Other people are posting their music here, so I don't feel spammy about posting some of my latest tunes. I'd love to hear opinions on them. :) Frozen Memories (electronica-rock) Sojourn (Middle Eastern orchestral) Spirit of the Ancient Wood (Celtic orchestral/new age) NEW! Wings of Prophecy (Film-style orchestral) Those links are to the mp3's themselves, just right-click and go to Save As to download. [Edited by - Arglebargle on July 17, 2005 1:45:47 PM]

I like Spirit of the Ancient Wood, although I think I would have liked to have had a tension-causing modulation in the middle somewhere. It works fine without one though. What did you compose it with?

Hey man, thanks for the listen.

I do my sequencing with Sonar 3, and use SampleTank 2 for my instrument samples. It's a very nice package for someone who wants a wide range of instruments at their disposal. For electronic synth stuff I use various software synths... mostly free stuff (too poor to afford the expensive ones!).

I've only listened to Sojourn so far, and I have to say I'm impressed! Lots of nice sounds, good orchestration, and a good final mix. The only thing I would really suggest is to phrase the oboe sound more. Right now it sounds like someone playing the oboe on the keyboard. If you can shape the volume to fit the phrases, it will really bring the melody out with more realism. And, and this is a biggy, currently your virtual oboist must have the lung capacity of a giant, being able to play for so long without taking a breath! Why not put in the occasional break in a passage, to emulate the player breathing?

Just my tuppence worth... :)

Haha, Baz, funny you mention that. I'm an oboist actually (played 7 years, quit after high school), and my original idea was to play the oboe lines myself. Unfortunately, I soon found out how abysmal my recording setup is, and I decided to use a sampled oboe for better quality. I agree that the articulation isn't very realistic.

And yeah, I was having doubts about being able to play the main melody without passing out. :D

As it happens, I've recently just made an egyptian-esque piece, for a space game. I've found that by blending the souds of an oboe with a soprano saxophone, you can get a nice, reedy sound without it sounding too much like a western oboe. If you're bored, try here: Veridian.

By just working out what your articulations would be if you were personally playing it, and adding that to the sampled sound, you'll instantly improve the quality.

Nice work u have there, btw, do u do your mixing in SONAR 3?, coz i use sonar 3 too :)..

Yep, I use Sonar 3 for my mixing.

icic, where u find those free eletronic samples? i need some of them too :D..

Free soft-synths?

Go to kvraudio.com and you can perform a search for free stuff.

Some synths I'd recommend:

Crystal
Triangle I
Triangle II
String Theory
Claw
Vanguard demo (each instance stops after 10-15 minutes, but it totally rocks for electronica)

If you're looking for effects, Khaerjus Audio and MDA make a ton of free stuff.