Game Trailer Soundtrack

Hi Guys,

This is a game trailer music assignment that I am working on.

Actually I had to hand it in but since it's not finished I am planning to improve it and I could use some help here.

I know that I have to fix drums and percussion because that's the weak point here in my opinion (don't know much about it yet).

Also I think I will slightly thicken the harmonic texture of the opening strings (until the FF logo appears).

Apart from that, can you give me some advice regarding thematic development? Am I doing it right (or at all :) )?

And basically any comments are welcomed, it's a fairly complex piece for me so there are a lot of places where I can mess things up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fadaCd7SPU&fmt=22

Thanks,

Heya,

I think this needs a lot of work for several really clear and easy-to-fix reasons, so I'll see if I can help you get it polished up.

First of all, my biggest problem with it is that it sounds totally disconnected from what's happening on-screen. The visuals are clearly showing awe and nobility, and you have a dinky celesta/glockenspiel theme going as if it were a bedtime story — not so good. And the other issue that presents is that it gives you nothing to build with for the title reveal. The FF titles just sort of appear but you've done nothing to ease them in, and nothing to highlight them (same problem when they appear again at the end). After that you begin to portray some of the gravity of the situation on screen nicely, but when the battle shows up instead of building in intensity and unleashing some action there, you quiet down and the impact of the spectacular visuals falls flat on its face. The segment that introduces the characters is nice, but it lacks presence — these are the heroes we're meeting, make us care! And then once the final quarter starts and there's action everywhere, you bring up the intensity but it needs MORE. It still sounds very small and quaint with that harpsichord thrumming away; there's no sense of the scale or importance of the events, we just get that there's a sense of motion to them.

Context aside, the writing is thin and formulaic. I was hoping to hear more lush orchestration, thicker or at least more interesting instrumentation and use of the instruments you've selected. Work on adding more colour to your writing in terms of instrument combinations, phrasing of themes, and handling of development. The mix wasn't bad, but it sounds like your samples are a lot better than your sequencing skills — can you tell us a bit about what you used to produce this? It sounds very stiff, like notation software output. I'm not as concerned with the mix for now though since the score needs polish in the more fundamental areas first.

So here's my issue: you have a strong theme and an excellent video for scoring practise, but your instincts seem to have left out a LOT of the key emotional content of the video so your music seems disconnected from what it's meant to be accompanying. It doesn't really help the visuals achieve their purpose, it just kind of follows them around. Mix-wise there's a lot of work to be done too, but first you need to get the shape of the score a bit more polished. Keep working on this, you have strong material in here that's begging for better treatment. :)

Marius,

Thanks a lot for the exhausting response.

The visuals are clearly showing awe and nobility, and you have a dinky celesta/glockenspiel theme going as if it were a bedtime story — not so good.

I think I have watched too much of musical boxes associated with bad guys (Ennio Morricone soundtracks, Hans Zimmer with Davy Jones theme etc. :) ). I was planning to add something to the background to make it sound somehow ominous but I'll work on it a bit more.

The FF titles just sort of appear but you've done nothing to ease them in, and nothing to highlight them (same problem when they appear again at the end).

Yes, this I can see. The titles introduction would need more care.

After that you begin to portray some of the gravity of the situation on screen nicely, but when the battle shows up instead of building in intensity and unleashing some action there, you quiet down and the impact of the spectacular visuals falls flat on its face.

OK, I'll try to unleash something more for this explosion stuff here. I guess I focused on the falling ship instead of the explosions here :)

The segment that introduces the characters is nice, but it lacks presence — these are the heroes we're meeting, make us care! And then once the final quarter starts and there's action everywhere, you bring up the intensity but it needs MORE. It still sounds very small and quaint with that harpsichord thrumming away; there's no sense of the scale or importance of the events, we just get that there's a sense of motion to them.

OK, more drama required here :)

Context aside, the writing is thin and formulaic. I was hoping to hear more lush orchestration, thicker or at least more interesting instrumentation and use of the instruments you've selected. Work on adding more colour to your writing in terms of instrument combinations, phrasing of themes, and handling of development.

I'll spend some time trying to make it more complex and interesting (although it might not be ultra spectacular since I've still got a lot to learn here :) )

The mix wasn't bad, but it sounds like your samples are a lot better than your sequencing skills — can you tell us a bit about what you used to produce this? It sounds very stiff, like notation software output.

Well the mix actually was Sibellius output imported as midi into Cubase.

The way I worked here and on my previous piece was to compose it on piano, write it in Sibelius and then trying to animate it in Cubase. The way I usually do it is by manipulating expression and moving around individual notes to make it sound more human (although to be fair I haven't done a lot of animating or mixing/mastering for this piece due to time limits).

what I usually do :

For instruments where proper phrasing is required, I usually overlay synful orchestra (physical modelling) on top of EWQL samples and then place it in the same spot on soundstage using PAZ Analyzer from Waves, so that I can have something that sounds like human. The percussion... well that's basically moving notes around to get a sort of feel that I need but it usually takes ages to get it right. Perhaps I could try to get some readymade grooves from EZ drumer? although I don't know if it would work for orchestra... :)

So here's my issue: you have a strong theme and an excellent video for scoring practise, but your instincts seem to have left out a LOT of the key emotional content of the video so your music seems disconnected from what it's meant to be accompanying.[...] Keep working on this, you have strong material in here that's begging for better treatment. :)

Thanks again, I have a lot to do now to address all these issues. I'll try to handle them one at a time :)