BBC News Music Remakes

Hi, I recently remade the BBC News countdown music in Garageband. As you may know, Garageband is very limited in features so getting something sounding exactly right is very difficult.
I have had feedback from David Lowe, the original composer of the BBC News theme and I applied his feedback and advice to the music. Also, he sent me the PIP (beep) sound effect because it was very hard to create something similar in Garageband.

Here is the current version of the BBC News Countdown Music Remake that I made. It is by no means the final version:
http://files.jamescraker.com/Music/BBC%20News%20Countdown%20Remakes/BBC%20News%20Countdown%20Remake%20Version%202.mp3

If it won't play, here's a direct link.
http://files.jamescraker.com/Music/BBC%20News%20Countdown%20Remakes/BBC%20News%20Countdown%20Remake%20Version%202.mp3

I would love to hear some feedback and advice. I'm also new to this forum and I'm loving it so far.

-James

Not a bad attempt, I'm not an expert so probably couldn't do better myself. Sounds quite synthy though, so if you can get more authentic sounds that would make it more realistic. The timings are good, however.

Good attempt though.

Thanks for the feedback Richard. I agree with you there. I'll try and make it sound more realistic in the next version, it isn't that easy to do that in Garageband, since most sounds in Garageband sound slightly synthy but I'll have a go

I like it James! Very good with such limited resources. The only parts I'm not sure about are where you've included what I presume is a brass instrument from 00:35 and the bagpipes/harpsicord in the last 10 seconds, other than that very good - especially the strings.

Thanks for the feedback! I wasn't sure about the brass instruments at 00:35 either, but nothing else in Garageband seems to work well for that, however I'll experiment a little more.

The core musical parts of the countdown music are certainly there, but I think one thing it lacks is a good drum set. There's a lot of percussion in the current countdown, and I don't think the lone drum beats in your version are as impactful or anything. I know somerandomstuff used to use the thunderclap they use in the headlines as a sample when he did his audio mocks, so here is the thunderclap if it helps.

Either way it's a solid start.

Thanks so so much for the thunderclap! Thats what I was missing, just by clicking the link I could tell thats the exact thing which I needed to add. I'll add it in the next version

Its been a while since I posted my original BBC News Theme remake so its about time I posted an improved version using your advice. Here goes:
http://files.jamescraker.com/Music/BBC%20News%20Countdown%20Remakes/BBC%20News%20Countdown%20Remake%20Version%203.mp3

If it won't play, here's a direct link.
http://files.jamescraker.com/Music/BBC%20News%20Countdown%20Remakes/BBC%20News%20Countdown%20Remake%20Version%203.mp3
Please tell me your thoughts.

James

I really like it, the synth orchestra is spot on although is there any way you could make the other effect a little less tinny? If you understand me. Great though!

To me, the whole texture of the music sounds rough, like you're using square waves or sawtooth waves in the synth. Not knowing how Garageband works, this advice might be difficult to implement, I'd recommend using sine waves whererver possible, and if possible samples of real instruments. Also, you can download free audio programs like Audacity which can generate the pips for you. The pips before the 10 second mark in the actual piece are 0.1 seconds worth of 440 Hz sine wave, and from 10 to 0, are 0.1 seconds of 1Khz sine wave. Audacity can generate those for you easily.

Otherwise, it's a 3 star piece already, with a little work, you could definitely get to 4 or 5 stars.

Couldn't you add the thunderclap?

Thanks, I'll definitely try to change it to Sine waves but Garageband has very little features so I am pushing it on how much it can offer. The PIPS are from David Lowe himself since they are used in the original BBC News countdown so they seem to be okay as they are. I am aware that I can generate them in Audacity but I haven't been able to get them sounding quite right.

Thanks for the advice though