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Three weeks ago while on holiday in Florida I posted Ejected - Final Movement for the Space Race 2011 . Working on my laptop when I could steal away to compose was like my own composing race against time. I posted by the deadline but was not too happy with the result. I had planned to work on other movements in the Ejected piece first and then come back and clean up the Finale but there were just too many things in the posted music that really grated on me.
As Drak talked about when describing the rework to his lovely Black Forest Dance , I made tons of edits to refine the orchestration, balance the mix, dynamics, note durations, harmonies, and certainly to fix the ending. One surprising thing I learned is how using headphones for the original mix lead me to using way too wide a dynamic range such that when I got home and listened on speakers some parts were inaudible. Also, the sound field seems better on speakers than cans, with more depth and width and more air around the instruments. Consequently, I would recommend speakers for this piece.
The EWQL samples all have their own release trails so I didn't have to apply any environmental reverb. For the opening trumpet melody I used the distant hall mic position samples to give that 'off in the distance' sense to the sound. Mixing in the various mics (close, stage and hall) is not something I take time to do normally but here it seemed to be ideal to the need.
I won't repost the backstory here since you can find it Here, but to cut to the chase, this finale describes the astronaut coming around a planet and finding (after a long and harrowing journey in his ejection seat) his intended destination - the welcoming lights of a space station.
I still intend to work on finishing the other movements but that may take a while. There is another new work a friend has asked me to help with that is next on the list. When I complete all of the movements I will probably alter this again, so it is still a work in progress.
Thanks to everyone who provided the great feedback and encouragement on the last post, and I hope those of you who downloaded it will be happier with this version (at least you can hear the intro :) ). Also, there is no novel or screenplay in the works.
As always, I'm open to feedback that can help improve my musical skills.
I hope you like this version.
Doug
Dec 2011
As Drak talked about when describing the rework to his lovely Black Forest Dance , I made tons of edits to refine the orchestration, balance the mix, dynamics, note durations, harmonies, and certainly to fix the ending. One surprising thing I learned is how using headphones for the original mix lead me to using way too wide a dynamic range such that when I got home and listened on speakers some parts were inaudible. Also, the sound field seems better on speakers than cans, with more depth and width and more air around the instruments. Consequently, I would recommend speakers for this piece.
The EWQL samples all have their own release trails so I didn't have to apply any environmental reverb. For the opening trumpet melody I used the distant hall mic position samples to give that 'off in the distance' sense to the sound. Mixing in the various mics (close, stage and hall) is not something I take time to do normally but here it seemed to be ideal to the need.
I won't repost the backstory here since you can find it Here, but to cut to the chase, this finale describes the astronaut coming around a planet and finding (after a long and harrowing journey in his ejection seat) his intended destination - the welcoming lights of a space station.
I still intend to work on finishing the other movements but that may take a while. There is another new work a friend has asked me to help with that is next on the list. When I complete all of the movements I will probably alter this again, so it is still a work in progress.
Thanks to everyone who provided the great feedback and encouragement on the last post, and I hope those of you who downloaded it will be happier with this version (at least you can hear the intro :) ). Also, there is no novel or screenplay in the works.
As always, I'm open to feedback that can help improve my musical skills.
I hope you like this version.
Doug
Dec 2011
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Char
rest assured that this sounds fabulous. It would be a worthy addition to The Right Stuff movie. Keep making great music. Thanks.