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Hello all! I'm here with another piece, this one titled "Raptors in the Grass". As I composed this piece, the imagery I "scored" in my mind was a chase scene, leading to a moment of unreliable calm, that leads to a dramatic end! In my mind I imaged scenes akin to those in the "Jurassic Park" franchise with Raptors hiding and chasing through the tall grass. For this piece I am using a new VST. This is composed entirely using Native Instrument's Symphony Series (which is on sale at the moment at steep discount.) This was my first composition using the more advanced articulations and options available in this set of instruments and I am excited to get to do more. I was extremely pleased with the quality of the samples and how they come across in this piece. I tried to capture more momentum, especially in the first half. Wanting to keep up that "chase" but continue to vary and change the sonic environment to fit the changing actions of characters, such maybe getting in a car and driving or trying to fight back. With that unreliable calm coming in at the second half and a final crescendo when our characters get surrounded by the beasts they were trying to avoid. I would love to hear your impressions from listening and what story it tells for you. Looking forward to the feedback and hope you enjoy the listen.

It's getting better and better. Have a listen to the work of me and the latest iteration of the program I designed:

Hi folks, I'm back to composing after an inspiration drought of several months, that I attempted to break this week 🙂 This is an allegro moderato, first movement of a string quartet that will have three of them. It's not aimed at being technical or something, just pleasant to one's ears. Regarding the structure, I wrote 2 main themes A and B, which you'll find in A B A C B A structure Regards Marc

Hello everyone, Times have gotten... bumpy these past few weeks, which gave me inspiration to create this reflective piece for solo piano. It depicts an image of a person shedding tears of emotional pain, whether because of unrequited love, loneliness, helplessness, overwhelming hardships, etc. Musically, I was somewhat influenced by Chopin (of course), David Orr's Nocturne, other YouTube composers writing in a similar style, among others. Some addenda: For now, I decided to post my more recent compositions mostly on here, while I'm trying to figure out how to make better visuals for my YouTube channel's original composition videos. If any of you have suggestions for creating visuals, do tell me! I really appreciate it. So reflect on yourself to this music! And like always, feedback is welcome! ~Frank

You're right; there was no melody. Due to an error in my code, the input melody got translated into a sustained unison throughout the entire piece. I fixed that problem. Now, as you can see in this five-voice piece, there is some melody involved, albeit only simple melody because I'm still in the testing phase:

I'm sorry I didn't hear any melody in it. It's this electronic music? Henry

Over the last couple of hours, I have vastly improved on the functioning of the program I designed. Here is a sound file to prove it:

It's actually taken directly from the original track itself! I've used a website to separate the vocal from the instrumental. If you listen carefully, you could actually hear the imperfections in it, such as at some point, you could hear piano doublings on the vocal. That's because throughout the whole track, the piano always doubles it an octave above. Here's the ost: Anyways, thanks for the kind words! Really glad that my time spent on actually learning orchestration has paid off!

Hi @ferrum.wav! What a delight to hear this arrangement! The orchestration is masterful and dense and complex but retains a simplicity that allows it to be accessible and easily palatable as a song. Speaking of which, did you record the alto singing the words? It sounds like a real singer. I'm thinking you must have extracted just the voice part from the original song and inserted it into your arrangement? Or did you use some kind of software to render the words? That seems unlikely given how easy to understand the words are. Thanks for sharing and I'm glad you completed this wonderful rendition!

I designed a wonderful computer, still a work in progress, that helps me with music composition. I put in a melody, and it elaborates on this melody by changing it up and adding harmony and counterpoint as rich and dense as I wish it to be. It's still in an early stage of development, but the results are extremely promising. I have indeed hit upon some of the deepest secrets behind music composition, after years of studying, experimenting, and thinking about the nature of music. Here is an early song my computer program and I composed. More and better is yet to come:

Dang, two new(-ish) pieces in a month? That's crazy. Tbf the main materials here are from a preexisting song, and the other piece is a full revision. Then again, I had to learn orchestration stuff for this and that took a very long time. aaaanyway, really happy about how this has turned out anndd imma just gonna quote the description from the progress update thread you could find the progress update thread here: also @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, I'm really glad I could be the first one to ever quote one of your themes! When I was sketching that section, I thought of wanting to quote, and I thought of your specific theme. Again, really happy that it fits really well. Also also, those syncopated rhythms are actually from the original song itself. But, I do agree that it fits this "cover" and the original song. Glad you liked my orchestration too! (vocal by Jillian Ashcraft, taken directly from the OST)

Well I’m very used to a Beethovanian Scherzo marked in three in a bar so I just retain that! Henry

Haha yeah, given how lame the Ab major sections surrounding it! I definitely need more HUMOR in my life, whether it’s the joyous mood or the body fluids lol! Henry

Thx for your information! It’s really useful! I guess I won’t have my Sextet performed by them given the cost lol haha. Oh I also just finished a Violin Sonata commissioned by @expert21 and also feature dance rhythm…… 😛 Henry

Thanks for your comments, Henry--and yes, if you're writing chamber music, nothing compares to a live performance--the strings were so much more detailed and nuanced, emotive. This is very helpful for me to remember and to write with this in mind. I was shocked at how much Derek brought out of the piano part! The Cost?! A lot! The musicans were $100/hr. x4 hours for the recording session. The studio was $75/hr. This included the enigneer and access to the glorious Yamaha C-7 (7.5 ft conservatory grand) freshly tuned. I spent 3 hours in post-production for splicing and mixing. It was a $2k day. This is summer vacation money for a family for 5 or 7 days. This is how I choose to spend my treasure-- I rationalize it by calculating that a composition degree and access to musicans would cost $60k-80k (easily) at university. I hope to write something substantial each year and go to studio in the late spring /summer--at least untill I have internalized the lessons to be had from working with real musicans and recording. Next: A violin sonata (violin+ piano) which will be cheaper by almost half! I want to do a full-on string quartet after that.... The musicans: They were great! NO auto-tune here. A few pitch issues but really very, very good. All University of MIchigan trained string players. Master's degreed. Derek is a fresh graduate of Wayne State University, and has a great career ahead of him. He prepped this in 7 weeks, where 3 months would be the norm... I just googled for string players. They gave me the lead on the pianist... I think I got lucky... I think I'm going to start the violin sonata and back track and do the last movement of the PQ-- a tarantella tempo piece with a Siciliano B section (my mom was Sicilian). Up-tempo and a bit more adventerous...

Re-hearing the piece I was thinking if you could also use 3/8 at a slower tempo or 4/4 but all the crotchets here are then in triplets - since counting this fast may be challenging and unnatural, then I suddenly realize why you chose 108 per dotted minum, which makes complete sense - but again, just personal notational preferences at the end of the day I guess.

hahahahaha lol!!

Hey @Rich! The live version is so so so much better than the computer version. The sadness already contained in your music is a million times enhanced here, as I had listened to both versions and can easily listen the difference! Those subtle tempo rubato would not be possible in a computer rendition at all, as well as the very detailed changes of tones . There's one (two actually lol) question for me, how much is the cost for hiring the entire ensemble and also the production team? They are really professional here! How did you find them in the first place? Thx very much for sharing your precious live recording of your own movements! Hope you will also submit the other movements to them too so we can enjoy (free-ridingly lol) more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Henry

At last, I can post the studio recording of my Piano Quartet in C minor. The two movements were recorded in a 4 hour session on 5/23, and spliced/mixed today 5/30. I've learned so much, and am very happy with the result, as solo strings are not good on ANY VST, compared to professional string players. The pianist stepped in on short notice and did wonders humanizing the piano part--the chorale and 2nd movement theme sound fantastic! Now I have a concrete reference for what my writing sounds like with actual musicians. I plan to do another pass over the score, as there are things that need improving on my part. A worthwhile and important step in my DIY musical education!.... The artists: Fantastic musicians, and they all helped me consider my writing, score/part preparation and musical issues in new ways!---- Violin: Dan Winnick Viola: Chloe Thominet Cello: Michelle Kulwicki Piano: Derek Szlauer Recorded and mixed and Big Sky Recording, Ann Arbor, Mich. Geoff Michael, Engineer. 5/23/25 and 5/30/25.

Hello @Eric N! The Invasion sounds like a chic version of a Bach Prelude which I like, with a 3+3+2 rhythm throughout the music. I personally love the eclipse more, it's more colorful with some effects on it. I think you can simply learn orchestration yourself! Never say you are only good at A or B, you won't be good at C had you not attempted on it! Thx for sharing. Henry

You could keep the main line col legno, but switch it to arco sul ponticello or sul tasto (staccato) for the latter part of the melody where the most rapid notes happen. And I don't know if your libraries have these options recorded but there are also different varieties of pizzicato that might also be useful in this situation. @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu would know about that given that he's recently explored Elliot Carter's music which uses different articulations on pizzicato strings to yield different effects. There's also the Bartok pizzicato which is a really strong pizzicato so much so that the string strikes the bridge of the instrument, but that's usually only used in a ff dynamic.

Thank you so much, Peter! Always appreciate your insights. I had purely chosen that articulation of strings from a sound standpoint and had not considered the difficulty of play (should this be turned into sheet music). What better articulation or instrumentation do you think would be best to convey a similar feeling?

Any ideas where I could potentially collaborate with someone to add some kind of orchestration to these pieces? I'm only good with composing piano pieces I don't have much skill with musical software or adding multiple instruments

Hi to all! Here is my latest composition based on an extrasolar planet that may support life. The previous ones were "Tau Ceti" and "Iota Draconis (The Dragon's Quest)". Am planning to combine these into a symphony or suite eventually. The score is designed for midi playback, hence the strange note lengths and dynamics. Think I probably need to allow more time for winds and brass to breathe? Also my bass-line in the celli and doublebass is really boring: so perhaps I should change it? Looking for some feedback on how realistic the orchestra sounds, and what further steps I can take to improve this? I used MuseStrings and MuseWoodwinds with Berlin Brass. Haven't done any stereo panning yet. Think I may have pushed the dynamics too high in the climax at the end, as it sounds like it's clipping to me.

Thanks Henry, I love Hisaishi's music: so that's a great compliment! Watched a You Tube video the other day, about how to write Ghibli style chord progressions. I may decide to perform this in public at an upcoming concert, since it's very nice to play.