TheAvengerButton

I'm going to assume that you guys got copies of this off of the Illuminati Deep Web Black Market using your shady connections because I can't find this released anywhere. Ah, well. I'm sure I'll find i tomorrow.

Been working on putting together some "demos" for myself to put on a soundcloud so I can show my work and help nab a composing gig. I have this piece of music that I have written for a hypothetical fantasy game, and I've used multiple libraries to create the sound that I wanted. I've decided that this piece would be good to learn how to mix orchestral music, because I don't know fuck all about it. I work nights, so I spend those nights by myself watching videos of mixing tutorials and what not and I still can't wrap my head around any of it, specifically reverb. So, apparently it's ideal to add reverb to a piece that uses multiple libraries to help them blend and sound like they are coming from the same space, but even more important is just giving everything space in general. From what I've gathered there are several techniques for providing reverb, and I've practically tried them all and I'm not getting the result I want. You can have one reverb signal on a bus and mess with the sends for all the individual instruments, but when I do this it blows my gains up and makes the track unworkable due to excess clipping. I can add a room reverb and add reverbs to instrument groups but this just tends to bury the instruments further despite me playing with the mix and the wet/dry knobs. And then there's having multiple reverb signals on a single bus, both convolution and algorithmic to really unlock certain sounds, but that doesn't seem to be working out for me either. Just more drowning. My orchestra always ends up sounding muted despite my best efforts. Basically, when I listen to professional mixes of orchestra music, in particular synthetic orchestral music, the produced tracks have a tendency to sound in my ears like the instruments are all still..."up front" with the reverb adding just a tail in the background. However, when I try to add reverb to my orchestra it basically just makes everything drown, no matter what room size I am adding to it. My ideal reverb mix would be one that doesn't sound muddier than my dry mix, but with that nice little reverberation hitting in the back just right and I can't seem to do that. I've been a hobbyist composer for a while and I think I can write a good piece, but when it comes to more of the production side of things I can't seem to wrap my head around it and I need to be able to do that if I want to do this professionally. When it comes to reverb, EQ, and compression, I get the basic concepts. I've watched and read countless tutorials that are very informative, but putting what I've learned into practice I can never seem to get the same results I want and I end up tweaking myself into a sonic grave. I can't seem to train my ear correctly with EQ/Compression, and while I understand what it takes to define a room and instrument placements in a room with reverb nothing seems to work out. Here is my dry mix of Fantasy Theme: https://clyp.it/kmn0cqpd I couldn't really eliminate the room out of a lot of my samples, so there are a few different rooms in the mix. They say you can EQ those out, but once again I haven't been able to do that. The song itself is not done by any means, I just wanted to practice with mixing things. Here is the same song, but with some reverb added on a single channel. https://clyp.it/5yujvadd I was using MConvolutionEZ for my reverb, but it was too much, even with smaller rooms, so I've gone back to using Studio One's basic presets for Room Reverb. Any tips on how to make this better?

I like the sequel films but even I know that the behind-the-scenes writing was kind of up in the air. But also, despite that IMO the films still hold together well. But yeah, the production was--I hesitate to use the word mess because movie making isn't necessarily a straightforward process and inevitably will have a lot of hiccups--but the production wasn't sound.

Ironically enough, I decided that BBCSO was going to be my choice fairly recently. I LOVE Spitfire's orchestras. IMO they are the best sounding stuff on the market even if they are not the most comprehensive. I was originally wanting the Studio Orchestra, but I was turned off from the fact that the Core version didn't come with a Percussion section. Then I found Nucleus and thought that could be a good place to start, as it is low on gig and high on versatility. At one point I also flirted with getting Sonuscore's The Orchestra Complete 2 for it's Engine. But now I've come back around to the BBC Symphony Orchestra Core because I like it's more classic sound. I think I can pull of some good JW pastiche with it, but it's also a more professional sounding system to where I can potentially put it to work outside of being a hobbyist. Aa for DAW, I use Studio One Artist 4 and I highly recommend it to you. I've paid to have some Professional features unlocked. About the only thing I can't do is Mastering and there are some clear and easy work arounds for that. Studio One is really easy to manage while still feeling absolutely professional. It doesn't hold your hand, but it's got some surprising depth to help you create whatever you want to create.

I think we share more in common than not, then. Familiar is never bad, IMO. And having played the game there is a lot of seemingly original takes on older themes while still being plenty of new. I don't really know how to feel about the score just yet. I think it's good, for sure. My favorite track so far is Imperial Ceremony and Briefing for the Imperial March pastiche at the very beginning. I don't feel that Gordy has written a good Imperial theme yet but if this is his showing on this soundtrack then it comes close go having that same martial power that the Imperial March has. Still need to give the music another listen but I've been up for more than 36 hours and my body is barely hanging on.

But...do I need to purchase a new key for every instrument I buy? I was wanting to see about their Big Bang Orchestra freebie but I didn't want to just buy a key to use it. Not that I'm cheap, but if I'm going to buy one of their keys I might as well buy a full patch of something.

I see this sentiment a lot. In your opinion does a Star Wars score always need to have things like The Force theme, Luke's theme, etc. to be a Star Wars score? Personally, I think composers have to be careful with the JW material because they shouldn't use it too much out of context (though even JW himself will sometimes do the same, but the difference is he wrote those bars). An egregious example would be hearing Leia's theme pkay with Ezra Bridger in Star Wars Rebels long before he met her in Season 2. Weirdly out of context and unnecessary. I can't imagine how characters that have nothing to do with the Force to be flying around to those familiar tones. Better to have original music when dealing with original characters and narrative.

https://us.7digital.com/artist/gordy-haab/release/star-wars-squadrons-original-video-game-soundtrack-13133194 U.S. listing is live.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. This sort of thing is the new normal for most scores and has been for a while. I don't expect every original Star Wars score to be able to have been recorded in LSO with a full live orchestra. Also, to the above, I don't think Kiner's scores sound bad. The virtual instruments that permeated the average tv show episode were (IMO) pretty above average. Compare that to, say, the music composed for Resistance. And the live oechestrated stuff he did for the movie and the big important episodes were fantastic.

BTW, this album is getting pretty expensive in price in other countries for what it is. Is it going to be that high in the US?

I don't know if it's the mix or what, but whatever orchestra he's using lately sounds a little artificial at moments, but it's apparently a live orchestra.

Wow, those Orchestral Tools libraries sound great. Fantastic composition too, I'm very envious. I've been working on my reverb arrangement and I've got something that I am somewhat happy with: https://clyp.it/v01fgxus I need more/better sounds to fill in the empty spaces in this particular arrangement (still don't have a better orchestra yet, someone recommended me Nucleus instead of Spitfire Studio and I'm trying to choose between them), but I think the reverb plugin I have sounds pretty okay. Got an early reflections bus for the entire room, as well as different buses for the string, woodwinds, and brass sections...20% wet small hall, 30% medium hall, and 50% medium hall respectively.

I forgot about the time thing >.<. Don't judge me I just woke up at 3 in the afternoon. I'm really digging that we are starting to get a lot more access to Star Wars scores lately. Wouldn't it be nice if they did this to legacy soundtracks so that I can have some sweet Mark Griskey KOTOR 2 in quality that isn't 128kbps.

No FLAC listings yet that I can find.

I actually tend to like drier orxhestras for some reason. Maybe why I like listening to the original soundtrack for Star Wars so much. Also The Force Awakens. But these show soundtracks are pretty great for that.

I wish I'd known about 7digital before I bought all of these soundtracks off of Amazon. Quality maxes out at 256kbps according to Spek, and just as I've transitioned into wanting to collect everything in CD-Quality of higher audio. Oh well. I'll rebuy them because I want to support the artists and the format. It's just going to take a while because my wife doesn't let me buy anything.

I'm bumping again because I want to write down some thoughts, here. I just discovered the really cool Bernard Herrmann Composer Toolkit tonight after a long time of not knowing it was a thing despite almost constantly hovering on the Spitfire page wishing I had enough money to get a library and I had a listen, and it was everything I could ever want in an Orchestral library. The ambiance of the recording was perfect, I loved the articulations and the quirks of a Herrmann score that it managed to bring out and it was just a perfect package. The only thing is is that it's not the be all, end all of virtual orchestration as it relies on combinations instead of getting the best out of individual sections, but that seems to be more due to trying to really hammer home those Herrmann stylings. However, it did convince me that the orchestra that I really want to get in the future is the Spitfire Studio Orchestra. it was recorded in the same space and sounds fantastic. Only issue I can find at this point is the lack of a percussive section, which really, why would you not have a percussion section in a studio orchestra? But as far as the rest of the package goes, I think that's the one I am going to get once i get the money for it. Today is a historic day for me as far as decision making goes. Now I just have to figure out what to do about the percussion. EDIT: I guess I can always try out the Originals Cinematic Percussion, as it's, you know, cheap.

Yeah, if this album isn't samples then I don't know what is. It's pretty clear what is sampled instruments and what isn't in the industry, and this sounds like a sampled orchestra.

Uhm, no. Sorry. Star Wars as you know is HARD SCI-FI. It's extremely inappropriate for children. Ever hear of how grimdark and awful Warhammer 40K can get? Well guess what, STAR WARS is even worse. And to have something so ADULT and so in your face violent and dark distilled for kids flies in the face of what STAR WARS is truly about. I mean, have you seen the original STAR WARS? I hate these petulant new fans denying that Star Wars was nothing but gritty, hard sci-fi goodness. Grey, amoral heroes against gray, amoral villains fighting for supremacy in a decaying, shitty world with a focus on fact-based science. None of that Trekkie WARP SPEED shit. We're talking YEARS of travel time between star systems, GENERATION SHIPS travelling the galaxy. We're talking a vast majority of planets with NO BREATHABLE ATMOSPHERE. We are talking NO. SOUND. IN SPACE. Such a strict adherence to scientific accuracy was a sublime choice for JORGE LUKEMAN to follow. Definitely not for kids, but that's why it was so cool when it was first released. And the violence? So much blood, so much gore. So much sex and sexy women who the big brash manly heroes just sex into submission, like how it REALLY IS. so no, you are obviously wrong about Star Wars content aimed at children. Star Wars is for adults like ME only.

Most of what I use is free stuff. i have BBC Symphony Orchestra and Project Sam's free orchestra as well as Layers, as well as a few individual patches I've bought here and there, like Epic Brass and Woodwinds and such. Oh, and I also have Palette Primary Colors which is a really nice little ditty, I don't have a full instance of Kontakt though so I have to work with the limitations of that. I really like the Orchestral Tools libraries that I've experimented with so far, but I really like the Spitfire stuff. I really don't have an ear for EQing just yet--I'm just not sure what to listen for.

I actually find that the Orchestral Tools patches that I have contain a bit more ambient space sound to them, while I can turn down the room ambience on my Spitfire instruments and effectively make them dry as all get out. I found a work around for the reverb though--I've got several going to the bus now--one that is a bit of a smaller space and one that is larger. This gives me (for now) a sound that I'm satisfied with outside of EQing...that comes next. I'm taking this piecemeal. And also, I'm learning all of this as I go. I am a hobbyist, after all. I'm watching videos of people talking about composing with virtual instruments and a lot of the lingo and terminology is going WAY over my head.

Lowest note is Bb0 for Woodwinds with a nice contrabassoon growl. Also I don't know anything about embedding because I'm a loser but I upload all my stuff to Clyp.it and then just link it here. Doesn't take but a few seconds for the load times. Anyone have any tips for reverb? I'm trying to get a good scoring stage sound for an orchestra. I've sent all my instruments to a reverb bus so that everything sounds like it's happening in the same room, but then some of the instruments sound too drowned in reverb while others don't. Any mixing tricks I'm missing, here? Also, on another note, SINE Player and Orchestral Tools are really making my day, here. I just found a great Muted Brass patch from one of the Metropolis Ark libraries as an individual instrument for only 19 bucks, and it sounds fantastic. Really got that sound I wanted, and now all I need for the moment is some good instrument patches in woodwind and strings with a gliss/porta voicing.

I love Spitfire products. Definitely going to be buying more stuff from them when the money comes my way. I just bought the Spitfire Originals Brass and Woodwind recently and I want to get the Originals Strings set to match (that kind of gives you a glimpse into my budget, here). Foe how limited they are they still give a good performance. I also discovered that I could purchase individual instruments through SINE Player for relatively low prices, I'm going to see about some of those.

Bump, sorry for the double post. I just finished this track that I showed off a little bit of in the Star Wars Squadrons thread. It's a re-orchestration of a track from Chris Huelsbeck's Rogue Squadron (N64/PC) Still needs some tweaking here and there but I wanted to finish the main body before I start micro-managing myself. Also need to write a little tag at the end to finish it off. I want to do the other few tracks that make up the Tatooine level of the game and maybe edit together a little suite with the whole thing all together, which is going to be...interesting to try to make everything flow. https://clyp.it/gpjtn0jo

Gordy does that a lot. There's a section in the Republic theme from TOR that ends up on the first Battlefront, as well as stuff he wrote for Kinect Star Wars that ended up in several different places. I'm not going to call it laziness.I think these are thematic links in his mind to certain ideas, kind of like something Johnny would do. But I think it's different if it's literally just a straight transcription from one soundtrack to another, as seems to be the case a lot of the time.