Man, this is intense. It’s got a great mix of horror soundtrack and avant-garde contemporary classical. Seems like you’ve got a good grasp of knowing both the standard rules of music and how to break them well. Nice work!
Author Comments
Entry For: NG Orchestral Composition Contest 2021
EDIT: 2nd Place Win!
EDIT2: This has been given a mastering update
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The entire approach was: "Why? Because why not! Also, Orchestra goes BBBRRRRRRRRRRR". The first things which came to mind in terms of articulations, time signatures and what to layer was shoved right down into this. This wasn't inspired by anything in particular and doesn't intentionally conform to anything other than what I was feeling about doing at the exact moments all of the sequences and articulations were notated. The results is a technical melting-pot which I'm fairly satisfied with. Shortened it in comparison to the original plans of being a 7-min piece. Few small errors here and there, but realistically if I tried to work on them all, I'd be on this project for like another 2 weeks haha
Project Technical Info:
- 19 Time Signature Changes
- Keys Present: C Diminished / D Diminished / E Diminished (alternating). // C Hungarian Minor (last segments)
- Tempo: 104 --> 94 (to '94' at 1:50) --> 84 (to '84' at 4:04)
- Tuning Range: 438-441hz (Everything individually tuned between that range to emulate the scenario that not everything is perfectly tuned in a performance setting etc).
- Sequencer Clips: 186
- Instruments: Everything you'd expect in a regular full orchestra, plus some unusual extra's included you wouldn't typically expect such as a Tenor Sax, Glass Marimba, Kangling, Aztec Death Whistle and Digeridoo just to spice things up abit. Also quite alot of aleatoric orchestral FX used for layering or rhythms throughout the piece. Didn't go that heavy on the percussion, as I felt the track didn't need to.
LD-W responds:
Ayy thanks!
This was one of my earlier orchestrations, mostly just having a fun time messing around with different approaches etc. At some point, I'm keen on doing a much more up-to-date counterpart as an evolution of the idea of this track.
Its pretty good I love the dramatic nature though I decided to give four stars as its difficult to know whats going on as theres not enough dynamic sounds I also do think the loud moments do get a little to loud it comes down to personal preference I was expecting it to be very consistent and pleasent to listen to its a half truth both its consistent yet akward stops and some moments became loud though to loud for a viewing I see why it got second place its great though could be better it also feels a bit short this is four stars from me
haha could see why this got the reception it deserved, absolutely maddening...
first time listening to this and i was genuinely scared for my life goddamn. listening to this again and i could appreciate more of the finer details that went to this piece. (also wow 19 time signature changes and the change in tempo is mad) that beginning is really solid tho, and yes it's because of the crazy sax. (and those pauses!) not really much i could say here since this is solid enough except the end felt rather lackluster than the rest of the song, like less detailed i mean, that's not much of a problem considering the other parts are already wild enough as it is. i do feel like there's a minor error in the transition at 1:53 with those strings being a bit loud at the higher octaves (or higher frequencies? idk...), and 3:40's transition could be a bit longer... i wonder what those few errors are on your end tho...
overall, sheeeesh!
LD-W responds:
Ayy thanks for checking the track out!
Yeah, the ending segments are another by-product of 'I ran out of time lol' syndrome which plagues the majority of my tracks haha. The track errors I have noted down are stuff like not volume automating the Aztec Death Whistle, a few EQ adjustments I'd like to do for the strings & scrape tones, a few CASE-based articulations I would of preferred to have in etc.
Not bad. I could see why this got at least second place.
Maybe it's just me, but you seem to have channelled Cronenberg-Era Howard Shore.
LD-W responds:
Ahh now that you've mentioned Shore, I can definitely see some resemblance in some areas!
The bulk majority of the unusual articulations I've pulled straight from the 8DIO CASE Bundle, there's enough on there to pretty much anything I'd almost ever want to do for a horror orchestration. Maybe at some point in the future, doing a combined orch + distorted synth piece like what Shore done in Scanners (like Vale Captured) would be fun to do
Thanks for checking the track out!
Sounds amazing! Good luck with your placement in the competition! Best of luck to all the contestants!
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LD-W 
Licensing Terms
Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.
