SCOREcast Goes to University

With all of your composing resources in one spot, SCOREcast University rushes to the rescue.

Tools for Studio Organization

Today’s composer needs to be balanced as a businessperson and writer. Here are some tools to help keep it all running smoothly.

DSP cards and the Universal Audio UAD 2

In keeping with this month’s theme of “Gear and Software”, I wanted to talk a little more about my number 1 “My Perfect 3″ find: The Universal Audio UAD2 DSP Card. DSP cards for use in DAW’s have been around for a while now, predominantly starting with Digidesign and ProTools, then later came the UAD-1 card from Universal Audio and TC Electronics released the Powercore card around the same time. The Digidesign DSP cards used a proprietary TDM architecture that ran only in ProTools hardware and software. For the rest of us who did not have a spare 10-15K lying around to get into ProTools, we were left out. When Universal Audio and TC Electronics…

Jim Well: Get Smart With SmartSheet

This month’s theme is Gear and Software. I’ll bet you think I’m gonna talk about the latest and greatest library, synth, hunk of rack gear, or atomic banjo tuner – but I’m not. Instead, we’ll explore a game-changer that addresses something you might be overlooking: glue. The kind you can use to keep your projects well-organized and the members of your film music team on the same page through the obstacle course of score concept development, cue prototyping, orchestration, and production, in the face of a barrage of revisions, even at the last minute. Previous SCOREcast Online articles have mentioned a few tools and services that fit into this category. Deane Ogden, for instance, has…

James Olszewski: With Liberty and Collaboration For All

I think I’ll start this edition of DIY Studio with a quote from “Wikinomics” by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. “There are many names for this new Web: the Web 2.0, the living Web, the Hypernet, the active Web, the read/write Web…. Call it what you like – the sentiment is the same. We’re all participating in the rise of a global, ubiquitous platform for computation and collaboration that is reshaping nearly every aspect of human affairs. While the old Web was about Web site, clicks, and “eyeballs,” the new Web is about communities, participation, and peering. As users and computing power multiply, and easy-to-use tools proliferate, the Internet is evolving into a global,…

Jim Well: How Big, How Fast, and Just Plain How

Back to the School of Chops. You may recall from my July 15 article on WIVIs (Wallander Interactive Virtual Instruments) that I’ve been exploring orchestration and simultaneously honing my MIDI skills by sequencing Stravinsky’s classic work, The Rite Of Spring. Today, I’d like to share some of the key things I’ve learned so far in this ongoing, long-term project. Questions and Goals How does my project relate to SCOREcast’s theme of the month: planning and scheduling? Well, I’d argue that before you can schedule and plan major scoring projects for real clients, you need how you’re going to do the job. Before you commit yourself to a deadline with financial consequences, you’d better have in…