Hello everyone!
I want to share my composition that I recently made for the “kynofsynths” competition from Cymatics, it’s an all-genre competition with the condition that we have to use a free sample synth pack that they shared.
Genre/Style: I chose to make an “epic cinematic” piece
Creative Vision for the Track: I was looking for making a “dark” ambiance, with a “futuristic” look using the Synths of Cymatics combining them with a whole orchestra and a female voice and a male bass voice (the male voice is subtle in the background at the end), but the main point was trying that sounds big and epic.
Composition Details (Tempo, Key, Main Chords etc): it starts in a 4/4, for the rhythm part changes to an amalgam time signature “6/8 + 2/4” much faster, to 155bpm from 85, in the middle part returns to 4/4 but faster than the beginning (96Bpm) and for the end returns to the amalgam time signature.
the key remains in D minor through all the piece, the main chords were: Dm+6, AMajor, Gm, and Bb major.
I used an ostinato arpeggio with the plucked synths in the middle and last part.
Main Instruments used: the main instruments were freebies:
For the whole orchestra: BBC Discover
Arpeggio fast Violin: Labs strings-short
Frozen cello: Labs
Percussion: saga acoustic trailer percussion (thanks @Mikael for the Jurassik Park Contest)
and the free Fantasy sample synth pack from Cymatics
Very cool piece Ismael! You definitely got the epic/trailer music sound down. I really liked the ostinato pattern you came up with and the chill-out section in the middle.
thanks! i’m glad you liked, I forgot to write in the description that the female voice and the bass male voice are cellphone recordings from people close to me (a friend and my girlfriend jaja) the samples of that synthys are free and available in the page of Cymatics, they are the “Fantasy synth sample pack” there are a lot more of intersting samples out there!
Very nice work, Ismael! I love that you mixed a live, solo vocal against a digital landscape. The contrast in timbre and color was very effective.
Some of the other comments mentioned the mixing / mastering which I also noticed. Epic, at least to me, does not necessarily mean loud. To your credit you used other devices in your writing that achieved that effect.
I’ve seen Richard Bellis’ name here. Richard once talked about the difference between “film music” and “music videos”. The key, he said, was in the first word. With “Film Music” the music supported the film. With “Music Videos” the video supported the music.
Since this was a “cinematic” effort those quick changes in mood, volume, etc. could easily be justified by an abrupt change with the visuals on screen. In fact, the ability to have the music turn on a dime to accommodate the visuals is not always an easy thing to pull off.
My one thought has to do with the abrupt change at 0:39 of the piece. I may have put a cymbal roll or some sort of shimmery, metallic riser to build up tension for the explosion at that point. It’s effective visually as foreshadowing (like hearing a race car coming at you at high speed).