Hello all! Her is my newest track, “Terminus.” The style is hybrid orchestral Sci-fi. This track was inspired by Isaac Asimov’s novel series, Foundation. I had previously read the first book and recently found that Apple TV+ had made a TV series based on the novels.
The piece is in the key of E minor and the main chord progression is essentially Em-Cmaj7-D, but the overall harmonic feel of the piece revolves around an Em6 harmony; it’s and arpeggio that is almost constantly in the background somewhere. I feel that a minor 6 harmony really lends itself to kind of a mysterious, spacey sound.
The tempo starts at a slow 66bpm for the intro, then increases to about 100bpm and remains there for the duration. The meter is an odd 3/8 time which was based around my initial idea, the main ostinato bit played by the violas/cellos.
Instruments used:
Metroplis Ark 2/4/5
Cinematic Studio Brass
Soundiron Temple Drums
NI Action Strikes
NI Rise and Hit
Heavyocity Mosaic Bass
Impact Soundworks Juggernaut
u-he Tyrell
Liquidsonics 7th Heaven reverb
DAW: PreSonus Studio One 5
mixing/mastering: iZotope Ozone 9
Thanks for the kind words Steven. I really appreciate that you thought the mix is good, since I spent a lot of time (and crashed my Mac twice ) trying to get as professional a mix and master than I’ve done before. After, when I ran the Ozone 9 reference master assist, there was almost no difference, so I realized that I had gotten the mix really close!
You absolutely got that sound you were going for spot on. I love the journey of it. It was all very coherent but still had a sense of movement from one section to the next. Excellent use of sounds as well, they all compliment each other very well.
As Steven mentioned, it’s a brilliant mix as well. So good in fact, that when I started to listen on my iPad I knew I had to pause, grab my headphones and restart it
Thanks for taking a listen Jacob. I’m still searching for that magical formula (if there even is one) to get the mix sounding the same through any format you listen through, as the mix will still sound a bit different through headphones/PC speakers/cellphone/iPad, etc.
What I found was key to this mix was, first running all my percussion through a separate reverb bus then attenuating some of the low-mid frequencies (normally where the double bass/cello live) from them. Then also using pretty much ALL of the mic positions in the Metropolis Ark strings patches and then only the room and main mics in the Cinematic Studio Brass patches to set them a bit further back in the mix.
) trying to get as professional a mix and master than I’ve done before. After, when I ran the Ozone 9 reference master assist, there was almost no difference, so I realized that I had gotten the mix really close!
