First Midi Orchestration Piece

Hi. I've been wanting to write a few music scores for a long time and finally invested the money in the tools I need. I wanted to do a practice song, and this is what I came up with. It's a variation on several Jerry Goldsmith scores that I was familiar with. I thought that would make it a fairly easy piece to score as practice - it was not! I'm interested in feedback on how the overall score sounds. Is it realistic enough? What advice would you give to make things more realistic?
 
Also - does anyone recognize the pieces? Musically, the selection I transition to in the middle would never belong there. But I wanted to see if I could force it to fit! It's a song that's always seemed a little "magical" to me. Thanks, in advance!
 
http://soundcloud.com/harlon-moss/goldsmith

Thanks so much for the feedback. Granted - I was hoping for at least somewhat realistic! Lol. I wish I could hear exactly what your ears are hearing so I can fix them. For example, the flute is a solo flute from Symphobia 2. It will not allow polyphonic play, so I'm not sure about overlapping notes. Could you be hearing reverb trails? I'll go back and listen close and see if I can hear what you're hearing. As for strings, they are from LASS. There are some overlapping notes there. But - somewhere - I read that is common to create legato lines, so I kind of left them. Bad idea? And I'll admit pretty much all I did with strings was load a legato patch and play it, using only mod wheel for some dynamics. But, obviously - I have a lot to learn about doing that right. How else can I change the "constant attack" you are hearing? Thank you again! Like I said - I want to use this piece as a learning project. So any advice is welcome! By the way - I went to your Soundcloud site. Yikes! Very impressive music. So, obviously, your advice is extremely welcome!

Terry - I very much welcome the critical reviews! Often we all share a song we have done with the hope of simply getting some praise for our work. But in this case, while a "nice job" is always welcome, I really want some ideas on how to get better. I've played guitar for about 30 years (wow I'm getting old) and outside of pop/ rock strings arrangements I have little experience with this. I did play trumpet through college. So I have some overall music knowledge. But outside of helping me hear what a tuba, or oboe should be doing, it's little help with strings and such!
 
I came very close to purchasing EWQL. I think I even had it added to shopping cart. But I had a bit more of a budget, so I decided to go with various individual libraries (and probably wound up spending way more that I could have). Listening to your stuff shows EWQL is pretty darn versatile!
 
I'll go back and take a look at the overlapping notes. I don't want to quantize, so perhaps I'll try to edit them individually and see how that sounds. My guess is that it will help.
Thanks for being nipicky!!

WOW . . . A very powerful piece when it kicks in.  Sounds great on my end. KUDOS!

Kev

dude you got a positive comment from pistol pete ?
you must be doing something right.

I gotta say - you're all making me smile a bit!!! Thank you for taking the time to listen. And reply back! I love this forum!!

Thanks, ProjectM. That's the main thing I hear, as well. I've spent a lot of time trying to tame those little things. The good thing is - this session taught me a lot (as a result of my early mistakes). I'll likely play with this one a bit more in that area, but I have a better understanding of some things NOT to do next time. Thanks, again! Advice always welcome!

This is quite lovely... excellent work...

Thanks for taking the time to listen, fellas. And Daryl - I hear ya, brother. I've always been a pretty basic rock guy, myself. Although I've always really enjoyed this kind of music. So - I thought ... why not give it a try?? I did play trumpet through college, so - not totally green to arrangements. Thanks!!

Hey, Mike. Thanks for the feedback. No - did not have the midi files or score. I just sort of winged it. In fact, I figured most parts out on my guitar first (my main instrument) then played each part one at a time on my M-Audio keyboard.

I did try to work the mod wheel, but it was much harder than I thought! For one thing, the mod wheel doesn't control the same thing in each patch. Who knew? So I spent a lot of time wrapping my head around that. Even then - my first few playbacks were really bad. I was really frustrated at how "unreal" it sounded! And I can tell based on the feedback I've gotten on this thread, that is still my area I have to improve on. And I figured that. But I will indeed keep working at it. It has really been a lot of fun, so I find it easy to keep working on. Hard to do that when music becomes work!

That flute solo is from Symphobia 2. It is indeed a lagato patch, but I'm sure I could do a better job playing it. Your idea of layer is a really interesting one. I'll play with that.

A friend had a really good idea. He suggested bringing in an actualy violin/ cello/ flute player and record them playing the same part. Then, using those as guides - try and match them! Brilliant!

Thank again!