Citadel Of Light - TDM

So here's another older piece I wrote some years ago which needs some feedback.

Wanted to also add that I'm really bad with giving names but I think this name fits well 🤔

I hope you'll enjoy it 😁

Hi, Tanju!

The opening crescendo is stirring (love the big brass chords!), but perhaps there are one too many repeats of that.

The middle "Lord of the Rings" section with the solo cello is quite soulful. I like how you brought back the beginning chords but with some arpeggiated stringwork—nice!

Oh, and then the choir comes in (no idea what they're singing, but it sounds epic)... creates a nice build! You bring the brass back in a little too loudly, I'm afraid; drowns out the choir around 3:30. The crescendo around 4:00 is pretty epic, but the cutoff at 4:30 is even more epic. (And, honestly, it's kind of relieving... not sure how much more build my ears could take.)

The section from around 4:45 to 6:30 is loud and dramatic, but I'd already heard it once before, so its effect is a little stunted.

The dénouement to the end with the soloist, choir and quiet strings is welcome after such an intense onslaught of crashing cymbals and blaring brass.

My overall impression of this work: nicely done! It followed a timeless story arc, and, as such, was enjoyable to hear. As far as good epic film music goes, this meets all the criteria (in my opinion). Plus, the sound library you're using is very realistic—makes it much easier to listen to than a MIDI rendering. I think that's a good thing! My only critique (without seeing the score) is that it's virtually indistinguishable from other epic music filmscores. Not necessarily a dealbreaker, but perhaps something to work on personally as a composer.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,

Tónskáld

Hi @Tónskáld.

First of all thank you for reviewing my music (I tend to lose myself and write my pieces a bit too long 😅)

Your review is really what I needed. Since I wrote the song I can't see/hear problems as clear as others. 

Now that you mentioned it I kinda agree that the brass chords at the beginning may be a bit too long (repeated too often). I'm gonna see if i can shorten it up a bit without killing the dynamic of that section. About the part in which the brass comes back along with the choir I actually aimed to focus on the brass again (bc they are playing the carrying melody) and use the choir to increase the fullness but I can certainly hear that the brass (here the horns and trumpets)are a bit too loud. I might also just reduce the higher notes there a bit (take down the volume of the trumpets). 

As you mentioned the cymbals as "an intense onslaught of crashing cymbals" I realized that they really are much too loud too (sorry that I put your ears under so much stress 😯)

I will have a look at it soon cause I'm working on a few other projects rightnow. But thank you so much for taking your time and review it second for second 😀. You really helped me to see some problems!

On 11/6/2019 at 3:50 AM, TDM said:

As you mentioned the cymbals as "an intense onslaught of crashing cymbals" I realized that they really are much too loud too (sorry that I put your ears under so much stress 😯)

Oh, I didn't mean that in a negative way... I'm sorry I came across like that. I like intense music!

Great piece! I've listened to it twice now and I have some comments. 

I think the beginning is really great. I like the suspense/build without making it too loud. The cello part is also good. In the calmer parts I think it sounds like the brass intruments are playing quite loud but that the volume is low. I think maybe you could achieve better clarity in those parts. My ears are quite "tired" even in these calmer parts. And I think maybe there is too much diffence in volume overall? 

I think you should save the full blasting power to the last climax and I think 4.10 should be either calmer or the ending. 

I quite like epic trailer music with a lot of ostinatos but I think many composers could benefit from spending more time on making memorable melodies. (wow, that's my new slogan: Make memorable melodies!). 

This is just my thoughts. Great writing and mixing overall! Subscribed to your soundcloud 🙂

I think the strings are my favorite part of the song, extremely cohesive to the overall theme, Keep up the good work!

Oh, okay then I'm glad @Tónskáld😀😀

@Eirik Gisnås yeah I think you are right about the brass in the calmer parts. I will have a look at it to see how I set the strength of the horns and trombones. As far as I remember the trumpets enter when it starts to get louder again. I will also see how it sounds if I take down the dynamic of the part right before the break so I can get the last louder part as a final highlight.

Myself I believe that the calmer part after the highlight doesn't need volume or dynamic adjustment, I think what's more important is the dynamic of the parts before. So I will have a look at it. That project is a few years old after all so there will be a lot of things I do differently by now which need some rework.

Thank you for those advices 😄 will try to get the song into a better shape 😀

Thank you for your kind words @SilverWolf 😊 And you will hear a lot of me soon. Got so much stuff that I wanted to post here. Some of the finished ones are already on my Soundcloud 😎