February 19, 201016 yr Hi all, long time no see, so I figured that it's time to upload my new composition. After 10 months of composition, I'm trying to see whether this will be accepted into a game, so enjoy and plz comment!! Guess what i used to compose this, I want to test out my sample quality and see what people think I used. Whoever does gets a smiley face :) Drums of War EDIT: I forgot to mention that it's a little unfinished, so the end might sound a bit lame at the moment
February 20, 201016 yr I like it overall. There are a few things that distract me a bit. The sharp percussion bit that starts about 8 seconds in (some sort of side stick hit or something) seems a little too obtrusive. But not really by much. Its certainly doesnt ruin the piece for me. But maybe something a little lower in frequency would be more to my liking. And the second thing that kind of caught me off guard was at about 1:40. It seems to increase tempo for no apparent reason or outcome, and then ends with the normal tempo. Not sure if you meant to increase the tempo there but it seems a little random and threw me off a bit. You did say the ending wasnt complete so maybe its just an idea your tossing around and have better plans for. Other than those 2 little things, the rest is awesome. Very subtle yet epic at the same time. Definitely worthy of accompanying a movie scene
February 20, 201016 yr Author makwingka: Thanks!! guitarplaya: It was actually toms, but yup, now you've mentioned it, it seems a little excessive to me as well And the tempo change was a editing fail......the automation was a little screwed :facepalm: which I need to change at some point. Thanks for pointing those things out, it really helps to have someone unattached to the piece give comments and suggest improvements :)
February 21, 201016 yr Cheese Nice piece but it does need some work. You have gone way overboard with the reverb which is muddying up the sounds. While a piece sounds a lot better with reverb, with too much of it the instruments are no longer crisp and clear. You also want to put different amounts of reverb on each instrument. Those in the rear of the orchestra get more, while the closer ones get less. This sounds like it is notation, but with all of the reverb it is difficult to tell which library it is. Ron
February 22, 201016 yr I really like this. I'm not all to familiar with the various libraries and their attributes, but this sounds very good. I love your transitions and so forth - very good work!
February 22, 201016 yr Author Rolifer: I tried to get a Soulesque style with heavy reverb. Thanks for pointing that out though, I think I may have gone over the top for that and I've listened to it so many times I don't know whether there are any problems simply because I'm used to them. jawoodruff: Thanks a lot for the compliments!! And to everyone: Answer- nobody gets a smiley face, unfortunately :P I actually used freebies (I have a nonexistant budget for composition) in LMMS, a free DAW
February 23, 201016 yr Hey Cheeseorzzz, First of all, kudos for getting freebies to sound so nice. It takes some working and you've done an admirable job. The cymbals at the beginning are a little too frequent for my tastes...be careful with those hits, they get annoying really fast, so save them for dramatic impacts. If you're going to call a piece "drums of war", I would challenge you to make use of your percussion section more creatively...give them a nice exposed part to just run loose, and in that part do some experimenting with polyrhythms and other fun things to really test your percussion writing. It's a lot of fun. Either way, this is a solid track, so good work. I feel like I repeat myself a lot on here, but do some work with panning, reverb (which by the way could use some tweaking) and EQ to help place your instruments on the virtual stage — it will help with the illusion of realism and also teach you to remember that even when you're writing for virtual instruments, you have to treat them like real ones in the mix or you'll never manage to produce convincing mock-ups. Thanks for sharing! :)
February 24, 201016 yr I don't know enough libraries to guess, Cheeselord I'm sorry! :sadtears: EDIT: Well it was a mindgame on your part so I don't feel so bad now. :P Nice string writing at the beginning: bring it out more. The entire beginning seems a bit too quiet. Brass fp at 0:09 sounds weird in the EQ. It's pretty muddy around 0:22. You have cool percussion things going on, but I can only hear half of them. The low brass line from 0:22-0:44 should be a bit smoother rather than having such a short sustain on each note. Not exactly sure what's going on at 1:47, but you said it was a work in progress so I trust you'll look it over. Sounds cool so far, Cheeselord. Clean up the muddiness, polish up the instruments, balance out the levels and I think it'll sound awesome! Peace on Earth, -John
March 12, 201016 yr This was really cool! I am an avid fan of percussion so I really liked that... O agree with Marius though, it could use a little bit more of a creative drum line. Very good!
March 14, 201016 yr Author John: Thanks, now that you point them out, I see what you mean. Derrick: Thanks as well!! Hehe, I'm starting to become a Timpani freak, I'm probably goign to have a mostly percussive track sooner or later :)
March 14, 201016 yr Well, I was kind of expecting a bit more drums out of the piece thats called Drums of War. :D That aside, I think you did a pretty good job at creating a nice atmosphere, tho' the excessive amounts or reverb do destroy the experience a bit. You have clever harmonic developmet, all you need now is a nice melody to follow up on this, something in phrygian mode I imagine if you want it to sound militaristic. Good job on getting it to sound so decent with freebies, when you get good at that working with expencive libraries becomes a breeze.
March 15, 201016 yr Author Phantom: Good point on the melody......it's something that I want to improve on, getting a good melody going in a composition. I tend to get great starts that run out of steam fairly quickly :( It's definitely something that I need to work on. Hakan: Thanks for the encouraging comment :) Marius: Sry for not replying, thought I already did, then just checked and found out :rolleyes: Excellent points of improvement though, Percussion writing sounds really fun (I'm becoming a timpani addict) and I might have a go at that soon :)
May 26, 201015 yr Nice I like this. Great work with the samples, I have a hard time with all those free ones myself (which is almost all I have) I really like overall atmosphere, this seems like it would work great in a game! Any updates on the ending? Yeah I'd just say if there was an overarching melody or something really tying all the cool atmosphere together it would be a little more memorable maybe. Maybe even bringing that intro string thing back later? Anyway, very cool!
