I redid "Dark Bring a Torch"

[Merryband1]

There was a spot in there where the screener said the melody needed to be a little stronger (and it did), so I did a little surgery and took the strong bit, copied & pasted it. Then I added some bells in a couple of spots and ended with some dark underscore. I'm curious whether you think it makes a difference over the original version. I'm willing to add more stuff to it if you think it would help. At this point, it's still primarily piano. Thanks for your opinions!

Cheers,
Merry

Dark Bring a Torch -- original version

Dark Bring a Torch - revised with bells and dark underscore at the end

[DBarnett]

Hi Merry!
The original version is gone and I had not heard it before but, I think this is a very strong piece
I wish I could play piano For what it's worth, I think it's very well done

[Merryband1]

Hi Merry!
The original version is gone and I had not heard it before but, I think this is a very strong piece
I wish I could play piano For what it's worth, I think it's very well done

Thanks, Dave! Sorry about that. I forgot about the private tracks needing /s- in the address. After working with it, I finally got it fixed (much easier if I'd done it on the laptop instead of my tablet!). Anyway, the track should play now.

I appreciate your kind words! Piano is something that runs in our family, like singing. And you could probably learn if you had time, but if your heart belongs to another instrument, the piano would know.

Even though it was a return, the screener complimented me on getting the dark and ominous feel. So, I'm just fixing it up for the future. I have a feeling dystopian music needs are going to be sticking around for a while.

Thanks!
Merry

[MJLeeman]

Hello Merry

In my opinion, you capture an appealing mood with your melody and the harmonic progressions in this piece. The reverb seems slightly overdone for me on the piano, but with some strategic orchestration and arrangement, generally on the thin and soft side so as to keep things in character, I believe that there is potential for something cinematic in your music. Personally, the orchestral colour and texture would have more emotional effect on the listener than a reverberating piano. I should say that I am in learning mode rather than an expert, but possibly you could try to adapt the voice leadings in your piano part to an orchestral setting, specifically strings and woodwinds which I think would give your music an extra dimension. Because your chord patterns are generally strong, you would be more than halfway towards this in my view, though I realise that the specific listing may not have envisaged orchestration, and the strong piano part might be indispenible in terms of the listing.

Cheers
Michael

[Merryband1]

Hello Merry

In my opinion, you capture an appealing mood with your melody and the harmonic progressions in this piece. The reverb seems slightly overdone for me on the piano, but with some strategic orchestration and arrangement, generally on the thin and soft side so as to keep things in character, I believe that there is potential for something cinematic in your music. Personally, the orchestral colour and texture would have more emotional effect on the listener than a reverberating piano. I should say that I am in learning mode rather than an expert, but possibly you could try to adapt the voice leadings in your piano part to an orchestral setting, specifically strings and woodwinds which I think would give your music an extra dimension. Because your chord patterns are generally strong, you would be more than halfway towards this in my view, though I realise that the specific listing may not have envisaged orchestration, and the strong piano part might be indispenible in terms of the listing.

Cheers
Michael

Hi, Michael. Thanks! You aren't the only one who thought the piano had too much reverb, so I guess I went a little overboard! One of the reference tracks was just a reverberating piano, and I took that as my guide rather than incorporating elements from all three tracks, which is one thing the screener thought could have been done better. I like the idea of maybe doing an orchestrated version. Now that I have some VSTs, I can play with it more, if I have time between trying for current listings. I appreciate your input!

Cheers,
Merry

[nicotina]

This is a cool and spooky tune. I think the piano is too loud sometimes, maybe even clipping? I like the bells at the end. You could possibly open the tune with the bells (think John William's Hedwig's Theme Harry Potter song), and also do some accents with the bells at key points in the tune. Regarding the reverb: I think it would sound cool if it wqs a church organ or a grand piano, because you might expect those to be played in a cathedral. But electric piano played in a cathedral doesn't sound quite right. So I think maybe experiment with different reverbs.

Best of luck,

Vince

[Merryband1]

Dark Bring a Torch - revised with bells and dark underscore at the end

Hi Merry

This is a very cool track!

The production is not quite there, yet. I do think it could benefit from a second instrument, e.g. strings - but they'd have to be good! At 0:37, the track really seems to want to introduce another instrument.

Yes, the reverb could be worked on. It possibly is not too much, but would have to be a little different. Using a side-chained gate, you could duck the reverb behind the piano, so it comes up when the piano rings out.

But I am more concerned about a good amount of distortion (clipping?) I hear from 0:41 onwards. At 0:41, it occurs the first time, but whenever the piano is loud after that, as well. You could check your limiter settings - maybe something went wrong there, and the limiting is too hard, instead of being soft. Or there is a chain where a limiter was forgotten and that causes the clipping? Not sure.

Good luck with it!
Tom

Thanks, Tom! I still have a lot to learn about side-chaining, limiters, etc.! I had the track volume softer, and the waveform looked too tiny when I looked at it on my TAXI page, so I redid it, and that's probably what caused the clipping. I didn't hear it, but then again, I listened with headphones, so that could be an issue, too. I'll be looking for some YouTube videos on how to use all the bells and whistles. When I started recording, we had a two-track reel-to-reel tape recorder, so things have changed a lot! (I was very young! )

I'm glad you like the track. I'll be revisiting it when I have time between listings and working on it some more!

Merry

[Merryband1]

This is a cool and spooky tune. I think the piano is too loud sometimes, maybe even clipping? I like the bells at the end. You could possibly open the tune with the bells (think John William's Hedwig's Theme Harry Potter song), and also do some accents with the bells at key points in the tune. Regarding the reverb: I think it would sound cool if it wqs a church organ or a grand piano, because you might expect those to be played in a cathedral. But electric piano played in a cathedral doesn't sound quite right. So I think maybe experiment with different reverbs.

Best of luck,

Vince

Thanks, Vince! There were some bells at the beginning, but an octave lower, and I think they blended in with the piano notes so you couldn't really distinguish them. Great idea adding in more accents. I'll work on the reverbs, too. I'm thinking of adding in maybe a bit of orchestration and taking it farther away from the original reference tracks if I can get my tower computer with the main DAW in it to cooperate and actually have enough memory to function! (I have a thread about Insufficient Memory going in the Production etc. thread.) I love Hedwig's Theme. John Williams is one of my favorite film composers and has been for ages.

It would be so cool to get to a church with a real pipe organ and play this cue... starting out maybe with something like a Flute 8 and then as it progressed, adding more and more stops until the crescendo near the end, where I'd pull out ALL the stops! And then back to a Flute 8 or even a Flute 4 for the very end, with a dark pedal underneath! I've been a church organist but never had the privilege of playing a pipe organ; they were all electronic. Still... Even electric organs can be quite effective if they have a full complement of pedals. (Come to think of it, one of my friends is the organist at one of the churches in town that DOES have a pipe organ... Hmmm. She already said I could play it... I'd just have to work out a schedule.)

You guys are all giving me such great ideas, I may do several versions. Orchestrated. Played on an organ. Piano with a few instruments. Synthed with spooky sounds... I love it! Thanks so much!

Merry

[Merryband1]

That could very well be. For instance, you could get this free limiter:

https://plugins4free.com/plugin/2843/

If you put it as the last plugin on your master bus, click the "Classic Mode" box, move "THRESH" all the way up, move "OUT" to approx. -0.3 dB, move "RESPONSE" so that it is lined up under "CHARACTER" (I am referring to the picture shown), the clipping might be gone already.

Tom

Thanks, Tom! I think I have a limiter already from NI. I will check to see if it will work with the settings you mentioned. I'm still learning about buses, too (or is that busses when referring to computers?). If I don't have a limiter, I'll check into the limiter you recommended.

Merry