Lords of Madness

Hi folks!

I had a bit of an intense scoring Saturday, just doing stuff for my current gig, and now toward the evening I was getting a craving for some more bombastic epic orchestral stuff (the current gig is all very subtle, quiet electronics and such) so I decided to indulge for a couple of hours and the result was that I had a momentous death march/theme/thing pour out of me.

It does a pretty nice job of showing off the capabilities of my sampling, I think....I love being able to orchestrate thickly again. Anyhow, here's the link:

Lords of Madness

Please enjoy and feel free to leave me any thoughts or reactions! :happy:

EPIC EPIC EPIC.

PERCUSSION

<3

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

This reminds me of some type of... army mobilizing.

An evil army to be specific.

Or maybe someone sneakin gout of a heavily fortified area.

I like this a lot O__O

Amazingness as always.

Percussion writing sure is your thing! AWESOME!!!!!!

Very dark, exTREMELY cool! Oh, and what is that low uuuuuuhhh sound?

Did you record any of the instruments or are Vsti???

Cool piece, but I think it could have been even more epic. For example that trumpet at the end, sounds like it's playing mp. Heh if it were up to me I'd use a trumpet ensemble playing ff and maybe even brighten them and add some vibrato. :P

But overall good job, man. :thumbsup: I really liked the percussion (as always) and the low ethnic instrument(s).

Great work as always Marius. Very interesting piece as well, it reminded me a little of the Disgaea soundtracks and to a lesser extent something like Kefka's Theme from Final Fantasy VI. I do get the imagine of a powerful lord or duke plotting some grand and mischievous scheme!

I agree with Max in that the ending seemed a little understated and perhaps anti-climatic after the rest of the piece, but other than that no fault to really find.

Great stuff as always Marius. How you manage to just pour these compositions out in a night or two is well beyond me. :P

Thanks for all the responses, guys!

Wendell: That mobilizing army thing is definitely true, I can see that as well. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Heckel: It's ironic that you point out the percussion since I did my best to "tone it down" a bit from my usual overload levels of percussive presence. I stuck to very traditional orchestral percussion and didn't abuse them in any crazy way. :P The low "uhhh" sound you hear is the sound of a Tuvan male overtone singer. Fascinating and wonderful sound.

Glass: These are all virtual instruments, nothing is live. :)

Max: I agree with you on the trumpet...I had some issues getting its levels to cooperate, so I may go back and get it playing at the right dynamic level. I wasn't looking to add more trumpets, since it's meant to be a distinctive solo, but I see where you're coming from.

Fox: I thought you vanished! Good to see you! Anyway, thank you...those are actually interesting comparisons, especially with the Disagea music. I think that getting the trumpet playing at the correct dynamic range would fix the lack of an epic enough feel at the end there...I'll get to it eventually.

Murr: Speed is an asset for a media composer, so I work to cultivate it. I guess it's just a matter of practice, really.

Thank you all for your comments! :happy:

Great job! The violins about 2/3 through sounded a little dry to my ears, but I like a lot of reverb, so don't mind me if that's what you were going after. I thought I heard a didgeridoo in there, but I just read your response to heckel and saw that it's a tuvan singer. Nice job on that element. Where did you get the samples for that?

you definitely have a harry-poterresque sound in most of your works... which is great of course :D, great job, as usual!

Agreed with wonders...needs more reverb...anyway good stuff :thumbsup:

Fox: I thought you vanished! Good to see you! Anyway, thank you...those are actually interesting comparisons, especially with the Disagea music. I think that getting the trumpet playing at the correct dynamic range would fix the lack of an epic enough feel at the end there...I'll get to it eventually.

Thanks man! I've not been around for ages and at the moment only stop by occasionally, moving house and boring jobs tend to do that!

Just listening again, I'm really liking the layers you have going there, and I just noticed the part in the middle where your violin comes in, just before the the...clarinets and xylophone runs. Sorry I don;t have an exact time for you. Anyway, that was perhaps the only other bit I'm not sure about, the samples you use there don't lend themselves to being played quickly I think, and the effect I think is that you notice they're synthesized a bit more.

That is if you're listening very carefully! I'm not sure, that might have even been an effect you were going for, but I noticed those specifically because I have the exact same issues with the violins on EWQLSO (dunno if that's what you're using there) where I can't get the attack as quick as I want it on the fast notes.

very nicely done marius, as usual you inspire me to write again..

Wow......sounds good!

Percussion sounds great....well, everything else does as well! Inspiring! Really makes my compositions sound dull in comparison

Very cool piece, sounds like it could come from a Tim Burton animation, quite sinister and dark sounding.