Critique My Orchestral Mix!

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Auralaxiom

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So I just finished this up. Please keep in mind, it's my first "real" orchestration, so forgive me if it sounds a bit amateurish.

This does, by the way, feature live tin whistle, oboe, and trumpet. I played whistle and oboe, and my bro played trumpet (you an see more of his stuff here: Sing Into a Can).

Thoughts? Concerns? Criticisms? Insults?

https://soundcloud.com/auralaxiom/winter-fantasy
 
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Filmic would the best description. Lots of ideas & sounds but I was listening for the thread and couldn't pick it up.
Terriffic samples but they all sounded gentle and rounded. I was waiting for spikes and edges.
In some respects it reminded me of the pastoral parts of Disney's fantasia - which isn't a bad thing at all.
 
I really enjoyed this. I can't really comment on the mix as I'm only listening on a Galaxy Tab but what I hear sounds really good. I'm a big fan of Tin Whistles and just the mention of it was enough to make me press play.

Thanks for sharing :thumbs up:
 
Mix sounded good from my end. Love the Oboe. There were elements of Moody Blues thrown in there from "Knights of White Satin" towards the end after the narration.

Nice stuff.
 
Nice job! Thoroughly enjoyed it! I don't have any criticism to give. I own Komplete 9 Ultimate and it's nice to hear what can be done with it in the proper hands. Keep up the good work!
 
Okay, my two cents (which is worth considerably less than 2 cents).

I like the music very much, as well as the choice of instrumentation. I'm less enamored of the actual orchestration. I had to listen at work and keep the volume rather low, so I may have missed it, but I heard no real counterpoint to the melody. It sounded like the melody line was handed off to different instruments, and either completely or partially doubled, or else harmonized, by other instruments. For a piece as emotionally rich as this one, I think you're missing a good bet by not adding drama and texture with some judiciously-placed counterpoint lines with contrasting rhythm and direction. Also, I thought it was just a tad heavy on reverb, though that might have been because of the system I'm listening on here at work.

I don't mean to suggest it's not good -- on the contrary, it's a very beautiful piece, sensitively arranged and played. It's just that, based on my own admittedly-amateur orchestrations (and I tend to write for much larger ensembles), I've found tremendous benefit from the use of counterpoint.
 
XploZiveToyz said:
Nice job! Thoroughly enjoyed it! I don't have any criticism to give. I own Komplete 9 Ultimate and it's nice to hear what can be done with it in the proper hands. Keep up the good work!
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Thanks alot man! Bro, Komplete 9 Ultimate is the best money you can spend on plugin bundles right now IMO. You made a GREAT choice.

That said, most of this was actually done with LA Scoring Strings and East West Symphonic Orchestra. Together they're about $1250 right now. The french horns and clarinets from EWSO don't sound half bad. Heck, the strings aren't even that bad. For $250, I think it's a great bargain...if you can get the PLAY engine to work ;-)
 
PTravel said:
Okay, my two cents (which is worth considerably less than 2 cents).

I like the music very much, as well as the choice of instrumentation. I'm less enamored of the actual orchestration. I had to listen at work and keep the volume rather low, so I may have missed it, but I heard no real counterpoint to the melody. It sounded like the melody line was handed off to different instruments, and either completely or partially doubled, or else harmonized, by other instruments. For a piece as emotionally rich as this one, I think you're missing a good bet by not adding drama and texture with some judiciously-placed counterpoint lines with contrasting rhythm and direction. Also, I thought it was just a tad heavy on reverb, though that might have been because of the system I'm listening on here at work.

I don't mean to suggest it's not good -- on the contrary, it's a very beautiful piece, sensitively arranged and played. It's just that, based on my own admittedly-amateur orchestrations (and I tend to write for much larger ensembles), I've found tremendous benefit from the use of counterpoint.
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Hm...that's interesting; I thought I actually overdid it with the counter-melody lines. That's why I put them back in the mix a bit; I'm using them more for texture than anything. Give it a listen at full volume and let me know if you think I need to bring them up and/or add more lines.

Thanks for the input.
 
Well arranged and well recorded. The piece engaged my interest to the end. Someone thought the reverb might be a bit too much. I thought it was right. It gave the sense of space you get when listening to live orchestras.
 
Auralaxiom said:
Hm...that's interesting; I thought I actually overdid it with the counter-melody lines. That's why I put them back in the mix a bit; I'm using them more for texture than anything. Give it a listen at full volume and let me know if you think I need to bring them up and/or add more lines.

Thanks for the input.
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You're right -- it was the low volume that caused me to miss the counterpoint lines. Listening at home with my studio monitors at a proper volume, I can hear them and they work wonderfully with the main melody. A beautiful, evocative composition, a very effective arrangement, and an excellent recording.
 
Nice remix but still too filmic or too close to passive themed program music without the written narrative.
Your playing is cool.
Oft times, and this may be a crit of the mix I suppose, I couldn't work out what to listen to - what was carrying the melody.
 
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