Here's an anonymous one for you. This composer sent these two related pieces in for you to critique. The composer is a member of the Composer's Forum and will read your comments.
Please be honest and suggest ways to improve!
(The name of the piece has been changed.)
Well...
Sometimes I think the guitar does sound "harpsichordish" as mentioned by Pete,so I would agree..however, most of the orchestra sounds fake/synthie. I also have a hard time trying to follow the flow/story if you will of the score(s). The melodic tones are unusual..sometimes colorless. I hope that this does not offend, remember its just a critique from my ears.
Stephen
I agree with the others, I am not too keen on the guitar, perhaps a bit of reverb may make it sit a bit better in the mix. Maybe another intrument might work if you only use synth sounds?
I think I like part 2 better than part 1. There is someting about the structure of both that sounds
'tentative' or overly 'careful', rather than confident. Yeah, I know that sounds vague. Maybe part of
the problem is subtle timing issues. I'm not sure. In Part 1 you progressively use phrases of different
lengths which feels disorienting to me. The big negative is the cheesy instrumentation. I mean the
synth patches, not the ultimate intended acoustic instruments. We can write something brilliant for
piano, but if we demonstrate with a little toy piano, we won't be drawn into the music.
Here's some general recommendations: Look closely at your arsenal of instruments/samples.
Determine which patches are usable. For example, my MIDI controller is an old Alesis Quadrasynth Plus.
It came with like 500 patches. Out of all those, I would only consider about 30 of them 'usable' in
a demo recording. Of those, there are only a few samples of acoustic instruments that are
actually good enough to use and record in a composition. Look at all of your synths/instruments/patches and limit yourself to the acceptable patches or samples. I really enjoy synthy patches myself, so it's fun to
arrange a piece with the best of those sounds. With this strategy you can present demos that sound
professional, rather than a cheesy approximation of acoustic instruments.
If you compose for orchestral/acoustic instruments, you MUST use quality samples.
Or go the other way and base your compositions on quality synthetic sounds. I use a Nord Modular Micro for designing my own sounds and there are literally thousands of quality free patches on the web.
Thanks for sharing your music. -doug
Replies
Sometimes I think the guitar does sound "harpsichordish" as mentioned by Pete,so I would agree..however, most of the orchestra sounds fake/synthie. I also have a hard time trying to follow the flow/story if you will of the score(s). The melodic tones are unusual..sometimes colorless. I hope that this does not offend, remember its just a critique from my ears.
Stephen
I agree with the others, I am not too keen on the guitar, perhaps a bit of reverb may make it sit a bit better in the mix. Maybe another intrument might work if you only use synth sounds?
Nice tunes though!
All the best
Neil
'tentative' or overly 'careful', rather than confident. Yeah, I know that sounds vague. Maybe part of
the problem is subtle timing issues. I'm not sure. In Part 1 you progressively use phrases of different
lengths which feels disorienting to me. The big negative is the cheesy instrumentation. I mean the
synth patches, not the ultimate intended acoustic instruments. We can write something brilliant for
piano, but if we demonstrate with a little toy piano, we won't be drawn into the music.
Here's some general recommendations: Look closely at your arsenal of instruments/samples.
Determine which patches are usable. For example, my MIDI controller is an old Alesis Quadrasynth Plus.
It came with like 500 patches. Out of all those, I would only consider about 30 of them 'usable' in
a demo recording. Of those, there are only a few samples of acoustic instruments that are
actually good enough to use and record in a composition. Look at all of your synths/instruments/patches and limit yourself to the acceptable patches or samples. I really enjoy synthy patches myself, so it's fun to
arrange a piece with the best of those sounds. With this strategy you can present demos that sound
professional, rather than a cheesy approximation of acoustic instruments.
If you compose for orchestral/acoustic instruments, you MUST use quality samples.
Or go the other way and base your compositions on quality synthetic sounds. I use a Nord Modular Micro for designing my own sounds and there are literally thousands of quality free patches on the web.
Thanks for sharing your music. -doug