I just finished composing a piece yesterday, give it a listen if you have time! Sorry for giving a link to MS, I haven’t uploaded it anywhere else yet
(Dorico Pro and NP)
Not sure where to begin. Excellent! Such a great composition, and a fantastic orchestration. I’m not sure how it works with Dorico, but I’d say that it needs some mastering (it’s not loud enough). Does Dorico allow you to select the sample library?
All minor points. You’ve written something that really makes use of the full orchestra.
Congratulations!
Listened to it three or four more times. You are not an amateur like the rest of us. I’m not going to try to analyze it, but I think I followed it! Just excellent. Wishing you the best.
I used noteperformer, as it says in the original post. And the volume may be simply a result of how I sampled it. I assume from your summary that you use Cubase; Dorico has all the same mixing and effects options, with full control over VST sample libraries and compatibility with Cubase Expression Maps.
Thanks
Like, Early21, I have to say that this is very impressive indeed. Beyond anything with the recording, It’s a terrific composition. Are you writing orchestral scores as something for an orchestra’s repertoire, or hoping that a work like this gets used in film? I can imagine it being used in either context.
I’m not that knowledgeable in much of the repertoire along these lines, but some things reminded me a bit of Aaron Copland, and I hope you’ll take that as a compliment. Terrific stuff, and I look forward to hearing more of your work. It amazes me that something like this can be produced from what’s included in music libraries.
That being said, I would second Early’s idea that perhaps some mastering and/or EQ work could bring bits out even a bit more strongly and clearly, but the major thing I’ll respond to is the fact that you’ve produced a fine and worthy piece of music.
Good luck with what you’re hoping to do with your work.
John
Actually, I produced this for a competition. I mainly write “for fun”, though. And yes, Aaron Copland was a big inspiration for this piece.
Thank you for listening, I can send you the score if you like.
(What kind of mastering? Like import a recording each part into a DAW and use automation to bring out certain instruments in different places? Or just improve the overall balance of the whole piece?)
When I mentioned mastering, the main thing I meant to suggest is to get the volume of the track up to comparable levels with other classical tracks. Right now, the track is very quiet compared to the volume you might find on a typical orchestral track. So anybody listening to it after just hearing say the Vienna Philharmonic playing Mahler would consider it weak sounding. It’s called Normalizing.
If you can get a stereo mixdown loaded into Cubase, you can simply run Statistics (click Audio on the drop down menu, and then select Statistics). It will report how far from 0db your mixdown is in the very bottom of the report (a negative number). That’s how many decibels your recording is from the loudest it can be without any compressing. You can then increase the volume in the parameter at the top (Volume). So if Statistics says the recording has a max level of -10dB, that’s how much you can raise the volume parameter (+10) without introducing any clipping.
If you save that recording, and someone plays it after listening to a Mahler symphony, it will sound comparably loud. There’s a lot more you can do at the mastering stage, but this is the most important thing.
Maybe you already know all this, so in that case, sorry to provide useless advice!
For example - listen to yours, then listen to this (mine):
I am proud of mine, but maybe yours is better, but mine is louder.