Bravestorm OST

I think this more or less answers the entirety of my "composing on piano" thread's question.

PS -- I'd love a lossless version (or at least a downloadable one, I'd be happy to pay for it). You undersell yourself! Much more listenable and enjoyable than quite a few scores I've encountered lately.

 

Yeah, and I love it, just the general vibe of it is what struck me as slightly "western-ish", along with the mix sounding rather old-school, more relaxed and less in-your-face (compared to modern stuff), for lack of better description.

4 weeks for this? Did you mix it too? Were you at it for 12 hours a day? That's amazing. Like you said, decades of experience, but still - wow.

I haven't listened to too many of your orchestral works (there aren't that many that I can find, there's Forgotten Warrior, The Race, Batman and a number of shorter pieces as either standalone or as a demo) but what's evident to me from the very first cue is the style. It's you. It's evident throughout the entire work. It's not your assistant expanding and finishing your sketch, it's not you simply orchestrating or arranging something someone else wrote for you. Even though I caught a couple of nods to various other works (LOVED "Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle", made me smile - I don't know if Williams lifted that from somewhere else though) the style is always there. I can't exactly put my finger on what it exactly is, but I definitely recognize across all your available work. For me, that's incredibly important and something I value highly in artists. As long as people can hear/see your work and instantly connect it to you, that's just it.

Thanks a lot! I'm looking forward to giving it another whirl without the SoundCloud Kiss.

 

Hi Aaron, is this the part you mean?

If it is, I remember hearing it and immediately thinking it was Williams 'referencing' himself from the Hoth battle in Empire (temp track possibly??).
It makes sense though as this is the moment when Vader 'arrives at the battle', the storming of Echo Base.
I kind of hope it was intentional, a little nod to us, so to speak

Yes, I totally agree.
There is a massive difference in Mike's work and other pieces you hear which sound like someone has just taken a piece of Williams sheet music and moved one note up, another note down, etc.
Which isn't necessarily a crime or a bad thing but as Mike often points out, that's the difference between internalising those melodic/harmonic/rhythmical gestures and presenting something cohesive compared to something which sounds good but seems to lack an internal and overall sense of structure, the feeling of a beginning and an ending connected by a musical arc.

 

Yeah that's it. Aaand there it is hah. That's really interesting, I missed that. Thanks for the clear-up.

 

I noticed no credit on IMDb for Bravestorm. Mike, is it generally your choice whether or not you receive credit for work (I know you've done a lot of stuff not listed in IMDb) and if so, what's your litmus test for whether nor not you want to be associated with a project?

 

That's fair; I'd hope my own appraisals of my work continue to become more accurate as I get better, and my standard to continue rising as well (as my "bottom level" [hopefully] rises). Fairness to oneself is something I hope I find too along with the aforementioned increase in self-perceptual accuracy, and I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that one tends to be one's own harshest critic. I appreciate that shared wisdom too (the living and dying by every gig) -- I struggle with that rather constantly (as I'm sure many others do), that awful voice whispering messages of doubt into the back of my mind (as you mentioned, "you don't have it"/"you won't make it"/"you'll never get better", etc). I'm also glad to know it goes away, or at least becomes a smaller voice in the end.

It's a tough struggle because for many of the things I've been insecure about in my life, I've either learned (with age and experience) to reject or simply accept them outright by finding their root and understanding them, or I've had relatively objective measures to indicate otherwise (i.e. thinking of myself as stupid in gradeschool but excelling in university). I trust my taste (generally speaking), but I don't have the years of experience yet to demonstrate to myself that I can create something worthwhile with any sort of consistency, or that I know I can continually improve.

 

This is great stuff.

1. Track 7 @ :24 - what are the ascending violins from?
2. Did you use MIR, or some other "placement" sw? Reason I ask, is that I am noticing some phase issues in the stereo image. Really evident in trk 2. Maybe the surrounds (if there were any) were folded down into the L/R mix?

Cheers.

 

This sounds amusingly Japanese.

 

Love the sound stage you achieved here, it's very clear and everything has it's own space. When you say you used early reflections in Altiverb, do you mean you used the dry signal+ PT's time adjuster delay+ Altiverb on all the instruments like in your Virtuosity class? Do you turn off the tail in Altiverb when you use it in these applications?

 

Cool!! Thanks Mike and again, fantastic job!!

 

Thanks, Mike!

 

Any recommendations for FLAC players for Mac and/or iPad/iPhone?

 

Yup, VLC works on both but on my iPhone even though I have auto play next item enabled, it only plays one cue at a time.