antler

Thanks @David Sprouse, @amiller, @congalocke, @Douglas Kirby for both listening and the kind words. I was going for something positive, hopeful, and epic: in the way that in some movies, something as 'small' as a wish in someone's mind might lead to something powerfully positive in some way.

Thanks Bjorn. Glad you liked it.

On 12/14/2019 at 4:56 AM, bjornpdx said:

It needs a unifying theme that stands out more, something that the song always returns to after a few verses

There is a theme that I ended up using four times (i.e. how the song starts), and I was a little worried that it might stick out as a little bit too repetitive; seems like I was maybe a little over-cautious though as it hasn't been mentioned. But now that you mention a recurring theme, I have heard examples before of a theme that gets reused, but not repeated per se. Can't think of one off the top of my head though.

On 12/14/2019 at 4:56 AM, bjornpdx said:

Unless that brownie I had a while ago had something to do with that

'Magic' brownies? 😜

15 hours ago, TheSteven said:

not a password encrypted word or excel file as they can be easily cracked

I once read that this was true of older formats of Word/Excel, but the newer ones (with Office 365) are much more secure (assuming you have a strong password).

KeePass (with DB on a USB stick) for accounts, and I just keep the emails for serial numbers; Outlook does an ok job for searching (account protected using 2FA).

For a time, they also offered MegaBrass as a free library with purchases over a certain amount (can't remember how much); don't know if that offer is still applicable though.

Edit: looks like they do, with purchases >= $149

https://impactsoundworks.com/product/megabrass/

11 hours ago, ZincT said:

includes free gift of 66 Trombones

on a spend of >= $198, so I don't think Majestica ($148) will qualify

A while back, I was interested in getting more into 3D graphics design and gave Blender a try. It's a very powerful program, but I found the learning curve to be really steep. It also didn't help that most of the documentation was for a previous version where menu items, etc. were in a slightly different place. All in all, it seems like a fantastic program if you know what you're doing; if you're learning, you might find the UI a little user-hostile.

5 hours ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

Every time I load Lacrimosa up I think to myself, there is a bigger more pro package of this (Emperium in the V8P program) that I didn't want to spend the money on and I see it like I'm driving the lite version.

I could be misunderstanding, but I think Emperium is a bundle of two choirs: the Emperium Titan Choir (what you get in Lacrimosa), and a smaller Destiny Chamber Choir. From the Emperium description:

Quote

The Titan Choir consists of 70 Basses, 60 Tenors, 40 Altos and 30 Sopranos

and from Lacrimoso:

Quote

The Lacrimosa Choir consists of 70 Basses, 60 Tenors, 40 Altos and 30 Sopranos

7 hours ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

I don't have Insolidus, but to be honest I've found Lacrimosa pretty disappointing

I've got Insolidus and quite like it. It takes a while to load and it's a little CPU intensive, so I had to write-and-bounce. As far as I can tell, the syllable timings are fixed, but you can do multipart legato with it. Also it sounds best when washed with reverb, but it can sound really good IMO; I used it on my latest tune Wishing on a Falling Star. YMMV

3 hours ago, ZincT said:

I'm also looking at Insolidus vs Lacrimosa

Cost/disk space aside, the deciding factor is probably what sound you're after: Insolidus is a smaller choir with a softer emotional sound; Lacrimosa is a larger choir, probably more suited to massively epic dramatic scores.

Which actually reminds me of the disclaimer on xkcd.com

Quote

xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 3±1 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS
at a screen resolution of 1024x1. Please enable your ad blockers, disable high-heat drying, and remove your device
from Airplane Mode and set it to Boat Mode. For security reasons, please leave caps lock on while browsing.

1 hour ago, simon said:

Does newtechreview require the full version of Kontakt ?

I can't be bothered to visit the site to find out 

No, but you need a full version of any of the following (listed in alphabetical order): Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Internet Explorer.

Other clients may run the site in demo mode, or not at all

3 hours ago, ZincT said:

Yes you have to do a levels adjustment in Photoshop on the banner. 

I used a slightly less technical method: I looked at my monitor from the side (my monitor's viewing angle is 'optimum' when looking head on; the darks become lighter when viewed from the side).

Spoke too soon: it looks like they mixed things up. It could change again, but it looks like tomorrows item is Century Ostinato Strings

8 hours ago, ZincT said:

Insolidus does look very nice.

It can sounds gorgeous IMO; I used it on my latest piece:

Quote

I really don't need 78Gb of Vintage Keys

They might change the freebie to be Hybrid Tools Neo tomorrow.

4 hours ago, Zo said:

the most innacuarte VU on earth ....and i tried tweaking lol

Do you mean the meter ballistics are off, or that the readouts are just wrong? Are there any good (preferably free) ones that you would recommend?

Up until now, I'd been using Shotcut to do my (albeit simplistic) YouTube videos. This bundle will do very nicely 🙂

6 hours ago, DeeringAmps said:

Nicely done. Not sure if you are using the ambiance included with the samples, or something on the mix overall?

Thanks for listening Tom; glad you liked it.

A little bit of both for ambience: for most of the instruments, I turned off the library reverb; some I left on because they sounded quite nice, some I had no option. For the tracks where I turned off the reverb, I used a send to a reverb bus with ReMatrix on it. I did end up bussing/gently compressing some groups of instruments, e.g. lead strings, but the reverb sends were from the unbussed tracks. I don't know: maybe I need a more gluey reverb; maybe my mixing skills need more work for larger projects like this; maybe a little of both 🙂

I did use a compressor (Overloud's Comp G) on the master bus for a little more glue, but no reverb.

13 hours ago, garybrun said:

I liked this a lot.
Beautiful and well arranged.

If you have any lyrics I would love to have ago singing on this one.

Well done... you should be proud of this one.

Thanks for the kind words Gary, and also for the offer of borrowing your voice. This one was originally intended purely as an instrumental, partly to justify me snapping up some of the libraries that I did, partly because I wanted to attempt an epic and emotional score worthy of a matching hypothetical movie scene (I had none in mind, and I don't actually know what exactly I mean by that).

The words were something I felt I needed to write for my own release at some point towards the end of the project, and I felt they were somewhat complementary.

Glad you enjoyed listening.

Why do bagpipe players walk while playing?

They're trying to get away from the noise.

Hi everyone

Update: I've tweaked the mix, being a little more generous with a different reverb. Hopefully the instruments sound more to be in the same space

For ages I've been wanting to get better at writing for orchestra. I've been working on this one for a while now (around 2.5 months on and off), using some of the various libraries I've snapped up in this year's various sales. I actually tried quite hard with this one: hope you enjoy, and I would love to hear your feedback and thoughts. (and if you enjoyed it, please like/subscribe)

… or if you prefer, SoundCloud:

ok... guess I missed that bit of news...

31 minutes ago, Sergio said:

they announced an option for a subscription plan

not explicitly... but it sure did sound like it (or at least like how others describe subscriptions)

8Dio do make some really good libraries! I might give the guitar a miss though, as I already have some acoustics from Ample Sound.

Does anyone have any opinions on the All Claire bundle, Hybrid Tools Neo, or Legion Series: 66 Trombone Ensemble? I've read some reviews that say the trombone ensemble is huge sounding, but maybe a little loose because of the ensemble size; great for layering for an epic sound though.

Requires Studio One 4 😜