AngelCityOutlaw

Those bugs are a problem across musescore and that's why I don't use it very much, but I found less bugs with Berlin. And yeah, I can't recommend Cinesamples, even as a company, in good faith to anyone. I only use them presently for the woodwind trills and the odd legato patch from the brass. Other than that, it's one of the few libraries I regret buying over 15 years. Their samples are simply not very good, there are many imbalances between articulations, and very few dynamic layers for what market themselves (and are priced) as big league libraries. Their customer service is also the worst I've ever had to deal with in software. The 1.8 update to Cinebrass for me would not detect the samples on any other mic position than the default. I did everything they said to try, and when it didn't work, they straight up ghosted me.

Definitely better than Musesounds.

Really nice work, Henry.

A complete failure, really. If you want to get that Dark Souls sound, you need much, much crappier string samples; perhaps from a '90s children's CASIO keyboard. This is much too high quality and musical for Dark Souls. In all seriousness though it's a great, short piece. My only suggestions would be that I personally yearned for a bit more movement in the bass and felt the violin line could've been at a higher dynamic. You're using Musescore? I'm not sure if you've got the Berlin First Chairs, they're fairly cheap (at least when I bought them). I'd try the violin on that for the 1st violin here; I bet it would be great. Other than that it could benefit IMO from just a SMIDGE more reverb tail to really go with that isolationist feel of Dark Souls. The only thing I would say actually disappointed me about the piece, was that ending chord. I really think a darker harmony at the end would really drive it home.

R# Major

I didn't really get a choice about playing music, and I never really cared about it for years. I didn't understand the point of music as a kid. Then, I heard Guns N' Roses when I was like 11 and I realized I HAD to create my own rock songs that now suddenly existed in my mind. Fast forward over 20 years and the guitars and drum kits mostly disappeared in favor of the orchestra, but there are all these pieces that keep demanding I set them free.

Hey thanks a lot, man! Tbh I should have stopped 597 posts ago

I got sidetracked composing my new album, and did this arrangement of the classic opening song. Let me know what you guys think. Mocking up that sort of vocal melody with samples, with a lot of repeated notes, and where the singer deliberately isn't always on pitch and the lyrics are half-spoken is tough.

Hey thanks! There are a lot of libraries I use. Olympus Choirs, Nucleus and Cinebrass, Cinematic Strings 2, the free MTPowerDrum Kit by Manda Audio,...

Thanks Quinn

Guilty as charged

If I had the amount of followers on YouTube these audio engineers do, I'd honestly make my own video tearing these apart. The irony of these videos produced by audio engineers stating "the real reason today's music all sounds the same!" is that they are all saying the same things every other audio engineer is. and they're all wrong. This is a subject that really needs an experienced, old composer's perspective on. To his credit, Billy does passingly mention things like 120 bpm, loop packs and a lack of key changes, but his arguments are still mainly "Everyone is recording the same way." like what Rick Beato and Glen Fricker talk about. "No one is recording guitars with real mics! They're all using Superior Drummer! They're quantizing!" etc. Yet they cannot explain why so many different-sounding albums in popular music used and still use the Shure Sm57, Marshall JCM800, Celestion Speakers, 6L6 tubes, and a Gibson Les Paul or strat with DiMarzio super distortions. How come everyone who writes for an orchestra doesn't sound the same? It reminds me of how, back in my electronica phase, guys said not to use presets because "You'll sound like everyone else!", and then proceeded to plop down a four-on-the-floor (the only beat they know) with an offbeat or side chained, straight 16th note bassline just like everyone else. Guy...I don't think it's the patch you chose for the bass that is causing you to sound the same. Stuff sounds the same now because everyone is WRITING THE SAME MUSIC I don't know why this isn't obvious these guys; it should be obvious even to a layman. Like I said in the thread about "what makes a chord move poorly": This thinking in terms of "chord progressions" is one of the things making everything sound identical, as is the dominance of "ostinato". It's just crazy to me that someone out there is laying down "epic" drums and plunking in that "root-third" 8th note ostinato every trailer piece plays on the violas and thinks to himself "...I'll bet if I had my own string library, I'd sound unique!" Granted, I do think that it helps to an extent. I don't think anyone else's mockups sound quite like mine due to me having a rather unique collection, but this by itself would not be enough. I like to lean into genre tropes, but as @PeterthePapercomPoser accurately noticed in my latest cinematic-metal track, the guitar riff is a seamless mix of Phrygian and the diminished scale. Most metal bands today would stick to the Phrygian the whole way through the song. Curious to hear your thoughts. In my opinion, it is a more damning report on the current state of the music industry that everyone seems oblivious to the obvious decline in craftsmanship at the songwriting stage than it is that everyone is using Superior Drummer.

Thanks Quinn, and good point in your previous post as well

Felt like doing something kind of inspired by the latest DOOM soundtracks,

I'm glad you find it so!