Hi folks,
 
This is a piece I put aside a few months ago, but returned to after getting some great feedback on my other recent symphonic effort (AElfwyn's Saga). I needed a break from that one, so I pulled "A Song for the Trillium Queen" from the backburner, and to my surprise was able to finish this draft within about a week. This is a shorter composition, just a single theme, and is dedicated to a friend of mine who does historical reenactment. I tried to make the music more dynamic, a little more natural sounding. Not sure if I succeeded.
 
https://soundcloud.com/am...-queen-adrielles-theme
 
Some details...
 
Strings: my usual combo of Albion ONE for the basic articulations, and 8Dio Anthology for the prominent legato lines and tremolo
Brass: Hollywood Brass, NI Symphonic Essentials Brass
Woodwinds: Garritan Personal Orch 5, HAlion Symphonic, Miroslav 2 CE
Percussion: Hollywood Percussion, HAlion Symphonic and EWQL Symphonic Orch Silver
Harp: NI Kontakt Factory Library 
Plugins: Exponential Audio's Nimbus over the whole mix, nothing else
 
Any feedback or comments would be greatly appreciated. 
 
Thanks!
 
 UPDATE: the above link is different than the original one I used. This is a revised version.
 
 

I'd say you succeeded, this is excellent work. Beautiful melodies, great dynamics.

Very nice Rob! It builds in a very organic way. Very nice theme too!
 
Regards,
Dan

jamesg1213
I'd say you succeeded, this is excellent work. Beautiful melodies, great dynamics.

Thanks, James! Much appreciated. I was aiming for better dynamics.

dcumpian
Very nice Rob! It builds in a very organic way. Very nice theme too!
 
Regards,
Dan

Thanks, Dan. I'm really enjoying trying to work purely in the symphonic arena, so to speak, and getting things to feel natural and organic is one of my main goals, so I appreciate the feedback.

First thought, the woodwinds sound a little choppy when in solo. You would definately need a better legato than the you have here. For purely classical music I would get Vienna Symphonic Library stuff. Their solo woodwinds are exceptionally well made and will not break your bank. Embertone has the best legato of the business, but they haven't released a full range of woodwinds. Their Crystal Flute is something to look into. When there's more stuff the shortcomings of the legato instrument are not noticable anymore. A good legato instrument is it's weight and more in diamonds.
 
Good use of dynamics. Now there is variation which is a must in orchestral music. Melodies and harmonies are lovely as well.
 
There are parts in the strings where one could perhaps make a bit more modulation tricks. When you have loud string chord playing and it ends give the end a little more snap to simulate the bow coming off the instrument after being played vigorously. In subtle chords you can easily just end them but forcefull playing needs a bit more faking. Just like the beginnings need a little spicatto them to make them feel like the bow go on the strings.
 
I think the percussions needs more weight. Double the timpani with and orchestral bass drum and bring the drums a bit more to the forefront. Percussions are powerful instruments when played with force.
 
Also I know you want an organic sound and feel to these, but consider doubling the bass register and octave below with a purely sine wave sub bass. It adds so much warmth to low register.
 
The ending stab is a bit weird. I'd either take out the low brass hit or add the higher register as well. Now it falls a bit flat.

Awesome, Tapsa. Really appreciate the feedback and suggestions.
 
In regards to the final stab - yeah, it didn't work as expected, but I didn't even notice until I had it posted the piece. It was the first  thing I was going to address tonight. 
 
I will give those other ideas a try this evening. Thanks a lot!
 
Rob
 
Update: as per Tapsa's suggestions, I have re-posted the song, with a new stab at the end. Rather than the low brass, I added a bit of rumble from AlbionONE's Easter Island ensemble, and I think it sounds a bit better.
 

I'm not sure how you could better this. It was all around awesome. And I would never have known it wasn't a real orchestra.
 
I'm planning to score an old, silent film short on classical guitar along with my Roland guitar synth. I don't have access to other synth sounds and will have to settle on those built-in to the GR20. You've really inspired me, although I'll be using very sparse instrumentation.

Wayfarer
I'm not sure how you could better this. It was all around awesome. And I would never have known it wasn't a real orchestra.
 
I'm planning to score an old, silent film short on classical guitar along with my Roland guitar synth. I don't have access to other synth sounds and will have to settle on those built-in to the GR20. You've really inspired me, although I'll be using very sparse instrumentation.

Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated!