The Symphony of Max

[Davyinatoga]

First of all, I commend you for trying something like this, and am impressed for the program and skills used. dlm brings up some good points (especially with his trance background), but there is a lot more to orchestration than he knows.

1. True, 16th notes at 150BPM are extremely fast, but not necessarily impossible. If the notes are on separate pitches it's not too hard for most instrments to finger them for a stretch of time like that. But yes, no one could double-tongue that fast on one pitch for a minute and a half, as happens once or twice. The closest you could get would be a string tremelo, which seems to appear near the beginning of SoM.

2. Along with that, soft attacks are also hard on fast notes. But in a big symphony they often will have certain instruments solo to keep it quiet enough. It's all about group dynamics, and if that means cutting down some of the players, then by all means, it will happen.

Both of these come from dlm's first issue. Ultimately, if you get a group of musicians who are professional, it is altogether possible to play it as is. Not that it should, just that it could.

3. dlm is absolutely right that you need a lot more dynamics. Everything needs to build and diminish so much, I can feel it, and it frustrates me when it didn't in your piece.

4. Transitions needed to be smoother, especially about 1:40 in SoM (basically, I'm gonna cover that mostly), the heavy marching going into the Legend of Max.

5. You needed a lot more instrumentation, call and responce (a fairly big component of composition), and actual chords. You only used chords during the longer, more drawn-out phrases.

6. To address the pizz. (the string plucking) at about 4:11, switch to timpani.

7. It was all cut-and-paste, too much a copy of the original(s) and transposing it to different music. I wish there was so much more new (accompianing) stuff, and some overlapping lines, much more going on musically.

8. Personally, a little less brass and a little more woodwinds (dynamics-wise). And a lot more ensemble sounds, too.

9. Totally agree with dln on giving certain instruments specific themes. And then at the end you can go back to those themes and have them work against each other.

10. That ending was such a let-down. It didn't go anywhere; it didn't build to a climax, it didn't dissapate into peace, it didn't do anything, it just... ended.

Now, don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed them all. They were wonderfully accurate representations of the original (if it ain't broken, don't fix it, I guess), and it was an original direction for the remake. But you still have a long way to go, and when you get there, I will mess my pants because it will be so incredible. Props to you!

PS. those clips were probably some generic MIDI style clips that a lot of music programs use, so I won't hold that against you. A lot of composing programs suck at volume dynamics and statement.

PPS. I'm sory if this is too complicated or too critical. I'm just coming from a semi-professional saxophonist/clarinetist's POV.

PPPS. You do make that Symphony of Max better, and I will seriously crap myself in awe.
_________________

[Baka_Sai]

Wow. Thanks for the info. Since I know close to 0 about music (other than what I've done so far), especially symphonic, I'm not surprised to have things wrong or "low."

I'll take these and some of dlm's comments into consideration when tweaking these. I do plan on working on the ending, of course. I'll make it more dramatic. I never intended on a real climax, for it, just a slower, "sad" finale.

I've got these on four websites, and I'm accepting all comments and recommendations, especially from those who have experience in real bands, or play an instrument featured in here. You play brass, so it's similar. A pianist may not be able to supply such detailed suggestions. I dunno.

I'm taking a break from these for now, since I distracted myself from a lot of things during it's time. This was my biggest musical project so far. Actually, my only real "project."

Sakura is one that I will not tweak, though, unless certain flaws bug me. I don't think that one can be done at all, considering the speed of some of the notes, like 16ths at 300. The others are subject to change, and by then this thread will probably be dead, so I'll probably make a new one. I await more feedback from you! Thank you to those who have replied here!

[SetsunaKira7]

Holy crap I love you!


In a non-stalker kind of way......
_________________

Thanks goes out to Fizzywix.

[dj D0GA~道画]

I love you in a stalker sort of way... say aren't you on VGMix? If so, you should link to your other stuff...
_________________

09.21.01

[Baka_Sai]

I don't think I've ever heard of VGMix. I have written and remixed a bunch of other songs, but only 4 of those songs are actually online. They're on Sound Click.

http://www.soundclick.com/dyka

I only have 4 because the others all suck buttocks in their own ways. A Xenon mix can be found in the media shop of Bemanistyle, too. So 5.

[dj D0GA~道画]

That's... um... odd then. There's a DJ Baka Sai on VGMix. Maybe he's your evil twin. [kiss ass]He's very popular there too, does good stuff. Sounded like you to me [/kiss ass]
_________________

09.21.01

[Davyinatoga]

[Baka_Sai]

Sorry about the confusion. I'm glad that I did things correctly in the song, though.

And about DJ Baka Sai. Never heard of him. dj Baka Sai was my old music name, but I switched to Dyka. My only other net identity is God.