ACO's First Album

So a bit of shameless self-promotion I guess, but my first ever album of orchestral music in a more classic-hollywood style, aimed at the adventure movie genre for TV and Film licensing is out now. I'm fairly amped about it.

You can listen to it on all major music platforms: https://amadeamusicproductions.fanlink.tv/lost-worlds but at the time of writing, Spotify has it attributed to another guy with the same name, as I've not been on Spotify before now. I'm sure that will be rectified shortly.

Anyway here are a few tracks from it on YouTube. Skim through it if you like and I'd appreciate to know which ones you like the most.

Hey Chris @AngelCityOutlaw,

They are all very distinctive game music and I like them all. My favourite is the Temple of Jaguar. I always like in your music you use texture and timbre wisely by not overbearing it with huge sound and suffocating thick texture, but always in apt with your theme and mood. Hope that adventure game go well!! (Even though I seldom play game at all!) And thx for sharing!

Henry

(oh it’s my 2000th post!)

Wow.
This music is fantastic.
The Annubis Gate totally takes you to those middle eastern environments, even if it's in our imagination. I think it picks up very well Mediterranean elements and scales, for a moment it reminded me of Verdi's Aida.

Oh... The second piece Fancy Footwork..... It sounds absolutely Spanish (which is my nationality and I know what I'm saying). There are some sounds that could sound more natural in the percussion, maybe (castanets?). But it is fantastic, sumptuous and the whole Arab-Andalusian tradition comes to mind. Fantastic.

Temple of the Jaguar. I think it's the one that sounds more "cinematic". Perfect the brass, the guttural "voices" like from Mongolia. It is a very powerful piece.

In conclusion, it is a MAGNIFICENT work. Not only because it is wonderfully orchestrated, but because of the ideas and how they are intertwined and carried.

I love it.

On 8/4/2024 at 3:48 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hey Chris @AngelCityOutlaw,

They are all very distinctive game music and I like them all. My favourite is the Temple of Jaguar. I always like in your music you use texture and timbre wisely by not overbearing it with huge sound and suffocating thick texture, but always in apt with your theme and mood. Hope that adventure game go well!! (Even though I seldom play game at all!) And thx for sharing!

Henry

(oh it’s my 2000th post!)

 

Hey thanks a ton Henry! Congrats also on the 2000th post. You're the busiest bee on the forums!

It's actually not for games, it's for TV. So if you do more TV then you may hear it there haha.

17 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

Wow.
This music is fantastic.
The Annubis Gate totally takes you to those middle eastern environments, even if it's in our imagination. I think it picks up very well Mediterranean elements and scales, for a moment it reminded me of Verdi's Aida.

Oh... The second piece Fancy Footwork..... It sounds absolutely Spanish (which is my nationality and I know what I'm saying). There are some sounds that could sound more natural in the percussion, maybe (castanets?). But it is fantastic, sumptuous and the whole Arab-Andalusian tradition comes to mind. Fantastic.

Temple of the Jaguar. I think it's the one that sounds more "cinematic". Perfect the brass, the guttural "voices" like from Mongolia. It is a very powerful piece.

In conclusion, it is a MAGNIFICENT work. Not only because it is wonderfully orchestrated, but because of the ideas and how they are intertwined and carried.

I love it.

 

Thanks so much, Luis.

I forgot that you're Spanish. So it means a lot to know that you approve of Fancy Footwork.

The percussion was a last minute purchase; I didn't really have a lot of time to compare flamenco or tango percussion libraries but that one was the best value I could find that had everything I needed: Tap dancers, cajons, castanets, etc.

Appreciate the feedback so far

I have also swapped in this thread Temple of The Jaguar out with "The Race to El Dorado"

Congrats on the album! I think I've heard some of these before, so I dug around on your YT page and checked out others. 

You're quite the producer, it all sounds superb. Well done!

Hey @AngelCityOutlaw!

These are very good and concise!  I'm sure they would (or will?) fulfill their cinematic purpose wonderfully.  There's just one thing that would bother me personally if I had written what you wrote - the overuse of cinematic tropes to accomplish your target vibe/mood.  "The Anubis Gate" for example, uses a leap of a fifth in the melody in kinda a stereotypical way and then the Phrygian mode to give it that Egyptian/desert flavor.  Nothing wrong with that, and it works, but I personally would tire of writing music which uses such tropes in predictable ways to hit the target sound for the kind of scene you're going for.  "The Race to El Dorado" accomplishes its target sound through the use of the recorder (or pan flute?) but other than that is more original imo.  "Fancy Footwork" starts out right away with a very common "danger theme" from James Horner movies and continues with the use of castanets that is also a bit stereotypical although I guess in this case that couldn't be avoided.  But if a director/producer of a movie wants a specific feel for their movie and are already somewhat attached to a temp track I guess you wouldn't really have much of a choice.  Thanks for sharing!

On 8/12/2024 at 10:54 AM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Congrats on the album! I think I've heard some of these before, so I dug around on your YT page and checked out others. 

You're quite the producer, it all sounds superb. Well done!

 

Thanks! Yes, I'm pretty satisfied with the production quality on it.

6 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hey @AngelCityOutlaw!

These are very good and concise!  I'm sure they would (or will?) fulfill their cinematic purpose wonderfully.  There's just one thing that would bother me personally if I had written what you wrote - the overuse of cinematic tropes to accomplish your target vibe/mood.  "The Anubis Gate" for example, uses a leap of a fifth in the melody in kinda a stereotypical way and then the Phrygian mode to give it that Egyptian/desert flavor.  Nothing wrong with that, and it works, but I personally would tire of writing music which uses such tropes in predictable ways to hit the target sound for the kind of scene you're going for.  "The Race to El Dorado" accomplishes its target sound through the use of the recorder (or pan flute?) but other than that is more original imo.  "Fancy Footwork" starts out right away with a very common "danger theme" from James Horner movies and continues with the use of castanets that is also a bit stereotypical although I guess in this case that couldn't be avoided.  But if a director/producer of a movie wants a specific feel for their movie and are already somewhat attached to a temp track I guess you wouldn't really have much of a choice.  Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks Peter

In production music, it has to do what it says on the tin. The names of the tracks tell you what sort of idea/trope it embodies. If an audio director, producer, etc. goes to the company and says "We need something that has an 'Egyptian'' sound" then they are probably looking for things that sound like The Anubis Gate, that play up the Phrygian Dominant and that instrumentation. Conversely, someone looking for that sort of sound perusing the company's library who sees a track called "The Anubis Gate" is likely to be disappointed and feel their time is wasted if it doesn't meet the expected trope, or at least if it doesn't meet it enough. Lastly, all of these tracks had to be approved by the company's CEO, and the criteria I mention is all a consideration for the tracks likelihood of getting placed; that track in question was actually originally rejected because they didn't like my original ending to it and two minutes is about the limit.

Were this all done as a custom score for a film rather than production music, where I could see all the changes in action in the scene in real time, it would surely go through various different flavors, keys, scales, etc.

But in the absence of that, delivering the highest quality, consistent track that fits the expectation set by the title is usually the best bet.