Hello everyone! I hope you are all well and deep into creative frenzy! Following my article on how to orchestrate the melody within the string section, in this article I would like to explain various ways in which we can give the harmony to the string section. While Mr.Korsakov and “Principles of Orchestration Online” have done a brilliant job of explaining these principles, I would like to present the material in a more concise and organized way. So, as is our customary ritual, grab a fresh cup of your preferred beverage and let’s get started!

Due to the nature of the string section and the fact that all four instrument families blend perfectly with each other, string harmony is one of the easiest to write. However, it is also one of the most important! As we mentioned in the last article, strings are the backbone of the orchestra. If you create a solid basis for the entire orchestra to ‘sit’ on, then chances are your orchestration will sound much much better. The most important goal when writing string harmonies is to achieve an equal balance of the harmonic parts.

A. Preparing to Orchestrate – Brush up your Part-Writing!

If you were looking for a chance to brush up your part-writing skills, now is the perfect time! However big and lush your string patches may sound, bad part-writing cannot be corrected neither in the orchestration nor in the mixing stage. So, the first step in successfully and effectively orchestrating your harmony in the string section is to have a nicely-crafted harmony to begin with. Make sure that each chord flows into the next as smoothly as possible and each instrument has a playable and interesting line.

Keep in mind that the smaller the string ensemble you have available, the more exposed your part-writing will be. However surprising, it is true that it is much harder to make a string quartet sound good than a full string orchestra! So next time you are having a hard time concentrating in all those harmony rules we all had to ‘digest’ at some point, remember that!

The next step is to take your 3-, 4- or X-part harmony and assign each line to a string family. Let me clarify here that when I refer to 3-part harmony I don’t necessarily mean triadic harmony (i.e. chords comprising of Root-3rd-5th) but any chord comprising of 3 parts. Also, ‘4-part harmony’ refers to any chord structure that comprises of four notes (R-3-5-7 or R-3-5-9 etc). Any 3-part structure can be turned into a 4-part structure with doubling.

The standard and most straightforward approach to orchestrating any chord in the string section is to assign chord tones according to the range and role of the instrument. For example, the obvious choice for the top note(s) of the chord are the violins and for the bottom are the basses.  Another thing to always have in mind is that while close voicings sound well in higher registers, it is best for the lower notes to be spaced in larger intervals because close intervals between basses and cellos will sound very muddy.

Our very own Robin Hoffmann has written an excellent article on how to voice a chord according to the harmonic series. I suggest that you give it a read as it will help you understand a lot about voicing chords for the string section. No matter what kind of harmony you are using, spacing the notes correctly is a make-or-break factor in successful string writing. Voicings are everything!

B. Orchestrating the Harmony within the String Section

1. Harmony in 3 to 5 Parts

Harmony in 3-5 parts is rather straightforward, in the sense that the string section allows us to write up to 5 parts without problems.

When we are faced with a harmony in 3-parts, we can either omit some string instruments (e.g. have only Violins-Violas-Celli) or we can always double some chord tones to create extra parts.

In 4-part harmony, when our chords are essentially triads, the common practice is to give the bassline to the cellos and double basses either in unison or in octaves. If the bassline is too busy, a common technique is to give the basses a simplified version of it. For example, if the cellos play a rather busy legato basslines, we can have the basses playing a simplified pizzicato bassline, giving our harmony parts a bit more ‘bounce’.

2. Harmony in more than 5 Parts

This is where things get interesting! When our harmony comprises of more than 5 parts, we have two choices; we can either divide each of the string families to derive extra parts or write so-called ‘multiple stops’.

2.1 Divisi Strings

Learning to write for divided (i.e. divisi) strings is a lifelong pursuit and requires a lot of practice and experience. There are, however, some general guidelines that can help us get started and this is what we are going to touch upon in this section. While here we are going to talk about divisi a 2 (i.e. dividing each section in 2 parts), these guidelines can be adapted and applied to any other configuration.

Each string section can be divided into 2, 3 or even 4 parts, depending on the size of the section. If our string ensemble is very limited in size, divisi writing will either be infeasible or impractical.

As a general rule, the minimum number of players per harmony part should be between 3 and 4. Any less than that will result in an imbalanced tone colour. For example, violas should only be divided if there are 8 or more available and violins should be divided only if there are 6 or more.

So, when SHOULD we use divisi strings?

Divided strings are usually used when we are after a thin sound. For the Big Hollywood sound, it is much better to use double stops.

Some Ideas for distributing divisi strings :

 2.2 Double and Multiple Stops

Each string instrument can be turned into a polyphonic instrument if the player stops two or more notes at the same time. For any multiple stop to be feasible, each note must be located on a different string.

As a general rule, all double stops including an open string are easy to play.

In order to be able to write successful multiple stops for strings, a thorough examination of playing positions of each instrument is required. The table below shows some of the easy and possible double stops in each instrument. The MIDI notes refer to the bottom note of the interval.

When writing multiple stops, bear the following in mind :

• Triple and quadruple stops can only be executed rapidly and slightly arpeggiated, due to the ‘curved’ nature of the instruments’ bridge.
• When writing multiple stops, the two factors you should account for first and foremost are : resonance of chords and ease of execution.
• Multiple stops are usually assigned to violins and violas and less often to cellos.
• When asking a player to perform a multiple stop give them ample time to prepare their positions. For example, a fast run cannot end on a multiple stop because the players will not have time to prepare the multiple stop.

3. Special-Purpose Chords

3.1 Short Accented Chords

Short and sharp chords can be played using multiple stops for extra strength and accent. A very good example of this is the so-called “Tchaikovsky Chord”, explained at a later section of this article.

3.2 Tutti Pizzicato Chords

Tutti chords are usually employed only if we are after a special effect and only for a short period of time. Continuous use of these chords lessens their impact and tires the listener!

Pizzicato strings are usually used in the following manners :

• One or all string families playing pizzicato, accompanying a solo instrument;
• As accents to emphasize important rhythmic moments of the melody of the composition;
• Combined with sustained harmony; the basses are often divided in two sections, half playing the bassline pizzicato and the other half arco.
• Pizzicato strings playing chords with multiple stops (for extra strength and accent);
• To play driving rhythms; for an extra ‘driving’ element, these pizzicato chords are usually combined with low brass;
• As I have found out recently, pizzicato strings blend beautifully with tuned percussion instruments such as marimbas when playing upbeat melodies.

Tutti pizzicato consists of the entire string section playing pizzicato, usually doubled by woodwinds and brass. Tutti pizzicato chords are occasionally reinforced by harp and piano.

3.3 Sustained and Tremolo Chords

Sustained harmony needs a lot more attention on our part because it is much more prominent. A perfect balance of tone is the first and most important goal.

Assuming that all string families are equal in power (i.e. comprise of a balanced number of players), the most frequent arrangement of chord tones is according to register, with the bassline doubled in unison or octaves :

• Melody (also called Soprano in part-writing) : 1st Violins
• Harmony note 1 (also called Alto) : 2nd Violins
• Harmony note 2 (also called Tenor) : Violas
• Bassline : Cellos and Basses in unison or octaves

When we want to add notes and reinforce the middle register it is preferable to double notes on the violins or violas. As a rule of thumb, the further apart those doublings are from the bass, the better. Of course, in order to create those doublings we will need to either write multiple stops or divide some string families. The best ‘candidates’ for divisi writing in this case are the violas. Violas, being ‘hidden’ in the middle of the string section in terms of register, are more easily ‘digested’ by the ear when being divided.

Another thing you should be careful of is dividing the higher strings (violins and violas) when the lower ones play non-divisi. Such an arrangement results in a heavy sound and you should balance it in other sections of the orchestra.

Finally, in sustained or forte double stops performed tremolo, we are allowed to ‘bend’ the part-writing rules in order to ensure ease of execution.

C. Doubling the String Harmony in other Sections

1. Strings and Woodwinds

The best candidates for doubling in strings and woodwinds are long sustained or tremolo chords (plenty of examples in the Star Wars suite!!). When we want to double string chords in woodwinds, we have the following choices :

• Complete doubling of chords according to register (Flutes with Violins, Oboes with Violas, Clarinets with Celli etc).
• Flutes and Oboes with Violins divisi
• Clarinets and Bassoons with Violas and Cellos divisi

While they sound ‘grande’ and please our ears, full and exact doublings should be used only when we are after a particular effect and not for long periods of time.

A very common technique is to have a sustained harmony in the string section and double with woodwinds playing more rhythmic variations of the string lines for extra motion.

The best practice when combining strings and other sections to play the harmony is to make each section complete in itself before considering any doublings. Also, trying to give each section a different voice-leading (i.e. connection of chords) will ensure that we avoid parallels as much as possible. If parallels cannot be avoided, they should better reside in the inner parts of each section.

2. Strings and Brass

The combination of strings and brass to play the harmony is a much harder one to get right. The best approach for a nicely blended and balanced tone is to use crossing of parts, enclosure or juxtaposition.  Again, the best approach is to make each section complete in itself with independent voice-leading.

Doubling strings with brass tends to produce a full and heavy sound. If we are after a more transparent effect, we can always reduce the number of brass instruments or omit some if desired. For example, we can only use French horns or Trumpets and Trombones instead of all three. Also, for added transparency, brass harmony should be written mainly in open intervals (fifths and octaves).

If exact doublings are desired, we have a number of choices :

• Harmony by tremolo strings, sustained chords by brass, doublings according to register relevance (Vln-Tpt, Vla-F.H, Vlc-Trb, CB-Tb);
• Strings playing short and disconnected sforzando chords, accented by brass;
• French horns doubling divided violas or cellos.

3. Strings, Woodwinds and Brass

The combination of all three instrument sections produces a heavy, full and round tone and should only be used for special effects rather than as common practice. Try to make each instrument section sound good on its own and when possible use independent voice-leading to avoid excessive use of parallels. When doubling string harmony in both woodwinds and brass, the most important factor we must account for is balance and distribution of tone colour.

The Tchaikovsky Chord

Berklee’s Mr.Ben Newhouse has written a fantastic article about the Tchaikovsky chord on his blog. While I am going to present the essence here, I strongly advise you to visit his blog and read in more detail!

The Tchaikovsky chord is a short, accented chord presented in Tchaikovksy’s 6th Symphony. It is a tutti chord where all strings play quadruple stops, doubled in the woodwinds and brass. In reality, the Tchaikovsky chord is only a G major triad, cleverly voiced according to the overtone (harmonic) series and doubled in all 3 groups of instruments, producing a ‘massive’ accent effect.

Looking from the bottom to top, the root has been doubled 5 times, the third of the triad has been doubled 3 times and the fifth only two times. The distribution of the full chord is (from top to bottom) :

G6 : Violins I + Flutes 1-2 + Piccolo

B5 : Violins II + Oboe 1

G5 : Violins I + Clarinet 1 + Trumpet 1

D5 : Violins II + Clarinet 2 + Oboe 2

B4 : Violas + French Horns 1+3

G4 : Violins II + Trumpet 2

D4 : Violins I + Violas + French Horns 2+4

B3 : Trombone 1

G3 : Violins I + Violins II + Violas + Trombone 2

G2 : Cellos + Bassoon + Trombone 3

G1 : Basses + Tuba

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Here are some tips for finding your own voice.

What You “Don’t like” is Just as Important as What You “Do like”

Obviously, knowing what you like is important but it’s also quite easy for it to lead to imitation and lack of individuality.

Aim to understand what it is about a certain musical passage that you connect with. Don’t just play and learn the chords; that will help, but not enough. Dig a bit deeper and find out exactly what you like about it so you can extrapolate a concept out of it, a modus operandi for you own writing.

For example “I like this melody?

Why? Here are things you can look at

• The tonality or mode
• The relationship of the melody to the chords
• Use of expressive non-chord tones and how they are used
• Expressive leaps in the motive
• The structure of the tune
• Etc…

So you might come to the conclusion that that tune really connected with you because

• In was in the dorian mode
• It emphasized appoggiaturas on strong beats
• It had step-wise elements and larger leaps that were very expressive
• It used only one motive throughout
• It had a descending step-wise direction

And from there you experiment creating music using those parameters specifically in order to build your own approach to them. And you should do this in a variety of contexts, not just the same mood and tone as the original, but in very different ways.

What you don’t like is just as important and instructive so don’t just dismiss that off hand. It is completely worthwhile to dig a bit deeper find out exactly what elements you don’t like about it. For example, it could be:

• Too repetitive
• Not repetitive enough
• Orchestration is not varied
• Etc…

From that you will see what you do like and then you can take that important next step “how would I do it differently?” This will most likely take you on completely new avenues and exploring new ideas you might not have thought of otherwise!

Assimilate, Don’t Imitate

By understanding music you like and dislike and then exploring possibilities it opens up, you can assimilate the music rather than just imitate it. I refer to that as “Borging” because I aim to assimilate the distinctiveness of a great musical idea into my own language to achieve perfection! (Yep, I’m a nerd.) This is something that can happen to some over time, but here a few simple steps instead of leaving to chance and time.

Step 1: Find a few measure of something you like very much, and learn to play it, analyse it in order to understand every aspect of it. (This could also be something you like only in part.)

Step 2: See what else you can do with it, let your imagination run wild with it.

Step 3: Once you run out of ideas try this systematic approach to perhaps go a little further using the musical parameters we all know and love.

• Tempo: if it’s slow, speed it up and vice-versa.
• Dynamics: if it’s loud, play it soft and vice-versa.
• Register: if it’s high play it low…
• Tonality: if it’s minor play it minor or some other mode
• Timbre: change the orchestration
• Phrasing: legato becomes staccato, accents can change positions etc…
• Rhythms: have a blast
• Counterpoint: change the order of voices
• Can you think of more?

If you do it right you will have at least one idea that has promise and can grow into a voice or at the very least a phrase and even a piece. I call those “seeds.”

Make sure you plant those “seeds” and help them grow into a voice. Keep them well organized, I prefer paper in binders for this because it saves you a lot of time. Recording ideas and taking the time to listen to them takes too long! Revisit them often, play them often, do little improvisations with them, whatever you feel like doing to assimilate those ideas so you can use them at will. Having a voice means having your own vocabulary, and that’s what you are doing here.

[Photo by Steven Depolo]

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Hello good people and welcome back to our orchestration series! Grab a fresh cup of coffee and get ready!

Strings are, and have always been the backbone of the orchestra. Good string writing can add a lot to a cue, whether you are scoring a fast-paced action movie or an over-the-top romantic scene. I will try to present the material as concisely and laconically as possible, giving you the essence without all the extra ‘syrup’!

A. Instrumentation Notes

Let’s get the basics out of the way so that we can talk about the interesting bits later!

1. Ranges and String Tunings

2. String Characteristics

Here are some of the most important characteristics of the violin, viola and cello strings :

Violin  : 

• G3 :the thickest and most sonorous string of the violin
• D4 : has a mellow character, especially in the Eb4 – A#4 range
• A4 : the range A#4 – C5 presents the characteristic sound of the violin A-string. The range from C#5 upwards is particularly suitable for lyrical passages.
• E5 : has a ‘brilliant’ character; can be very effective in quiet and mysterious passages played piano

Viola :

• C3 : the most characteristic viola sound lies in the C3 – A3 range.
• G3 – D4 : both suitable for non-obtrusive accompaniment lines due to their dark quality.
• A4 : suitable for melodic playing or for doubling melodies in woodwinds, trumpets (soft) and trombones.

Cello :

• C2 : the lowest string of the cello is a rather sonorous bass and can be used to play basslines if a double bass in not available.
• G2 : the weakest cello string
• D3 : most of the lyrical, warm and greatly captivating melodies we hear being played on the cello are usually played sul D.
• A3 : a rather brilliant and piercing sound

3. Basic String Techniques

Strings are capable of producing a vast variety of articulations, ranging from soft legato to loud percussive sounds. The following table presents the most commonly used techniques any composer should be aware of :

B. Orchestrating a Melody within the String Section

Now that we got the boring stuff out of the way, it’s time to start tackling the real essence of orchestration. Get up, do some stretches, grab some fresh air and a fresh cup of your favourite beverage and let’s get started!

The string family is the most homogeneous family of the orchestra. Its four members blend beautifully with each other and when combined, produce a wonderful wall of sound. The old adage of “the sum is greater than its parts” is really applicable here. While each section sounds wonderful on its own, when you are after a the “Big Hollywood Sound”, you cannot go wrong by giving the melody to the strings playing in octaves.

In the following sections we will explore some of the most commonly used techniques for orchestrating a melody within the string section. These techniques are by no means exhaustive but provide a good starting point when you are pressed for time and need to get started right away. On other hand, for when you have plenty of time to experiment, remember that orchestration is not only following rules like 1+1=2; it’s all about creative imagination.

A final thing before we look at these techniques…bear in mind that there are three basic roles an instrument (or group of instruments) can have in an orchestration :

• playing a melody (either the main melody or counter-lines);
• playing the harmony (either as block chords or in counterpoint format);
• playing various effects here and there (trills, runs, crescendi, chord attacks etc).

Let’s explore the various ways in which strings can carry a melody.

1. Strings Carrying the Melody in Single Sections

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Orchestral Essentials aims to provide a comprehensive set of essential orchestral sections with basic articulations, a good amount of percussion and some nice goodies on the side. The content for the most part comes from the aforementioned ProjectSAM libraries, but has been reorganised and extended with some new material for this product. Orchestral Essentials follows the concept already established by the two Symphobia libraries: Instead of providing single instruments, the library has combined section recordings, with a few exceptions. Everything is neatly organised into categories.

General UI

ProjectSAM has done an interesting job on the UI side of the library. The whole interface looks a bit like a hologram straight out of a SciFi movie. Depending on your taste this is either a good or a bad thing. I like it – nice departure from the realistic or no-nonsense GUIs we have come to see in the past. No matter which patch you load, you will always have a big OE logo in the middle, parameter rotary encoders on the right and patch-specific options on the left. Tabs at the bottom of the patch window let you switch between the adjustable settings. Because most of the patches have identical features, we will now look at these general capabilities of the library and later deal with individual patches.

Main Tab:

On all patches, rotary encoders on the main page let you control the amount of reverb applied to the patch (sounds great!), the limiter input (how hard the built-in compressor kicks in) and the attack and release times. The left of the patch window depending on the type of patch you have loaded let you switch on or off the use of round robin samples, the octaver (playing every note you play an octave higher in addition to the pitch you played) and the velocity switch. This switch lets you choose your preferred method of velocity selection: Either by key velocity (how hard you press the keys) or by modwheel. I have to say I just love this feature. It is only available on sustain patches and is extremely useful for playing in a line with your MIDI keyboard in key velocity mode to get it roughly right, later switching to modwheel and dialing in the perfect velocities with a dedicated fader. Also this is where you can find the enhance switch, which adds additional recordings on top of the samples. Not all patches have this features, but those that do really shine!

Settings Tab:

This tab has controls for release trails, ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, release) and tail length.

EQ Tab:

OE has a built-in EQ, which is activated by standard. On this tab you can deactivate it and adjust high, mid and low gain independently.

Effects Tab:

The effects tab has a compressor, delay, a filter and a stereo modeller. You can switch all of these on or off as you please and adjust a number of settings. Clicking on the effect name highlights it and displays the parameters that can be adjusted. All the effects work fairly well, but are probably the one thing you might more or less ignore in your daily use if you mainly write purely orchestral music. If you like to tweak your sounds a bit, this is the place to go, though!

Seating Tab:

The seating chart shows you not only where each instrument is sitting in the orchestra, but also which instruments are used in the current patch and, if the patch has an enhance button, what the button actually adds in terms of additional instruments. And, as the manual correctly states, the chart just looks damn cool.

Strings

The strings category has five ensemble patches, spanning the whole string range from double bass to violin: Arco (sustain), Staccato, Tremolo, Pizzicato and Cinematic Effects. While the former are self-explanatory, the latter is quite interesting and contains a number of string effects like atonal swells, stings and risers, random pizzicati, and so on. The material is very suitable for the scary and creepy moments in your scores. All patches come with velocity control and are very playable out of the box with nice standard EQ settings (which you can deactivate if you choose to do so).

A sixth patch in the strings category has Legato Violins together with flutes. I found this patch to be very versatile and great for melodic lines. Unfortunately, its range from A2 to G4 is very small, making it sometimes difficult to use. The patch is monophonic, so you cannot play more than one note at any time. This holds true for all legato patches in the library, so you really need to plan carefully to stay within the instrument ranges.

An example says more than a thousand words, so here is a short audio demo of the string patches. No editing, no external effects, just the out of the box sound played live.

Brass

The brass category is similar in scope to what can be found in the strings: A Long Notes patch provides sustained samples over the whole brass family. The ensemble (tube, trombones, french horns and trumpets) is sampled in multiple velocity layers, which you can seamlessly morph through with the modwheel. On the ff dynamic, OE’s brass has a very nice bite and is perfectly suited for powerful lines or sustained chords. The Staccato patch is programmed very well, with sharp attacks, which can be additionally tweaked with the attack knob in the interface. Similarly to the string category, the brass section has a Cinematic Effects patch. This patch has tonal and atonal rips and a host of other useful effects. Again the sounds really shine in the context of creepy/horror music, which falls in line with their counterparts in Symphobia 1 and 2.

There are solo trumpet, horn and trombone sustain patches, which allow you to write some non-ensemble lines – a welcome addition. Unfortunately, there no other articulations for these solo instruments. It is possible to get a decent enough faster attack with the attack knob, but this does not make up for the absence of staccato samples. As a bonus you also get a Legato Horns with Trombones patch. The patch, which appears to be a subset of the same patch from Symphobia 2 offers legato transitions and works extremely well for carrying melodic lines.

Here is an example of what you can expect in terms of sound from OE’s brass:

Woodwinds

By now you should be able to predict what may await you in the woodwinds category – and you are right. Long Notes, Staccato, Cinematic Effects. Interestingly enough, the Long Notes patch does not allow to route velocity control to the modwheel. All the other Long Notes patches do this. When playing ensemble woodwind patches, Cinesamples’ brilliant Hollywoodwinds come to mind. OE’s winds in comparison are much quieter and more laid back. They work tremendously well for lyrical passages and have a very soft, but yet fast attack. For me, the woodwinds are one of the strongest aspects of OE.

There is a Legato Flutes with Clarinets patch. The patch sounds nice, but is very much centred on the flute, with the clarinets playing very quietly. Some ethnic flute phrases – think Lord of the Dance with a regular flute instead of Irish Whistle – add a nice touch to the woodwinds. Sadly, these are not tempo-synced. There’s also an Overblown Flute Staccato patch.

Here are some impressions from the woodwinds:

Percussion

Taken from TrueStrike, the percussion section gives you the essentials: The orchestral percussion kit has everything but the kitchen sink, from snare drums to cymbals and in my experience works best as a sketching tool to later be replaced by dedicated samples. The timpani patch has nice-sounding single hits and does the trick in most instances. Similarly, you get a xylophone, glockenspiel and a celesta. The japanese kit and djembe ensemble serve as a good basis for ethnic cues, while the cinematic percussive effects patch has some nice timpani rolls, cymbal crashes and other effects.

All in all the percussion section lives up to what it says on the box: Essentials. You will find everything you need to do a quick mockup, but as a seasoned composer with a host of other libraries at your disposal you will most likely replace at least some of the percussion later on. What the percussion definitely does, though, is give you a very solid starting point for laying out ideas without having to delve through dozens of huge percussion libraries.

Keyboards & Harp

Orchestral Essentials includes three very nice keyboard instruments and a concert harp. The Piano Mystique is unique to the library and was not available in any other ProjectSAM library before. As the name suggests, it is a slightly quirky upright piano with a very warm sound. Even if you already have a good number of piano libraries, you will find this piano very useful. Besides, you can never have enough piano samples. The second instrument not taken from a previous product is the harpsichord. The sound is very clean and crystal clear, but to be this instrument lacks a bit of the punch of the real thing. This may be on purpose; after all the whole library leans a bit into the horror/mystery genre with the exception of some patches. Nevertheless if you need a harpsichord and do not have a dedicated library, this one will do the deed just fine.

As an organist, I tremendously enjoyed the Church Organ patch. Taken from the Organ Mystique library, this patch is a nice mf stop combination with very well-programmed samples. Attacks are just right and it feels and sounds great. For me this patch is one of the highlights of this library – which means a lot because all in all I am extremely satisfied with the overall product! The patch does not have a dedicated pedal range, so to write a real organ piece you would still need a full-featured library. But if you need pedal samples, you will probably also want to be able to change stops, so you need to look for a bigger library anyway.

Last but not least, Orchestral Essentials has a Concert Harp patch taken from the library with the same name. With a good dynamic range, this patch will be sufficient for basic sketching of harp parts. There are no glissandos and no special articulation, just the pluck patch. Given OE’s scope as an all-purpose library, this can hardly be criticized – and if you need more, there’s Concert Harp EXP, the bigger brother.

Full Orchestra

Even though listed first in the instruments list, I saved this for last, because I genuinely think these patches are one of the best mockup tools you can get. I’ll tell you how I approach writing a cue: Either I sit down with a sheet of paper and a pencil (and an eraser) and write some sketches, or I do the same in Logic with a humble piano. More and more I have found myself to use custom-made multis in Kontakt or VI Pro for quick sketches of specific “compositional situations”. You know — the big “huge synth and string pad at the bottom, brass chords in the middle, string melody on top” kind of situation. The Full Orchestra patches sound exactly like some of those multis I painstakingly built – but at a fraction of memory use! Since getting Orchestral Essentials, they have become my number one tool for sketching out ideas.

The patches are named Action, Suspense, Epic, Dark Orchestra, Long Chords and Short Chords. The two chords patches have pre-arranged major and minor chords in all keys. If you are familiar Cinesamples’ CineOrch, you know how this works, only with a much more basic feature set. OE’s chord patches react to velocity, but even at the lowest velocity sound very fortissimo.

Basically you get ff chords from the full orchestra, with volume controlled by playing velocity. On the up-side, they are each only 3.6 MB (no typo!). For throwing in a quick pre-arranged chord in a great sounding voicing they are just perfect! Dark Orchestra is like a cinematic effects patch on steroids: More than sixty full orchestra rips, smears, swirls, pads and textures could tackle any horror scene without any help from other patches.

Action, Suspense and Epic, as their names suggest, are sonic templates. Weighing in at about 20-25MB per patch, they offer wonderfully orchestrated playable notes. With the epic patch you can literally play a decent rendition of any brass-heavy SciFi TV tune live. The enhance button adds the heavy brass; with enhance disabled you get strings and winds. As usual, the seating tab in the interface exactly tells you who is playing when. The suspense patch has string tremolos with some serious low end going on at the bottom notes, which is added with the enhance button. When trying it out the action patch, I could not help myself: I had to play “Pirates”. That’s how it sounds. The enhance button adds low piano stabs and big percussion, without enhance pressed you get full orchestra staccatos.

Here is an audio demo of the three patches:

Sound Design

If you know ProjectSAM’s other libraries, you will be familiar with their Dystopia patches. These patches take samples from the library use them for all kinds of crazy sound design elements. They did the same in Orchestral Essentials and as usual, the results sound absolutely great. You get eight FX patches, each one meticulously programmed with the modwheel controlling filters. From disturbing distorted pulses to etheric string pads – everything is there!

Multis

Orchestral Essentials comes with a number of multis, combining several patches from the library and spreading them over the keyboard. The same system is also used in Symphobia 1 and 2 and works extremely well. You really can lay down whole tracks with just a single multi. While using the same samples as the regular instrument patches, the multis are in fact completely unique in their programming and really sound completely different then any of the individual patches. Also the multis are completely new and not taken from any of the bigger products. Going with the spirit of the whole library, the multis are very dark and brooding with a large emphasis on sound design. There are some exceptions, but if you want sweeping melodies, these are not for you. But when looking for a specific texture to create suspenseful ambiences, OE’s multis are a great place to start looking for your sounds, regardless of how many other libraries you may have. One can easily see how much love ProjectSAM puts into coding these multis.

If you want more…

One great thing about the library is that because of its genesis as a subset of other products, you can satisfy your craving for more by getting the other libraries. Obviously that makes sense with Symphobia and True Strike, but maybe even more in the case of the harp and the organ. If you like these patches, get the relatively inexpensive bigger products. In the case of the harp, this will also get you glissandos. And the full Organ Mystique has full control of the stops and three unique sounding instruments in one!

If you have stuff…

On the other hand, if you already own one or more ProjectSAM libraries, you may be asking yourself: Is it worth the price of admission? In my opinion: Yes. Not only will you get a terrific collection of “best of” patches, all very well programmed and extremely light on resources, but you will also get a discount depending on the number of libraries you already own. I have both Symphobia libraries and enjoyed seeing the material in a trimmed-down form as a versatile all-purpose library. Using OE as your ensemble library of choice on a portable machine for quick mockups on the road may very well be worth the price of admission alone. Yes, almost all content was already present in other products, but ProjectSAM have managed to somehow create a new and appealing product, even though you technically already saw all the content before.

Final Thoughts

Looking strictly at the included effects and special articulations, Orchestral Essentials works best on horror/suspense cues. The cinematic effects patches have some very scary and dissonant sounds, all of which sound simply spectacular. You will find very few tonal or even melodic effects in Orchestral Essentials, which is the only major flaw one could find in OE. The whole library just feels very dark. Of course, this comes in handy when you actually need to write in such a style. The general articulation patches (long, short and legato ensembles) obviously are suitable for every genre. For a library that sets out to provide “essentials”, some lighter content would have been a nice touch. This is remedied a bit by the fact that there are a lot of great libraries with more light-hearted content, so ProjectSAM’s product really fills a niche in this regard and are actually quite useful because of their darker tone.

If you are on the hunt for a versatile ensemble library, either to complement your other libraries or as a workhorse for a portable rig, you’ve found your ideal candidate for the job. ProjectSAM Orchestral Essentials sounds great, is very easy to use and with its enhance feature gives you a great way of sculpting your sound. The interface is strikingly different from what one normally sees, yet powerful with lots of tweakeable options. The library is very light on resources, has extremely short loading times and integrates effortlessly into any sonic palette.

If you already own all of ProjectSAM’s products, essentially what you will get is a basic subset of those libraries, with a common interface and the added bonus of the harpsichord and piano. The Full Orchestra patches work in a similar way to Symphobia’s multis, but by combining what used to be several single patches into one new one, resulting in quicker loading times. Even with all ProjectSAM products in your arsenal, Orchestral Essentials is of great use as a mockup tool or ensemble library for your portable machine.

If you only own a few or even none at all – what are you waiting for? Orchestral Essentials is your perfect low-cost ticket of admission into the world of ProjectSAM! Just keep in mind that for the true “Essence of Film Scoring”, you will need some additional melodic effects to really be ready for about anything that could possibly come your way composition-wise.

So that’s SCOREcast’s opinion on ProjectSAM Orchestral Essentials. If you have feedback, questions or anything else you want to voice, please post in the comments! Ask and thou shall receive an answer!

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Additional Resources

Articulations: http://www.orchestraltools.com/downloads/SSP_ArticulationsChart.pdf

Pedal Chart: http://www.orchestraltools.com/downloads/ssp_harp_pedal_chart.pdf

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Weighing in at over 20 Gigabytes, Sample Logic’s newly expanded Synergy X pushes the envelope far beyond today’s standard of music and sound design. This breathtaking collection of over 1600 innovative instruments, tempo-synced loops, and jaw-dropping multis delivers the next generation of diverse cinematic sampling with a user interface designed to inspire. Powered by Native Instruments Kontakt Player engine, Synergy X utilizes extended sample synthesis and effectual techniques to provide you incredibly interactive, and ready-to-perform instruments. With X´s powerfully intuitive sound sculpting interface, enhanced control is in your hands. Simply put, all instruments can be modified, redesigned, and customized to your preference. This makes Synergy X perfect for any performance and production environment.

•        Multis

•        Ambience

•        Bass

•        Drums

•        Impacts

•        Melody

•        Pads

•        Rhythms

And it doesn’t stop there…

Synergy X will become a permanent addition to your arsenal. We have gone to great lengths to capture and enhance the purist perception of sound from all over the world. The instruments and multis in X are organized by genre making it easy to dial up the sound you need without having to funnel through thousands of presets. This library is jam-packed with: serene spiritual textures, deep rooted dub basses, Pop & Hip Hop flavored beats, haunting sonic environments, lush emotional tempo-synced pads, mind-blowing explosions, multi-sampled ethnic and tribal instruments, gated angelic voices, electronic arpeggiated synths, bone-chilling sequenced impacts, melodic bells and whistles, adventurous flutes, action and world rhythms, funky leads, gigantic pianos, and mallets from the tropics, just to name a few!

Transform Your World!

Bringing together the past, present and future, Synergy X transforms the original Synergy to a whole new world. Not only does this new release of X deliver fundamental loops, soundscapes, and textures, but it transcends the modern virtual instrument providing timeless ingredients for any music production or performance.

Getting GUI

X’s spectacular user interface was designed with the composer and sound designer in mind, providing effortless control to sculpt each instrument to taste. Using our signature “core-effect sequencer” and multiple LFO options, transforming a static sound into a tempo-sync masterpiece is just one click away. Synergy X also harnesses the power of the “Arpeggigater”, which allows users to design custom gate sequencer patterns with effects simultaneously.  This extremely powerful addition allows for infinite sound-sculpting results.

System Requirements & compatibility

• Kontakt 5 Player – 5.0.2 or higher (free download) Also runs in the retail version of Kontakt 5.0.2 or higher.
• Mac: Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.7 (latest update), Intel Core Duo (will not work in OS 10.5 or lower), 2 GB  RAM
• PC: Windows 7 (latest Service Pack, 32/64 Bit), 2GB RAM
• 20GB of disk space for Synergy X library

Tech Specs

• 20+ GB library (available via direct download only)
• 1600+ Instruments & Multis
• VST, AU, DXi, RTAS (Pro Tools 8 and higher), Standalone

Bring it to the power of X!

Direct Download available!

Synergy X MSRP: $399.99

Synergy X Customer Update: $60.00

Synergy X Website: www.samplelogic.com/products/Synergy-x

Additional Resources:

Synergy X Trailer:
http://youtu.be/0WAWZN3n36Y

Synergy X Multis In Action:
http://youtu.be/AgghJ5RiaRs

Why do we use Orchestras?

Money, money, money (and huge compression) …

It was in late Renaissance/Baroque when the show business was really born. Someone had the brilliant idea of charging an entrance fee to publicly-held events (including music performances). These events became the meeting point where different social classes would stare at each other in astonishment and complete lack of understanding (both poor and rich people were seriously amused by each other) but having something very important in common; they had all paid for it.

The concept of charging for musical events completely changed the nature of performance. Now, the more people attended the event the greater the profits for the organizer would be. This meant that increasing ticket sales became number one priority and in order to achieve that, the music should be made available to a larger audience. With the smaller ensembles previously used (think of Chamber music) the business wouldn’t have been so successful….This development was parallel to the one of Bel Canto, following the same criterion: raising the volume!! If the singer couldn’t be heard in the last row, that row wouldn’t pay for their ticket.

Of course, it also meant that not only the music should reach the entire audience physically by means of a higher volume but it also had to reach them emotionally so that they would come back to the event….and this defined the writing of a great part of music until the 20th century (but this is another story!).

So, back to the orchestra; what else was caused by this increase of ensemble sizes and the need for music to emotionally ‘move’ the audience? Well, complex harmony! Right then and there arose the need for instruments that would tune perfectly with each other, otherwise playing together would become a nightmare of harmonics, dissonances and other evil acoustic phenomena. If you have ever written anything for micro-tuning world instruments you’ll immediately understand what I mean! And even tuned perfectly, you need to provide them with music that will actually sound nice!

By the way, that same time is when conductors also showed up for the first time in history (for smaller ensemble sizes there was no need for someone external to coordinate). The first conductors where the composers themselves, usually giving instructions from their harpsichords while accompanying the performers – that could have been you! :)

Darwin and the Orchestra

The survival of the fittest instruments …

With all this in mind, it’s easy to understand that the instruments which survived through history were the ones that could be easily tuned with each other and could play at high volumes (Bye bye harpsichord! Nice having played you viola da gamba!). The instruments we see today in orchestras are fierce predators that pushed out all their competition by tuning better and achieving a higher volume. And it’s a tough ecosystem in perfect balance! Each little instrument has its own niche and they tend not to compete for range or, if they do, their very different timbres make them target a different place in the audience’s hearing range and attention. The orchestra is a diabolic, perfectly-tuned machine that can play the most varied works ever thought of, with hundreds of years of experience and refinement in its technique….and it’s coming for you!!

Meet the Strings, the Brass, the Woodwinds and the Percussion!

Why those families of instruments?

The key to the success of the orchestra as the most amazing musical instrument is balance. The number of members and their nature has been defined and refined over and over again through history, always seeking balance in the sound and versatility in the performance. The specific features of each family of instruments have been studied so they blend together perfectly and in balance, not mudding each other and covering as much of the hearing and attention spectrum as possible. For example, the strings need a larger number of members and act like an army – they need to compete in volume with the brass. The woodwinds, on the other hand, don´t need such a large number of members since they can very well “cut through the mix”. Then again, when the orchestra has “guests” such as a piano, harp or bel canto singers it must be rearranged either in the orchestration or on the components so they also have a niche where they can properly develop.

So what determines their seating on stage?

The issue of seating has also varied largely through history, in the search of different effects and colours in the works performed. However, some things usually remain constant due to common sense (at least in live performances … studio recording is another story!) : percussion and brass are seated in the background or the audience would never be able to hear the strings; the violins and violas will most likely be seated on the left side of the stage so the bodies of their instruments face the audience, directing the maximum volume towards them.

This all sounds very interesting…Can I have some names and dates that I can accidentally drop in a conversation so it looks like I have read many manuals about this?

“Orchestra” comes from Greek “orchistra”, meaning “a dancing place”, and it designated the area in Ancient Greek theaters where the performance would take place. Funnily enough, back in the day the musicians were not always placed there!

It isn´t until beginning of 7th Century that Isidore of Seville used the term for meaning “stage” in his Etymologiarium (in general, Isidore of Seville is one of those names that you can accidentally drop just because, he seemed to have an opinion on everything).

I would like to know more about this…

Yeah, me too!! (Ok, here you are some sources worth taking a look at:)

J. Spitzer and Neal Zaslaw: The Birth of the Orchestra: History of an Institution 1650 – 1815, Oxford University Press (Oxford 2004)

S. Sadie , ed., ; Orchestra, Orchestration: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 13 (pp. 679-700), (London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1980)

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Episode Description

Deane Ogden sits down with five of film music’s most successful female composers for a discussion on the business.

Community Discussion

Weigh in on this episode! We want to hear your thoughts—Log into the COMMENTS below to leave your opinions and participate in the discussion!

On-Air Questions

Have a question or a comment you’d like addressed on-air? There are now two ways to do it:

1) Send Deane and Brian an email at scorecastonline@gmail.com

2) Tweet your questions to @scorecastonline using the hashtag #scorecastshow

The Vienna Symphonic Library, or VSL, with their all-encompassing range of orchestral sample libraries, is one of the heavyweights in the world of sampling technology. When we set out to review Spitfire’s Solo Strings and LASS First Chair it was immediately clear that there was one serious contender we just could not leave in the hiding: VSL Solo Strings. Offering 82 GB of sample material, VSL’s take on orchestral solo strings offers a solo Violin (and a special Violin 2 if you download a free update), Viola, Cello and Double Bass, all with a host of articulations. The library reviewed here is VSL Solo Strings I Full (Standard and Extended), containing basically everything a composer could wish for when wanting to write for solo strings. VSL offers a sequel, aptly named Solo Strings II, which features most of the articulations from the first library, but played con sordino. Solo Strings I, on the other hand, does not contain any con sordino samples! If you have not done so yet, make sure to have a look at our Vienna Instruments Pro 2 Overview, which will show you some basic concepts of how VSL’s libraries work, including the general idea of VSL’s matrix-driven sampling engine.

So let’s dive right in.

Installation, Activation and Setup

With the library coming on four dual-layer DVDs, depending on your system’s DVD drive, installation may take a while. My drive was able to read the DVDs perfectly, with no sudden spindowns apparent. Within just a bit more than an hour, the content was on the hard drive. The included Vienna Instruments disc gives you Vienna Instruments (the sample player included with every library, with the aforementioned VI Pro a paid upgrade with extra features), Vienna Ensemble (VSL’s software for multitimbral use of VI as well as for hosting VI outside your sequencer) as well as the eLicenser drivers. If you already use any VSL collections, all this will be on your drive and there is no need to install these versions; anyway it is better to download the newest versions directly from the VSL website, which is also stated on a note in the box.

Library installation itself is painless: All you need to do is to open VSL’s Library installer, which is automatically installed with Vienna Instruments and point it to the first DVD. That’s it. In my test, I had the issue that the Library installer crashed at the end of the installation. The library was installed just fine, though. I mention this because literally ten minutes after I sent a support ticket to VSL, I received an answer assuring me that this bug was known and would be fixed as soon as possible. And indeed – two days later it was. I found the support experience very pleasant and fast. Good customer support is sometimes rare, all the more I was happy to find it here.

To make the library work, you need an eLicenser. This dongle either comes as Vienna Key directly from VSL, or as a Steinberg Key (the one used for Steinberg Cubase). Both are identical, so if you use Cubase, there is no need to buy another dongle! The library is activated by entering the provided serial code into the eLicenser Control Center; depending on your serial, only the Standard library or both Standard and Extended are activated. Note that even if you only have a license for the Standard library, the Extended samples still live on your hard drive with no way to uninstall them. In terms of system requirements, this is the only major criticism that could be directed towards VSL – it may be prohibitive for technical reasons to allow installation of only the Standard sample set, but in my opinion it should be worth finding a solution for this. With its footprint of 82 GB, and assuming that a hefty part of this is for the Extended content, even with today’s large drives it would make sense to have a choice not even to speak of SSD drives, where space is indeed an issue. Note, however that for VSL’s more recent Dimension Brass, there are no separate Standard or Extended libraries, so maybe this licensing scheme is in the process of being reworked.

After installation and activation, you should pay a visit to the VSL website to register the library in your user area, giving you access to updates as well as additional downloads. Installing these updates is actually quite easy, once you have realised that all you need to do is drag the update file onto the Directory Manager application. The instructions clearly say what to do, though.

All in all, installation is very easy and painless and apart from the waste of hard disk space for people who haven’t bough the Extended library, there is nothing to complain about.

Included Instruments and Articulations

At 82 GB, you can expect some reasonable bang for the disk space and VSL Solo Strings I definitely delivers in this area. For a full list of included articulations, please see http://www.vsl.co.at/en/211/442/344/350/568/353.htm, but here is the gist of it:

The library features all the basic articulations for all the included instruments you would expect, down to even the Double Bass:

In the Standard Library you get what could be described as the must-haves, including Sustain with vibrato, staccato, détaché, marcato, fp, sfz, tremolos, semitone and whole tone trills, and of course pizzicato. For performance instruments (see an explanation in the Playability section) you have Legato, Portamento, repeating Staccato, repeating Spiccato, bow-change legato and for the high strings also some glissandi. Very nice to see are the addition of basic articulations (Staccato, Sustained and Tremolo) sul ponticello as well as a nice complement of harmonics.

The Extended library has everything you may have ben missing in the previous list, including grace notes, runs and sul tasto samples as well as additional variants of things already covered with their basics in the Standard library. For example: Additional glissandos on every string, col legno, sustains with no/less/progressive vibrato, crescendos and diminuendos, and much more.

As per the concept of VSL’s offerings, all articulations can be accessed as single patches containing only this articulation (there are plenty of matrixes with patch combinations included, though), so you can load anything as you need it without having to load additional samples as part of a patch/multi as it is the case with many other libraries. This greatly helps to harness the sheer volume of the library. The interface of the Vienna Instruments sample player included with the library is easy on the eyes, yet at the same time very powerful.

Playability and Sound

To talk about playability in regard to VSL’s libraries means to talk about their performance samples and tools. While most of the regular articulations in VSL Solo Strings operate very much like their counterparts in other libraries, the performance programs work a bit differently. Before we have a look at how those performance programs work, we will start with the „conventional“ part of the library and just have a look at a number of matrixes and single articulations so you can get a feeling of how the library performs. These are a representative cross-section of the whole library with equal focus on all instruments as well as detailing the additional perks of using Vienna Instruments Pro 2.

L1 Vl Articulation Combi

This matrix uses only Standard content and includes the articulations you would commonly find in „Master“ or „Keyswitch“ patches in other libraries. It basically includes the most common articulations, with Keyswitches from C1 to A1 as well as CC1 (Modwheel) controlling X/Y movement in the matrix.

As you can see in the screenshot from VI Pro, the cells in the matrix contain an abbreviation of the articulation loaded in them, with the full name (corresponding to the patch of the same name in the patch list) in the lower right. The active cell has a light blue border, which makes it very easy to see the currently selected articulation. I have found this to be a welcome touch of VSL’s sampler because if you control movement within the matrix via rotary encoders mapped to a CC, you can get a pretty good idea how far you will need to move your knob to get to the articulation you need. The articulation names and abbreviations are consistent between instruments as well as libraries, so while now those abbreviations may seem difficult to remember, you will find that after only a few hours of using the library, you will have no difficulties.

CC1 (Modwheel) switches between related articulations, for example sustain and sustain with marcato attack in the second column of the matrix, while the keyswitches select more varied playing techniques. This two-way approach works surprisingly well and Y-axis mapping is very logical. On the X-axis, however, one may ask why staccato is on C0 and sustain on C#1 and not vice versa as it is customary in most libraries’ keyswitch patches, where C0 equals sustain samples. This certainly is not a big thing, I just was a bit puzzled by it. If you are used to having your sustain on C0, you can easily swap the cell assignments.

So how does it sound? First, remember that VSL’s samples are bone-dry, so you will either need a 3^rd party reverb plugin or use the integrated reverb in VI Pro (the regular VI does not have a reverb). For the sound examples here I used the reverb from VI Pro. Here is a short audio demo, recorded with the L1 Vl Articulation Combi. This audio demo, as well as all the other single-instrument demos in this review are recorded live and not in any way edited afterwards. This is to give you an idea of the out of the box capabilities of the library.

L2A 01 VA Perf-Universal

Here we are at what may be called the heart of VSL: The performance instruments. Back in the days when the VSL was young, the legato instruments introduced by the company indeed were a revolution. Despite most libraries today offering recorded legato transitions, VSL’s performance legato still firmly holds its place and works beautifully. Without delving into the technical details, which are described at length in the documentation, we will take one patch using such performance samples to have a look at playability and performance (pun intended) of those samples.

The VA Perf-Universal patch differs markedly in use from the VL Articulation Combi we had a look at before: It does not use any keyswitches, but instead is controlled solely by the playing style with a aid of the modwheel. Depending on how fast you play, different legato samples are triggered. Play very slow and you get smooth transitions between notes, allowing you to play highly expressive melodic lines. Play faster and the transitions are quicker, driving the melody line forward, just as a real player would do. The modwheel lets you choose between sustain, marcato sustain and spiccato-stacc with the tempo of playing then selecting tempo-adjusted patches for that particular articulation. If you map a controller to Velocity-Xfade, this method works extremely well. Here is a short example, played live without any editing afterwards. There are short gaps between the legato, marcato and spiccato parts so you can hear which is which. Again the reverb is straight from VI Pro.

Note that this matrix does not have any special scripting. The performance patches are just regular patches, which you can use like any other patch in your own matrixes. The matrix navigation with CC1 and playing speed, likewise, is not set in stone and it is a matter of a few clicks to change any of those settings, just as it is to assign controllers for any parameter. This, along with the fact that all matrixes are completely open for editing, makes tweaking existing matrixes or creating new ones a breeze, contrary to some competitors. Also, I have found to be all patches, especially the performance articulations, to be very light on the CPU. Even in very busy projects there were no dropouts, missed notes or CPU spikes.

Some Cello articulations

To show you a few of the special articulations of the library, here is an mp3 of a number of different cello articulations. Some of these require the extended library. The scope of available trills, swells and many other articulations is staggering and really the strongest aspect of this library. You really get everything you could wish for (again with the exception of con sordino samples, which have their own Solo Strings II collection).

Demo Piece

To demonstrate the sound of the library on an actual piece, here is a very short piece by J.B. Logier (1777-1846), who wrote a book on music theory with some short musical pieces in there. Everything is 100% VSL Solo Strings, with QL Spaces for reverberation and some compression at the end. The file is a MIDI export from Sibelius, cleaned up a bit in Logic Pro and using solely the Articulation Combi patches. I did not re-record any of the lines, so everything is straight from the MIDI file. Again this serves to show you how the library performs for these tasks.

Special Vienna Instruments Pro 2 features and 2^nd Violin

If you own the paid big version of VSL’s sample player, Vienna Instruments Pro, you can get a few additional features in an update to Solo Strings, which is available for download in the User Area on the VSL website. This update adds a number of matrixes using features unique to VI Pro 2, most notably the sequencer. There are a variety of chordal matrixes in different inversions, as well as runs and phrases. Everything is completely editable in the sequencer, so you can build great sounding string phrases with ease.

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Please tweet your questions for the panel using Twitter hashtag #SCO33, or leave your question in the comment section below this post.

SCOREcast Episode #33 will post this week on iTunes and here at SCOREcastOnline.com.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Have you ever thought of how Logic opens, and is it the most convenient way for you? By default, Logic will always open the last project you were working on. This could not be too convenient if you wished to work on something else now, and the previous project takes ages in loading lots of samples just for you to close it and open something else right after!

In Preferences/General/Startup, you can choose “do nothing”, or “ask”, “create a new project from template”…choosing the one you use most will save you lots of time, since repeating the same steps over and over not only consumes your time but also your creative energy.

Setting up Logic before using it will save much time for you. Through this series of articles we will customize your opening setup for a faster workflow depending on the project (we’ll speak of templates in later articles).

Preferences vs. Settings

Now, a small reminder about the differences between Preferences and Settings (seems obvious after a while but it’s worth mentioning at least once).

Preferences apply to Logic’s main setup, and affect all projects. In the preferences tab you can configure options such as Logic’s startup action, key commands, control surfaces, bit depth, etc. Any changes you make here will affect all your Logic projects.

On the other hand, Settings only affect the specific setup of the current project, and can be set individually for each project. You may want to edit the metronome with a higher pitch because you struggle to listen to it in your current busy mix and this won’t affect the usual sound of it in other projects; you can also edit locally the score edition parameters and general parameters concerning video when scoring to picture.

Row, Row, Row Your DAW: Navigating Your Project

Navigating through the project is what we do most of the time. Since it is one of our most common actions, it is in our advantage to learn how to do it in the fastest way possible.

As a general rule, clicking here and there with the mouse will not be the quickest way to achieve an action. Fortunately, there are many alternatives! Let’s explore some :

• Use TAB to toggle between different areas. (Areas refer to the different ‘sections’ of a Logic project, i.e. Arrange Window, Piano Roll, Events List, etc.) By selecting an area, you give it key focus (and it is highlighted by a white frame). This means that whatever keys you press will affect this area. For example, let’s say you want to ‘select all’ in your Piano roll window. If you press [Cmd+A] without first giving the piano roll window key focus, Logic WILL select all but in whichever area has key focus at the time!
• Shortcut Keys: Some areas and features that you use very often can be accessed in Logic by simply pressing a key. Of course they can also be accessed by clicking on them, but after a while that movement of the mouse will consume part of your precious time. You can become more efficient by using, for example:
• [Z] to zoom in and out
• [A] for Automation
• [G] for Global Tracks
• [P] for Piano Roller
• [I] for Inspector
• [W] for Wave Editor
• [N] for Score – what? (Yes, Logic used to be called “Notator”)

See You in the Bar (The Transport Bar)

This wonderful bar where all composers spend much of their day can be customized by right-clicking on it and choosing “customize transport bar”. There you can add or remove features according to your frequency of use (or mood of the day, or to suit the clothes you’re wearing).

Are you going to record very fast passages and you don’t happen to be a pianist? You could add Varispeed so when these difficult passages appear you can slow the performance as you need for your recording and be back to normal with just a click. Too comfortable with your performance skills to feel you need a click? You can remove it from the transport bar altogether!

Now, once you have the transport bar of your dreams, there are also ways of speeding up its use, other than clicking on it with the mouse, for example using:

• [Space Bar] to Play / Stop
• FW / RW a bar by using [“,”]  or [left arrow] and [“.”] or [right arrow]  (depends on your keyboard, but they are defined in Preferences / Key Commands)
• The previous plus [SHIFT] makes the playhead jump 8 bars before or after the current position (8 bars is a very common segment in 4/4 pop arrangements, hence the length of the jump)
• [R] to record

To Save or Not to Save? That Is the Question

Saving your project once in a while is a good safety measure. However, every time you do it, Logic keeps a safety backup of your project in your project folder and after a determined number of copies, it begins erasing the oldest. This means that if, for example, you changed your mind about the direction of the writing and you want to go back to what you were doing a couple of hours before, you can find that you already wrote over the saved file! Let’s say it works like a little version of Time Machine in that respect, only that the space available is much smaller. The number of backups Logic keeps is 10 by default and can be edited up to 100 in Preferences / General / Project Handling. However, bear in mind that increasing the number of backups will eat up your resources!

So, depending on how much you feel you are experimenting in your project you might want to save your changes more or less often. If you are working pretty much straight forward it would be wise to save as soon as you’re happy with what you have done. Bear in mind that Logic tries to keep an updated version of the project in case of crashing (you can find it in the same project folder) but it’s far from being perfect and in case anything happened ask yourself how much work done can you risk to lose?

So, if you have decided you want to save your project, what is the quickest way to do it?

Once again, the quickest way of saving your project is using a keyboard command: [Cmd + S]. You can of course go with the mouse to File / Save, but that is going to spend precious instants, especially if you tend to save your project quite often.

By the way, you will know if your project is saved or has been modified by observing the project icon next to the project name: if the icon appears dimmed, then there have been changes since the last saved version (this could include just opening the project again).

Ok….I Got Lost in My Project… Need Help!

The magic words: undo and redo. You can very easily undo many of your steps in Logic (be careful — you can’t undo the dragging of a fader in the mix, for example) by using the keyboard command [Cmd+Z]. Did you decide it was a right step in the end? You can redo by adding [SHIFT] to the previous combination. If you´re not sure on how many steps you wish to undo or redo, you can find the Undo History in the Arrange menu, Edit/ Undo History. Again, you can edit the number of steps kept in the Undo History in Preferences / General / Editing, with the same criterion explained for the project backups.

Now, a very common scenario: you’ve left your workplace for an instant in pursuit of coffee, and when you come back you find out your cat has decided to jump all over your keyboard and add its own style to your track – ok it could also happen that you at some point lost track of what you were doing in the project but we’ll still buy the cat excuse – panic! Thankfully, there is a wonderful feature that allows us to go back in time to the last saved version: Revert to Saved (File / Revert to Saved). Bear in mind that every time you use this feature it will load your project again, so if you’re handling a project that takes five minutes to load, that’s the time it will take to re-open the project.

For those of you starting out with Logic as  your main DAW or as a supplement to another program, I hope this was useful for you. Let me know your thoughts in the COMMENTS below, and if you have any other tips or tricks for setting up Logic, leave those as well. We’ll dive into more behind this powerful program very soon!

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Through a series of articles, I will present some instrumentation and orchestration principles not in the textbook approach adopted by various other sources, but in a meaningful more structured and concise manner—exactly as I would structure my personal notes for fast and easy reference. Being a geek at heart, I got into the habit of note-taking early on in my academic life and I have found that concise and easy to browse notes can save A LOT of time. If you are like me (i.e. without a 30-year experience in orchestrating), there must be times when you don’t remember something and you find yourself browsing through several books or online sources to find it. That’s exactly what we are looking to avoid here (as well as any bald patches from excessive head scratching)!  So, the idea behind this series (or of any other article in the SCU channel for that matter) is to make our lives easier and help us focus our time and energy in the actual task for writing music.

What This Is

Taking Rimsky-Korsakov’s approach and the excellent framework/structure of “Principles of Orchestration Online”, I will present the essence of instrumentation and orchestration in as a concise, quick and easy manner as possible, adding material from other sources and a good dose of humor where needed. Additionally, our resident musicologist Yaiza Varona will offer an extra dimension to everything; a behind-the-scenes look to help you better understand why orchestration has come to be what it is today.

What to Expect

For each orchestral section you will get two things : instrumentation notes (ranges, registers etc.) and orchestration techniques (how to use the section to play the melody and how to orchestrate the harmony within the section). After the examination of each orchestral section, we will provide you with sequencing, mixing and production techniques relevant to the instruments of that section.

Do not expect to learn to orchestrate like a pro merely by reading these articles. It takes a lifetime of studying, researching and applying to master the art of orchestration. But, we all have to start somewhere, right? Take the notes presented here and try to apply one technique at a time.  Study how the greats have done it and try to understand why. Unfortunately the pill for the ‘ultimate internalization of knowledge’ has not been discovered….yet. Don’t expect – like me a few years back! – to learn everything overnight. Give yourself a break and most of all, ENJOY that you can spend time doing what you love!

A Clarification

When referring to specific pitches, the “Roland” MIDI system is used, where Middle C=C4.

Also, instrument names and abbreviations come in many different shapes and colours. The ones used here are :

So, grab a cup of coffee and let’s get started!

Instrumentation VS Orchestration VS Arrangement

Three different but easily confused terms. Let’s get them straight :

The term Instrumentation is used to describe two things; 1) the selection of instruments used in a composition, and 2) the properties of musical instruments (construction, timbre, sound production, ranges, sound characteristics etc).

Orchestration is the distribution of ‘roles’ to different instruments in a composition. Orchestration usually entails the writing of countermelodies and accompanying lines.

Arrangement is the process of taking a composition/song and altering/adapting it to another form, style or orchestration. The term ‘arrangement’ is very common in jazz music where the so-called ‘jazz-standards’ can be found in many different arrangements. 

So, what does all this have to do with us composers? Let’s say you sat at your keyboard or picked up your guitar and came up with a nice melody and a chord progression. How do you turn this into a full-fledged composition? Having in mind the mood and atmosphere you want your music to exude, one of the main decisions you have to make is what instruments to use in your composition; i.e. choose your instrumentation. That requires a good knowledge of the particular characteristics and capabilities of the instruments available to you.

Having chosen your palette and having in mind a general outline of the form of your piece, next step is to decide how to distribute your material. There are three very basic elements in each orchestration : the foreground material (i.e. your main melody), the middle-ground material (the countermelodies and certain fill-ins, runs etc) and the background material (accompanying lines, mostly the harmony and rhythm). Keep in mind that generally, the ear cannot discern more than three elements at any given time. Therefore, you must have at most 3 different ‘roles’ at the same time otherwise the listener will get lost in translation. This is where a good knowledge of orchestral devices (doublings, instrument combinations etc.) comes in very handy.

One of the most important ‘rules’ of orchestration is variety and surprise. Keep your listeners alert by giving them little surprises every few bars. A good rule of thumb is to change the orchestration or small bits of it every few phrases or at every new section.

Orchestral Ensembles and Mixing Principles

The seating of the orchestra did not come to be what it is today for no reason. The careful placement of each instrument on stage and the size of each section has been carefully determined with mixing in mind, In the time of Beethoven and Wagner, Neve or SSL consoles were a tad expensive and hard to transport and folks preferred to do the mixing completely out of the box…without any box really!

The main principle underlying the nature, formation and seating of the orchestra is balance. Louder and more dominant instruments are placed in the rear and come in small numbers. Instruments with less carrying power (e.g. strings) come in larger numbers and are placed at the front of the orchestra. By learning how to orchestrate you will make the mixing process much easier. Remember that a bad orchestration cannot be fixed in the mixing phase.

Stay tuned for the first installment of String writing coming shortly as well as Yaiza Varona’s Musicological look into the origins of the orchestra!

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Episode Description

In this second episode of SCOREcast’s “Developer Series” podcasts for NAMM 2012, SCOREcast founder Deane Ogden chats with Sonokinetic founder Rob Vandenberg about his newest creation, “Vivace”.

Community Discussion

Weigh in on this episode! We want to hear your thoughts—Log into the COMMENTS below to leave your opinions and participate in the discussion!

On-Air Questions

Have a question or a comment you’d like addressed on-air? Send Deane and Brian an email at scorecastonline@gmail.com

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SoundCloud is a versatile and effective platform for composers and sound content creators of all kinds, and is arguably the next big thing in online audio. Over the last year and a half I have invested hundreds of hours on SoundCloud and would like to spend a few minutes with you to share a few nuggets I’ve picked up along the way, that may help you as a composer, and that may shed some light on the community aspects of the service, as well.

Ten Point Briefing

1. SoundCloud is an audio platform for sharing, promotion and collaboration, with its own social networking framework.
2. SoundCloud is accessed via desktop web browsers, embedded webpage widgets and smartphone apps.
3. SoundCloud began as a music file sharing service in Berlin in 2007, by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, growing from 1 million members in May 2010 to 9 million members in December 2011.
4. Members can upload sound files in all common formats, with public or limited visibility, downloadability and all common licensing options, Buy links and a vanity URL, for example soundcloud.com/the-chemical-brothers.
5. Tracks can have players embedded on external websites with flexible appearance and browser compatibility options.
6. Members can follow other members, provide feedback via timed comments, mark tracks as favourites, keep abreast of other member activity on a dashboard, and create and join groups.
7. Detailed stats are available, showing who played your track, where, when, how often, and who downloaded or saved your track to their favourites list.
8. SoundCloud is well integrated with Twitter, Facebook and other online social networks. At the Facebook f8 conference in September 2011, Facebook announced a strategic technology partnership with SoundCloud, effectively providing SoundCloud embedded exposure to over 800 million Facebook users.
9. Membership is free but there are premium accounts ranging from €29 to €500 offering various levels of storage, stats, widgets, support and other options.
10. Finally, and crucially, SoundCloud is a community.

Who Uses SoundCloud?

Essentially, sound content creators of all types, and listeners of all tastes. From dance music producers like Deadmau5, Skrillex and Swedish House Mafia to A-list pop stars like Lady Gaga, Radiohead and Bjork, from indie singer/songwriters to podcasters, comedians and even newspapers like The Economist, and of course composers.

I asked a handful of film and television composers to share their experiences of SoundCloud, starting with LA-based Kerry Muzzey, who enjoys the community-oriented learning and social aspects of SoundCloud:

I have fallen in love with SoundCloud. I’ve enjoyed it not only for the many musical discoveries I’ve made but also for the ability to interact with other composers. I love that so many have been willing to share their tech tips and secret recipes. Sure, it’s a really simple and slick demo-hosting site: but take some time to go a little deeper and you’ll be surprised at the community you’ll discover: these are people who are passionate about music and about the beauty of sound.

Sean Beeson from Ohio has over 400,000 track plays on SoundCloud and gains from the marketing aspects it offers:

I use SoundCloud to gauge the success of my online marketing campaigns. I can see what sites people are accessing my music from, where in the world they are listening from, and what music the are listening to. It helps me to cater my sets to what music is most listened to in the hopes that I can gain greater exposure for my work.

Geographically, members are spread across the world in roughly the following order: US, UK, Germany, rest of Europe, Canada, Russia, Australia, Japan, rest of world.

UK-based Marie-Anne Fischer, film and television composer and chapter director of SCOREcast: London, has experience with a number of online music platforms including ReverbNation. Marie-Anne shared a little about using SoundCloud for professional showreel and private sharing purposes:

I discovered SoundCloud about 10 months ago when I started writing demos for Sonokinetic because they use SoundCloud to post their demos. I like the direct connection and simplicity. SoundCloud is becoming more interesting to me as I have found more film and media composers on SoundCloud than I had on ReverbNation. I like the group features on SoundCloud where there is no clutter. I tend to be using SoundCloud more recently to link prospective clients to my showreel and being able to share private tracks is a great feature.

Given the fact that there are over 9 million members, of course not all members are professionals in the line of work they present on SoundCloud and membership is arguably weighted towards amateur enthusiasts, but that does not detract from its usefulness in professional spheres.

Can SoundCloud Help Your Career?

SCOREcast: London’s own Dominik Johnson, world music production specialist:

SoundCloud, for me, is one of the best community music tools online at the moment for the pro musician / composer / producer. I know the audio quality on my music (typically 48kHz/24bit) can be lost with some of the upload compression, but to me, that’s a price worth paying. A few months ago an independent film director from Berlin got in touch after hearing a few of my works on there, we got chatting on there, then we starting having Skype calls – and BOOM! I’ve been commissioned to write some tracks for his upcoming feature documentary – and yes, his production team does have a budget for the music.

Dominik touched on a point above with regards to upload/playback quality, which I’ll explore in the Technical section further below.

I know of one case where the SoundCloud user was not necessarily the beneficiary of a career opportunity. LA-based film composer, orchestrator and conductor Deon Vozov has this story:

For me as a composer, no, there’s nothing that’s happened on SoundCloud without my initiation that’s led to a contract. However, because I also do some small music supervision work, I have FOUND tracks on SoundCloud and gotten them placed in projects. The first few were free, but there are starting to be licensing gigs that pay a little something, help build reels, and feel more dignified. And believe me, it is much more fun to approach people with money than with “it’ll be good for your reel” statements of questionable accuracy.

Deon continues with an interesting point about the depth of SoundCloud’s penetration into the upper echelons of film-making:

My clients seem to fall into two categories: producers and directors who are very, or at least comfortably, familiar with SoundCloud but not very well-funded yet, and producers and directors who’ve never heard of SoundCloud but can cut those juicy checks we all love to then spend getting the job done.

In other words, my experience has been that it’s still not an industry standard in audio post production. By gently guiding clients towards it, however, I think it will become more so.

Offering more insights than I could ever have hoped for, Deon goes on to make a point about visual versus audio impact of a demo reel:

That said, it’s not selfless support of SoundCloud that has led me to steer clients to the site. Rather, I like to link even initially skittish clients, and potential clients, to private sets here because it gets them focused on listening with their ears rather than their eyes [emphasis mine].

Everyone wants video links, and they will tell you with a straight face that they’re really listening to the music, and they really do believe that they’re telling the truth when they say that. But the reality is that these are highly visual, highly visually sensitive, and highly visually creative people experiencing audio tracks by way of how they feel about picture.

It is possible to separate picture from music, of course, but difficult, and it will always imprint indelibly upon the track. That can work in one’s favor (an expensive car spot, for example) or against it (a feature that suffers a malaise of some kind or other). By sending clients to a simple, easy-to-navigate, custom-built set, they have an interactive experience and can jump around in the set to find what they want to discuss and, if they’re bold enough to create an account, they can even leave timed comments for us to discuss in relation to their project.

Many of the responses in this section came to me as a result of engaging with the community on SoundCloud directly by publishing a track inviting my followers to share their stories as timed comments. Here’s a handful of other stories, in brief:

Uploaded 1st track, surprised by response. Uploaded more. Got made Soundclouder of the Day and then featured on SoundCloud tour page. Label emailed me and now I have two releases out.
— Russell Knight, London

A few months ago Norwegian Landscape photographer Ole Salomonsen approached me via SoundCloud, asking if he could use my track ‘Counting Stars’ on his latest vid of the Northern Lights. My first piece of paid work.
— Mei-Ling Grey, London

Amidst the success stories, two cautionary tales emerged:

I believe I did *not* get a gig because of the music in my SoundCloud profile. I was considered during the final round of applicants, and when asked for a portfolio I directed them to my SoundCloud profile. Something like two days later I found out they gave the job to someone else. This has led me to reassess the quality of the work I upload to SoundCloud, even though it could be that the work I have on my SoundCloud is quite different from the piece I made for that job.
— Rodrigo Hernández, Mexico City

I signed a contract with a company called [redacted] who have a group here on SoundCloud about three months ago. I had to go to a notary and everything, alas I have not heard from them since and they don’t reply to my emails.
— Andy Carter, Cornwall, UK

The insights I’ve gained from these last two are to keep one’s SoundCloud profile tidy and focused on the target market, and to know who you’re dealing with.

One reason I’m able to share this article with you today is that my own case is potentially one more success story to emerge from SoundCloud, but this is not about me so I’ll save that for the end.

How SoundCloud Compares to Other Audio Platforms

In the user content audio hosting space, SoundCloud competes with, among others, BandCamp, ReverbNation and Myspace.

BandCamp is mainly focused on allowing independent artists to sell their work, and are funded in part on a commission basis. Users can customise the look and feel of their music pages and have their tracks downloadable in many formats. BandCamp has attracted some commercially established artists including Amanda Palmer to abandon their labels and self-promote (interestingly, Amanda Palmer also has a SoundCloud account).

Jeremiah Pena, SCOREcaster, says:

I like Bandcamp. I don’t get as many track plays as Soundcloud, but it’s my main method of selling music to the general public, which SoundCloud doesn’t seem to do very well. It’s also very useful for building email lists, since you can have people supply an email address for free downloads. And it’s free, with no major limits like the free version of SoundCloud. I’m able to put a lot more music than I could there.

I do find SoundCloud much better for getting feedback and it has very good community features (commenting, groups, etc.) that Bandcamp doesn’t have.

— Jeremiah Pena, Film Composer, Utah

In terms of usefulness to composers, BandCamp may serve a function to sell original soundtracks if the production licensing terms permit, but since BandCamp does not offer embedded players, the composer would have to set up a specific BandCamp page outside their main website, which may not be a desirable solution for those who like a one-stop-shop approach to their web presence.

ReverbNation aims to provide a collaboration and communication platform as well as music hosting for independent artists, and have an embeddable player.

SCOREcast’s Marie-Anne Fischer knows ReverbNation well, having ruled the London and UK Classical charts with a regular #1 spot. In her words:

I started using ReverbNation in 2009 because I was able to link my playlist to my Facebook profile as an app. I wasn’t particularly interested at the time in having a Facebook fan page, so this was a great alternative. Unfortunately Facebook subsequently took away the ReverbNation band playlist feature from personal Facebook pages. ‘My Band’ feature could only feature in a fan or group page but I was still able to use the widgets and apps for posting new tracks.

ReverbNation has been great for meeting musicians and I have already collaborated with a couple of them. During 2009 and 2010 I made great use of my ReverbNation site, my website is linked to my profile which I pay for annually.

Marie-Anne also offers us a comparison with her SoundCloud experience:

You can personalise ReverbNation’s profile which you can’t on SoundCloud but that hasn’t stopped me from using SoundCloud.

I like the statistics SoundCloud collects and provides me and also their feature where people can favour a track and leave a comment.

The great big difference between SoundCloud and ReverbNation is that SoundCloud is purely functional and works well where as on ReverbNation you can add your personal touch to your profile, link music to multiple stores, integrate with other websites, create newsletters, blogs and apps are only but a few of their features.

Marie-Anne is right about SoundCloud being less customisable than ReverbNation, which takes a modular approach to the profile page with a lot of control over content and branding. On SoundCloud, personalisation can be applied to player widgets for website-matching style and colour scheme, for user dropbox page branding, for linking other profiles like Twitter, Facebook etc. and for essential items like profile image and an HTML-enabled description area.

In terms of how that translates into commercial opportunities, I would argue that for a composer it is the presentation of your professional website that is more important than the presentation of your profile on the audio hosting website, but that can be debated in the comments below.

One other factor to consider is the service value available to non-paying customers. Although ReverbNation’s free account allows more tracks to be hosted than SoundCloud’s free account, the size of each track is limited to 8MB which forces lossy upload format; the longer the track the lossier it has to be to fit into 8MB.

Myspace does not make for great headlines these days, having been sold to News Corporation for $580 million in 2005 and then bought by Specific Media and Justin Timberlake in 2011 for $35 million. But as a music hosting social networking site with 33 million unique US visitors in August 2011, it cannot be ignored in this comparison.

Oxford-based soundtrack composer, electronica producer and SCOREcast reader ”The Unfinished” (Matt Bowdler) shared his experience with me:

Myspace, I haven’t used for a long time. It may have improved, but I think it has been superceded by SoundCloud from a music hosting perspective and Facebook from a community perspective. The options were limited (I think ten tracks was the maximum) and it just got incredibly spammy. Endless messages from people who were plugging their latest track or gig that was almost always a genre that bore no relevenace to what you were doing. Quite a bit of spam from Myspace themselves as well. Put quite simply, there isn’t anything that Myspace does that isn’t done better elsewhere.

I think Matt’s view is shared by many in the music community including myself: That Myspace is not necessarily the most strategic technology partner for a professional composer. If you disagree, please share your experience in the comments below.

Technical Considerations

How do you get your SoundCloud tracks on your web page? SoundCloud makes it simple.

You can embed SoundCloud widgets in several sizes and styles, with both Flash and HTML5 options. HTML5 is more mobile browser-friendly, especially on iPhones and iPads which can’t play Flash, but some older browsers (e.g. IE6) can’t view HTML5.

To embed a track or set, use the Share menu item at top left of the track or set to access the widget options, customise to taste.

Here are some Flash and HTML5 examples of embedded track players.

Flash examples

Mini

Standard

Rockets by thelittleidiot

Standard Set

Destroyed by thelittleidiot

Artwork

HTML5 examples

Single track

Track set

All of the above have been customised to match SCOREcast Online’s website theme.

The main technical issues reported by professional SoundCloud users are well-known and steps have been taken to address them.

1. SoundCloud playback is compressed at 128kbps, which many audiophiles can discern distinctly from studio-quality uncompressed recording.

In previous email exchanges, SoundCloud staff let me know that they’re always thinking of and considering ways to make the experience better for both creators and listeners. One way for creators to offer higher quality is to enable downloads for their sounds so listeners can access the file in its original quality. They’re regularly discussing this topic internally and are considering changes in the future.

In the meantime, SoundCloud seems to remain the platform of choice for many sound libraries’ demo tracks, including Sonokinetic, 8dio and others, which is a good indicator that the quality, although not perfect, is widely acceptable for professional demo purposes.

2. Flash-based SoundCloud players are subject to the inherent stability and compatibility issues of Flash, particularly where smartphones often have trouble showing Flash controls.

SoundCloud recently released HTML5 versions of their embeddable widgets, addressing both the stability problem and making it compatible with most smartphones and mobile devices including iPhones and iPads. The new HTML5 widgets have been well-received and many say better looking than their Flash predecessors.

3. Some users reported that the encoding produced glitchy playback, particularly in high frequency ranges and at high volume levels.

Up until recently, SoundCloud advised: “This rarely happens but if it does, we suggest uploading in 320kbps 44.1kHz with at least -3dB of headroom” but a recent discovery has revealed that this is no longer required.

FLAC is the recommended upload format for optimal playback quality, but this may not be ideal for download purposes and is probably best-suited for playback-only tracks (non-downloadable). For people who would prefer to have their files available for download, the higher the quality of the lossy file they upload, the higher quality the encoding will be.

The Help Page on this topic offers this advice:

Sometimes our transcoding system can create audio artifacts, as we transcode all tracks to 128 kbps mp3 for streaming playback. Uploading a lossless or high-quality lossy file will usually reduce these to a minimum, but unfortunately there’s not much we can do for the handful of individual tracks that are still affected.

If you choose to make your track downloadable though, the version users can download will be an exact copy of the version you uploaded, without any transcoding.

This is an important point with regards to using SoundCloud for track sharing between yourself and the film production co, or for demo or collaborative purposes: The track you download is the exact track that was uploaded, regardless of the playback encoding. So you can happily share your 192kHz 32-bit float wav file if that tickles your fancy, in full trust that that is how it will be received. You can also do so in complete privacy without violating your NDA.

4. SoundCloud has experienced unscheduled downtime in the past.

For 24 hours in October 2011, SoundCloud fell victim to an aggressive DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack leading to slow response times and occasional periods of downtime.

No data was lost in the attack and no user profile security was compromised, but better measures have since been put in place to defend against future attacks of that nature. Unfortunately, no website is untouchable from such an attack attempt.

My SoundCloud Story

I joined SoundCloud in August 2010 and from the start had a revelatory and inspirational experience, so much so that by New Year’s Day 2011 I resolved to turn my life-long passion and hobby into a career. This I knew would be a long path but one that would hopefully be rewarding at every step of the way, and as 2011 passed by, I reflected on those intentions in confidence that things were finally moving in the right direction.

My first steps on SoundCloud were like most others—a one-way path of uploading music and hoping it would be heard and liked by someone, somewhere, just as most creative artists hope for their own art to be observed and appreciated. It only really happened for me when I realised that it was more than a music hosting site but a community as well.

And so I started engaging in-depth with other people’s music—going through their entire track lists to understand their own creative processes and leaving comments and, drawing on my own experience, leaving constructive feedback along the way. This revealed the reciprocal nature of SoundCloud interaction when all of a sudden my own tracks started drawing a lot of attention.

Community

The third stage of my SoundCloud involvement began in June when I decided to try tapping into the collective creativity of the SoundCloud community.

• The first crowd-sourcing project was extremely simple: “I invite you to suggest a name for this track”. SoundCloud staff noticed this, thought it was a cool idea, and tweeted it to their then 80,000 followers. My track got absolutely bombed by name suggestions and the winning title and subtitle were really well-suited to the track (White Light Rendezvous: For Those Who Follow). With around 200 followers at the time, I then gained another 200 or so on the back of that mini-project.
• The second project was a little more ambitious. I played a 9 minute piano improvisation and called it “I invite you to suggest an orchestral composition with timed comments on this track.” This got a lot of attention too with comments like “a harp arpeggio phrase for next 8 bars” and after about 100 comments I spent a month composing those elements over the original piano improv. I called the resulting track “SoundCloud Sinfonietta: You Composed This” which quickly racked up over 5,000 plays and was a finalist in the G-Technology Europe Driven Creativity Awards.
• The third project is still on-going and is called “Your Tune” where I invited followers to share a 20-second solo melody and composed a full-length orchestral or band instrumental track using the submitted melody.

Career Break

As well as the community projects I run on SoundCloud, I also produce a lot of original work and get involved in many collaborations. Through a friend on SoundCloud, one of my original tracks “Ochre Threads” was heard by an independent filmmaker in LA, also on SoundCloud, who is working on his 3rd feature-length film and wanted to use the track for a particular scene.

The same filmmaker then spotted a track I released in December 2011—“Of Valour”—and on the strength of that alone gave me the opportunity to score the entire feature-length film, due for release in Summer 2012.

This is potentially the career break I’ve dreamed of for many years and could be my ticket to full-time paid filmscoring work in the future.

SoundCloud Communities

Apart from members who used underhanded spam-like tactics to drive playcount and visibility, the most active and successful accounts are those of people who take the time to listen and provide feedback to other SoundClouders. The communities thrive in the timed comments, the track favouritings, the collaborations and in groups, especially those which have forum-like chat areas. There are also regular live meetups across the world, like this one in October 2011, which Yoko Ono got involved in too.

Naturally I prefer an organically grown community to one built on spam and follow-backs, and contributed “How to Grow Your SoundCloud Community” to SoundCloud HQ, which they keep on the front page of the user guide here: soundcloud.com/101

The SoundCloud community is well supported by dedicated community teams with staff in Berlin, London and San Francisco, headed by Europa Award-Winner David Noël. The team actively promotes community projects via their blog, Facebook page (500,000+ followers) and Twitter account (150,000+ followers), for example a global project collecting translations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in as many languages as possible.

One very charming aspect of the SoundCloud Community Team is their daily SoundClouder Of The Day nomination, where a member is singled out for their community activity or other unique attribute that deserves recognition. SCOTD alumni are then often contacted for input on community questions and feedback, and are given a little boost in follower-ship by means of a shoutout on their social networks.

“This Week in SoundCloud” is another community project highlighting interesting discoveries across the ‘Cloud, in podcast format on a weekly basis (incidentally, the jingle for this podcast was written by me and 2 other SoundClouders).

There is a lot to the SoundCloud platform, it is not just an audio widget on your demo page. I’ll end where I began: SoundCloud is a versatile and effective platform for composers and sound content creators of all kinds. It is arguably the next big thing in online audio, and maybe most important… it is a community.

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Every once and a while, a new sample library comes along for us composers that changes everything, or is significant in its contribution to our arsenal of tools at our disposal.  In this SCOREcast product review, we chose to take a look at the new Sample Logic NI Kontakt-based library FANFARE in an attempt to discover if this was one of those libraries.

I have a pretty extensive background with the marching band / drum corps idiom, and my principal instrument is the trumpet, so imagine my excitement when Sample Logic announced the “Definitive Marching Brass Library” in FANFARE. There are not many libraries out there are for marching brass, and certainly none with the pedigree of the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps brass behind it—the only other one being… well… a bit antiquated at this point.

So…before I began exploring FANFARE, I went to Sample Logic’s website to learn as much as I could about it.

Overview

The FANFARE library is essentially split into two sections.  A Traditional section consisting of a myriad of patches and Kontakt multis to be used in the creation and performance of marching brass in the way they were meant to be heard… playing marching brass arrangements. And then there is a Morphed section of patches and multi’s where, true to Sample Logic’s aesthetic, they have taken their source material and tweaked it, processed it, stretched it and manipulated it to the point where it is barely recognizable as marching brass and can be used in a slew of modern day compositions by composers of most all genres of music. So if you do not write for a marching band or drum corps ensemble, don’t think this library is not for you. But more on that later.

I checked out the demos on the Sample Logic website and I honestly have to say, I was a bit surprised and disappointed, in that a lot of the existing demos on their website were not pieces written to show off the “Traditional” half of the library.  Most everything written (including a beautiful piece entitled “Elegy, Piano and Fanfare” by prolific Film/TV/Game composer Bill Brown) was not a drum corps style composition.  They were modern and somewhat “electronic” compositions.  I had to ask myself…why have a library where its root source material is one of the most celebrated drum corps ensembles in the history of the genre, tout it as the “Definitive marching brass library for educator and arrangers” and not have a demo that shows off that style of writing?  If I were to evaluate the effectiveness of the library’s “Traditional” elements, I would have to be able to determine its ability to replicate the music it was inherently designed to replicate.

Fanfare “Traditional”

The best way I felt I could do this was to replicate, as a MIDI recording using FANFARE, part of one of the original marching band shows I composed in my past.  I chose to render out the opener of a show I wrote a few years ago called “Weather The Storm”.  The show was commissioned by a marching band program in Phoenix, Arizona.

There are some things to take note of before listening to this little demo:

1) This arrangement was for a marching band and not a drum corps—meaning that while very similar in concept, marching bands have woodwind instruments whereas drum corps have all brass in their wind sections. In this arrangement you will hear some flute, clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax and baritone sax parts along with the marching brass.  These woodwind parts were rendered out using other sample libraries, like the Garritan Marching Band library for the saxophones and the East West Symphonic Orchestra Clarinets, Piccolos.

2) I rendered out the trombone parts I wrote using the Euphonium instruments in FANFARE.  While FANFARE does have some trombone patches, there are only a select few. As in the drum corps world, the piston valved euphonium replaces the slide trombone.

3)  No marching battery percussion parts are playing largely because they add a lot of impact to the mix that would make it harder to hear the brass for this review.

4) There is a trill in the horn/mellophone part at the end of the demo that could not be accomplished with FANFARE because there are no trill patches. I used a trill horn patch from the East West Symphonic Brass Library to get the part to sound as it was intended.

Listen to the demo, and then we can dissect how FANFARE did from the inside out. This was produced using the latest Digital Performer 7.24. FANFARE was running on the latest version of Kontakt 5.0.1 on a fairly modest Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro.  Here is the opening 2 minutes of the marching band show.

Sounds

After running this library through some paces to achieve this particular quick mock-up, my feelings on it are mixed. First, for marching brass, FANFARE is the best thing out there. Honestly. But that being said, this small corner of the sample library market is so dry, it is not too hard to be the best thing out there. The quality of the source material is excellent and I feel I can finally now get a demo of the composition that will fairly accurately replicate what I intended.

In the creation of this demo, however, I found it a bit frustrating to get the MIDI notes to speak in a consistent manner. I had to do a lot of MIDI tweaking to make it work. One note’s velocity would be just a bit higher than the previous note and the volume triggered would shoot up and be extremely loud—almost distorting. The Blue Devils are a loud group, and recording any drum corps is a very challenging task, but the level of these samples in general seems very hot. Many of the professional recordings out there from the various competitions that Drum Corps International (DCI) has released were recorded with up to 35 mics spread throughout the stadium and the field. Sample Logic’s recordings were both recorded by Leslie Ann Jones at the Scoring Stage at Skywalker Sound (Lucasfilm Ltd Company) and on the field at Ralph Wilson Stadium (home of the Buffalo Bills) by Grammy® Award winner Frank Dorritie. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time going into the MIDI and smoothing out the lines to get consistent playback of the samples.

I also found undesirable results when having the release trigger setting enabled for the Euphonium sustain patches, which were being used a lot for both my 3 trombone parts and 2 baritone parts in my arrangement. Upon release of a note in the Euphonium patches, I would hear a very un-smooth trigger of a second attack sample that would sound on the release of notes. Because of that, I had to turn the release triggers off for my demo, which isn’t something I wanted in the final sound since usually this helps add more realism to the note’s performance. I spoke with Joe Trupiano at Sample Logic about this quirk, and upon investigation, he conceded that there is in fact a bug in the release triggers of the Euphonium patches. Joe assured me that Sample Logic would be releasing an update ASAP after the new year to address this issue I found. He also reassured me that this was one instrument patch in a library of thousands of instruments. By the numbers, he is correct. But it is important to note that half of the library is intended to be used in a traditional marching brass arrangement. There are only 4 instruments in this Traditional half—Trumpets, Mellophones, Euphoniums and Tubas. To have Euphonium patches where their release triggers on the sustained notes are corrupted to the point where you can not really use their sustained patches without turning off the release triggers and manually adjusting the cut-off times via the NI Kontakt interface makes 25% of the traditional instruments next to unusable.  That is, until the updates is released.

GUI/Interface

Secondly, I found the interface for FANFARE, while pretty to look at, a bit complicated to navigate. It can be a hard thing to design an interface that allows the user to have access to all of the features needed, but makes it simple and easy to get done what you need to get done.

Above is the main interface screen for FANFARE. The highlighted “Options” button is actually an incredibly important button—as the underlying menu controls much of what is tweakable about FANFARE. But on the main interface shown here, that button is just a little button not well distinguished from the other elements on the screen. More on this in a minute.

An important thing to distinguish when writing for marching brass…is that by design, one is writing for live players in every case.  That may seem silly to point out…but think about it—you do not render out these compositions for marching brass where that recording is the final product for audience consumption. The final product will be 100+ people performing it live on a football field.  So while writers and arrangers would want their demo recordings to sound as close as possible to what the final product will be (so that show and drill designers can design their elements accurately), the demo will always be just that… a demo. In the film and TV world, the MIDI recording might actually serve as the final recording, so realism is paramount. Realism should be important when mocking up a marching band piece, of course, but it’s not the main focal point of a library claiming to do get you there. In that case, another element should take center stage. And that element is “ease of use.” I wanted the library to just sound great out of the box and yet I found myself having to tweak and tweak to get the notes to speak the way I had in my head. The attacks, particularly in the Euphoniums and Tubas, have this weird little pop on the attacks at the front of the sustain patches.  I am not talking about a technical glitch, but rather it seems it is in the way the sound was captured from the instruments. Was the mic too close and are we hearing the tonguing of the notes being attacked too strongly? I’m not sure. You can change and manipulate the attacks and releases to be more present or less present in the playback, and you can also mix the various close, mid and far mics to get a blend of how you want it to sound.  I am glad those options are there as they allowed me to fix what I was hearing. But that is more time going back in to manipulate the MIDI performance.  I wanted it to just sound natural out of the box.  Most marching band music is actually written and arranged by the directors of the corresponding groups and these folks are not the most technologically savvy people. They want it to just work and sound great without having to go in and manipulate the parameters, and I am not sure they’d experience that with FANFARE. There is just so much control that it’s almost too much. The same thing that makes FANFARE’s “morphed” section of the library so great seems to make their “traditional” section so complicated.  If you tweak the wrong thing too much, then all of a sudden, your Blue Devils brass begin to sound like a casio synth. When using the traditional brass patches, be careful of what you tweak with the included FX.

Multis

Your mileage may vary, but I found many of the multi patches in the traditional section to only be moderately useful. If writing and arranging for a group like this, my work is usually done in Sibelius (or Finale) first, then transferred into a DAW and demoed out from there. I would not be using the FANFARE multi’s in this case as I already have all of the parts separated out, and thus, I would mostly need to use the section patches and individual patches for any ensemble and solo work. The traditional multis—many of which create unison patches of various sections playing at the same time across the keyboard—is just not how one arranges for marching groups.  I found their use limited aside from the occasional unison line or powerful chord, etc. It is also important to note for arrangers and educators that Sample Logic does have a Sibelius Sound Set for Sibelius 7 users that would allow playback directly from Sibelius which will also automatically assigns the correct instruments to the staves in the arrangement—something that  could be a huge time saver in setting up Sibelius playback. I didn’t test this feature for this review, but it could be a huge plus for many people who simply need a quick and accurate playback of what’s coming out of the Sibelius sketch.

Effects

There are instrument patches with FX and without FX. This basically means the FX patches are pre-set with the included reverbs and EQ/compressor tweaking to give the instruments their ambiance. While nice to have and I acknowledge it would be useful for some with close, mid and far mic controls included, I found myself not using the FX patches in the end and turning to Altiverb 6 instead to create my space and depth.

One thing I noticed is that all of the FX patches were defaulting to be monophonic instruments, while the non-FX patches were not. I found this out the hard way when trying to play back my MIDI arrangements of the show with the FX patches: Every time the horn/mellophone or trombone/euphonium line would split into a divisi part, not all of the notes would play. I then spent ten minutes trying to explore what was going on and where I could turn this monophonic setting off. Remember that “Options” button in the first pic above? That is where you will find it. An important future update request from me would to simply make both the non-FX patches and the FX patches polyphonic by default.

Ultimately, I think the end results of FANFARE used in a traditional sense are pretty good, and at the end of the day, they gave me the ability to produce a very acceptable demo of the genre of marching band/drum corps music. Once those release triggers in the Euphonium patches are fixed and updated, this will raise my opinion of the Traditionalhalf of the library considerably.

Fanfare “Morphed”

Where the traditional patches perhaps are a bit frustrating, the morphed patches totally shine. In the same way Spectrasonics has taken real, organic recorded source material and created the monster synth instrument Omnisphere, Sample Logic has donewhat they do best in taking their marching brass source recordings and tweaking them, morphing them, stretching them, and anything else you can think of to create a deep set of sounds one can use in electronic and modern compositional work. The best way to show this is to direct you to the many great examples of this on Sample Logic’s own FANFARE music demo player I suggest you spend some time listening to.

Atmospheres, Impacts and Rhythms

There are rhythmic elements, atmospheric elements, percussive hits, etc… all created from these original brass recordings. It is quite amazing actually, and it’s certainly where Sample Logic’s strengths have always been. If you want to add some power to your cue in a way that hints at brass, but don’t want it to be immediately recognized as such, FANFARE is the perfect tool to use. There are a variety of one key patches that evolve and develop the longer they are sustained, some nice atmospheric pads, and a great selection of stacks that you can go in and further tweak to your heart’s content.

For example, their atmospheric patches are divided up into Ambience and Stinger construction kits. The Ambience section alone is then categoriezed into eight categories describing a general genre of sound from Bizarre, Dark N Scary, Electronic, Euphoric – Spiritual, Low End, Mixed Emotions, Mystery Suspense, and Organic. Each one of those genres of sound then have dozens of instruments for you to use. Aside from the Atmospheres section of the morphed library, there is also an Impacts section, and an Instumental section that is further divided into arpeggiated, melodic and pad instruments.

The interface of FANFARE includes a lot of post-processing options so the user can truly create the sounds they want. It is a little confusing in the interface to figure out where to access these FX tools.  They are represented by the little colorful icons in the FX page…or one can also choose them from a little drop-down word menu in the middle of the screen.  Sample Logic has done a great job of using their sound design talents and creating unique morphed patches from the source material…but then they have also given you access to those tools so you can take what they have done and develop it further.  Two they are particularly proud of are their Arpeggiator and Spinner tools.

Arpeggiator

The arpeggiator does just what you would suspect.  You can use this to create a rhythmic feel to your patch.  Want to create a unique percussive element on top of your groove?  This is your tool. You can copy and paste the patterns you design and really get creative here…twisting those patches even more.

It will allow you to take a sustained pad like this:

FANFARE Morphed Pad

And create a rhythmic element out of it from the same pad as above like this:

FANFARE Morphed ARP

Spinner

With FANFARE, Sample Logic has also introduced their new Spinner tool. With Spinner, you can manipulate any of FANFARE’s multi-mic instruments to not only shift the position of the instrument around the concert hall in all directions, but you can also automate the position of the listener, swirling the sound around the space to create a unique effect.

My only problem with the morphed section of the library in general is that my meager system (well within their minimum recommended specs for the library) was starting to get bogged down in performance when using a lot of the included FX. Anyone running an 8-core Apple MacPro should have absolutely no problem adding thick layers of morphed patches to their compositions, but on an older system or a less powerful laptop like mine used in this review, you will start to notice some playback anomalies the more you use their included effects like the reverb, arpeggiator tool, spinner, etc.

An important note on this is that in the education world, not many directors have the latest and greatest systems out there. School funding for music programs is severely lacking and whatever money they do have is usually put into buying or repairing instruments and not upgrading the office computer. Then again, most education customers will probably just want this library for the traditional side of the instruments offered and will not use many of the FX available, so that may or may not be an issue for most. For commercial music professionals, having older and slower hardware would most certainly be an issue.

Final Thoughts

The true question is whether FANFARE stands up to the challenge. Is it the “Definitive Marching Brass Library” or not?

Value

If FANFARE were a bit lower in price, I could deal with its interface quirks a little easier. At $399.00 USD, I do start to get into the territory of a high expectation of it just working right out of the box without much tweaking.

Functionality

FANFARE is fairly unique in its offerings with both the traditional and morphed instruments, but one place it has room for improvement in is its ease of use and scripting. You may need some time to become comfortable with where everything is located. The way the traditional instrument samples respond and play could be fixed and tweaked in updates if Sample Logic decides to do so. With all of the scripting available in Kontakt now, I am positive some time spent in this area could make my issues with FANFARE’s traditional patches go away since all of my problems seemed to stem from performance and MIDI playback issues inherent in how the library was programmed.

Quality

For the marching brass/drum corps folks out there, FANFARE is the best thing you will currently find on the market for demos of your arrangements. When that promised update comes out to fix the release triggers, it will be even better. The quality of the recordings and source material is excellent. Top notch. The originality and variety of the morphed patches is a great addition to anyone’s sampled library arsenal, and between all of the one key patches, stacks and beds, there is a huge amount of unique material for you to explore and incorporate into your compositional work.

Key Points

• Over 1200 instruments and multis, originally recorded and processed at 88.2KHz/24-bit and delivered at 44.1KHz/24-bit
• 30GB of content compressed down to 20GB via NI’s Kontact Compression.
• FANFARE is available in both boxed and direct download formats and will run Standalone, VST, AU, DXI or RTAS.

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Daunting isn’t it? Especially since each of these crafts alone could take a lifetime to master. As we cannot learn and master every harmonization or orchestration or even mixing technique a specialist would know, there must be systems in place to handle the parts where we are forced, either by budget or lack of connection, to handle those for ourselves. And when we ultimately do find ourselves in the enviable position of being able to hire out the necessary parts of production to a team of seasoned specialists, it becomes even more important that we know and understand a little about each area in order to be an effective manager and leader for the team overall.

That’s exactly why we’ve created SCOREcast University (SCU). Through a series of white papers, reference materials, and strategic tools over the next year, SCOREcast University aims to supply you with essential harmony, composition, orchestration and technology understanding to improve the quality of your work and help you take the next steps in building a successful career.

SCU will serve a dual purpose. First, it will be used as a ‘reference room’ which articles from other channels will refer to for further and background information. Second, it will serve as a ‘go-to’ library for easily locating information that would otherwise take you precious time to find.

SCOREcast University

While often cross-pollinate and not as distinct, there are six phases from the initial idea/concept of a score to the final product, and SCOREcast University will focus on each one through interconnected resource material.

Conception

The essential work every composer needs to do before sitting down to write music. Themes such as how to plan your time and your project, how to read a script and ‘interpret’ the director’s words, how to attend a meeting with the director and avoid unpleasant surprises, how to research your project, and how to develop the basic concept for the project will be covered here.

Composition

In conjunction with SCOREcast’s Composition channel (spearheaded by Ryan Leach), SCOREcast University will provide you with useful information regarding Tonal, Jazz and 20th Century harmonic devices as well as resources and specifics on turning your themes into full-fledged compositions.

Orchestration

For each orchestral section (strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion) we will provide you with important instrumentation information as well as a variety of techniques and devices you can use to make the most of the orchestral forces you have available.

Sequencing/Mockup

Aside from expensive sample libraries, the other most important factor in creating realistic mockups is the use of appropriate sequencing techniques. This category will contain resources for everything from sequencing for strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion and band instruments, DAW-specific techniques, sample library specifications, blending different libraries, and efficient template set-up.

Score Preparation/Recording

How to prepare your score and parts either using a notation program or using your DAW’s printout, best practices for working with session musicians, how to run a successful scoring session, how to layer recorded instruments with sample libraries, and much much more… the prep and recording section of SCOREcast University will resource all of these concentrations.

Mixing/Mastering

A detailed overview of the basic techniques involved in mixing and mastering your work; how to use panning, EQ, compression and FX to make your productions come alive, mastering techniques for specific genres, etc.

Delivery

An often neglected but equally important step in the chain of production scoring. This section will contain references designed help you see your project through to completion; specifications for industry standard deliveries, resources for physical or electronic delivery, checklists for dubbing and mixing sessions, cue sheet protocol, after-sales service and more.

In building SCOREcast University, we are putting together the world’s first online repository of resources specifically designed for the orking film music professional. With resources built by the pros in the trenches who are in the trenches everyday in Hollywood and London, we hope that the SCU database will quickly become a go-to tool for you and your team and that it will help you become quicker and more effective as a content provider by handling some of the more technical and mundane tasks that come with with job.

For those of you taking your first steps, SCOREcast University might serve you well as a starting point. For those of you already there, it can help you freshen up your memory. In any case, we hope it will help make your lives easier!

See? Life doesn’t have to be so hard!

SCOREcast University launches February 1st, 2012, first with a set of comprehensive orchestration tools. Keep your eyes on the front page for further information.

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Episode Description

The first in SCOREcast’s “Developer Series” podcasts for NAMM 2012, Brian Ralston chats with Audiobro’s Andrew Keresztes and Sebastian Katz about one of the composing community’s most highly anticipated orchestral library updates, LA Scoring Strings’ version 2.0.

Community Discussion

Weigh in on this episode! We want to hear your thoughts—Log into the COMMENTS below to leave your opinions and participate in the discussion!

On-Air Questions

Have a question or a comment you’d like addressed on-air? Send Deane and Brian an email at scorecastonline@gmail.com

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The Winner of SCOREcast’s 2nd Annual Cue Contest

and the new owner of Spitfire Audio’s SOLO STRINGS is

Jeremy Mayne

for his composition

“Contemplation”

(click here to listen)

About Jeremy Mayne’s “Contemplation”

Jeremy Mayne is a 28-year-old composer based in the United Kingdom. His winning cue, selected from 548 submitted entries, was written for piano, harp and solo cello. The cue was chosen by our adjudication panel of five A-list film and television composers for its outstanding marks in the following three areas:

• Featured use of solo instrument
• Production value
• Utilization of limitations (instrument choices and compositional decisions)

Jeremy used the following plugins/sound libraries as his palette in “Contemplation”:

• LASS First Chair Solo Cello
• Native Instruments “Alicia’s Keys” Grand Piano
• VSL Harp – the version included in Kontakt 5

Judges’ Comments

“I’d put the playing up against anything I’ve heard or recorded on my own stuff, whether here [Los Angeles] or in London.”

“Top notch writing!”

“The interplay between the piano and the harp is pretty advanced.”

“The ebb and flow of the piece is very organic. Great use of liquidity and motion.”

“Not only is he a gifted composer, but his skills as a player are on display here as well.”

Head over to Jeremy Mayne’s Soundcloud profile and give him some love of your own on his winning track!

Congratulations to Jeremy for winning the contest, and a very special thanks to all who submitted and entered the contest. The level of writing, crafting, and production in the SCOREcast composing community is simply some of the best out there!

Stay tuned for our next contest and your chance to win again… coming up VERY soon!

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Now into the marketplace comes a completely new offering: Spitfire Audio Solo Strings. In contrast to LASS, which is relatively dry, Spitfire makes their space an integral part of the library, recording at the world renowned Air Studios in London. Perhaps even more significant, this is a rare beast among sample libraries – it features named players. This reflects Spitfire’s policy to support live musicians, and the three players will receive an ongoing royalty from sales of the product.

Overview

The two libraries aren’t like-for-like in terms of instruments. Unlike Solo Strings, LASS First Chair features a contrabass alongside the expect cello, viola and 1^st violin. LASS First Chair also has two other violins – a bonus legato violin from the original test recordings, and a separate 2^nd violin. This uses the same sample set as the main first violin, but uses a clever trick of employing adjacent samples and different EQ so they genuinely do sound different. Spitfire say that they will release an update to Solo Strings with a 2^nd violin that uses similar techniques.

While Solo Strings has only three instruments vs six, we at least know the names of all three players – Andrew Haveron, Bruce White and Caroline Dale. Each CV is impeccable – Andrew, for example, is frequently guest lead at the London Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic, while Caroline’s broad credits range from the Royal Philharmonic to U2.

LASS stands for LA Scoring Strings, and the library was recorded on an unnamed LA scoring stage. It has a natural live feel, but although the stage has a 30 ft high ceiling, the net result sounds relatively small and subtle – it will typically require additional processing to put it in a bigger space. The plus side is that this makes it versatile – LASS is a great choice if you need a more intimate soundstage. It has only one microphone option.

Solo Strings has a totally different approach. It has three microphones available – close, Decca tree (stage) and ambient – and even the close mics are far wetter than LASS. There is an important caveat to the three microphone arrangement – the all-important legato patches are one microphone only, and Spitfire have said they have no plans to change this going forward – in their experience this single position sounds the most convincing with least unwanted side-effects. In fact, the legato is actually a combination of the tree and ambient mics.

One final and important distinction on the basics – while both libraries use Kontakt, only LASS First Chair is a fully-fledged Kontakt library, which comes bundled with the free Kontakt player. To use Spitfire Small Strings, you will need the full version of Kontakt 4 or above, it cannot be used with the free player. LASS First Chair is 16 bit (downconverted from 24bit, the original session was class A preamps straight to Nuendo bypassing the desk completely), and takes only a miraculous 1GB of install space.  Solo Strings, with its three microphone positions and 24 bit (originally recorded at 96k through Prism converters), takes a still-SSD-friendly 5GB. Both use Native Instruments’ proprietary NCW lossless compression sample format, and both are download-only.

Both libraries are similarly priced from the companies’ own websites – depending on where you live when you buy it, VAT issues etc, each will set you back around $300.

Articulations

Again, there are significant differences between the two libraries. LASS is commendable for its consistency across the instruments. All have legato with portamento option; Espressivo Sustain; Spiccato; Staccato; Pizzicato; Tremolos and Trills (maj and min). In addition, all but cellos and double bass have gliss – a much slower slide between notes than the portamento. The speed of the portamento itself can be adjusted via cc83. There are options for DFD streaming or RAM-only patches, with various features included or excluded to save RAM.

Solo Strings is still in its infancy, and Spitfire promise additional articulations to come which fill in some of the current gaps. As it is, for the shorts we have Spiccato, Staccato, Pizzicato, and Harmonics for the violin. The cello drops off the staccato, the viola drops off everything except spiccato. However, crucially (unlike LASS First Chair) there is a non-vibrato sustain option for all three instruments. There’s a purge feature on the multimic patches to save RAM on unused articulations.

What LASS calls regular “legato”, Spitfire calls “slurred legato”. What LASS calls “gliss”, Solo Strings doesn’t have. What LASS calls “portamento”, Spitfire calls “gliss”, though its speed is fixed. However, SSS has an extra trick up it’s sleeve – violin and cello both have “bowed legato” on the high key velocity, a sound created by a more aggressive re-bow – it doesn’t perhaps sound like legato at all as we usually think of it in the sample world, but it’s a very common bowing technique and a welcome addition to the cannon.

Controls, Bells and Whistles

Both libraries use the modwheel (cc1) to control the velocity of sustains and legato patches, and both use similar dead-easy methods to implement the legato transitions. Overlap a note when playing and it becomes a transition. With LASS the softest key press is gliss, next is portamento, hardest is regular legato (if you choose a patch with all three options). Similarly in Solo Strings, softest is gliss, next is slurred, hardest is bowed. Sadly, currently you can’t adjust these thresholds in Solo Strings, while everything is configurable in LASS – velocity curves, CCs, pretty much everything.

Solo Strings legato patches are almost bare (but beautiful) visually – a graphic representation of what your modwheel is up to, and a “hall size” control to try to tame the natural ambiance by reducing the releases (which doesn’t sound too convincing, in truth). With both of these you can reassign the midi controllers by right-clicking, though at the time of writing there is no way to stop the modwheel controlling velocity – Spitfire are looking into this. The only other thing to look at is the three musical score representations of the legato styles, which turn red when played.

Solo Strings has just two patches per instrument – the legato and the multi-mic (well, a third patch has just snuck itself in, more on that later). The multi-mic has all the articulations on keyswitches, and also the vibrato level is adjustable and can be assigned to a midi cc of choice. Currently, however, this isn’t a smooth increase of vibrato, rather it switches between the two articulations quite abruptly at the half way point. The transitions don’t sound harsh or clipped as such, they don’t always sound too musical either – natural transitions are smoother and slower than that. Spitfire have told us that the whole issue of controlling vibrato is still a work in progress.

Both have wizardry under the hood for patterns for your short artics. LASS has the A.R.T – a simple pattern generator activated by the sustain pedal, which works amazingly well on the famed LASS spiccatos in particular. Spitfire has its shiny new Ostinatum, which adds pitch information – it’s dead clever in that you determine the order of the notes of the chord you play – 1^st finger, 4^th finger, 2^nd finger and so on. Great fun and pretty easy to use.

LASS First Chair also has multis and the auto-arranger – some amazing cleverness whereby you can play a chord and the scripting determines which instrument should be playing which note. It takes some getting used to, and tends to work best on slow passages.

Sound and Playability

You can compare the tone of the two libraries in the following audio demos. It’s one simple, short legato line played on each instrument in turn, which features all available legato transitions and a wide dyamnic range. With Solo Strings there are versions for the normal patches and the semi-official nv-v BPD ones (more on this below), for LASS First Chair versions with and without impulse response early reflections and tails (included with the library). Each example has had velocities and CCs adjusted to best suit the instrument. LASS comes with a default EQ switched on, and is enabled in these demos.

LA Scoring Strings: First Chair

LASS First Chair Cello +IRs

LASS First Chair Cello

LASS First Chair Viola +IRs

LASS First Chair Viola

LASS First Chair Violin +IRs

LASS First Chair Violin

Spitfire Solo Strings

Spitfire Solo Strings Cello

Spitfire Solo Strings Cello (v-nv)

Spitfire Solo Strings Viola

Spitfire Solo Strings Viola (v-nv)

Spitfire Solo Strings Violin

Spitfire Solo Strings Violin (v-nv)

Audiobro founder Andrew Keresztes goes to some extraordinary lengths to get consistency in his library and make it playable. LASS First Chair fits perfectly in its intended role within the wider LASS canon – the transitions all follow each other with incredible precision. Also, he’s got the dynamics absolutely spot on – the lowest velocity at the bottom of the modwheel is a little more subtle on the vibrato and it takes a little longer to ease in, and the higher up the wheel you go, the more vibrato you get alongside the volume. Although this isn’t the only natural way to play a violin, it’s a pretty damn good starting point for a dynamic that has good – if slightly conservative – emotional range. Nothing leaps out, there’s nothing overly dramatic but it’s not too tame either. It’s exceptionally well programmed and executed.

Spitfire is looser all round. This is – at least in part – by design, and part of the Spitfire philosophy to keep it real. For the most part it works – it’s a much warmer tone and there is generally more character here, and with the bowed legato there’s an extra layer you can build into a performance – that designed imperfection works really well. It’s also worth stressing that the general legato performance is excellent, and it’s a very challenging area in an ambient environment. The bowed legato can add a new level of expression into a passage.

However, there are a couple of problems too. First, there is the occasional bloom or drop in ambiance during some of the transitions – nothing too major, fortunately, just the occasional little glitch and likely to be ironed out in successive revisions, and usually easy enough to work around by – say – choosing an alternate transition. However there is another problem – there is no way to adjust the vibrato in the legato patches, and the lowest velocity still has a healthy load of it. There’s just no way to dial it back. It doesn’t take long before this can become wearing to listen to, a general over-emoting.

Fortunately, the Spitfire team have added some special BPD nv-v patches with controllable vibrato within a few weeks of the initial release. To quote the manual – BPD “stands for By Popular Demand, as means of a disclaimer” – in other words, these patches do have some rough edges. They won’t be fully supported in the regular way, so think of them as a bonus.

On the BPD patches, the vibrato fader (even though it’s effectively a 2-way switch) last seen on the multimic patches makes a welcome re-appearance, and can of course be assigned to a midi cc of choice. Be warned, however – learning to ride this and the mod wheel and getting a solid-sounding performance takes a little practice. For some reason the violin works least well on its patch, it’s quite tricky to get the transitions smooth, but the cello in particular can work very nicely indeed. With some perseverance, amazing performances are possible, but our demos also highlight the shortcomings.

Future Plans and Conclusions

These are two excellent products, and both have a bright future ahead of them. Although LASS First Chair won’t get the full treatment come the imminent 2.0 full library upgrade (no Stage and Color, the timbral impulse response engine), there will be new additions including legato tremolos, intelligent legato trills, updated microtuning and aleatoric patches along with updates to the CC scripts, Auto Arranger and A.R.T. Spitfire, meanwhile, promise a new recording session to pick up the missing viola articulations, giving the library greater consistency.

Audiobro’s Andrew Keresztes has really set the bar in terms of meticulous editing and scripting to achieve his vision of three unified divisi sections and a first chair – one shudders to imagine the sheer mind-numbing tedium involved in the editing man hours of the LASS project. It plays pretty much perfect out of the box, and users can adjust almost everything they’d ever need. The two drawbacks are that the tone won’t be to everyone’s liking, and if using as a solo instrument, the emotional range is good but hardly touches virtuoso levels (it’s not designed to, after all).

Spitfire Small Strings is a different and wilder beast. A few more rough edges can be either helpful quirks or irritants depending on the context, and you’ll need to look elsewhere if you need a dry sound. But the gorgeous tone and the passion – without relying on phrases or a myriad of keyswitches – are currently without equal in the VI world.

Right now, that kinda makes it a score draw. However, with significant updates in the works for both products, this may yet change.

Look out also for our upcoming SCOREcast review of VSL Solo Strings with an introduction to the VI Pro 2 sample player.

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Win Spitfire Audio’s Newest Creation

SOLO STRINGS

in SCOREcast’s 2nd Annual Cue Contest

This year, SCOREcast is teaming up with Spitfire Audio to give away a copy of their hot new sample library, SOLO STRINGS—the premiere solo string library for Kontakt.

SCOREcast wants to hear what you can do with limited instrumentation, and if you blow our minds, you’ll win your very own copy of SOLO STRINGS by Spitfire! To enter to win, all you need to do is compose a melodic cue that is 60 to 90 seconds long, and uses THREE virtual instruments—one of them being a solo instrument of your choice. So, get your palette together, dream up a memorable melody line, and get to crackin! The contest starts TODAY!

We’ll get to the complete contest rules and eligibility requirements in a second, but right now, here’s the scoop on your prize from Spitfire Audio:

SOLO STRINGS by Spitfire

With three legendary players and one legendary studio, Spitfire Audio continues to roll out a definitive set of composers tools with SOLO STRINGS. For this release, Andrew Haveron (violin), Bruce White (viola) and Caroline Dale (cello) were recorded in situ’ the “Spitfire Way” at Lyndhurst Hall, Air Studios—arguably one of the finest in the world and home to hundreds of Hollywood blockbuster films and many top recording artists of our age.

Each instrument features two classes of patch: Legato and Multi Mic.

In Legato mode, three interval types are included: Glissandi, Slur, and Detache—all selectable via velocity, with up to four layers of dynamics selectable via the modulation wheel.

In Multi Mic mode, the various articulations can be dialed in via keyswitches, including long, staccato, spiccato, pizzicato, and harmonics, both long and short. These patches are polyphonic with 3-way mic control, including close, tree and ambient, enabling you to mix and shape your sound to desired levels of room ambience, and route for a true 5.1 experience. Dial just the tree mics in whilst you’re sketching on your laptop for ease on your system, then render back on your “big rig” in full 5.1 before presenting your demos to your director.

SOLO STRINGS by Spitfire features the finest of session skill talents available in the UK today. These are three players you have heard many many times already, whether in concerts around the world, on any recent Hollywood blockbuster recorded in the UK, or a raft of exceptional independent movie appearances and top tracks from a who’s who of pop and rock.

How to Enter the Contest

1. Meet the Eligibility Requirements (below).
2. Read and understand the General Conditions and Releases (below).
3. Compose and produce your entry (cue) based on the Official Rules and Restrictions (below).
4. Enter your composition in the Contest by sending an email with your NAME (first and last), your MAILING ADDRESS, your AGE, a LIST of plug-in instruments (including sample libraries) used in your entry, the TITLE of your cue entry, and a direct LINK (Soundcloud® links are also permitted) to your cue to at scorecastonline@gmail.com. Limit one entry per person. If multiple entries are received from any person, only the first entry will qualify for the contest.

By participating in this contest, all entrants agree to abide by the official rules and restrictions, eligibility requirements, and general conditions and releases, as outlined below.

Official Rules and Restrictions

Please read through these conditions carefully, and be sure to follow them exactly when composing your cue entry.

1. Cue must be original and composed by you.
2. Cue may not contain any pre-recorded melodic elements and can not be based on an existing piece of music.
3. Cue must ONLY utilize virtual plugin instruments. No live instrumentation allowed.
4. Cue must be submitted along with an itemized list of plugin instruments used.
5. Cue must be at least 60 seconds long, but no longer than 90 seconds.
6. Cue must utilize (3) total virtual instruments, one of which must cover a solo melody (not necessarily a VST dedicated to a solo instrument, but rather a solo instrument of your choice).
7. Entries will be judged based on the following criteria:
• Featured use of solo instrument
• Production value
• Utilization of limitations (instrument choices and compositional decisions)

Contest Deadline

1. All entries for SCOREcast’s 2nd Annual Cue Contest must be received on or before December 22, 2011, 5pm Pacific Standard Time.
2. Winner will be announced December 26, 2011 on SCOREcastOnline.com.

Eligibility Requirements

1. This Contest is open to people 18 years of age or older. Proof of age may be required.
2. Employees/contributors of SCOREcast, LLC and its affiliated companies, employees of the prize sponsor (Spitfire Audio) and its affiliates, and members of such employees’ immediate families or households, whether past or present, are ineligible to participate in this Contest.

Winner Notification

1. The winner of this Contest will be announced on SCOREcastOnline.com, and the winner will also be notified through email.
2. Any attempted second entry shall be discarded, and the entrant may be disqualified from the Contest.
3. Adjudication of entries will be conducted under the supervision of SCOREcastOnline.com and SCOREcast, LLC. The decisions are final and binding in all matters relating to this Contest.
4. Entries are the property of their respective owners, but will not be returned.
5. Entrants need not be present during adjudication to win.
6. If a winner cannot be reached after a reasonable effort has been made within five (5) business days of our first attempt, or if an entrant is found to be ineligible, an alternate winner may be selected.

General Conditions and Releases

This Contest is void where and to the extent prohibited by law and is subject to all applicable laws, including, without limitation, federal, state, and local laws and regulations. In the event of non-compliance by any winner with the official rules of this Contest, an alternate winner may be selected. Prizes are non-transferable. Return of any prize or prize notification as undeliverable will result in a disqualification of the winner and an alternate winner may be selected. All prizes will be awarded. Except where legally prohibited, acceptance of any prize constitutes permission for SCOREcast, LLC/SCOREcastOnline.com to use each winner’s name, photograph, likeness, voice, address (city and state) and testimonials, in printed, broadcast or other media, whether now known or hereafter developed, in perpetuity, in any manner it deems appropriate in connection with promoting this or any other Contest and/or promotion sponsored by it, without further compensation to the winner. By participating, entrants agree that SCOREcast, LLC/SCOREcastOnline.com, those involved in the development, production (including prize suppliers Spitfire Audio), implementation and distribution of this Contest and their respective parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, service providers, and agencies, and their directors, officers, agents, employees, attorneys, and any other person or entity associated with such entities and/or promotion (hereinafter collectively called “Promoters”), shall not be liable for any claims, damages, losses or injuries, including any third party claims, arising from or relating to, in whole or in part, this Contest, including entry and participation in this Contest and acceptance, possession, use or misuse of the prizes. All entrants further agree that in the event of any third party claims, damages, losses or injuries, arising from or relating to such entrant’s participation in this Contest, such entrant will indemnify and hold Promoters harmless from and against any and all such claims, including reasonable attorneys’ fees related thereto. Failure by entrants to provide a direct link to their entry cue may result in disqualification. Promoters shall not be liable for entries that are delayed, lost, misdirected, misdelivered, incorrect or incomplete, and such entries will be not be eligible for this Contest. Promoters shall not be responsible for any technical malfunctions of any telephone network, computer on-line system, computer equipment or software; program malfunctions or other failures; delayed computer transactions or network connections; any errors of any kind, whether human, mechanical or electronic; or any combination thereof, including, without limitation, any injury or damage to the computer of any entrant or any other person related to or resulting from downloading any part of this Contest. Any person attempting to defraud or in any way tamper with this Contest will be ineligible for prizes and may be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. SCOREcast, LLC/SCOREcastOnline.com reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel or suspend this Contest should viruses, bugs or other causes beyond its control corrupt the proper administration or security of the Contest. SCOREcast, LLC/SCOREcastOnline.com reserves the right to modify the rules of the Contest in any way or at any time, as long as reasonable notice is given. All taxes on any prize won are the sole responsibility of each winner, including, without limitation, any federal, state, or local taxes which may be deemed applicable in such winner’s jurisdiction of residence. This Contest shall be governed by the laws of the State of California in the United States of America. By participating in this contest, entrants agree that the state and federal courts located in the State of California shall have jurisdiction over any dispute or litigation arising from or relating to this Contest and that venue for such litigation shall be only in the Circuit Court for the City of Los Angeles, CA or the The United States District Court, Los Angeles County.

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As SCOREcast’s 5th Anniversary celebration rolls on this month, there couldn’t be a better time for some of those faces to be added to the leadership ranks within SCOREcast, providing for an even richer experience for our readers, listeners and community members.

For two-and-a-half years, London-based composer James Semple has nurtured and faithfully led our SCOREcast: London community chapter using a variety of events including meet-ups, seminars, and the popular SCOREcast Composiums to grow the group into London’s premiere network of media composers. As SCOREcast: London has gained notoriety across Europe (with composers flying in from as far as Greece and Germany to attend group events), James has established himself as a lightening-rod organizer who knows how to forge a strong community around a common cause and bond people together through industry camaraderie.

It is with great pleasure that SCOREcast announces James Semple as our newly appointed Director of Global Community. In his new role, James will work closely with all of our community leaders to effectively build and strengthen our SCOREcast Chapter Community program, as well as lead a team that will develop and plant new community chapters in strategic cities around the world.

Equally as exciting is the appointment of Marie-Anne Fischer as James’ successor at SCOREcast: London. Marie-Anne has been a member of the chapter since it’s launch in 2008, and has already been working along-side James as a principal coordinator in the group for some time. Marie-Anne brings with her a long history of experience and respect within the London film community, deep relationships with European software developers, and as an accomplished composer, a body of work that truly speaks for itself. As James and I have fully considered the future of the London chapter, we’ve both agreed that the perfect choice to lead the SCOREcast: London chapter is Marie-Anne, and we are already thrilled with her enthusiasm to boldly jump right in and begin positioning SCOREcast: London for even greater feats through 2012 and beyond.

Please join me in welcoming Marie-Anne Fischer to the SCOREcast team, welcoming James Semple to his new post within our administration, and congratulating them both on their tireless service to the London composing community as well as the industry at large.

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We can’t be quantified or packaged. We’re artists, darling. Our art speaks for itself. All true… but all the art out there is vying equally for all of your potential clients’ attentions. And those attention spans are short and very demanding. If you want to make your art into a business, i.e. make money at it, you’ve no choice – you have to brand yourself and then market your art. No getting away from it.

And as film composers and sound designers, we’re usually selling art that’s yet to be created. So what might be a more effective overall marketing strategy is to think of how we can sell ourselves, our persona, our fun-to-work-with-ness, our attitudes to career and life, how you and I collaborating together will without a doubt create something more awesome than we could possibly have done separately.

So marketing is very important to the film music composer or sound designer. But it need not be boring, time-consuming or expensive. Marketing for us film sound creators can be quick, easy, painless, fun, interesting, and very cheap if you take a little time to think creatively about it. Even if you’re totally anti-marketing/branding/selling your soul, you’re probably doing some of it already without even realising it (I’ve talked about some of this in Personality Branding).

And… if it sells more of your work or your services, what you complainin’ about? :-)

Here are all of the ways I can think of (so far) that a film music composer may market themselves. I’ve separated them out into whether I’ve used them or not, and how useful they’ve been up ’til now. Hopefully you can pick out a few to start forming an easy strategy for marketing your wares and yourself.

This turned into rather a long list so stick with it…

Marketing Stuff that really works – directly led to sales:

• Online portfolio website with music and contact details
• DVD Showreel ready to go upon request
• Tailored CD submissions
• Music licensing on other site which led to commissions
• Content marketing (fancy name for blog attached to website): writing blog posts about opinions and thoughts about my experiences. This is all about building a connection with audience, fleshing out a more thorough picture of yourself, what you’re like as a person to work with rather than just a faceless, personality-less, unknown quantity.
• Networking in person and seeing it as an opportunity to make connections for people with other people.
• Having an elevator pitch ready to go… then getting out of the way, asking questions, listening, really engaging in creating the potential for a new business relationship.
• Twitter for both forging new relationships and developing ones already made through other methods.
• Maintaining and keeping tabs on pre-made business relationships on Facebook.
• Word of Mouth recommendations from people you’ve worked with before. Isn’t as tricky as you might first think – be easy to work with, go above and beyond, add value, and make the client feel special (‘cos they are – they’re working with you aren’t they?).
• Working in associated roles – this is really a form of networking. The word-of-mouth that you can gain about you being a really cool person and being great to work with works wonders when you hear about new projects coming up and you offer music composition/sound design!
• Collaborating with other artists in relevant areas for free or as equally paid co-creators in order to raise both of our profiles.
• Doing really awesome work with awesome people on awesome shows with high profile venues/channels with massive audiences is worth its weight in gold (though this probably counts a word of mouth too).
• Giving away free CDs of pre-composed music to trusted filmmakers to license whenever they might like to in the future. Sometimes they’ll come back to you for a bespoke version or even a new commission.
• Participating on relevant trade forums.
• Sending showreel CDs out to local and national production companies. I actually did this without checking whether they wanted to hear it first, tut tut. Even though it worked for me, right at the start of my career when I was a little fraidy-cat when it came to cold calling, it was such a small response – 3 replies from 100+ CDs sent out – that really, I spent an awful lot of money that could have been saved just by making a few phone calls. Though you never know…

Marketing stuff that probably worked indirectly, though I don’t know for sure, or methods I’ve implemented so recently that’s it’s hard to say what effect it’s yet to have:

• Website SEO (search engine optimisation)
• Building a website with a CMS or ‘Content Management System’ (e.g. wordpress, joomla) that’s very easily update-able with news, presents a more unified site where the blog isn’t just an add on, and where you don’t need to go into the code to make site-wide changes.
• Asking for testimonials for your website – also reminds the client how great it was working with you. ;-)
• Following up with email note after networking meetings (‘great to meet you’ type stuff).
• Business cards handed out at networking events and included in showreel mailouts.
• Trade press and general newspaper interviews.
• Relevant website interviews.
• Writing articles for relevant websites (such as this one).
• Email signature including links to my latest work on- or off-line.
• Twitter-driven traffic to my website – these visitors tend to stay around on the website a little longer than the average.
• Scheduling tweets for Twitter to maintain a more consistent, steady online presence and reach more followers in all the different timezones.

Marketing stuff I’ve tried that hasn’t worked for me so far (but might for you… but it’s dubious, and if you don’t have time or money or energy, then maybe don’t bother):

• Private online music store selling mp3s and music licenses for media attached to my website.
• A website built on flash – very little search engine traffic at all as most of it can’t be indexed.
• “Faking it ’til you make it”/exaggerating your achievements/pretending to be something you’re not personality-wise – you get found out eventually! It’s so tiring to keep up the facade consistently.
• Following general marketing gurus and social media ‘experts’ on Twitter.
• Following lots and lots of people on Twitter – signal to noise ratio gets less and less favourable, even though your follow stats are high. They aren’t really a targeted audience.
• Premium, i.e. paid-for, online portfolio/cv sites – e.g. Productionbase
• “Working the Room” at industry networking events – no real, viable relationships formed as a result of constantly looking for instant ‘usefulness’ indicators in conversations, looking over shoulders at other people who might be more ‘useful.” This behavior doesn’t really give the best impression.
• Music “giveaways.” I tried this once and it didn’t work… but it might next time.
• Myspace page (although I didn’t put a lot of effort into it)

Stuff I haven’t tried yet so can’t say either way. But these tips might send your business into the stratosphere, so am not ruling them out yet:

• Professional logo design.
• Headshots/professional photography (technically I have but it was for a different business – a live string group – and wasn’t really the right style for what I wanted to promote for my freelance composition).
• Professional web design.
• Hired professional PR and marketing services.
• Email list marketing (round-robins, news updates)
• Using bookmarking sites and comments on other blogs to drive traffic to my site (not intentionally anyway)
• Paid-for ghostwriters for blog content.
• Paid advertisements – e.g. Telephone directories on and offline, in trade magazines, on relevant trade websites.
• Real-world thank you notes (vs email, which I actually do quite a lot).
• Professionally printed branded headed note paper, ‘with compliments’ slips, holiday cards etc.
• Pursuing the press e.g. having a press pack ready, calling the press with a pre-made story or angle.
• Video interviews/vlog (e.g. on your blog).
• Branded associated merchandise – hats, cups, tshirts, bags, stuffed animals…
• Reverbnation page (technically I’ve got a page. but I’ve not put anything of interest on it. So can’t really claim to be an authority on this one)
• Publicity “stunts.”
• Cold-calling production companies. (I take the easy route and ask my working friends and colleagues who I’ve met through networking or working alongside in related media who work at those companies, what’s going on there. So, technically, it’s warm-calling).

Final word – and this is as technical as I’m going to get…

As media composers and sound designers, we are B2B – business to business – rather than B2C – business to consumer. We sell our services or our previously composed music to producers of other media as raw material for them to sculpt into the product that will be sold to the consumer – the audience. So a lot of the advice for marketing for musicians you may find on the web or offline, unless specifically for media music composers and sound designers, isn’t actually that relevant.

Ultimately, rather than focussing on the product, we’re aiming to be service providers – you’re selling you: your working personality, your style of collaboration, your creativity-on-tap. You can’t really afford to just let the music ‘speak for itself’. That’s your past. What you’re selling is in your future. Who you are as an artist. Your creative soul.

If that doesn’t scare you then you’re probably in the right business. Go get ‘em, tiger.

Which marketing strategies do you use? What’s worked and what hasn’t? What would you add to these lists, and what points here are you inspired to take away and implement immediately? Tell us in the comments below.

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And with them comes a huge load of deals perfectly suited for a serious shopping spree. We have compiled a list of the best deals out there, including convenient links to the respective websites and details about the nature of the deals.

With this list, which will be maintained and updated in the future we would also like to introduce you as our readership to our brand-new SCOREcast Technology Team, bringing you reviews, tutorials and the latest and greatest information about music technology.

We hope you enjoy the list and find some deals that will put your credit card to use!

8dio

All products

30% off until November 27th, 2011
use “gimmegimme” at checkout

Analogfactory

All products
50% off until December 5th, 2011

Antares

Autotune
Buy and Register Auto-Tune 7 Native or TDM by January 1, 2011 and Get a Free Copy of Mic Mod EFX!

Big Fish Audio

All products
“until Sunday the 27th of November.

• 25% OFF all orders of $199 or more. Use code: TGS25
• 15% OFF all orders of $99 to $198. Use code: TGS15
• 10% OFF all orders less then $99. Use code: TGS10″

Bluezone Corporation

All DL products
20% discount on all downloads until 30th November 2011

Cinesamples

All excl. CineBrass

Most products 40% off
Voxos/Hollywoodwinds 30% off
Until November 28th

DiscoDSP

All products
Black Friday Sale 50% OFF Until November 25th

EastWest

• Hollywood Brass
  “20% off for new licenses
  30% off for HollwoodStrings to HWBrass crossgrades
  30% off for HWS/HWB bundle”
• 2-for-1 Deal (buy one, get the 2nd of equal or lesser value FREE)
  HW Strings Diamond, HW Strings Gold, Spaces, The Dark Side, Symphonic Choirs Bundle/Single, EWQLSO Bundle/Platinum/Platinum Plus/Gold, Ministry of Rock 1 & 2, Goliath, Stormdrum Bundle/2, Silk, Gypsy, Pianos/Gold Edition, Ra, Fab Four, Voices of Passion

Groove3

• Music DAW / Production Tutorials
  During the entire month of November, you can save 50% off all downloads and you can get our 1-Year All-Access pass for only $99! That’s full online access to everything, for 1 year, for less than $100

Heaviocity

• Evolve: $309 $229
• Evolve Crossgrade 1: $269 $199
• Evolve Crossgrade 2: $229 $169
• Evolve KU Crossgrade:$229 $169
• Evolve 1.5 Upgrade: $29.95 $4.95″

Kirk Hunter

All titles
Group buy – 75% off

Loop Boutique

All DL products
Loop Boutique offers a 20% discount on all of their downloads until November 30th 2011

Musicians Friend

Hundreds (Too many to list)
Serious discounts, most items ship internationally

Native Instruments

• Amazon has Komplete 6 for $276.00
• Native-Instruments.com—50% off Komplete instruments and FX until November 28, 2011

Soniccouture

All products

• Starting on December 1st – “Buy One, Get One Free!”
• Also, current bundle deals include:
  Buy any 3, get 20% off: Enter Code – 77JW42VC3R
  Buy any 4, get 25% off: Enter Code -SIY6HC86JT

Sonivox

All, including Broadway Big Band libs
25% off, coupon “TURKEY”

Sonnox

Oxford plugin bundles
50% off

Soundiron

All products except Reqiem Light
33% off

Sugar Bytes

All products
Discounts vary until December 31st (visit site for more info)

Time & Space

Rob Papen Delay & Distort
£10 for the pair

XLN Audio

Addictive Drums
$99 instead of $249 (60% off)

Zero-G

All titles
30% off regular retail/Ends December 31st, 2011

iTunes RSS Link

Episode Description

We are celebrating five years on the air with a special visit from veteran video game composer extraordinaire Tom Salta. Tom stops by to chat with the boys about scoring games, the state of the game industry, the tools he uses, why he hates listening to film and game scores, and his work as alter-ego Atlas Plug. Deane and Brian also give an update on SCOREcast’s plans for the 2012 NAMM Show in Anaheim, and talk through all of the killer details surrounding this month’s SCOREcast 5th Anniversary celebration. It’s a whopping 2-hour episode that is chock-full of anniversary goodness, and definitely one that you don’t want to miss!

Comments and Discussion

Weigh in on this episode! We want to hear your thoughts—Log into the COMMENTS below to leave your opinions and participate in the discussion!

On-Air Questions

Have a question or a comment you’d like addressed on-air? There are now two ways to do it:
1) Send Deane and Brian an email at scorecastonline@gmail.com
2) Call the SCOREcast Hotline and leave a voicemail at (757) SCORE-60 [757-726-7360]

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As we move into yet another incarnation of the website, the podcast, and the new horizons of community-building across the film music universe, I am excited for the future of SCOREcast and I want to tell you personally how grateful I am for the part that you have played in our success. We are excited to bring even more awareness, information, opinion, editorial, review, and debate to the already incredibly diverse SCOREcast audience in this fifth year.

SCOREcastOnline.com

We’ve redesigned the website—the third version since its launch in July of 2009. The new site will push to the web today, in conjunction with our anniversary festivities (watch the site for details on all that’s happening this month for our anniversary!). I believe the new design brings with it several key features that are going to revolutionize much of the way our film music community interacts with one another. Forums (in beta now… with much input and guidance from all of you), multi-author collaboration, videocasts, product reviews, and reader-submitted content are only a few of the new features that we are implementing for this re-launch.

Channel Content

We have divided the site up into “channels”: Business, Technology, Community, Workflow, and Composition. Each channel has a senior editor, with a cadre of contributing authors working with that person to bring the most up-to-date and relevant content to the forefront on each channel. More on this in a second…

Advertising

We are also opening up the site and podcast to outside advertisers for the first time in SCOREcast history. Manufacturers and developers have hounded us about this for years, but I’ve been a big proponent of us thoroughly researching this tactic before we actually pulled the trigger. I have always believed that the unique authority we’ve built so quickly within the community has come about partly because we are beholden to no one—we’ve never taken corporate sponsors, advertising money, or endorsements by anyone other than the aforementioned academic institutions. After years of careful research, thought and consideration, the Advisory Board has devised a way to enable software and gear manufacturers to partner with SCOREcast in advertising to our community without a muzzle being placed on our contributors, product reviewers, and authors. I am very pleased and excited about this model for advertising on SCOREcastOnline.com, and you will start seeing the first of these partnerships towards the beginning of 2012.

Chapter Communities

In 2009, we launched SCOREcast: London—our very first international Chapter Community. James Semple, our SCOREcast: London chapter director, has done one hell of an amazing job cultivating and caring for the large SCOREcast community of UK composers in that region of the world. Off the success of SCOREcast: London, we also launched SCOREcast: Hollywood, which blew up with over 125 community members within the first two hours of launching, and is being spearheaded by Los Angeles composer Johnny Knittle and his team. We are now training chapter directors for Boston, Austin, Berlin, and Toronto with our “SCO In a Box” program, and we plan to launch several more Community Chapters throughout 2012.

Senior Editorial Staff

To better serve our readership and community, we are adding to the editorial staff that will oversee each of the previously mentioned channels. Our international team of contributing writers, reviewers, community managers, and forum moderators has grown exponentially and we are excited to introduce all of these people to you over the next three weeks as we roll out our anniversary festivities.

Thank YOU

Thank you. Thank YOU. You have been huge in this, and you may not even realize it. All of the commenting, the visits, the Retweets, the Facebook status messages, the discussion, the debate, the disagreeing, the nods of approval, the sharing… it all has meant so much to us. It really keeps us going. It makes this all worthwhile in every way. Please don’t stop. Keep helping us spread the message that a career in the film, television, and game music industry is one of the most rewarding and creative careers out there.

Thank you for sticking with us for five long years. We’re ALL excited to see what happens this year. If you want to be even more involved than you are now—to take the next step and become part of the team around here—drop us a line and let us know what you have in mind. There are many places to serve. It’s a big community!

(reprinted from DeaneOgden.com)

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Episode Description

In this episode, the boys answer your questions in our very first social media-centric episode of SCOREcast. Nothing is sacred—topics include samples versus live instruments, composer copyright issues, dealing with your first film project, handling directors, where to live when starting a film scoring career, and much, much more. We’ll also give you a sneak peek into what we have planned for SCOREcast’s 5th Anniversary, and how you can get the full scoop coming up on what’s ahead for the website and podcast. Check it out!

Community Discussion

Weigh in on this episode! We want to hear your thoughts—Log into the COMMENTS below to leave your opinions and participate in the discussion!

On-Air Questions

Have a question or a comment you’d like addressed on-air? There are now two ways to do it:
1) Send Deane and Brian an email at scorecastonline@gmail.com
2) Call the SCOREcast Hotline and leave a voicemail at (757) SCORE-60 [757-726-7360]

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Steve Jobs’ Legacy

Apple changed the music industry forever with iTunes. One need only look at the fact a CD in a store is hard to come by anymore—an attribute that tracks directly back to the ingenuity of Steve Jobs. As a film composer, I look around my studio and see how so much of my business is based on products that Steve touched. Is it a tribute or a tragic irony that I learned of the death of Steve Jobs on a device he created, and then followed the coverage of his death on that device for the rest of the evening as I propagated through the remainder of my schedule?

The legacy of Steve Jobs will be different for everyone. For me, the most important lesson from Steve’s successful life is not a tangible product. It is not the iPad, the iPhone, the MacBook Pro, or my MacPro that is used to create music every day. It is not even the stories of Pixar, which time after time seem to find a home in the hearts of people around the world. To me, the most important legacy and lesson from Steve’s life is simply the way he lived his life.

You see, Steve followed his passion in every sense of the word. For him, that passion was not just computers. It was making the world better with the products he touched and invented. It was not selling the most of any one product. It was making the technology we use everyday more human and more connected to our lives. That quest was Steve’s passion. The fact that he lived his passion and found success with it is a huge inspiration to me.

What I’ve Learned About “Passion”

Many years ago, I was not on a path to composing music or scoring films. My life was headed in a much different direction. I actually have a degree in Biochemistry, and  I was a nationally certified Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). I worked for a neurologist for three years doing clinical research in the areas of Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Peripheral Neuropathy. I took the MCATs and was beginning my medical school interviews when I had an epiphany—a soul searching moment that would end up changing the direction of my life forever. I asked myself, “Why am I doing this? Is this really what I love?” Sure I enjoyed the science of it and I enjoyed helping those in need. But was it my passion?

My answer was a surprising and resounding “NO!” My true passion was music—specifically, I wanted to be a film composer. After seeing Star Wars and Superman as a kid, it was what I wanted to do. And now I was standing at a definite fork in the road of life and had to make a decision. Ultimately, my decision was to follow my passion. I left my medical roots and began walking down the path of music. I never looked back. It led me to USC’s film scoring program, and as it is in our industry, one job has always led to the next. And I don’t regret any of it.

Steve Jobs’ True Legacy

I guess that is why, in my mind at least, Steve Jobs’ real legacy is the fact that he followed his passion. I believe that his quest to live his passion day-in and day-out is the single reason his life was so successful.

The entertainment industry is pretty cut-throat. It will chew you up and spit you out. Thousands of people flood into this industry every year thinking they are different and that they will find easy success. Yet every year, thousands are spit out as they crawl back home with their tail between their legs and their soul seemingly sucked dry. But you know what? In a way, I feel somewhat immune to that fear. Why? Because I am following my passion. I can’t think of anything else in my life that I would want to do on a daily basis. That is the true test, isn’t it? The day you get up and hate what you are doing, you better do something else or you will get eaten up and spit out, too. I have met some in this industry who are truly passionate about what they are doing, but I have also met some who are not. The most successful ones are NOT the ones just going through the motions. They are the ones who emote their passion for this field—their passion for film composing. It is a different beast than songwriting, a different trade skill, to be sure. We tell a story with our music. We help support what is onscreen. In order to do that well, we must be able to recognize the emotional heart of the story at hand.

I have a passion for film scoring. Following that passion against all odds is what convinces me I am on the right track in life. I’ll leave you with some words from Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford commencement address.  This was not long after he first discovered he had pancreatic cancer.

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” — Steven P. Jobs (1955-2011)

10 Lessons on “Breaking In”

I learn something new on every film and further hone my craft and skill with each project.  There are some truly fundamental things I have learned in the last few years.  Many years ago, fresh out of USC’s Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television Program, I was given one particular piece of advice, from a highly respected composer that influenced me greatly as I set out on my composing career.  I would like to share this advice as well as some of my own lessons with you.  Here is my “top ten” list of lessons learned while breaking into the industry as a composer.

1) You have to break into the business of tomorrow, not the business of today.

Basil Poledouris said that. Today’s working directors and producers already have established composer relationships they go back to over and over. You have to find the up and coming directors and producers of “tomorrow” and work with them now before they make it in Hollywood. When they eventually get their first studio gig, they will usually go back to the people they know and trust from when they were struggling themselves. Hopefully you will be one of those people on their team.

2) Everyone’s path is different.

So don’t think if you do what the guy next to you is doing, you will get the same result.  Some composers are at the right place (or on the right film) at the right time, and their preparation synergistically meets with their opportunity.  Some pound the grind stone for years and years before getting noticed.  Careers are like snowflakes.  No two career paths are alike.

3) Set a precedent as Department Head.

Music Composer (as on-screen credited on a film or show) is a “department head” job. The only way you will get bigger and better department head jobs (on multi-million dollar films) is to have a proven track record AS A DEPARTMENT HEAD on previous SUCCESSFUL films. Being the composer’s assistant, ghostwriter, orchestrator or musician on studio films do not count as a DEPARTMENT HEAD and will not help a studio see you as less of a risk in the composer job. I have learned this from 4 different studio level producers. This is all I have been hearing for the last 8-9 years.  Don’t get me wrong, composer assistants, orchestrators, etc…are positions to be respected and it is valid work.  It just usually does not lead to a career as the lead composer.  And it certainly will not give you the freedom to develop your own “sound” which is also very important in building your brand as a composer.   Remember, your sound is what you will get hired for.

4) Main title, on-screen credits matter most.

If you are not the on-screen credited person, the credit really will not count to a producer hiring you to be their lead composer.  This is a subtle difference.  Again…working under the wing of another composer is valuable experience and work to be proud of, but you were not the lead composer in charge.  Your reputation was not the one on the line.  It is that on-screen, single, main title card credit of “music by…” that really matters most on your resumé.

5) Recommendations are key.

A word of mouth recommendation is a more powerful influence to getting a gig than anything else. If you get a strong recommendation from someone a director or producer respects, they will hire you nine times out of ten. One job truly leads to the next in this business.  And it is not just about getting “the gig” but also getting their next gig.  If the people you are working for hire you over and over again, you are probably doing something right.  If not, you may have to do some self evaluation.

6) The entertainment industry is a business of relationships.

Those relationships take years to establish. Trust takes a long time to build and a short time to fall.  You better be in this for the long haul.  Do not expect to arrive in town and think you are going to quickly find work.  It may take a good 5-7 years to start composing on films where people will start to notice you and another 5-7 to build off of that.  Ask yourself, are you in this for the long haul?

7) Be a good listener. Be a good communicator.

I could go on and on about this one in an article by itself. But to be successful in your job, you will have to be a master at both of these tasks.

8) Be “production friendly.”

Meaning… don’t be myopic to the music department issues only. Learn about every other step of the process in making a film. Heck…produce your own film sometime to learn about all the other issues one has to deal with in shooting and budgeting for a film. It will not only help you better communicate with a director as the composer, but it WILL make you a better composer in the long run. You will understand where everyone has just come from on a shoot and why things are the way they are in Post (which is usually the only thing composers care about).

9) You must be well rounded in your skills.

A successful composer in Hollywood is not just successful because they are good at composing music. Most all of them are great business people as well. They know how to market themselves. They know how to work a room at a meeting or at a social event. And, they know how to make a director feel like their film is the best film of the year. I know plenty of great composers.  The ones who do not make it usually fail due to issues completely unrelated to being a composer. The ones who have made it to various degrees (while competent in their craft) were not always the best composers…but were great at all of the other things. They were pleasant to be around and had a work ethic and professionalism that pushed them above the rest.  And thus…they kept getting hired.

10) Refer back to #1.

Holding true to these lessons over the last few years while working and following my own path has led me to conclude that doing my own music, developing my own sound, and networking to get my own composer gigs was the path for me. Maybe it isn’t for you. Perhaps you may want to experience the industry from the perspective of being someone’s assistant for a while; you can obtain real world experience and at least make a living while working in the field of music. Again for me, I would much rather spend all of my time on building my own credit list, reputation and skills as the lead composer.

Thinkers Welcome.

What are your “lessons learned”? COMMENTS are wide open below, and I’d love to hear your list!

Episode Description

In this SCOREcast Session episode originally recorded on June 4, 2011, Brian Ralston sat down with composer James Horner’s long-time music editor Jim Henrikson and Cuetime software developer and music editor Dan Brock to discuss the role of the music editor in the Hollywood feature filmmaking process. Get ready for an incredibly entertaining episode full of stories from some of filmmaking’s greatest moments, including a behind-the-scenes rundown on how the music for James Cameron’s 3D sensation Avatar was recorded. This is one episode you will not want to miss!

Community Discussion

Weigh in on this episode! We want to hear your thoughts—Log into the COMMENTS below to leave your opinions and participate in the discussion!

On-Air Questions

Have a question or a comment you’d like addressed on-air? There are now two ways to do it:

1) Send Deane and Brian an email at scorecastonline@gmail.com
2) Call the SCOREcast Hotline and leave a voicemail at (757) SCORE-60 [757-726-7360]

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Why am I saying that Google+ will have huge advantages for composers and musicians in general? (Please keep in mind that I am not trying to compare it to other social networks. We all know what’s possible with them … and what’s not!)

Circles

At first sight it might look a bit irritating, but once understood, the concept of Circles make big sense. Basically, Circles are nothing more than lists you are able to create for specific people. You can create a Circle for all your clients, or one for all the musicians you might considering hiring for your next project. You may create a Circle for friends and one for family.

The possibilities are almost endless. Just a few examples:

• You have close friends, spread around the globe and you feel like sharing some private news but don’t feel like involving all of your clients? Simply set up a specific Circle by only involving your friends!
• You are looking for a guitar player to hire for your next project. Isn’t it a great option to only send a post out to your “hire musicians” Circle and leave the stream “uncluttered” for your clients or friends?
• One of your hobbies might be Lucid Dreaming and you want to share and spread your experience but also learn from other people. Put them all in a Circle.

Hang Outs

This is really a great feature! A Hang Out is nothing less than a group video chat conference. Wouldn’t it be simply cool to hang out with your bandmates who are spread around the country and working out a new idea? Wouldn’t it be of great advantage to have a video conference between an audio director and a co-working composer discussing an upcoming project? Wouldn’t it be awesome to directly talk to your hired remote musician to discus that violin arrangement?

Huddles

Woot? Yes, a huddle is basically a “text chat” between two or several members on your mobile phone. It works really well and gives you the option to arrange, e.g. a changing meeting, letting several people know that you might be late due to a traffic jam or whatever … you get the idea!

The Stream and your posts

There is really lot to the Stream and how you can post content on Google+. One of the strongest features is that you are not limited to 140 characters—you can almost write a full-length blog post. I couldn’t say it better than +Mike Elgan did:

Instead of saying, ‘I’m going to write a blog post now,’ or ‘I’m going to send an e-mail,’ or ‘I think I’ll tweet something,’ you simply say what you have to say, then decide who you’re going to say it to.

If you address it to “Public” it’s a blog post.
If you address it to “Your Circles” it’s a tweet.
If you address it to your “My Customers” Circle it’s a business newsletter.
If you address it to a single person, it can be a letter to your mother.
I’d say this is pretty revolutionary.

I simply have to agree with him!

I hope I was able to give you a bit of an insight of what is possible with Google+. In my opinion, social networking is vital, important, and necessary—especially as a self employed composer. Please consider that Google+ is still in beta and I am sure there are lots of awesome features to come.

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Episode Description

The boys are back, they’re mad as hell, and they’re not gonna take it anymore!
In this episode, things get pretty heated as Deane and Brian hash through some controversial topics including the new composer agency at WME, UJam’s songwriting software being actively endorsed by the Zimmer camp, and a recap of recent unionization news. Finally, in a segment that will be valuable to most people struggling to get started in the business, Deane and Brian dissect a real-life scenario regarding the right way to begin a professional media composing career. Add to that a look inside the creation of Cinesamples’ Cinebrass library as well as our ever popular Top Picks segment, and you’ve got an episode that packs a pretty powerful punch. With almost 90 minutes of rapid-fire content, this episode is one you are not going to want to miss!

Community Discussion

Weigh in on this episode! We want to hear your thoughts—Log into the COMMENTS below to leave your opinions and participate in the discussion!

On-Air Questions

Have a question or a comment you’d like addressed on-air? There are now two ways to do it:
1) Send Deane and Brian an email at scorecastonline@gmail.com
2) Call the SCOREcast Hotline and leave a voicemail at (757) SCORE-60 [757-726-7360]

“WHAT? You’re moving to Los Angeles to do WHAT?”

That was the reaction from the majority of my Oregonian friends when I unveiled my plan to come to Hollywood and score films full-time. To this day, I catch shit from my friends up north for “going California”. They don’t understand how I could just voluntarily forfeit the simple life of Oregon to live and work in one of America’s busiest and most expensive cities… not to mention in an industry that serves up entertainment and fictional escapism as its mainstay product. (We won’t mention the fact that they flock to the cinemas in droves on weekends to sample what we are serving up. We’ll just pretend we don’t know about that little tidbit.)

I love this city. I’ve been here for over a decade now. Although my work over the years has forced me to become more of a citizen of the world, it’s always a great feeling when my key hits the lock at my home in Los Angeles. However, that luxury has come with a lot of trial and error. When I moved to Los Angeles to do this gig, I didn’t know a soul. I had no family here, no friends, no acquaintances. For about the first 12 to 18 months, I was shooting in the dark. I didn’t know anything about the studio system, and I had no connections to people who did. Even though I had been moderately successful as a player and could come in from that side every once in a great while on something, it was almost always a playing gig—Nice for paying the rent, but not so hot for advancing my career as a film composer. I wasn’t coming in straight out of USC, UCLA, or NYU, so I had no residual school relationships that were of any value to me in my new environment. I was, as Paladin’s calling card read, a knight without armor in a savage land.

However, as I began to find my way around, I met a few people here and there and started to pay attention to the community happenings that were being advertised throughout town. “Film Music Magazine presents a Film Music Panel at the Beverly Garland Hotel – Friday night, 7pm.” “ASCAP Music Expo – $300 bucks for three days of great stuff!” “The SCL presents an Evening with Thomas Newman – free for all members, or $35 for non-members.” This stuff was everywhere, and once I figured out how to access all of it, I started attending anything and everything that had the words “film music” in the title. At these various seminars and events, I started to receive all sorts of information and advice from people on how to get a sure footing right out of the gate. The advertising for many of these events read like a magic bullet for my woes: “Get Started Making Money NOW in the Exciting World of Music for Media.” Everyone had a program. There were schools, seminars, events, panels, expos, classes, salons, meetings, mixers, showcases, symposiums, groups, websites, forums… a plethora of “help” for newly transplanted aspiring composers.

The problem was… they didn’t help.

As I banged my head against the wall, I really started to analyze what it was that I had actually done. My inner compass started speaking, and I discovered where I had gone wrong:

I’d moved to a place I knew virtually nothing about, amongst people who didn’t know I existed, and yet I expected them to all of a sudden stand up and take notice of me.

How ridiculously unrealistic (not to mention self-absorbed) was that? All the time I spent blaming Hollywood for being an “exclusive closed-off” community, and here I was approaching a long-established system without a proper understanding of that system’s schematics. The blame, I discovered quickly, was all on me.

I think I speak for many composers out there who are now working successfully after years of “paying dues” when I say that while a lot of the frustration and confusion of trying to “break in” can be be attributed to the fact that it’s just plain tough to do so, the majority of the struggle of a beginning composer can be adequately described as a dangerous cocktail of inexperience, desperation, over-eagerness, and naivety. Said another way, I believe that most beginning composers do way more to hamstring themselves than Hollywood could ever do. It is so easy to blame “The System”, but if we’re being honest, it is operator error that is at the root of most beginning composers’ inability to grab a foothold in the community of film music.

There are hundreds of possible missteps on the way to even a modestly successful career in film music, but I want to outline a specific five that I believe will trip you up quickest as a beginning composer fresh off the truck in Los Angeles (or New York, if that’s more your speed). But before we get into this, I want to make you a deal: Agree with me that eradicating any of these things from your life (or any combination of them) is not going to guarantee you anything in terms of success. Success will only come to you like it comes to everybody else embarking on any purposed endeavor in life: through staunch persistence, absolute flexibility, unwavering resilience, self-motivation, careful and strategic planning… and just plain dumb luck. I cannot tell you how to achieve any of those characteristics—I’m not sure anyone really can. You sort of either have them or you don’t. But I will highlight some practical temptations that I think are worth avoiding… and I’d like to know if you’ve had experiences with any of them, positive or negative. Log-in below and leave a comment. I’ll be watching them this week.

Worst Advice #1: MOVE TO LOS ANGELES AS FAST AS YOU CAN.

I know. Everyone is telling you (me included) that to really get serious about this gig, you have to be in Los Angeles. That’s true. There are all sorts of reasons why I say that, and I won’t go into them here because of time restraints, but the main reason is one of proximity—the studios just simply need you close to them. It’s really that simple. If you want to play in the major leagues (the studio system) you need to be able to walk into the league offices anytime they need you to. Where are the league offices of the film music world? In Los Angeles, California.

Are there alternatives? Sure. It is entirely possible to score films in outposts such as Austin, Berlin, Atlanta, Tokyo, Seattle, Philly, Brussels, or Boston… but understand that unless you are an established proven entity with released features already under your belt, you are not going to be considered seriously for work in the Hollywood studio system. If you are okay with that, then stay put and work your ass off. There are plenty of composers who carve out a great living doing indies in their own area. But studio feature composers all live and work here. That’s just the way it is. The studios like their people close by, especially people they are entrusting several-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars to in exchange for an award-winning score. Think about that for a minute and then ask yourself again if you are better off staying in Hoboken. See the difference?

Having said all that, do not jump on a train today to get here tomorrow. In fact, that’s probably the dumbest thing you could do. A move to a new metropolitan area anywhere in the world takes a lot of planning and consideration before the first action step can even be determined. Have you through through how you plan to survive once you get here? Living in California is expensive, especially southern California. A one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles (that you don’t have to share with someone who won’t put up with your composing hours) is going to run you upwards of $1,300/month, and that’s on the frugal end of the spectrum. Food doesn’t come cheap either, unless you are super-into Top Ramen or Taco Bell’s “99¢ Menu”. What about transportation? You have to have it if you want to take meetings. If you are planning to bring your car into California, it needs to pass a California State Emissions Inspection, otherwise known as a “smog test”. The test itself will only run you about 25 bucks, but if your automobile fails the test, you are looking at a hefty sum to bring the car to standard in order to pass. State law renders the automobile “non-operational” until it passes inspection, so this could be a huge problem if you have an older car or a problematic one. Additionally, the fee to register your vehicle in California is based on the blue-book value of the automobile. If you have an older car, this might not be that big a deal for you. However, if you are driving a newer car, be careful—you could easily pay up to $700 to register your car in California. Figure in gasoline expenses on top of all this—over $4 per gallon at the time of this writing—and operating your own car in LA can put a dent in the pocketbook fast.

Not bringing your own car? Fine, but you’ll still need plenty of cash in order to get around. Unlike New York City, Paris, or Tokyo, taxis in Los Angeles are not a financially viable option for transportation. A ride across town will cost you at least $25, and that’s if you are traveling during low-peak traffic times. This city is flat, spread out, and definitely not built with expansion in mind. Getting from a meeting at Sony in Culver City (south/central) to your next meeting at Warner Bros. in Burbank (northeast) can easily be an all-day excursion. Most cab rides from Santa Monica to Burbank run about $32 bucks. Conversely, the Metro system (LA’s answer to underground public rail) will get you there cheaper, but not any faster. Navigating the Metro’s transferring system (which you’ll have to do at least twice if traveling north and south) is frustrating and nerve-wracking when you have an appointment that you cannot be late for.

You need to think about these things BEFORE you get here, not after. Too many people take the gung-ho approach of “I’ll figure it out! If I don’t go NOW, I’ll never go!” While I applaud the tenacity behind that kind of beach-storming approach, it’s not a smart way to go. Take some time, develop a plan, and think it through from every angle possible. Line up a day job prior to moving here. Have at least three or four months of income saved up and in reserve upon arrival. It will go fast, trust me. You have no idea. Plan, plan, plan, plan, and plan some more. Don’t be stupid. Take care of yourself first. You want to make this move ONE time, and one time only. If you have the talent, it will be the most important and strategic move of your life. Don’t blow it by being overanxious. This isn’t American Idol, where “there will always be next year”. There is no next year. You’ve got one shot—do it right and make it count.

Worst Advice #2: PICK YOUR MEDIUM: FILM OR TV, BUT NOT BOTH.

It used to be that it was smarter to pick your focus and run with it. TV or film, but not both. Times have drastically changed, however, and virtually every film composer who is still working has had to learn to diversify out of necessity. Most working composers are involved in a combination of film, television, video games, concert works, and custom library production. If you ever hear the words, “You shouldn’t do both, you have to pick one,” whether it be from an agent, a producer, or another composer, chances are that person came up in a different generation and may be operating in an area of the business that still honors his/her long-held relationships.  In other words, that person has been at it so long that they have a built in clientele that rarely goes elsewhere for music, hence they are almost always working in the same medium.

In today’s market, a person who does not have their fingers in as many pies as possible is simply not thinking ahead as a businessperson. From June 2010 to June 2011, I scored three films, wrote music for eight television shows, wrote the music for a live international theatrical production, and played drums on four Top 40 records. I also edited SCOREcastOnline.com, started a bi-weekly newsletter for Creatives, and closely maintained my social connections in the community. I do a lot. Even still, I am constantly seeking out new opportunities to do more and to keep my two companies, Deane Ogden Music™ and Ogden Creative, barreling down the tracks in full creative splendor.

The myth of selecting one course of focus in the film industry is long gone. Jon Favreau used to act. Now he acts and directs. Steven Spielberg used to direct. Now he directs and produces. Hans Zimmer used to score features. Now he scores features, scores video games, and develops software. It is a different world out there than it was even ten years ago. You have to get yourself positioned to handle multiple avenues of creative output if you want to survive in the new creative climate.

Worst Advice #3: GET AN AGENT.

There isn’t enough space here for me to adequately or completely explain how premature it is for you to be at all concerned about representation by an agent or a manager without first building some momentum in your career. If you are a recent transplant to LA, just take my word for it… you aren’t ready for an agent/manager. Since you haven’t done anything yet that scales to an identifiable or potential box-office success, you don’t have the kind of traction that will attract legitimate representation. Contrary to popular belief, the agent/client relationship is a two-way street: You must be valuable to them, too. Not just the other way around. The best agent/client relationships are the ones where each party serves the other.

The very phrase, “Get an agent” is misleading anyhow because that’s not the way it works. If the agent is at all legitimate, he or she will already have clients before you ever come along, and in that case, “getting” them isn’t likely unless you are Trent Reznor and coming from a successful run in another part of the industry. You have to bring something to the party. They have to “get” you. A few short films and your college roommate’s senior thesis project isn’t going to cut it. An agent/manager will not care about your cousin’s indie thriller that you scored back home in Wisconsin. Why? Because they need to eat just as badly as you do. They aren’t doing this for free, anymore than you should be (more on that in a minute). If you have nothing happening that the agent/manager can leverage to bolster your career, their hands are tied. Momentum is the name of the game for an agent/manager.

Sure, they need to pull their weight and be actively putting you up for jobs, signing you for as many as they can, but that doesn’t mean you can sit idly back and drink Margarita’s by the pool. A composer gets hired, almost always, based on his or her track record with the principals in charge or because of a relationship with the music team that is already on the project. I’ve been at this awhile, and I’ve hustled for each one of my own gigs, save for a small few. I didn’t have an agent until I was well into the second season of my first network television show. Up until then, I was so concerned with keeping my head above water with a weekly writing assignment that I never had time to even think about representation. I had my attorney negotiate my contracts and left it at that. My agent found me, not the other way around. Once I was “gettable” (read: valuable), agents and managers started calling.

Being concerned about getting an agent within the first year or so of landing in LA is like being worried about getting your drivers license before you are legally old enough to drive. It’s just not where you should be concentrating your efforts. Get out there and hustle for yourself. When you get a gig, write the best music of your life. That’s where your focus should be. Make yourself “gettable”. Then, the agents and the managers will find you.

Worst Advice #4: GET ALL THE LATEST GEAR.

Logic would follow that in order to make great things, you have to have the tools to be able to do it and do it in a way that the industry demands. Therefore, building your studio—having it ready to roll at a moment’s notice, with all of the top gear and software titles at your disposal—seems like a best practice in an industry that literally could come calling five minutes from now with a request that could change your life. But here is the dirty little secret: You’re going to be building your studio for the rest of your career. It is going to be something that never ends. You will always be one step behind what the developers and manufacturers are putting out there.

Waiting around to start creating and working until you have your studio in place, in just the way you’ve always wanted it, is a complete waste of time. I have a beautiful studio. I love all of the pieces that have gone into making my creative space totally work for me when I need to sit down and write, produce, record, or sketch something out. But am I completely satisfied with it? Not even close. In fact, there is a piece of software I just purchased this morning that would have been nice to have on my last project, but I was too busy and in way too deep creatively to stop and figure out how to integrate it mid-project. Having it in my arsenal would have saved me time and effort, but integrating it mid-stream would have been tempting fate, so I laid back and waited. And you know what? That isn’t a new phenomenon for me. It happens constantly, and you just have to accept it and move ahead with what is in front of you to complete. After you turn in your finished mix stems, then you can tweak, tinker, and toy with new goodies until the next thing is due.

My advice? Buy what is absolutely necessary to start writing music, and leave it at that until you can afford to intelligently purchase more. That might mean that you buy a computer, an interface, and a set of near-field monitors. It might mean that you go spend $20 on a ream of staff paper and a box of No. 2 pencils. By intelligently, I’m talking about the point at which you have enough discretionary income to make an intentional purchase that will not squeeze you financially. Remember what I said in #1: You have to always take care of yourself first. Do not put yourself in a position where you have to take another day job just to fund your studio gear habit. At that point you are a slave to your stuff, which is a horrible position to be in. Your first priority is to write. Get what is absolutely critical, buy the best you can afford at the time, and start writing music.

Worst Advice #5: TAKE EVERY GIG.

If you’ve heard this once, you’ve heard it a million times…. and from probably every composer you’ve come in contact with. “Take every gig.” Take every, every, every, every gig!” “Did I mention… take EVERY gig?!”

When the “take every gig” thing was at its peak, it was actually pretty sound advice because, well… there weren’t that many gigs! If you didn’t take the one being offered you, you were essentially passing up what was probably a golden opportunity to move your career forward in a positive direction. Since the gigs that were out there were all bonafide studio pictures, the majority of them paid quite well and often led to other work for the same producers/director. But times have changed. What sometimes passes for a “gig” these days has put a blight on our craft of filmmaking, and any dope with a camera and a pirated copy of Final Cut Pro can string together a “film”.  That is all complicated by the fact that there are more composers than there are “gigs”, so when a gig does comes along, it may or may not have dollars waiting on the other side of it. If it is an amateur project with no money behind it, you might refuse to work for free, but the 1,002 aspiring composers behind you who are perfectly willing to do that gig just to be “scoring something” will easily fill the void in your absence.

My take? DON’T take every gig, unless it pays you something. I’ve written about this before here, so I won’t rehash it too much, but EVERY gig should pay you SOMETHING. It doesn’t have to be cash money, because God knows unless you happened to become bosom buddies with Neal Moritz over a caramel macchiato at Starbucks yesterday afternoon, you are going to be on smaller projects until you develop into a full-fledged known quantity. So, don’t be as worried about the form of payment as much as you are about being given something of value in return for you handing over your very valuable music. Never work for free, but be creative in how you take payment. I once worked a small logo gig for a company that was launching their first production shingle. The entire conversation started out with them asking me for a favor, hat in hand. “I love you guys, but I don’t work for free,” I told them. “But we don’t have any money to spend on this,” they said. I responded, “Who said anything about money? I just won’t do it for nothing. I’m really into the gig, so let’s get creative and figure something out.”

A deal was struck, and I created a nice little :10 second musical logo for their fanfare. They bought me a brand new loaded Mac Pro for my second studio room. While not as nice as cash in hand, it still equated a value of around $8,200 at the time. They put it on a credit card and took it as a tax write-off. I sold the computer and deposited $7,500 into my bank account. Everybody wins.

Something happens when you are “on a gig”: You put your head down. You do the gig. If your head is down, you aren’t looking for other gigs. You are doing the gig that is in front of you, as you should be. So why would you give up other work to be on a project that is not paying you anything? That’s stupid. I think you get the point.

—–

In closing, each of these things I’ve talked about are real things you’ll hear, if you haven’t already. It’s not that people are trying to screw you—at least I personally don’t believe that it is. But you have to be smart, and you have to think above the standard that you’ve probably grown accustomed to living “outside the beltway”. Your bullshit detector probably needs a little dusting off. My dad is fond of saying, “Trust everyone, but cut the cards.” In other words, do the work of researching people’s promises. Don’t get caught up in the hype of “Make Money Now!”… odds are, you won’t. In fact, try to think outside of the confines of dollars and cents, altogether. You’ll do a lot more in a far shorter amount of time if you can break free of that mentality and instead start thinking strategically and creatively. Go for win-win situations instead of settling for whatever anyone tries to sell you.

Always remember that this is YOUR business… not theirs. If your business crumbled tomorrow, who would it really affect? You, of course. Not them. They don’t have anything at stake, so it is nothing for them to simply steer you into whatever they think might help you the best. Hey… who’s to say it won’t? Maybe it will… but it is up to you to check things out, gather lots of information, and make informed decisions that you can stand behind and own.

If you want to be famous, you’re not ready.

• If you want to get rich, you’re not ready.
• If you’ve never A/B’d your music against professionally produced material, you’re not ready.
• If you don’t know how royalties work, you’re not ready.
• If you illegally download your music or software, you’re not ready.
• If you have never created a budget for anything in your life, you’re not ready.
• If you can’t work with a team, you’re not ready.
• If you can’t handle criticism, you’re not ready.
• If you don’t have a website, you’re not ready.

If you snap under pressure, you’re not ready.

• If people tend to accuse you of being disorganized, you’re not ready.
• If you don’t know what “counterpoint” is, you’re not ready.
• If you lack everyday common business skills (i.e. returning correspondence, being punctual, etc.), you’re not ready.
• If you get paralyzed by fear in networking situations, you’re not ready.
• If you can’t “sell an idea” to someone behind a desk, you’re not ready.
• If you never connect emotionally with fictional characters, you’re not ready.
• If you are “waiting for someone to give you your big break”, you’re not ready.
• If the acronym “IMDb” is Greek to you, you’re not ready.
• If you attend meetings in t-shirts or flip-flops, you’re not ready.
• If you don’t understand pacing, you’re not ready.

If you talk more than you listen, you’re not ready.

• If you don’t like to negotiate, you’re not ready.
• If you “only want to write the music”, you’re not ready.
• If you think loops are enough, you’re not ready.
• If you don’t care about the greater film music community, you’re not ready.
• If most of what you write is at 120 bpm and in “C”, you’re not ready.
• If you don’t have a demo reel, you’re not ready.
• If you think you are irreplaceable, you’re not ready.
• If you don’t understand the difference between the “independent system” and the “studio system”, you’re not ready.
• If you are searching for an easy way, you’re not ready.

If you think this list is unreasonable (or in any way complete)… you’re not ready.

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Episode Description

Chipmunks, Spartans, and bunny rabbits——Oh my!! In our 29th episode, Emmy-nominated composer Christopher Lennertz (Alvin and the Chipmunks, Marmaduke, Hop!) stops in to hang out with Deane and Brian and talk about everything from scoring features, games, and television to didgeridoos and chocolate bunny rabbits! The boys also discuss a new film music financing model that is gaining traction in industry circles, and they continue the ongoing discussion of the proposed composers union in order to highlight a few very interesting recent developments. If this episode sounds like it is packed to the gills, that’s because IT IS! Hunker down and take it all in!

Comments and Discussion

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On-Air Questions

Have a question or a comment you’d like addressed on-air? There are now two ways to do it:
1) Send Deane and Brian an email at scorecastonline@gmail.com
2) Call the SCOREcast Hotline and leave a voicemail at (757) SCORE-60 [757-726-7360]

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That’s why we were excited when our own Brian Ralston got a chance to chill out with Andrew Keresztes and Sebastian Katz of Audiobro for a few minutes at the 2011 NAMM Show and get the scoop on some upcoming additions to this already incredibly useful string library. Here’s the latest—straight from the source!

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Have you tried out Cinematic Guitars yet? What’s your take on it? Let us know in the COMMENTS below!

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Are you a MOTU or an ADAM Audio user? Log into the COMMENTS below and share your experiences with these companies.

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Are you already a fan of Ilio’s collection of virtual instruments? Log in to the COMMENTS below and let us know how you’ve used them in your work.

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Log in to the COMMENTS below and let us know what you think about your experience with Cinesamples’ CineOrch and Deep Percussion Beds!

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Yet one can’t ignore Pro Tools completely, largely because it’s so firmly entrenched in audio-for-video post-production, scoring and dub stages, and almost all commercial recording studios. Often, composers are asked to provide finished mixes or stems in Pro Tools compatible format, or in some cases, spotted into a Pro Tools session file. Or, they may do part of their composing, programming, or mixing in their personal studio, but then go to a commercial studio or soundstage for orchestral recording or other parts of the production.

Lately I’ve received a barrage of e-mail promotions from Avid (formerly Digidesign), touting their new Pro Tools 9 software. Finding the hype generated more confusion than clarity, I’ve done some research. With Pro Tools 9, Avid has finally taken steps to make their products more compatible and more competitive in the composer’s world, and maybe even help a few composers finally cross over the line to a Pro Tools purchase.

Unlike last year’s NAMM Show, at which Avid showed… benches (!), this year’s promises to be center of a lot of interest. Here’s what it’s all about:

Pro Tools 9
First of all, to review, Pro Tools has always consisted of two distinct product lines: Pro Tools HD, the “high-end” version with TDM hardware, time code and all the other features; and Pro Tools LE, the “junior” version, which included the various M-Box, M-Powered, 003 etc. hardware. Despite being priced competitively with Logic and DP systems, Pro Tools LE always came up short, with puny maximum track count, and—the real deal breaker for composers—no timecode functionality. Additionally, Pro Tools (both versions) has always strictly required the use of their own branded audio hardware. No others need apply.

The new Pro Tools 9 is a continuation of the lower-level line but with several welcome improvements. (They’ve dropped the “LE” designation.) You now get the timecode ruler and functionality. Maximum number of mono or stereo tracks has been increased to 96 (which finally seems like a decent number). And, although they still have a line of hardware interfaces, Pro Tools 9 can now be used with virtually any AU compatible interface regardless of brand—that means your MOTU, RME, Apogee, or other audio input and output boxes are good to go.

They’ve also included a few other features that used to be extra charge, such as “Digi Translator” which lets you convert files to or from other software using OMF or AAF file protocols, and MP3 file conversion and export.

Avid/Digidesign has always put its fullest features and functions in the high-end HD version, and then “dumbed down” the LE version, removing features that they reserved only for the pros who paid the big bucks. The company has long had the policy of offering additional functional features in extra-charge “Toolkit” options. They have dropped most of these, but there’s one still available, the “Complete Production Toolkit 2”, which adds surround audio tracks, greater track count, and other features to make PT 9 basically identical in features to ProTools HD 9. Let’s just say, it’s a step in the right direction. More about in a minute.

Pro Tools 9 HD
Now that I’ve busted them a bit, I have to say in fairness that Pro Tools, and particularly Pro Tools HD, really is a “tool for pros”, with especially powerful features for mixing and editing. I didn’t really get this until I got my own system and got up to speed, but unlike the lower budget good-enough copycat features in the competing software, you really can mix faster and better, edit faster and better, accommodate larger projects with larger numbers of tracks, buses, and inputs and outputs.

Both versions include simple sensible functionality, such as the ability to assign any number of channels all at the same time to any bus, input, output, or automation status. (Anyone who’s slogged through assigning auxes to buses one stinkin’ channel at a time in DP can appreciate this—hello MOTU??) Once you’ve learned your “keyboard command focus” technique, you can plow through a huge editing project quickly, which is why it’s so popular for post-production. Its tools for automated mixing are simply the way that sort of thing ought to work, made even better if you get a chance to use one of their Icon hardware mix controllers.

The new DSP functionality that appeared in Pro Tools 8, “Elastic Time”, is head and shoulders better than anything that comes with the competition. Mixing larger score projects, which may include multiple stems and surround routing, is really where Pro Tools HD shines and the others run out of capability. And mixing in Pro Tools HD simply sounds great, whether “in the box” or with a board. I’ve heard engineers argue about whether it’s TDM or other aspects that make it sound good, but it’s obvious that Avid (and other third-party developers as well) have really taken the sound of it very seriously.

It should be noted, too, that Pro Tools phone tech support is exactly what support should be for a product that one uses to make a living: it costs money, you get to talk to someone who’s trained, and there’s less waiting on hold (or busy signals). It’s easier to find out and then get back to work. Doesn’t it seem fair to pay for something like that, and wouldn’t you offer to do that with the other companies, if they would just be professional about it? I know I would.

One other interesting thing: Pro Tools HD 9 still must be purchased with some sort of hardware system (or as an upgrade for owners of such systems), but once it’s authorized on your iLok, it can also be installed and will run on any computer (such as a laptop) with any brand native-type audio hardware, or no hardware at all. For me that definitely gets a “hmmm…!”

Pro Tools Native
The e-mail blurb on this came through a few weeks ago, then seems to have gotten lost in all the other hype, but this could definitely be of interest to composers. This is actually a hardware package, an interface with a PCI Express card, and also comes with Pro Tools HD 9 software. It includes all the features, large track count, surround, etc., only lacking compatibility with TDM plug-ins.

It’s not exactly cheap at a bit under $6,000 (depending upon hardware interface choices), but starts to look better if you compare it to the five-figure price of some HD TDM systems. And if you’re into plug-ins, native (RTAS) plug-ins are widely available and often of very high quality. Many custom plug-in packages are available both in native and TDM, but the native versions are often less costly. All of this could better put it in the affordability range for working composers who have shied away up until now.

How is it for composers?
To make a long story short, I don’t work as a composer or MIDI programmer, so I don’t have firsthand experience with all the features that a composer would value. I do know that as of version 8, they put in many new advanced features for professional composers, and some composers are using it quite successfully. For more information on that, I would suggest posing your questions in the COMMENTS below. Several SCOREcasters are Pro Tools gurus and I’m sure would be more than happy to chime in with opinions.

Full function: the most cost-effective way to go
If you’ve always thought it would come in handy to have Pro Tools, but it’s just too darn expensive, and you don’t want to put up with limited feature sets, I’ve saved the best for last:

1. First, buy Pro Tools 9 software alone for $600.
2. Then, purchase the “Complete Production Toolkit 2” upgrade for $2000. (Stop choking; yes I know that stuff should come with it, but, hey, it’s Pro Tools.) This gives you all of the features of HD: large track count, surround mixing, all the extra mix functionality, only excluding TDM.

You can use this on your Mac Pro with whatever audio hardware you already have. Fully functional professional Pro Tools, for mid-$2000’s. Couldn’t do that before, could you?

Credit & caveat
I want to thank local Avid rep Jon Connolly for bringing me up to speed on all this. If you visit NAMM, go say hi to him at booth #6700. I just want to mention, at this point all of this is new product information, and he said that he was trying to make sure he had all his facts and details straight. If this is something that’s of interest to you, the dealers (at least the good ones that care about professional users) should be getting all the info on this as well, so check with one of them if you have further questions.

You do go out of your way to patronize truly authoritative pro-audio dealers, don’t you? It’s not always about the last dime. Okay, I’m biting my tongue, ouch!

Stay tuned for more articles, columns, video and more from the NAMM Show floor… and I hope to see you at the show!

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TOPICAL LIST

COMMENTS/DISCUSSION
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Increasingly Powerful Sample Libraries
By the end of 2009, the idea of running comprehensive orchestral templates from a single machine seemed a real possibility. In 2010, however, the stakes have been raised again with bigger libraries demanding more power than ever. Last year we saw increased multi-core support, CPU power advancements, huge amounts of RAM, 64-bit compatibility, and an increased uptake of SSDs. In addition, Vienna Ensemble Pro (released late 2009) made it cost-effective and easy to set up multiple machines. Developers are now seizing this opportunity to increase the power of their libraries. Sample playback engines such as Kontakt and PLAY continue to grow in sophistication meaning that modern libraries are being able to truly take advantage of multiple microphone positions, complex scripting, customized interfaces with more velocity layers and larger pools of round-robin samples. All of these demand more and more power from DAWs.

New Standards in Sampling
From extensive string projects with top Hollywood engineers to percussion libraries recorded in premiere London studios, new standards were set in the recording of sample libraries. Multiple microphone positions, improved legato/portamento, customized interfaces and more intuitive programming mean that the bar continues to be raised.

Improved Workflow
In 2010 there were a lot of developments in areas designed to help with composers’ workflows. It’s amazing to think that only twelve months ago, there were no string or choir libraries with polyphonic legato. Now you have Hollywood Strings, Requiem, and Voxos. In addition, VSL released Vienna Instrument Pro adding polyphonic legato to their enormous catalog of sample libraries. AudioBro went one step further adding polyphonic legato linked to a smart divisi script to create their LASS Auto-Arranger. Native Instruments released Session Strings with the automator for easily creating rapid spiccato passages. Symphobia 2 focused on pre-recorded unison/octave ensembles and pre-orchestrated textures. Although late in the year, Cinesamples’ CineOrch may have truly been one of the most remarkable and controversial releases featuring fully orchestrated tutti chords and octaves.

Highly-focused Products
Although we had some extensive libraries, we also saw a lot of highly-focused products. Rather than try to be the ultimate string library or piano library we had pianos focused on soft, slow playing and libraries of just string runs or percussion releases of a single percussive instrument. Given the high initial outlay for creating new products and the fact that many potential buyers will already own a lot of high-quality libraries, such niche products seem to be a particularly attractive move for developers.

Download Delivery

In conjunction with small, focused products we have seen an increase in vendors offering download versions of their products. In some cases there are only download versions. In 2010, some surprisingly large libraries have also been offered as download-only. Given the removal of packaging/shipping costs and the fact that (like many composers) I may suddenly need to buy a library at 2am on Sunday, downloads are very attractive to most customers… and do I really need to mention the instant gratification when impulse buying shiny new libraries?

Light Version of Libraries
While some vendors have offered stripped-down versions of their libraries in the past, 2010 saw a number of ‘light’ versions of major libraries with clearly explained upgrade paths. In such economically trying times, this has been a wise idea allowing consumers to buy-in cheaply without feeling that they’re wasting their cash. In certain cases, the reduced system demands of the light libraries have made them particularly desirable as alternatives to the full version.

The Return of Algorithmic Reverb
While many have never stopped loving algorithmic reverb, I think most will agree that convolution has been the darling for the last couple of years. In 2010, algorithmic reverbs came back big-time. The big news was that Lexicon finally released a software plugin of their highly esteemed PCM hardware reverbs (I then bought a PCM 90 at a great price on eBay!). New versions of the popular reverb continued to improve on their fantastic sound. The fantastic Reverberate plug-in combined convolution with some algorithmic reverb qualities and the word is that the next version of Altiverb (unfortunately not released in 2010) will also feature more of a hybrid convolution/algorithmic design.

What’s Next?
Considering the current state of the industry, with budgets and schedules being forever squeezed, 2010 must have been a tough year to be a sample developer. Personally, I feel that most have responded in an incredibly positive and ingenious manner, continuing to produce game-changing offerings and providing amazing deals to customers. With the Winter NAMM Show happening this week in the USA, I guess it’s time to make some incredibly inaccurate predictions! Nonetheless, here are a few things I’m hoping for in 2011:

• EastWest/Quantum Leap to release a brass library to compliment Hollywood Strings
• Spitfire to release more commercial libraries
• Spectrasonics (who were suspiciously quiet in 2010) to wow us all again with… something (?)
• 64-bit Cubase on Mac
• Further developments in the style of Cinesamples’ CineOrch

Conclusion
Of course this is all only my viewpoint here. I did buy a lot of sample libraries in 2010 but not all of them, and I didn’t want to make any direct comparisons when I only own two of the three big string libraries or one of the two recent choir releases. I’m sure a lot of you have opinions on this subject, so let’s hear them in the COMMENTS below! What were your favorite sample libraries from 2010?

If the current composing community was comprised solely of a limited number of veteran composers, adjustments in the price of a film score—either due to the economy or because the composer just wanted to do a particular low-budget project—would be made based on a reduction of their regular price. However, with so many of the available composers being of emerging status or those just starting to build their career, and without a regular or established price or the representation to engage in negotiations, the price too often becomes whatever is perceived as a “competitive edge” (currently zero dollars with IMDB credit).  This, then, becomes an industry norm and is perceived to be the value or worth of music for that particular category of media.

Deane Ogden makes a good point in his recent SCOREcast article Community Counts.  Advanced technology has merely enabled us to be efficient, but composing music for film is much more than efficiency.  It is the composer’s ability to diagnose how much music and of what kind the music should be.  Then to create, not from whatever samples are available but from one’s musical background and intellect, the perfect score for that production—and that particular film maker.  And, in addition, to offer input to that filmmaker even when he/she may not agree.  This last duty, if not coming from a place of experience, must then rely upon an extensive backlog of viewing and analysis of film scores coupled with the tact and charm of presentation.

Let’s “re-sophisticate” our profession.

Two of the four words above deserve some reflection—Sophisticate and Profession.

Defining the Role of Composing

• Artist = An unrestricted creative
• Artisan = Creativity with functionality
• Professional = (used as a noun)  Highly educated, mostly salaried workers, who enjoy considerable work autonomy, a comfortable salary, and are commonly engaged in creative and intellectually challenging work. Less technically, it may also refer to a person having impressive competence in a particular activity.
• Profession = A calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation.
• Craftsperson = A person who practices a craft with great skill.  Creates to specification.
• Worker = A person who is employed to do physical or mental work for wages.

I would like to think of composing for media as neither the first nor the last of the definitions above.  I’m afraid that we might be slipping toward the “worker” category due to a perception stemming from technology and supply-and-demand ratios.

• Sophistication (Synonyms)
  —refinement
  —elegance
  —finesse
  —poise
  —tact

• Sophistication (Definition)
  — sophisticated character, ideas, tastes, or ways as the result of education, worldly experience, etc.

Yes, the hardware and software with which we work is sophisticated but it is also readily available to everyone – including the film maker (think Garage Band and Apple Loops).

The sophistication of our profession comes from our experience as players and listeners; our musical education; our musical taste and our ability to write only what is needed and no more (a.k.a. discrimination).  Hardware, software and the people to operate them are in plentiful supply but the musical and mental skill-sets of a true media composer are what is rarer and of greatest value.

What we, as composers, need to focus on are the skills and talents which cannot be purchased online or in a music equipment store.  As “machine operators” we are worth slightly more than minimum wage, but as professionals we are worth what I consider to be far more appropriate compensation.

What do you think?

Secondly, you might notice we’ve done a little bit of year-end sprucing up around here a bit at SCOREcastOnline.com. I’ve challenged our contributor team this year to really focus on one thing with as much intent as they can: Community.

Community Chapters

Community is really the driving force behind everything that we do at SCOREcast, and it is community that will unite us across all borders and help to keep our profession of putting notes on paper thriving through the next season of filmmaking evolution. We have already begun to take some major steps to bring our global composing community together through the creation of community chapters, beginning with the recent launch of our first international

The 2010 Inaugural SCO LA Meet-Up

community chapter, SCOREcast: London. As I mentioned in my announcement of the London chapter, I’ve also started talking to potential SCO community leaders in Austin, New York, Rio, Ubeda, Moscow, and several other cities around the world. We will be announcing several more SCO communities in the next year, but if you feel that you live in an area that would benefit from organizing a local SCO chapter, I want to invite you to give us a shout and let us know.

With the professional film music community expanding exponentially every year, one of our goals at SCO is to enable the industry to grow smaller as it grows larger. Your community chapters will feature local meet-ups, organized social and professional events, and special arrangements with orchestras and scoring stages in your area. There are a lot of incredible things that we’ll be launching, so keep your eyes and ears tuned to the website for more info as we roll this out.

SCO Community Integration

Internally, we are also taking some very exciting steps to bridge the gaps between composers and post-production professionals. With Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and all of the other social networking sites that are available, the community feels a little bit fractured—some people are on Twitter but not on Facebook, while others aren’t using any social networking tools at all. Wouldn’t it be nice to have all of that functionality in one place where we can all trade insider secrets and talk shop on a single organized platform? Well, we are in the final stages of tweaking a platform here on SCOREcastOnline.com that will enable us to do just that. I cannot let the cat out of the bag just yet, but I’m excited to be let a little out: I’ll be launching a very cool new project with our contributor team this year that will be unlike anything that has ever been made available for professional composers. And “professional” is the key word—it is very important to the unique mission of SCOREcast that we stay true to the fact that we are all working pros. We aren’t a fan site, a film music collector’s blog, or a forum for plug-ins and software. We may talk about those kinds of things from time to time, but there are far better sites that cater to those crowds and I highly recommend them if that’s your thing.

That being said, what we do well around here is that we cater to pros as well as emerging composers. In fact, we conducted an extensive survey this summer of our readership—many of you got the memo and participated. It turns out the the majority of people actively reading SCOREcastOnline.com and listening to the SCOREcast Podcast are working professional composers (composers that are currently scoring a feature film for release or a network television series) in London and Berlin, New York and Los Angeles. Our second largest audience are film music students. So, essentially, we have two very distinct audiences, and neither has much in common with the other, frankly. As a lot of you know, there is a vast gap between film school graduation and the real world of scoring feature films.

A Sophisticated Framework…

I’m telling you all of this because I want to prepare you for the new way that we will roll out features this year. Some of what we have coming will be of a “premium” nature, while other things we do will be as free as it has always been. Some of the stuff we launch will be by “invitation only” at first, while the majority of it will be open to all. Before you panic, I will tell you that the things that are going to cost you dough to participate in are not “seminars” at a banquet hall in Chatsworth or some clumsy “eBook” that we throw together and charge you twenty bucks for. My biggest impetus for designing SCOREcast five years ago was to try to keep anyone else from ever being taken advantage of again by any seminar, snake-oil salesman, or book that tried to sell you “the way to the top”. No… anything with a premium on it around here will be things that you would certainly have no problem paying for if your budget allows—things that are well worth your time and attention. We are not in this to make money. There is no need for that. However, as a central voice in the professional film music community, our team has access to people and places that many other resources do not, and since quality often demands a price, we’ll be paying a price to bring you those resources. In turn, we’ll cover part of those costs via premium tuition and pricing.

…For a Sophisticated Community

The reason we are looking at doing things that way is because of the sophistication of our craft and what SCO’s role in preserving that sophistication will be moving forward. Richard Bellis and I have been talking about that a lot lately, actually, and it is a very necessary shift that we all need to make in our minds. Film music is not what it used to be, and this community of people is not the comradeship it once was, either. I’m not a huge proponent of looking backward, but I think we can safely deduce that while technology has advanced us in the area of efficiency, it has also stolen from us a bit in the area of intimacy. We don’t interact with one another the way we once did, and that is a contributing factor to why the perceived value of our craft is declining over time. It is time to put the brakes to any further erosion and work together to educate the masses as to the sophistication of film composing again. It isn’t a laptop and a copy of Reason. The Teamsters get that, orchestras get that, executives even get that. Now it is time or us to get it, too.

This has just been the very tip of the iceberg. In the next several weeks, we are going to be crazy busy launching what I think is the best stack of stuff we’ve put out there yet. I want to thank EVERYONE who has worked super hard these last few weeks to put all of this together. Many of you reading this right now had a hand in the creation of some of the tools we are positioning for, and I owe you a lot for that dedication.

Here’s to 2011—the year of community!