Tears of Glory [Action/Orchestral]

Your Music
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Hello composers! I’m new to this forum. I have listened to a number of works on this forum and I have heard very strong compositions and different styles here.

I would like to briefly introduce myself first. I am a starting music composer and I study music production in Amsterdam. I specialize in music for films and video games and I recently decided for the first time to put my work on Spotify and YouTube. I would now like to present this piece to you.

Track title: Tears of Glory

Track description: A short and fast, heroic composition with a powerful vibe.

Composition Overview : This is by far not my most complex composition. I wanted to compose a piece that was recognizable and easy to listen to. Like a rollercoaster of emotions. The piece starts in Dm, tempo 6/8, with my main theme. After that the mood switches to adventure/romantic. In the middle the mood shortly switches from heroic to action/exciting. Almost at the end you hear a tempo change and I make a kind of a ‘ladder’ of dim chords, that redirects you back to my basic theme.

Software Used :
I use Ableton Live for producing and after I finished producing I use ProTools for my trackouts/final mix. The plugins I used in this piece consists almost exclusively out of EastWest sounds.

Main Sounds : 1st violin, 2nd violin, viola, cello, double bass, trumpets, trombones, (french) horns, piccolo flute, flute, oboe, clarinet, music box, and harp. The percussion consists of multiple plugins.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I am a starting composer. I would love to receive feedback on this piece. If you have any questions, I would like to hear.

If you liked the composition and you want to do me a huge favor, you are welcome to listen to it on spotify. You help me enormously with that.

Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/album/62Gm5rkYh9P1jbdP0P95CI

Thank you very much,

Theu

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Hi @Simpolished,

I see you are a fan of 2SFH?

The only advice I would like to give you without going in super details what “could” be improved is to buy their CD(s), take a pencil and notebook and start to analyze everything what comes to your mind in music and in mixing. One side is music, how do they build their tracks, what exact instruments are used, when and how, etc. Mixing, what “obvious” FXs do they use, compression, balance, EQ…so much stuff if you start to get into everything…automatically your music will benefit from track to track.

Quick things I heard:

  1. Don’t repeat yourself “theme” too much in terms of exact copies, I liked the C-Part where you still use the theme, but with other instruments. Variety is key, even if you take out the percussions…
  2. Choir is always a “problem” in terms of “realistic” production. If you use voice, use it wisely, know to disadvantages of the samples (in general as well).
  3. Use more reverb or make the track using one reverb for all, so the track is glued together and is like in one place…EW is great out of the box, however, the mix is quite dry…especially for trailer/cinematic/soundtrack/orchestral…

After second listening:

  1. Choir -> more reverb,
  2. Mix-balance is great but lacks a lot of volume-automation. Example: you have beautiful string runs, which you could present more to the listener.
  3. Change your harmonies more in between. After 30 seconds it’s obvious what comes next, so it gets boring. (You know what I mean :wink: )
  4. The intro is TOP notch. If the whole piece would be like the first 4 bars, it’s instantly a great track for big productions!
  5. You have a lot of great ideas, the runs, the lines, the small details you put in. The only thing that I can give you, as I said before, learn the ins and outs of that genre and you will get big placements for sure!
  6. Add more layers, so the mix gets even bigger and gets more depth.
  7. Last thing: Use more automation, it sounds crazy, but the automation part takes sometimes more time than the composing itself! I can tell you immediately that you used only 10% of what the tracks needs. Now imagine if you put 3 more hours into automation how the mix will sound then!? :slight_smile:

Keep going! You are on the right path!
Alexey :slight_smile:
@jlx_music

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Hello Theu,
Great sound, love the main motif that has that nice glide in it. This piece starts instantly with the motif, I would have preferred an intro or at least only teasing it somehow first.

Good variation in the orchestration, however I feel the motif and the “movement” of it is used perhaps a bit too much overall. So the 3 note movement in the theme has the same movement motif repeating in different harmonies following the chord progression. I would have introduced some variation in the movement over the phrase.

I like the light mid section, followed by the percussive bridge into the theme again…that run/staccato build into the theme again is the best part of this entire composition, well made! Reminds me of Hans Zimmer - Pirates of the Caribbean OST which uses those super massive action runs/builds for many transitions.

The final chorus, I would have made it even bigger/more intense. I usually like to reserve some final high voice part to help with that, such as high flutes, 2nd violins on top. As well as some extra power percussion. Just some examples.

Again, this is just my opinions/suggestions on what I would have done. :slight_smile:

Overall a great composition, good orchestration, arrangement, fits the style well. I liked it! :slight_smile:

Sincerely
Mike

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Dear Alexey and Mikael,

Thank you very much for your feedback. I have not yet come across communities where you receive feedback on this type of music. I greatly appreciate that you have taken the time to listen and comment on this work. I understand and agree with what you are saying. This is detailed feedback that I can really use!

I will definitely include your feedback in my upcoming production. I hope you don’t mind if I approach you again in the future. This feedback means a lot for a starting composer like me!

Thanks again,

Theu

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This is why I created this professional community…to give and get help, give and get feedback, share tips, learn from others etc. :slight_smile:

If you have a new composition, please post it in the same section, it’s what it is there for! However, next time someone else might reply with feedback, that’s the name of the game. The advantage of a community! :smiley:

PS. Please always give when you get…I think you already made very detailed feedback on my own composition. I have run Facebook groups for 3 years, and sadly 99% want to GET without ever giving. That is why I set a rule to give feedback to others, for every track you post. You should think that would be obvious, but sadly…most people are lazy unless told otherwise lol :stuck_out_tongue:

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One more tip for you @Simpolished , a simple but so powerful:

Start this kind of compositions with your last section, the last climax.

Trailer music is build like this all the time: You throw everything in, all sections, do the best possible orchestration which gives the “biggest power” on earth, haha :), and from there, you have a much more easier life to create the parts before the last one, by reducing the sections, the voices, etc. The problem could occur when you start with the first part, that you start to big, and later you don’t find more “space” for the instruments and orchestration. Experiment as well with only “solo” instruments in the beginning, which play the same melody, hook, ostinato,…because if your “drop/full arrangement” comes in, it will be heard as even more powerful.

With some little things like this, you can trick the listener that your music is even more powerful. A good example of a superb orchestration which is super simple but so “on point” is this track: You don’t have this “ALL IN”-mode, however you feel how powerful the track actually is, even if it’s not loud and in your face…

Everything is so clear, so straight forward. Just perfect. As well check out how much “automation” Wilbert uses, so many dynamics in all instruments, sections…one of the reasons, why this track is so emotional as well!

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Thank you for posting this. I liked it very much. It did have a little too much repetition though. And maybe a little call and answer? Example, the female vocals once or twice, than some male.

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hello,
great composition great theme and melody
if i can emit a suggestion i find that there is a lot of trebble and medium but a little basses
like low brass , bass trombone or tuba because the low bass is not enough to balance all the other instrument even if it is a low string.
and also low percussion like the taiko and low timpani,
but everything is really good it remember me the gardian at the gate in the begining

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Florent and John,

Thank you very much for your feedback. I will definitely include your feedback in my upcoming production! I’m looking forward to listen to your productions as well!

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Hi,

I think its a good track but yes, I am not gonna give any insights because its clear that you are better then me, you are also following music classes which I do not do so you will know it better then me. I liked the track and listened to it on Spotify for you. Hope it made you happy!

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Hello Jimmy,

It doesn’t matter how far you are. We both experience music in a different way, so feedback is always welcome! I want to thank you for listening and your response!

Theu

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Sounds great man. I’ve been contemplating getting the sub for EW. Would you recommend it?? This sounds great! Really enjoy the contrary motion and the orchestration!

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Great feedback. I back your observations. Great tip for simple trailer composition too, though I would also add that trailer music is progressing to be much more filmic. So simply repeating progressions won’t work for too much longer.

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They’ve already given you some great advice, I agree with everything they told you :slight_smile: I really love the transition you make at 1:33. Really a nice part that could have preceded a much more powerful and big entry … good luck for everything :slight_smile:

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Hello Geoffrey,

In my opinion the sounds from EW are great, especially for that low price. But the engine (PLAY) takes some time to practice. It’s a tricky plugin and I know many easier ones. But, for that price, composer cloud is well worth it.

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I may make a discussion about this as I’m enjoying the woods sounds and choir sounds which I’m currently thin on the ground with on my collection. They do sound good but I have herd that the player isn’t the best, and it’s very laggy…

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I liked it a lot as far as the melodies and arrangement go. If I was going to suggest something (and it looks like he’s going to) it would be your dynamics. in the middle there was clear evidence you were trying to do that but you need to take out more. Like no brass or only brass but a simple beautiful melody that feeds back softly. I think you already had a nice melody but it was buried ergo the comment. It is nice. do it again. If nothing else put it in Audacity ( It’a free if you don’t have it and chop it up and write the new part and replace it to see if you like it before you commit . Good Job.
Sean

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I agree with Mike. In short your melodies are better than your placement. Dynamics. I also get bored if I have to listen to the same volume and brass. If you wrote intro parts for the sections as an exercise it might help. I posted a piece called Symphony in the Key of Hope. Movement 1 It does what I am talking about. each section pays off. NO payoff no money. I wrote it almost like 5 pieces of music and worked as hard on connecting them as I did writing them. But even if you don’t like the piece you can see that you have no idea what’s coming next so it’s fresh and each section pays off melodically and dynamically. good job. Sean

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Thank you for your feedback Sean. I will definitely include your feedback in my upcoming production!

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