symphonic tune

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 2:55 pm

<a name="planetz-file"></a><a href="http://www.garritan.com/mp3/luke.mp3"><img src="/forums/images/listen_icon.gif" border="0" alt=" Song"> Song</a> <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Genre: Acoustic <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Uses: Pulsar Effects,Pulsar Mixers kensuguro _____________________________________ Some of you may have seen this on the GPO forum. I wrote this tune for a demo film for a company that develops and markets HiDef movie gear. The video is in the editing room right now, but the music is done.

It features an award winning Shamisen player, and also an original reed instrument called hichiriko. (not hichiriki) Anyhow, it's my first attempt to do a serious production with GPO. It's also my second serious piece using symphonic sounds.

The tune may not make much sense without the video, but I hope you enjoy. I'll post the video once it's done. (early April)

It's a finished job, but I'd like to hear comments about arrangement and production. I still do have a tendency to steer away from contrapuntal material... hell, I need to tackle it one time or the other, just not yet. (still studying) But I think I did okay on motif usage. Mixing was especially tough, because the shamisen is so high frequency intensive, and the hichiriko (the reed instrument that does portamento) is very mid frequency intensive. Really pushes the strings aside.

But it was a great learning experience, also made some good friends in the process.

[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2006-07-08 03:51 ]

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 4:15 pm

*weeps*

beutiful

Basic Pitch · Post by **Basic Pitch** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 7:30 pm

Very pretty!

This has a very unique sound, and an interesting take for an orchestal piece, if I could only make one comment and this is totally a " from my perspective " on the mix, I think the strings could use a small verb or a bit more if there is any on them already to soften things up a bit, other than that is sounds great =)

Cheers!

ChrisWerner · Post by **ChrisWerner** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 5:52 am

That is a very nice project to combine the traditional instruments with all the other instruments. I agree it must be a great task to find a good mix to balance everything.
You found a nice balance or you made acceptable compromisses between all elements.
At the points when everything comes together in the track it is very hard for me to figure out each instruments, they start to put out against themselves, as you described. But it is acceptable for me.
I have only liten to this two times and I´ll listen to this later this day sometimes more, but I heard that you already tried to sort the elements by using the panorama, on the strings for example.
This is a good way to sort out single instrumets from the overall mix, maybe you can try to use more separeted panorama settings. I guess you still let some instruments use parts of the middle panorama plus right or left, put them to the left or right only. When everything plays in full panorama you´ll get problems to separate all things, maybe I´m wrong.
The overall sound quality(dynamic) is great.
Good work Ken.

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 7:02 am

thnx for the comments. About the panning of the orchestra elements, I just used standard settings. (violing 1&2 on right, viola cello bass to the left, etc) On a detailed note, in the tutti (last buildup) part, the shamisen tremolo seems to cause lots of enharmonic noise. And when the noise is reverbed, it seems to mask alot of the elements. But anyhow, it seems like it's not normal for the shamisen to play like this, and also I have 5 shamisen parts playing in unison, which is also uncommon. So, so much goes for experimentation, I get strange results. Which is why I like doing it. hehe.

Hope yall enjoyed it tho.

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 7:21 pm

good to see you never stop progressing

beautiful!

paulrmartin · Post by **paulrmartin** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 1:13 pm

Freak me out!

I wish I had access to musicians like that

Great job, as always, Ken

Submarine · Post by **Submarine** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 1:54 pm

It sounds to me like Ken is going back to the
roots.

Beautyfull ,colorfull,big sound,very japanese
indeed and the mix is pro.What enspired you ?
Very interesting tune.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 5:55 pm

The asian stringed instruments didn't blend in with the GPO sounds. Maybe they need a different reverb or more reverb?

bizarre · Post by **bizarre** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 4:31 am

wauw - very very beautiful - very "cinematic". I'm gonna listen a lot to this piece - thanks

bizz

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 11:45 am

Thanx for the very positive replies. The production is in its final stages. We'll do a screen test on wednesday, and if all is well, we'll move on to preparing the premiere and press conference.

The stringed instrument was particularly hard to mix in GPO.. as it had too much of an "edge" to the sound. It's tough when I'm trying to mix against the physical nature of the sound. This tune probably won't work if it was played live. hehe.

I'll let you all know once the mpg version of the video is done. I'm looking forward to seeing it myself.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 1:09 pm

Thanks Ken,

I have the same monitors as you so I am sure I hear exactly what you are hearing. I am looking forward to hearing and seeing the final mix.

Liquid EDGE · Post by **Liquid EDGE** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 12:20 am

Kicks arse, reminds me of crouching tiger hiden dragon.

By the way what monitors you guy's got, i need to get a decent pair. wish i could afford the mackies

Bracelet Z · Post by **Bracelet Z** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 5:15 am

Hi!

Nice. I love live sounding. Though I mostly do not work with live instruments.

How many spaces have You used here? What do You use on strings? Anything special?

Bracelet Z

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 1:41 pm

I've got Event 20/20 bas, been work with it for the past 3 years. Learned it quite well, and plan to work with it for a little while more. Too bad they're out of production now. (I believe)

About space, or "reverb" as I took it, there's 1 masterverb for the whole orchestra, and then I have another reverb for the live wind instrument(hichiriko), and another for the live plucked instrument(shamisen). I used masterverb with different settings for each of the instances. For orchestra, I cut off some bass(200hz zone), and left plenty for treble (9000hz zone). For the live instruments, I left bass as pass through, and highs at around 3000hz to muffle them a bit.

The trick I used, that I intended to keep a trade secret, was that I used overdrive on most tracks individually, to saturate it a bit, and give it some high end glitter. Then I put stereo enhance on the master mix, plus master EQ using a parametric 4band EQ, and then overdrived it again with minimal gain settings.

I'd be glad to share all my mixing what nots, please send me private mail if there's something you want to know in depth.

[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2004-04-21 14:44 ]

gustav · Post by **gustav** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 3:41 am

fascinating sounds
eastern dream - good film music
I really enjoined the tune...
suspense for the video

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 10:03 pm

dear Ken,

could you please upload this tune as soon as possible as i keep humming it inside even tho i havent heard it for ages...

the url is broken, i just had a last joint and im kinda hoping for a quick reply

PS. Is an mpeg,avi etc. of the whole project available?

[ This Message was edited by: piddi on 2006-07-07 23:10 ]

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 2:51 am

link updated! Went ahead and made a direct link to the garritan demo file. Don't have the video file at hand, I left the darn dvd in Japan.

[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2006-07-08 03:52 ]

Post by **garyb** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 9:42 am

now, this is a project worthy of your talents...

AudioIrony · Post by **AudioIrony** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 2:15 pm

Made a lot of sense to me without video.
Absolutely gorgeous . . .
A beautiful piece from you.

You clearly are blessed with an exceptional talent.
Regards