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Don't neglect your Daw! The strings are not bad for stock sounds. MuseScore for the win there. I will still say though, please do not give up your Daw over the stock sounds (if you can afford to do so), because EWQL and the professional sounds are still better. Strings are VERY hard to emulate, and although the new sounds are good, they still sound very stock and synthesized. Musicality of your piece Given the nature of your work, I was clearly able to pick out your motif, as it is evident from the very beginning, and love how you do variations around it throughout the entire piece. This is a very well written work. I also can appreciate how you mixed a hint of romanticism in here (I love Romanticism, so extra brownie points from me here 😄). The pianissimo sections are a little too soft, and the instruments sometimes sound muddled. But in a piece like this, instrument clarity is critical given the dissonance and reliance of different instruments picking up parts of the motif and rhythms. This is a perfect example of why you'd want specialized instruments over stock. It's also a good example of the importance of orchestration. Instrumentation / Orchestration I almost want to hear how this piece would sound with a chamber orchestra, or even string quintet. Solo instruments may help bring out the individual parts a little more effectively. Your signature by Gustav Mahler, "A symphony must be like the world - it must contain everything" is actually something I disagree with. I'm more of a minimalist and I think too many instruments can sometimes ruin the listening experience. Don't get me wrong, I love a grand orchestra! But in this case, I feel like you can nix 2 instruments, and perhaps convert this to a solo instrument listening experience. Nixing instruments - maybe Perhaps you can nix the second viola and the contra bass. The contra bass doesn't have much of a part, and the 2nd viola is unnecessary given that you have 2 cellos. This would simplify your piece, force you to merge parts, and this would make your instrumentation cleaner. Then you'd have yourself a really nice quintet. Fewer players = lower cost and easier to manage and play (I know we aren't always thinking about that), but you'd get the added benefit of simpler orchestration and a cleaner audio. Please listen to... I want you to listen to the first movement of Sergei Bortkiewicz's Piano Concerto 2. He wrote the piano concerto for the left hand only, and it shows you that you can make really awesome and full sounding music with 1 track of music; it can be done. There's also a solo violin in there somewhere, and it is super clean. Solo instruments are great, even in big orchestras!

Your intro is really powerful, I would expand on that. Love your horn writing, and the trombone pitch bend is so cool. Symphonies are actually one of my favorite types of music to listen to (despite my specialty in piano composition lol, go figure). But I can sit down and listen to symphonies hours at a time, and I'd be really excited to hear the finished product. A couple of things to watch out for, when you write music for so many instruments (and this isn't criticism since it's only 2 minutes in, these are just a few pointers from my perspective as you write more of your piece). Please do not neglect the violas! They are a beautiful instrument. See my analysis of Tchaikovsky's Voyevoda, and listen to my clipped video in the post, showing off how beautiful the violas can be. Each instrument should have a purpose. There's nothing more frustrating than a player who only has a small part in an hour long performance. Tchaikovsky was keen on ensuring each player had a part. His 4th symphony really demonstrates this with the brass leading the intro. Make use of that tuba. It is a powerful instrument, and can emit some of the lowest notes in an orchestra. This helps add depth to your music. Similarly, the double bass is one of the most powerful string instruments that can really add depth like the tuba. Don't neglect. Do you plan on making this a 45 minute to hour long listening experience btw? With so many instruments, I think it should be 😉

This is a serious rhythmic and atmospheric piece that brings me into different places. I always loved these types of instruments in big orchestras, but hearing them as the main leading instruments is pretty awesome. I wouldn't have the first idea on how to write music for these instruments, but I have to commend you on getting the live performance. That's a tremendous accomplishment in itself! Your piece gives me the following moods: Playful and light Fantasy (like in a cave) Mysterious jungle On a mission Fantasy adventure (Sometimes reminded me of the early Minecraft style incidental music) I also wanted to point out that it's almost as if you wrote a piece for the drums, but put music to it. What I mean by this, is that you can really hear the emphasis of your rhythms, probably due to the percussive nature of all of the instruments you chose. Pretty dang neat 🙂

Carol I: Beautiful harmony! I heard some hints of 'Tis the season to be jolly there, was that intentional? Carol II: My favorite of the set. Nice sounding baroque style, and all the instruments were very clear. That is very important to someone like me, because when I listen to music, I analyze what all the instruments are doing (or not doing). Carol III: And this leads me to my criticism of this last movement. The flute is just too hard to hear, and I actually think you can get away with removing the flue altogether. As @Henry Ng points out, it is a little overwhelming, but it could also just be the samples you are using as well. With that said, you do emulate the 1700's style really well despite some of the instrumental nuances here. I enjoyed all 3 movements, and its getting me into the Christmas spirit 🙂 Also, I encourage you to join the Christmas Music Event:

I really love your passion and the amount of work you put into this! I'll touch upon a few points from memory after reading your responses... Investing in sounds I understand why many composers ignore this part. It's the same reason why programmers love to build but hate the debugging process. It's boring! But here is an analogy for you. As a computer engineer / programmer, if I am just building and not talking with the potential customer, and my software is unusable, isn't my obligation to fix the software before I continue building it? Otherwise, no one will use the software. Well its the same for composers, writing the music is just half the battle. Because guess what? The only thing your audience cares about is how it sounds. Most of your audience will not have the critical listening skills that I have, just keep that in mind. So having a really great audio output is extremely important. I clipped a part of my livestream where I talk about nuancing your music, and how important it is. The livestream is over an hour long so that's why I clipped just 60 seconds of it 😂. I challenge you to... Create your next composition with audio output in mind. Keep it under 5 minutes or so, this way you can practice working on your audio. Music Appreciation If you want to become a better composer, the easiest thing you can do is listen to other works! I listen to so much music, not for the sake of becoming a better composer though, but because I absolutely love music. The only reason why I became a composer was because of my love of listening to other works. It's the same reason why I became a computer programmer. Not because I wanted a job, but because I loved the art of creating new things. The more music you listen to (and I mean actually listen, don't just put the headphones on), the more well versed you will become at the art of composition!

Ok, so I will be a bit harder on you with this critique then. This piece sounds more like a short study on scales and octaves to me. If this was meant to be a composition, then a few things: Watch the parallel octaves. I'm not an extreme music theorist, but in this case your piece mostly goes without them, then you throw them in toward the very end without much of a purpose. There's no theme. Not all pieces need a theme, esp. if this is a study. But throwing one in there helps keep a piece interesting. The piece is really just scales. No articulations, dynamics, velocity changing I'm big on good audio output, and a good way to help not desensitize the ear is by paying a little more closer attention to point 4. Because even if a piece is just a study, you can make it sound more interesting by having a better audio output.

Fixing the 3:45 is easy. Just remove everything from 3:40 to 3:50. I believe 3:40 joins into 3:50 nicely. However...the reason why this joins so nicely is because you don't have any key changing going on here. This style may work in pop or other genres but definitely not in classical, for the very reasons that there are no vocals or drum beats. If you don't ever change key, the ear quickly becomes desensitized. You also repeat a lot of your ideas over and over again, so you can easily fix this by cutting this piece from 4 minutes to just a minute and a half. No need to have this go on for 4 minutes. What type of music are you used to composing btw?

So I took the time to listen to your piece as a whole, and I will rate my favorite movements from greatest to least as a start: Movement 3 Movement 1 Movement 2 Movement 4 Movement 1 is very strong Movement 1 actually is quite strong, since you had a clear theme / motif, and you captured my interest for the full 20 minutes. A tremendous feat to have someone intently listen for that long. Your key changing is phenomenal, and loved your usage of the tremolo. Chords though? Be careful because it is impossible for string instruments to play 3 notes a time. Always write your music with playability in mind. Even if you don't expect to ever get performed. Be careful of tiring the ear Let me just get this part out of the way. In terms of length of your piece, given the style (baroque), an hour long seems like a lot. When music doesn't have too many breaks and goes on for such a long time, it tends to tire the ear. You want to be mindful of that. I also think that your movements aren't differentiated enough to provide that sort of relief. For example, I've lately been listening to Tchaikovsky's symphonies, and they are super long. However, his movements are quite different from one another, and although they tie into his themes, they are still different enough as to keep the listener engaged. I also feel like baroque style music is tough to listen to for such long lengths just due to the nature of the style (lack of pauses, breaks, lines of notes, etc). But let me stress, your first movement kept me engaged for the full 20 minutes....so you clearly have skill. What if... As I was listening to your work, I was thinking that you have the skill to write a full symphony. This piece is skillfully done, and your attention to detail is quite amazing. Your usage of crescendos and decrescendos, tremolos, pizzicato strings, legato and other articulations shows me that you have a lot of practice. I really would love to hear you write something with...more breaks. It would really bring out your music. Speaking of bringing out your music... Please invest in some better sounds! You are a fantastic composer with so much attention to detail, I want you to, no I order you to invest in instruments! And reverb! You need good reverb! If I am going to listen to an hour of your music, my ears require something that sounds much better than the sounds you are currently using. Even crappy soundfonts would sound better than what you have. Isn't there a Yamaha GM soundfont that's floating somewhere on the internet? Invest in better sounds, this is something I have to nix you on 🙃 Movement 3 is absolutely amazing, and I mean it This movement was my favorite, and I will tell you the reason why. You changed it up big time in the beginning of the movement with those slow chords. Then you get into a fantastic fugue! I LOVE fugues and counterpoint. Your counterpoint here is skillfully done and you make use of all of the instruments, where they all have their different parts. No doubling up from what I could hear, and I could just imagine how much more amazing this section would sound with proper instruments. But here's another reason why you want better sounds. The viola is a beautiful instrument, and I want to hear the beauty of that viola play in your counterpoint. The cello is such a mellow sounding instrument, but sounds like it is droning on, and the violin sounds like it is whining. You get the point, right? It is a turn off to people who may be inexperienced at critical listening. But it is such a great movement, and your strongest. You captured my attention for the entire duration of this movement as well, and that is a tough feat because I am quite picky with music. Really good job here. Overall this is a great piece and I would be curious to see how you do with larger orchestral writing in the future.

Please timestamp your movements. Your Tone Even though this piece has a darker and intense tone, this is incredibly beautiful. I can't believe you wrote this in a few days, you must be a superhuman of some sort! I love how you gave Silent Night a cameo appearance in this fantastic piece. At around 8 minutes in, I hear the celeste, and I am wondering if you were giving homage to Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy? Your Dissonance As far as dissonance, I'm very tough when it comes to this technique, unless its done in a way where it doesn't butcher the overall intended mood. But you seem to pull this off correctly, and my ears certainly approve. Dissonance in general can be a very beautiful thing, and I think some people have more tolerance for it than others. You didn't overdo it, but you also used enough of it to create those beautiful and dark moods. Your Intro and Ending I love how you start and end your piece. They sound incredibly Romantic to me, and this is one of my favorite genres, so I will naturally be drawn to this type of music. Your "Wow" Parts At around 4:40 onwards, I was really wowed here. Since there are no timestamps and I can't really read your score (too small), was this the arrival of Krampus? Definitely one of the most intense parts of the composition and I love the usage of your harmony here. You know, I am that crazy type of person who will rewind music and listen to parts over and over again sometimes as much as 50 times or more if I really like a part. I've done this on some parts of your score, which means, I found something new that I want to learn from you. The 4:40 part is so cool and I like how you reintroduced that part again around the 9 minute mark. Your "Smoothness" Factor Piecing together movements is also another skill not really spoken about. But as I am listening to more composers, lately Tchaikovsky, I am seeing how these composers take portions or ideas of their movements, and intertwine them into later movements. You've done this with your intro and ending, and also at the 4:40 and 9 minute mark as well with your reintroduction of ideas. Really well done.

What was your favorite part? Least favorite part? My favorite part was your mood change, at around 55 seconds in. The transition was so beautiful and elegant. My second favorite part was the beginning, I feel you draw the listener in right away. You do a really good job introducing your motif and making it stand prominent. Do you feel the piece describes the image? Yes indeed. Your crescendos, and trills are what help with the image I believe. Any critiques of technique, e.g. harmony, melody writing, counterpoint, orchestration, voice-leading, etc.? I feel melody (motif?) was just about right for this mood. You repeat it just enough times to let the listener know its the theme, and you break it up with your secondary theme at around 55 seconds in which is a good break for the listener. Orchestration seems fine to me, I'll have more to say about the quality of the recording. Do you have any comments of the quality of the performance in the audio file? I really want this to be a decent representation of how the piece would sound if it were performed live, since it is unlikely it ever will be. Feel free to put your "conductor hat" on and critique the "orchestra". The quality is really excellent. But as you know, us composers have a great ear for this stuff, and especially me because I am big on realism in recordings, and it is something I am advocating in my Music Jotter endeavor. The first thing is to make sure your instruments are a bit more balanced and sharp. The french horn is something I could hardly hear. I also want to hear woodwinds, they need to be "wetter" and much more pronounced. The treble has to be sharper and more audible in general. And the hardest part to get sounding realistic are the strings. I think the trick is making your instruments sharper, better balanced, wet sounding (this probably has to do with the quality of your reverb), and make sure your audio is at a -9db to -6db level. Take a listen to this recording for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVeaAhYluOc. Listen to the oboes here, they are VERY clear and beautiful. If you can emulate that a bit better in your recordings, you should win your next competition! 😉 Any critiques of the presentation of the score? Or the score video? I would upload the PDF in the post so people can take a closer look. Are there any composers this reminds you of, that I might enjoy listening to? Frederick Delius was quite good with imagery in my opinion, and this piece does remind me of his style. Overall Comments Overall, I love it! I think if you didn't win, perhaps the judges were looking for something else, or maybe they were a bit too elitist, who knows. But the piece is excellent in my opinion, and I am quite impressed with your ability to make your recordings sound more on the realistic side. I too, am a believer in making your recordings sound as realistic as possible.

I'll give this a go. The Microtones I think the microtones really give this piece an "out of tune" piano charm. I can imagine, if this piece was sequenced and had better piano samples, it would sound sick. The thing is, to make it sound more realistic, you'd have to keep the microtones consistent throughout. But, realism probably wasn't your goal here! The Sound Effects As someone who experiences ASMR, this piece gave the unintentional effects of ASMR, at least to me. Ear to ear sounds tend to do that. Not sure if it will be everyone's cup of tea, but honestly the sound effects didn't bother me or they weren't that intrusive of the actual music itself. Sequencing Tips I'm someone who really believes in nuancing his music, because it can really transform a piece of music into something spectacular. I may create a post on this, but since I am taking the time to comment on this piece, I may as well link you to my little discussion around nuancing. Take a look if you want, I offer some ideas on how to nuance your music (which is a tedious process unfortunately). Breakdown of what I had to listen for I had to listen to the piece a few times because there were so many things to listen for: The ASMR sound effects 😁 The microtones The quality of your sequencing (which isn't bad!) The actual composition itself The Composition Itself As far as the piece itself goes, you have a clear main theme, and 2 secondary themes (with some joiner music as I call it) and derivatives of your main theme which is fantastic. I love hearing that stuff in the music I listen to. For example, at 4:20 I like the derivative of the main theme, it sounds very sonata-esqe, and reminds me of how Chopin used an awesome derivative of his Sonata 3 which is reminiscent of his main theme of his first movement. So the fact that this section reminded me of that is no joke! At 2:55 were you inspired by Beethoven? Just curious! Overall this is really a creative piece, and I like the microtones because it reminds of me an out of tune piano. Not so sure about the pitch changes on a piano, but hey, that doesn't really take away from the composition itself so, who am I to complain about that. This is a well done piece of art.

I wanted to post 2 commercials for Music Jotter that @Ken320 and @Monarcheon composed soundtracks for. These commercials are going to be crucial to my advertising, so I would like to give a little recognition here. They are going up on YouTube and if anyone is interested in subscribing to my YouTube channel, you may do so here. Commercial #1 written by Blaire, aka @Monarcheon. I wanted to commend her for working with me and under some certain guidelines. I had asked for a "hopeful" sounding piece of music, in which she not only composed beautifully, but also produced the mp3 to match the 2 minute commercial length without any issues. The transition into the ending was executed perfectly, and the introduction to the orchestral portion of the piece is just perfect. The commercial is here: Commercial #2 written by Ken, aka @Ken320. I gave Ken free reign on this one, since this commercial was shorter and not a primary commercial. Nevertheless, he shocked me with his skill level and presented to me a really well written Baroque piece that I felt played along nicely with this commercial: By the way, both commercials received some likes from the community I am building on my Facebook Page which you are free to like as well. Thanks again to Ken and Blaire, I wouldn't have been able to execute these without your help. If anyone has any feedback to the commercials and/or the music, feel free to let us know your thoughts.

Welcome to the forum! We spoke in discord, but the main takeaways: Try not to use so many unnecessary ties. If the music isn't fitting into the measures, reconsider your time signature, or make use of triplets rather than dotted or tied notes. When possible, don't use ties within the measure, use dots instead. I am usually a fan of the tuplet, but in this case, you have unnecessary and confusing "tied" tuplets (triplets) which is extraordinarily difficult to time, especially since this is a solo piece (no left hand or another instrument track to measure the time against). Honor the title of your piece title. A solo viola piece should not sound like a string quartet. Try to avoid fast octaves in string instruments. You can get away with this for piano (Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique!), but definitely not for a viola. Unless you are writing some kind of exercise, avoid avoid avoid. The music itself is good, however you may want to consider some more variations.

Although nothing can beat the creativity of the human mind in terms of composition (let's face it, no algorithm can create Beethoven's 5th, at least without previous knowledge of all of Beethoven's styles), I could see some good use cases for these types of generated compositions. For example, they can certainly provide a composer with new ideas. There are many times I hear a short phrase on TV or in a movie not intended to be an entire composition, and I think to myself that I could probably take that phrase and turn it into a fun piece of music. @Polaris, I would suggest using these algorithmic arrangements in coming up with your own creative composition!