Excited to enter for the first time! Haven't entered Composition contests for 3 decades...yeah, I'm that old. Themes are sketched. Awaiting answers on size of orchestra... whether must use all or if that's the upper limit.
For those who have doubts about the quality of the Muscore 4 instruments, here is a link to an arrangement I made of a scene from "Pirates of the Caribbean". I only used the "Reverb" that Muscore comes with by default: th-cam.com/video/E0alMF98z7s/w-d-xo.html I am very impressed by the quality of the Saxophones, since my arrangement is for Marching Bands
As I’m late to the game, I’ll likely not enter this one. However, I admit that I felt some inspiration to jot out some themes, plot out a score & form, filled in some accompaniment patterns, and timed it to a bit over a minute. Even if I don’t make your deadlines, you are goading me to create, and I appreciate it! Maybe I’ll actually meet a deadline sometime… 😂
@@cinemagicscoring Sure? I ask this because in the template that is in the description above, in the staves of the other two percussionists, notes can be written in this software, only for 'snare' and 'bass'.
Hello Ryan, I'm finishing my piece and I have a question. Are we allowed to switch instruments, for example, from flute to piccolo, if it's in two different sections of the piece?
Would I be able to just export my score from Musescore using Muse Sounds as the MP3 portion of the score submission? I'm actually way more motivated to do this competition because of the scoring focus rather than the music production directly into a DAW focus like previous ones! I've always written on Musescore for musicians to perform it rather than going directly to a daw and making tracks with sample libraries. I'm still very new to production so this is a HUGE plus for me.
You can. Just make sure you open the mixer, set some realistic panning, put some realistic reverb and you are ready to go. I usually just add some clipping on the mp3 generated because it can easily go above -1db and sound quite broken at the ff tutti
Specifically for percussion, I wanted to use a djembe but the closest option in MuseSounds is congas. Would it be acceptable to use the conga sounds but notate for djembe in the score?
I’m not really vibing with forcing everyone to use a specific free library that they’re not familiar with. From the musescore stuff I’ve seen, the samples are pretty low quality. I just wouldn’t feel that good writing with them. Making lower quality music when I know I could use my professional samples to make something objectively superior would be a frustrating experience for me. Additionally I was a bit confused on if the orchestra would perform the 90second piece, or if we would be allowed to turn it into a full length song (or make something else for them to perform altogether). Really incredible prize btw.
Have you tried Musecore 4? Yea the sounds in Musescore 3 were awful but it's on another level now. And you don't really have to be familiar with it, compose in whatever software you want with the given instruments and then just export a musicxml to musescore for the playback
I agree because I'm used to working with my own libraries, but I think I'm going to first write out the score in my own program with my own VSTs, and then once I reach a song that I'm happy with I'll import it into the Musescore program. Sure it'll be extra work but since I've literally never worked with Musescore before I'll know that at least what I wrote sounds good in my own version.
@@composingcompetitions I don't imagine my mixing decisions, expressiveness/dynamics MIDI automation, external plugins like reverb/delay/distortion etc. will carry over very nicely. For me, winning the prize wouldn't be just about a pure orchestral experience, but then (hopefully) being able to work with the mixing and mastering studio there to incorporate the organic live musical elements into a deeper work of art that may involve gentle synths, unusual percussive elements, etc. Forcing everything through musescore limits the quality of my sound, the mixing flexibility, and the instrumentation. (I'm totally on board with the limitations of the instruments available from the orchestra recording studio, I'd just like to be able to use midi instruments and samples beyond that to hybridize with the actual live recordings). But I understand the motivation to "level the playing field" in a sense. I'm not sure it will have your desired outcome though.
Cant really start without knowing what is included in the "percussion" category.. Like Harpsichord and jaw harp are technically percusion.. how about a gong, kalimba, udu? an organ, steel pan, hang drum? what am I even writing for, i need to know what sort of percussion instruments are allowed...
So, i’m a musescore user, but also a logic user. Is it recommended to do everything in musescore? Or can/should I use muse-sounds in logic? And also, should we use external mixing and mastering tools to tweek the sound, like reverbs and saturators etc?
This looks so fun, I can’t wait to start writing! I just have a couple questions about the instrumentation. For the two percussionists, is there a limit on which instruments they can play, or how many? And can one of the trombones be on bass trombone, or is that not allowed?
Musescore did release a update today. I haven't tried it yet. But I was concerned about the restriction to Musescore 4 lowering the quality of the sound but not the bar. Musescore 4 is just a new workflow, and the sounds (dynamics specifically) can be hard to work with since you have less control over them.
Yeah, dynamics and balancing are MS's biggest weaknesses. I love the program and use it almost exclusively (mainly because of the price), but NotePerformer has WAY better balancing.
On the topic of percussion parts. I know there are 2 percussionists but would I be able to have more than 2 percussion lines/instruments written as long as it is playable by the 2 percussionists? The score template has one line for snare and one for concert bass drum but can I add separate lines for crash cymbals, chimes, woodblock, etc. as long as I write it to be physically playable? I know one way to score is to have the single staff and just notate what the percussion instruments are for each not on the same staff but in Musescore, you can't get more than one instrument sound to play on a single staff so you have to write separate lines for each instrument used.
I like the restrictions set in place for this, but sadly I believe that means I won’t be able to submit an entry. I don’t believe musescore composing is available on iPad. Does anybody know if I’m wrong about that?
"can double on bass clarinet, contrabassoon, piccolo" I guess that means no English horn? Also the finalists livestream is on my birthday which is cool.
@@composingcompetitions What percussion instruments are available? I imagine the "usual" ones such as bass drum and triangle are, but since this is a South African ensemble, are any African percussion instruments available/suggested? EDIT: Also, can one of the trombones be a bass trombone? p.s. If you want to convince people of Muse Sounds quality, the template perhaps should be set up to use Muse Sounds by default instead of MS Basic;) (I've already switched all the instruments to Muse Sounds on my copy.)
Do we have to utilize the whole ensemble? Like, if I only want one horn instead of four... or I don't use tuba or contrabass... anything like that? Edit: I ask because this looks like a pretty typical "winds x2" orchestra but for about a half-size string section. So, personally, if I were writing for this orchestra (divorced of the competition), I would probably choose either to reduce the winds OR I might use the full winds but with only a couple of solo strings. Is that acceptable for the competition, or must we treat every player to a part?
@@composingcompetitionsthat doesnt answer the question at all.. they wanted to know if they could take the exported Mp3 from muse score and mix and master it that way. && you basically said thats ok? Did you really mean that, or did you not understand the question. Because that really makes an unlevel playing field if thats allowed!!!
@@composingcompetitions Did you get confirmation on this? I'm sure a LOT of us feel like the bass trombone would be helpful in getting the hard, "rocky," imposing feel of a mountain:)
Great to include a session, but I would argue that a large part of what makes a good orchestral mock-up artist is their comfort-ability with the libraries that they use. There is no "level" playing field in the industry and trying to set one for a media competition seems like copium. Maybe thats just me though. Props for trying to put the focus on the integrity of the music.
Why? I've installed it just an hour ago, going to learn something new! It doesn't matter which software and sound pallette you use - if the music is good, it will be good even with WIN95 midi sounds :)
nah you can use anything you want to compose, it's just for the output. Like I would write in Dorico then export musicxml to musescore and tweak for playback
I write in Dorico and create sound files in Cubase. That’s my workflow. I don’t want to have to install and learn a new program. It shouldn’t be necessary.
damn - what an amazing first prize!!
Thank you for the template! Definitely saves time. Looking forward to another great composing competition! Good luck all.
Wonderful competition! Thank you for the oppertunity.
Yihaaa here we go again!!! Thank you Mr.Leach ;)
Thank you and the entire team once again for this wonderful opportunity! Just submitted my entry! good luck and fun to everyone else out there!
I’ll go ahead and give it a try! Last time I entered, I was using Logic and I recently switched to Ableton. Excited to see how this works.
As an avid Musescore Enjoyer and user, I'll definitely be joining this!
I see my country’s flag on the thumbnail, definitely caught my attention
Same. Guess i finally gotta participate
I'll enter! So much fun!
Excited to enter for the first time! Haven't entered Composition contests for 3 decades...yeah, I'm that old. Themes are sketched. Awaiting answers on size of orchestra... whether must use all or if that's the upper limit.
My submission is in. Thanks for the opportunity!
For those who have doubts about the quality of the Muscore 4 instruments, here is a link to an arrangement I made of a scene from "Pirates of the Caribbean". I only used the "Reverb" that Muscore comes with by default: th-cam.com/video/E0alMF98z7s/w-d-xo.html
I am very impressed by the quality of the Saxophones, since my arrangement is for Marching Bands
Yaaaaaaaaay!!!
Love this one!
As I’m late to the game, I’ll likely not enter this one. However, I admit that I felt some inspiration to jot out some themes, plot out a score & form, filled in some accompaniment patterns, and timed it to a bit over a minute. Even if I don’t make your deadlines, you are goading me to create, and I appreciate it! Maybe I’ll actually meet a deadline sometime… 😂
I ran into some serious composer's block, so I only have a few sketches to work from right now. I'm still going to throw my hat in the ring!
You are not late at all. Still two weeks to the deadline
Just saw this now,...... and I see ok I guess we BALL
YAY! looking for to it.
So exciting!
Fantastique !
The moment we’ve all been waiting for
Can we just appreciate how beautiful the image is? OMGGGGGG
AHHHH i shall attempt!!
Regarding the two percussionists, one of them plays snare only, and the other plays bass drum only, right?
Hello! No, one of them plays Timpani only and the other 2 play a variety of percussion instruments (tuned and non-tuned).
@@cinemagicscoring
Sure? I ask this because in the template that is in the description above, in the staves of the other two percussionists, notes can be written in this software, only for 'snare' and 'bass'.
Hello Ryan, I'm finishing my piece and I have a question. Are we allowed to switch instruments, for example, from flute to piccolo, if it's in two different sections of the piece?
Yes absolutely
Finally?! Just can't wait!
does "all percussion" include tuned percussion like glockenspiel and marimba?
yes
Hello, yes it does include tuned and non tuned percussion 🙂
Great challenge! Which type of percussions are available?
according to Cinemagic "We have all percussion available (and have 1 x timp and 2 x percussionists)"
Would I be able to just export my score from Musescore using Muse Sounds as the MP3 portion of the score submission?
I'm actually way more motivated to do this competition because of the scoring focus rather than the music production directly into a DAW focus like previous ones! I've always written on Musescore for musicians to perform it rather than going directly to a daw and making tracks with sample libraries. I'm still very new to production so this is a HUGE plus for me.
You can. Just make sure you open the mixer, set some realistic panning, put some realistic reverb and you are ready to go. I usually just add some clipping on the mp3 generated because it can easily go above -1db and sound quite broken at the ff tutti
Specifically for percussion, I wanted to use a djembe but the closest option in MuseSounds is congas. Would it be acceptable to use the conga sounds but notate for djembe in the score?
Wish I could compose well or at all otherwise I’d be all over this.
Do you know how many timpani drums are available for the player?
In the past, there have been length restrictions. Are we limited to 90 seconds, again?
yes still 90 seconds
Its somposing competition time ! :)
I would like a link to the discord please.
I'm also having trouble downloading the sound library for musescore.
Are the two percussionist free choice or they are bass drum and snare drum?
according to Cinemagic "We have all percussion available"
Hello, yes all orchestral percussion is available 🙂
So they audio has to use muse sounds? Can It use the muse hub addon sound packs from from their store like ther berlin orchestra?
I’m not really vibing with forcing everyone to use a specific free library that they’re not familiar with. From the musescore stuff I’ve seen, the samples are pretty low quality. I just wouldn’t feel that good writing with them. Making lower quality music when I know I could use my professional samples to make something objectively superior would be a frustrating experience for me.
Additionally I was a bit confused on if the orchestra would perform the 90second piece, or if we would be allowed to turn it into a full length song (or make something else for them to perform altogether). Really incredible prize btw.
Have you tried Musecore 4? Yea the sounds in Musescore 3 were awful but it's on another level now. And you don't really have to be familiar with it, compose in whatever software you want with the given instruments and then just export a musicxml to musescore for the playback
I agree because I'm used to working with my own libraries, but I think I'm going to first write out the score in my own program with my own VSTs, and then once I reach a song that I'm happy with I'll import it into the Musescore program. Sure it'll be extra work but since I've literally never worked with Musescore before I'll know that at least what I wrote sounds good in my own version.
@@Cameron_Norby That makes sense
@@composingcompetitions I don't imagine my mixing decisions, expressiveness/dynamics MIDI automation, external plugins like reverb/delay/distortion etc. will carry over very nicely.
For me, winning the prize wouldn't be just about a pure orchestral experience, but then (hopefully) being able to work with the mixing and mastering studio there to incorporate the organic live musical elements into a deeper work of art that may involve gentle synths, unusual percussive elements, etc. Forcing everything through musescore limits the quality of my sound, the mixing flexibility, and the instrumentation. (I'm totally on board with the limitations of the instruments available from the orchestra recording studio, I'd just like to be able to use midi instruments and samples beyond that to hybridize with the actual live recordings).
But I understand the motivation to "level the playing field" in a sense. I'm not sure it will have your desired outcome though.
same :(
Cant really start without knowing what is included in the "percussion" category.. Like Harpsichord and jaw harp are technically percusion.. how about a gong, kalimba, udu? an organ, steel pan, hang drum? what am I even writing for, i need to know what sort of percussion instruments are allowed...
assume standard orchestral percussion, which does not include jaw harp or steel drum
@@composingcompetitions kalimba?
@@composingcompetitions Correct, standard orchestral percussion 🙂
So, i’m a musescore user, but also a logic user. Is it recommended to do everything in musescore? Or can/should I use muse-sounds in logic? And also, should we use external mixing and mastering tools to tweek the sound, like reverbs and saturators etc?
Must we use thd full complement of instruments or is that what we can use up to?
I'm guessing it's the max you can use... I listened, but on the screen it said available instruments
I've always wanted to write a score for orchestra but this competition is to scary for me. 😢
Yeah, I think my orchestra would walk out if they saw my score😕
Don't be afraid to fail. Try your best and go from there!
This looks so fun, I can’t wait to start writing! I just have a couple questions about the instrumentation. For the two percussionists, is there a limit on which instruments they can play, or how many? And can one of the trombones be on bass trombone, or is that not allowed?
Musescore did release a update today. I haven't tried it yet. But I was concerned about the restriction to Musescore 4 lowering the quality of the sound but not the bar. Musescore 4 is just a new workflow, and the sounds (dynamics specifically) can be hard to work with since you have less control over them.
Yeah, dynamics and balancing are MS's biggest weaknesses. I love the program and use it almost exclusively (mainly because of the price), but NotePerformer has WAY better balancing.
Can we use piano in the score?
On the topic of percussion parts. I know there are 2 percussionists but would I be able to have more than 2 percussion lines/instruments written as long as it is playable by the 2 percussionists?
The score template has one line for snare and one for concert bass drum but can I add separate lines for crash cymbals, chimes, woodblock, etc. as long as I write it to be physically playable?
I know one way to score is to have the single staff and just notate what the percussion instruments are for each not on the same staff but in Musescore, you can't get more than one instrument sound to play on a single staff so you have to write separate lines for each instrument used.
yea don't worry too much about fine details, if the track is chosen as winner it can be polished before recording
Is there a list of the percussion instruments available to write for?
according to Cinemagic "We have all percussion available"
I like the restrictions set in place for this, but sadly I believe that means I won’t be able to submit an entry. I don’t believe musescore composing is available on iPad. Does anybody know if I’m wrong about that?
Fantastic! BTW, the MuseScore template link in the description isn't a link, it's just the name of the file. Please fix that :)
fixed, thanks for the heads up
"can double on bass clarinet, contrabassoon, piccolo" I guess that means no English horn? Also the finalists livestream is on my birthday which is cool.
Website says english horn by in my emails with Cinemagic they didn't mention it, so I'm going to find out
@@composingcompetitions What percussion instruments are available? I imagine the "usual" ones such as bass drum and triangle are, but since this is a South African ensemble, are any African percussion instruments available/suggested?
EDIT: Also, can one of the trombones be a bass trombone?
p.s. If you want to convince people of Muse Sounds quality, the template perhaps should be set up to use Muse Sounds by default instead of MS Basic;) (I've already switched all the instruments to Muse Sounds on my copy.)
English horn is available 🙂
Can we mix and master with external plugins or must we use the Muse sounds' library as it is ?
we'd prefer people just use musesounds how they come out, we want to focus on the writing
As well as the conductors score will we also be making our own parts if we can? Or does the submission only allow one PDF?
just submit the score not the parts
Hi, this sounds awesome, but looks like I just missed this round. How do I get into your Discord server? Thanks!
You didn't miss it, the deadline isn't until the end of October!
discord.gg/YmtRC4mu
@@composingcompetitions Cool, thanks!
@@composingcompetitions Could you please send a new Discord link? I tried using this one, but it's expired.
Do we have to utilize the whole ensemble? Like, if I only want one horn instead of four... or I don't use tuba or contrabass... anything like that?
Edit: I ask because this looks like a pretty typical "winds x2" orchestra but for about a half-size string section. So, personally, if I were writing for this orchestra (divorced of the competition), I would probably choose either to reduce the winds OR I might use the full winds but with only a couple of solo strings.
Is that acceptable for the competition, or must we treat every player to a part?
My question was is this what we MUST use OR use UP TO
Is there a link to the discord server?
Sorry if I missed it...
discord.gg/YmtRC4mu
Hi,is there a link to the discord server?
discord.gg/YmtRC4mu
Great, I try to make the time for this (prize)
great
but why just 90 seconds?
because of how long it takes to listen to 90 seconds times 500 entries
If i use the musescore for composing part,- can i export,mix and master the composition audio after?
compose it however you want, but the musesounds is so that everyone is on a level playing field for production quality this time around
@@composingcompetitions got it,thank you :)
@@composingcompetitionsthat doesnt answer the question at all.. they wanted to know if they could take the exported Mp3 from muse score and mix and master it that way. && you basically said thats ok? Did you really mean that, or did you not understand the question. Because that really makes an unlevel playing field if thats allowed!!!
Can we substitute one of the trombones for a bass trombone?
I'm still waiting for confirmation on this but I would assume yes
@@composingcompetitions Did you get confirmation on this? I'm sure a LOT of us feel like the bass trombone would be helpful in getting the hard, "rocky," imposing feel of a mountain:)
Yes you may do that 🙂
As a South African I am wondering why our flag is on the thumbnail
I have never even been on that continent and I am wondering
Considering the blurred image on the right, maybe the picture is related to South Africa?
They're partnered with a South African orchestra for the competition
Great to include a session, but I would argue that a large part of what makes a good orchestral mock-up artist is their comfort-ability with the libraries that they use. There is no "level" playing field in the industry and trying to set one for a media competition seems like copium. Maybe thats just me though. Props for trying to put the focus on the integrity of the music.
not sure what you mean, we're setting a level playing field for this specific competition not for the industry
moment
So, this competition is only for Musescore users. That’s nice! 😠
Why? I've installed it just an hour ago, going to learn something new! It doesn't matter which software and sound pallette you use - if the music is good, it will be good even with WIN95 midi sounds :)
nah you can use anything you want to compose, it's just for the output. Like I would write in Dorico then export musicxml to musescore and tweak for playback
I write in Dorico and create sound files in Cubase. That’s my workflow. I don’t want to have to install and learn a new program. It shouldn’t be necessary.
Just when I thought I'd like to enter. But I didn't like Musescore when I tried it. So sadly I'll not waste my time. Sad.
the musescore part is just for the mp3, compose in whatever you like
Stoked!
i cant find the Discord link!?
discord.gg/YmtRC4mu
Excuse my ignorance, but 2 percusionists can play a lot of perc instruments, so can be whatever we want?