Grown Man Cries

This is an emotional piece for me, where I was digging deep to convey a great deal of feeling and emotion through instrumentation and orchestration, through the melodies and counter-melodies.

This piece might not appeal to everyone, and that is perfectly okay. This is a piece I created for me to enjoy and experience, and I am sharing with others that they may or may not experience something, too.

The music and the title "Grown Man Cries" are intentionally ambiguous to whether the Grown Man is crying from pain and heartache, from depression and loneliness or from the opposite from a place of joy and contentment. I've had tears well up in my eyes so many times while creating and listening to this piece. It really speaks to me.

An area of the song that I want to highlight as particularly meaningful for me is how the flugelhorn trails off at the end of the piece alone by itself, leaving the Grown Man a bit introspective - alone in his feelings and emotions. It reminds me of the many occasions after practicing and playing the piano for multi-hour long sessions, when I would wrap up the last piece and just sit with a solemnity, maybe a somberness, a contentment that I had sufficiently expressed my inner emotions through music, letting up the sustain pedal on the piano after listening to last notes ring out by themselves, fading away, leaving me in deep introspection and satisfaction. It is hard to describe. These are moments of time that I deeply treasure, where I accepted any and all emotions of the moment and felt them completely and was satisfied and content in feeling them completely.

Details:

RealTrack Audio:
  • RealTrack Flugelhorn - 3448 Flugelhorn, Background BossaPads Ev 110 (1TrackHornSection)
  • RealTrack Mandolin - 2035 Mandolin, Soloist CountryAndy Ev 120
  • RealTrack Guitar - 924 Guitar, Electric, Rhythm BossaGrooveComp Ev 110
  • RealTrack Sax - 3449 Sax, Alto, Background BossaPads Ev 110 (1TrackHornSection)


Drum Audio from:
  • Drums - RealDrums=NashvilleEven8^5-a Snare, HiHat , b Snare, Ride
  • Drums - RealDrums=BossaTerryClarke^4-a Brushes, Busy , b Shaker


Bass track is composed of parts of the MIDI from the following RealTracks and played with the Orange Tree Samples Evolution Flatwound Bass virtual instrument:
  • Bass - 921 Bass, Acoustic, Bossa Ev 110
  • Bass - 1958 Bass, Baby, Guajira Ev 120


I generated the melody using BIAB Melodist 204. Different sections of melody are played by the following virtual instruments:
  • Simple Sam Samples Signature Grand Piano
  • Vienna Symphonic Library Epic Orchestra 2.0 Cornet
  • Orange Tree Samples Evolution Steel Strings
  • Straight Ahead Samples Atomic Big Band Atomic Lead Alto Sax


I generated the counter-melodies using BIAB Soloist 148, based heavily weighted on the melody track where rhythm and notes match. Different sections of the soloist MIDI are played by the following virtual instruments:
  • Spitfire BBC Symphony Orchestra Pro Harp
  • Orange Tree Samples Passion Flute
  • Orange Tree Samples Evolution Steel String Guitar


Effects Plugins that I used:
  • Izotope Neutron 4
  • Eventide SplitEQ
  • BlueLab Gain24
  • IK Multimedia TR5 Sunset Sound Reverb
  • IK Multimedia TR5 Fame Studio Reverb
  • Izotope Ozone 10
  • Steinberg Limiter


DAW: Cubase 12 Pro