I have just finished my latest project and wanted to share with you.
It is a movie score-like music that has been on my mind for quite a while now. It took me a few years to collect all necessary instruments before I could finally try to compose something in this vein. It is my first attempt in this type of music so any comments would be highly appreciated!
I’m glad you like it gripz. I really enjoyed composing it, and it is nice to know that it is also enjoyable to listen to
It-Alien your positive feedback is especially flattering since I have been listening a lot to your “Hands” for the last few days. I’m not completely clear on that tv-series vs. movie-style distinction though, but I think tv-style is good too
I’ve been wanting to try this style too… can you share any pointers? As in… good sources for this type of percussion?
Some of the drum hits here sound a bit… identical, computerized. But that’s really just a minor nitpick. The composition itself is top notch. Amazing work on the strings!
Gave me an inspiration too, I am working on something similar now but lets see if it ever materializes. I have found excellent orchestrasounds from Nexus2 + bank Dance Orchestra and DSK.
Thanks for your comment joltz. If you want the percussion that I used, you can PM me with your e-mail and I can send you samples. I don’t know of any good source. I collected my instruments over the course of a few years and I don’t even remember where most of them come from, sorry
I’m not sure if you really want to hear any pointers from me, since I have no music education whatsoever, and all my “composing skills” are based on listening to professional music on my headphones Having said that, the “technique” I used to compose this song was to actually do it over a long period of time. It took me around one month from the first pattern to the last one. I was giving myself quite long breaks – like 3 to 5 days – without listening to it at all, in order for my brain to “reset” and hear it fresh again. I think it helped me a lot, because after a few days break it was easier for me to notice some fragments that seemed out of place, or just didn’t sound right (for me it is sometimes difficult to notice such parts after listening to the song over and over again, because my brain kind of gets used to the melody even if it is not that good ). I also worked on it only one or two hours at a time.
So with long breaks and short “sessions”, it took one month to compose it, but the real man-hours I think weren’t that many. This made it easier for me to include many different parts where the music is sometimes calm and soothing, and sometimes more dramatic and louder. This was my conscious decision, because I think I wouldn’t have been able to achieve that if I composed this music in let’s say a day or two.
It’s probably not a good schedule for someone who composes music professionally, but for a hobbyist like me it actually served as a nice relaxation after work
I’m not sure if this is of any help to you, but that’s something that worked for me in this music and I think I will try the same technique again in the future.
Ahh. I appreciate the offer, but that would be too much like cheating
I’ll do some more sample hunting. Probably most of the sound comes from having a great reverb, even if the samples by themselves don’t sound that huge…
I do this as a hobby too, and definitely know what you mean about taking long breaks. Sometimes I’ll come back a few days later, “woah what was I thinking here…”
Actually I’ve been on a pretty long tracking hiatus… pretty much skipped 2009… 2.5 is changing that!
You are right that reverb can definitely do the trick here Sometimes it can take a while of tinkering with an instrument to make it sound right.
I take long breaks between my tunes too. I pretty much skipped 2009 too. I just composed two songs in November and December of this year. I’m planning to be more active in 2010 – and yes Renoise 2.5 will definitely help with this
Having said that, the “technique” I used to compose this song was to actually do it over a long period of time. It took me around one month from the first pattern to the last one. I was giving myself quite long breaks – like 3 to 5 days – without listening to it at all, in order for my brain to “reset” and hear it fresh again. I think it helped me a lot, because after a few days break it was easier for me to notice some fragments that seemed out of place, or just didn’t sound right (for me it is sometimes difficult to notice such parts after listening to the song over and over again, because my brain kind of gets used to the melody even if it is not that good 
). I also worked on it only one or two hours at a time.
