Hello, I've been having a go at making trailer music and would like some constructive feedback on it please.

I'm quite happy with how it sounds but am wondering if there is anything that could make it better e.g. carving better spaces in the mix for the various elements, is extra punch required etc?

One thing I don't really like is the reverb decay between the finale and the outro. My reverb has a 2 second decay and the sends to it are set fairly low at around -9 to -12 so I don't know why it appears to last longer than that. I've checked all the individual tracks and none of them appear to be the cause, as the meters all drop out quickly (the stereo out takes longer to drop). I've also set quick fade-outs on the hits and booms as some had tails to them, so logically it shouldn't be happening. I'm not sure how to tackle that beyond an automated high pass filter at about 100-150hz on the reverb channel which dealt with the low end as I've apparently reached the extent of my mixing skills.

Thanks!

 

Great job! I think you nailed it.

I think I'd dial back the distortion on the synth lead, some of the hits and the drone/pad, those are very crunchy/fizzy-brighty IMO. I'd try grouping the hits with the rest of the drums and make both trigger compression/sidechain harder for big impacts.

Really good stuff.

 

its nice, but most people who live in trailers don't buy music they just download it from the webz. you should probably make apartment music or house music cause some of that market is upscale and they will buy your full catalog.

nothing against people who live in trailers, i'm sure trailer music is nice, but you won't make any money from them even if its a doublewide with a fireplace and a deck, they still just download the tourettes from the Tourettes and warez sites.

 

Well, it's big

 

It's wayyyy crunchy and seems to tilt too far skewed towards the high end.

 

i disagree with the synth being to fuzzy or bright i think that kinda edge and unoradox way of sounding is exactly where this genre shines, your brass and percussion are the issue, your strikes and whooshes are ok but the normal perc sounds dull and un interesting esp. against your overly excited synth. same for the brass no life, dull, it doesnt sound like it truly believes in itself. layered it more, add some octaves and fx to the brass section make it larger than life, and you'll have something,

mega brass and angry brass might be of some use to you here

 

It's obvious that is your first go. You can't hear melodies in the trailers anymore. No one will buy/use this even your mixing was perfect. If it's for your own movie project, that sounds cheap but it's your taste and fine.

In addition, you should consider about three acts rule in trailer music. There must be some specific sections to put conversations on. My advice is listen more trailers and try to copy their structure if you want to go modern.

 

You have a mind for it indeed. webhead has a bit of point, even if he was a dick about it for no reason. But I think it's more from you approaching it like a song and not a trailer. What I would recommend to you is to find either a free video editor, or a video editor from the sister site, and download some clips from a couple movies that fit the style you are going for from YouTube, edit them together into a couple different practice videos, render the video and audio separate and load them into your DAW and practice scoring them. That way you will have the dialogue audio that you can cut in and out, and practice really building a trailer score. Based on what you came up with you want to do big epic film trailers. So it would be something along the lines of Big sound to grab attention / dialogue and exposition / short bursts of energetic music and sound efx / dialogue / music and or sound efx / climax... all littered with braams galore. Practice that way and I think you will be selling some trailer music, cause it seems vibe well for you. Just remember nowadays, braams and jarring sound efx, and atonal noise tend to dominate over melody, for that style of trailer at least.

For what it's worth, what you uploaded would have me watching the trailer until the end.