A Dedication to Canada's Soldier's (A Sample from the complete composition)

[sururick]

Here is a video of a sample from a song I am composing. The entire song will be about 30 minutes once it is completed. Keep in mind this is just a rough draft, I still have to do some editing on equalization and such. Also, quality may be reduced due to FB video quality. Most of the song was created using Garritan Instand Orchestra!

I am not sure if anyone will be able to view this... please let me know. I posted it on my facebook as puplic.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=165460166899924

[rbowser-]

Here is a video of a sample from a song I am composing. The entire song will be about 30 minutes once it is completed. I love composing long and meaningful songs! Keep in mind this is just a rough draft, I still have to do some editing on equalization and such. Also, quality may be reduced due to FB video quality. Most of the song was created using Garritan Instand Orchestra!

I am not sure if anyone will be able to view this... please let me know. I posted it on my facebook as puplic.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=165460166899924

This is off to a good start, and with very serious subject matter for your inspiration. It's not really a "song," especially since you envision it as being 1/2 hour in its final form. I don't know what it's going to be, since this is just a short segment - a Sonata? A Concerto?-- Something, but not really a song.

I know you're in rough draft form - A note for when you get to the final stages: Those Instant Orchestra drums can be much more impressive sounding. These sound dry - they need a lot of reverb to get that sound you seem to be going for. It also helps to use a plug-in to spread their stereo image wider.

I use Facebook only occasionally - I didn't know before your post that videos can be uploaded directly up there! It looked and sounded fine.

Best of fortunes as you continue this work on! and thanks for posting it.

Randy

[Plowking]

Hello again, thanks for posting the link. Very dramatic beginnings to this. The repeating drum is what sticks out a little too much because it doesn't change. There are various big drum hit's available in IO so be sure to utilise them.

If you're scoring the entire piece to this style of footage, I'd be very interesting to hear what approaches you're going to take for variation and maintaining pace/listener interest.

I have some tips for scoring to footage (if that's what the finished piece will be). I pulled these from my site - generally they are for scoring more conventional scenes in film or whatever - but some of it might apply.

• What emotions are being conveyed in the scene (love, hate, fear, anger, happiness etc)
• What can music add to the scene, or is it actually necessary to add anything?
• Would a pause or silence be more effective?
• Should I just convey a mood here, or tell a 'story'?
• Is there a climax or turning point in the scene, or in the whole movie that should have the biggest score impact?
• What is the 'tempo' of the scene, and how does the music affect this tempo? (Complement, or slow it needlessly)
• Do the cues work when synchronised exactly, or should I move them before/after?
• Does the music slow the film down, speed it up, or complement the correct pacing?
• Should the music be the prominent feature in this scene, or should it take a backseat to the visuals?
• Does the music clash or complement the dialogue, visuals, sound effects?
• Does the genre of the music and instruments used relate to the characters or overall film genre?

[sururick]

Thanks for the help guys.

@rbowser
I widened the percussion a bit, and it does sound better.
When it comes to percussion I am not at all the greatest. I use percussion rarely in my compositions. For the most part, I like composing dreamy, tragic, and sorrowful like music. A lot of it tends to be slow but captures memories.

@plowking
I really want to thank you for bringing up the actual sequence part of the music to video composition. Those are some really good points and I copied them down. Again, when it comes down with percussion, it is currently my weakest when it comes to movement and such. I'm going to have to spend some time working with it.

I have done some more on this composition. I am at about 15 minutes (not mastered). I would like to say, the garritan team also did a good job with the ambience reverb plugin. Usually, these kinds of reverbs tend to be disappointing. For example, I purchased EWQLSO Silver and the reverb with the built in kontakt player is terrible.

So far what I like most about Garritan Instant Orchestra are the big drum hits, the strings (much better than a lot of other libraries), I love the wagner brass (very heroic), the choirs seem to sound good as well,, but I still prefer the vienna symphonic library choir. In all, I haven't really found anything I dislike about GIO, it is well mastered product, and it will play a great and important roll in this composition.

[Plowking]

The aria reverb does a good job of bring the Garritan instruments to life. A lot of users use 3rd party, or DAW specific reverbs instead of any others - so if you mix libraries you can be sure they are all being processed with the same reverb. Put's everything nicely in the same space.

I use a few reverbs though because some of the instrument patches I have use built in convolution reverb that sounds too good not use - but I can't run a different libraries patch through that reverb. So instead I have a final master reverb (very light) that puts everything into the same 'room'. Seems to work overall.

Percussion - tough one. I struggled with percussion as well for a long time. Most of my early work had almost none - or just rudimentary timpani and the odd cymbal crash here and there. Now, with experience I've gotten far more elaborate.

Here's a sample of it in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxXQn...4&feature=plcp
or this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4UB8...5&feature=plcp

The idea is to vary the tone of the drum a bit so it doesn't sound like the same sample being banged out each time.

Variation in rhythm as well as tone keeps the beat from getting monotonous to the listener - usually done in 4 bar segments, or 2 bars. You'll note that after a few beats in your piece, it's not adding much new, and as its the same hit sample - play around with a few drum patches loaded together, different channels, and play between them.

[sururick]

Thanks for the tips. I checked your your videos a couple weeks back. They definitely sound good. I have been playing around a lot with and remixing my older songs. I will post a few of them once I get a bit more done. How long have you been composing for?

[Plowking]

Hi, composing on and off for years - piano pieces and such, but only been working with sample libraries in the last 2 years, and then only really getting happy with what I'm producing in the last year, or less even - so in essence not very long.

I've still a lot to learn myself. There are some good videos on youtube of people using libraries and screen capturing some of the process they use when constructing music in a DAW. I found them very useful.