They Live On

This was a piece written for a short news story on a study abroad program called "A Bridge to Belize".

The portion of the news story that this was written for was about the study of Mayan ruins. The title "They Live On" is representative of the idea that the "heartbeat" of the Mayan ruins (which is heard by various drum sounds within the piece) still lives on, even though its courts are no longer inhabited.

They Live On

I'm not sure that I would put this in the orchestral forum - considering you have a very strong emphasis placed on synthesizers here and I seem to here a faint pad in the background. That said, I think this sounds wonderfully cinematic. Very atmospheric. The drums do nice to maintain interest but the overall sense of the piece is one of growing intensity BUT that sort of fades away at about 1:30 for me. You build up and then slightly deliver. Know what I mean? Also the ending is rather different on this... I feel this should be longer. As I said on your other pieces posted, it really helps to post a score. It provides us with more information on which to analyze your work and provide a more thorough review - as opposed to a 'I Like This'. Thanks for sharing!

EDIT: I forgot to mention as well, the Mayan aren't dead - they are very much alive and well.

I'm not sure that I would put this in the orchestral forum - considering you have a very strong emphasis placed on synthesizers here and I seem to here a faint pad in the background. That said, I think this sounds wonderfully cinematic. Very atmospheric. The drums do nice to maintain interest but the overall sense of the piece is one of growing intensity BUT that sort of fades away at about 1:30 for me. You build up and then slightly deliver. Know what I mean? Also the ending is rather different on this... I feel this should be longer. As I said on your other pieces posted, it really helps to post a score. It provides us with more information on which to analyze your work and provide a more thorough review - as opposed to a 'I Like This'. Thanks for sharing!

Hey jawoodruff,

Thanks so much for your review! Unfortunately, I haven't written a score up on this one yet, since I wrote this piece using only midi time graphs. I do know what you mean about the build-up and really short delivery, trust me I would have made this piece at least five minutes if I could have, but I was asked to write a two minute piece as a 'cue' for the video, so I had to make it all come together very fast. If you're interested in checking out the short news story it was for, you can see it here: http://www.maricopa.edu/mctv/client/Belize.wmv

I also wrote the second cue that you hear later in the video, which I may upload at a later date.

Thanks for your kind compliments, and constructive criticisms.

Very nice. Certainly outclasses a lot of the hackneyed music on History Channel Documentaries. As woodruf has already pointed out, it really has a great atmosphere, and is really effective on a lot of levels.

Good use of percussion, and I really enjoy the slow buildup, even if it doesn't "climax", per se. (I know how it is with film music-- usually you don't get to write all of what you want.

Something to be proud of, to be sure.

Great work!

Very nice.

I like the progression, more and more instruments, with big feeling at the end. I love the perc and solo at begining. The rythm make me think of terminator, lol.

We can easily imagine marching in the Mayan ruins. At 1:22 they discovered something no?

1:49 : very good effect.

0:33 : chords are nice.

Could you talk about the realisation ? (Mix, software, etc...)

Nice job.

Thanks so much for all of the kind compliments. I used Logic for midi sequencing, absynth for the synthesizer instrument, East West Symphonic Orchestra Gold, and East West StormDrum 2.