like fixing it either). But underneath the the explosions and gunshots, I don't think it will prove to much of an issue.

Part of the reason the instrumentation is so ordinary is that I don't have a large sound set to work with (I'm using Logic 8). With Logic you've got your basic string samples, percussion/timpani, some decent brass, a few woodwinds...nothing too exotic. Of course I'd rather write the music within a notation program and have it played live with the whole complement of orchestral instruments, but playing directly into Logic is much more realistic for me. Hopefully I'll expand the sound library in the future.

Jada, I was not writing to picture (this piece was made as a favor, nothing professional) so I had no sound mix or images to work with.

Originally Posted by jada

Would love to hear it recorded with all the "treatment".

I assume you mean live? Or just with a better sound mix?

Thanks for the feedback and the warm welcome; I'll be sure to have a listen to other people's work and give my thoughts.

Would love to hear it recorded with all the "treatment".

I assume you mean live? Or just with a better sound mix?

Live would be great. In real life you'd possibly go with a mixture of sequenced/live, with the whole thing mixed by an experienced engineer. You'd have a midi mock-up to get the go-ahead from the director and other powers-that-be, then, depending on budget, you'd possibly overdub some live instruments where there'd be some sort of tangible benefit. Of course you want your music to sound as good as possible, but you particularly want that to be the case if there's any possibility of the soundtrack being released on CD or whatever ... without dialogue or sfx to cover musical shortcuts! Ditto if the music (alone, unsync'd) is going to be part of your portfolio.

For me, first cab off the rank would be cellos – they're a bit exposed and sounding iffy at 0:45. Three players with overdubs – or "that was good but I think there's a better one" overdubbing on the sly ... . (Two players never play in tune with each other, so they tend to perform awkwardly even if the line is to be overdubbed. One player: ditto with him/herself in the cans.)

2. Possibly the flute/panpipe/? solo, although you might want an "exotic" sound which could be easier to get out of a computer than to record live.

3. Possibly french horns for some of the low, mean-sounding lines at the beginning. Also for soft pads under the piano at the end. Horn timbre changes so much between pp and ff – and then you've got their various effects: stopping, sforzandi, rips – very difficult to fake if they're going to be featured. (Just don't mic them up the bell!)

First of all, I would like to thank you for commenting on my topic. I'd love to return the favor, but somehow your video doesn't load for me. All I get is two lines of text. Could you youtube it?

Here's a direct link to the file: http://homepage.mac.com/chchaisson/M...tion%20mp3.mp3

You need Quicktime to play it; maybe that's the problem?

Sounds pretty damn good IMO... especially if you are only 15! Liked the first half better. Yep, very "actiony".

Originally Posted by jada

In real life you'd possibly go with a mixture of sequenced/live, with the whole thing mixed by an experienced engineer. You'd have a midi mock-up to get the go-ahead from the director and other powers-that-be...

So the workflow would be something like:

- Write score by hand/In notation software
(notation software provides MIDI mockup)

- Take the more prominent instruments and record them live (strings, brass)

- Using MIDI, record the less prominent instruments (some percussion, woodwinds, keyboards) in DAW such as Logic and create an audio file from it.

- In DAW, combine the two elements and mix.

- Possibly send to sound engineer for further mastering.


Couldn't combining live and MIDI elements be a potential timing nightmare? How exactly do you line everything up?