Tried out the Virtual Playing Orchestra, and at the same time worked on a graphic piece, so I combined them into this kind of lament about the state of things... 2021 going away, drenched in reverb...
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You weren't lying when you said it was a lament: it felt more like the soundtrack for Schindler's list than a Christmas piece
Very beautiful effort, though, and I particularly like how you made the strings section sound. My only note would be to maybe pan them out a bit more like they would in a real orchestra: not sure if it's my headphones, but all strings seem to sit a bit too much in the middle, when you'd instead have basses on one side and first violins on the opposite side.
Rainmak3r wrote: ↑Thu Dec 23, 2021 5:08 pm
You weren't lying when you said it was a lament: it felt more like the soundtrack for Schindler's list than a Christmas piece
Rainmak3r wrote: ↑Thu Dec 23, 2021 5:08 pm
Very beautiful effort, though, and I particularly like how you made the strings section sound. My only note would be to maybe pan them out a bit more like they would in a real orchestra: not sure if it's my headphones, but all strings seem to sit a bit too much in the middle, when you'd instead have basses on one side and first violins on the opposite side.
Yeah, I did pan them like in an orchestra, but I probably did it too little, and maybe the huge reverb draws everything together a bit. So, I'll try to exaggerate next time!
TygerTung wrote: ↑Thu Dec 23, 2021 8:18 pm
Sounds like a real orchestra. Can't really tell it's synthetic apart from the violins playing higher. Very nice.
Thanks a lot! I hide my shortcomings in an overdose of reverbs!
TygerTung wrote: ↑Thu Dec 23, 2021 8:18 pm
Are you interested in collaborating on a Christmas Album? We could all join in for next year. I have a thread about it in the Collaborations section.
Thanks, I saw that after you discussed it with @milo, I think.
If I understood your post correctly you are only (?) interested in covers of Christian carols? Although I like a lot of them, that is not really my thing. But if you are interested in including stuff like this, I'd like to try it!
Thanks for listening and commenting! And Merry Christmas to you!
I am happy with just anything, but would prefer to avoid cheesy music about Santa and things like that. Instrumental stuff, or stuff about how the season makes you feel is fine. But really anything is OK, it is open source, so anyone can put in whatever they like.
It would be nice to have a cool Christmas CD to play on Christmas day.
Nice work, Staffan! Beautiful, tear-jerking strings. Sounds about right for the state of the world right now.
I think there's room for a lot of variety on a Christmas album. In the old days they used to put all of the cheesy Santa Claus-type songs on the A side and reserve the B side for carols. I guess I don't mind so much what people contribute, because an "open source" album can always be forked or otherwise customized. But I would like to avoid "Satan Claus."
milo wrote: ↑Thu Dec 23, 2021 10:03 pm
Nice work, Staffan! Beautiful, tear-jerking strings. Sounds about right for the state of the world right now.
Thanks a lot, @milo! I used a wholly different writing technique, working with the melody (violin parts) and bass at the same time, thinking about how they interacted.
I remember an interview I read with W Carlos, talking about the "Switched on Bach" album and Bach's Air, how important she found the bass -- we usually just think of the melody.
I also think I have Barber's "Adagio" too stuck in my head (no comparison).
This has got to be my favourite piece of yours yet. The huge reverbs and the choir add a lot to the atmosphere. As Rainmaker mentioned, the only thing I can think of would be more panning on the strings (and maybe the choir as well).
I also didn't know you drew your own art. The cover looks great!
Tenaba wrote: ↑Thu Dec 23, 2021 11:42 pm
This has got to be my favourite piece of yours yet. The huge reverbs and the choir add a lot to the atmosphere. As Rainmaker mentioned, the only thing I can think of would be more panning on the strings (and maybe the choir as well).
Doing something different, I am very unsure if it is "worth" something, or if I am merely faking it. This piece felt like I was doing something that I couldn't do a year ago. I am very glad you like it @Tenaba, it means a lot.
Tenaba wrote: ↑Thu Dec 23, 2021 11:42 pm
I also didn't know you drew your own art. The cover looks great!
Thank you! This was a kind of desperation piece, the day before xmas, at the end of the year. I do a lot of drawing and painting, using analog or FLOSS. Krita is an awesome tool for "natural" painting. Here is my gallery if you have the time I have had some exhibitions, and try to mention the power of free tools all the time.
oscillator wrote: ↑Fri Dec 24, 2021 12:05 am
Doing something different, I am very unsure if it is "worth" something, or if I am merely faking it. This piece felt like I was doing something that I couldn't do a year ago. I am very glad you like it @Tenaba, it means a lot.
Thank you! This was a kind of desperation piece, the day before xmas, at the end of the year. I do a lot of drawing and painting, using analog or FLOSS. Krita is an awesome tool for "natural" painting. Here is my gallery if you have the time I have had some exhibitions, and try to mention the power of free tools all the time.
Crazy, that was a lot more art than I expected. That's really impressive!
And to some degree, I think everyone is "faking it" until they do it enough. I think it's often worth it to try a different approach, even if it's not successful at first because you can lean something from it. As it turns out however, this piece is already successful enough not to warrant any worrying on your part
Tenaba wrote: ↑Fri Dec 24, 2021 1:30 am
I think it's often worth it to try a different approach, even if it's not successful at first because you can lean something from it. As it turns out however, this piece is already successful enough not to warrant any worrying on your part
Thank you! I'll take those words with me into the new year!
A few minutes after listening, I still was still silent. This is a deep piece. Yikes. What a nice thing to listen to. Balanced me out. Centered me (no kidding, it did)...
I need to catch my breath, now.
To merely call this "nice" is not enough for me, I call this Music as it should be: the stuff that touches one's soul.
Happy Jul to one and all...especially the ones in today's "trenches"...
Melissa
It reminded me of an anime my son wanted me to watch. Legend of the Galactic Heroes, from the 90ies. I think it's the war art together with the quite sad classical music that reminded me.
Regarding faking, please don't think along those lines. As someone said above, everybody is faking. Which in turn means nothing is fake. We don't need consensus that music is good enough to be called music, it's all music.
