What's the most beautiful instrument after the piano? Yes, the orchestra.  From the use of synthesizers in the beginning my interest shifts more and more to orchestral programming, with libraries from mainly Orchestral Tools and Spitfire Audio. And some Sonuscore here also. By the way the naming of 'Abbey' refers to Abbey Road One, a library from Spitfire Audio that I used (among others) in this piece. I hope you like it.

Orchestral Abbey Fantasy

Right Where I Want You

This is a remaster of an earlier track (2021), it sounds somewhat more brighter now. Makes me feel somewhat more fine...

I Feel Fine

Ryan Leach proposed his most recent composition competition July 2023, based on a drawing/picture by David Frasheski; the image is shown above. Due to circumstances I was too late to come up with something before the deadline so this entry is not submitted for the competition. However, I made something after the deadline, within the 90 seconds limit. Is it based on, or is a connection with the drawing? Perhaps, perhaps not. It is not a Bonanza, High Chaparal or Ennio Morricone Western heroic style piece, it is what it is...with some melancholy feeling in it, some farewell-like mood.
(This is a second upload, the first upload had some flaws in the mastered end result.)

TerraCanyon Farewell

Back again with a fresh remix of this fire tune, enjoy.

FREE DOWNLOAD

J Hus ft. Drake - Who Told You (NDRKFFR Remix)

In the Clouds

A piece in a series of pieces with a short length, about 45 seconds.

45sec - Woezel

Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMnEm6Z97LQ&t=4s

In Januar 2018 I build my little home studio, starting to work with Cubase, sample libraries and plugins, diving into a new, interesting world, uptill then I worked with Finale and FL Studio. The very first piece I composed in this new setting then was The Gallop, using Spitfire Audio Albion One primarily: Strings long & short, Brass long & short, Darwin Percussion Ensemble (high-mid-low). Backing it all up gently with a few synth pad gems out of the Kontakt Factory Library, along with a bass and melodic patch from my Dave Smith Prophet REV2 analogue synth. The Albion One ‘ostinatum’ function is still a great feature I think. In this piece I'm using it on the short strings, driving all the way through the track. And those Brass shorts, man they sound so lively!

Now, a big 5 years later, having developed on different fronts, I revisited The Gallop; creating better audio renders, creating a new mix and a new master (the comparison is to be seen and heard at the end of the video, as well as my new master bus plugin usage and settings). 

For me Albion One still has this strong cinematic, more epic sort of feel. Really different from from the more pure orchestral BBCSO instrument recordings I’m using as my bread&butter orchestra to go to.

During my revisit I changed some of the mic settings, creating more depth and space. You can see the mic settings in the video. Did some serious balancing and EQ'ing to get rid of the muddy sound. 
On the percussion sub group I worked a lot to give it more depth, clarity and drive, using the classic Waves C6 multiband compressor, FabFilter Pro-C compressor and characteristic Waves Puigtec EQ, and the Waves L3 Multimaximizer. Finally going step by step on every track and sub group, making them sound as good, detailed and beautiful as I can. Such fun to do!

My reverb chain on the ALBION ONE sub groups (auxes) on the revisited Gallop version:
1. LiquidSonics - Seventh Heaven - Scoring stage 2.20sec, -12db to -17db Send signal
2. FabFilter Pro-R  Vanilla Hall - 2.80sec, -13db to -18db Send signal

My Master bus chain on the revisited Gallop version:
1. FabFilter Pro EQ2 – doing some general boosts and cuts
2. Fabfilter Pro EQ2 – doing only mid and side EQ’ing
3. Plugin Alliance Brainworx bx Digital V3 – doing some precision EQ’ing and 5% widening
4. Ozone Imager – Using it for just 5% widening
5. Solid State Logic Fusion Stereo Image – for 2.2db widening (above 400hz)
6. FabFilter Pro-C – Compressing just about -3db
7. Solid State Logic G Master buss compressor – A touch of compression and make-up gain
8. FabFilter Pro-L2  - Limiting -11 LUFS, and boosting master track with 5.5db 

Be well,
Jeff Hijlkema

Jeff Hijlkema

The Gallop_using Spitfire Audio Albion One primarily

Relative long orchestral composition using a lot of libraries from Spitfire Audio and Orchestral Tools, and some others.
I finished it mostly with headphones, and that was satisfying in sound, but listening on the speakers, it is not yet what I aim for talking about the mastering, so this is not yet the final version I imagine in my head.

Dreamed Future

This is my entry for the Ryan Leach competition January 2024. They ask for a composition not longer than 90 seconds, based on an artwork. The artwork is created by Hardy Fowler. The shown image is cropped, the full image can be seen here:
https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/054/964/553/4k/hardy-fowler-7-cyberpunk.jpg?1665777108
In the music I tried to visualize the urban character of a world city conglomerate, the two persons in the center have some kind of intimate conversation, or is it a business conversation? The eastern elements are inspired by the chinese or japanese looking woman.
In the music orchestral settings are combined with eastern instruments, and also with a trance like middle part in which synth sounds play an important role.

Urban Intimacy

Spheres is a piece I made a long time ago, around 2000, with hardware synths (Roland JV1080 and Ensonic TS10) and with Notator on Atari computer. In a time without soft-synth compressors and eq... recorded on a DAT-recorder. Those were the days..

The Gallop_using Spitfire Audio Albion One primarily

Jeff Hijlkema

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