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The Composer's Thread


Justin

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19 hours ago, KK said:

Here's some of the score for another short film from last summer. Channelling some more old-school romance with piano and string quartet. The recording isn't great, and there are a few flubs (we were pressed for time) but I'm pretty happy with this one. Curious to hear your thoughts: @Dixon Hill @karelm @Loert@Nick Parker @SteveMc

 

 

 

 

I liked it!  Flowed well throughout.  I like how it does sound "old school," but held together with a kind of modern drive, and even sparseness in spots.  I like how smoothly you went from the kind of minimalist tinged section to the more melodic material later in the piece. 

  Would indeed be nice to hear a bit of a better recording, but this one does a good job of capturing the gist of things.  

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21 hours ago, KK said:

Here's some of the score for another short film from last summer. Channelling some more old-school romance with piano and string quartet. The recording isn't great, and there are a few flubs (we were pressed for time) but I'm pretty happy with this one. Curious to hear your thoughts: @Dixon Hill @karelm @Loert @SteveMc @Nick Parker

 

 

 

 

 

My favourite part is the bit from 4:00, where you've managed to create the effect of a much larger soundspace than you would expect from just 5 instruments! Overall I enjoyed the middle parts of your piece the most.

If I were going to say one "criticism", it would be that towards the beginning the music shifts around quite rapidly in tone...perhaps settling on some ideas a little longer would have made the piece flow better. But I also realise that as a film composer you are perpetually inside a chicken-and-egg scenario with timing and sometimes sacrifices have to be made...!

By the way, did you intend the piano to sound "old"? (no offense)

 

Overall, job very well done KK! (at least in terms of pure musicianship - I haven't watched the film)

 

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On 1/17/2020 at 11:54 AM, SteveMc said:

 

I liked it!  Flowed well throughout.  I like how it does sound "old school," but held together with a kind of modern drive, and even sparseness in spots.  I like how smoothly you went from the kind of minimalist tinged section to the more melodic material later in the piece. 

  Would indeed be nice to hear a bit of a better recording, but this one does a good job of capturing the gist of things.  

 

Thanks man! Budget was pretty tight for this, so the studio we ended up recording at wasn't very good, and the time was pretty tight, so the recording quality kind of suffered.

 

On 1/17/2020 at 1:40 PM, Loert said:

 

 

My favourite part is the bit from 4:00, where you've managed to create the effect of a much larger soundspace than you would expect from just 5 instruments! Overall I enjoyed the middle parts of your piece the most.

If I were going to say one "criticism", it would be that towards the beginning the music shifts around quite rapidly in tone...perhaps settling on some ideas a little longer would have made the piece flow better. But I also realise that as a film composer you are perpetually inside a chicken-and-egg scenario with timing and sometimes sacrifices have to be made...!

By the way, did you intend the piano to sound "old"? (no offense)

 

Overall, job very well done KK! (at least in terms of pure musicianship - I haven't watched the film)

 

 

Thanks man. Appreciate it! Technically the "suite" is really just a compilation of various film cues, so it's not quite an entire piece. But I tried to sequence it so you could hear the musical themes/ideas evolve across the span of the score. There's also some other music that didn't quite make it.

 

As for the piano...well I wanted to record with a grand, but we couldn't arrange anything for the main session. So we had to do the piano recording separately, at a friend's home, and our recording equipment just really sucked. So we ended up with this very wet, aged sound for the piano. 

 

Here's the film by the way, if you guys were interested in watching it:

 

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20 hours ago, ocelot said:

OK so here goes....

 

Here's a one minute's slow section of an 11 minute piece I just wrote, orchestrated and recorded in Nov. The world premiere is supposed to happen later this year but I think it's OK if I post a minutes worth of it!? At least I think it is.....

 

Allan Wilson conducting the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra for this recording at the Katara Opera House in Doha.

 

Very nice! 0:36 to 0:49 gave me goosebumps.

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4 hours ago, Lord Zimmer said:

Wow, really good! 

 

Later this year as in November/December? Any possibility of getting it sooner? :)

I'm not entirely sure, it was supposed to be debuted last month in Moscow but when I handed them the recording and they realized that it was for a 90 piece orchestra they scrapped the small opening and decided it needed to be a major concert, or so I am told. I have one conductor who wants to premiere it at one of the festivals in Russia, so it's up in the air (it was a commission for Russia) I already have 2 other orchestras in other countries who want to play it but no one is allowed to until the world premiere is done.

 

We Shall See....... I can add the little bit that comes right after that. Let me go check the video.

 

1 hour ago, Loert said:

 

Very nice! 0:36 to 0:49 gave me goosebumps.

Thank you so much x

 

I love what I do but never been great at putting it out there tbh except for people I know well like my family, close friends and people here like  @Stefancos (he gets to hear things in progress and the whole recordings once they are done) He often tells me how crap everything is lol

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
3 hours ago, Loert said:

Here's my latest composition:

 

 

The first few seconds have been floating around inside my head for the best part of a year, so I finally decided to make something out of it!

I've been listening to the Russian composer, Nikolai Myaskovsky lately and find your music superior to his.  Or at least it resonates better with me.  This is a very lovey piece.  My general comment about your music is that you might want to consider expanding it without adding more material.  What I mean is that where you take two bars to transition to a climax should take twice as long.  The payoff isn't earned well enough.  This is partially a structure issue.  You have many ideas but you should potentially make those separate movements but keep the same idea with twice as much development time.  So to me, I hear this 7 minute piece as 15 minutes long with truncated ideas.  The ideas are very good but are arrived at in half as long as needed which robs the ideas of their impact.  It's very important to have good ideas but even more important to know how to use them.

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15 hours ago, karelm said:

I've been listening to the Russian composer, Nikolai Myaskovsky lately and find your music superior to his.  Or at least it resonates better with me.  This is a very lovey piece.  My general comment about your music is that you might want to consider expanding it without adding more material.  What I mean is that where you take two bars to transition to a climax should take twice as long.  The payoff isn't earned well enough.  This is partially a structure issue.  You have many ideas but you should potentially make those separate movements but keep the same idea with twice as much development time.  So to me, I hear this 7 minute piece as 15 minutes long with truncated ideas.  The ideas are very good but are arrived at in half as long as needed which robs the ideas of their impact.  It's very important to have good ideas but even more important to know how to use them.

So: "Cool outline, now make it a novel"?

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21 hours ago, Fal J. M. Skywalker said:

So: "Cool outline, now make it a novel"?

Nope.  I am suggesting better control and use of your characters and structure.  My feedback was more about how you develop and arrive at the climax than the length of it.  In musical terms, a massive Bruckner Symphony might be in D minor.  But the first two minutes of the symphony will be in the leading tone of C# gradually building up tension bit by bit.  There is a massive build up of tension to arrive at the D minor as if to say "I have something important I want you to hear".  Everything before was a set up.  This approach doesn't work in a miniature because the massive buildup surpasses the payoff.  To put it in terms you might understand, the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker wouldn't be a good fit for a short story.  Similarly the story of a romantic comedy wouldn't work well in an epic three story arch.  The themes, structure, inherent conflicts don't match the length or volume.  Ideally you use just as much words (or notes) to tell the story you want to tell and no more.  If you use too much you are verbose or inefficient.  If you use too little you are incoherent or nonsensical.

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Thank you all for your comments!

 

@karelm Yes...I know pacing is something I need to improve on. Once I get a musical idea, I find it quite hard to alter it meaningfully, without just placing it in a different key or extending it. So do you think that the buildup starting from 4:40, say, would be more effective if it were longer?

I am very flattered that you compared my piece to Myaskovsky's...his 6th Symphony (and 24th to some extent) is one of my favourite classical pieces!!!

 

@Fabulin I do have a score but it's not very clean...

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On 3/8/2020 at 5:29 PM, Loert said:

Here's my latest composition:

 

 

The first few seconds have been floating around inside my head for the best part of a year, so I finally decided to make something out of it!

 

Plenty of lovely ideas here Loert! I really like how you deconstruct and dissolve the central idea around the end. I guess I'd echo karelm's sentiment about fleshing out the dramatics of it before the climax. Great stuff.

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4 hours ago, Loert said:

Thank you all for your comments!

 

@karelm Yes...I know pacing is something I need to improve on. Once I get a musical idea, I find it quite hard to alter it meaningfully, without just placing it in a different key or extending it. So do you think that the buildup starting from 4:40, say, would be more effective if it were longer?

I am very flattered that you compared my piece to Myaskovsky's...his 6th Symphony (and 24th to some extent) is one of my favourite classical pieces!!!

 

@Fabulin I do have a score but it's not very clean...

 

I think you're very good so don't take my comments as critical but rather constructive. 

 

Myaskovsky had a range of quality with 6 and 24 (and 21) at the peak.  You are probably more like No. 3 for now.  Definitely pretty good but not at his peak.  :P:lick:  Check out more of Rachmaninoff especially his later works like Symphony No. 3, The Bells, and Symphonic Dances, those are so structurally great in how he transitions from idea to idea and also arrives at a climax.  He got DAMN good at this.  Wagner described his success as a composer as resulting from his mastery of transitions.  To me, this is another way of saying you don't arrive at a climax too quickly or don't take too long to transition emotions but these are well judged...you take just as long as needed and not a moment longer.  This is very, very difficult but something you should strive for in EVERY work, even if it's a film score. 

 

I will be honest with you, I struggle in this area too.  But I am much better now than I was 5 or 10 years ago and it helps my music be more effective and succinct.  This could also be called Dramaturgy.  That basically means the story structure, drama, conflict, climax, resolution, and transitions.  A great example is Barber's Adagio for Strings where the work is clearly a solemn build up of increasing pathos tension into a great climax that subsides to a gentle catharsis coda.  If it was half as many bars it would be a weaker piece.  If it was twice as many bars it would be a verbose and an overlong piece. 

 

Regarding specific timings, honestly there are multiple places where you had an opportunity to repeat a phrase or continue a musical sequence.  Remember, you have the right to subvert listeners expectations as part of your "story" so feel free to ignore what I am saying.  Masterpieces have been written by making a listener expect something and subverting that expectation so I am speaking purely about the music rather than the hidden story you might wish to tell in which case I would suggest better ways for you to achieve that intention more succinctly. 

 

 

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On 3/18/2020 at 4:35 PM, Muad'Dib said:

Another of my re-scores, taking the game that has gotten me addicted for months now xD

 

 

 

Nice! This is right up my alley! I love the opening and the choral bits!

 

I really need to keep proper track of this thread.

 

Guess I'll share somethings I've been working on as well. Just a fun, actiony, bombastic, RCP-ish kind of piece. 

 

 

Here's a more peaceful, ambient track great for studying or relaxing. This one was sort of an experiment. I just sat down at the keyboard, closed my eyes and played. After a bit of clean-up, this is what I ended up with:

 

 

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A few years ago, when I was still at high school, I shot a feature length horror film with a bunch of friends and naturally it had to get some kind of underscore. When we cut the movie, we used two Goldsmith scores as temp track which can still be traced in our own music I eventually came up with. It is a mixed bag of composition, improvisation, sound creation, sampling and modulation (and a computer going mad and composing by itself). The last piece is a piece by Bela Bartok that is considerably alienated and mixed with synthetic samples, so that it fits the rest of the underscore. Tell me what you think or if it scares you. ;)

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I posted the first half of this track a year or so ago, and decided to re-render a few of my older pieces I wrote several years ago using slightly updated instrument presets. 

 

Basically this is just 6 and a half minutes of nothing but random, theme-less, bombastic action music very much inspired by works such as Star Trek, SeaQuest, etc.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EL-K19XpHmKb7PMyrJsYzIpdr8Hmt4e2/view

 

And another one I tried to upload before but it kept failing for some reason. This was one of the first pieces of music I wrote locked to picture, for a project many years ago. It was originally done as just a basic MIDI cue, but about ~5 years ago I quickly reconstructed it with EWQL samples.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wSaUMPIbkOynJjFflXEVUqcL7A5QCo7s

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On 5/26/2020 at 5:45 PM, Drew said:

Google Drive says that you prevented playback and downloading of your music.

 

11 hours ago, TSMefford said:

Same here

 

Wtf that's weird. I noticed Drive also changed their "share link" menu as well, so that could possibly have something to do with it. I'll have to take a look...

 

EDIT: Fixed.

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5 hours ago, KK said:

Here's some of the score to a satirical film I was involved in recently. I got to write for the ondes martenot and managed to work with an ondist in Paris (since there aren't many active players in the world anymore). Was a lot of fun putting this together.

 

Would love to hear your thoughts! @karelm @Loert @SteveMc @Dixon Hill @Sharkissimo

 

 

Love it!  That's so awesome!  It has a bit of Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water) in it because it's a waltz,  I visited a buddy at Remote Control not too long ago and he showed me an ondes martenot in their studio which I thought was so fun.  Was it entirely ondes or mixed with synth ondes?  If you want any constructive criticism, there were some moments where you are literally doubling the melody on the ondes and I think it would have been more effective as a counterpoint.  Think something like piano has a separate melodic line during that sequence or the ondes depending on the dramatic need.  It was in the second movement but I don't have a good way to capture the time code I was referring to.  You basically don't want to have a unique instrument do what others are already doing.  You want them to do their thing and support it (get out of their way). Think of it like this.  You have Deniro in your movie and a secondary actor repeating "so he's saying this".  Not needed.  Ultimately, that's the point of orchestration...everyone does the thing they're best at doing musically.  To me musically, I hear a totally different ondes line there which is extremely hard to verbalize but I hope the point is clear.  You don't want bass trombone and tuba to double their lines.  You want them to do what they do best.  Sometimes that means they double and reinforce each other but sometimes they are in contrast.  That applies to every instrumental group even if it is just a duo.  Contrasting moments are very important.  Someone is the speaker and the other is accompanying.  If both are the speakers the message is confusing.  If it's a dialog, both are speaking at different times.  Yes, there are tutti moments but then you make it clear this is the big moment and not make it quiet for example.  All other voices reinforce the point.  That is a very big part of orchestration.  A great example of this, remember in the opening chord of Close Encounters, the tonality is very ambiguous.  As far as I know, there wasn't a benevolent alien movie (well, with the possible exception of Day the Earth Stood Still) and this film used that to subvert audience expectation.  Very bad things were going to happen because of an invasion.  But that very clear C major tonality was based only on one trumpet playing the E establishing clear c major tonality but loudly since it's a trumpet.  The tonality is heard very clearly and understood.  Instantly JW shows us confusion to clarity without a single word of dialog indicating this transition from dark to light.  Composers seek that same level of clarity in their work.

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Cheers Karelm! I really appreciate the thoughtful feedback. I think I've been preferring working with smaller ensembles (though not necessarily by choice) to better wrap my hands around precisely what you've spoken about voicing. 

 

2 hours ago, karelm said:

Was it entirely ondes or mixed with synth ondes? 

 

Entirely ondes! The whole thing is technically written for 2 ondists + piano. It's crazy how much sonic range the instrument has, with all the filters you could use to play with its timbre.

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21 hours ago, KK said:

Here's some of the score to a satirical film I was involved in recently. I got to write for the ondes martenot and managed to work with an ondist in Paris (since there aren't many active players in the world anymore). Was a lot of fun putting this together.

 

Would love to hear your thoughts! @karelm @Loert @SteveMc @Dixon Hill @Sharkissimo

 

 

Hard to add much to what @karelm has already posted.  Enjoyed this quite a bit.  Some lovely melodic ideas and intriguing soundscapes.  The score definitely has an engaging musical identity, which is something I feel to be of tantamount importance.     

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23 hours ago, KK said:

Would love to hear your thoughts!

 

I think it's lovely! The 4th track is my favourite. My one small piece of criticism: sometimes I felt you could've utilized the unique capabilities of the ondes martenot a little more. Yes, the "bending" sound is a bit cliche, but I would've loved to hear a bit more of it in the 1st and 2nd track (as in, maybe just one recurring phrase that has it). I think it would've given more character.

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6 hours ago, SteveMc said:

Hard to add much to what @karelm has already posted.  Enjoyed this quite a bit.  Some lovely melodic ideas and intriguing soundscapes.  The score definitely has an engaging musical identity, which is something I feel to be of tantamount importance.     

 

Thanks Steve :)

 

4 hours ago, Loert said:

 

I think it's lovely! The 4th track is my favourite. My one small piece of criticism: sometimes I felt you could've utilized the unique capabilities of the ondes martenot a little more. Yes, the "bending" sound is a bit cliche, but I would've loved to hear a bit more of it in the 1st and 2nd track (as in, maybe just one recurring phrase that has it). I think it would've given more character.

 

Cheers Loert! Yes, I definitely agree with you. I would have loved to have really dug into experimenting with the full scope of the instrument's range and colour, but it was difficult to work around the given time and the nature of remote recording. Hopefully I'll get to work with ondes again, but be in the room next time. There's plenty of other stuff I'd love to try.

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On 7/20/2020 at 11:46 AM, KK said:

Here's some of the score to a satirical film I was involved in recently. I got to write for the ondes martenot and managed to work with an ondist in Paris (since there aren't many active players in the world anymore). Was a lot of fun putting this together.

 

 

I won't add much to what everyone else has said (don't want to do any unnecessary doubling ;)), but do you like using those lower blockier voicings in the piano like in the third movement (latter half)? 

 

Overall, dig it, baby! Very fun and quaint tone.

 

 

As for myself, I just finished last week a track for an unannounced album coming out in October, I might post the unmastered version once it's announced.

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18 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

 

I won't add much to what everyone else has said (don't want to do any unnecessary doubling ;)), but do you like using those lower blockier voicings in the piano like in the third movement (latter half)? 

 

In this case, I think I probably made that decision to achieve a fuller sound and provide a sharper contrast to the flighty ondes staccati in the section before it. The trick was the make the whole thing sound as full-bodied and dynamic as I could with just the piano and the ondes.

 

20 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

As for myself, I just finished last week a track for an unannounced album coming out in October, I might post the unmastered version once it's announced.

 

Very cool! Looking forward to hearing it :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Anybody know of a better way to achieve a glissando/portamento effect with virtual instruments? I know some sounds are difficult if not impossible to replicate, but I just wonder if there is a wonderful VST instrument I'm missing out on that could solve this problem.

 

Also looking for a good straight mute trumpet to put towards some playful melodies in an orchestral setting.

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On 7/20/2020 at 7:55 PM, KK said:

Cheers Karelm! I really appreciate the thoughtful feedback. I think I've been preferring working with smaller ensembles (though not necessarily by choice) to better wrap my hands around precisely what you've spoken about voicing. 

 

 

Entirely ondes! The whole thing is technically written for 2 ondists + piano. It's crazy how much sonic range the instrument has, with all the filters you could use to play with its timbre.

One of the signature techniques of the late Billy Goldenberg was doubling the melody- In a higher register- on synth!

It created that spacious , mysterious sound that was uniquely his!

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On 8/14/2020 at 9:24 PM, TheAvengerButton said:

Anybody know of a better way to achieve a glissando/portamento effect with virtual instruments? I know some sounds are difficult if not impossible to replicate, but I just wonder if there is a wonderful VST instrument I'm missing out on that could solve this problem.

 

Also looking for a good straight mute trumpet to put towards some playful melodies in an orchestral setting.

 

I'd like to know this as well. Right now I either write them out with varied success or I use some specific glissando patches if the instruments I'm using happen to have some, but even those seem limited on speed and adjustment. I make do. Lol.

 

I have used a Muted Trumpet as sort of support, but never out front I don't think. This is the best result I've gotten keeping it in a supporting role (around 18 or so) but even this I think I may have it mixed too loud:

 

 

I can go through my Muted Trumpets and see if there's anything good I can recommend.

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On 8/15/2020 at 4:24 AM, TheAvengerButton said:

Anybody know of a better way to achieve a glissando/portamento effect with virtual instruments? I know some sounds are difficult if not impossible to replicate, but I just wonder if there is a wonderful VST instrument I'm missing out on that could solve this problem.

 

Also looking for a good straight mute trumpet to put towards some playful melodies in an orchestral setting.

 

There are playable glissandi in Berlin Strings, no? 

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