Fantastic work, Mike!

While we are here, in a VI forum, it would be great to know witch are the others library you used in the piece.

Thumbs up!

Ben

Hi Rob, Ben -

Thanks for the comments.  My staccato strings are a combination/layers of VSL appasionata, and these staccato strings I found on ProjectSAM Symphobia.  In general, I find the Symphobia-type "prebuilt" stuff utterly useless, and in this case, virtually all of the samples on there have very limited usefulness, but there was a single patch in there that had a quality I liked.  It seems to round things out a bit.

My orchestra is a really eclectic mix of libraries and patches, nearly all custom.  Like, every patch I use has Modwheel control over volume/dynamics, and usually within that it's a custrom velocity curve to match my playing style.  But also, I've gone in in some cases and retuned samples, that sort of thing.  But it's ProjectSAM Brass, plus some SonicImplants Brass, plus some VSL Brass, and pretty much the same story throughout each section, with a bunch of London Orchestral Percussion in there, too, and the True Strike stuff, of course.  I've honestly built and rebuilt and tweaked it so much, I couldn't off the top of my head tell you what exactly I use without looking, but I have 5 Gigastudio PC's absolutely running to the hilt, plus 3 instances of Kontakt and Vienna Ensemble running on my host Mac.  I do all my composition and recording inside of Pro Tools 8, so I can feed all the gigastudio stuff in digtially, optically, at 48kHz.  There is no analog in my chain.  So it's nice for instant bouncing and mixing on the fly as well.  Oh, also I have 6 instances of Altiverb running, a couple of Focusrite EQ plug-ins, and a Masterx3 plug-in on the whole mix.  Also, each instrument has EQ on it back at the Gigastudio level. 

There's just a ton of bullshit to go through to make these things sound passable.

By the way, the cue has changed starting about mid-way through.  The film I'm doing is in Japanese, and I didn't understand fully what they were saying.  Upon discussing the drama with the director, I had to make some adjustments, and prolong the cue throughout the scene. 

[url=http://www.mikeverta.com/Posts/Capital_City2.mp3]Captial City v2[/url]

_Mike

Thanks Mike.  I feel the same way - generally - about Symphobia BUT what 'stacc' patch did you use (I can't find any that do it for me on this sort of thing) - but maybe I missed that ONE. :)

Thanks again.

Rob

Very good sound and very well done. I agree that the music is so highly derivative that I really would like to hear the original voice of this talented musician.

[url=http://www.mikeverta.com/Posts/MMBUGL/Battle_with_The_Beast.mp3]Another thing...[/url]

_Mike

Hi Mike,

great stuff!! Love it!

Can you give us some more details about this?

thanks,

Steve[:)]

,,,sure! Such as?

_Mike

Yeah - nice sort of sound - but - John Williams again. Thanks for sharing - and watch that trumpet sound.

Yes, that's my sound :)  Surely you've noticed by now, inasmuch as you've pasted that comment into every thread I've ever started :)

What do you mean, watch the trumpet? In what way?

_Mike

Hi Mike,

Thank you  for answering my post.  I am mainly interested in what sample libraries you are using for the music.

Thanks if you can let me know. Also, about 5.03, there are some very effective string arpeggio figures, that have a nice firm sound on the accented parts of the arpeggios. I am wondering what string articulation you are using here. Thanks for any info you can give on this.

best,

Steve :-)

I listed my libraries on the previous page, but that string stuff at 5:03 has a lot of the Symphobia staccato strings on it.  They have this pre-built patch, called Blockbuster, which I just turned off every layer but the strings, disabled the "octaver" on it, and use that as a layer with my usual stacc strings.  Cuts through pretty well...

_Mike

Great production Mike.   Also very nice idea on the 'blockbuster' multi.   Thanks for sharing.   I have also really liked the Chamber spiccs doubled with it as well (when extra definition is needed.)

All the best,

Yes very nice production indeed - very clean. Your original voice is coming through more. Sure there's lots of familiar territory but your well on your way to your own unique style. Really just a matter of choice with all that talent.

Some very lovely stuff in there.

 Sounds amazing!

Best,

Jay

Hi Mike,

thank you for answering my question regarding the libraries used [:D]

best,

Steve[:D]

No problem; and thanks, everyone for the kind words!

_Mike

@mverta said:

Yes, that's my sound :)  Surely you've noticed by now, inasmuch as you've pasted that comment into every thread I've ever started 😊

What do you mean, watch the trumpet? In what way?

_Mike

What do I mean? I mean it sounds very good - soundwise it's a great production - as you're a Yank I'll rephrase that - it's a marvelous fantastic piece of work productionwise. How's that?

Apart from that it's totally derivative and the brass sections almost sound out of tune at times. The strings sound like John Williams orchestrations and so do some of the brass lines. I know 10 guys here that can turn out JW for adverts like this all the time so you'll forgive me for being slightly jaded.  😉

It sounds like you just O'D on Close Encounters or something.

It should probably go without saying that the "John Williams" sound is no more the John Williams sound than mine is, as even a cursory examination of his (and my) influences should make abundantly clear.

But that being said anyway, what sets JW apart is not his orchestration; it's his use of cohesive symphonic structure within the context of film cues; two things which are almost always mutually exclusive. If you know 10 guys here who can do that, tell them to step up and take their rightful places as the new top-call guys, because as of yet, that's an ability almost totally absent from the landscape.

I'm sure you only come across like you've got an ax to grind due to some sort of internet thing.  Nonetheless, I don't expect you'll be hearing anything different, musically, from me, anytime soon.  Especially inasmuch as any comparison to JW makes me giddy as a schoolgirl.

_Mike

 These cues sound really good.  

I agree about Williams - he is probably the greatest since Herrmann, Goldsmith and Korngold.   Also he does a full tilt symphonic development as you say within a film context to a fantastic degree.  E. T. for example is like a symphony combined with a movie, and Spielberg gave Williams full reign to develop it.  That's true about Williams having direct influences from many orchestral composers - something impossible to avoid in this day and age - , and some people have tried to say he was plagiaristic because of it but he is not.  He is truly original with his own style and themes that are instantly recognizable. 

Anyway, you don't have to worry about whether you are copying somebody if you truly love what you are doing.  Your own style will come through all by itself. 

...well that's the thing: I bristle at this idea that anyone can just "do a Williams" thing.  That's ridiculous; everyone I've heard who set out to do that failed, usually because while they might understand the orchestrational approach, that doesn't magically imbue them with the symphonic sensibilities.  They sound like people doing JW who don't actually understand what he's doing.  Bad impressions.

Having just written 84 mintues of score in 5 weeks, I can attest to having zero time to second-guess or attempt to do anything compositionally other than get the cues done, and right now. If someone says to you, "Do what you do, right now, and don't think about it because there is no time," and it's internally cohesive and competent, then it's a pretty safe bet what's coming out is you.  It's your first instinct, your comfort zone, that which you've internalized, that which you understand, can control, and have mastered.  Nothing's worse than deliberately trying to do something you wouldn't actually do, to sound like somebody else (or not sound like somebody).  Personal style is always in there, and over time, takes many forks and roads; you don't have to force it and you don't have to sweat it.

As I look down at the pile of reference scores I cracked open from time to time on this score, which are still on the floor, I notice the usual suspects: Ravel, Schumann, Barber, Holst, Penderecki, and no Williams.  But that's where "Williams" lies, in all ways, anyways.  It's an amalgum.

_Mike