Jump to content

Composing With Ewql And Ni Sound Libraries


Jean-Michel George

Recommended Posts

Hi all

I'm an amateur composer from France with a lifetime's devotion to electronic musical instruments since my very first analogue synthesizer way back in the mid 80's (the wonderful "duophonic" Yamaha CS40M). I was brought up on a mixture of Jean-Michel Jarre (to whom a modest tribute may appear obvious to some on the track "Brave New World" in the link below), English New-Wave and various classical influences ranging from Tchaicovsky to Gabriel Fauré. Since then the industry has changed (slightly !!) and so have my musical tastes and expectations. Leading to which I recently dumped some of my older gear that was gathering dust and after a lot of research and hesitation finally purchased the following products :

- EWQL Complete composer's collection (Symphonic Orchestra, Goliath, RA, Silk, Ministry of Rock, Gypsy, Symphonic Choirs and Voices of Passion)

- Native Instruments Komplete 8

- Spectrasonic Trilian (all bass sounds)

Though I'm thrilled with the three of them and they have been keeping me very happily busy composing these last few weeks, I'm not so sure how they blend together sonically speaking. I'm not much of a recording engineer, but nevertheless I 'm under the impression that the reason for some of my rendered mp3s sounding "flat" and lacking in dynamics may have something to do with the samples themselves and not just with my mastering capabilities (that being said I'm only using Ableton Live's native plugins to achieve this so I'm conscious of their limits ...). I'm also highly concerned about how people perceive and react to these sounds : Do you consider some of them to be over-used (EWQL's "Voices of Passion" used on "Fretless Lullaby" for example is probably a dead give-away ...), dull and boring, or is the overall impression a pleasant one ?

So here's the link ...

http://soundcloud.co...n-michel-george

I'd be very interested to have your comments and ideas on these particular issues. Also I'd love to have your feedback on the compositions themselves obviously, in which case please bear in mind that they have all been done in the last three weeks, so consider that work is still in progress !

Happy summer holidays to all.

Cheers !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Hello Jean-Michel, we may be in similar place. I have also recently bought the same EWQL libs that you have. My reason was because of fire! my old synths went up in flames. Now everything is on the Mac, and I can write for an orchestra to my heart's content.

I have sampled a few of your works and you have a good range of styles that suit you well, and I have always admired the French and their whimsical attitudes regarding art. you may or may not consider yourself French. I don't presuppose. May I offer a suggestion to you? You need more ambience, especially in the orchestral pieces, the first link I clicked. This is absolutely necessary. And why stop there. Use it for the pop music too. I have enjoyed your music. Do you know Juliette Greco? Beautiful arrangements.

Here are some links to my youtube channel, with examples of EWQL samples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDDXydjPsv8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPQRdi6GUcw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZyaEEKy3-8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Ken

sorry i didn't reply earlier. I thought i had an automatic email upon reponse on this post but apparently not ...

Thanks for listening to my tracks. I've put some newer ones out there since.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "more ambience". Could you possibly explain in a little more detail ?

I listened to Roseland and enjoyed it. Nice blend with the photography too.

I am French by the way and am familiar with at least a little of J Greco's repertoire.

Good luck with the Mac (have you bought a fire extinguisher ?!)

Cheers

JM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi JM - I have trouble with this site too from time to time.

By ambience I meant more reverb, that's all. In the Play interface they actually call it ambience. But they are impulse reverbs of actual rooms and halls. I'm not an engineer either, but reverb is one way of locating an instrument in your mix, front and back, left and right, etc. Of course I realize that there is a style element to it, so maybe it's a question of degree. Like salt and pepper. I think that even though there is a natural room sound for ESQL samples (the sound stage), more is needed, otherwise it can sound sterlle.

Some people leave the indivdual tracks dry, then put a single reverb, in relative amounts, to the stereo mixdown. This is the most common way. But I've had good results using the same reverb on individual tracks. It depends on the music.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 10 months later...

Jean, you just made that in 3 weeks and you already have a group of people liking your stuff. I'm jealous! I been playing pianio since 12 and I am 27 now. Been trying to compose recently and got nothing.

 

Flat? The flat has to do with the way you mixed. Try Eq and more layering. I'm not a mixing engineer but sometimes I like to add a limiter on the master channel and squeeze just a bit of db off of it.

 

But most importantly is your sound selection.

Edited by newcomposer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...