New libraries, new template, new music!

[Mattias Westlund]

OK, so this is where I'm at right now with the template in general and this composition in particular.

The Sword Coast

Right now the template consists of the following libraries:

8Dio Adagio Violins for 1st violins, Soundiron Hyperion Strings Elements for the rest of the string sections, and 8Dio Deep Solo Violin & Deep Solo Cello (other solo strings might be added further down the line, don't feel like I need them at this stage though).

For woodwinds I'm mainly using Spitfire Studio Woodwinds with VSCO2 Pro filling in the gaps for a few solo instruments.

Brass is 100% EW Hollywood Brass Gold, though I'm thinking of incorporating the Majestic Horn from Orchestral Tools as I like it better than the EW solo horn.

Harps are Hephaestus Sounds Fairy Tale Harp and Versilian Etherealwinds Harp 2, percussion is VSCO2 Pro plus an assortment of freebies.

Female choir is some samples that came with Alchemy that I've been using forever, and the male choir is Embertone Ancient Voices. Choirs are basically an afterthought at this point; I feel choral stuff is so done to death in VO's that I'm not going to lose any sleep over not having anything more fancy than that.

Reverb is Exponential Audio R4.

Overall the levels need some work, and the dynamics in the piece obviously need a lot of tweaking. But I think I'm making progress.

[Paul Battersby]

That's quite the collection of libraries you're using. The music sounds good. It has your signature style. I like it.

[Terry93D]

It sounds stellar, Mattias. It's got your distinct style, but with a newer sound to it. Very cool to hear you coming back to orchestral music in some form!

I looked up the Hephaestus Sounds Fairy Tale Harp, since I'd never heard of it. What a find that is! It sounds fantastic and it's absurdly cheap.

[Samulis]

What a great track! A lot of nice places, some great orchestration, and a strong sense of direction. Honestly reminds me a lot of some of the music for 0 A.D., which I've been helping out on lately with sound and some music; I'd be curious about possibly submitting it to the team when you are happy with it, if that would be of interest to you.

I recognize some of that percussion.

Try layering VSCO 2 + EW Hollywood brass sometime, it's fun! The 'main' mics are also better than 'mid' to me for the entire Hollywood series, and greatly redeem it vs. the 'mid' mics, but I think the only way to get the other mics is with Diamond. I think they intentionally put the poorer sounding of the mic arrays in the Gold so it would encourage people to upgrade. (definitely don't bother with the Hollywood woodwinds, I am not much of a fan, which is very impressive as woodwinds are usually very easy to sample well)

(Honestly I still use the EWQL SO woodwinds from time to time despite being like 20 years old, and same with the strings even haha)

HW brass is quite good when using Legato patches. Definitely an improvement on EWQL SO! It just wants a very, very particular way of playing I think, which is not always fitting of every situation. Try out the true legato solo vibrato trumpet sometime, one of my favorites for slow, gentle melodies. 2-horn is also useful vs. 1-horn, pleasantly fuller without that "big horn section" vibe. I used that a lot in Airscape.

[Nayrb]

Yeah, sounds great! It's nice to hear some Spitfire in action. I feel like I only ever hear about their libraries, but the winds in your track are very nice. And the strings libraries are blending well together.

[Mattias Westlund]

(07-07-2022, 03:46 PM)Paul Battersby Wrote: That's quite the collection of libraries you're using. The music sounds good. It has your signature style. I like it.

Thanks Paul! Yeah, I've sort of picked up various things I needed when they were on sale over the last couple of years. I haven't had any real plans to get back into orchestral composing, but I figured that if/when I do, it's going to be a lot more fun if I don't have to worry about weak spots in my template.

(07-08-2022, 08:28 PM)Terry93D Wrote: It sounds stellar, Mattias. It's got your distinct style, but with a newer sound to it. Very cool to hear you coming back to orchestral music in some form!

I looked up the Hephaestus Sounds Fairy Tale Harp, since I'd never heard of it. What a find that is! It sounds fantastic and it's absurdly cheap.

Thank you! The harp is really cool, only issue with it is that it's close mic'd and super bright, so you need to sort of tame it in the mix or it will sound like it sits in front of everything else. Other than that I love it.

(07-09-2022, 01:45 AM)Samulis Wrote: What a great track! A lot of nice places, some great orchestration, and a strong sense of direction. Honestly reminds me a lot of some of the music for 0 A.D., which I've been helping out on lately with sound and some music; I'd be curious about possibly submitting it to the team when you are happy with it, if that would be of interest to you.

Thanks Sam. 0 A.D. is an open source game, right? I wouldn't mind submitting the track as long as it's not going to be the Wesnoth situation all over again, i.e. the peanut gallery whining about the music and requesting numerous changes that doesn't make any musical or compositional sense

(07-09-2022, 01:45 AM)Samulis Wrote: HW brass is quite good when using Legato patches. Definitely an improvement on EWQL SO! It just wants a very, very particular way of playing I think, which is not always fitting of every situation. Try out the true legato solo vibrato trumpet sometime, one of my favorites for slow, gentle melodies. 2-horn is also useful vs. 1-horn, pleasantly fuller without that "big horn section" vibe. I used that a lot in Airscape.

Needing a very particular way of playing is my only issue with it as well, it doesn't always feel intuitive. Also, it's sometimes hard to know what the different cryptically named articulations are and what they're for, but that might be down to me needing to RTFM.

(07-09-2022, 01:02 PM)Nayrb Wrote: Yeah, sounds great! It's nice to hear some Spitfire in action. I feel like I only ever hear about their libraries, but the winds in your track are very nice. And the strings libraries are blending well together.

I'm not normally a huge fan of Spitfire as each and every product of theirs I've tried has a super wet, distant sound. Even these winds -- which are called STUDIO woodwinds -- are almost too indistinct and blurry for my taste. They tend to sort of disappear in the mix if you're not careful. Then again, the levels in this still needs some tweaking.

[Samulis]

Wait Mattias, you don't like the name VLN SUS XF VB VB NV NV TL3 or whatever? Just when I found the perfect name for my first-born child. XD

Yeah 0 A.D. is open source. I have not had any revision requests aside from changing piano to harp for one track (to keep with the historical theme at least slightly). We did decide a few tracks didn't fit, but I think this is much closer to the game's existing music than anything I submitted, like, almost seamlessly close.

[Mattias Westlund]

(07-12-2022, 05:29 PM)Samulis Wrote: Wait Mattias, you don't like the name VLN SUS XF VB VB NV NV TL3 or whatever? Just when I found the perfect name for my first-born child. XD

It makes me feel like EW is just trying to be snobby and difficult. "Oooh, so you don't know what KM-VF-56-ST-11 means? Well, CLEEEARLY you have no business using our libraries, my good sir! And that is no fault of your own, it's only your sad lineage. Now, if you don't mind, let me show you the door."

(07-12-2022, 05:29 PM)Samulis Wrote: Yeah 0 A.D. is open source. I have not had any revision requests aside from changing piano to harp for one track (to keep with the historical theme at least slightly). We did decide a few tracks didn't fit, but I think this is much closer to the game's existing music than anything I submitted, like, almost seamlessly close.

That sounds promising! I'm going to wrap this up and see if I want to submit it.