Hey guys, I'm actually not too experienced in orchestration (especially when it comes to scoring games) and I was wondering if I could get feedback on a WIP of mine. This is a project that I've been doing personally for a while now... in fact my part is virtually done. I'm still just waiting for a friend to finish up his end of the song hah.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/49040320/Full_Rough.mp3

Is it sounding alright? Do I even have a clue what the hell I'm doing? Any feedback you guys can give would be greatly appreciated!

This sounds pretty good to me, certainly better than any of my own compositions. Especially liked how it opened.

Can't speak to how well it fits your project (as there's no mention of it), but the song sounds good.

Sounds good!

But I'd give the contrabass more flavour and I don't mean just boosting the low frequencies. Check out some awesome bass processing plugins i.e. by Waves.

LoAir would give that cinematic massive bottom freq feel!

Also, if you're not using it already, then I advice utilizing round robin string patches. Gives a more 'human' feeling.

Timpani sound good, but could be bit more crunchy and aggressive (unless you want them to be more hidden).

Composition-wise, it sounds very nice and appealing. However, and that's something I say quite often, it could always be better.

Don't get me wrong - you've already passed the professional threshold, so no need to worry. What I'm trying to say is that, despite having good results, always try to improve your skills! ;)

DAMN. Lol. This was nice. Love the guitar breakdown, nice change of pace. What exactly are you making this for?

Sounds really good to me. Reminds me of music I'd see in trailers for sword/sorcery type RPGs on Steam. In my mind I hear epic adventure and battles. Agree w/ Mr. Silva above about the guitar at end - I like how it brings everything back down, kindof like sitting by the fire as the old adventurer is telling these tales to his engrossed grandkids.

One thing I was going to mention was my speakers crackled a bit when playing - not sure if it's normalized or compressed all the way to full scale, but if it seems close to edge and you have room to back off on the peaks that might be worth investigating. Then again it could be just my system, but I don't normally hear crackles on my speakers.

I don't know what you're talking about, this is pretty good man, haha. The only thing that was a bit jumpy for me was the tempo fall in the beginning part, seemed a little fast but that's just my opinion. Strings sound good, everything is clear. I don't know about the context of this track with whatever you're working with, but the middle felt a bit long with not much evolving (Wish it gave me a time so I could tell you at what point). But in context of a game it might be perfectly fine. Great job, I'd say stick with your gut because it's turning out good.

Nice...I love how you brought the guitar in there. What samples are you using?

I think this sounds great.

I agree with the above comment about the timpani, but that's getting pretty nit-picky. Overall it's damn good. Can't wait till I have the sample packs to make a string section like that!

Tempo changes feel a little unnecessary at times - maybe it's mostly the rits (slow downs) that feel strange and too long and too extreme - try your best to make these feel like a natural slowing down - imagine a conductor in this situation - at the moment it sounds like a straight line in tempo automation. Violins might sound better with staccato patches when they're playing those arpeggios about 1/4 of the way through.

I'd generally work on articulation and a really close attention to detail - there's lots of times when the patches reveal themselves to be not real. It takes a lot lot lot lot lot of work to iron out every possible clue that might call the orchestral instrument's artifice to attention but it's worth it in the end : )

Another thing is not to mix with the faders too much, try and think about the real capabilities of the different orchestral instruments in relation to one another. I hear drums that I can tell are just turned down on the fader and pizzicato strings that I can tell are just turned up on the fader. This creates an unnatural sound. Thing about it in the context of an orchestra - if you want the drums to be quiet, perhaps don't have big war drums just turned down on the faders, swap it for a tambourine or just a snare. I think that's really the key to mixing orchestral mock-up type tracks. If you want loud pizzicato, think about how you would achieve that with an orchestra- you would write forte but that wouldn't make it as loud as it is in comparison to the rest of the stuff now. You might want to double with pizzicato with staccato woodwinds or make the rest of the orchestra more delicate to let the pizzicato strings take more prominence.

The composition itself is good but a little on the generic side for my tastes. The guitar section was cool and unexpected. I'd strive for more changes of key, really strong melodies that re-appear in lots of different contexts, a more clear structure full of direction, a nice change of time signature when appropriate, a little more unique and playful orchestration.

Although, about the structure - I think part of the reason it sounds a bit "this section then this section then section" is as you've said before this is a kinda pass-the-parcel type collab with another person right?

Anyway, as has been said before, you've passed the bar in terms of the standard of the production and the composition but there's still more you can do to really excel.

Good job and good luck! : )