New Demo - Orchestral Sounding

[dpmkc]

Hey all!

Here are a couple of demos I've done recently. They are a more orchestral sounding. I'd love thoughts or suggestions.

http://www.lukehendrickson.com/7-Imagine-LukeHendrickson.wma

http://www.lukehendrickson.com/8-Imagine-LukeHendrickson.wma


Thanks,
Luke

[shred child]

holy crap! Thats like the exact stuff I want to start doing! Really really well done mate! Could you possibly give me some advice on gear to use? Or any other advice would be greatly appreciated.....once again extremeley well done!

[dpmkc]

Here's the epuipment I used.

Cubase SX - Sequencer/Recording surface
Gigastudio - Sampling software
GigaPiano - Grandpiano sample (1GB)
Vienna Symphonic Library - Orchestral Samples (20-60GB) HUGE!
MOTU 2408 - Audio Interface
MIDI Keyboard Controller

Various reverbs and mastering plugins.

The songs are actually going on a CD soon.

Soon I'm going to begin incorperating this orchestral sound into more pop/rock sounding songs. It will be an interesting challange.

Thanks for the post. Have you started on anything yet?


Luke

[shred child]

i've started writting...but my equipment right now is just not good enough for decent orchestral samples and such....thats for the gear list! it gave me some idea of what i should purchase next. I'm deffinatley gonna buy your CD!

[Taurus]

nice work, you make gigastudio shine :)
Are gigastudio+gigapiano's samples public domain?

[Zorbas]

If you don't have the $$ to blow on Gigastudio samples (very high quality stuff, but very expensive) you can always go for Propellerhead Reason. The samples aren't as good, but they're good enough and with a touch of reverb they sound pretty decent. And since you're recording MIDI basically you can always apply it to better samples later down the road.

[Zorbas]

Btw, dude this is pretty damn amazing!

Nice work!

[Drusillus]

Uhm... HOLY CRAP :shock:

That sounds awesome dude!! You should be looking for work in film scoring.

[Eric Zane]

You got some skills, man, I can tell you.
Like the way you write, because my pitch totally follows, if you know what I mean.
Great inspiration, really. Nice work!

[dpmkc]

Yeah, Gigastudio stuff can get expensive.

Gigastudio $250-500 (comes with gigapiano)
Vienna Symphonic Library (pro edition) $2000
MOTU 2408 $700-1000

You might want to consider starting out with the following.
http://www.edirol.com/products/info/hq_orchestral.html

The quality of the Edirol is not as good. But at least you can get your feet wet. And like Zorbas said, you can take the MIDI files and later apply it to higher quality samples.

The first song (7-imagine) ... took about 24 hours to write and record. Broken up into 2-3 weeks. I'd record one section, then wait a few days... review... then work on the next section.

Here is the link for the CD.
http://www.dpmkc.org/store/imagine.htm

I'd love to hear any of your guys stuff.

God bless!


Luke

[dpmkc]

Hey, I thought I'd thow in a little freebie. My cousin and I made this demo 6 months ago around midnight... bored out of our minds. So we had the idea, let's make a song just using OUR voices. :P

http://www.dpmkc.org/tino.mp3
no keyboards were used. (still real rough)


Luke

[Taurus]

Now we get to know your other side... Hahahaw :)

Fun man ! Hahaw

[Enc3f4L0]

I loved it dude. Both songs.

You really got the hang of the gear to make it sound that real. I envy that (me being a guitarist that knows very little about sampling and synths).

Keep it up..

[dpmkc]

Here is a new demo that uses some unique rhythm towards the middle and end. Check it out.

http://www.lukehendrickson.com/2-Imagine-LukeHendrickson.wma

Luke

[Cloak]

A couple small critiques/constructive criticisms:

Find a better French Horn sample. :D Those aren't very real-sounding, but horns are a VERY difficult instrument to sample.

Listening to track 7: You sound like you have about fifteen different string parts, which does SOUND cool, but keep in mind that in any REAL orchestra, you'd only have basses, cellos, violas, and two violins, or five parts at once. I mean, you could separate them into a chorus 1/chorus 2 type of thing if you really wanted to, but it isn't very realistic in terms of real-world situations. Then again, aren't synths all about turning the real-world situations on their ears? :)

Same thing in track 8 with the pizz/arco combinations: It sounds like you already have the Violin I section playing the long arco part, plus playing pizzicato... I don't think they can do both. :)

Ooooohh... Are those cymbal rolls part of the orchestra sample? Man, I really wish I could afford that.

EDIT: Oh, I just remembered another thing. Wind instruments like flutes and oboes play with vibrato. Playing them without makes them sound very "affected." Trumpets and trombones also play with vibrato, as do saxophones (though saxes aren't generally considered orchestral instruments anyway), whereas clarinets and horns don't play with vibrato. The reason is that trumpets and trombones aren't very resonant instruments due to their design, whereas horns are extremely resonant due to the amount of piping in them, so they don't need it.

[shred child]

thats beuaty about not being a real orchestra.....you can defy the laws of orchestral writting and have the string section play 29 parts simultaneously if you wish.

[Cloak]

thats beuaty about not being a real orchestra.....you can defy the laws of orchestral writting and have the string section play 29 parts simultaneously if you wish.
That is true, as I said. However, if the idea is instead to give the impression of a real orchestra, then it's important to know what to use and how. For example, it's pointless to use a sample of a violin and then completely ignore the range of the violin, playing notes far below G3, or playing a bassoon before its lowest note of Bb2. Things like that.

[Fossil Records]

......................wow......................

Absolutely wonderful.

[dpmkc]

Cloak:
You are right about the horns sample. That, and wind instruments like oboe and flute are some of the hardest to capture/play correctly.

Your comments on having too many layers is a valid one, but in this case needs some clarification.

It is not unhead of to have 2 or even 3 violin sections in a real orchestra. On song 7 there are 3 violin sections and 2 viola sections. On song 8 the pizzicato is played by cellos. And none of the instruments are played outside of their "playable" range. So it's very in keeping with a standard orchestra setup. I do understand what you are saying though. And feel the same way about it.

Thanks for the comments!


Luke

[Cloak]

One thing that I FORGOT to mention when posting my critiques was that I think it's incredibly good music. :) I wish I had the resources to be able to write music like this (I have the Gigapiano, but that's it and I KNOW I can't afford any other libraries, at least not the really good ones).

[Mago_Lari]

WOWOWO man..im amazed of the sound quality and music composition..really great!
Can i ask you what Reverb Plug in you use, cause i want to use woth my karma orc sounds (which for me are enough now..)
bye bye!
Claudio

[dpmkc]

Oh yeah, the Karma... It's actually a pretty nice keyboard. The weakest thing on it in my opinion is the piano sound. (a bit plastic sounding) The synths and orchestral sounds aren't too bad though. I personally use a Kurzweil K2500 rack and a Korg Triton rack when I travel. I want to get a laptop soon and throw all of my samples on it... That would be sweet!

Reverb... For most of the sounds I just used the Cubase SX reverb built in to the software. But when I needed a little more control, I used the Waves reverb.

I'll tell you a plug-in that really sweetens the sound is BBE Sonic Maximizer. It makes almost any dull sound come alive. Just put it on the master plug-in group.

Luke

[Liquid Shadow]

I kept meaning to open this thread but never did for some reason...


Anyways, I'm very glad that I did - this is fantastic stuff man. Thumbs up. 8)

[maestrophillips]

My hates off to where credit is due. Very enjoyable music. Pat yourself on the back for good work.

Peace. 8)

[tubescreamer2000]

dude im buying your cd... i love this stuff

edit: just paid via paypal :)