Boon's first compositions

[boon]

Yeah, I'm trying my hand at composing :3

First song I've made, a mini-concerto thing in F# Minor, Moonlight Romance:
http://bb.xieke.com/files/moonlightromance_final.mp3

Second song, a video-game background song in G minor, Snowing Deeply:
http://bb.xieke.com/files/dunno4.mp3

rate

 

[UltimaEpica]

The samples/soundfonts you've got going here are pretty low-quality. Don't get me wrong, you can get great stuff out of even the lowest-quality samples, but I found it hard to take the piece seriously since it sounded so digital. If I were you, I'd invest in some better stuff; you can get some decent VSTs for relatively low prices these days (I'd look into EastWest or Garritan).
The composition itself isn't bad at all, you seem to know a thing or two about theory. At the moment though, it just feels too short and empty...I'd get some more bass in there, probably on the strings section. Also, raise the volume on those woodwinds, and try throwing in some light brass (horns would be good, since trumpets/trombones/tubas would seem too bright for such a mellow piece). If you could throw some sustain pedal on that piano at times, it would sound 1000x better. Also, PLEASE get some more reverb going here, the sounds are just way too dry at the moment. You seem to know what you're doing music-wise, but seriously try and check out some better soundfonts or samples, those appear to be the biggest problem with this song.
I'd be a hypocrite if I criticized you for making the song too short - most of my songs are 2:00 and under - but the ending just seems to come out of nowhere. In fact, there's not a hugely apparent flow to the piece at all...try giving it more of an intro, and break up the piano solo into different stanzas to give the background orchestra some more weight. The staccato ending with the woodwinds sounds comical for a such a lush song, try and extenuate it with some of those flowing strings you had at the beginning.

That's all I've got to say, don't think I'm bashing you or your song, it's just got some room for improvement. Try and add some more smoothness to the structure of the piece, and please try and get some better sounds...I really want to see what this would sound like if you worked with it a little more. I think you could really be a great composer if you spent some more time working on this.
All my opinion, of course. Keep on composing.

 

[boon]

yeah, it was my mistake. The key is F# Minor.

And I was told it counted as a piano concerto. Shamefully my program doesn't allow for sustain on the piano, and I have no money to buy programs.

Thank you for the feedback however.

I'm new to composing, so I'm simply using my friends copy of Finale 2009.

 

[UltimaEpica]

yeah, it was my mistake. The key is F# Minor.

And I was told it counted as a piano concerto. Shamefully my program doesn't allow for sustain on the piano, and I have no money to buy programs.

Thank you for the feedback however.

I'm new to composing, so I'm simply using my friends copy of Finale 2009.

Well, you could really count any song with a solo instrument as a concerto. If you listen to any classical concertos though, they tend to all have a similar structure, (three movements, first is fast tempo, second slow, third fast, much like a sonata). And if you're using a MIDI program (Finale), how did you get it to be an MP3? Also, I've tried out Finale once or twice, and I seem to remember a sustain pedal...though that was back with 2007, maybe the newest version's gotten rid of it for some reason. Too bad you don't have any money for new programs, but they've started shipping Finale with some samples from Garritan Personal Orchestra; if you work up some cash, you could try that out.

 

[boon]

Finale now has a VST, I have no idea which one. It's better than midi, but exports to .wavs.

 

[boon]

SmartMusic Soft Synth is the name of the VST.

 

[Holk]

You don't need to spend money to find great sounds. Some of the best I've ever heard are free.

 

[boon]

Any links? :3

 

[Holk]

I don't use VST, I use sf2, but hammersounds.net has a lot of good ones. Also, homemusician.net.

 

[boon]

I don't seem to know quite how to install any soundfonts to Finale. And it should have come with Garritan soundfonts preinstalled. hmm.

 

[boon]

Alright, gonna need help here, I have 3 soundfonts, which is the best?

http://bb.xieke.com/files/dunno1.mp3 Roben or something
http://bb.xieke.com/files/snowingdeeply_2.mp3 Default
http://bb.xieke.com/files/snowingdeeply.mp3 Steinway & Sons

 

[UltimaEpica]

I don't seem to know quite how to install any soundfonts to Finale. And it should have come with Garritan soundfonts preinstalled. hmm.

Finale can be bought with or without Garritan, your friend probably got without (since it's much cheaper). Also, if you're in the mood for soundfonts, try http://www.papelmedia.de/english/download2.htm or http://soundfonts.darkesword.com/
As for the sf2s, I'd go with Steinway and Sons (but lower the volume! That sample was hard on the ears). And you can easily make a sustain pedal effect if you use a sequencer (FL Studio, Logic, Cubase) that allows MIDI (don't worry, MIDI channels apply to Soundfonts too, if they're in sequencers). I personally use FL Studio 8, though it's not the best for MIDI channels, it's made more for samples and VSTs.

 

[boon]

Yeah, I find Finale easy to use for its interface -- but the best thing I've discovered is exporting to a MIDI, then importing to another program. The program I'm using gives me this:

http://bb.xieke.com/files/dunno4.mp3

Is this better?

 

[UltimaEpica]

Much better, but if it's piano that you're looking for, I'd suggest the TG Grand Piano from the TGSF21x Soundfont Pack from http://soundfonts.darkesword.com/
I agree with you on the *make MIDI/export to another program/make good quality* approach, that's how I generally make my songs too. If you want a quick and easy way to get some great sounds, try Hamienet's MIDI-to-mp3 converter. You can find it at http://www.hamienet.com/midi2mp3(my favorite piano sample there is from the Fluid-R3 Instrument set which also features some good orchestral sounds). In fact, that's probably your best bet for getting some good samples easily and for free.

 

[boon]

I love that Grand Piano. I'm using it from now on.

Also;
http://bb.xieke.com/files/snowingdeeply_final.mp3 -- still need to change the VST

http://bb.xieke.com/files/morningsorrow2.mp3 -- perfect sound, but is the composition good?

 

[UltimaEpica]

http://bb.xieke.com/files/morningsorrow2.mp3 -- perfect sound, but is the composition good?

Whether or not a composition is "good" is really relative to the listener; if you're not sure whether it's good or not it probably isn't. I personally thought it wasn't bad, but needed some touching up. The left hand rhythm up to about 0:28 sounded good, but I'd like to see some more variation there, it started to drag on me by about 0:20. At 0:24-0:27, something went wrong for me. I don't know if you threw in some wacky accidentals or tried to change the key, but those three seconds had me just wincing and going no!!! . I'd make the transition from 0:23 to 0:27 a little more polished, that could be a good chance to change up that left hand part as well as fix some of the...well, I'm not going to say "dissonance", because it seemed as if the two hands were at least working together, but...it just seemed like the original atmosphere you built up in those first 22 seconds got momentarily demolished, kind of losing the straightforward ambience. You know what I mean? It's like someone got halfway through Für Elise, then suddenly started playing The Entertainer for a few seconds before quickly switching back to Beethoven. 0:30-0:33 seemed a bit too simple, almost like you started doing a slow, childish major scale in the middle of a complex symphony. Once you got back on track after that, things perked up, but the left hand rhythm started bugging me again by the time I'd noticed it. The ending was...confusing. I'm not sure what you were trying to convey with it; did you make it as it is because you wanted the song to loop and thought that might be a good transition? If so, that's fine, but it really didn't sound too conclusive to me. The final note/chord/interval on the left hand part sounded really dissonant - actually, the right hand part kind of did too. If you know about theory, you know what the tonal chord is, right? It's the chord based off of the root note of the key, (in E major it'd be E, D minor D, etc.) and if you wanted to finish this off with a somewhat satisfying ending, I'd consider using that. However, if you just did that for the sake of looping, don't listen to a word I'm saying.
That's all I've got to say on the negative side; on the positive, I really enjoyed some aspects of the melody, especially the grace notes on the right hand part. I'd say to get some sustain pedal, but if there's no way that's physically possible, try adding some reverb or echo to give it that "live performance" effect. If you have Audacity or basically any decent audio editing software (don't worry, most are freeware) than you can add those and other cool effects to enhance the sound quality.
As for the new songs, sound really great, like to see what you come up with in the future.