Composing : Composition by Fred Coince

For me it has a middle eastern / Asian sort of flare to it. This sounds like a completed piece so I am not sure if you want to change it or not but here are some suggestions to consider: 1. Think about investing in some better quality acoustic instrument samples - that first solo'ing instrument doesn't sound quite realistic. You end up with IMHO something that does not sound quite natural and yet doesn't sound synthesized either. 2. Not sure if your intentions were for a standalone piece or an accompanying cue for film or game system. If Standalone, you may want to consider give it a bit more 'direction' - consider making a statement, telling a story and moving it somewhere - repeat only a bit without overdoing it. This piece has discernible sections but could use a bit more 'connection'. Think about making a statement, developing it and moving it somewhere and perhaps restating it at the end. 3. Take advantage of the whole spectrum for you melody. You sit on the top octaves pretty much the whole time. Let the lower instruments take control and state the melody and consider the use of octave doubling. 4. Get out of your comfort zone and work in something other than A minor. Keep in mind for live scoring, if you use A minor, some of your transposing instruments like trumpets and clarinets would be in B minor (2 sharps plus A# leading tone) and things like an F horn would be in D minor (one flat plus C# leading). Assuming of course you work live (if you are sequencing, the samples generally work in "concert untransposed"). Point is, try a different minor key, perhaps D minor or E minor. 5. I like your layering and occasional use of a single instrument for solos. Here is something my composing instructor tells me all the time - the listeners can hear a tempo without forcing it on them. Try to resist at least in parts from using percussion to carry your tempo or even the strings with the short quarter or eighth notes. It is possible, for example to have well spaced occasionally percussive hits and still leave the listeners with a sense of rhythm - worth experimenting with. Hope some of these suggestions help or are at least food for thought.

Hi Joel. Thanks for your suggestions. For the moment, I'm just trying to evolve and give quality to my music. I use FL11 so the instruments sound synthethic, I know that and it bothers me :D I'll try to follow your advice for the next musics ;) Thanks again, Joel ! Hope you as well !

Hi Fred, Even using out-of-the-box samples can go a long way with good programming. I noticed that all your volumes/velocities are quite "static". Try using thing like modulation wheel, humanization to the quantizing, shape the music. Also, listen to what your contemporaries are doing with other libraries, and start investing. Take for example: http://cinesamples.com/product/cinesymphonylite This is a $399 library (1/2 off for students). It's a complete library with strings, brass, winds, and percussion.

Thanks Samuel for your advices !

Hi Fred, What Samuel Said, but also I think you might want to leave a little more space in your melody writing and just a little bit more rhythmic variation can do that.

Thanks Mark. I agree with you.

I am not a composer (a songwriter) but I do try to listen to the music in films/tv/ etc. As a "listener", I like it overall. Nice work. There are some parts of it, however where I just felt there were TOO MANY instruments or it was too busy. Like a woman wearing a short skirt with her cleavage revealed. Everything is nice but a few parts I felt you wanted to make a "killing" but overdid it a bit. So...that's my 2 cents:-)

Thanks Edith for your opinion ;)