Newb Q's about film scoring/orchestral mockups

[andyspiller]

Originally Posted by MrHighlandPark

Hi everyone,

I'm a relatively experienced composer, especially with big bands and small/medium sized chamber groups. At the same time, I have no experience with using computers for music, aside from many years of composing on Sibelius. I have never cared whether the Sibelius playback sounds good or bad, because I'm used to quick turnarounds in terms of getting my music played by the group I wrote it for.

I recently completed my first large orchestral piece, which is a 30 minute work for standard orchestra + two jazz soloists. The performance is still a year away, and in the meantime, I want to make a mockup for two reasons. #1 to have something clean that I can share for professional purposes (interviews, etc), and #2 to begin learning this skill so that sometime down the road I can use it professionally.

All I have purchased so far is Logic Express, and an Axiom 61 controller keyboard (to go with my 24" imac, 2gb ram). I'd like some advice on how to prioritize spending from this point (and what to do with the things I buy!). My budget down the road could be pro-sumer large, but I think it would be foolish to spend a lot of money before I know what I'm doing.

Newb Q #1: What is a decent sounding, inexpensive library of orchestral sounds that will be compatible with Logic, and not too cumbersome for a newbie to use?

#2: Will I be able to import my midi file from Sibelius, assign sounds to the various instruments, and then add in additional accents, slurs, etc? Can anyone describe more in detail how that process works? Would you recommend re-playing all the parts on the keyboard to give them a more human feel? How will I tell it to use different articulations? Don't be afraid to talk to me like an idiot here, because I really don't know anything yet.

#3: I will record the solo parts myself (well one myself, and the other by a friend). What would be a good inexpensive microphone and interface to use for trumpet and soprano saxophone?

#4: If I am able to do a good job with this mockup, I will then use it as a demo to land a gig scoring a short film for free. What additional software do I need to learn (other than Sibelius/Logic) before I can score a short film for free?

#4b: Where do I go to find directors of short films who are seeking a composer? Film school I assume, but is there also a classified type website? Any advice on separating the wheat from the chaff? If I'm going to spend weeks (or months???) working for free, I'll need to be reasonably confident that I'll come out of it with a useable item for my portfolio. I'm aware that the director will be equally skeptical of my own abilities, which is why I want to come to the table with a high quality mock-up before I even start looking.

Thanks for the advice I've already drawn from this board, and for any more you provide in this thread.

-MrHP

I'll address a couple of things first.

How well do you wish the articulation capability to emulate a real orchestra?

Spending a large amount of time as I do trying to make things sound real, the more complicated a library, the more realistic the result, but the Editing/programming time is exponential, as is the complexity of expensive libraries compared with say Sibellius' Garritan Orchestra.

You are a seasoned composer, however I suspect that you will have to become a master of programming to be happy with the end result. Sample libraries are all about compromise, they only occaisionally deliver something that one could consider "perfect"; the current perception of what is considered real depends on the listener. Most producers and directors have a good knowledge of Music and will be difficult to please.

Logic can import midifiles. However, if you are looking to add lots of articulation flavour you will need a big library and a big computer to run it. EWQLSO and Vienna are great but expensive and unless you have a lot of RAM, using them can be restricted by the limitations of the power of the PC.
You will be loading in as many instances of articulations per Instrument as you compose, so V1/2/3 could each have say 3 or 4 variations per voice. Straight away you are looking at 2 Instances of QLSO and a lot of memory. Add in Woodwinds,Brass, Perc and you need a LOT of processing power and probably a secondary PC or MAC just to process this stuff in realtime, therefore a secondary soundcard . . . . . .

Soundcards - well you pay your money and take your choice - MOTU is a midprice benchmark - lots of people hate them but we're talking £600 in the UK for your I/O source. The microphone and preamp should be as good as you can afford.

Directors and Producers - well here in the UK you could try the National Film and Television School - however there are already people on Masters courses there trying to make contact with the same Creatives that you are looking at reaching. I am considering going myself and I've been doing this for nearly 30 years :-)

Good luck and welcome to the learning curve

Andy

[MrHighlandPark]

Thanks for the reply andyspiller. Ouch though.

I had no idea that this stuff was so taxing on the computer! A second computer is out of the question for the time being. I could upgrade to 4GB of ram for peanuts though.

but the Editing/programming time is exponential, as is the complexity of expensive libraries compared with say Sibellius' Garritan Orchestra.

Is Garritan what came with Sibelius? I'm not at my Mac right now so I can't check. I'm not very impressed with the sound of Sibelius playback though, so if that is indicitive of the quality of Garritan, I'd rather not spend money on the full version of that library. I think Sibelius just uses one sound for everything though, so that may change things a lot.

How well do you wish the articulation capability to emulate a real orchestra?

Perfectly of course! And with no time put into it.

Really though, you are probably better suited to answer that question than I am. What is the standard for low/no budget films? Do I need to spend a grand on samples plus buy a second computer to approach this field, or can I get started with something cheaper?

You are a seasoned composer, however I suspect that you will have to become a master of programming to be happy with the end result.

That's what I assumed. But I was hoping that if I bought a library it would sound a bit better than Sibelius right out of the box, and then I could start learning how to tweak it. I'm certainly willing to put some time into it.

If I start working with something less expensive and less resource hungry than Vienna, will I develop skills that will be transferable later on?

Would you be willing to walk me through how you go about making a track sound good? All I know now is that it takes considerable time, but having never done it, I don't know the specific steps.

Soundcards - well you pay your money and take your choice - MOTU is a midprice benchmark - lots of people hate them but we're talking £600 in the UK for your I/O source. The microphone and preamp should be as good as you can afford.

Soundcards = audio interface? I don't think I can put a literal soundcard in my imac.

Directors and Producers - well here in the UK you could try the National Film and Television School - however there are already people on Masters courses there trying to make contact with the same Creatives that you are looking at reaching. I am considering going myself and I've been doing this for nearly 30 years :-)

Those students are probably way ahead of me technology-wise, but I am receiving my doctorate in composition from a major US conservatory this year and like to believe that I am reasonably skilled as an orchestrator/composer. I can only hope that there is room for somebody like me to start getting their feet wet.

Thanks again for your much appreciated advice.

[andyspiller]

I've PM'd you with some more insight

Regards

Andy

[n8tron]

Upgrading ram will definitely be necessary, as well as a second speedy hard drive which will help a lot.

kirk hunter studios supplies a very inexpensive decent sounding full orchestra that you can use in the exs24 sampler that comes with logic express.

vienna instruments are sort of the industry standard but are very pricey. Luckily though you can pick and choose what to buy from them if you find you are needing a better sound for a specific set of instruments. I'd recommend hitting up the forums here for more info on sample libraries:

Sample Discussion - northernsounds.com

I think with some work and some prioritizing you wouldn't necessarily need a 2nd computer. To run all articulations, all the time, and the best samples, a lot of composers need multiple computers, but it doesn't seem like you are needing all of that so don't let it scare you off. Your computer with full ram and the samples on a separate drive could probably run a full orchestra of the kirk hunter samples without too much trouble. its always tough to say though depending on how you use your system.

as far as audio interfaces for logic and a mic, well the world is your oyster here. there is so much out there and honestly, in this application, much of it will work just fine for you. Sounds like a simple 2input interface would be all you would need.

[MrHighlandPark]

Originally Posted by n8tron

vienna instruments are sort of the industry standard but are very pricey. Luckily though you can pick and choose what to buy from them if you find you are needing a better sound for a specific set of instruments.

I'll definitely look into that, but in reality I need all of the instruments. Logic Express comes only with hip hop type sounds.

I did notice that East West sells cheaper packages that have all the instruments, but with limited numbers of articulations. I wonder if it's possible to buy the cheap version and then upgrade later. I found upgrade prices on their website, but I think they apply to upgrading from educational to retail. I suppose I am technically a student for the next two months so I could start with the educational version and then just pay the upgrade price when the time comes to use it professionally.

kirk hunter studios supplies a very inexpensive decent sounding full orchestra that you can use in the exs24 sampler that comes with logic express.

That's a new one to me - I'll have to check that out.

Thanks for the great advice.

[whinecellar]

MrHP,

You're asking a lot of good questions. Boy, I don't envy you though - you're going to have your work cut out for you if you're just getting started with all of this ;-)

I can't answer your Sibelius-related questions as I don't use it (I do absolutely ZERO with notation - I work entirely "in the box" and hire an orchestrator when the need arises). However, I can speak to your technical needs.

As for your "getting started" sounds, I'd highly recommend East West's Orchestra (Gold) - the new Play engine of theirs is incredibly efficient as of the new 1.2.0 version that just came out. Obviously sounds are pretty subjective, but I don't think there's a better-sounding or more complete orchestra library anywhere near the price. It does lean pretty heavily in the Hollywood direction though (and many say it "mixes itself"), whereas VSL (a.k.a. Vienna) is more classically oriented in its approach. VSL is more flexible in that it's almost completely dry (no room ambience in the samples) - which also means you'll need pretty good engineering chops to make it sound at all convincing.

I use them both in my film scoring work, as well as a lot of other libraries - but East West & VSL are my favorites and end up getting most of the action. In fact, most of my orch cues are East West with about 20% custom samples of mine - while strings in particular tend to be a pretty good blend of East West & VSL.

As for the hardware to run it all, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but a lone iMac won't cut it if you want to have a reasonable palette of sounds loaded at the same time. These libraries need 3 things if you want to really let loose: CPU horsepower, RAM and hard drive throughput. With a one-computer setup like yours, you could certainly have a basic orch template loaded, but I wouldn't expect to have an entire orch loaded and playing at the same time. You will spend a lot of time bouncing/freezing tracks (rendering your MIDI tracks as audio to free up resources).

As a point of reference, my current writing template is a complete orchestra plus a LOT of typical Hollywood-sounding percussion, all loaded at the same time - everything I need to do a typical film trailer. To do this, I have several computers working together. My main machine is an 8-core Mac Pro, the slave machines are Mac G5's or better. ALL of them have at least 8GB RAM, and they all stream samples from a network of about (20) hard drives. I could get the same jobs done with less, but it would take me a LOT longer. The general rule of thumb is that the more you spread the load between machines, the more time you buy yourself.

Don't let this discourage you though - you've got to start somewhere. You can certainly get good work done with what you've got. To start with though, max out your RAM, and get at least one good external (Firewire 800) hard drive - more as you buy more sample libraries. Actually you should have three to start with: one for audio recording, one for samples, and one for backup. Leave your iMac's hard drive free for the OS and applications.

Oh and yes, "soundcard = interface." One potential issue with an iMac is that your Firewire bus will necessarily share bandwidth between an interface and any external hard drive(s) you buy... just something to be aware of.

Hope we're being helpful to you. Enjoy your quest!

[andyspiller]

Well said Jim - looks like a great setup you have there

As Jim said, everyone has to start somewhere - I started with a self made library of 12Mb on 2 Akai S1000s and a Roland U220 in 1989 and although it wasn't that real, iot got the job done then. EWQLSO will get it done now.

Regards

Andy

[Mark III]

You really need to have seperate drives for each of the Orchestral sections too, like a poster said above, you could do it with less...but you could certainly not have all your instruments loaded and ready to go in realtime....which is what this game is all about! Hence the need for a lot of resources unfortunately....certainly do-able on a budget, but requires a lot of headache planning!!

For example our studio has 6 PC's (at least 3 drives in each) networked up running EWQLSO Plat Pro and other librarys and softsynths etc.. 2 Composer/Production stations running Cubase 5 and other software...one of those doubles up as the main "MIX DAW"...that one is stuffed with plugins..UAD etc...which is also hooked up to outboard gear "REVERBS" mostly <= A MUST for film music, grab yourself a cheap Lexicon PCM70 if you can to get you going with that flavour...will save the heart ache down the road (if you plan on mixing yourself that is). Also get yourself a good convolution reverb plugin too, Ativerb, Waves ..whatever...a good one is Voxengo ..if its on MAC yet? ..but yeah decent reverb is a must.

I'll stop there thumbsup as I could go on for ages about this stuff.



Cheers.

[MrHighlandPark]

I can't thank you guys enough - I'm learning a lot from you.

Originally Posted by whinecellar

VSL is more flexible in that it's almost completely dry (no room ambience in the samples) - which also means you'll need pretty good engineering chops to make it sound at all convincing.

EW it is then.

If I understand correctly, EW Gold will work just fine on my imac as long as I stick to a couple instruments at a time and then convert them to audio as I go. Sounds very tedius, but at least I can get started that way.
Is the length of the song (in my case 30 minutes, all one movement) a limiting factor, or just the number of samples loaded? Will I be able to do say the piano track start to finish and then convert it to audio with no problems? What about the entire string or brass section, or is that asking too much?

Maybe my orchestral piece is a bad first project given my consumer hardware and limited (read: non-existent) software expertise. Perhaps my imac will be able to handle small chamber groups like woodwind quintet all at once? I have a lot of composed chamber music that I have not been able to record professionally, so making mockups of that type of stuff could be of value to me as well.

A new question: does the audio interface/soundcard play any role in playback of these samples? I don't see why it should, but then again, I have zero experience. Is something small like the apogee duet going to limit someone like me who only needs to record acoustic instruments one at a time?

Anything I'm forgetting here just to get started?

4GB RAM = $50
EW Gold = $450
External drive to install to = $250?

Apogee duet + microphone = $500 + price of microphone
Headphones = anything I want to spend probably

I don't want to buy all of those things and then find out I'm missing some key piece!

whinecellar - I checked out your studio website... WOW!

[MrHighlandPark]

Originally Posted by Mark III

You really need to have seperate drives for each of the Orchestral sections too, like a poster said above, you could do it with less...but you could certainly not have all your instruments loaded and ready to go in realtime....which is what this game is all about!

But I don't think my computer will load the whole orchestra no matter how many drives I have it split onto, right? If I'm going to be using the sounds a few at a time, is there any reason to store them on multiple drives?

I'm thinking that's a step to take after I can afford a mac pro + slaves. And even if I did have the money, I probably wouldn't feel comfortable spending the entire budget at once from the ignorant place I stand today. I'd rather mess around for a few months on limited gear and hopefully learn enough to make more educated purchases down the road.

[whinecellar]

Originally Posted by MrHighlandPark

But I don't think my computer will load the whole orchestra no matter how many drives I have it split onto, right? If I'm going to be using the sounds a few at a time, is there any reason to store them on multiple drives?

Correct on both questions, really. If you're OK with working on a handful of things at a time, you'll be fine. Also, that's a great way to learn the whole game, and your gear needs will become evident along the way.

Yes, EW Gold will work fine on your iMac, as long as you load up on RAM and put the samples on a dedicated drive. You'll get more than a few parts loaded at once too; you could have a pretty complete string section loaded at one time, work on those parts, bounce to disk and then move on to brass, winds, etc.

Length of the song shouldn't matter at ~30 minutes. I scored a short film last year about that length and did the whole thing in one Logic file. It wasn't complete orch, but it was a lot of strings, ethereal pads, piano, etc. Incidentally, I did that particular score on just one computer - an almost 4-year-old G5, which is a good bit behind a current iMac! I did have 8GB RAM and an external drive array though, which is what made it possible - I was on the bleeding edge the whole time ;-) There are 2 clips of it on my website if you want to hear some examples - the film was called "Relapse."

Audio interface won't make any difference in sample playback - just audio quality really, as well as quality of the drivers, etc. Anything reputable will work well. Beware of the Agere/Lucent Firewire problem though - do a search here for "Agere Firewire" and get a cup of coffee ;-)

Your gear list looks good, too - that would pretty much cover your bases.

And thanks for the compliment ;-)

Have a good one,

Jim

[Hannes_F]

Look here for lots of discussion and information.

Welcome to the VI Control Forum! Musicians helping Musicians!

To get a halfway decent result you probably need to spend USD 10000 and at least two years of learning and then you are maybe still not there. Concentrating on recording small live ensembles could be a worthwhile alternative. Just saying.

[The MPCist]

Before you spend thousands, check out all the demos of the various VI's out there. There are diehard fans of certain brands so you'll have to wade through all the muck too. I personally like the EWQLSO and they have some inexpensive bundles available -- AND if you buy at the right time, you'll spend only 50% of the usual price. They did a yearend sale last winter and had some super deals.

[nas]

One thing to be aware of with EWQL Gold is that there is a good deal of hall ambience in the samples so they tend to cater to more of the big hollywood filmscore type of sound for the most part - although getting a more "intimate" or smaller sound is certainly possible, it isn't really where they shine. So depending on your personal taste this may or may not appeal to you and you are pretty much stuck with that sound as it cannot be removed from the samples. (I believe that the Platinum version uses multiple mics to get closer drier sounds and gives you the choice of what to use).

I agree with other posts that you should spend some time and visit a few more sites that will give you an idea on what is currently on offer and most appeals to your aesthetic and budget. Another thing to consider is that the better libraries that offer tons of articulations can be quite overwhelming - even for experienced composer/programmers and will take some time to learn. These libraries have found various ways in addressing and simplifying the process somewhat but you still need to take the time to learn to "play the samples" and get a feel for how they respond and how to manipulate them.

It does take some time to get a handle on this stuff and is really always a work in progress so perhaps you might consider getting a less complex but adequate library to get started and get a feel for the programing aspects... and to also learn a little about midi... if it's something that you are comfortable with, then you can purchase and build a more extensive library from some of the more advanced and complex libraries on offer.

Best of luck.

[MrHighlandPark]

Originally Posted by Hannes_F

Look here for lots of discussion and information.

Welcome to the VI Control Forum! Musicians helping Musicians!

To get a halfway decent result you probably need to spend USD 10000 and at least two years of learning and then you are maybe still not there. Concentrating on recording small live ensembles could be a worthwhile alternative. Just saying.

Thanks for the link - I'll check that site out. I disagree with the semi-prevelant sentiment that there's no point in doing anything other than absolute top of the line stuff though. I like to believe that I'm a bright guy, and I bet I can produce something better than the raw Sibelius playback for under 10k. I'm sure it won't be up to Hollywood standards, but I'd be astounded if I ever found out that the score to every student film was composed on a 10k rig - and that's the level I hope to be at in six months or a year's time. I'm under no illusions that I'll be stealing work from John Williams next month.

Originally Posted by MPCist

Before you spend thousands, check out all the demos of the various VI's out there. There are diehard fans of certain brands so you'll have to wade through all the muck too. I personally like the EWQLSO and they have some inexpensive bundles available -- AND if you buy at the right time, you'll spend only 50% of the usual price.

That's good advice - I'd love to hear some more about the timing of these sales. If waiting an extra month is going to save me 50%, I could shuffle my purchasing schedule around and pick up my mic/interface first.

Originally Posted by nas

It does take some time to get a handle on this stuff and is really always a work in progress so perhaps you might consider getting a less complex but adequate library to get started and get a feel for the programing aspects... and to also learn a little about midi... if it's something that you are comfortable with, then you can purchase and build a more extensive library from some of the more advanced and complex libraries on offer.

What would you recommend as a less complex option? So far I've been listening mostly to East West and Vienna, and I see that they both offer packages around $500 which is the highest I'd be willing to go for starters. I prefer the sound of Vienna as a personal aesthetic choice, but from what I understand, EW would be a better option for somebody like me who knows next to nothing about how to apply the right EQ/reverb/etc.

Also, I'm trying to be considerate of what will sound good to the non-musicians that I'm trying to appeal to.

But if there's something less complex than those two that still sounds good, I'd like to check that out as well.

Thanks again to everyone who has replied. It's a lot to take in. At some point in the near future I'll have to dive in and get started - I'm sometimes prone to paralysis by analysis, and I don't want to spend another month reading reviews when I could be making music!

[andyspiller]

Originally Posted by MrHighlandPark

Thanks again to everyone who has replied. It's a lot to take in. At some point in the near future I'll have to dive in and get started - I'm sometimes prone to paralysis by analysis, and I don't want to spend another month reading reviews when I could be making music!

Jump in and start twiddlin!! Seriously the best way is to make a decision and then start playing with it. You will discover quite quickly what you need to know and after that it's all practise. Oh by the way, you have told your loved ones that you might not be contactable for a while haven't you, , , :-)

[nas]

Originally Posted by MrHighlandPark

What would you recommend as a less complex option? So far I've been listening mostly to East West and Vienna, and I see that they both offer packages around $500 which is the highest I'd be willing to go for starters. I prefer the sound of Vienna as a personal aesthetic choice, but from what I understand, EW would be a better option for somebody like me who knows next to nothing about how to apply the right EQ/reverb/etc.

You mentioned you like VSL - have you checked out their downloadable modules? Also a very slimmed down version of VSL comes bundled with the Kontakt 3 library and if you purchase Kontakt 3 (virutal sampler) there are several excellent libraries that will be specially scripted for it and are very realistic - always good to own:

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS : Products : Sampling Line : Kontakt 3 : Library

Check out these excellent libraries. some of them offer free samples and others are modular allowing you to build your collection as needed:

Westgate Studios

SONiVOX Symphonic

ProjectSAM Cinematic Sampling - Home

Also you might consider spending some $$ on a good string library as it will probably see the most use and then augment it with less expensive sections or individual modules. Perhaps VSL or Sonivox strings for example and maybe the Kontakt 3 library or MOTU instrument:

MOTU.com - MOTU Symphonic Instrument Overview

Hope that helps.

[Hannes_F]

Originally Posted by MrHighlandPark

I disagree with the semi-prevelant sentiment that there's no point in doing anything other than absolute top of the line stuff though. I like to believe that I'm a bright guy, and I bet I can produce something better than the raw Sibelius playback for under 10k.

No doubt about your brightness here

Let me say two things:

- I have seen many bright people that spent more than 10k and two years and are far away from anything top of the line. Additionally they are spending much more time with technique and less time with composing than they want.

- On the other hand I have one client that wrote a piece with East West QL silver and at a certain stage when he noticed that his choices were limited ... he did not upgrade to EW Platinum or VSL or Symphobia ... but spent a two-digits amount for me to beef up just his violin sections of that tune. Easy - and the song got him a job as a game composer. Talk about effective use of resources.

So all I am saying is there are different possibilities. Talk again in two years.

[n8tron]

Originally Posted by Hannes_F

No doubt about your brightness here

Let me say two things:

- I have seen many bright people that spent more than 10k and two years and are far away from anything top of the line. Additionally they are spending much more time with technique and less time with composing than they want.

- On the other hand I have one client that wrote a piece with East West QL silver and at a certain stage when he noticed that his choices were limited ... he did not upgrade to EW Platinum or VSL or Symphobia ... but spent a two-digits amount for me to beef up just his violin sections of that tune. Easy - and the song got him a job as a game composer. Talk about effective use of resources.

So all I am saying is there are different possibilities. Talk again in two years.

I'm curious what you do... I saw the link in your sig but didn't find any info. Is that a service where you record live strings for people? similar to a few of the services for drums out there?

I'm interested to see what thats all about.

[MrHighlandPark]

Originally Posted by Hannes_F

...but spent a two-digits amount for me to beef up just his violin sections of that tune. Easy - and the song got him a job as a game composer. Talk about effective use of resources.

And then what? Doesn't he have to know how to produce high quality midi performances in order to excel in his new job as a game composer?

I'd love to do something like writing for a game some day, but if I'm ever so fortunate, I can't imagine that my first gig would involve a budget for recording live players.

Sorry Hannes, I'm buying some sounds!

[clarkcontrol]

Originally Posted by MrHighlandPark

And then what? Doesn't he have to know how to produce high quality midi performances in order to excel in his new job as a game composer?

Yes and I'm sure he does. Even with the best sounds, its very smart to have someone like hannes put some icing on top.

Warning: Even with high dollar libraries you will find that you can't write just for orchestra. You have to write for the orchestral SAMPLES. Remember, for the mock-ups to sound as good as possible, you have to avoid certain tendencies.

For your demo I wouldn't worry about changing anything, of course, but when you write for the mockup being the final product, these considerations are important. That is why Hannes is useful even with the most expensive of samples (and especially with budget libs).

Clark

[nas]

I just realized that the Standard version of VSL Special Edition is going for about 500 USD, so based on what you've been posting I think this is THE library for you. It is supurb quality, very versatile, and you can also upgrade later with the extended version. I wouldn't think twice about this one and would just go for it thumbsup

Vienna Symphonic Library

[Hannes_F]

Originally Posted by MrHighlandPark

And then what? Doesn't he have to know how to produce high quality midi performances in order to excel in his new job as a game composer?

Yes of course, and he is a darn good samples programmer as all of the people are that I work with. You would not think how good EWQLSO silver can sound in the hands of a skilled person.

I am not at all against the use of samples, on the contrary I use and need them literally every day. And I encourage you to buy some library and start. Nevertheless my other posts are still valid (not what you maybe understood but what I really wrote).

[Hannes_F]

Originally Posted by n8tron

I'm curious what you do... I saw the link in your sig but didn't find any info. Is that a service where you record live strings for people? similar to a few of the services for drums out there?

I'm interested to see what thats all about.

I record violin, viola and cello and mix them with samples in a proprietary process. Unfortunately my latest works are not open to public circulation at this time but if you PM me I can give some pointers.

[7161]

I'm with MrHighlandPark

i wouldnt worry too much about going ballistic with your setup - People recommending the most bonkers 'absolute max' uber-setups as the 'answer' is plainly nonsense.

if that was true any idiot could just spend alot of money and turn out good stuff - is that true?


Look, you didnt get any work yet did you!

just concentrate on getting work & building your showreel and worry about ludicrous over-production values later. If you land a large budget film you can worry about it then; you'll have budget to transfer to a real orchestra/recording

we've done International Festival award winning films and docu's for the likes of NBC and CNN etc with just garritan, a handful of NI synths and edirol orchestral in Logic.. and... much of that done on an old amd2000xp with a couple of gb of ram which your imac should be alot more powerful than - I did eventualy get a mac pro and logic 8 but we never bothered to upgrade for years cos we kept getting work and the low-end system did it just fine.


listen to a typical night of tv, and the work you'll find isnt that detailed at all.

Build your portfolio/work - youve got to learn quite a bit about video files and all that stuff as well remember. You cant do this as just 'a musician'

i'd also advice at some point setting up some FTP online file space for transferring work to clients (do NOT use some cruddy spam-ridden free file storage place cos it looks naff and amateur)


make a demo showreel - format it for something like a SONY PSP handheld, also do some dvd's as handouts and then go to film festivals - mingle, show people your work right there and then (hence get your demo portable on something like a PSP), make contacts, hand out dvd's etc

this game is primarily all about contacts and not quality of music or production values, trust me on that.

get a showreel done, it's the motifs and what have you that people check for not subtle realism issues. Good strong motifs and movements dont need alot of layers and fiddling with.

get your demo done and just go for it. But you have to go to festivals etc and make contacts.

[Mark III]

Originally Posted by 7161

this game is primarily all about contacts and not quality of music or production values, trust me on that.

That is true, look at all the trash on TV now days!! .....music isn't top priority ...not that it ever was.....(Good enough seems to fit the bill most of the time) ....but good enough is very different for different TV producers, trust me.




Cheers.