Hey there fellow composers, so I wanted to share with you my two last orchestras I made and wanted to get some honest feedback and advice about the two as I am new to composing orchestral, and which one you preferred. For the two, I’ve mostly used VSCO2 Orchestra. The next ones that will be posted will use Spitfire’s free VSTs and The Free Orchestra.
The first one is closer to a classical piece and has influences from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the beginning with the string tremolos and then it is more like a normal classical ensemble with the piccolo used for the main melody. The chord progressions change during the whole piece and therefore does not have a main theme. At a moment you may notice I also took a small inspiration from Beethoven’s 7th Symphony beautiful - somewhat mysterious and melancholic - chords. Overall it has a light feel and has some darkness but not that much you tell me. I’ve tried to balance sadness and relief.
For the second one I wanted it to look more like a cinematic with percussion and drums to give it a more epic feel, though I wouldn’t call this epic music. However I wasn’t so proud about the percussion if you have any advice about that would love to hear some. You’ll notice there’s a very low double bass playing the D# note throughout nearly the whole piece and I put it to make it more stressful with the overlay of short crisp strings. I called it ‘Uprising’ by thinking it could portray the rise of an army marching back after a defeat. There’s a louder moment where it could be the two armies face to face and the sadder moments for when the two leaders discover each other.
Ah great Alexis, nice descriptions. Although in the future I think it’s better to post each track as a separate thread, will be easier to keep track of feedback etc. But you can keep this post as it is now.
Listened to the first piece, and will give my feedback on that!
Very intense and high tension beginning. I would suggesting working a bit on the transition to the “beauty” section from the tension section to make it more connected as it feels a bit sudden now.
Nice use of long chordal movement, feels indeed a bit classical in both sound and style. Could have perhaps spiced it up with some occasional background details like arpeggios, runs etc. to add some flare.
Overall very mellow and beautiful composition, I really enjoyed it. Of course, it would sound even better with high end sample libraries with lots of dynamic layers and expression!
PS. TIP: If you write the YouTube or SoundCloud link of your track on it’s own line in the post, it will become automatically embedded in the post.
Thank you so much Mikael for the insightful comment it’s great to have advice from experienced producers like you I really appreciate it. I’ll work on the transitions more for my next composition and spice it up.
Anyways, I really have a good feeling about this community!
Yes, the best way to improve is to keep making LOTS of music!
And also, listen, listen and listen more…to professional compositions. Not only for entertainment, but to analyse everything you can hear!
First off, great job, especially seeing that you are new to orchestral works! I can tell you are not afraid to try new sounds, to experiment with various instrument mixes, that’s a good thing!
The first piece has a very nice
Flute theme “floating” there. When I listened to it, I “heard” a harp helping around 1:09 to provide some forward movement, you might consider that. And perhaps a bit more tension at the beginning with some tympani rolls providing some ebb and flow there.
The second piece has some really great ideas incorporated. For more listener experience, at the beginning I would add some type of tonal drums in between the single pulse of the hard beat you have going, and then add to that with either increasingly louder drum beat or additional types of percussion to get increasing tension toward the middle and end of the piece.
Of course, this is what I would do so it’s simply my opinion and I am certainly not the end-all of composition
Thanks a lot for the advice! I will work on that as I will distribute it on other major music platforms as a remaster. Also, I tried to check out your YouTube channel but your link didn’t work if you have it I’d be glad to hear your music as I do not have SoundCloud.
