EWQLSO Gold take one

[mewman]

After a bit of playing around I finally got to finish, for the most part, a piece using my newly acquired EWQLSO gold software (Thanks Santa!). It's a one minute action cue. Does this work as chase scene music? Any feedback would be great.http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... trueMewman

[jonathanm]

First off, this is really good.I wouldn't think of it as a chase scene, but a suspense scene, where the good guy is searching through the dark old house for the killer, knowing he's in there somewhere, but just not sure when he's gonna pop out.The end needs to build dynamically a bit more to a big payoff as the bad guy jumps out. Good stuff man.

[mewman]

Thanks johnathanmI hear you about the ending. Perhaps one more repetition of the bass line with a thickly voiced bit of dissonance in the final chord. Man, I love the sound of this library!!!Mewman

[davewalton]

Jan 12, 2009, 9:38pm, mewman wrote:After a bit of playing around I finally got to finish, for the most part, a piece using my newly acquired EWQLSO gold software (Thanks Santa!). It's a one minute action cue. Does this work as chase scene music? Any feedback would be great.http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... MewmanYeah, definitely more of a suspense scene than action/chase scene. Experiment more with your choice of articulations. The ones you're using here don't have much in the way of dynamics (legato patches?). That was and still is the biggest learning curve for me... learning where to best use (or not use) the various articulations. There's a lot of articulations (especially with brass) where the instruments swell up dynamically from soft to loud, either as part of the articulation itself or done through the mod wheel.But that all is just a time and experiment thing and staying with shorter pieces is good. One more suggestion. Find some articulations that have "life" in them all by themselves. Then write some music that would make the best use of these articulations. I think some refer to it as "writing to the articulations". Doing it that way, you'll find your music really breathing without much extra effort on your part. Then you can fill in parts with legato patches or others with a little less "life" to them and everything still sounds good. Nice present from Santa! Dave

[devin]

+1 vote on the "suspenseful search" vibe. Shadows scurrying at the edge of the screen kinda thing.If the bad guy/thing is found, it would need a bigger ending. As it is, it sounds like the search comes up empty (not a bad thing either...both happen!).Great tune!

[jonathanm]

Jan 13, 2009, 4:15am, devin wrote:As it is, it sounds like the search comes up empty (not a bad thing either...both happen!).Great point. You should keep two versions, as they could both be useful.

[mewman]

Thanks for the great feedback. You were right Dave, I used mostly Legato patches. I'll definitely take your advise and spend some serious time exploring the different articulations. I like your idea of using specific articulations as fodder for new ideas. I'm so used to using new sounds as inspiration. This should help lead me to more subtle statements. Thanks, all of you, for help in the classification. I'll play it while looking for the right articulations!Mewman

[mazz]

Also think of how you would notate the phrasing and choose the articulations based on that. If you want the violins to play a phrase all under one bow, then use a legato articulation but use velocity and CC11 to control the dynamics within the phrase. If you want them to play with alternating bow strokes, use a round robin short articulation. If you want them to do something like Dah Dah Dah Dot Dot, then you'd have three notes on a legato articulation and then switch over to a short articulation (while at the same time using CC11 to control the expressive dynamics of the phrase).CC11 is already programmed in to control a bit more than volume and I usually put a starting CC7 (volume) at the very start of the sequence, usually a value of 100 out of 127 to give some headroom (just turn up your speakers if you want it in your face loud). Start your sequence on bar 2 so you don't erase your CC7 info. Then I'll use CC11 mostly and CC7 sparingly, when I need more on a crescendo or something.Also the DXF patches are nice for certain things, I know matto uses them quite a bit. This way the mod wheel crossfades in to a brighter patch (i.e. timpani rolls that crescendo at the rate you want them to), which gives you control over the expressiveness.I prefer to use the "canned" crescendos and if they're too long I'll start them earlier and just fade them in.There's lots of tricks and I'm finding that the use of articulations and expression (CC11) go a long way to emulate the way a real orchestra would play. Try doing a few bars from a Mozart symphony or something that has some dynamic markings because that will eventually influence your writing and your orchestration. A lot of the virtual orchestra stuff I hear doesn't have much dynamics and as a result it doesn't have a lot of life to it. Dynamics and dynamic range is what makes an orchestra such an expressive beast and using samples and not doing that basically takes the guts and life out of the music, IMO.Have fun!!Mazz

[mewman]

Great suggestions, Mazz. I especially like the idea of doing mock ups from classical scores. I obviously also need to check out all the articulations and work on my mod wheel techniques. This is going to be so much fun! I spent the day transcribing music from the Film "Riddick" with the hopes of getting a better understanding of action/suspense music. I've got a pile of films lined up and hope to glean a better understanding of the harmonies and rhythmic devises used to create the tension in fight scenes, etc.Thanks!

[stevebarden]

Mewman,I recently purchased EWQLSO Gold. For me, the best way to get to know all of the articulations provided in the library has been to go through the entire library - articulation by articulation - and playing around with the sounds to discover what each one is capable of and how to best use it. Then I would record a short 15-30 second musical example. Later I would listen to the examples over and over and try to commit to memory my new friends. It's been a laborious process but I think well worth it.An article came out today talking about instrumentation and orchestrating. The short version of the article is that you must first have a clear understanding of how each instrument sounds, their range, capabilities, etc. before you can even consider orchestration. Reading all of the orchestration books in the world will have no meaning if you have no have no clue about what an instrument sounds like. An interesting read. Check it out here: http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=2393Good luck!Steve