Posts by PatrickAThompson

http://audiojungle.net/item/cinematic-piano-1/2976493

http://audiojungle.net/item/cinematic-piano-2/2978712

Have a listen!

What’s the business about a ‘cup’ of coffee.

I’m not awake until I down the entire pot.

Try layering! (I don’t have Requiem, but I’m sure there are options!)

For example: Have “Do” and “Fa” played at the same time… or if there’s an effects patch (shouts, whispers, etc..) layers those on occasionally as well. This helps make it apparent that you’ve got a choir, but sort of muddies the perception of an actual syllable. I’ve noticed that syllables like “tus” take longer in EQWL choirs and Liberis as well….

There’s a reason for this. Sing it with me.. “FA!” “TUS!” No matter how hard I try, “tus” will always take JUST a little longer to say than “fa”. The programmers of the library knew this and are keeping it that way for realism sake. If you need a more rhythmically-specific line, use more simple syllables (then use the longer sounds to highlight end of phrases. “Fa do ra ma i luuuuus Do la meh re ta tuuuuuuuuus”. etc…

(Just gibberish… But if, on accident, I typed out something offensive, forgive me

I can’t say that I’ve ever tried this… but I think it’s worth a shot.

I do think your best bet would be to upgrade to Requiem Pro… Though I don’t promise it, I imagine that “Pro” has velocity triggers to get you a deeper sampling of dynamics… Maybe even mod wheel control. This will be ESSENTIAL for getting the sound you’re after.

It all goes back to thinking about the orchestration – take the French Horn. It can do some KILLER staccato… bop.. bop.. bop… But it can also do that famous heroic “rip”. Buddle-ump! The rip, while still VERY short, will always take more time than the staccato because there are more sounds packed into it… Same thing with ‘tus’... That ’s’ on the end will drag it out every time… kinda like the F.H. rip.

Heck, that might be your solution right there… Aim for syllables that end on vowels.. (except for maybe the long A sound – bake, cake, etc – because it’s a dipthong, being made up of two sounds, “eh” and “ee”...)

I could go on and on… Just finished my coffee, so I’m rather wired right now.

I hope you’ve found some useful ideas in this long and rambling post.

An amazing VST that has all the bells and whistles… but low on a memory footprint…

When you find it, do let us know

Honestly, it depends on what you’re doing.

You can have a choir working as a choir…

Or.. you can have your choir working as an additional orchestral instrument.

If you’re trying to do the latter, (but I’d never publicly say this)... the choirs might as well be speaking gibberish. Take John Williams’ music… “Dual of the Fates” perhaps. Is it French? Is it Tattooine?? Does it REEEEEEEEEEEEEEALLY matter to the average listener? No. The vibe, emotion, orchestrations are all perfectly suited to what Williams wanted to convey – without injecting pesky understandable lyrics into the composition.

Or even music in and around Cirque Du Soleil… Yes! Some of the lyrics are in French… but the composers have admitted that some of the lyrics are absolute nonsense gibberish – because they want the audience to ‘feel’ the music vs. trying to force-feed an intelligible line to them…. all to great success… (Though they seem to be adding more and more English into their shows… bah!)

Anyhow, my point is this. If you’re using the choir as an instrument, I implore you not to use any kind of actual text or language. I find it horribly distracting when listening to the piece as a whole. If this is the case, Requiem (Pro), Liberis, and several others can be sufficient if you massage them properly.

The closest I’ve ever come to replicating an actual choir (using EWQL Symphonic Choirs + WordBuilder) was…. maybe 65% convincing. I had to hide it all under a LOT of reverb… and even then, it was in Latin

I’d love to hear you and others chime back in to tell us what your goal is – and maybe we can discover a new solution!!

My 2.3 cents

Hey there!! I’ve got a few to add, if you’d be so kind.

Thank you SO much!

Leave it up! I can’t think of any benefit whatsoever of removing a track for no other reason than it hasn’t sold…. yet.

We had a conversation similar to this one about 2 months ago… and just as I had added my reply, an extended license was sold on a previously un-touched track that had been sitting, dusty, and lonely for a few months. If I had removed it, I would have missed that sale.

I’ve got several tracks with 0 sales… but I know that someday, someone will want it… and they can’t license it if it’s not up!

Though there are definitely exceptions to the rule – after all, they’re meant to be broken – I feel like music which is specifically composed for use in media needs to be attention-getting from beat one of bar one. .. something that tells the entire mood\vibe of your track from the downbeat.

If you’re hoping a potential buyer listens long enough to get to the ‘cool’ part, you’re going to be disappointed more often than not. Buyers (especially those who do media for a living) don’t have the luxury of the time needed to wade through a track that doesn’t grab them – in hopes that it develops into something more.

Now.. that’s not to say that every track of mine does this… or when it does, it doesn’t flat-line at the open. No. I try to grab their attention, and THEN develop the piece.

It’s the difference between writing (dynamically speaking): p mp mf f

VS

f p mp mf f

Again… some tracks don’t call for this..

In short… Show us what you’re about to do… Then do it.

My 2.3 cents

4 out of 143…. That’s 2.7%

Hey DShine!

In addition to everything above, the first thing that stood out to me was the siren sound effect.

I know, in the world of your music \ creation, this siren makes sense and adds to the vibe of the track..

However, if a buyer came across this track for use in their project and love the music – they still wouldn’t buy it. Sound effects are best left to the end user. Allow THEM to put the sirens and vinyl effects in if\where they want to.

You have to remember that a lot of AJ’s music goes in to video projects… Directors need control over their sound effects… If it’s already inside the track, the music (no matter how cool it might be) is not usable.

Consider it like this… When you order blueberry pancakes from a restaurant, you want blueberry pancakes… They serve you blueberry pancakes…. Then, if YOU choose, you can add butter or syrup in whatever amounts you want. If they served you the pancakes with 2 cups of butter swimming in a gallon of syrup, you probably wouldn’t want the pancakes anymore.

Do the music. That’s what buyers are after.

Don’t get discouraged though… Stay at it!!

Hey MrLukeFor!

I did a quick scan of some of your stuff.. Perhaps your entire portfolio isn’t the same, but my comments are just based on listening to snips from a few tracks…

From an orchestration standpoint, consider doubling (either in unison or in octaves)... So, if you’ve got a string bass line, try doubling that line in cello up an octave… Or if you’ve got a cello line, try doubling it with French Horn. OR… If you’ve got a French Horn line, try using 2 different patches from 2 different libraries. Given, not all music NEEDS to be rich… You’ve got some great thinner-sounding stuff! In order to get the rich sound, however, you need to make sure that the full spectrum is used, higher notes, middle notes, and lower notes—keeping your harmonies in the middle and upper ranges.

Like they’ve said above, it would be good to invest in high-quality sample libraries. Forgive me, and I don’t want to sound rude with this, but some of your tracks sound a little ‘computer-y’. It’s not that the music itself is bad at all… but it’s the difference between having your music played by a world-renowned symphony vs. a high school symphony. A strong sample library will give you that realism – thus making your music more competitive in the market.

Listen and listen and listen to great recordings of music in your style…(preferably with the printed score in your hand) and study how the instruments work together. Notice how different a legato string line sounds. Take note of how much echo\reverb is in the recording. Discover all the minute details in the recording and try to emulate that when you’re composing\sequencing.

As composers, we can no longer get away with putting out a pretty little tune. Buyers and media consumers want realism when it comes to orchestral music. Electronica is an entirely different animal, as everything is SUPPOSED to sound synthetic.

Take the time to study this stuff. Invest in yourself and your career and you will definitely see a difference. Most importantly, understand that as a musician, you should be constantly learning (and in life, in general). Keep at it – and don’t get discouraged!!

My 2.3 cents.