I'm not sure if you're still around, or will ever see this post, but..
I completely agree with Halo, the musical ideas are not always absolutely amazing, but what I will compliment you on is how professional they sound. Did you master these yourself? What sound libraries do you use? East West? What sequencer? Logic? ProTools? Do you notate your scores in standard notation, or just sequence audio files? Do you publish your scores, or just the audio? What education do you have? I'm just curious.
I'll also compliment you on knowing so well what exactly it is the 'consumer' wants to hear in their music. You must have good ears, to hear the intricacies of commercial orchestral music that's used today, and to be able to bring it into your own repertoire so seamlessly.
You have a wonderful grasp of the music that you write. But at the same time, I get this empty feeling from your music. This feeling that, if MTV made a channel for orchestral music, this is what they'd play exclusively. Like the Black Eyed Peas of Orchestral music. You give them what they want, and that's something I personally don't agree with. Not 100% anyway. I'm sure you will make a living with this, but other musicians are probably going to hate you for it.
But that's just me.
Hello Arlen!
I decided to check by and see how things are going here, i'm glad I did now I can answer your questions.
1. I would like to first say off that you are right in that these tracks are a bit "void". Working in the flash scene it is imperative that the music blends into the background. You just can't afford to create really vivid and interesting songs because the bottom line is if you do that the songs get old quick and irritate the player since there is so little time to convey an idea it is best to keep it audio wall paper where possible.
2. Yes I do master these myself, using mostly built in tools from Fruity Studios (which kind of answers what I use). I've recently picked up Izotope Ozone 4 which is a pretty beastly thing to use. The plugins you are hearing are largely East West. I could write a giant list of all the libraries I have but many of them are rare case needs so would not exactly be of benefit to you.
3. I notate on paper only when I want to work out some key modulations as that is easier on me then doing it on the piano roll. I don't use notation as a prime means of composition itself as I don't have perfect pitch and need to hear what i'm doing as I go. I am self taught completely and I started this from ground zero early 17's. So to anybody reading this and going "there's no way in hell I can do that at this age" think again. There are those who have spent half the time I have and are already doing movie contracts.
4. I publish all audio files either for licensing or free use/listening as is my audio page. Creating scores for these songs are really hard because I do a lot of things to the notes in the piano role for realism that a notation program would fall over backwards on. Things like move the notes a little bit faster/slower on beat for realism, ridiculous sustain for trail effects etc etc. So unless it's imperative, scores are not published.
I hope this answers your questions, please feel free to ask any others! I'll get to them... eventually ^^"
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