A Beacon in the Cosmic Blizzard (Symphonic Poem)

[@Tanguy_Follio]

Powerful, colorful music with a touch of finesse. Bravo Sai, especially since it is not easy to convey all this emotion with libraries 👍 "Chapeau bas" (French expression) 😊

[@VIUSmusic]

@@Tanguy_Follio That means a lot, thanks so much! :)

[@Cristian_Labelli]

Great Stuff.

[@handznet]

Just beautiful, would love to see your template :) Also I would love piano roll screencast.

[@VIUSmusic]

@@handznet Thank you! There's actually a couple of piano roll screencast snippets from this piece on my channel - they're the two most recent uploads :)

[@ASX2001]

Great composition. Great transparency. Thank you for the comprehensive list of libraries used!

[@VIUSmusic]

Thanks so much, and glad you found the library list helpful :)

[@Lars.Höhne]

I come from the smooth transition video and it's really exciting and cool how you made thatone. As a young fresh composer I also find what you create really inspiring and the website and is really cool too (ofc I dont know how much thats on you but I wanted to say it anyways ^^). I'm very excited to see what else you'll be composing in the future. Just wow and very underrated 😯 Now Ima need to listen through every single vid 😄 Thanks a ton 🙂

[@VIUSmusic]

Hey, really appreciate the kind words, thank you so much! 🧡

[@semproser19]

Fucking marvellous!

[@yoonpark8311]

Oh Wow, this music is really great! I haven't heard this kind of musical orchestration for awhile!

[@VIUSmusic]

Thanks! Took ages to get right haha

[@yoonpark8311]

​@@VIUSmusic Woah... How long was it?

[@VIUSmusic]

@@yoonpark8311About a year I think, although that was partly because I had a bunch of other projects that I needed to focus on. Worth it though, I'm pretty stoked with how it turned out!

[@VIUSmusic]

Just saw that you bought the album on Bandcamp - thanks so much for the support

[@yoonpark8311]

​@@VIUSmusic Oh wow, I didn't realize you recognized me on Bandcamp. haha I bought it when this song ended. And also, No problem! I hope to hear more orchestra music later on!

[@garrettwmusic]

Sounds great!

[@cvrart]

Very nice!

[@chilloutambient1249]

Brilliant!

[@nicoclous5762]

Hey man! This is simply outstanding, I mean, the orchestra placing is great, is there anyway I can take a look at how you are mixing the infinite Brass? Cos I have not managed to get this kind of sound. Thanks!!!

[@VIUSmusic]

Hey thanks, I appreciate it! Regarding Infinite Brass, so much of the library's sound relies on good MIDI keyboard performances (there's a two-part video series on YT called "Mike Verta's V.I. Techniques" that I'd recommend watching, it's still so relevant even after thirteen years). I also do a lot of layering with other libraries to get a decent sound out of the trumpets and trombones - I find they sound too thin on their own. I currently use Cinematic Studio Brass to beef up the trombones. My trumpet layering gets a lot more varied depending on the musical context; in this piece, the free Norrland Samples solo trumpet sits behind the IB trumpets, but I'm currently experimenting with a combination of IB and the Sample Modelling trumpet for future projects. On the flip side, I practically never layer the IB Horns and Tuba - they always sound fantastic on their own. In terms of orchestral placement, I don't change a whole lot from the patches' default seating arrangements, but for brass, I have a preference towards using the library's room/stage mics more than the close mics - that way the players feel like they're seated further back from the rest of the orchestra. Other than that, my mixing approach is very simple; the whole piece was mixed exclusively with Logic Pro's stock EQ and reverb, and there's minimal panning involved. Your mileage will vary with the libraries I've mentioned - at the end of the day, getting a good sound depends entirely on how well you know your existing libraries/tools, and how well you're able to adapt to their weaknesses. Chances are, you already have layering options in your arsenal, and it's just a matter of experimentation. Good orchestration is also key, as does learning what a real orchestral brass section actually sounds like. Hope this helps :)

[@nicoclous5762]

@@VIUSmusic Thank you so much for your time! I believe this piece is trully inspiring. You have done a great job. If you dont mind me asking, in terms of effects used on the samples, do you do any heavy eq moves with them? Any compression etc? And last, for your wind runs, which libs are u using? Thanks so much for your time answering!

[@VIUSmusic]

@@nicoclous5762 No worries, and thanks for the kind words - if there's enough interest from people (and if I get time), I may end up making a breakdown video at some point. The EQ work is generally pretty subtle, with most of the heavier curves in the mids / lows. I tend to focus just on cutting stuff, rarely boosting anything (though I think I bumped up the high frequencies on some of the strings, especially the Celli). No compression on any of the individual tracks (except maaaybe for the double basses, though I can't remember off the top of my head). The guy that did the mastering for our album dialled in some multiband compression on the final bounce of this piece IIRC; not sure on the specifics though. Woodwind runs are a mix of pre-recorded ones and custom-programmed ones (using Infinite Woodwinds).

[@FireF1y644]

That's so good, insane

[@ZtlaMusic]

Awesome! Stellar orchestration and the mix sounds excellent as well.

[@VIUSmusic]

Thanks dude! :)

[@Pax30001]

Awesome!

[@VIUSmusic]

Thank you!

[@Pax30001]

@@VIUSmusic You're welcome!

[@LiamHotter]

Simply breathtaking work Sai. Any chance I'll be hearing this at the todds this year haha?

[@VIUSmusic]

Cheers Liam! Would've loved to submit this for Todds, but I'd have to cut out so much of the percussion to make it work haha. Having said that, I did submit it for the NZ Composer Sessions, so let's see what happens!

[@LiamHotter]

Surely the NZSO makes an exception and just hires more percussionists smh. I hope the composer session goes well, would love to hear this live! @@VIUSmusic

[@CaioCodes]

Amazing quality, Sai. I've just met your work and it hits hard. Thank you for the great piece of work. Is there any platform available where we can buy your music to use in videos or this isn't planned yet?

[@VIUSmusic]

That really means a lot, thanks so much for stopping by and listening! At this stage I haven't published any of my music to be licensed for videos, but I'd definitely look into it if enough people were interested. However, this piece was written for a collab album and distributed separately from my other work, so it's covered by KZbin's ContentID unfortunately. If there's any other release you'd like to use though, get in touch - I'm sure we could work something out! :)

[@-syasya-]