From reader “hysteria”:
I like it ( really like it) but sometimes i listen to it and im not sure if its really that good. I would love to know what some other composers such as yourselves make of it. What do you think of it as an overall piece, its sound quality, melody, structure? Composed using Kontakt 4’s strings and choir instruments. Its an orchestral/choir piece, not sure what exact genre it should be under. What I would like to know is where should I go with this? What libraries do you think would be interested in this kind of track/ or would you recommend in submitting this to. But really I just want to know if you like it much. Any comms are appreciated, good or bad. I have a few other instrumentals that I would submit along with it.
This is one of my favorite genres.
It is very Eno, pretty and ambient, along the lines of ‘An Ending (Ascent)’ by Brian Eno.
Love the gurgly SFX in the background.
If I had one suggestion… maybe add (more) long delays to the vocals and strings, make it a wash.
We would accept this track into our library no problem, well done.
-Mark
“We would accept this track into our library no problem, well done.”
There you go Hysteria. It doesn’t get any better than that.
This is a really well done track. It works well as a “relaxing” track, but also has a very filmic quality. I could easily see this backing a sunrise / sunset across a windswept landscape, or almost any gentle scene in nature.
With respect to your string question: now that I’ve listened to your track I don’t think that any of what we mentioned below, Garritan, East West, Kirk Hunter would be appropriate.
I believe what Mark was suggesting with “long delays” to create a “wash” is a much softer sound than you get from those libraries. If you have Omnisphere, I think the Adagio string pad would fit the bill.
Nice work.
Cheers,
Michael
Thanks for the positive feedback MichaelL and Mark. Glad you enjoyed the track! I can hear what you mean about making the strings and vocals wash a little bit more. They might sit better together that way and could give the track a deeper atmosphere. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks Mark. Iv kept in mind sending my stuff into PIR/Musicloops, but at the moment im still on my way to meeting the required track amount for entry. 20 at the moment.
I love it hysteria, very evocative and ideal for loads of uses. If I were to change anything I think Michael’s suggestion is a good one. Omnisphere or Atmosphere to augment or replace the strings would add too the overall ambient wash feel. Eno is the master of the the ambient wash, he listens to a lot of gospel choir music which gives you where some of his influences come from.
Its a lovely piece even if you dont change anything, nice one.
UP the Dubs LOL
Thanks Denis. Glad you liked the tune. I must be doin something right if its reminding people of Eno! Its a pity i dont have omnisphere or Atmosphere to experiment with the string sounds. Ill have too add that to my wish list.
Down for Sam!
@ Mark Lewis (PIR) I’v finally reached a total of 30 songs ready to be licensed. Id love the opportunity to work with PIR/Musicloops. I can send you a link to 20 of my tracks online. I sent a link using the basic site enquiries form section on PIR.com. Is that the right place?
Yes, I saw your email.
I will review your submission when I go through all of the composer inquiries next week and get back to you.
Thanks.
Thats great thanks PIR.
Thanks for the tip Rob and thanks Pat. Yeah I dont like Kontaks strings, they seem to need about a half hours EQ+Rverb before they sound smooth in any way. If only I had an orchestra. I do seem to have a problem with repetitiveness with my recent music. I never had a problem when I used to use Reason but now with Cubase i find it a lot harder to be dynamic. I tried crucial. Rejected. 🙁
I found that once you’ve been rejected about the 40th time, you need to submit one more, then another one and maybe another oh, and did I say one more?.
I’m thinking about the Garritan instant orchestra. Might be good for guys like us who don’t have the kind of expertise some of these guys have. I just haven’t pulled the buy trigger yet.
If you want a nice orchestra that gives you more way more than the Kontakt samples, think about EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Gold. Sign up for their newsletter, wait for a 50% off sale and pick it up for $200. Don’t bother with the Silver edition, it’s missing too many articulations. For starters, it gives you expression control, has way more articulations and effects than the standard Kontakt and IMO is easier to work with. And it’s a level up in quality than Garritan. I’m still using it until I can fit Hollywood Strings and Cinebrass into my budget.
Only caveat, is some people have a hate relationship with Play, which is the EWQL vst that runs all their instruments.
I have the silver version. I would suggest gold if possible. I don’t like that you can’t take all that washy reverb off and make it dry if you want to.
That’s why I got the Platinum version. That reverb bothered me with the Gold also.
EWQLSO is far better than Garritan, not just in the number of articulations, but in the overall sound (if you’re doing cinematic / orchestral stuff).
Platinum standard is on sale for about $450 now. I know that sounds like a lot, it’s about 2K less than it was five years ago.
Even though EWQLSO is about 10 years old, it still sounds pretty good.
How does EWQL compare to Kirk Hunter? If anyone has used both.
HI euca,
I haven’t used Kirk Hunter.
What Pat and Art don’t like about EWQLSO Silver and Gold is not actually reverb, but the single mic position.
EWQLSO Platinum has three mic positions: close, stage and surround (far). You can mix the three positions to your liking. Silver and Gold only have the stage mic which is at about the conductor’s position. EWQLSO has good sound for cinematic / orchestral tracks.
But…if you want more intimate strings or horns for a pop track, it doesn’t work. It’s too big.
To follow up on Michael’s comment, the Kirk Hunter products are quite dry (like the Kontakt instruments) but include varying ensemble sizes eg. 16 1st violins, 8 violins, 4, 1, etc. EWQLSO is more limited in ensemble sizing and has some reverb baked into the samples from recording, so yes, they’re better for cinematic than intimate or pop/rock settings.
I have EWQLSO Gold, and Kirk Hunter Concert Strings 2 and Concert Brass 2. Only got the KH products just before Bub was born so haven’t had a chance to use them adequately. They sound excellent, there are some great articulations in them that EWQLSO lacks, and vice versa. My initial impression is that they complement well, rather than using one exclusively.
Thanks Rob and Michael, I do have Kirk Hunter Emerald and I do really like it. I wanted to see how the EW stuff compared and if it would be worth having both. I know in a perfect world you can never have enough samples!
I write quirky pieces when it comes to strings so I mostly use staccato and pizzicato articulations and Kirk Hunter along with some other samples I have really seems to fit the bill.
I would like to do some cinematic pieces, that’s mainly where my question stems from, to see if Kirk Hunter would cut it, so to speak.
Pat,
You can make the overall sound a bit drier by turning off the release tails of the samples and playing with the release of the envelope. Won’t dry it up completely but will make a marked difference.
Ps. But per Michael’s comment, yes, playing with the reverb will make no difference if what you’re actually needing is a different mic position as Gold only has the one.
Thanks Rob. That’s worth trying. I like the strings except for that. I’ll give it a shot.
HTH Pat.
BTW, since you already have Gold, and EWQL have a 50% off sale on right now, you could pick up the additional mic positions for it, for $119 or upgrade to Platinum for $160 (that gives you 24bit samples).
IMHO, that would make more sense than buying Garritan which is a step down in quality and would require another learning curve.
Actually, it’s the silver that I have Rob. That’s why I’ve been stalling on a decision. I already have Garritan personal orchestra and Garritan 4. I use neither and never have. Something about the sound that just never made it for me.
I was considering Garritan instant orchestra mainly for it’s advertised “so easy a caveman can do it” selling point. The others have way better sound but you need to know more than I kow to get the most out of it so I thought maybe I could use the instant orchestra and help prop the sound up with my East West silver stuff. Still on the fence. East West has been having alot of sales lately. Maybe I’ll have another look
Sorry, I should read more carefully. 🙂
Just so happens I got Art to put up a piece of my music on the juke box. I just did using Kontakt session strings pro. I’m not a orchestra type guy so I guess they’ll do for what I use them for. I like them but they have a bit of a hard edge to them geared more towards pop than orchestral. The price was right though.
Bit quiet in here…[insert rolling tumbleweed and crickets]…
It’s a nice pleasant ambient piece with a touch of maybe melancholy, nostalgia, something like that.
Depending on your target market, it might not develop enough and is very repetitive. Not a bad thing in itself but will limit its range of possible uses.
The Kontakt strings are not particularly expressive – this is not your fault – it’s a limitation of those samples. Try doubling the strings with a subtle but evolving pad that will add a sense of dynamics and expression to them.
Possible libraries? I don’t know for this one.