markno999

John,

Good track, you did a fantastic job on the backing track too.   Like the transitions from blues to a jazzy swing style.  Horns are convincing too which is no easy task.    Well done.

Regards

On 7/29/2022 at 8:41 AM, Wookiee said:

Impressive, sounds quite real, nice job @markno999

Thanks Wookiee,  much appreciated.

On 7/29/2022 at 11:47 AM, PhonoBrainer said:

Loved it. Morricone is in good hands here. The Gypsy holds up well in this spotlight! If you are using Spaces II, sounds like a perfect soundstage. Well done!

cheers,

-Tom

Tom,  thanks for the comment.   Without Gypsy the song wouldn't have quite hit the mark, really needed that emotive soloist to bring it home.    Yes, all EW  Spaces II, each group is sent to it's own reverb bus, Woodwinds, Strings, and then a bit from each to Abandoned Abbey and to a Soundstage Reverb.   The EW samples are great as they are recorded but the EW Spaces really makes it sound more like a real performance and glues it all together.  

Regards

On 7/27/2022 at 8:53 AM, Hidden Symmetry said:

Great job on this, nice dynamics & expression..listening on cans but the mix was very nice on the ears.

Thanks very much for the listen and comment.    Dynamics and Expression are about the only mixing I had to do with the aforementioned template from EW, very refreshing experience to not have to worry too much about mixing in the process of recording parts.     Thx.

On 7/27/2022 at 9:42 AM, daryl1968 said:

Pretty convincing strings Mark. Love the glissando. EM - such a genius. 

Daryl,

Thanks for the listen.   Yes, EM was quite a prolific composer, orchestrator, conductor, etc....   Have been listening to a lot of his stuff along with John Barry in my recent orchestral experimentation.   Good to see you back posting on the forum, quite enjoyed your recent song.

Regards

On 7/24/2022 at 1:05 PM, DeeringAmps said:

Add me to the “list”, much impressed!

thanks for sharing the links, must check it out. Pretty sure @Jerry Gerber would award high marks!

t

Thanks Tom, appreciate the listen.    Yes, I would be interested to hear what Jerry thinks about the mix, his compositions are really good and he is most generous releasing his score's as PDFs.

On 7/24/2022 at 6:53 PM, David Sprouse said:

Nicely Done!

Thanks David, appreciate it.  

Mark,

Good song and performance.   Definitely push that classical guitar forward in the mix as others have mentioned.    Seems like you have pushed it up somewhat from a mix I heard the other day but could come up a bit more.   Some subtle ping pong delay may help it stand out a bit more in the mix.

Regards

It would be my dream to have old hard drives laying around with this quality level of original music on them:)    Stellar production.

Regards

Daryl,

Good track and great to hear your music again, you have a very unique sound that is instantly recognizable.   Your lyrics are always clever but  I particularly like the lyrics on this song, I think many can identify with the message:)   Super enjoyable listen.

Regards

On 7/23/2022 at 10:47 AM, Bajan Blue said:

As others have said, very impressive - great stuff

Nigel

 

Nigel,

Thanks for the listen, much appreciated.

Regards

David,

Really vibey and interesting song.   The ringtone at the intro is pretty cool.    I might sprinkle a few random percussion elements throughout but certainly sounds finished as is.    Good work.

Regards    

Wookiee,

Very cool song, have always been a fan of vocoder since first hearing it in Mr. Blue Sky back in the 70's.    I like how you have given it a modern twist.   Great listen.

Regards

On 7/21/2022 at 1:06 AM, bjornpdx said:

Very impressive work on this! I think this is probably the closest I've heard to an actual symphony recording.
-Bjorn

Bjorn,

Thanks for the listen, appreciate it.   The template mentioned in previous post helped immensely in that realism, the samples in EW are terrific and the Spaces II reverb setup in the template really create a sense of natural space.   Makes the process much easier as you can focus more on the music aspect and less on mixing and balance.    Thx.

Regards

Jerry,

Top notch work and stunning details.    Has a real fantasy/adventure feel that takes the listener on a fantastic journey.      Really enjoyable listen throughout.     I hear some Jerry Goldsmith style in a few places and am a huge fan of his work.

Regards

On 7/16/2022 at 5:33 PM, jwnicholson78 said:

Thanks for the heads up about SYnthestration and their templates.  I am going to have to check them out.  I've got Spitfire BBC and I'd love to see what the templates can do with that.  Do they have templates for Cakewalk?

Jeff

Jeff,

The Synthestration site does not have any templates for Spitfire BBC or Cakewalk.  They do have some scores available with MIDI plus the score but that wouldn't really help with a template.  

Try these guys.    They have more DAWS listed than Synthestration and are specific to Spitfire BBC.     https://www.spitfireaudiothepage.com/templates

Regards

Thanks for the listen Wookie and Larry T.  Appreciate it.

Regards

On 7/15/2022 at 5:16 PM, musekamp said:

Very nice! Your dynamics combined with the sound of the strings and reverb add up to quite a gorgeous sound!

Did you work from a full score, or was it a piano reduction?

Walt

Walt,

This project I would call a hybrid piano reduction.    I specifically chose this song because it is fairly blocked out chordally so I could play it on the piano even with my limited skills as a piano player.   1st thing I did was import the original song and Tempo Map it.     Rather than piano I used an Chamber Orchestral Template in Opus which was laid out with 1st violin playing top note of the chord, 2nd violin playing next note down, Viola playing the bottom note and the Cello and Bass playing a C drone in octaves throughout much of the piece.      This original bit playing chords with the orchestral template is still in the piece but pulled way back in the mix just to give some depth.    

Then I split out individual parts from Opus via MIDI export.    Once I  had those parts split out I just replayed them one-by-one while adding in Expression and Modulation for dynamics.    Flute and Oboe are just playing the violin parts in places so easy to re-create them as well.   Lastly added the Gypsy Violin for more color in the mix which I think brought a lot of realism to the track.

I did buy Ennio Morricone's Anthology off Amazon and Malena is in the book as a piano solo.    So I did use that for reference.  While it has some details it is definitely not a score.   For me it is easier to do this stuff by ear as I am not a real strong reader but any stretch of the imagination:)

Regards

Jeff,

Appreciate the listen.  That means a lot as I am a great admirer of your work.  

For those interested in checking out Orchestral music templates, part of the realism in this track, and the others I have done, comes from a template which I purchased from Synthestration.  https://synthestration.com/store/

Ryan Thomas, who works with East West, provides a demo song in this orchestral template so you get a look at his programming along with getting the template.   This particular template is for Logic Pro which is what I used for this piece but Synthestration has templates for other libraries such as ProjectSAM, Spitfire, etc..and other DAWS.   Most of the templates for this style of music will be found on Logic, Studio One or Cubase.     

This particular EW template includes sends to EW Spaces II broken out for the different sections and this really creates much of the realism.    The instruments are very well recorded and balanced in the library as well so there is very little mixing going on.   I really only play the parts and add Expression and Modulation Wheel for dynamics.    The lead Gyspy Violin in this piece has a lot of the expression you hear already baked into the sound.  

Opus also includes the Orchestrator which offers a number of instrumentation breakouts so you can quickly hear how different parts works together, and includes common Ostinatos and other tools for building a realistic sounding piece.    While I have studied music and harmony for many years, this is really new to me so it is great that many of these new products like Opus offer some short-cuts for beginners in this area of music.

Regards

Still experimenting with East West Opus picking some songs that aren't overly difficult to work out musically or rhythmically so I can focus on how to do orchestration and programming articulations, dynamics, space/dimension,  etc.. to create realism.    This track is all EW Hollywood Strings,  Symphonic Strings and the lead violin is EW Gypsy Violin.   Pretty straight-forward arrangement with Gypsy Violin as the soloist, 1st and second Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, Flute and Oboe.    This is from the movie Malena from year 2000, I have not seen the movie but a fan of Morricone for many years and this was one of the songs in his Anthology Book that I thought looked doable.     Comments Welcome.  

https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14460758

Regards

Much better with the sound effects pulled back.   Really well done.

Regards

Great track, really like the musical content and overall sound design.   You have a very recognizable style musically.   

The only thing I heard that I would change is maybe change some of the intro sonar pings to another sound or change some of the tonality to mix it up in the intro?  I would maybe use a Hang Drum on a few of the hits.     I know you are going for a spacey type intro but the sonar pings to my ears are a bit on the annoying side and maybe distract from the music.    Obviously it is a personal taste thing and other people may like that sound so take it with a grain of salt as intended.

That said, a minor thing on an otherwise flawless track.    On my 3rd listen and digging it a lot.

Regards

Bat - Was listening on my Klipsch computer speakers.   Level sounds OK on headphones.

Nice one Bat.   I would bring up the LV on the verses a little bit.    

Really like the funky groove, not easy to get multi parts working together like that.

Regards

Mr. T.,

If you want to breathe new life into an older computer your best investment is an SSD drive.   Samsung EVO 870 is a good choice and they are not super expensive (about $100)    Makes a huge difference, more so than RAM or other upgrades.   This is assuming everything else is working properly and you don't have any problems lingering from your Windows 10 upgrade.

Regards

Steve,

Nice work, solid performance.     You did a good job channeling Donald Fagan's vocal style as well.  

Regards

4 hours ago, DeeringAmps said:

Don't know if this was a purchase based on a reference from the Deals Forum, but I do love when members "showcase" specific software; so thanks for that!

👍's

t

Tom,

Yes, definitely was from a reference on the Deals Forum.   Watch it religiously.      Most of my purchases and product awareness come from that forum.   Larry should get  a knighthood for his efforts:)    Someone had posted about a deal EW had going for updates from previous versions of Hollywood Gold family.   I had HW Strings, Woodwinds and Brass from a deal many years ago.   Never did too much with it but could be because Play was a pain to work with.  Really liking Opus and thus, have been doing some short cues to check it out.   Appreciate the listen and shout out to the Deals Forum.

Regards

On 3/27/2022 at 2:20 PM, steve@baselines.com said:

Cello and bass are ALWAYS difficult to get right together.  I try to keep my cello as treble as possible but retain some of the 100-200 range.  I use something called Renaissance Bass which adds a tough of very low level distortion.  Sometimes that helps fill out the very bottom without interfering with other instruments.  It's tough to get right though - I think I always use too much still. 

This went right into Bridge From Somewhere while I was listening, and the piano is really really good on that.

Steve

 

Steve,

Thanks for the listen.    Yes, that is a good idea to add some distortion to help the Cello pop through, I've seen it used on Timpani too to help them pop out in busy mixes.   

Tried to keep the bass short so as not to conflict with the Cello lines but wasn't sure from an arrangement perspective if the bass was helping or hindering.  Since it is low in the mix it probably doesn't make too much difference?    Anyway, will give RBass a try.   Thx.

Regarding Bridge, may post an update to that soon, I replaced that piano sample with the East West Steinway D and think it sounds a little better than the original mix sample.

Regards