markno999

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

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

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

Nice work, sounds really good as a cue or as a start to a full song. Mix is really good as is the playing. Regards

Good production, definitely has a TV Theme feel to it. Nice job with the arrangement, horn articulations are well done. Regards

Nice one Bat, great driving rhythm and catchy melody,. Definitely takes you on a journey. Regards

Mark, Missed this one, cool song and super funky. Guitars are really well done. Might be interesting with some latin horn parts here and there. Certainly stands on it's own as is but if you are looking for ideas..... Have to bookmark this one for when I am running out of steam at work:) Very energetic performance. Regards

Yes, figured that. Barry has such a broad spectrum of work it is hard to not find something to like about it, i.e. Out of Africa, Somewhere in Time, Dances with Wolves. etc.. Thx. Regards

Nigel, Really nice work, superb production. Had a couple listens through, nice. Regards

Wookiee, Appreciate the listen, glad to hear the sample libraries are not obvious. Been listening to John Barry and some of the other film composers to study their arrangements and style to figure out how to best use East West Opus and other sample libraries. Fun stuff, kind of like building ships in bottles:) Regards

Thank you Nigel, appreciate the listen.

Wookie, Super relaxing track, I feel like I just took a vacation listening to this. The way you keep the theme going at the end while still picking up the pace with the drums is really well executed. Your palette of sounds is well chosen. Regards

Jack, Thanks for the listen. All the parts are played one instrument at a time with a rough outline of MIDI expression and modulation, then I go back and fine-tune the MIDI Expression and Modulation on the individual tracks once all the parts are done. Since the Cello's outlined the chords and harmony very clearly I didn't need to do a piano scratch track to layout the parts. Fairly simple melody and there are only a few instruments in the track, Violins, Violas, Cello, Bass, Flute, Harp and some horns come in at the very end. Regards

Mockup of Miss Goodhead Meets Bond cue by John Barry in the Bond movie Moonraker. Done with new purchase of East West Opus and Symphonic Orchestra. This was a similar set-up to the Venini Glass Works cue I recently did from the same movie so wanted to check out the software using another short and fairly simple cue and see if I could come close. The main area of focus was space/reverb, articulations, fades, etc.. to try to create realism that has been lacking in some of my orchestral parts. This like Venini Glass is also tempo mapped fairly closely to the original recording. One thing I am not sure about it the Bass hits on the first beat, not sure if it is complimenting or distracting from the Cello parts. Comments welcome. Thx. https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14409930 Regards

I have a 2021 Macbook Pro and use a OWC Thunderbolt Hub. Have a couple USB 2.0 devices plugged, Samsung Memory Stick/Waves License, iLok, Nektar 88+ Keyboard Controller, and in the Thunderbolt ports have 2, 2TB SSD External Storage devices for all my orchestral samples and Time Machine Backups. The hub charges the laptop and provides all connectivity except Video, but my Macbook has an HDMI port so it doesn't matter. I use this one from OWC, they aren’t cheap but add much convenience and zero issues. https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB4DOCK/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuZ-Qwqmo9gIVBylMCh2wwwF_EAAYASAAEgIbXfD_BwE

David, Nice arrangement, sounds good. It takes a lot of work getting these parts together. Regards

Makke, Nice one, always look forward to your posts. Regards

Kevin, Solid track and well executed. Had a few listens through, very enjoyable listen. Regards

That is a great track, really enjoyed it. The harmony and rhythmic changes, instrument focus, etc.., are so very well executed, definitely not your cookie cutter smooth jazz tune. Huge thumbs up. Regards

I need to keep up with current events and name changes on the Forum:) I don't get here as much as I would like to these days. Over the weekend replaced the piano samples on Bridge with the East West Steinway D and the strings as well with the Opus Hollywood Strings. Will send you an update for review later when I get home. Regards

Thanks everyone for the listen and comments. Will definitely be experimenting more with the library so appreciate the encouragement. @markskinner- The Bridge to Somewhere song is an EmeraldSoul song. He had posted a piano only version and I asked him if I could do a backing track for it. Started with just a string arrangement but ended up adding drums, bass and some horn parts as well. I really liked the song and he was kind enough to let me dabble with some additional parts for it. Regards

David, Thanks for the listen. The high strings are a patch called 18V Sus LITE in Hollywood Strings Opus Edition, the default setting is a Legato but there are numerous articulations available in the patch. Also using a Bass and Bass Pizz patch, Harp and Alto Flute from East West. Some patches from Project Sam Symphobia, Strings with Low Brass and Horns with Trombone. Organ is just the stock NI Kontakt patch. All going through various EW Spaces Verbs. That's it, nothing too elaborate. All parts were playing live using a Nektar 88 Keyboard MIDI Controller. In the past I have either played in parts or entered them in the piano roll by mouse and later added in the Expression, Modulation, etc.. That doesn't really work for me as I need to hear what the Expression and Mod are doing in real-time as the parts are going in. This is the part I was missing in the past. In this project the notes and Expression/Modulation were recorded together in realtime. I later went back and tweaked some of the automation but it was pretty close the first time through. Have been watching some Ryan Thomas Tutorials on the East West YouTube channel that are very informative. Regards

Mockup of Venini Glass Works cue by John Barry in the Bond movie Moonraker. Done with new purchase of East West Opus and Symphonic Orchestra. Wanted to check out the software using a short and fairly simple cue and see if I could come close. The main area of focus was space/reverb, articulations, fades, etc.. to try to create realism that has been lacking in some of my orchestral parts. It is also tempo mapped fairly closely to the original recording. https://www.soundclick.com/music/songInfo.cfm?songID=14392976 Regards

Mark, Great cover, everything is spot on. Very good listen. BGV must have been a task. Will have to check out the Lurssen, also picked up a lot of IK stuff during their recent 25th Anniversary sale. Regards

Fantastic take on a classic. Had a few listens and overall really good, vocals and guitar really shine. The drums timing goes a little off in a few spots but otherwise really good. Maybe check for doubles (MIDI) on your drums parts, almost sounds like that kind of hiccup. That said, the track is definitely superb. Regards