I think I might give this a try as my first attempt at entering a contest here.
2 Likes
Yes please do Valentine, it’s fun and a great way to improve our skills by making more music 
1 Like
This is great! Any time limitation? 2 minutes or less? 5 minutes? Lol.
Not really, well…at least over 1 min so it actually feels like a composition and not just a snippet 
Looking forward to hear what you come up with for this challenge Marcus.
Here you go. Thanks for the opportunity. I would appreciate any and all feedback. Created using GarageBand on a Mac.
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski.
For those interested, here are the sounds I used:
GarageBand Orchestral Percussion
Looperman-Anubis-Escape-Sensation
@Soundiron Hyperion Strings Elements
Spitfire Pianobook Bechstein
Spitfire LABS Granular Piano
Spitfire LABS Super Sul Tasto Violin
Spitfire LABS Choir
Spitfire LABS Amplified Cello
Spitfire LABS Strings 2 Swell Ensemble
Spitfire Originals Epic Brass and Woodwinds
Xpand! 2 Orchestral Creation
Xpand! 2 The Bigger Story
Xpand! 2 Romantic String Ensemble
Xpand! 2 Taiko Thunder Drum
Xpand! 2 Timpani
2 Likes
Hey Marcus, great entry!
But you should post it as its own thread in the contest section of the forum, here:
https://forum.professionalcomposers.com/c/contests-for-composers/beautiful-music-contest-jan-2020
Will do. Thanks! Should I delete it here?
Nah, it’s ok. As long as you post a new topic in the section.
1 Like
Done. Cool. New topic created. Thank you again!
1 Like
This has a nice, quiet feel to it. Like the quiet beginning of an important, significant event. Almost overlooked at first, then the slow realization something monumentous is about to happen.
1 Like
Thank you for listening and sharing your thoughts. I definitely appreciate the feedback!
Wonderful and BEAUTIFUL compositions Mike! I really enjoyed listening to them! Blessings my friend!
1 Like
…and last Friday, my system disk died. No data lost or anything (apart from some DRM activations locked to the disk serial number, possibly; this is exactly why I prefer dongles), but I don’t even have a new disk for a proper reinstall yet, so the studio is still down.
So, that pretty much rules out any attempt at RPM 2020 (was already low priority, as there’s too much else going on) - but I still intend to have a go at this contest. I’m mostly just practicing on the cello anyway, so the DAW isn’t really needed yet anyway.
Nooo! That’s so sad. 
Was that a M2-based system drive? I haven’t had a drive failure on SSDs so far, but I had several over the years on spinning discs.
1 Like
Well, it’s not the end of the world. Kind of needed some more time away from computers anyway - and the cello doesn’t need an OS! 
Anyway, yeah, it was a Samsung 970 EVO M.2. Fast as [censored] (about 5x most SATA SSDs), but that means it generates a fair bit of heat as well, and I’m apparently not the first one to see one fail… They should come with heatsinks, as some other performance M.2s do.
I’m putting the replacement, and a new (2 TB) system M.2, on a riser board next to the RAM slots, so they get airflow from the RAM coolers. I didn’t think that would fit (the riser is taller than the DIMMs), but it actually does, with about 2 mm margin. 
Indeed; this is the first SSD failure I’ve seen so far (and I have a bunch…), but I don’t think I’ve had a single HDD failure either, actually - despite having two of those disastrous IBM 75GXP disks, that would typically die within weeks or months…! Both of mine survived for years, until they were retired. At my former job, though; I had four HDDs die on me for no obvious reasons.
So, statistically speaking, disks of any kind are pretty unreliable. Don’t trust them!
Really beautiful compositions, I loved the theme of the first composition, and the next one has an incredible choice of instruments (violins with bagpipes), the atmosphere and chords are perfect for a magical and inspiring scene
1 Like
Since you play the cello, do you have any project one could listen to where you play? Love to listen to cello and violin.
Nothing much yet (only been at it for about half a year!), but I played a few notes in the intro of my latest 8Dio scoring compo entry:
I meant to play the cello parts on one of my NaSoAlMo 2019 tracks as well, but ran out of time (two days for all recording and editing, so I only did vocals for three tracks), so that’s placeholders with the Tina Guo library. Works great for the last bit, but the more intense part would need some serious programming - which annoyed me a bit, as I actually managed to play that rather well, despite the long, fast shifts. But, it was all just a challenge to get off the ground with EDM anyway, and I’ll probably work more on some of those tracks later. There will certainly be real cello on this one eventually.
2 Likes
Damn. So good. I see your point in track number two regarding the cello. Your tracks are highest class.
2 Likes