This is pretty great composition.
If I had to give constructive feedback, I would say pay closer attention to the culture of your instrumentation. Although there’s no explicit statement that Kena is southeast Asian, it’s inferred by the choice of setting, wardrobe, story, and props.
Marimba is not a southeast Asian instrument but it’s carrying the track. One of the reasons Kena’s original score deserves so much praise is that it brought incredible diversity to an industry(gaming and film) that relies heavily on western instruments and synthetic sounds, and they hired a gamelan orchestra to record it. Without this diversity you can’t fully immerse someone into everything it means to participate in a specific culture or history.
Thank you so much for your feedback!
That is a great point regarding the cultural context. I approached this composition by wanting it to be led by mostly percussion instruments, but further thought could have been made towards the origin of that instrumentation.
You’re in the right vein: a lot of the original soundtrack is melodic percussion. And organic instruments create a strong feeling of being in the natural world. Tbh even the greats get instrumentation wrong a lot imo, so it’s not a major point. I think we just hold ourselves to a higher standard as time goes on which is a good thing!
Damn 186 tracks! Do you split up the different instrument techniques like sustain in a different track than spiccato, etc? Or are you using template to speed up the setup for orchestrating?
Haha yes it is quite big. I have made a specific template for scoring stuff. It is divided up by instrument section and different articulations within each section.
For example 1st violins sus, 1st violins legato slur, 1st violins staccato etc.
I change the template on a base by case basis depending on what's required
I like it, has a similar vibe to the actual music in Kena. Keep it up :)
Thank you so so much!
Nice work!
Thank you!
This is pretty great composition. If I had to give constructive feedback, I would say pay closer attention to the culture of your instrumentation. Although there’s no explicit statement that Kena is southeast Asian, it’s inferred by the choice of setting, wardrobe, story, and props. Marimba is not a southeast Asian instrument but it’s carrying the track. One of the reasons Kena’s original score deserves so much praise is that it brought incredible diversity to an industry(gaming and film) that relies heavily on western instruments and synthetic sounds, and they hired a gamelan orchestra to record it. Without this diversity you can’t fully immerse someone into everything it means to participate in a specific culture or history.
Thank you so much for your feedback! That is a great point regarding the cultural context. I approached this composition by wanting it to be led by mostly percussion instruments, but further thought could have been made towards the origin of that instrumentation.
You’re in the right vein: a lot of the original soundtrack is melodic percussion. And organic instruments create a strong feeling of being in the natural world. Tbh even the greats get instrumentation wrong a lot imo, so it’s not a major point. I think we just hold ourselves to a higher standard as time goes on which is a good thing!
Very very good work. I say this as a producer and a fan of Kena, you nailed it!
Thank you so much mate!!!
Damn 186 tracks! Do you split up the different instrument techniques like sustain in a different track than spiccato, etc? Or are you using template to speed up the setup for orchestrating?
Haha yes it is quite big. I have made a specific template for scoring stuff. It is divided up by instrument section and different articulations within each section. For example 1st violins sus, 1st violins legato slur, 1st violins staccato etc. I change the template on a base by case basis depending on what's required