Hi! This is my first post at Composers' Forum (I take this opportunity to say that I'm really glad I've found a place like this) and I'd like to introduce one of my last recordings.
This was originally a simple piano solo piece, but I added an orchestra afterwards. That is why the piano is constant and there is no alternation between both.
I used Sonatina Symphony Orchestra soundsource to record the piece, which is pretty good, but there might be some tempo issues here and there.
Does it sound good to you? This is thought to be an incidental piece, and that's why the progression is so faint and monotonous, but rather than that I'm afraid I'm not a good arranger at all. The piano score is very simple and...Satie-esque (??) but sometimes I feel I fail to mime that style properly. Also, sometimes it seems to me like the last part of the piece is a bit of a mess...
I have a limited knowledge in music theory but I play piano since I was a kid, so I rely in my own intuition more than anything. Am I in the wrong way?
Attached are the mp3 file and the piano score.
Thank you everyone!
Replies
I really enjoyed this, so much so that I've probably listened to it 4 or 5 times since I came upon your post yesterday! I feel like it would work great as incidental music. I don't really feel comfortable talking about the theory since I'm pretty limited in that regard as well; however there were a couple things that I noticed. Am I right in saying that the piano part is a live performance? It seems to me like the sounds don't really match, that's minor though.
I tend to agree with you about the ending; I wouldn't call it a mess, but I feel that the forte at bar 25 is a little to abrupt and maybe even to much, especially given what you intended this piece to be. The only other thing I could mention is that your pause before the last note feels a little long to me and it doesn't sound like the chord resolves fully...but like I said, weak on theory so :)
It's a pretty simple and nice composition. The sound and the arrangement problematic to me. Of course you have tempo and sound mix issues. The end is very uncertain. It looks like you didn't know yourself how to finish it.
You should try to start and arrange a piece for 2 instruments for starters. Try to play with a metronome.
Start with simple stuff. Create a piece for strings only for example using pizzicatos and legato strings in you vst program.
Try to find the right ranges in these instruments for them to sound well. Each one should compliment the other.
Read some stuff about the basics of recording and mixing.
Thanks for your comments!
All the instruments are recorded from the sampler, the piano as well. The tempo issues are due to some problems I had with Cubase and Audition, which forced me to record all the tracks playing them directly in the keyboard, and syncing all the strings correctly that way is really a pain. I'll make a re-recording at some points. However, I put a lot of dedication to put all the instruments in the right pan, as well as applying the most suitable reverb and presence. I'm still a noob in that matter, though.
Why are you working with cubase AND audition? Mixing is not only about panning. That slightly covers it.
Allays be careful with reverb on instruments with a low end registry. That'll turn up into a mashup of random sounds and rumble.
I thought it was quite pretty, but after a while it did get monotonous. On the other hand, if it was used as a background it would work fine (aside from the unfortunate bits at the end). I thought the piano sound was very good - I was surprised. The strings sounded rather poor, but even really expensive midi programs have awful strings.
Really expensive strings - like Project sam - Symphoiba sound really close to the real thing, if you know how to apply them.
Scott Miller said:
Quite a nice little piece - properly mixed this could be effective incidental music. It ended rather abruptly though - think of a better way of winding the music down.