Sports, etc.

[mazz]

Hi all,Just posted a new piece intended for the recent Sports Instrumental listing.This was an attempt to combine rock sounds and orchestral sounds. Would be interested in any feedback. The piece is called "Enter the Guardians"Also, I've posted, for a limited time, the full length version of a demo I wrote for a promo for an Oscar special (didn't get picked, better luck next time). This is an example of completely orchestral music using only EWQLO which many of you have. The piece is called "His Name is Oscar". The original demo was 1:00 but the requirement for the final was to make it at least 2:30. You'll hear the themes from the first minute repeat. This was a tough one to extend Located here: http://www.broadjam.com/artists/artisti ... 9913Thanks for listening. Mazz

[allends]

Love it Mazz! If "Enter the Guardians" was a little faster it would sail beyond a dance groove into more of a rock sound. As a player I thought the guitar parts were very effective. It starts off out of the gate with an energy explosion. Nice!All the interest you built into "His Name is Oscar" is very fulfilling on many levels. As an accountant I really get into that compounded interest Thanks for sharing. You make the forum a great place to learn!-Allen

[matto]

John,the Sports piece works really well for me, energy is great, sound is great, nice build with the guitar in the end.The only thing I could say is that maybe it is a tad repetitive, I could have seen little change-up somewhere, perhaps a short break where the orchestra stuff dropped out or a shift to some kind of brief pyramid build...Not a big deal.The Oscar piece for me suffers from trying to do too much (almost kind of the opposite from the sports one I guess). Compared to most of that type of stuff it lacks a simple and catchy enough melody for my personal interpretation of a "Theme". You do have a theme like melody played by the trumpet early on, but it's a bit on the complex side and never really comes back. I also think that harmonically this piece may be too ambitious for the intended application...lots of key changes It's a great composition in and of itself and extremely well crafted and orchestrated, it's just that as an Oscar Special THEME it doesn't seem to give the listener enough "guidance" and have enough for the average ear to latch onto and hum along with. IMHO.As I've already mention I really like the orchestration and mock-up, the only thing that struck me as not convincing is the trumpet melody in the beginning (perhaps not too surprising since I'm a brass player ).I would've tried a DXF patch there to be able to give that melody some expression and shape, perhaps one with Velocity tied to the attack to allow for more nuanced phrasing (DXF Acc Vel).All in all a great composition and impressive sound!matto

[gitarrero]

hey mazz,just listening to "guardians..." (the sport one).good sound, cool orchestral parts, good rhythmguitar, well mixed.the only thing(s) I would change:* the lead guitar sound is a little sharp, that can make the ear of the listener tired I think (ok, maybe my focus is on here since I'm a guitar player;))* the snare sounds like kind of "doubled" in the middle of the track - it sounds like there were two hits.* I would add some more variations to the lead guitar-lineas I said, these are for sure minor issues - I like the track overall!cheers,martin

[jeffe]

Hi Mazz. I think the quality of some of your music, and the production is excellent. I had a listen to "Enter the guardians". Yep, it could go for sporty stuff.From my critical standpoint, I heard something else that I thought that would add to that. Perhaps you might want to just experiment, to see if you know what I'm getting at.Most sports are about speed, skill and agility. I thought of something really simple that might add that aspect to it. You know when you hear a speeding car pass, or a jet fly by. That high pitch to the left. Even pitch in centre. Low pitch right. Maybe a few of those. Wind, cymbals etc passing through the stereo field.You may have a different idea but I just heard those in my head when thinking about sport.It's a great song as it is. I'm just being obsessive.

[mazz]

Hi Folks,Thanks a lot for the feedback.I think Matto was right on point regarding the over complexity of the piece for the intended usage. It's a good piece, just not on target for the request. I was going for the whole Hollywood experience from what you hear when at the beginning of the movie over the logos to Star Wars type heroic, etc. etc. Too many ideas for a 30 second promo! I guess you can't squeeze 10 pounds of "you know what" into a 5 pound sack. I like the ideas for the sports piece, faster tempos and whooshing sounds. I don't watch much sports but I did go to ESPN and listened to one of those fast talking commentators give the highlights of the week and heard a piece kind of like the one I wrote. So songwriter's observation about the newsdesk show was right on I have to admit something about the lead guitar. I don't play guitar (I have a mean A chord if you give me a couple of minutes to find it), that's my Roland V-Synth. I ran it through an amp simulator but the sound already is good enough to inspire me to rock it a bit. It's hard for a keyboard player to think like a guitar player but I try my best to do it when I play these leads. The rhythm guitar was from Virtual Guitarist and I layered 3 different tones as the piece progressed. If you listened to those guitar parts isolated it would be apparent that they weren't "real" guitar but I did my best to mix them in a way that would at least give that rocking vibe without calling too much attention to themselves.This forum is a very supportive environment. Thanks everyone.Mazz