This is a lovely piece of music, Malcolm, and the images made it all the more enjoyable for me.  Very impressive composing and orchestrating.

Very beautiful, moving composition. I got intensely homesick watching the slide show. I was born and raised in Vermont but moved to Southern California in my late 30's. Now in my 40's, it's been awhile since I've seen the frozen beauty of Winter. Kinda transported me for a moment... thank you and very well done!

Hi Zuma - Sincere thanks. With the weather we have been having in England over the last month or so, I envy your location! But I do agree with you there is something magical about snow and ice in Winter and I fully understand your nostalgia which I share. Although when I was young, the snow never seemed so cold!

Hi Stratrat1 - So pleased you like the piece. I am sure I also saw that movie! And that was exactly the picture I was trying to create with the music and photos (excluding the Buffalo of course!). Druids trudging through the snow up the hill to the Henge for the Solstice. I found the free drum loop somewhere on the web and it was listed as Native American. So you are also absolutely right about that. I have tried to record my Druid friends drumming but when you are in a forest clearing with a howling east wind, all you can hear is my teeth chattering!

Best Regards
Malcolm

"malcolmb"
Alegria - This thread was at the bottom of page two of this forum; so additional sincere thanks for finding it.

You din't think I was going to miss this one, especially after your enthusiastic description in your previous thread. Very nice work indeed! 

Hi Clifford

Sincere thanks and so pleased you like this piece. In answer to your question, I write all my music by notation in Staff View in Sonar Home Studio 7XL. So everything is done in Sonar from beginning to end. The instruments I used for this piece are:

Winter wind - Dimension LE1 - Hypnotica + Triangle (although not seperately audible, I also added Dyad DXi1 with Layer A - Ghostwhisper and Layer B - Ghostpad to add some depth to the sound).

Erhu and Bass Dizi (Chinese violin and flute) - these are free cut-down versions of the full VSTs from Kong Audio. If you are interested, just Goggle "Mini Erhu" and you will find the links.

Solo Alto Flute, Violins, Violas, Cellos - Garritan Personal Orchestra (Second Edition).

Drums and Wind Chimes - free .wav files I found on the web (after much searching - not sure where I found them!).

How do I get the sound quality? The only sound 'enhancers' I use are Sonitus Reverb and Boost11. With Sonitus, I always use presets (usually 'The Venue' or 'Short and Sweet') and with Boost11 I usually set the input to 1 and output to around 0.5. And that is it. The only other component is my soundcard. After trying a number of M-Audio cards and not being happy with the sound, I eventually went for a Marian Marc 4 Midi card. It does give me a beautifully warm sound and perhaps it is this that is making the difference. At the moment I use Windows XP as my operating system and this is fine for the Marian. But when I eventually move on to Windows 7, I suspect I will need to change the sound card.

Hope this helps and I look forward to hearing your guitar and orchestra composition.

Best Regards
Malcolm

PS - for the video I used Windows Movie Maker - came free with XP and very easy to use.