Studio advice from anyone doing tv music/scores etc

[Spall]

I’ve recently been fortunate enough to get a score into the UK for advertising, which means I am now looking to upgrade my small production/studio facility somewhat. Not going crazy yet, but certainly I could use some hefty improvements. My setup is humble and now it is time turn it up a notch and what better way than to bounce ideas off good folk like you!

I would seriously appreciate some good advice from those who are writing for commercials, film and any similar score-related work, no matter the style/content. Budget is flexible to a certain point, quality is important. Thanks in advance!

What I would like to know is what equipment you are using to achieve your work.

Preamp - If you record live performance into your sessions, what preamps are your go-to? Millennia - Avalon? (especially for violin etc)
Mic - for recording violin/viola etc?
Rig - For pro tools users, what system are you running?
Desk/Controller - do you use a DAW controller or console, if so, what?
Summing – anyone using a stand-alone summer, such as Dangerous 2-buss?
Converters – AD/DA flavour of choice?
Outboard compressors ?? (currently using Aurora GTC2 but not heavily yet)
Sound Libraries – any ‘must haves’ in your book for world-style drums (hanging drums etc)/effects/other

Also, assuming that due to budgets etc many of you may be mastering your work before it’s submitted. Keen to hear what you are using here also if so.

And yes, acoustic treatment and good monitors are first on my list, that at least is sorted.

Fantastic, thanks guys

Spall.

[Led]

The 2 main things I would focus on are things that will :
- increase your workflow ease and speed
- make things easily recallable.

I do both music and commercials. I have an 80 input console I mix the music/artist stuff through. The TV stuff I mix ITB with outboard hardware patched in via converters.
I'm sure people will disagree with me, but for tv commercials you really only need to sound good, not great. Agencies and directors don't care about Neve, they care more about if you can hear the brand or product name, and that the music isn't getting in the way of the voice over.
They do care about being able to make changes quickly and you being able to work fast. Revisions are commonplace in ad music. I have seen one ad have 23 different tracks done till they got what they wanted. It wasn't me, but a colleague.
People at home watching TV don't care if you recorded to 2 inch or Protools. Most of them have a piss in the ad break anyway.

Look for things that will make you able to jump from job to job in minutes, not hours. You need to be able to work on several jobs at once without spending a day recalling mixes. Don't go overboard with spending till you have a few more jobs and a decent reel. One job doesn't mean you will get steady work , but it's a step in the right direction.

Also get used to rejection just meaning the direction is not right. Things get rejected and reworked/altered so often that if you take it personally you will quit after a couple of months. It can also happen that you will spend days on a track only to find out the agency got the client's brief wrong and you have wasted all that time. In general account service in agencies here has dropped in quality a lot over recent years. I think they must be getting them out of 1st year Uni the way some of them get things all messed up.

Be very wary of temp tracks and being pressured into 'sound alikes'. Particularly with less experienced writers, agencies will have a chart song they want you to base your track on. You can 'be inspired' by the track, but often they will push you to go as close as possible to the chart track. If the publisher of the chart track decides it has breached copyright they sue, but guess who they sue? You...not the agency. As the producer of the track you are responsible for all copyright matters. Another colleague of mine got a letter from a publisher for a track he had 'paid an homage to' (read ripped off). The agency 'forgot' to tell him that they had approached the publisher of said chart song and asked a price to use it in the ad. The cost was too high, so they went to my bud and had him do a soundalike. So soon as the publisher saw the ad he knew they had ripped the song off and letters began arriving.

I've been making a good living out of it for around 15 years, so I'm speaking from experience, not opinion.
Cheers

[Bounce]

Originally Posted by Led

CLIENT : "I don't like the brass in there, it sounds
synthetic"
ME : "It's not brass, it's a lead guitar and it's
recorded live"
CLIENT : "Oh right...it sounds good as a guitar
I like it, can you turn it up?"

Dude, that quote is craazy funny and it's soo scary how real it is




My advice is get a system that's ALLLL patched up and ready to go at all times if you can. The advice about workflow and speed is huge. Get some quality pieces, good libraries so you don't spend ALLL your time on sound design if not needed, and know your apps and libraries. Then it will all be fluid and you can get nit picky if there is time :-) Competition is fierce so make great relationships and be a nice person that does great work fast.

[beats workin']

Hey Spall,
Led's advice is spot-on. nothing to add there.
as far as gear- again, think of your workflow. I believe that for ad work you do want to use great gear. because:
a) you will eventually work with producers/directors who care and will notice. Aslo some of the people you will work with are gear geeks too ( film/gear etc..) when they come to your studio they'll dig the gear and you'll have a bond. believe me, this will happen.
b) eventually you'll climb the ladder and progress to films and maybe even some record work. Here you really need good equipment, especially mics.

specifically, for violin and acoustic instruments the Daking pres are beautiful and not expensive. my opinion is get the IV pre and skip the EQ. Contrary to Gearslutz you don't need lots of different pres.
keep it simple for your efficiency. sonically it'll all gel.

For mics-- strings love ribbons, and specifically the Coles 4038. Just get a pair and be done with it. Really, you will use them for everything- elec. gtr. drums etc. gorgeous sounding. Eventually you can pick up a 44bx and 77dx. forget the newer models of ribbons. I have them and they collect dust.

Other mics would be some dynamics and condensors: E47 is a nice all-rounder, a U67 if you want more vibe/color, 441 for just about everything, gefell m300 SDC for acoustic instruments, re20, 15, 50 etc.

comps are really important as well- esp. a 2-buss unit. you ned the track to really sit under the VO. I'll either use the old SSL or an old compex if i really want it to have attitude. for VO work nothing can match the original 1176.

The other stuff is for another post! I'm sure people will chime in with comverters and DAWS.

Best of luck

[Spall]

Thanks for the responses so far, there are already some considerations to further probe but just quickly on the point of gear as it's been mentioned, is that I do have a couple of pieces of choice gear, though I'm I don't know how often they will be used. Notably; Chandler TG2 pre & Aurora GTC2 compressor. Both are great units and I have been using them for some other recording (as apposed to score/tv work etc) however it's fair to say they are both highly colorful pieces of outboard - especially the Chandler of course.

Hence I am keen to learn what is commonly being used by the score/tv music fraternity.

Workflow ease and speed - fantastic. Can we elabortate on that in terms of what you may be using specifically? I am likely to upgrade to Pro Tools HD - of the many options available, which is the most sensible given that as Led mentioned, much of the work is done ultimately in the box. I've heard suggestions for a Control 24 or similar...this is grey area to me to be honest, and if I got this whether I still needed a HD unit in addition to. Yes, I know! Guess that's why I'm asking and you're answering!

Led, I'm curious to hear more about the ourboard patched through converters. How you choose to configure your set ups considering most is (logically) done ITB. By the way, amusing post...here we are talking about techinical specifics and yep the reality is people can't reach for the remote quick enough to shut those damn ads up! And as for revision of tracks, well if this first one is anything to go by I was revising all the way to the final minutes...literally they were waiting in the post production facility in the UK (and me in my hotseat from Melbourne) waiting for stems, different edits etc. Tense times. But I loved every minute of it.

Coles 4038 - they aren't the best looking of creatures but I do hear they sound speaks for itself. Also I hear a lot that the AEA R44 can't be beat, the pricey beast it is.

Appreciate the comments, please keep them coming...it's all good and in this case you are seriously helping decisions which will shape the way I do things and that is very cool.

Spall

[Spall]

Hi guys,

Any suggestions for DAWS/converters and some more ideas on your preferred tools for efficient workflow? I'm keen on the how as much as the what, I'm all ears.

Spall

[Teddy Ray]

What are the favourite preamps in movie scoring?

I know Mick Hinton(DAV Electronics) has many clients who are heavy hitter score engineers.

[Spall]

Originally Posted by Teddy Ray

What are the favourite preamps in movie scoring?

I know Mick Hinton(DAV Electronics) has many clients who are heavy hitter score engineers.

Cheers, I hadn't heard of that before but there's certainly a lot of thumbs up on it.

Getting back to increasing the workflow and ease of speed, I am really interested to hear some specific recommendations from those doing a lot of TV/score work. Am very keen to upgrade shortly so I'm really appreciative of the posts here to get me going.

- DAW controller, who's using them? (digi control 24/Icon etc)
- If you use pro tools HD, what kind of setup
- Converters: high end AD/DA (is a two channel enough?!)

Many thanks

[Kenny M]

I've done hundreds of these projects over the last bunch of years and a lot of good direction and tips given so far. Speed of workflow and recall is paramount. This stuff changes by the minute sometimes.

The one thing I would differ with is in regards to sound quality. This stuff has to sound as good as anything you might hear on the radio. It might not make a big difference when the day is done as they bury the music under the VO, dialog or SFX, but it's of utter importance in trying to sell your client who is making his yay or nay decision solely on how your music sounds by itself. While not necessarily music savvy, clients can tell if your music doesn't sound as good as the high budget produced song everyone was referencing. They might not be able to tell you what's off, but they can tell that something's missing. I know at one time nobody really gave a shit that the mic on the kick had fallen off the stand while cutting a jingle, but I can tell you that the guys that still have that attitude don't work much.

Forget the summing thing. Keep it ITB with the easiest recall possible and learn how to make it sound great. I'm in LA which is a Pro Tools town, but I know other people doing this using Logic or Digital Performer. I use HD192's and have no need for any higher AD/DA convertors. Converter differences are minimal IMO compared to other elements of the chain like mic's and mic pre's.

Try to buy or be able to rent one great LDC mic that is a great vocal mic and that works well on other acoustic sources. I finally dug deep and bought a Telefunken 251 and I can't tell you what a huge improvement it made to having that world class vocal sound. You don't have to go that nuts, but the one thing they all hear the most is the vocal so don't think you can skimp on that with a $300 microphone. Also try to get at least one great pre (Neve, API, etc.) Don't get all anal trying to pick one of these out. Everything in this league sounds great and will work great on most sources. Besides you'll end up getting more of these later on as you grow.

Try to keep your synths and samplers ITB for that ease of recall thing. The software synths sound great anyways. Software must haves for me include all the Spectrasonic stuff especially Stylus RMX. I've got a few drum related programs and the one I think rises to the top for programming drums is DFH Superior 2. I could do just about any project with just those programs and it would sound great. Logic also has some great sounding VI's as does Pro Tools. For orchestrated things it's nice to combine different libraries, but if I had to pick one it would probably be the Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra library. I have the Platinum version, but for most things the Gold version will be great. Also, get the XP version too.

That about covers the basics. The rest of the items you mentioned like DAW controllers etc. would just be the icing on the cake.

One other thing worth mentioning is to try and use as many live tracks as possible time permitting. I may be biased on this point as I come from more of a song and record making background and my main instrument is guitar, but I think this is a huge factor in why I think my projects have an edge over a lot of my more keyboard oriented contemporaries. Keyboard players tend to think more in that sequencing mindset and are more prone to just keep sequencing parts. Since every time I pick up my main instrument I'm recording a live part that can't be note corrected or quantized I tend to think more in an old school record making way. This makes the music feel more real and more akin to a record. Sometimes just cutting a real tamborine part can make all the difference in the world.

Hope this helps. Don't steal any of my gigs

[cyork]

I've moved primarily into the Video Game world of scoring, but it's the exact same as when I was doing commercials. Other than now projects are in the hundreds of minutes of score rather than 8 different edits ranging from 30 to 60sec!! As others have stated recalls are frequent so find a workflow that accommodates.

I personally find having a dozen or so channels of outboard compressors saves me so much time mixing and getting sounds that the 5min documenting them into the "comments" field in ProTools or recalling is well worth the time. To save time I have them all normaled in the patchbay and keep my I/O setups consistent with templates in ProTools.

Preamp - Love Martech MSS-10 on acoustic instruments. It's just so natural and musical sounding, Chandler TG pretty often for rock stuff (mostly guitar and snare), 1084 for VO's and anything else!
Mic - Royer 121 for strings, double bass, horns. Love this mic! You'll also need the usual studio workhorses for everything else, MD421 or SM7, LDC of some description, SDC spot mic of some sort
Rig - Quad core HD 2 with ProTools 8, separate Gigastudio machine on TDIF fed into 192
Desk/Controller - No control surface, but I do use Tranzport for remote control of PT from the live rooms
Summing no summing
Converters – Digidesign 192s
Outboard compressors TG-1, LA-2, LA-3s, 1176s, Neve, Distressor Fatso
Sound Libraries – I've been a Gigastudio guy since the beginning so I have a tonne of that format (EastWest, Vienna) but I've found some great stuff in the Kore player lately too. Variety is pretty key in the composer for hire gig.

I've also added a Zerotronics Spring Reverb to add a little organic love to some sterile VIs. There are no settings so it's an easy recall.

Also re-amping VI is pretty much standard operating procedure. Again the few minutes it takes to run a track through the PA or an amp comes back in no time when it comes time to mixing. No more fighting flat un-mixable timbres.

Of course this is all just where I've arrived at with my work demands. It's always in flux...always looking for a way to improve it and balance the sonics versus workflow.

Cheers
Chad

[sergeman]

Hi! My 2 cents...

I'm doing jingle work in Mexico City. I use Pro Tools LE, a nice, new iMac 2.4 Intel Core Duo with 3 Gb of ram. I use the pre's on my original Mbox (1), use a pair of M-audio monitors, record to an external hard disk on PT 8 (and also do some stuff on the internal disk with PT 7.4.2). Pro Tools would be a program I would suggest as a DAW. As you can see, my project/home studio is very small. I also have IK Multimedia stuff (AmpliTube, Miroslav, etc.), use the virtual instruments that came with the new PT. I have an acoustic guitar, an electric, a bass (play all of them for years), an M-audio controller for all the midi stuff I do, too. I have a Behringer condenser microphone that I've loved since the first time I recorded with it. I have about 50 or more gigabytes of loop libraries that I've bought over the last 4-5 years.

My biggest advice would be to, if you're a musician, just be really good at creating catchy melodies that people might hum after listening to 15 seconds of your stuff. If you're not, then find yourself musicians who can do this with whom you would also be comfortable enough to go camping (you need to be in friendly terms with them). I say this because the tension of working in a jingle might become too much for some to handle since, as already mentioned before, you might have to do MANY changes to a piece of work. I just finished a jingle that I had been working on since January or February... all kidding aside, I had to make close to 30 changes to it since the client has many people in the decision-making process and that tends to get in the way of getting things done fast and in a few takes.

Your quality should always be the very, very best you can possibly make but realizing that you shouldn't really be looking for the most expensive stuff right off the bat since the clients, once again, as said before, usually don't know the difference in sound between a 200 dollars mic and a 3,000 dollar one.

One last piece of advice: whenever you send a jingle so that they can see how it's going (and hopefully they love from the get-go), "beautify" it a bit using a program like Ozone (I use 3 and am about to buy version 4). It works WONDERS on the sound and, although programs like that will never take the place of a person who has mastered for years and has ears that can help you out, it DOES make your client or agency get to listen to something that sounds big, pompous and "shiny", especially because that's one of the things they look for today: 20-second hit songs.

I hope that helps. Happy music-making!