Fred's Gratis Scores

Nice high energy tune. The mix sounds like a live recording.

Listening on Sony MDX-1000 headphones. I can make out the lyrics. The only comment I would have would be just a little less delay on the acoustic guitar doubler. 

Loved the funky keyboard. The chorus vocals/delays felt just a bit chaotic (minor point), but overall I liked it.

Very relaxing. The picture you choose to go with it is perfect!

4 hours ago, jack c. said:

simple beautiful.sounds like the real thing.jack c.

Thanks Jack!

Wow, it feels like forever since I was last on this board. Been busy with work, short courses, and revamping my template. Looks like things are settling down and I'll have more time to spend here. This one was inspired by a Harry-Potter-esque book (pictured) that a co-worker made and the first since taking a Orchestral Mixing short course. All feedback welcome. Enjoy!

Book of Magic by Fred's Gratis Scores

Travel to a magical place and practice your spells from the Book of Magic in this fantasy piece.

CC-BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
This piece is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution (CC-BY). You can download, use in your playlists or in your videos, and create directive works both commercially and non-commercially. Have fun!

*Book art by and courtesy of Kayla Gould.

Download available.
Stems available at: www.bandlab.com/freds_gratis_scores/book-of-magic

Instruments used in this piece:
- Cinesamples CineWoods CORE
- Cinesamples CineBrass CORE
- Spitfire BBC Orchestra Discover (Strings, Percussion)
- Native Instruments Noire
- SoundIron Requiem Lite
- Spitfire Albion ONE (Strings)
- Cinesamples CineStrings CORE

#Orchestral
#Soundtrack
#Fantasy
#FredsGratisScores
#Cinesamples
#CineWoodsCore
#CineBrassCore
#Spitfire
#AlbionONE
#BBCSODiscover
#NativeInstrumentsNoire
#SoundIronRequiemLite
#CineStringsCore
#CakewalkByBandLab

This one came together fairly quickly, and was submitted to the BandLab contests going on right now (mainly the shanty contest but since I usually do stems and make available for forking I put it against that contest as well).

Pirate's Life For Me by Fred's Gratis Scores

Ahoy mateys! Grab yer sword and come aboard the Cap'n Fred's Revenge. The treasure's big so take a swig of good rum you can binge!

CC-BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
This piece is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution (CC-BY). You can download, use in your playlists or in videos, and create directive works both commercially and non-commercially. Have fun!

Download available.
Stems available on BandLab: https://www.bandlab.com/freds_gratis_scores/pirates-life-for-me

Instruments used in this piece:
- Cinesamples CineWoods CORE
- Cinesamples CineBrass CORE
- Spitfire Originals Cinematic Percussion
- Spitfire Albion ONE (Percussion)
- Spitfire BBC Orchestra Discover (Percussion)
- SoundIron Requiem Lite
- Cinesamples CineStrings CORE

* Pirate Flag Image by meineresterampe from Pixabay

Love this track (pun intended as always) and I love that this was a collaboration project - people working together. Excellent work to everyone involved!

I would have loved to heard this played at the inauguration.

Unfortunately @Wookiee, I had to switch to Reaper for my orchestration template (CbB got very laggy with ~200+ instrument tracks + ~150 audio tracks + ~30 busses). I tried to load REMatrix in Reaper, but it knows who it's host is and will only run in CbB. I still use CbB for sketching and uploads to BandLab.

Thanks for the extra listen @kurt soderquist, and thanks again to all who had great feedback.

Here's the final master:

Here's the latest revision, sounds better on my phone and Bose SoundLink but hoping I didn't reduce the snare too much.

Mono-fied kit, panned entire kit slightly left and raised Room reverb by +3.5db to place in orchestra, lowered kit volume by -3db, thickened kick drum (based on Two Steps From Hell reference track), lowered snare by -1db.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Thanks for the listen and comments! I've got some good actionable feedback so far.

@kurt soderquist @Bajan Blue - I was concerned they were a little to hot. Good test on the mobile device Kurt. I can hear it too from the BandLab app. Even though I'm not making money on this, I still want it to sound good on different media - including mobiles and tablets. I've since figured out a way to get it on my phone using Google Drive so I don't have to post it somewhere.

@garybrun - I'd seen that tip when I first (re)started this musical journey last year but had forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder!

@Wookiee - Yes, actually I use 2 levels of reverb (based on what I was taught in the orchestral template course I took last year). First, each instrument is fed to a Room Reverb that is supposed to place all the instruments in the same space and generally doesn't vary from song to song. It's output goes to the instrument section (woodwinds, brass, strings, etc.) buss. It's supposed to be a convolution reverb, but I can't afford a good one yet and haven't found an IR for Reaper's convolution reverb I like, so I'm using Valhalla Room (algorithmic) for now. Sounds like I need to adjust this (or have a separate one) for the drum kit on the Percussion section buss (choir already gets it's own reverb buss). Someone on BandLab also pointed out that the kit sounded like it was overdubbed in a studio rather than playing with the orchestra, and suggested I remove the panning. The second level of reverb is fed from each of the section busses into a main Finish Reverb that does the "glue" output to the master buss. This one is supposed to be algorithmic reverb, which I have covered again with Valhalla Room. This one varies from song to song depending on the sound I'm looking for.

@jack c. - Actually, this one isn't officially mastered yet, but I do have Ozone Elements on the master buss for this export using it's "Mastering Assistant" for volume maximizing and a general master EQ so I can evaluate roughly how it will sound in the final master. I think I picked up Ozone Elements last "Black Friday" for about $25 USD or so.

Hey guys! I'm in the final mix of my next piece that uses a drum kit as the main percussive element. Would you be so kind as give me some feedback on the sound and mix of the kit? I'm looking for a balanced as-realistic-as-possible mix that doesn't overpower the orchestra. Thanks!

Sounds great on my MDX-1000. I enjoyed the tune.

I got a kick out of this song.  Nice mix!

I like the backing vocals. The synth fit very well.

Thank you everyone for listening and your comments.

On 1/1/2021 at 1:38 AM, kennywtelejazz said:

Your composition seems celebratory in nature (considering 2020 was such a  a dirge and let down on so many levels  )I found the last 3 rd of your song to exhibit a joyous noise that hinted at finding a much happier place  . Your song seems to be in movement towards what one want's  as opposed to away from a place in time and circumstances where one wants to get away from .

Thanks Kenny, I enjoy hearing others' interpretations. In fact, this piece didn't have a name until in the final mixing stage. I was thinking something about accomplishment and had my fiancée listen and she thought of reflection on past events. The more I thought about it I thought of my kids from the time they were little to now grown, out of college and living on their own and how proud I am of them.
[Paul Harvey voice] "And now you know... the rest of the story."

On 1/1/2021 at 7:51 AM, jack c. said:

i hear as if i'm listening to a real giant orchestra.

Thanks Jack, it means allot to hear that. Working with sampled orchestration can get quite "fiddley" working with articulations, MIDI CCs, and velocities. Glad to hear the courses I took are paying off!

On 1/1/2021 at 9:02 AM, Kevin Walsh said:

Thanks for your feedback! Are you talking about the short little instrumental bit at the very beginning? 

Yes, that's the part, but now listening to it again I'm not hearing it and the intro sounds fine to me. I'm not sure what was going on, maybe I was just having an off day? Sorry 'bout that.

Excellent! I just saw Christian's video a couple of days ago and was hoping to hear something made with this amazing collaboration. 

I like the smooth sound to this, very nice! The only feedback I have is that the very first part felt a little "jumbled" and my brain had a hard time grabbing on to something to find the beat. It's a great song and very much enjoyed it. Mix sounds good on my Sony MDX-1000.

After 3 rewrites and a busy year end, I was able to pull off one more for 2020. Thank you so much to everyone that has listened, liked, commented and given me great feedback this year as I got back into producing music. Have a great New Year!

Memories by Fred's Gratis Scores

Dulcimer, Mandolin, vocals and synths reflect in this hybrid orchestral piece as the orchestra builds to climatic moving memories.

CC-BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
This piece is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution (CC-BY). You can download, use in your playlists or videos, and create directive works both commercially and non-commercially. Have fun!

Download available from SoundCloud.
Stems available on BandLab: www.bandlab.com/freds_gratis_scores/memories

Instruments used in this piece:
- Cinesamples CineWoods CORE
- Cinesamples CineBrass CORE
- Spitfire Originals Cinematic Percussion
- Spitfire Albion ONE (Strings, Percussion)
- Spitfire BBC Orchestra Discover (Percussion)
- Spitfire Labs Hand Bells
- Spitfire Labs Mandolin
- Spitfire Labs Dulcimer
- Native Instruments Noire
- SoundIron Requiem Lite
- Realitone Realivox Blue
- AudioImeria Nucleus Lite
- Cinesamples CineStrings CORE

Wow, has it really been a whole month since I was on this site? Lots of end of year stuff going on at work and at home including trying to get one more composition done before the year end. Anyway, I digress....

Thank you all for your kind comments and feedback. 

@emeraldsoul Ah yes, I hear that Cimbassa/Bass Trombone that's got a little pokey (a bit too much velocity on the shorts), which uses a more "nasty brassy" sample layer.  I'll keep an eye out for that.

@Paul Bush Yeah, the goal of the guitar was to be used as a layer for texture and I didn't want it to overpower the orchestra. I've heard some Two Steps From Hell tunes where the guitar was too prominent for my taste and I was trying to avoid that. If you could let me know what wasn't working for you, that would be good feedback for me for the next time I use an electric guitar with the orchestra. Thanks!

@David Sprouse I think my drum sound is still evolving. This is the first piece I figured out I had too much room mic and not enough close mic to get it to start sounding punchy. I'll try some EQ on the next one. With so many instruments it's hard not to invade another instrument's sonic space.

Love the beat and the harmony vocals (especially the offset harmonies at the start of the chorus)!

Wow, I had no idea a voice could be converted to MIDI. Modern marvels.

Cool track!

Finally got to incorporate an electric guitar with the orchestra. I've wanted to use it for months, but it just never fit the music until now...

Escape by Fred's Gratis Scores

Basses, Tubas, Violins synth, low toms, and electric guitar drive the 125bpm underlying beat with slow melodic lines at the top filled with woodwinds, horns, strings, vocals, and choir. 

CC-BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
This piece is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution (CC-BY). You can download, use in your playlists or in your videos, and create directive works both commercially and non-commercially. Have fun!

Download available at: https://soundcloud.com/fred-evad/escape
Stems available at: https://www.bandlab.com/freds_gratis_scores/escape

Instruments used in this piece:
- Cinesamples CineWoods CORE
- Cinesamples CineBrass CORE
- Spitfire Originals Cinematic Percussion
- Spitfire Albion ONE (Woodwinds, Percussion)
- MT Power Drum Kit 2
- Amplesound Guitar LP
- Native Instruments Noire
- SoundIron Requiem Lite
- Realitone Realivox Blue
- AudioImperia Nucleus Lite
- Cinesamples CineStrings CORE
- Surge Synth

#Soundtrack
#FredsGratisScores
#Cinesamples
#CineWoodsCore
#CineBrassCore
#Spitfire
#OriginalsCinematicPercussion
#AlbionONE
#MTPowerDrumKit2
#AmplesoundGuitarLP
#NativeInstrumentsNoire
#SoundIronRequiemLite
#RalitoneRealivoxBlue
#CineStringsCore
#SurgeSynth
 

I loved the sound and mix - it has the sound of a favorite record.