Re: Minimalist Orchestra Music

[dgolding]

I'm not really qualified to offer an opinion about if it's a good or bad example of a minimalist orchestral piece, all I can say is that I liked it. It wouldn't sound out of place at all behind a TV show or movie. The quality and production sound excellent to me.If you put a gun to my head and forced me to make a critical comment, it'd be that the mix seems to get a tad busy around 1:40, but even that is growing on me as I hear it for the 3rd time.Best of luck with it.

[mazz]

MINIMALIST ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTALS a la Phillip Glass, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich.........It's up at Broadjam and the title is Parabolahttp://www.broadjam.com/artists/artistindex.as ... ID=9913The piece is very short compared to most minimalist music (Reich's Music for 18 Musicians runs 40 minutes or more). Parabola is 3:21, short on purpose for commercial appeal . I tried to evoke the three examples as best I could but I did add some non idomatic touches here and there. EnjoyFeedback appreciated.Mazz

[davewalton]

Quote:MINIMALIST ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTALS a la Phillip Glass, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich.........It's up at Broadjam and the title is Parabolahttp://www.broadjam.com/artists/artistindex.as ... ID=9913The piece is very short compared to most minimalist music (Reich's Music for 18 Musicians runs 40 minutes or more). Parabola is 3:21, short on purpose for commercial appeal . I tried to evoke the three examples as best I could but I did add some non idomatic touches here and there. EnjoyFeedback appreciated.MazzHey John,"Really nice piece" probably isn't helpful but if it's not broke, no reason to fix it. Everybody has a niche and I don't know if it's just a personal preference on my part but this and the "Clouds" thing are two of my favorite tracks out of your catalog of music (that I've heard so far). I've never done any minimalist orchestral and was looking forward to doing this. Unfortunately I mismanaged my time and so I'll miss this submission. Maybe I should focus on time management rather than composition. Dave

[mazz]

Thanks for listening.I use East West Quantum Leap Orchestra Platinum library. Everything in this piece was from the library with no outside samples used.The thing that sets the Platinum version apart from the others is that is has 3 mic positions, Close, Middle and Surround. That means 3 sets of samples for each articulation.In this piece I used all middle mics and then added close mics for the strings and woodwinds. This allowed me to "zoom in" on certain parts that I wanted to accentuate. I track everything to audio after extensive MIDI editing. I edit velocity, controller 11 and also use numerous tracks for different articulations. For instance: The 3 trumpet parts were tracked on their own MIDI tracks, 2 parts using the same samples and one part an alternate version. For each trumpet part there were 3 MIDI tracks, one for sustained notes, one for staccato notes and one for crescendos (in this case controlled by mod wheel).The mixing was pretty much performed as I went along using the MIDI tracks although I did manipulate the mix a bit after everything was recorded as audio. I bussed the strings and woodwinds to their own auxes so I could control them as a group although I did automate individual tracks within the groups as well.No additional reverb was added as the library includes samples of the concert hall where they were recorded. These are triggered automatically when a note is released. I use 3 computers to compose with, one runs digital performer and also the full string section and piano (mac). The other two are PCs, one runs the brass and percussion and the other the woodwinds only. They are connected by ADAT cables and MIDI cables, everything comes in through my MOTU interfaces and is recorded and mixed in digital performer at 24bit 44.1Khz.I ran the final mix through T-Racks24. I cut about 1.5db, wide bandwidth, around 2.5K and barely touched it with the compressor and limiter. Per Dave Walton's recommendation, I start with a preset called Gentle Mastering 2 and work from there. I think cutting a bit in that range may help when the mp3 process gets ahold of it I really try to picture a real orchestra when I work on a piece like this. That really helps me to get a basic mix together and then I can proceed to mess with reality to suit the needs of the piece.As has been said here many times, mixing is both art and science and I don't profess to have it down but every time I do it, the mixes (hopefully) get better and I learn something more.Thanks again for listening. Mazz

[burninsven]

Sounds fantastic and really interesting, I agree totally with the others. If it´s minimalistic or not beats me to but to an amateur like me it sounds like there´s a bit to much going on from time to time. The only "artificial" component I could identify in this one is that there seems to be some tempo issues that needs to be looked over in spots of this piece. I believe I can hear what you want to do rythmically creating an ofbeat feel in theese spots but it needs a little tweaking drag it a millisecond or so. Also I think you need to add some "room" to the mix to get that concert hall feel. I`d pay good money though to go listen to this peice in a concerthall played by an orchestra oh yes so don´t get me wrong now I loved it. It´s just that you´re so good at this so the critique comes a little harder hehe. Thanks man for sharing Göran