<pony><orchestral><WIP> Windigos

[CitricAcid]

I am trying my darnedest to write some genuine movie trailer worthy music here. I've never succeeded before, as my previous attempts have either turned into something else or got scrapped entirely. Basically what I'm doing here is cramming as many trailer music tropes into this as I can think of to see if I can pull any of them off.

This is just the beginning of the piece. I'm just now starting to come out of the sound selection/design phase of composition. I did some rough mixing before exporting, but this will definitely need a lot of mastering love when I'm done to sound trailer worthy.

http://www.mediafire.com/listen/hdpk0op ... IP%201.mp3

Am I at least getting close?

[Twy]

Haha, I see what you mean about using all of dem trailer tropes in there.


But it's really good! I've never worked with anything orchestral so I can't speak from anything other than a consumer point of view, but from here it sounds really trailer-y and epic. Very nice

[Callenby]

Maybe I shouldn't comment on this because I find this subset of orchestral to be not very interesting, but here goes.

From what I can tell, you do hit on a lot of the conventions. Normally I'd say that that's probably not a good thing, but since this is your intention you can just ignore that. Personally, I would probably add some slow-cooking buildup to help anticipate the louder, more "epic" part. In a similar vein, the loud parts need to be louder, more "in your face". But that can be done through mastering.

If you REALLY want to follow the contemporary epic trailer music herd, you could add some synthetic/dubstep stuff. I hear that a lot nowadays.

Anyway, don't let my personal taste stop you. You're on the right track for what you want to do.

[CitricAcid]

Believe me I want to try the dubstep stuff, I just lack the tools. The synth I'm using isn't really tailored for dubstep work. Also every time I pick up a synth I remember how much I hate sound design. At best I might try to do some stutter edit stuff, but I'm not sure yet if that will be appropriate for the direction the piece is going.

[Callenby]

A while back I heard a short little orchestral demo with stutter and a beat that Embertone made. Maybe it can help.

https://soundcloud.com/embertone/intimate-strings-initx

[GhostXb]

If you try too hard to sound like trailer music, then I think you run the risk of sounding too generic. That is one of my biggest criticisms of trailer music, is that it tends to sound too generic too me.

Its fine to try different things as an exercise, but you might try focusing on certain aspects of a song to add character or life to a track, as opposed to trying many different things at once.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Tome+Of+Rub ... MNNC?src=5

Take this track for example. It starts off with a simple yet adventurous rhythm, then at about 8 seconds, the epic horns come in. The majority of the song is built around that horn section and that gives the song unity and character.

Hope this helps.

[CitricAcid]

Believe it or not, I started this piece with the intention of making something generic. I did so partially because, like you said, it would be a good exercise. I want to prove to myself that I can do this style in its most generic sense before I try to add more unique embellishments. You can't learn to write progressive metal without first learning how to write metal, right? I also theorize that one can't make something entirely generic, since it will always be imbued with the style of the creator.

I also like the fact that I can both use it as an exercise and produce something accessible to listeners at the same time.