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  4. "Sadness of Sauron" and "Mourning"

  • "Sadness of Sauron" and "Mourning"

    G
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    After the successful first collaboration between Dan Kury and myself about a month ago with "Front Row in Vienna", I have not stopped feeding him material. :) These are works I had written a while back but decided to revise them, it's amazing how much we can improve in 1 year. And after that 1st step Dan took over, making everything sound better, polishing all the corners, I suspect he uses Pledge, not sure!

    So I'd appreciate any comments you may have. Thanks.

    1- "Sadness of Sauron" [url]http://www.guybacos.com/audio/Sauronmix4.mp3[/url]

    2-"Mourning" [url]http://www.guybacos.com/audio/Mourningmix4.mp3[/url]

    Guy [url]http://www.guybacos.com/[/url]
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    Dear Guy Bacos,

    How incredibly touching  is the theme of "Sadness of Sauron", man, how do you create this kind of stuff, there must have been a muse or angel somewhere around you writing this piece! I personally prefer the intimate first part. So great, just my sincere compliments..........have listened to it now at least ten times...

    Erik
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    Guy ....beautiful.......is this vienna or real orchestra?....SvK
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    On "Sadness"....what strings are those?.....SvK
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    Thank you Eric and Svonkampen.

    Eric, the original version didn't sound that good to me, it was done several years ago, but I felt it could be a good piece if better programmed, and so that's all I did (with the same VSL lib). I think this should be encouraging to others, programming samples is a craft that has no limits just like practicing a real instrument.

    Svonkampen,

     -

    I try to balance my strings to get a more realistic texture, in other words I'm careful that my inner parts don't compete with the main melody line, which often will be done with appa violin and this texture is very rich. So in thicker string passages it's a damn challenge to get the right balance, but IT IS possible. The way I do it is using all the strings I have, solo, chamber, strings 1-2 and appa, and adjust the texture accordingly, so if the inner parts sound too rich I'll get a more chamber sound, more this  more that. This is more easy said then done, sometimes I get it right and other times not. So it's a constant evolution.  
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    GUY....thanx.....great stuff....so on sadness......it's NOT sordino?
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    The first time we hear the theme it is all con sordino. I think the 2nd also, when it accomp the flute, I can't remember, I'd have to check, but I think it is, and on the 3rd it's without sordino.
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    Guy - great pieces.  I like the jazz one too which nobody has mentioned yet.  Fantastic stuff as always.

    Would you be able to elaborate more on your comment about how you went back to the old piece and then "tweaked" it with your new knowledge to get the end result you have today?  Where did you start?  Were there any bits you immediately knew you could do better?

    Also, how about posting a midi except of both the old and original so we can see your programming chops - that would be very useful I think to a lot of people, myself included.

    Kind Regards

    Tim
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    Guy....during the first movement of the sordinos, where is your mod-wheel?...(vel crossfade)......I know you are riding/swelling it and most likely making full use of the dynamic patches for initial and ending notes......but still, are you mostly in the area of the "p's" and "mp's" and very rarely  nudging the swells to the "forte's"?.....thanx.....SvK
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    @svonkampen said:

    Guy....during the first movement of the sordinos, where is your mod-wheel?...(vel crossfade)......I know you are riding/swelling it and most likely making full use of the dynamic patches for initial and ending notes......but still, are you mostly in the area of the "p's" and "mp's" and very rarely  nudging the swells to the "forte's"?.....thanx.....SvK

    Some tracks I used the mod wheel and others not. The tracks I checked were done with the velo of the note and a dynamic patche, ex. cresc, or pfp, no  mod-wheel. At the start my velocities were around 50, towards the end of the melody it doubled. I programmed it so the dynamics would stay in the with the dynamic range I was looking for, that was more delicate, so using the correct dynamic patches for each note was important.
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    Well done. What is "Pledge"?
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    Wood polisher.
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    @timkiel said:

    Guy - great pieces.  I like the jazz one too which nobody has mentioned yet.  Fantastic stuff as always.

    Would you be able to elaborate more on your comment about how you went back to the old piece and then "tweaked" it with your new knowledge to get the end result you have today?  Where did you start?  Were there any bits you immediately knew you could do better?

    Also, how about posting a midi except of both the old and original so we can see your programming chops - that would be very useful I think to a lot of people, myself included.

    Kind Regards

    Tim

    This may seem like a cop out answer but all it is, is putting more care into every detail. When I look back at some of the tracks I programmed just one year ago I find many things done sloppy and at that time I thought were good. Like, dynamics, phrasing, textures, choices of patches, balance, breathing, releases, attacks etc.
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    Guy......so true......when mocking-up you must simply respect the treatment of each and every note........that's a lot of notes to respect ;-).......
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     Guy well done in all. Really like what you have done. Best, Joseph
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    Your music is amazingly beautiful. I too am writing music for several parts of the "Silmarillion" and I would love your opinion of them if you have time. Here's the link.http://michaelhorsphol.com/news.html p.s. none of the string work is using VSL, however I have just purchased "Appasionata2" strings and as soon as i receive it i will update all my string articulations...can you believe it... I used for the most part Logic Studio factory string samples and Peter Sziedlechek AO insts. regards, Michael Horsphol
  • PaulP Paul moved this topic from Orchestration & Composition on