I honestly adore this - reminds me of a Christmassy/Winter theme music from the 80s and 90s. Pretty amazing work! :)
Author Comments
This style is super cheesy, but you'd never guess how time consuming it is to orchestrate/arrange. It's also a HUGE pain in the butt trying to produce. Most instrument libraries are geared towards one thing or another (let's face it, mostly pop music or epic Hollywood orchestral) so getting the instruments to sound genre-correct takes a lot of aggravating work. It's also very dense. Almost every single note is harmonized with 9th, 11th, 13th, or 6/9 chords. All the strings are playing divisi, so the chords are voiced in pretty close harmony. Some of the voicings still sound a bit funky to my ears, but I'm done working on this.
If you're a musician, I urge you to give it a go. You'll waste days or weeks of your life on it and when you finally release it to the public, people will tell you it reminds them of Ren & Stimpy, or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. They'll never understand. They'll. never. understand.
If you've animated something and you need music, let me know. I can send a reel if you want to see previous work.
(Technical note: If I wanted to be more accurate, I'd roll the bass off a bit more. The instruments should also each be mixed either left or right. Early Hi Fi recordings didn't really account for headphone experiences, and the sound sort of mixed together in the room. I also believe the stereo separation was an attempt to recreate the feel of going to an actual concert with the orchestra spread across a stage. This is based on absolutely no research. Fortunately for those curious about this style of music, this mono/channel approach makes it A LOT easier to transcribe those old recordings. I did not do that. I have failed you.)
dang ol'. it's a friggin masterpiece!
I think it's amazing. In my opinion it's by far the best instrumentation of all your works posted here on ng. What libraries are you using?
And hey, come on, no need to complain so much. People without experience in a specific area will never really understand how much hard work is involved in producing something you love. It's the weight most artists have to carry. Just accept the love you get back =)
sleepFacingWest responds:
Thanks for listening. I'm not *really* complaining. It was a bad attempt at overdramatic humor, but I can absolutely see how it flopped.
The strings are Spitfire chamber (my first time using them, and I'm impressed). The woodwinds are East West Hollywood Woodwind. The percussion is all over the place. The glockenspiel is from East West Goliath (I think, or maybe symphonic orchestra...I bounced between the two quite a bit for awhile in this project). The Woodblocks, slapstick, and xylophone are from Cinesamples CinePercussion. The drum set is Abbey Road 50's Drummer. I think I'm forgetting a couple, but those are the bulk.
I like the sing-songy vibe and old-school instrumentation. Sounds very Hollywood indeed. The mixing is rather good, so I think your hard work paid off on that front. It does get a tad repetitive for my tastes, but I still really appreciate the intricacy of the orchestration. The cutesy ending is also super nice. I can totally see this going into the soundtrack of one of those videogames where you dress up characters and then have to do their makeup/hair/nails with great precision. :) Keep up the good work, SFW! ^^
sleepFacingWest responds:
Thanks! I agree with you, but the repetitive structure is unfortunately hard baked into the project demands. A lot of the tracks I'm doing these days are for a stock music library which is an interesting challenge and I've learned a lot. In order to be usable, the track needs to instantly elicit a familiar genre and emotion, and needs to pretty much stay there the whole time. While shifts in tone, theme, instrumentation, etc would make a better piece of standalone music, it would force an emotional change that likely won't coincide with whatever is happening on screen. Likewise, custom sound design also makes for a more unique/individualized product, but becomes too niche for general score use. It's weird...the unique artistic stuff that is fun to listen to gets more attention, but the flat and sometimes schlocky stuff gets more use. My current employer prefers schlocky. As a composer who can find both worlds interesting, challenging, and fulfilling for different reasons, it's difficult to figure out which way to lean. In the end, I really just want more work.
That's some good light music.
sleepFacingWest responds:
Thank you!
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