Battle Plan

As some of you know, GPO has been updated with a new version. This version has a choir in it which is something I have never used before in a piece. So this piece started out just as an experiment to see how it would sound. I also used a number of other instruments from GPO 4.

The piece also uses guitars from Independence Free.

The piece is made to loop, so it is only about 2 minutes long.

This is not the Battle itself, just the generals standing around making the plans. Pushing these guys up, and those back etc.

Here it is

Battle Plan

I am open to other suggestions for a title. This is all I could come up with.

Ron

I liked the use of percussion, I definitely got the "battle plan" feel to it... or... something along that line.

I can imagine this definitely being used as a before the battle type of piece.

I liked the Oboe / clarinets / and flutes in this quite a bit.

I enjoyed listening to this .

[Two Thumbs up]

I don't really get the use of a drumset... thats the only thing that bothers me.. and there is maybe a bit too much reverb... other than that, I like it, again you style of painting a picture with sounds :)

The percussion to this piece was very fitting, as well as the way you used the strings. I liked the sort of call and response you had going on with the flute, strings and oboe in the middle. Also, the choir went well with this, never too overpowering, and only adding to the overall space of the song.

As always, well done. :)

Sax

Those wind lines took me a while to get right. They are a lot more complicated than they seem. Thanks

Phantom

I liked the Drum set but could see it without it as well. I did lower the reverb some at your suggestion. Thanks.

laisladelace

I have never been a huge fan of choirs in music which is odd because Beethoven's 9th is my favorite Symphony. But I did want to try one with voices, but never had a decent choir sample to use until now. I'm glad you think I didn't overdo it with the choir.

Thanks guys (and lady).

Ron

Ron,

I like all the different sections although the parts with no percussion are more musically engaging and more original IMO, especially the woodwinds.

My downside comment is that there are too many different ideas all packed into the two minutes - the effect is curious and to me in one place verging on the slightly comical. Glides are conventionally used to indicate wooziness from alcohol, drugs or a hit on the head - I don't know if that fits into the battle theme :).

I would say a 100% success as a trial of GPO 4 and the choir but a bit odd as a composition.

Herb

Ron.

I think my issue with the drums is not their being there, but the constant speed of them. I think if there was a little more variation besides the speedy triplet pattern, they would be more acceptable. I like it, but it's so much flourish, which would normally be saved for climactic points or the end of a phrase and lead into another, instead of in the sort of loop you have it in. (though I know it's not a loop, because they aren't each identical, but similar enough to seem repetitive). Maybe try altering the rhythm/metric feel completely. If a real drummer were playing, one of their biggest advantages is being able to freely switch feels and meters as they please, without technically ruining a song (unless a drum part is written), simply because they can continue to keep the beat in so many different ways. I'm rambling....but that's my issue with the drums.

I am not usually one for DAW critique, but to me, it almost sounds like the reverb on the drums is at a different setting than the rest of the instruments, voices. Like someone went in and recorded a drum track over an already finished piece, and didn't balance. Though, I only get this feeling at the beginning.

I do like, however, the intro to this piece, where everything has a sort of random sound to it. Almost like a sound check sort of feel before it gets into it's first little groove. I really like the descending scales in the woodwinds against the high string glissandos upwards. It's a sort of trippy effect. This definitely has the feel of "Prepare for Battle". I always love your interpretation of themes. You completely convey what it is you are trying to convey, and yet, find ways of making it new, and your own. You should offer yourself as a YC teacher, I'd sign up.

My name nominations...

'War Games'

'Briefing'

'Strats and Tactics'

Cool, I thought this had a really trippy feel to it. The GPO choir seems nice and airy.

Herb

Comical is what I was going for.

Actually, I was going for satire. You might be the only one to understand the picture I had in my mind while doing this.'

This is not just any war room with a bunch of generals pushing around armies on a large table. The main man doing the pushing is Hitler and the best part of it all is that he is pushing around non-existing Armies. Towards the end of the war, Hitler would go into these war rooms, all pissed off at his generals for not doing the work that to him was obvious. In his mind, all the generals had to do was put this division here and that division there and the war would be won. None of his generals would tell him that the divisions he was pushing around, just did not exist anymore.

So this piece is about Hitler's insanity and the feelings of helplessness that the generals had to be feeling. I even tried to put into the piece areas where the generals are just completely and totally lost at what to do.

I don't like to explain pieces before they are listened to which is why I waited until now to explain further.

OMWBWAY

Your last sentence was probably the best compliment I have ever received on any piece.

Let me tell you about my main teacher for not only composition, but for playing the piano and guitar. My teacher had absolutely no formal training whatsoever. Everything he learned, he got from books and from years of listening to music. The techniques he taught me were mostly wrong and the theory was next to non-existent. So to this day I play both the guitar and piano wrong and struggle all the time with my compositions. The main lesson I learned from him is that it is a poor idea to try to teach yourself. Needless to say by now is that I was my own teacher.

With all of that said, I do know that I can help people work with DAW's. One of the main reasons for using a DAW is to make the music sound more realistic. One of the ways to do this is to put the instruments on a stage thru the use of panning, volume and reverb. The panning is probably the easiest of the 3 but to get depth on the stage, you have to use volume and reverb. Each instrument has to have its own reverb setting with an appropriate volume to match where it sits on the stage. This is how we trick the ear into hearing depth. I am getting much better at providing depth in my pieces, but obviously I still have a long way to go to have it right.

If you use a DAW and would like some tips, feel free to PM me some time and I will help as much as I can. If you use Sib 5 or above, I might still be able to give you some pointers. Let me know.

Max

I would love to have a great Choir in my arsenal, but they are just too expensive for me right now. The upgrade to GPO4 was $50 and it was more than worth it to me not only just for the choirs, but for the new ARIA player as well.

Bottom line is that I can live with the GPO choir pretty easy for now.

Thanks guys

Ron

Hi Ron. Another very interesting piece you've got here. I enjoyed it a lot actually. It makes me think that if King Crimson were to write a soundtrack for this particular scenario, it would sound just like this. :P

It's certainly trippy and weird.

I'm not sure what I'm associating it with, but I think it could be used for many different scenes actually.

It's very nice and slightly disorienting and yes comical.