A First for Me!

malcomb,

Autumn Prayer - beautiful.  Excellent choice of instruments chosen.  Well constructed arangement and well mixed.

Dream Time - very soothing, relaxing bit of material.  This would work great in a movie cut scene.  Good job!

Thanks for sharing,
Tom

Congradulations!  You do a great job with your performances.  Both pieces are great - very relaxing and engaging.

Hi Malcolm, Autumn Prayer is beautiful, pensive an wistful. Also matches the weather here perfectly. Dream Time is an absolute stunner. This is breathtakingly beautiful. Very well done, Maestro.

Rik

 Malcolm,

 I love them both! Congratulations on doing so well! I may have the need to download a few of them myself when I get to my computer.

I was going to say I only had time for one, but I enjoyed Dream Time so much that I listened to Autumn Prayer as well.  Both beautiful pieces, exceedingly well done, but Autumn Prayer (for me anyway) was very visually evocative, as I could picture rolling hills and meadows in a big panoramic landscape.  When music can do that, it's a real credit to the composer.  Congratulations.

Aaaahhhh...you lulled me back to sleep......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 

Hi Malcolm, with all due respect my learned friend, I have to disagree with you :
Maestro (English: /ˈmaɪstroʊ/, Italian: [maˈestro]) (from the Italian maestro, meaning "master" or "teacher"[1]) is a title of extreme respect given to a master musician.



Please note the words "respect"and "given"!  


Rik

Hi Rik - you are more than generous. My only excuse is my innate English reserve - perhaps I should allow my Celtic side to come out more (although I think I shall give a miss to the woad!).

Hi Beagle - You help so many people here and without your help back in 2005 when I first started trying to learn to write music and use Home Studio, I would not be writing today. My Sincere Thanks. As for your comments on Autumn Prayer, you are right on all points and shows I am still learning when it comes to that mystery they call mixing and polishing! I find using VSL Soft Synths particularly taxing although recent excellent advice from Janet is helping considerably. Oddly it is always that first note - no matter what I do with velocity and CC controllers, VSL always insists on hitting it with a hammer! Even when I think I have it right, it sneaks back in when I bounce to track. No doubt I will eventually work out why. As for the harp (GPO), it's an instrument that I find difficult to get the balance right - a fine line between it being too far in the background and losing sound quality or dominating. I didn't quantize it but used panning, volume envelopes and tried to adjust reverb to improve the sound and balance it with the other instruments. Clearly I need to work on this.

Best Regards
Malcolm

Hi Alegria - Sincere thanks x a million

Best Regards
Malcolm

Hi Markno999 - Sincere thanks and so very pleased you like these two pieces. As for VSL and having just spent a very pleasant time listening to your excellent music, I have seen so many groups from rock to jazz to pop today with small string backing orchestras. I could very easily imagine strings behind "It was only Yesterday" and "Blue Note" (thought I could hear strings in that one). And last night I watched a rock group at a British Festival with almost a full string and brass orchestra behind them - amazing sound. So worth thinking about VSL - I would definitely recommend it.

Best Regards
Malcolm