First attempt at instrumental cues (ambient drone)

[shalashaska888]

First attempt at doing instrumental cues in response to this listing:

Please submit ambient Drone Instrumental Cues that deliver an eerie and ominous feel with very little to no melodic movement. For the purpose of this request, you’d be wise to stick to a singular motif and mood throughout your pieces, so your submissions are cohesive from top to bottom. Your Cues can have faint, cinematic sound design elements as well as sparse percussion, but don’t go overboard. Remember, less is more! Keep it simple and ambient. This is more about the mood being really evident than winning "Composer of the Year."

Note: Although your Drones should have little to no melodic movement, the client would like to hear Instrumental Cues that create a sense of development over time to maintain interest from start to finish.

Not sure if there's too much going on here - I kept bouncing back and forth between not doing enough and doing too much as I was making these. Any and all feedback welcome. And thanks to everyone else posting their tracks in response to this listing, there's some great reference material there.

[AlanHall]

I think I was able to match up your description to S200412ER Eerie Drones, but with several ambient/drone listings current, I wasn't completely sure. Each of the three listings are looking for their own 'special sauce', your cue must be on point for the specific listing. Having said that

I agree that you've spent more time than needed on drone cue #1. In fact, you could take each 'event' that occurs (there's 3 or 4 points where I felt something new was happening) and make a separate cue with that material.

Drone cue #2 has a melody (sounds to me like a sci-fi 50s style electric organ) that repeats over the drone. Take that out and you might be done, or re-evaluate and find something way more static to drop in.

Overall, Good work! I like the sounds and the feel, although it could be nudged more into the "eeire" realm.

[AlanHall]

I kept bouncing back and forth between not doing enough and doing too much as I was making these.

So there you go: I thought drone #1 had too much, Tom thought too little. Glad we got that straightened out!

[shalashaska888]

I think I was able to match up your description to S200412ER Eerie Drones, but with several ambient/drone listings current, I wasn't completely sure. Each of the three listings are looking for their own 'special sauce', your cue must be on point for the specific listing. Having said that

I agree that you've spent more time than needed on drone cue #1. In fact, you could take each 'event' that occurs (there's 3 or 4 points where I felt something new was happening) and make a separate cue with that material.

Drone cue #2 has a melody (sounds to me like a sci-fi 50s style electric organ) that repeats over the drone. Take that out and you might be done, or re-evaluate and find something way more static to drop in.

Overall, Good work! I like the sounds and the feel, although it could be nudged more into the "eeire" realm.

Correct, it's for listing S200412ER, so looking for "eerie, drone instrumental cues." Thanks for the feedback, I had a feeling that the melodies in each song would make them feel a bit too busy and crowded. I'll rework them a little bit and see what I can come up with.

[shalashaska888]

I kept bouncing back and forth between not doing enough and doing too much as I was making these.

So there you go: I thought drone #1 had too much, Tom thought too little. Glad we got that straightened out!

No, I should really add to my comments: I also first wanted to write too much going on in the middle of drone 1, and kind of forgot about it. But other parts (beginning, 3rd quarter) feel to static, and this could be changed by modifying the underlying drone. The spooky parts are maybe too prominent in the middle. Tuning them down or EQing them differently might push the track more towards eerie. Hope that makes sense.

Tom

Thanks for both posts, lots of good info here. I've been experimenting with a lot of automation on the synth parameters for these tracks, but haven't played with EQ automation yet, could be a more efficient way of shaping the sound over time. Thanks for the idea.