My first and second all GPO pieces.

[EricWatkins]

Here is a piece I have been working on. (There is another piece down the page a bit) GPO Filmic (\"http://www.alanjoseph.com/Gpo_Filmic.mp3\") It is about as mixed and mastered as I am capable of doing at this point. I do plan on continuing the piece but I wanted to get a post up now because who knows when I\'ll get around to finishing it. I\'d like some feedback from the masses as to the composition and overall sound. Everything is GPO with Ambience and I used one other free plugin effect called HI-Contort to phatten it up a bit and give it some space (or so that\'s what I thought I was doing).

Here is the final mix of another called Conclusion (\"http://www.alanjoseph.com/conclusion.mp3\") that I posted before and have now made all the fixes I plan on making till someone wants to buy it. Hehe. Hope you enjoy.

Alan gave me the webspace for the posting. Thanks as always Alan. You make life easy for the rest of us.

Eric

[Garritan]

Eric,

Both pieces are fabulous. Very good orchestrating and balance among the instruments in GPO Filmic and especially your Conclusion. I like the use of dynamics and the way the themes build. You paint beautiful sound pictures with your music. I would like to someday hear your film music along with the film.

Hope you don\'t mind if this gets posted on the GPO demo page.

Thanks for sharing this.

Gary Garritan


PS: Alan, thanks for hosting Eric\'s music

[MalteRathke]

Hi Eric,

very well done. The build-up in conclusion is a real heart-opener..

Malte

[Hardy Heern]

Most enjoyable Eric, and beautifully put together. In \'GPO Filmic\' I thought I recognised a phrase from a couple of tunes \'My love is like a red red rose\' and \' After the ball is over\' but I guess with so many tunes written one is bound to spot the phrases in some form.

It doesn\'t detract anyway as they are so well orchestrated.

Great stuff, I look forward to hearing more.

Frank

[Styxx]

Pleasant melodious connections and harmonic involvement. Wonderful dynamic placement, which supports and defines the structure within.
Excellent work five star *****’s

[EricWatkins]

Thanks everybody,
I greatly appreciate your comments. I\'m finding that I spend 20 times more effort on editing in SX than recording tracks. I\'m constantly editing to try to get things to sound the best they can. I\'m glad that you liked them. I am currently trying to translate a couple of others I have written to be GPO pieces. I think that it\'s a larger task than writing from scratch but I know that these pieces will sound new again with GPO. Thanks again.

Eric

[Hardy Heern]

Hi Eric,

You just reminded me of one of the pains of MIDI files. It has always been a problem that if you tweak a file to suit, say, an oboe sample and then you decide that you then prefer another instrument, even a different oboe, sadly the MIDI file will not often work (unless you\'re extremely fortunate or aren\'t that fussy).

You will have to re-tweak to suit the new instrument. That was one of the flaws with GM (General MIDI, not crops!). Even though it was a standard, if you took a MIDI file which had been tweaked to perfection for the instruments on one manufacturer\'s module it often wouldn\'t sound much good on another.

This was one of the reasons I was so excited about GPO at launch and was why I suggested that it could become its own orchestral standard due to its competence and pricing combination. It seems absolutely ideal for collaborative working as everyone has exactly the same sounds.

For anyone who hasn\'t done much MIDI tweaking, it\'s important not to detail tweak until you\'re really certain of your instrumentation otherwise you can waste a lot of time.

I\'m just talking out loud Eric, for the benefit of anyone who is new to tweaking......you obviously know this already .

Frank

[EricWatkins]

I totally agree. Everything I did before was with synths like my XP-30 and virtuoso. I thought I was getting pretty decent results with those but GPO has totally changed the way that I write. I never really had a concept of writing per section before but it has really helped me develop some realism and think more about intrument relationships concerning harmony and counterpoint melodies. My dad taking me to the Illinois Symphony Chamber concerts has also been an invaluable experience. It has let me see and hear close-up what it is all about and just how great it can sound. There is nothing like the real deal and I think anyone could benefit alot from the experience of going. As far as tweaking, I am just thrilled to be using Cubase SX. Without a tool like that, I dont know how I would get it all done. It definitely makes things easier. Especially tweaking the expression as you can draw out the curves graphically using a pencil or several other available tools. Well gotta go to my real job. Have a great day

[Ron Klaren]

Great music Eric !!!

[Jonny Lost]

Eric,


Nicely done. I agree with everyone here that your tunes are well orchestrated. It does seem, however, that the upper strings in the first tune are a bit to high in the mix. They seem to be just a bit over dominating. You may want to bring the volume of the Violins and Violas down and maybe boost the Cellos and bass.

Just a suggestion. I\'m trying to help you achieve that perfect balance. You are very close. Keep it up.


Jonny