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MuseScore 4.2.1- The Fog Horn (work in progress)

dcoscina

dcoscina

Senior Member
I read the Ray Bradbury short story a month ago or so and it so moved me I really wanted to write a piece about it. The story balances abject terror with a poignancy that the movie The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (of which it served as inspiration) did not embrace. Ironically, Gojira (1954) which itself was influenced by the Beast from 20,000 did manage to portray its titular character as both menacing but also a creature out of its time.

This work is using only MuseSounds. The central sound idea is the solo horn/tub bell call which signifies the lighthouse fog horn as it calls out to the night. For a piece based on a short story, this work won't be too brief. It is in its infancy at this stage at a little over 3 minutes and its largely quiet. It will eventually get louder as the inevitable story unfolds but the early aspects of this work use both dynamics swells and an ascending/descending figure in the strings (inspired by Bartok's Cantata Profana) that symbolize waves. It's been a fun journey so far and it marries both my love of mid 20th century modernism and giant monsters. I would rather not go the Ifukube route on this work and plan to maintain the concert styled sound.

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Sounds promising. Waiting for the full blown (pun intended) version :)

Weird moments:
01m23s: [too] sudden entry?
02m32s: clipping?

Planning to use this as well? :) :
labs.spitfireaudio.com

LABS LABS Foghorn

<p>From guttural low-end brass tones to otherworldly echoes created by caverns of rock, and even a mechanical kit created from the sounds of whirring machinery — LABS Foghorn blows ordinary instruments out of the water.</p><p>Originally built in 1905 to guide ships through dangerous fog, the...
labs.spitfireaudio.com
 
Love the idea and concept. Will definitely be reading this short story ASAP. I may have it in one of my older collections, but if not I see that I can get a hardback from Everyman's Library.

Your music sounds a "lonely kind of waiting and listening moment" for what I'm pre-imagining the story to be.

Very cool and inspiring that you're setting this to music. Will look forward to checking back on the piece's progress.

M
 
JohnS said:
Sounds promising. Waiting for the full blown (pun intended) version :)

Weird moments:
01m23s: [too] sudden entry?
02m32s: clipping?

Planning to use this as well? :) :
labs.spitfireaudio.com

LABS LABS Foghorn

<p>From guttural low-end brass tones to otherworldly echoes created by caverns of rock, and even a mechanical kit created from the sounds of whirring machinery — LABS Foghorn blows ordinary instruments out of the water.</p><p>Originally built in 1905 to guide ships through dangerous fog, the...
labs.spitfireaudio.com
Click to expand...
I downloaded it but I would prefer to use the orchestra to approximate it. This will eventually be performed by a live orchestra so I don't want to add sampled sounds that I cannot replace with the real thing.
 
JohnS said:
Sounds promising. Waiting for the full blown (pun intended) version :)

Weird moments:
01m23s: [too] sudden entry?
02m32s: clipping?

Planning to use this as well? :) :
labs.spitfireaudio.com

LABS LABS Foghorn

<p>From guttural low-end brass tones to otherworldly echoes created by caverns of rock, and even a mechanical kit created from the sounds of whirring machinery — LABS Foghorn blows ordinary instruments out of the water.</p><p>Originally built in 1905 to guide ships through dangerous fog, the...
labs.spitfireaudio.com
Click to expand...
the creeping line up is actually offset by a quarter note between the basses and celli. I wanted an off rhythm feel, but I probably will extend the section prior to this because it feels too short as it is.

Clipping is likely at the second section you pointed out.
 
Matt Godbey said:
Love the idea and concept. Will definitely be reading this short story ASAP. I may have it in one of my older collections, but if not I see that I can get a hardback from Everyman's Library.

Your music sounds a "lonely kind of waiting and listening moment" for what I'm pre-imagining the story to be.

Very cool and inspiring that you're setting this to music. Will look forward to checking back on the piece's progress.

M
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Thanks for listening and your feedback. Yes, I really wanted to imbue the opening music with a sense of loneliness not only for the monster but the life of a light house attendant.
 
This is great. Can't wait to hear more of it. I'm not familiar with the story but musically sounds like it's winding up for something more energetic maybe? Love the harmonic language and consistent sound world.
 
swinkler said:
This is great. Can't wait to hear more of it. I'm not familiar with the story but musically sounds like it's winding up for something more energetic maybe? Love the harmonic language and consistent sound world.
Click to expand...
It will definitely but I am being careful not to break off too much from the feel and tempo. It will having some aleatoric figures when the beast destroys the lighthouse but I’m trying to maintain a consistency with the rest of the piece so it doesn’t feel like a totally different work. I’m thinking Rautavaara styled perhaps. Or Takemitsu… not sure.
 
Maximvs said:
Really nice work so far... Those free MuseSounds are also very very decent. Well done and love to hear the completed work at some point.

Take care,

Maximvs
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Yeah there is a lot to like about MuseScore and its sound integration. I don’t love composing using its interface as much as Dorico to be honest but I do like the sound playback so I live with it.

Thanks for listening!
 
I really don't know how can you compose with this sounds, they are so messy and unbalanced for me, is there a trick? a tutorial? the winds sound amazing, my muse winds sounds so weird the attack is a mess, not all notes sound the same, for example an E sounds so loud and the D sounds so quiet with the clarinet(to give an example), there's only legato/portamento and stacatisimo and nothing more... The clarinet is certainly the worst of all these instruments it's a complete mess, flute sounds loud like an airplane, so weird, even in the flute weak register. Or my muse score is corrupted? Am I have a wrong version? Here it says that all my instruments are updated... You can't edit velocities, dynamics... It's frustrating for me. mp sounds like nothing, I barely notice a difference between ppp, pp, p and mp and mf sounds so loud, what reverb did you use? what eq? what mix? I would pay to see that mixer because you made it sound actually really good! I would pay even 200 dollars to see a tutorial on these freaking sounds, becsuse they certainly have special procedures. It's not like "just write and play" like noteperformer or so.
 
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radamantissenior said:
I really don't know how can you compose with this sounds, they are so messy and unbalanced for me, is there a trick? a tutorial? the winds sound amazing, my muse winds sounds so weird the attack is a mess, not all notes sound the same, for example an E sounds so loud and the D sounds so quiet with the clarinet(to give an example), there's only legato/portamento and stacatisimo and nothing more... The clarinet is certainly the worst of all these instruments it's a complete mess, flute sounds loud like an airplane, so weird, even in the flute weak register. Or my muse score is corrupted? Am I have a wrong version? Here it says that all my instruments are updated... You can't edit velocities, dynamics... It's frustrating for me. mp sounds like nothing, I barely notice a difference between ppp, pp, p and mp and mf sounds so loud, what reverb did you use? what eq? what mix? I would pay to see that mixer because you made it sound actually really good! I would pay even 200 dollars to see a tutorial on these freaking sounds, becsuse they certainly have special procedures. It's not like "just write and play" like noteperformer or so.
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I'm sorry you are having troubles with balance. It certainly is a challenge. I do think the flute is too loud and too close mic'd compared to other instruments. The brass still lack the depth of dynamics- they are either too quiet or too loud.

I hate to admit that I'm not doing anything under the hood or even the mixer. No additional reverb... I'm just orchestrating around the limits of the sounds. I dovetail sounds too but thats more a function of a mid 20th century approach in shifting textures. I did import this into NotePerformer and Dorico. Wow, it sounds much different for sure. But for all intents and purposes, I will finish this out in MuseScore and if I'm lucky enough to get a performance, I will have to do some work in Dorico to even out things.

I had a live orchestra performance last year of a commission and the NotePerformer Dorico combo was excellent in estimating the sound. The live orchestra sounded quite similar and nothing was out of place, so I can verify that Dorico + NP is a good combo for predicting balance.
jonathanparham said:
Enjoyed it. Have you completely let StaffPad? Using Dorico exclusively? Wasn't sure if you were using the free muse sounds in StaffPad
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I have sketched on StaffPad occasionally but Dorico is the fastest mode of composing for me. MuseScore I use occasionally because I do like its integrated playback and sounds (warts and all). At present StaffPad doesn't read XML files I export from MS4 which is puzzling since they are both under the Ultimate Guitar blanket.. Dorico imports XML from MS4 fine.. so who knows what is going on with StaffPad.
 
I had a live orchestra performance last year of a commission and the NotePerformer Dorico combo was excellent in estimating the sound. The live orchestra sounded quite similar and nothing was out of place, so I can verify that Dorico + NP is a good combo for predicting balance.
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AWESOME

I have sketched on StaffPad occasionally but Dorico is the fastest mode of composing for me. MuseScore I use occasionally because I do like its integrated playback and sounds (warts and all). At present StaffPad doesn't read XML files I export from MS4 which is puzzling since they are both under the Ultimate Guitar blanket.. Dorico imports XML from MS4 fine.. so who knows what is going on with StaffPad.
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What form of input are you using for Dorico? Do you have your own samples hooked up or just Muse Score?
 
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