Eve of War (Orchestral Hymn)

Hi guys!

Amid the hours I'm tossing into a TV gig, I keep getting cravings for some straight-up orchestral stuff instead of the largely electronic/atmospheric stuff I'm doing for that project, and so yet again I have a new piece for your appraisal!

I initially thought that this would be quite short, but as I worked on it I realized that I had more to say, so it ended up being just over 4 minutes. I'm (hopefully) getting the hang of pulling a convincing sound out of LASS

Awesome as usual! Are you going to add more?

Ah. This is really nice.

Though the opening Woodwind samples didn't sound very real for some reason.

The middle section with the piano and harp thingy before the really nice trumpet solo was a little out of place.

Obviously it doesn't sound done to me with it suddenly going into the fast section with no slow conclusion. It sounds like it just cut off.

Liked every last minute of this.

Well done.

Great work, Marius.

You already know my thoughts on this, but congrats! A really nice track.

Yeah you know my thoughts too.

Congrats on finishing yet another piece in 5 seconds.

Hi folks!

Thanks for all the comments; let me address them. :)

Heckel (and Tokke actually), I'm not adding more to the piece, no. I realize that the ending is quite abrupt but that is not an oversight, it's simply a stylistic choice. It starts out very patiently, and the pace picks up and things change faster and faster until we reach the quick end. If it left you hanging a bit then mission accomplished, even though I realize that's not very nice. :P

The woodwind sample I agree with you on, and it's the fault of the particular patch I chose...not really meant for ensemble writing. I might switch it out, but not immediately since there's a new woodwind library on my horizon which I think would do a better job than any that I have at the moment. Thank you for pointing it out though as it is an issue. I don't know if I agree about the middle bit being out of place, but it HAS come to my attention that trumpet players breathe. So yeah, that might be something to edit if I come back to it. xD

To those who enjoyed it: I'm very glad; and to those who didn't: I really appreciate you telling me why, it helps me grow. :happy:

I think it's beautiful..

What is LASS? Is that the orch library you use? If not which did you use for this?

Thanks, coax. :happy:

LASS stands for LA Scoring Strings, which is a new sample library, yes. It's only orchestral strings though, no other instruments — you can read about it here: welcome to audiobro | home of LA scoring strings. I use several libraries in combination to get my orchestral sound, not just one.

Wow LASS sounds amazing. I'll have to get that.

Thought this was very very good indeed, very good gentle build up, very nice moments and theme, and that awesome chord that changes the mood.

Thanks, guys! :happy:

Coax, just be wary of LASS's computer requirements — it is NOT a light library by any stretch of the imagination. It puts intense strain on your RAM resources. I had to upgrade my RAM significantly to be able to load it along with the rest of my orchestral template.

I believe the harp-piano play in the middle section reminded me of a fantasy/medieval rpg score, but im really not sure if its that what you're after. Overall I think it sounds tremendous though, extremely convincing :w00t:. I'm really looking forward to get my hands on LASS one day.

Hey Marius! Great song. I saw LASS online. It looks REALLY nice :) You're doing a great job with it :)

Thanks, folks!

Jarlb, I wasn't really after anything in particular, so if it reminded you of a fantasy score then that works just fine by me! Glad it brought up some imagery for you.

Kevin, I'm glad you liked it! Yeah, LASS is a marvelous thing, and I'm getting a feel for its intricacies as I go along. Fun stuff!

Marius

This is very different from what I am used to hearing from you.

But of course as soon as the strong percussion kicks in at the end it is readily apparent that this is all you.

Let's face it though, $1200 strings had better sound great!!!

The most I ever dropped at once was about $450 and that got me EWQL GOLD and EWQL RA during one of their 2 for 1 sales. As much as I love the sound of those LA strings, I do not see them in my future.:sadtears:

I really liked this and am glad you took a little break from the strong percussion and showed a bit more of your composing skills.

Well done

Ron

Glad to surprise you, Ron, though it's really not so different from my usual. :P

I wouldn't normally have been able to afford the LA Strings either, but my current employers loved the sound and helped me get them so I could use them on their project — very nice of them.

As for the jab at percussion writing, it's harder than it seems. I know people love to downplay that, but the truth is that writing a good percussion piece is a skill that needs to be perfected just as much as more harmonic writing.

Thanks for giving your thoughts! :happy:

Marius!!!

Wow its been a while since I have been on this forum. I say at least a year.

Any who, I hope all is well which Im sure it is, since you are super talented.

This piece was great, as stated earlier the percussion thing is kind of your signature.

LASS sounds great. I watched their spiccatto demo a while back, I was floored.

Im just waiting to see how EW hollywood strings turns out. :)

Your employer helped you buy lass?! Thats awesome, who you working for?

Awesome track Marius :)

I'm glad you went for LASS eventually. There is big difference in quality. Good job! :)

Cain, it's been ages, good to see you! Thanks for your comments — I linked you to the people I'm working for in the shoutbox, but either way yes, it's an excellent deal. :happy: Now that I've got LASS, I really don't care about the HW strings either way...they'll sound lovely, no doubt, but why spend another crapload of money for a ridiculously bloated product when I already feel quite happy about my string section?

Nino, it's always a pleasure to see you around! I'm happy you enjoyed the track. I agree with you about LASS, it's amazing what this level of expressiveness and playability will do for one's work.

Sounds pretty good to me, nice chord progression too

I enjoyed this Marius... It sounds great. If I was forced to find something I didnt like about it beyond what cannot be controlled by virtual instrument sample quality, it would be the very beginning drum rolls being somehow out of synch with the music. I cant really describe how it is out of synch because it sounds like it should be out of synch, but it is out of synch with it's out of synch-ness. again, hard to explain. hopefully you know what I mean.

Thanks for posting this.

Hey, guys!

Will, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Haven't seen you around in a bit.

Dankk, thank you for the comments. I actually did understand what you meant about the sync of the snare rolls at the beginning, but you're also correct in that they were intentionally left a bit "loose". It's just for a bit of that "human" feel, of course.

Just wanted to tell you I am in love with this.

^.^