Piano sound is very mechanistic and non dynamical. Same with woods. Sound is raw, maybe you should try to add more verb.
Hope this help you. Good luck!
The piece is fine perhaps a couple of odd harmonic moments but perhaps that was intentional. The issue is really ONE BIG THINGâŚthe sounds. Your instruments sound like VIâs from 10 years ago. Then when you take older and dated sounding instruments and put them in a medium to more smaller room setting it exposes there âfakenessâ even more. You need to invest in better sounds and then learn how to orchestrate using Virtual instruments in an effective way. If you are going to have a minimalistic piece like this you better have quality sounds since everything is so exposed and you better know how to use them.
I was using EWQLSO Gold, it is not really dated a lot and I have several items on sale with this sample. The piano sample is Ivory, not the best but not too worse.
As the EWQLSO Gold using a stage mic, the sound already with some reverb effect and I even added some to some instruments.
May be I have to find the way to make such sample to sound even more real.
Yeah EWQLSO Gold is actually over 10 years old. I have it and rarely use it at this point. Thatâs not to say that there arenât some nice samples in there cause there are. That library would sell itself better in a fuller arrangement where multiple instruments maybe double each other where some of the inhumanness gets masked. Your arrangement is super isolated and minimal so that makes it that much harder to effectively fool the listener in hearing something that doesnât sound mechanical and unrealistic. Unfortunately, thatâs what you hear when you listen to this piece. I would check out some other similar music on this site that has been successful and compare it to how your sounds. Try to improve in mixing and orchestration and youâll be fine. Here are a couple pieces you can listen to get you started: https://audiojungle.net/item/halloween-fun/5624745?s_rank=15 https://audiojungle.net/item/spooky/13325785?s_rank=18 https://audiojungle.net/item/spooky-halloween/13033798?s_rank=22
@illuminations Thank you very much for your kind and detailed advise.
I am not a multi-thousand sale author who can afford a high grade VI, I think it might be some techniques existing to improve the sound. By comparing my sound to your suggested item is just a great lesson.
I will try to redo the mixing and hope you can kind enough to give me another advise when it is done.
By the way, could you tell me which VI you are using and the DAW? What kind of plugins you are using?
Yeah you can definitely create stuff on AJ that will be accepted and sell with the sounds you have it just does take extra care and experience to get the quality of orchestration and mix that some others can achieve with the same tools you have. Extra tools definitely help though I currently have a good number of libraries from cinesamples, berlin strings, vir2, and NI with a few others in between. I certainly donât have the largest collection but enough to stay modern with my production. On top of that I do have a good number of third party mixing plugins from Slate Digital, soundtoys, waves, etc⌠Unless youâre filthy rich itâs always a process to build up your library and mixing tools to a level to help you compete but just keep at it and results will come
@illuminations
Thank you for all yours advise, I have tried to improve the mixing and mastering. How do you think this time? I still using those libraries I have used in original track.
Hope you can give me some simple feedback. Thanks!
Things that can make a huge difference and will make your sound libraries shine is the use of dynamics. The piece feels as if it was a score âconductedâ by a midi player from a scoring program where every note seems to be played at the exact same midi velocity and with note duration practically the same per note type (half, quarter, etc.). Note duration in a real performance does not follow the mechanistic rules of a music score. The piano will feel more real when contrasting legato and sustained notes with staccato notes. The instrument mix is fine, but taking care of the dynamics and tempo changes will make it sound realistic since varying velocities will trigger different samples from your libraries enhancing the performance and making it sound more human.
Your piece conveys the right mood, just take care of the above prior to devoting much time to mixing and mastering as these last two will have to be reworked after changes in the midi.
I currently have a good number of libraries from cinesamples, berlin strings, vir2, and NI with a few others in between. I certainly donât have the largest collection but enough to stay modern with my production. On top of that I do have a good number of third party mixing plugins from Slate Digital, soundtoys, waves, etc⌠Unless youâre filthy rich itâs always a process to build up your library and mixing tools to a level to help you compete but just keep at it and results will come