Fly with me (Adventure soundtrack)

Your Music
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Title : Fly with me
Tempo : 120bpm, Mixture of classic orchestra setup, high woodwinds, strings and cello/basses.
Piece was built around the same motif, ever changing throughout.

Inspiration:
My thinking for this track was something along the lines of ‘how to train your dragon’ so it would be a scene between the young lead and female interest, them exploring together, soaring up to new heights etc. Wanted to try and get themes of love and adventure in the same piece.

1 Like
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Nice composition, I like how the music tells a story, good job!

If I can suggest a few things:

  • The programming can be improved overall by working on your legato phrasing. The legato lines (especially strings and background choirs) are all laid back and aren’t playing in time. You can easily fix this using negative midi delay and by listening to the lines in solo against a click track.
  • The piece lacks nuance and dynamics, it would benefit a lot if you rework that, at the moment, everything is unbalanced.
  • 0:34 - 0:55 there’s something in the low end muddying the mix, probably a closed voicing in the lower strings.
  • Maybe try different VST instruments overall, it will add realism to your music.
  • Try adding cymbal swells and harp glissando between sections to make transitions smoother from section to section. You can also try doubling some of them with timpani rolls when the orchestration transitions from quiet sections to denser sections.
  • I love the calm part with the piano at the ending, but maybe try lowering the spiccato strings in the mix as it’s distracting the listener from the main melody.
  • The small pause at the ending sounds a bit strange, maybe try having a 2/4 bar of silence instead of a 4/4

Overall, the composition is really nice, but it needs better samples and touch-ups on the midi programming and orchestration.

Hope this helps :slight_smile:
Medhat

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Wow, this is one of the best and most constructive feedback post I’ve ever seen. I am a huge fan of bullet lists for clarity, and I agree on the points here too. :slight_smile:

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Thanks for feedback

Yeh for some reason the strings were being laggy on this track and weren’t transitioning on legato well which hasn’t happened in other tracks so need to have a look at it,maybe purge the sample.

The track wasn’t mixed or mastered yet so a lot of the muddy and nuance should improve once I’ve done that. Was more to get ppls reaction to the tune and general layout etc, but appreciate what you’re saying :slight_smile:

Will definitely add some cymbals etc, was trying to work out what would help transitions so that’s really helpful.

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Really cool vibe @BenBeard,

the most important thing I can advise you is using A LOT of automation (a lot of volume rides with the faders/gains). Everything else is 2nd place. If you have poor samples, you have them, but even with poor samples, you can achieve amazing things, if you know how to use automation. Check out this track of mine and try to hear the small & big changes with levels and dynamics. Music has to breath, live and sometimes explode, if it needs to! The best way to understand this, is to hear a lot of classical music, so you get the idea, how instruments (can) play and blend together. The track is not for showing you how to do it or whatsoever, it’s just an example of using dynamics to get more excitement in a track:

Best regards,
Alexey

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I get ya :slight_smile: something for me to experiment with and work on :slight_smile: I think I suffer from the composer problem of just wanting my music out there haha , but always have to remember the little details

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Keep in mind, that no one is interested in your music, as long as it’s on your drive and not online. I do have myself this problem here and there, because the ambition is to make it perfect. The truth is, it will never be, even if you think it is. I heard a lot of tracks, which are used in video-games and films etc. but the production was really low quality, but nobody cares, because it fits to the project and that’s the most important thing at the end of the day. A good rule is, which works really fine for me, is to compose something, leave it aside for 1-2 days, come back and look up for strange things (sounds, instrumentation, pre-mixing, whatever it will be…), take notes and “re-better” the track and leave it for the next 1-2 weeks. After that I hear once through and take notes at the same time. Write down what bothers me the most. “Re-Better” once again and at this point I know I’m almost done. It won’t be perfect, but it will be really reasonable.

If you need to produce something, but have only a day, it’s another story, but you need to have rests between your ears and your music. The same goes with mixing. At some point you need to say to you, that I have no idea on how to improve the track and at that point you need to save it, bounce and show the world. Because if you start to over-think the whole process, you can destroy the track really quickly and most of the time the first idea and mix you had, was the right one!

Best regards & take care,
Alexey

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Very true, I have shared quite a few tracks on soundcloud already, and funnily enough when you sit and listen to a song with someone else you always notice little things you need to improve so can be quite good in that sense

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good composition, we want to go for the adventure
good rythm in your composition given by the use of string ostinati
to me there is nearly only one color, i explain, there is a lot of string perhaps add some woodwind like flute and clarinnet for a counter melody, and also some soft brass (french horn ) to double the end of a phrase in a little crescendo
you can also add some percussion like a snare drum played in mezzo piano
good job

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I found your piece of music here and immediately enjoyed the recurring rhythm in the strings. This hook in the strings gives the piece a certain boost and drive. The sixteen-bar melody (A) is very beautiful and memorable. As the song progresses, the melody or theme appears several times. In the woodwinds and later with the piano. Then there’s a B section between 0:34 and 0: 59. It’s built more flat and chordal. This is followed by woodwind (A1) with the theme and they play in staccato. I do not find this articulation at this point because it dissolves the vocal nature of the topic. The piano © plays something new for a short moment until it disappears in the transitional field between 1:39 and 1:51. Finally, the piano plays the theme (A2). The piece works at this point with the theme very calm and relaxed - maybe a little too dreamy. Then follows from 2:21 the outro.
I think it is problematic to arrange the following:

  • Hook line : Strings + woodwind

  • Harmony: Strings long legato

  • Melody: Strings

The frequencies of all instruments fight with each other. I think it is over arranged this case.
you can split exactly melody and backing.

Greetings
Klaus Ferretti

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Thanks for feedback. Funnily enough just completed orchestral course on writing and totally agree. This was one of my earliest pieces i wrote before knowing much about orchestral theory etc and frequencies so Im gonna go back and make some changes to this track soon :slight_smile:
Appreciate the feedback