Halion 5 Sonic Cinema user examples

[TwoToneshuzz]

Here's a new thread with example tracks using Sonic Cinema for Halion 5.

Sounds used:

Dark Lord
Ebow Estring Layered Harmonics

These two sounds above both play a 6 part harmony where I crossfade between the two of them.

A solo sound plays as well in this intro and outro instrumentation it's made up of the following two sounds layered together:

Church Horns Granular

Church Horns Regular.

In the middle section I'm using 5 different sounds each playing one voice of a 5 part harmony:

Trombone Granular Cloud
Brass Harmonics Meditation
Wahwah Horns Soundscape
Sousaphone Art Mix

I used one English Horn (low Oboe) from Halion Synphonic sound set playing in counterpoint to the Sousaphone Art Mix.

http://soundcloud.com/twotoneshuzz/sonicrelease/s-fvF6j



Regards

Wade

[Sampleconstruct]

Ahh, I tried to figure out what that oboe-like sound was, now I read your description, it's an english horn. Pretty dense and very orchestral sounding, certainly cinematic, probably a dark movie-soundtrack about ghouls

[TwoToneshuzz]

I'm working out how to work with Brass sounds, I used the Trombone Articulations sound in eight slots of a Halion instance, with some global reverb using two instances of 2c audios B2. I did some auto panning of each individual melody of the eight part counterpoint.

I'ts thick and rich, and it's perhaps a little weird but I like it anyways..

http://soundcloud.com/twotoneshuzz/molt ... ve/s-156Bf

[TwoToneshuzz]

This is a slightly different mix, where I included keyswitching between three of the possible 4 possibilties as changes to the voice entrances and ending..

http://soundcloud.com/twotoneshuzz/molt ... e2/s-V7XOe

[TwoToneshuzz]

I work further with the same setup as with the too last examples. I have tamed the dynamics abit. I think the way to use the key switches are more not as an in situ phrase switching but sectional or one or two switches for each voices.

I have slowed the main tempo down, speeded the time divisions up on a few of the voices as well as changed the figuration.. The piece rythmically has a swing waltz lilt, probably because of the quarter note divisions in the soprano and bass parts... All the Sonic Cinema examples so far have had a period form based on divisions of 7

https://soundcloud.com/twotoneshuzz/moltenbrasswave3

[Sampleconstruct]

I work further with the same setup as with the too last examples. I have tamed the dynamics abit. I think the way to use the key switches are more not as an in situ phrase switching but sectional or one or two switches for each voices.

I have slowed the main tempo down, speeded the time divisions up on a few of the voices as well as changed the figuration.. The piece rythmically has a swing waltz lilt, probably because of the quarter note divisions in the soprano and bass parts... All the Sonic Cinema examples so far have had a period form based on divisions of 7

https://soundcloud.com/twotoneshuzz/moltenbrasswave3

Just listening - some tips, if you don't mind:
consider that brass players need to breathe, insert some pauses in the different layers, leave out some notes, also the tempo needs some fluctuation, the strictly quantized rhythm makes it very static, imagine a conductor leading the peace breathing with the harmony of the music, maybe edit the tempo track if your DAW has one or use tap tempo. Panning is too extreme, probably due to headphone-producing.
I like the harmonic structure, the change of articulations and dynamics, the overall mood.

[TwoToneshuzz]

Thanks for the tips. A couple of comments:

the apparent lack of breath pauses could also to be do to the fact that it's not easy to hear that it I'm scioring for eight different players, so together this arrangement creates a very dense sound, while allowing each player adaquite time for breathing.

I suppose there would be very few situations where there would actually be money to hire 8 Trombonist playing a piece togehter. Though you can dream..So in that way it's not realistic..

Still I like working with many lines like this as it breaks up the linearity of my thinking and hearing both melodically and harmonically.

I too don't like the lack of rubato with rigid sense of the time as a result. Some time ago my program began crashing when I had used tempo modulation so i've gotten out of the habit of using it, but maybe it's fixed on the next updated version..

The panning is auto pan setup using a dual Lfo for each voice, that adds up to 16 lfos doing the panning! I sense even with headphones that the panning might be too extreme even though I've trimmed the renges into 50% I'll reduce it further

Thanks again for the comments and for making such a great sounding Trombone Articulations patch..

I'll work on a new version with an eye/ear to following your comments...

[Sampleconstruct]

Thanks for the tips. A couple of comments:

the apparent lack of breath pauses could also to be do to the fact that it's not easy to hear that it I'm scioring for eight different players, so together this arrangement creates a very dense sound, while allowing each player adaquite time for breathing.

I suppose there would be very few situations where there would actually be money to hire 8 Trombonist playing a piece togehter. Though you can dream..So in that way it's not realistic..

Oh, I did understand that you're composing an ensemble piece here and sure it has that character to it. But even then I would prefer more breathing pauses, I mean who cares about realism really so forget the breathing and chop-recovery-pauses, it's more about the musical flow of things I guess.

When working with brass and woodwind samples, I am often very focussed on realism though, especially when simulating my own scores. I wrote too much unplayable stuff when I was younger and in the first rehearsal of a given piece the musicians were often killing me for the overload of unplayable and dense music in their parts

[TwoToneshuzz]

Thanks for the tips. A couple of comments:

the apparent lack of breath pauses could also to be do to the fact that it's not easy to hear that it I'm scioring for eight different players, so together this arrangement creates a very dense sound, while allowing each player enough time for breathing.

I suppose there would be very few situations where there would actually be money to hire 8 Trombonist playing a piece togehter. Though you can dream..So in that way it's not realistic..

Oh, I did understand that you're composing an ensemble piece here and sure it has that character to it. But even then I would prefer more breathing pauses, I mean who cares about realism really so forget the breathing and chop-recovery-pauses, it's more about the musical flow of things I guess.

It is quite an art to get the sense of realism, and it's a joy to achieve fairly believable results. I scratched my head and speculated and work out different approaches for 10 days before I felt that I finally started getting something worthwhile posting..

Particularitly vexing was I chose to use the Trombone granular glissandi sound which just made ensemble playing sound out of tune. Glissandi has to be handled very carefully in ensemble playing so that needs further study on my todo list.

When working with brass and woodwind samples, I am often very focussed on realism though, especially when simulating my own scores. I wrote too much unplayable stuff when I was younger and in the first rehearsal of a given piece the musicians were often killing me for the overload of unplayable and dense music in their parts

Insights into your development are very useful, thanks! The point about needing the sense of breath in the piece above the practical issues is one issue I will try and improve upon in a future attempt.

Thanks again!

[TwoToneshuzz]

Okay after some various fixes and developmets as suggested by Simon I post a revised version of MoltenBrassWave, but it's not so wavy anymore so it gets a new name. There still much that could be polished and refined especielly the use of the Keyswitches could be more focused as a few places the dynamics get skewed, I think compositionally though the dynamics that have caused problems here could be a real asset if used in compositorisk strong and focused way..

I think it might be difficult normally to get a hold of 8 trombonists so I'm calling the track "Trombone Convention"

http://soundcloud.com/twotoneshuzz/trom ... on/s-dOTzB

[TwoToneshuzz]

Another track using Sonic Cinema sounds, this is more ambient and was less time consuming to make than the previous Brass ensemble pieces ,here I went on a voyage of cosmic discovery, it was suprisingly quick to put something together that I can enjoy to listen to on this dreamy saturday afternoon:

https://soundcloud.com/twotoneshuzz/cinecosmic-journey

[Sampleconstruct]

Okay after some various fixes and developmets as suggested by Simon I post a revised version of MoltenBrassWave, but it's not so wavy anymore so it gets a new name. There still much that could be polished and refined especielly the use of the Keyswitches could be more focused as a few places the dynamics get skewed, I think compositionally though the dynamics that have caused problems here could be a real asset if used in compositorisk strong and focused way..

I think it might be difficult normally to get a hold of 8 trombonists so I'm calling the track "Trombone Convention"

http://soundcloud.com/twotoneshuzz/trom ... on/s-dOTzB

Just listening - one more thing, if you play legato notes in one instrument part, try using the monophone legato articulation, I think it's the fourth keyswitch, that will sound more natural as it skips the attack phase when playing overlapping legato and adds a tiny bit of exponential portamento.

This version suits me more, from around 5.27 it gets really musical, so sparse, delicate and subtle before it builds up again.

[TwoToneshuzz]

Okay after some various fixes and developmets as suggested by Simon I post a revised version of MoltenBrassWave, but it's not so wavy anymore so it gets a new name. There still much that could be polished and refined especielly the use of the Keyswitches could be more focused as a few places the dynamics get skewed, I think compositionally though the dynamics that have caused problems here could be a real asset if used in compositorisk strong and focused way..

I think it might be difficult normally to get a hold of 8 trombonists so I'm calling the track "Trombone Convention"

http://soundcloud.com/twotoneshuzz/trom ... on/s-dOTzB

Just listening - one more thing, if you play legato notes in one instrument part, try using the monophone legato articulation, I think it's the fourth keyswitch, that will sound more natural as it skips the attack phase when playing overlapping legato and adds a tiny bit of exponential portamento.

Thanks for the tip, I'm ripe for looking at the arrangement again after taking a pause with Trombone sounds which I've been emmersed in for 10 days now.

[Sampleconstruct]

Okay after some various fixes and developmets as suggested by Simon I post a revised version of MoltenBrassWave, but it's not so wavy anymore so it gets a new name. There still much that could be polished and refined especielly the use of the Keyswitches could be more focused as a few places the dynamics get skewed, I think compositionally though the dynamics that have caused problems here could be a real asset if used in compositorisk strong and focused way..

I think it might be difficult normally to get a hold of 8 trombonists so I'm calling the track "Trombone Convention"

http://soundcloud.com/twotoneshuzz/trom ... on/s-dOTzB

This is mysteriously beautiful...some notes are cutting off which is a bit disturbing but maybe you do that deliberately.

[TwoToneshuzz]

Okay after some various fixes and developmets as suggested by Simon I post a revised version of MoltenBrassWave, but it's not so wavy anymore so it gets a new name. There still much that could be polished and refined especielly the use of the Keyswitches could be more focused as a few places the dynamics get skewed, I think compositionally though the dynamics that have caused problems here could be a real asset if used in compositorisk strong and focused way..

I think it might be difficult normally to get a hold of 8 trombonists so I'm calling the track "Trombone Convention"

http://soundcloud.com/twotoneshuzz/trom ... on/s-dOTzB

This is mysteriously beautiful...some notes are cutting off which is a bit disturbing but maybe you do that deliberately.

Thanks!

The notes cutting off is not intentional I have to look at that, I have autopan working with a slightly jagged curve which needs to be trimmed this could be causing the problem, or else perhaps it's a polyphony problem. I use 8 "slots" in one Halion 5 instance and have set the max number of voices to 18... I've increased the polyphony now to 38, and trimmed the autopan, as well as used keyswitch F0, so I'll replace the file with a new version shortly, but it won't be my last track using the Trombone Articulations sound for Halion 5, I'm doing som textbook reading on the Trombone, and will look at some Wagner scores, I have the whole Ring as well as Tristan and Isolde...These sounds are so enjoyable to use, so even after many hours on this one track I'm still quite happy spending time with these Trombone friends..

Okay a new repaired version is on the cloud