April 19, 201015 yr Author quite an exciting piece of music. lovely samples too, especially your honrs Thanks. It's Finale 2010 using GPO.
April 19, 201015 yr Cool piece, Caleb. Nice opening. Instantly sets the mood. Can you give us any more details about film? What were you trying capture musically that was happening in the scene. I can't tell what we should be listening to at 1:20-1:30. It's either the notes on the downbeat of every chord change or this inner melody line we here as well. Can you make it a bit clear what we should be listening for? I think part of this has to do with phrasing your lines a bit more musically. At measure 35, clean up those 16th notes so that they clearly sound like two separate notes instead of sounding like one muffled 8th note. Very nice writing throughout the piece. I think pages 5-7 could use a bit more variation. The piccolo and flute flourishes that you wrote were a nice touch. Try to find others ways of embellishing section so that it feels more than just chord changes. Watch out that your volume isn't too loud to the point where its starts sounding distorted. This happens throughout 2:30-3:00. I think you could make the ending a bit more important. Add in a small crescendo and rit. for the last two bars and hear how it works. What programs/libraries did you use to create this? The instruments sound good, but they also have a notation program sound to them as well. Nice work, Caleb, -John
April 19, 201015 yr this is good , works great for a movie , what samples did you use ?? and nice mixing , i really like what you did with the woodwind section along the score . great job ! and the orchestration is solid .
April 19, 201015 yr Author What programs/libraries did you use to create this? The instruments sound good, but they also have a notation program sound to them as well. Nice work, Caleb, -John I used finale 2010 complete edition with the new version of GPO that comes with it. :) All of the instruments are GPO.
April 19, 201015 yr Nice work. I think the ending seems kind of abrupt, but I love the horn parts, and the slides in the strings are excellent. Good writing, keep it up! -MF
April 19, 201015 yr Author Nice work. I think the ending seems kind of abrupt, I was thinking of adding more at the end.but I love the horn parts, and the slides in the strings are excellent. GPO at it's best. Good writing, keep it up! I will! lol. Not to worry.
April 20, 201015 yr A good piece of work. Without knowing anything about the film, it's difficult to say if it would work in that context. In any case, I think it's a well written piece. I agree with the reviews above about the ending, but that's nothing that can't be sorted out! Personally I'm a VSL fan, but to be honest, I always feel that GPO (and others) seems to lend itself to getting that "Hollywood" film sound. Thanks for sharing it with us!
April 22, 201015 yr really liked it pequad, nice job! i don't have anything to add, the changes are very cool to listen and the build ups are convincing!
April 23, 201015 yr Caleb, Nice start to an orchestral piece, especially the opening that slowly unfolds. Unfortunately you lost me about half way through the piece because the harmony felt static (a lot of i-IV) and the music didn't seem to be heading anywhere. I think the orchestration works for the most part. Tokke mentioned you won't hear some of the low piccolo lines when other instruments are playing, and while that may be somewhat true you might not want the higher pitch of the piccolo so I'd keep it and save the octave doubling for the end, like I think you have it. My orchestration teacher would disagree (flutes live above the staff!) but it's a personal thing. Do you have two timpani players? I've never seen a split voice timpani part quite like you have. Also, in the very beginning are you using phrase marks as well as bow marks for the strings?
April 27, 201015 yr Wonderful work, Caleb. I think it clearly shows you advancing as a composer. A few critiques. First, why the massive string parts? All divisi? That's quite a thinning and thickening of the strings that sometimes may not cut through the massive brass and wind choirs you use here. That said, there's not much development in this work. You state the theme a few times and then end the piece. Why not work on development? Take your theme and break it apart, variate it, detract from it, etc. Your theme is a very serious, ominous theme that would lend itself well to a thorough development. I enjoyed this though and hope to hear more. Thanks for sharing!
April 27, 201015 yr Author First, why the massive string parts? All divisi? That's quite a thinning and thickening of the strings that sometimes may not cut through the massive brass and wind choirs you use here. Thanks, Jason. The reason my string section is the way it is, is because I'm not that familiar with strings.
April 27, 201015 yr I have basically the same observations as Jason, but I draw other conclusions. I think the repetition of the theme can work very well for film-music. On the string divisions I agree it has become thin. After ms 39 you do not use the desk of Viola I players. I think the last two pages could definitely use some reinforcing against the massive brass and agile woodwinds. I would like it to be even more massive. thanks for sharing
April 28, 201015 yr Hi Caleb, I don't have anything to add to the comments about the writing, but since it is film music I'm happy to give you a critique based on the context — so I'll repeat John's request: can you tell us a bit more about the film? The scene where this music fits in? What exactly are we watching when this is playing? Seems like an awfully exciting and dramatic evening...
April 29, 201015 yr Author Hi Caleb, I don't have anything to add to the comments about the writing, but since it is film music I'm happy to give you a critique based on the context — so I'll repeat John's request: can you tell us a bit more about the film? The scene where this music fits in? What exactly are we watching when this is playing? Seems like an awfully exciting and dramatic evening... It isn't written for a specific movie in mind. I get the feel of something transforming/evolving... I'm not such exactly. EPIC. Give me feedback, on what you think you are feeling, and what you think fits with the piece. Thanks Marius, and how did you like it. You didn't say whether you liked it or not. I'm assuming you did, for the time being, because if you didn't you probably would have written a lot more. Thanks, again.
April 29, 201015 yr Heya, Yeah I did enjoy it, it's just that I wanted to judge it based on its context since everyone else has given you good feedback on the writing. The feeling of epic was definitely there, though I felt a bit more in the way of sweeping drama than say the adventurous kind of epic, so if that was a distinction that you were after then good. There's definitely a sense of evolution, so that's accomplished as well. I felt that sometimes you were writing to the abilities of your samples because it felt somehow orchestrationally restrained and basic, despite the material being solid. That being said, you managed to squeeze a pretty good sound out of a piece of notation software. I continue to encourage you to learn your way around a DAW so you can make full use of the samples you have available to you. Nice work here though! :)
April 29, 201015 yr Author Heya, Yeah I did enjoy it, it's just that I wanted to judge it based on its context since everyone else has given you good feedback on the writing. The feeling of epic was definitely there, though I felt a bit more in the way of sweeping drama than say the adventurous kind of epic, so if that was a distinction that you were after then good. There's definitely a sense of evolution, so that's accomplished as well. I felt that sometimes you were writing to the abilities of your samples because it felt somehow orchestrationally restrained and basic, despite the material being solid. That being said, you managed to squeeze a pretty good sound out of a piece of notation software. I continue to encourage you to learn your way around a DAW so you can make full use of the samples you have available to you. Nice work here though! :) I do not know how to do anything with DAW, this was simply GPO and Finale. I didn't use any Logic or Sequencer mainly because I do not know how. I can't seem to teach myself. So this is straight audio from Finale 2010. With a little tweaking inside the GPO thingy. :P
May 10, 201015 yr Author Thanks for everyone that's viewed so far. But I am really hoping for more views and reviews. Thanks.
May 10, 201015 yr pequad hello, this forum breathes by what's exhaled and inhaled , if you don't comment on other people's work, how can this forum breath?
May 10, 201015 yr Author pequad hello, this forum breathes by what's exhaled and inhaled , if you don't comment on other people's work, how can this forum breath? I do comment on other's work but how are they really going to find my work if it gets pushed all the way to the bottom. i know that I would much rather pull it from the forum than their individual pages.
