Just another epic trailer track

Nothing ground breaking here. Just another epic trailer piece.

If you want to hear me working on my deeper orchestrational skills you can check this out as well:

All comments and feedback are welcome (gulp)! I would especially like to hear from you mixing gurus out there to help me tighten up my mixing skills.

Thanks for taking a listen.

G
http://www.BlackLightRecordings.com

Well listening to this it sounds like YOU are a mix guru…sounds great, nice intro then moves along upping the tension in all the right places IMHO…clear and precise mix for me…good work…Kevin

had a listen to the other stuff …very impressive, assuming it’s original of course…which I am.

Dammit I didn’t want to :stuck_out_tongue: but I finally went ahead and subscribed to you on YouTube.

Are you doing this as a paid composer or “just for the fun of it?”

Edit: please list the VST instruments / sound libraries and any interesting VST effects you’re using.

Hi Blacklight,

sounds good to me.
I like the mix!

Regards
Chris

:laughing: Thanks for the subscribe, Foolomon. Glad you like the work. Right now composing is somewhere between hobby/obsession and second career.

As for the libraries:
Cinematic Strings 2
LASS
Berlin Woodwinds
Sample Modeling Brass
Cinebrass
EWQL Hollywood Drass
Project Sam True Strike
Cineperc
Omnisphere

Effects:
Waves Native Gold
Virtual Sound Stage
EWQL Spaces
Altiverb

Nothing really out of the ordinary.

Cheers

Sounds like what my marriage started as and what it is now. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

I guess, if this is what you do. I don’t own any of those. :confused:

No, no, no…must. take. hand. off. of. credit. card.

:laughing:

[/quote]

I guess, if this is what you do. I don’t own any of those. :confused:

No, no, no…must. take. hand. off. of. credit. card.

:laughing:[/quote]

Larry
You are one of the funniest catz on these forums.
If you are looking to get started with orchestral composition, you can check out East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra (I started with the gold edition) or the Vienna Symphonic Library Special Edition. Both libraries are complete orchestral setups (strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion). They sound a bit dated by todays standards but they are cheap and a good starting place.

Hi Gharun,

It’s labelled as a trailer track so that is the perspective I’ll be commenting from.

The very first problem to be noted is the opening strings sound incredibly synthy. I don’t know whether the library you have has round robin or not but it has the well known machine gun effect to the staccato strings so it doesn’t sound like it. The opening sustained strings sound nice and work as an intro but when the choir enters it just sounds like random notes being played with no thought given to what notes would sound best over the chords or what would be a powerful theme/motif that could be repeated/revisited. That being said, the overall harmony at this point onward until 1:46ish just doesn’t seem to stack up properly vertically. The notes seem to sound too ‘random’ across the orchestra if you get what I mean.

Though the main problem is the lack of an identifiable theme/motif. Trailer tracks are all about branding the trailer with a theme/motif and overall it just sounds weak for a trailer track to lack a theme. The notes just seem to sound a little too random throughout the piece, there isn’t anything I can hum in my head.

Also, some of the brass doesn’t have the timbre that it should have for the intended dynamics at times. The horn line at 2:30 begins fine dynamically, but it doesn’t seem to go anywhere in terms of dynamics overall. There isn’t that sizzle to the notes at 110-127 dynamic in hollywood brass that should be heard as it should reach it’s dynamic and orchestration climax toward the end when everything is playing.

The ending should also be much, much bigger dynamically. The drum hits and orchestra at the very end stab sound very thin compared to other parts of the track and it should be the other way round, go out with a big bang. So I’d suggest just layering up the drum hits and writing the orchestra as divisi for that end stab. It’s a trailer track too so it’s permissible to write divisi and still use the patches that use the full section rather than splitting the 1st violins into 9/7 players etc etc just to get that extra, larger than life kind of sound that is demanded of trailer tracks in general.

I do like the ideas here, don’t get me wrong about that, and I like the overall atmosphere too but in the specific context of a trailer track the above criticisms should be taken into consideration.

Jonathan

I’ve been off the forum for a while (hense the delay in responding). Thank you for taking the time to give a deep critic. I think what you are saying is right on the money for trailer music. I tend to outthink myself in voice leading my progressions trying to add variety, but it can come off as random to the listener who wasn’t sitting there when I wrote it. I can definitely be more assertive in my vertical harmony. Trailer music usually has a limited pallet (strings, brass, not much woodwind) and it does feel weird stacking a 6 Horn patch in four part spread harmony but I’m learning that that can be part of the larger than life sound.

I just did another track that is tighter on the melody side with more punch to the drums. I’d love to get your take on that one as well:

The soundcloud mix should be a little cleaner without all of the trailer sound FX:

Thanks again for the feedback.