• Instrumental Music
    24 replies, posted
I've always really loved film music and, since picking up piano 2 years ago, I've had my sights set on a career in film composition. It's a far fetched choice, I know, but it's what I want to do. Anyway, when I got setup with FL Studio in August I wanted to try my hand at writing more film-like music, but with the absence of a virtual orchestra (coupled with my lack of experience in working with a DAW) I couldn't. November rolled around and I found out about EastWest, an awesome collection of virtual instruments. After doing a lot more research, I got it in December and went to writing music. I'm still really new to this and I don't have much experience, something I'll need a lot of if I hope to go into film composition. I'm 15 and I don't have much time before I'm off to a 4 year college so I need to improve a lot between now and then. Therefore, I'm asking you guys to give me [i]any[/i] feedback, suggestions, or criticism you may have. Lastly, before I get to posting my music, Soundcloud is nice, but it doesn't have the quality of Bandcamp. So, if you want to listen to these in their highest quality, you can go [url=http://zachbeever.bandcamp.com/]here.[/url] I'm going to be ordering these from oldest to newest, with my first song at the top and my most recent at the bottom. [b]Electric Tangerine[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/electric-tangerine[/media] (Just a quick note: This is the first real song I made in FL Studio and it was created outside of the timeline mentioned above. I wrote this back in August while I wrote the rest of the songs in this thread post-December.) [b]The Himalayas[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/the-himalayas[/media] [b]Laws of the Lawless[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/laws-of-the-lawless[/media] [b]Medieval Tale[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/medieval-tale[/media] [b]Breaking the Siege[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/breaking-the-siege-1[/media] [b]Far East Dance[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/far-east-dance[/media] [b]March to Dandi[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/march-to-dandi[/media] [b]Time Passes[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/time-passes[/media] [b]Long Ago[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/long-ago[/media] (This will be the song included in the upcoming free Facepunch music album by Gregah.) [b]Death[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/death[/media] [b]Deep Space[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/deep-space[/media] [b]The Horde Moves[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/the-horde-moves[/media] [b]Spanish Armada[/b] [media]http://soundcloud.com/schmoe222/spanish-armada-1[/media] I'm just going to reiterate what I said previously about the quality of Soundcloud. It's great, and I use it for hosting the music I post on Facepunch, but it doesn't compare to Bandcamp. If you want to hear any of my songs in their highest quality follow [url=http://zachbeever.bandcamp.com/]this link.[/url]
The song Death is really nice, I actually intern with a music liscensing company so I'll show them your stuff. Good work!
Really impressive music you got here ! Well composed and all this after 2 years. Looks promising.
My god, these are all incredibly fantastic.
Very Impressive.
Thanks a lot for the support, guys, I really appreciate it. Do you have suggestions or ideas? I'm open and looking for anything - whether it's more variety, different instruments, structuring, rhythm, or any other idea.
Your stuff is amazing. Maybe softer on the piano dynamics in death, but that's just a matter of personal taste. :smile: You should do some German oompah (I have no idea how to describe it) music.
[QUOTE=Yur|ko;27669138]Your stuff is amazing. Maybe softer on the piano dynamics in death, but that's just a matter of personal taste. :smile: You should do some German oompah (I have no idea how to describe it) music.[/QUOTE] Polka? I love the Medieval Tale one. Very befitting to the style.
I liked medieval tale, Death, The Horde Moves, and The Spanish Armada. Breaking the Siege was my personal favorite. Despite some repetition issues in some of your songs, they're fairly good.
[QUOTE=FreakySoup;27655277]My god, these are all incredibly fantastic.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Xeloras;27683072]I liked medieval tale, Death, The Horde Moves, and The Spanish Armada. Breaking the Siege was my personal favorite. Despite some repetition issues in some of your songs, they're fairly good.[/QUOTE] To avoid a lot of repetition in the future what do you recommend I do - incorporate more themes into a song or make each time a theme is played a bit different than the time before?
I'd try that and see how it fares for you. Who exactly are you using as inspiration? By which I mean, who would be your favorite composers?
[QUOTE=Schmoe222;27684249]To avoid a lot of repetition in the future what do you recommend I do - incorporate more themes into a song or make each time a theme is played a bit different than the time before?[/QUOTE] Film music is all about themes and thematic transformation/development. A good film track only has to have a few themes but it's how you change the themes to suit the situation that matters. Howard Shore's soundtrack to Lord of the Rings is a beautiful example of this. He varies the keys, the instruments, he switches themes from compound to simple (Shire theme is the most obvious example of this) and he changes the melodies slightly. For example at the beginning of Medieval Tale, instead of just doubling in octaves with 1st and 2nd violins, why not have the 1st violins change the ending of the theme slightly to create some nice sounding thirds or something. You don't even have to restate a theme, but you can suggest at it. For example, play the first half a bar of a theme and then break into new material. It'll give a sense of familiarity but won't be boring to listen to. I haven't listened to all of them but from what I have listened to, it sounds great! Have you got a score of any of your pieces? There is more to a composition than just how it sounds! Part writing, orchestration, extended instrumental techniques and idiomatic writing are all a big part of composition, especially in an orchestral setting. And make sure you don't pigeon hole yourself into writing solely traditional-style film music for orchestra or large ensemble. I applied to study composition at conservatory this year and in one of my interviews, I was penalised slightly for having a repertoire almost entirely of orchestral music! I also did a week long short-course on writing for the moving image and we were regularly steered away from writing massive large-scale works. Try composing for some smaller ensembles, maybe a saxophone quartet, a string quartet or a small wind ensemble. Anne Dudley has a fantastic score for The Full Monty and at times she has as little as two instruments playing, but it works wonderfully in fitting the film. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4d8_GrIwq8[/media] Lastly, be careful using choirs! If you don't have any experience writing for them then it can be difficult. Having the individual parts moving easily and being nice to sing are as important in choral music as the overall sound. Of course, you may already know all this so please feel free to disregard anything I have said which sounds like rubbish.
[QUOTE=Xeloras;27691427]I'd try that and see how it fares for you. Who exactly are you using as inspiration? By which I mean, who would be your favorite composers?[/QUOTE] My absolute favorite composer is Howard Shore. While he is definitely the source of my wanting to be a film composer, I respect and admire Clint Mansell and Hans Zimmer a lot as well. [QUOTE=Lord Pirate;27692565]Film music is all about themes and thematic transformation/development. A good film track only has to have a few themes but it's how you change the themes to suit the situation that matters. Howard Shore's soundtrack to Lord of the Rings is a beautiful example of this. He varies the keys, the instruments, he switches themes from compound to simple (Shire theme is the most obvious example of this) and he changes the melodies slightly. For example at the beginning of Medieval Tale, instead of just doubling in octaves with 1st and 2nd violins, why not have the 1st violins change the ending of the theme slightly to create some nice sounding thirds or something. You don't even have to restate a theme, but you can suggest at it. For example, play the first half a bar of a theme and then break into new material. It'll give a sense of familiarity but won't be boring to listen to.[/QUOTE] Thanks a lot for the ideas! The Lord of the Rings' soundtrack contains my favorite music and I've definitely noticed what you said but, for some reason, it seems as though I completely passed it by when writing. I'll listen to a few soundtracks and write down how they create variation. Now that I'm more aware of it I'll hopefully be able to write more interesting music. [QUOTE=Lord Pirate;27692565]I haven't listened to all of them but from what I have listened to, it sounds great! Have you got a score of any of your pieces? There is more to a composition than just how it sounds! Part writing, orchestration, extended instrumental techniques and idiomatic writing are all a big part of composition, especially in an orchestral setting.[/QUOTE] I haven't got a written score for any of the pieces I've posted. I'm currently working on writing out a score of a private piece of mine, but I'm new to the whole thing. I just play piano, so the only instrument I'm comfortable writing for is, unsurprisingly, piano. I've bought orchestration and notation books and I'm reading through those now. That, coupled with the composition instruction I'll be receiving this semester, should hopefully get me more comfortable with the whole orchestration and notation business. [QUOTE=Lord Pirate;27692565]And make sure you don't pigeon hole yourself into writing solely traditional-style film music for orchestra or large ensemble. I applied to study composition at conservatory this year and in one of my interviews, I was penalised slightly for having a repertoire almost entirely of orchestral music! I also did a week long short-course on writing for the moving image and we were regularly steered away from writing massive large-scale works. Try composing for some smaller ensembles, maybe a saxophone quartet, a string quartet or a small wind ensemble. Anne Dudley has a fantastic score for The Full Monty and at times she has as little as two instruments playing, but it works wonderfully in fitting the film. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4d8_GrIwq8[/media][/QUOTE] This sounds like really good advice and I'll make sure to write more varied pieces in the future! [QUOTE=Lord Pirate;27692565]Lastly, be careful using choirs! If you don't have any experience writing for them then it can be difficult. Having the individual parts moving easily and being nice to sing are as important in choral music as the overall sound. Of course, you may already know all this so please feel free to disregard anything I have said which sounds like rubbish.[/QUOTE] I've been learning about this aspect of choirs and, although I don't have them breathe in my sequenced works, I've been trying to write more easily singable parts. Sometimes, however, I've broken the rules and done things that I know would not be easily singable simply because they sound good in the song, such as the voices singing parallel 5ths in Medieval Tale. I've been trying to stay away from such things in my more recent works and from now on will be writing my songs with the attitude that they're being played by real musicians. Thanks [i]a ton[/i] for all of the awesome ideas and feedback! It helps me more than you know. One last thing, I've been writing these songs for "scenes" in my mind. I'd like to start writing for film and actual video but I can't see how to practice this. Do you have any suggestions?
I'd love to hear a wild west one.
[QUOTE=chaz13;27697313]I'd love to hear a wild west one.[/QUOTE] Listen to "Laws of the Lawless."
[QUOTE=Schmoe222;27693213]Thanks [i]a ton[/i] for all of the awesome ideas and feedback! It helps me more than you know. One last thing, I've been writing these songs for "scenes" in my mind. I'd like to start writing for film and actual video but I can't see how to practice this. Do you have any suggestions?[/QUOTE] Glad I could help! I actually went on a week-long course last summer on contemporary composition and whilst there, I was placed in the group studying Composition for the Moving Image! Basically what happened was we were given a short clip of film about 3 minutes long that was muted and we were tasked with adding a soundtrack to it. Most DAWs have the functionality to import a video to run simultaneously to the audio so I would recommend you have a go at that! The advice we were given was to come up with a plan of what we were going to do for each section of the video and to avoid clichés and 'Mickey Mousing' which is where an action on screen directly corresponds to a musical 'hit' (for example a bass drum hit when someone is punched in the face), although it can be effective sometimes. Come up with some themes to correspond to characters, places or actions. For example, I had a clip from a Russian period drama which had running horses in it, so I made a concious decision to have more movement in both the melody and accompaniment when the horses were on, had a slight chorale in the church seen (bit cheesy but it worked) and developed the riding theme into a cantabile melody with slower/more chordal accompaniment when it came to a heartfelt goodbye between a husband and wife. And just remember that often developing an existing theme will often be more effective than entirely original material for each event. Just grab a clip from a film, preferably one that you don't know the soundtrack to, and start experimenting!
Death is unbelievablly profesional sounding. Reminds me of "Village of the Doomed" from American McGee's Alice for some reason.
Thanks a lot! Actually, the melody for Death was one I had going in my head months before I wrote it down and when I finally did it was more of a side project. All in all I really like how it turned out.
[QUOTE=Schmoe222;27697791]Listen to "Laws of the Lawless."[/QUOTE] Ahh, that's actually where I got the idea. It sounded west-ish, but I was thinking even more stereotypical wild west. As with all the others that was a great one, but I didn't really get the feeling of people having shoot outs in desert towns and fighting in saloons and whatever else, where all your other songs are very easy to place into films in my mind. EDIT: After having another listen I know what it is, the whole "he ho" people chanting thing doesn't really fit with the western style in my opinion. Listening to the rest of the track underneath it it does sound very awesome.
[QUOTE=Inacio;27739678]Do I have to suck your cock here too, Schmoe, or should I keep it to ourselves? You rock.[/QUOTE] :q:
I like these, but I still think that Long Ago is definitely your best, a true work of art.
Long Ago is by far my most favorite in this thread but to me it's lacking some things: Percussion Dynamics I think the motif of this song could go a lot farther if you added some percussion because to me that's the core of the orchestra. I think it would bring out that recurring theme even more. Take the final part at the end, beginning at 2:00. I just heard the same thing at 0:40! Adding percussion to it would change it and make it the "big ending" to the song. Same goes with dynamics. The first time through I stopped halfway because I noticed the song still hadn't progressed anywhere with dynamics (Yes I later finished it after listening to other's favorites). I always listen to E.S. Posthumus and one thing I always notice about their endings is that their usually bigger dynamically then the beginning was. Keeping the ending bigger or sometimes smaller (depending on the scene of course) then when it first started would seem a must for any song, especially this song. One last thing is that I would love to see you expand on the motif or theme of the song. (I have never developed a song before rather just learned a little music theory and basing this criticism off that.)
[QUOTE=chaz13;27727704]Ahh, that's actually where I got the idea. It sounded west-ish, but I was thinking even more stereotypical wild west. As with all the others that was a great one, but I didn't really get the feeling of people having shoot outs in desert towns and fighting in saloons and whatever else, where all your other songs are very easy to place into films in my mind. EDIT: After having another listen I know what it is, the whole "he ho" people chanting thing doesn't really fit with the western style in my opinion. Listening to the rest of the track underneath it it does sound very awesome.[/QUOTE] I'll work on another Western in the future and keep this in mind! [QUOTE=Matt4019;27744049]Long Ago is by far my most favorite in this thread but to me it's lacking some things: Percussion Dynamics I think the motif of this song could go a lot farther if you added some percussion because to me that's the core of the orchestra. I think it would bring out that recurring theme even more. Take the final part at the end, beginning at 2:00. I just heard the same thing at 0:40! Adding percussion to it would change it and make it the "big ending" to the song.[/QUOTE] I've been using traditional orchestral percussion in my songs but at some points, like the second time the theme comes around in Long Ago, it's drown out by the other instruments. Even if it wasn't, it's still a pretty basic, boring rhythm, what with it just being a bass drum and nothing else. I hadn't heard of E.S. Posthumus before you mentioned them, but I listened to a few of their songs and I thought the modern drums really worked - they made the percussion stand out and become powerful. I'll give using a modern drum kit a go on my next song and see how it turns out. [QUOTE=Matt4019;27744049]Same goes with dynamics. The first time through I stopped halfway because I noticed the song still hadn't progressed anywhere with dynamics (Yes I later finished it after listening to other's favorites). I always listen to E.S. Posthumus and one thing I always notice about their endings is that their usually bigger dynamically then the beginning was. Keeping the ending bigger or sometimes smaller (depending on the scene of course) then when it first started would seem a must for any song, especially this song. One last thing is that I would love to see you expand on the motif or theme of the song. (I have never developed a song before rather just learned a little music theory and basing this criticism off that.)[/QUOTE] As with the drums in my song, the other instruments added to expand on the theme are nearly inaudible next to the voice and strings, an error on my part. Because I wrote it, I picked out and listened to the added instruments and assumed they stood out when they clearly don't. For my next song I'll also spend more time on the dynamics and make sure the finale is a [i]finale[/i]. Thanks a ton for the constructive criticism, it helps a lot!
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.