Waffleness - Artichoke

Waffleness

Waffleness

New member
So, after a while of posting on HR I finally decided to upload one of my songs for you kind people to listen to!

Let me know what you think, any and all advice is welcome.

Its a funky-orchestral piece that I have had floating around my brain for few months now. I am still not 100% what direction I am heading with it. The mp3 on my site is as far as I have got.

http://www.waffleness.co.uk
 
I think the arrangement is cool. As far as realness goes, that depends on what you are going for. Sounds like a fake orchestra, but if that's what you're going for, then it sounds right. If you're going for a real orchestra sound, then it needs a lot of massaging.

what samples are you using?
 
bozmillar said:
I think the arrangement is cool. As far as realness goes, that depends on what you are going for. Sounds like a fake orchestra, but if that's what you're going for, then it sounds right. If you're going for a real orchestra sound, then it needs a lot of massaging.

what samples are you using?
Click to expand...

Im using Kontakt 3 which has sections from the vienna symphonic library. Im going for as realistic as possible, but I reached the voice limit on my PC :rolleyes:
 
Waffle,
it's not so much the number of voices as how each one sounds. What I can hear in your piece, and I'm probably wrong, are samples of sections of the orchestra.
Dip into David K's stuff. Generally he uses many tracks of individual voices plus stacks of tracks of real recordings.The combination is usually very, very satisfying to the ear.
Your arrangement is good, the funky sampled piano works well as the lead. The trumpet sounds much too much like a sample - it may be the playing but is probably the sample.
Nice tune - don't know that I'd keep a featured instrument over to the side unless there's something signifucant to counter weight it.
Good work so far - I look forward to developments.
 
rayc said:
Waffle,
it's not so much the number of voices as how each one sounds. What I can hear in your piece, and I'm probably wrong, are samples of sections of the orchestra.
Dip into David K's stuff. Generally he uses many tracks of individual voices plus stacks of tracks of real recordings.The combination is usually very, very satisfying to the ear.
Your arrangement is good, the funky sampled piano works well as the lead. The trumpet sounds much too much like a sample - it may be the playing but is probably the sample.
Nice tune - don't know that I'd keep a featured instrument over to the side unless there's something signifucant to counter weight it.
Good work so far - I look forward to developments.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice ray and boz.

I will work on making the samples a bit more realistic. I am currently layering up the stacato and sustain voices on the violins, cello and dbass to create a fast attack. This is probably part of the problem. I will move the pan on the keys to somewhere sensible.

As for the trumpet... well its actually a trombone! Its part of a different bank to the orchestra stuff, its a close mic'd sample and not a section so I will try some other sounds. Unfortunately I dont have the capability to record this stuff with real instruments yet, but I think I could do an ok job with samples.

I will update a new mix soon...
 
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Yeah it sounds pretty good, but doesn't sound like an actual orchestra. Sounds very much like MIDI or a keyboard or something. Cool arrangement though. Keep working with it.
 
Learning to play a sampled orchestra is like learning to play a new instrument. It actually takes a lot of practice to get things to sound good. It's also hard because your ears can get used to the fake sound pretty quickly.

It helps to grab a real violin/viola/cello/bass to learn to play at least simple stuff so you can have an idea what the limitations/characteristics of the real instrument are.

I would look up what all the different cc values can do to you instruments and utilize those. It can make a world of difference to use those correctly. I've never used vsl, but from what I understand, it's supposed to be one of the best orchestral libraries.

So keep chugging and experimenting. It takes time and practice.
 
suprstar said:
Is it all midi and synths, or was any of it played by you? Nice composition!
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I played in all the parts with my keyboard. Some of then have been quantized, some havnt.

bozmillar said:
Learning to play a sampled orchestra is like learning to play a new instrument.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it! I plugged it all in for the first time and was like "Wow!" but it requires some thought to get it going properly.

I will implement the things people have mentioned :)

Thanks for the feedback
 
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I like the arrangement. Its pretty cool. But no, It doesn't sound real. For example, the trombone solo...sometimes sounds good, sometimes sounds fake and the playing is pretty difficult for a person to do in real life, especially on a trombone. Don't get me wrong, I like it. Just need a little bit of work.
 
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