Mitchell

Yes those are my vocals - I have never in my life sang in tune so I had to decide to keep the best I could do! Funny enough I've never been taught to sing even though I've been taught to play the flute and compose music and use a DAW, so I practice on my own but there are still problems. I'm actually flattered you didn't say they were constantly out of tune 😛 I appreciate the comment, and it means a lot you think I struck a balance with the busy-ness. I was mindful to fill it to the brim but not an inch more. ❤️

How many times on this forum have I been told my music sounds like video game music? Well now I've composed a track that is going to go into a video game that people are going to actually play. I'm a part of a community of Gamers™ who speedrun Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 for the Nintendo Gamecube and there's a robust level modding community and a rich library of new level packs to play. One of my friends is making a level pack and I wanted to try my chops out on a world theme for his game. He said, "What do you want to write about" and since I kind of made a reputation for myself composing space/science themed music, I wanted to depict an exoplanet. I kind of thought to myself, this piece has to loop, so why don't I just take a theme, reorchestrate it 3 times and create a sense of the passing of seasons? Consider this a bit of a maximalist effort - I've got a combination of preset synths, FM synths, processed vintage amateur hammond organ, flute, voice, 8-bit synth. Nothing was really off the table here if I liked how it sounded so the piece has a bit of an epic vibe - and I do my best to keep very effect relevant and cogent - and if you ask me I believe I succeeded. The game is not really near completion yet, but my own deadline is Jan 31 because I have more music work I want to get up to after this, but if anyone can give me some critique (especially on my use of my DAW, I'm very much relearning techniques as I go along here), or listen for some things I might not have caught since I've been so close to this all month, It'd be greatly appreciated. Ummmmm enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks peeps

Hello Young Composers, Thanks for your wonderful comments on my last contribution to the forum. I'm back with a new piece. This is my first attempt at writing prog, which is the primary style of music I've listened to since I graduated music school. Something I would have never considered myself able to do 5 years ago, and suddenly I find myself capable of now the first time I'm in a DAW for even longer. So I'm immensely proud with how it turned out. It starts off as a basic transcription and interpretation of the original. Then I start using some motifs from the original in slightly different or surprising places and reorchestrate. There is a solo section. After that I reintroduce the theme but I take more liberties with repeats and dynamics. There's a little break down. Then in my signature style I deconstruct the piece into an ostinato and vamp it into a blazing finish. I scoured the internet for free software and came upon Waveform Free by Tracktion (highly recommend it after doing this, I learned it pretty easily and so far it can do everything the professional software I used in university can do) The bass is the simplest least 80s dance preset I could find. The drums are a combination of loops included (I got lucky there was one in the right tempo), audio from my Yamaha psr 273 keyboard room drumset voice. Guitar is a twangy FM synth with a phaser. The first 2 organ tones to appear are presets with a phaser. The 3rd organ tone to appear is a preset with chorus. Here's the original to compare: https://youtu.be/YXxqgUrWHzA Here's mine: https://soundcloud.com/wxo/contents-may-be-hot Enjoy!!!

Hey I've got nothing much to add except for I thought it was a natural and beautiful melody, and I loved the 32nd flourishes in the piano. 🙂

There was supposed to be a soundcloud link in the OP but if it didn't come up for anyone else then here it is again. Not automatically embedded this time. https://soundcloud.com/wxo/recoil Hey everyone, I couldn't have imagined such a positive response to my music! Thanks for hearing and understanding my voice! It means a lot, especially coming from users here since the users in this site were my first ever mentors as a composer, and have never ever steered me away from what I like to write. You've made my day everybody 🙂

What's funny is that the video game sound is purely intuitive to me - it's never been my intention to compose "like" a video game yet my whole career people have said my style sounds like video game music. I've never gotten a "rock" comparison before (except for one time I actually tried to emulate it) - I love that, thank you - I eventually want to compose progressive rock music (or arrange my old ensemble music for a prog band) (or both) so that's reassuring. I agree with you on transitioning. The whole piece could be more continuous, and I think agree with you that the end is a little redundant. All things I will keep in mind in the future, I've thought of composing other movements for this.... Thanks for listening and I'm glad you enjoyed.

Hello - I appreciate your comment. Thanks for pointing out some of my sloppy engraving. I think you'll notice that the "unperformable" bits of my piece were actually performed in the recording I provided - I would have edited those out if my performers couldn't do it. I think any professional pianist looking to play contemporary chamber music will have 2s against 5s and 3s against 5s down. It's difficult but I was pleased with the performance of it. Mitchell

Thanks - I appreciate your explanation

Okay, I really love band music. This is really good. The moving parts at m. 48 I think need to be rebeamed in triplets, but otherwise your score is solid. This piece is very idiomatic for band as it is. I think it might be a bit of a cliché to add a fast section, and I think it might take from the organic nature of the music you've so far acheived. I was going to criticize that the piece seemed a little too "through-composed" for my liking, but a second listening revealed to me that I actually like the flow of your material, but what I want more of is organic orchestration. The first half of the score is better, but I think starting around page 10, it seems like you lose the balance between your theoretical idea and your ensemble, because the texture starts to get choppy. What I mean is eg. on page 14 the saxes/dbl reeds do something, then they stop and the high brass does something, then they stop and the low brass does something and this is more or less the pattern for the rest of the piece. I don't think this is "wrong" or anything, but if this is a competition piece, I think orchestrating this a little more elegantly will elevate the piece more than a fast section would. This is a water piece, and water doesn't behave discretely, I think you could let instruments' parts spill over and conflict with what interrupts it. I don't even think it would be that difficult for you with this piece; there is even an opportunity to elevate your 3 over 4 idea by letting an idea in 3 "spill over" into where your next idea is in 4 is one idea. The cool thing about bands is they are ravenous for new music - so when writing for band is the perfect time to get creative with doubling and textures. Thanks for sharing.

Hey, This was really fun. It would be really impressive to hear played live. It opens strongly - I personally am a big fan of that festival-lydian-mode type sound you have. While listening I was trying to come up with comments, and when I decided I wanted to hear some offbeat accents, your piece promptly gave me them so I was very satisfied with m. 15, but I think you abandoned it too quickly for other ideas. This is a minor complaint, though, because I like all the variations and permutations you use; a bit more syncopation throughout those would elevate them in my opinion. I think the piece goes by too fast for the 32nd rest offset in m. 27 to really be audible. Having those notes start on the second 16th subdivision of each beat rather than the 32nd would help the performers *and* listeners hear what you're going for in this section. One more thing - violinists may correct me but your triple/quad stops look no fun. In fact your last beat isn't playable because to play the top notes of the chords, you would have to play notes that don't exist on the upper strings. M. 32 could be better if you widened the voicing. I think you share the parts between players very well (m.41 was really good), and I think you achieve ecstasy with the piece. You've made something versatile that could be performed in any setting. Thanks for sharing.

The bit at 58 is effective. The only thing harmony wise I thought didn't work was the G# in the bass in m. 78, but maybe that's because you've doubled the right hand line in the left hand - take it out of the left hand and it might better? Good flute writing, no complaints there. The piano part is unrealistic at times and unplayable at times: - why is the whole piano part in the left hand through the whole first page? The pianist will play this with 2 hands so you may as well write with 2 hands. Starting on Page 2 that's totally ok, a pianist can manage that, except for beat 3 of m. 32, where you've got a huge span in the left hand, this comes up a couple times and you could just divide parts up between hands. - mm. 36-41: multiple voices in your notation software will be your friend here. - page 3 does the same thing as page 1 - mm 71-78, some bass notes here can be moved up an octave or left out for the pianist to get the left hand. I'd take a deeper look into measure 78 and figure out what notes you don't need there, it becomes suddenly and unnecessarily thick in texture for 2 beats (for example, beat three has 3As and 2 F#s), and in 79 you could voice the top 3 voices in the right hand and the octave in the left. Also I'm gonna point out your metronome markings often don't exist on a physical metronome, which is something that never gets talked about. You've got, off the top of my head, a 75, 85, 95. These numbers don't exist on standard metronomes, so your performers will have to choose the closest marking, so you might as well use those tempos in the first place. This advice will make your score look a lot nicer, and I think your piece has the quality that deserves a good score. Well done. Mitchell

I like it. Seven is cool. Thought it was pleasantly disorienting.

I think the guitar needs to be a little more present in the mix in spots, especially at around 1:00. That's where I heard that guitar doing some harmonic flicks (I don't know what they're really call, but I always love them in metal when I'm listening to metal) but they were really low in the mix. Then in spots when the guitars are doubling the strings, it's good that they blend more. I guess what I'm asking for is more dynamic dynamics 😄 The harmonic shift leading into about 6:00 is juicy. That was well placed imo. If you plan to record vocals, is there any plan to record guitars/drums/even orchestral parts? That would really elevate it.

No worries, If I recall correctly you can adjust the "skill level" of your software's ranges. I attached a decent chart for the flute's typical range. I like your idea on an updated recap.

Hello everyone, I was a regular user back in the late 00's and got a big boost in my composition career as a teen from this site. Some people may remember me. In the years since I was active, I've done quite a lot. Some years I've been a composer and others I've been something totally different. I got my Composition degree from Memorial University in 2014 and performed in St. John's, Newfoundland for about a year before changing careers. I've done pretty much the same thing while neglecting my musical past for about 5 years, and now since the pandemic I've rediscovered my old projects and started practicing my instruments again. I want to show off some of my work! The first piece I'm going to present is Recoil for piano trio. I composed this during my downtime between semesters, without much guidance and following basically my own intuition with a lot of mixture, chromatic mediants, contemporary tropes. It turned out successful and I was very happy with the performances it got. Anybody who already knew my music will notice that I did not move away from my video game style - I embraced it for this project, while t's not quite so blatant in other works I've done. I composed this piece to have something I would love - and I hope that comes across. Here is the performance from my graduation recital - (it was a point of pride for me to feature a piece my teachers had not seen).