Andrew Wonders

I'm completely lost on how to turn this into a piece... I know it's a great two-piece melody... it's a mid-paced 6/8 starting with "variations on a theme" in c melodic minor, then transitions into a simple A major melody. I'd like to go with a renaissance/medieval style ensemble feel with it(stac/marc strings in the bassline, strings&woodwind in the higher register), but the lead in/out is eluding me... maybe ya'll have some suggestions Thanks in advance, -Drew winterfaire_pianosketch_mixdown01.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

Just thought I would post this up here. This is a melancholy piece for piano, cello, and clarinet that I finished up recently. Nothing spectacular, just something I worked up to get me through a rough patch recently. My roommate was playing with a piano melody (the "A" piano part) and graciously allowed it's use in this (I shifted it down an octave). Any and all comments and critique welcome! SoundClick artist: Andrew Wonders - Modern orchestral. Film/TV/Game style scores. -Andrew

I love this piece, Kevin. You did a great job blending the ethnic instruments into the traditional orchestral backdrop. It made me smile. Great work!

Wow... simply stunning. Beautiful, sweeping, emotionally evocative... everything I hope to find in a romantic piece. I've never been that impressed with GPO sounds either, till now :P

Jared, Excellent, excellent stuff here! Like Norby, I can definitely hear the Williams influence, but that is NEVER a bad thing in the world of scoring (IMHO anyway). Keep up the great work, and I hope you post more from this project :)

Nikolas, This is awesome. I love these types of pieces, which is odd since I don't generally like nor do I play jazz. However, I instantly saw the subway type scene. The lonely (depressed?) traveler, the flickering lights, shots of other passengers... very evocative. Well done!! -Andrew

Wendell, Nice job! This is definitely a great start. As Ron pointed out, some work on the dynamics would certainly help make this piece livelier. I feel as though the end section with the brass and timpani *wanted* to jump out and crescendo, but didn't. Also, I did find the melody a bit hard to grab on to. I'm a big fan of leitmotifs ("little themes" if you will). If you look at John Williams (for one example), no matter how much orchestration he has going, the melody (motif) is always clear, instantly identifiable, and extremely memorable. If I write a melody, and people can't stop humming/whistling/singing it after listening to it, I've done my job ;) All that said though, again, you have a great foundation here to build on. Keep it up, and I look forward to hearing more! -Andrew

Wendell, Thanks for your input. "I liked it" is certainly a valid (and very welcome!) comment. Feedback on the more technical aspects from other musicians is always good, for the learning and development end of things, but the end result I shoot for is that my music be enjoyed :)

Ron, Thanks for the feedback! I will definitely put your suggestions into immediate action :)

Well, what we do (the orchestral sequencing, *especially* with large libraries like EWQLSO) is very CPU and RAM intensive... if you want to continue on this road, then I recommend that you at least invest in more RAM. This will be one of your best moves for loading lots of patches simultaneously. You're using Logic, right? Are you on a mac or a pc?

Well, how slow is your computer? Obviously, if you can sequence something like this and the "Nations Suite", you aren't doing *too* bad. Also, try mixing your midi stuff down to a single audio track, then applying effects like reverb, EQ, etc. I use EWQLSO Gold as well, and though I know it comes "pre-verbed", I still find that it needs a little hall reverb in the mixdown phase.

Great job! The violins about 2/3 through sounded a little dry to my ears, but I like a lot of reverb, so don't mind me if that's what you were going after. I thought I heard a didgeridoo in there, but I just read your response to heckel and saw that it's a tuvan singer. Nice job on that element. Where did you get the samples for that?

rolifer, I definitely dig this piece. For some reason I see one of those old-school style animated educational pieces, with the tenor-voiced, british narrator talking about the destructive power of the sun. Don't take that the wrong way either, that's a huge compliment (most of those animated pieces had amazing music). I think it's the chromatics in it that gives me that feel. In any event, great work, as always!

I really like your composition style. You do the modern Hollywood "Zimmer-esque" style very well. That said, I would comment that the orchestration could be much fuller. Maybe fleshing out your string and brass sections more. Also, the production is rather dry. *I* would have added more reverb, to created the illusion of this actually being played in a physical space. But that's just me. All in all though, this is a good piece. Keep it up!

So, this is a piece I've been working on in various incarnations for a while now. I'm sure I've broken all kinds of music theory rules, and I'm pretty sure it's not even proper waltz form, but that's the vibe I got from it. It's still in progress (I'm trying to figure out how to end it), and I'm up in the air about some of my instrument patch choices, but I thought I'd post it for some feedback. Also, as a musician coming from a rock background, I'm having a lot of trouble breaking out of the A,B,A,B(verse, chorus, verse, chorus) style of writing, so any tips anyone might have, as well as any other feedback, is most welcome. Thanks! -Andrew *Should be the first track that plays when you get to the page* Andrew Wonders's Page - Composers' Forum