Hi,

Don't worry it's not quite as drastic as the thread title suggests... but I have just started arranging the first track from my next album and I'd like some advice...

The first track in an album is supposed to grab you by the cajones (or other parts of the anatomy) and pull you into it but I'm worried about a couple of things with this...

(1) Is it too generic and unoriginal?
(2) Does the overly dramatic orchestra actually bore you rather than grab you?

All thoughts or comments most welcome.

Two other things... it isn't mastered yet and it ends abruptly... sorry!

http://soundcloud.com/pur...matic-idea-please-read

Cheers,
Terry.

Not bad, I think perhaps a little hole in the orchestra sound scape for the percussion to stand out would help. 

As to not Mastered will that not be something you do in the album production to ensure a balance across tracks and to ensure that you do not exceed stylus excursion overrun?

Thanks for sharing

Hi Terry, I was hoping to hear more of the piano develop before the orchestra comes in. Percussion could be more in the "distance" than right in your face. The orchestral bit at the 1 min. mark is just to loud for me, sorry. I would rather hear a nice piano only ouverture to draw me in and then be scared to deat with that wall of sound. ; )

Rik

p.s. I don't like loud music ; )

Gee, Terry, this grabs me by the meatballs and pours spaghetti sauce all over them ;)  Seriously, it's a good start on many levels, and if you take a left turn where it now ends, it could be an epic song or beginning.  Is it generic?  No, it's a brand name.  It's dramatic, but not overly so.  As I'm sure you well know, you typically have 10 to 20 seconds to grab one's attention, and this does so in less time, at least for me.  But, I already think you're one of the better composers around, so you have to take that into account.

get ready for the coming battle, that's what it tells me so a great intro piece I would say!

Oh goodness gracious....STOP it at once!!!

STOP having these crises...sheesh...this is seriously good stuff!  Keep it up and finish it.  This is just brilliant!

See my full review on FB. :) 

It sounds fantastic Terry.

I wonder if you might select some toms at the intro that have more of a "tuned" tone? Not quite like a tuned timpani but something that sounds like the toms were tensioned up just for this particular piece of music. I think they might pop out and seem more musical and naturally mix with the whole in a graceful way.

I really liked the detailed and intimate percussion effects that happened half way through. That seemed like a real nice foil to the big room tom sound at the beginning. It was a sonic treat.


 Thanks.


 best regards,
mike

Hi,

Thanks to everyone for the feedback:

@Wookiee - yeah I'll make that hole when I do a proper mix of it... and you're right about mastering... that's exactly what I meant! ;-)

@Rik - good idea about more piano... since listening to it a few times last night I'm actually thinking of taking it down a notch at the 1 minute mark to be more piano based for about 8 bars and then CRASH into the louder section. And then after the louder section I've got an idea for a more piano based 2-3 minutes before building up the orchestra again for the end of the track.

@Lynn - shucks, thanks for the ego boost. Glad it does what it's supposed to - and isn't too generic to your ears.

@shawn - it does sound very 'soundtrack' like to my ears, I think it's the percussion combined with a ton of brass. Thanks!

@Janet - yes ma'am! I've read your full review on FB so I guess I'll just have to snap out of it. Thanks for listening!

@Mike - I'll try some tuned percussion and see how it sounds. Thanks for the suggestion, and thanks for listening!

So I guess the upshot is that I should stop worrying about it and just get on with the bloody thing... so that's what I'll do (in between work and sleep!).

Thanks again everyone.

Cheers,
Terry.

Hans Zimmer like to be sure.  This is very cool, very powerful but I would like to hear more kettle drums or some of those big deep Japanese drums.  But this very moving.  I look forward to the rest.

Daryl

Ok good start, but my question is where do you want to go from here??

I liked the intro the piano part was interesting and cool, but it gets overwhemled once the orchestral stuff comes in but I understand that this is only a rough.

Back to the question, for me it could go three ways.  The first, it just ends like it does, nothing wrong with that.  The 2nd is that we bring the track down and what I mean by that is we start to strip away the orchestral stuff and we go back to just the piano part.  In reality we are adding a dynamic to the tune.  3rd it could go boom and you could take it up a notch, meaning it could go into a heavier section.

Peace Ben