Still to come: there are a few other commercial projects I worked on in may i'm awaiting on publishing approval for before I post. Keep an eye out for more behind the scenes and in-depth looks coming soon!
Showing posts with label making music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label making music. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Zombie Apocalypse 2012
Still to come: there are a few other commercial projects I worked on in may i'm awaiting on publishing approval for before I post. Keep an eye out for more behind the scenes and in-depth looks coming soon!
Saturday, February 25, 2012
No Business in Music
So, I just ran across an article; and it has opened my eyes to the harsh reality I have already been slowly acknowledging over the years.
It's not just this one. There's a ton of bloggers and articles online and in print talking about the chaos of the music industry; the business of music has completely collapsed and is all but dead. Today, fewer than 40% of the worlds most renowned studios stand the test of time; and I'm not talking literally. I'm sure the buildings are probably still there. However, their facilities, equipment, and treatments have probably disappeared quicker than the experts that ran them.
D.I.Y. killed professionalism. Internet killed TV, and global commerce killed personal freedom. If you belong to any of these groups, please stand up.
I'm disheartened at the lack of fight; not by the music industry; not by the film industry... No, they've been the ones fighting hard to cling to their old business models and trying to continue the way of sucking every last penny they can as the business model - along with them, slowly dies. I'm talking about you, the uneducated; naive individual.
I just learned a new word today and that word is Googlization. I dare you to post a comment with at least one way you can't get to youtube; and I bet if you find one, that device or method is old and obsolete anyway.
The music industry needs to die already. I'm serious. There's no such thing as a patron of the arts anymore. Hell, there probably hasn't been since the Renaissance. Let's recognize facts: Businesses don't just give money away. They expect money in return.
It's no surprise then that the music industry has gone belly up. Music is like ideas. An idea should be free to share. Music is either priceless... or worthless. The revolution of sound recording is nothing more than a really, really long fad that's finally reached maturity. Think about that one long and hard, from your smartphone... while you're on the toilet. Don't forget that courtesy flush.
I sound pretty cynical I'm sure by now. I have good reason. People don't care about ideas anymore, they care about dollars. They care about the bottom line. There's a war going on, a silent... stupid one. And by stupid, I mean education. DIY revolution was instigated by the amazing trickle down effect of technology over time to the point where now not only is software capable of producing sounds for you, but the hardware it takes to run everything is super affordable. If you need a history lesson, a cost analysis map, or even a comparison: read my previous blog post - Figuratively Speaking.
I share a similar sentiment to Rob Tavaglione, in his article "Music Production Biz in '12" (see first link).
A message to everyone: stick with your own recording gear. You're not going to get signed and the labels are probably going to be all the worse for you anyway. Stop caring about your music already, no one else does and that's because they're one step ahead of you, probably trying to sabotage your audience and stealing your fans. You really need to get off your high horse, and get your head out of the clouds about how "the people still do care and love good music". The club scene has killed traditional venues, no one wants to go just listen to someone play live. The music business is dying so expect to give away your music for free, at least be happy when people listen to it and actually like it. Cd's and Vinyl? So last century, they're like Disco; they just don't know it yet.
And lastly, but most importantly... don't give up.
It's not just this one. There's a ton of bloggers and articles online and in print talking about the chaos of the music industry; the business of music has completely collapsed and is all but dead. Today, fewer than 40% of the worlds most renowned studios stand the test of time; and I'm not talking literally. I'm sure the buildings are probably still there. However, their facilities, equipment, and treatments have probably disappeared quicker than the experts that ran them.
D.I.Y. killed professionalism. Internet killed TV, and global commerce killed personal freedom. If you belong to any of these groups, please stand up.
I'm disheartened at the lack of fight; not by the music industry; not by the film industry... No, they've been the ones fighting hard to cling to their old business models and trying to continue the way of sucking every last penny they can as the business model - along with them, slowly dies. I'm talking about you, the uneducated; naive individual.
I just learned a new word today and that word is Googlization. I dare you to post a comment with at least one way you can't get to youtube; and I bet if you find one, that device or method is old and obsolete anyway.
The music industry needs to die already. I'm serious. There's no such thing as a patron of the arts anymore. Hell, there probably hasn't been since the Renaissance. Let's recognize facts: Businesses don't just give money away. They expect money in return.
It's no surprise then that the music industry has gone belly up. Music is like ideas. An idea should be free to share. Music is either priceless... or worthless. The revolution of sound recording is nothing more than a really, really long fad that's finally reached maturity. Think about that one long and hard, from your smartphone... while you're on the toilet. Don't forget that courtesy flush.
I sound pretty cynical I'm sure by now. I have good reason. People don't care about ideas anymore, they care about dollars. They care about the bottom line. There's a war going on, a silent... stupid one. And by stupid, I mean education. DIY revolution was instigated by the amazing trickle down effect of technology over time to the point where now not only is software capable of producing sounds for you, but the hardware it takes to run everything is super affordable. If you need a history lesson, a cost analysis map, or even a comparison: read my previous blog post - Figuratively Speaking.
I share a similar sentiment to Rob Tavaglione, in his article "Music Production Biz in '12" (see first link).
" Major label budgets are now indie-sized; indie budgets are now “go make it yourself and we'll distribute;” and unsigned artists are making their own records with friends on laptops (or tablets, or phones, etc.)."That empowering freedom has fallen into the hands of the uneducated, unaware, and uncaring. "Let's all go make our ideas" with little to no respect for the process of how to do so properly. It's no wonder indie musicians are skeptical about "studios" especially when anyone with a few scraps of recording gear, a room in their house, and an internet connection can advertise themselves as an "affordable studio".
A message to everyone: stick with your own recording gear. You're not going to get signed and the labels are probably going to be all the worse for you anyway. Stop caring about your music already, no one else does and that's because they're one step ahead of you, probably trying to sabotage your audience and stealing your fans. You really need to get off your high horse, and get your head out of the clouds about how "the people still do care and love good music". The club scene has killed traditional venues, no one wants to go just listen to someone play live. The music business is dying so expect to give away your music for free, at least be happy when people listen to it and actually like it. Cd's and Vinyl? So last century, they're like Disco; they just don't know it yet.
And lastly, but most importantly... don't give up.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Evasive Maneuvers!
Congrats again to Trials & Memories on their E.P. debut set for Black Friday. They just posted up a 4 minute radio edit of Where Are You now on reverbnation, feel free to check out my orchestration work on these tracks! My back has been slowly getting better, and projects are evolving all around me, talks with Troy about doing some collaboration stuff for Neologic Studios, a couple of filming and video projects are in talks with Back Yard Studios and some other people as well. When I finish my story boarding for a short film skit idea I'm working on I'll be posting those up here as well.
In the last couple days I started a quick project in Sonar just to get back into things and play around a bit. Came up with this little idea i'm working on.
Troy had let me borrow his old Ibanez guitar to play around with and get in tune. I opened up Sonar and just screwed around with some plugins, noteably this really cool feedback looper I was messing around with. I laid down a couple takes and panned them wide in stereo and that started the track.
I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but I liked the idea of a pulse so I immediately looked for something bassy I could use. There's a few synths I had in mind but I also wanted to play around with sound design so I kept that in mind as i built the track. I played around with a bunch of synths for a few hours and then proceeded to tweak and dial in sounds until i landed on a couple that i liked, i simply played a single sustained note and some really cool ambient drones laid right over the guitar track I had, gave it life.
Since I hadn't done it in a long time, I started dropping some buses in to the project and using aux sends to create some alternate sounds with and start mangling up the ambiances I had started. The guitar tracks were fairly simple and got old quick so after the idea of the feedback loop had run its course the with the regular bass pulsing on, I created an aux send for the pulse to go to a bus called Pulse where I put some plugins called Betabugs Chorrosive and then into Absynth 5 to get this really cool sounding distorted heartbeat effect out of the bass pulse.
The other bus I created for an aux send was for one of the synth elements called Synth Drone which fills in for the guitar with the muddy distorted mid-range droning and the high end metal tones that come in and out throughout the rest of the mix.
I moved on in the piece quickly to piano and strings. I used the piano sound to try and play around with the chord Ideas I have in my head that I can hear the strings playing. I still have some work to do on it as I hear some other changes with suspended 7ths that I can't quite get down yet. I also fully intend on expanding on this idea and take it somewhere else.
I hope you enjoyed this quick mix. The strings are still just a bit harsh thought i did want the more intimate close feel, I used several Divisi sections, when layered with the piano make the symphonic components feel separate in the mix from the electronic sound-scape.
I didn't want the typical "LARGE" hall sound but that Sony sound-stage feel from a quieter more direct passage with strings. I used a subtle reverb on the whole symphony bus and it helped blend and marry the strings to the track without creating a tail or smearing the details of the string movements.
It's actually been really fun writing this piece with all the Divisi sections and a real learning experience. These are all just legato sections being played so it's actually fairly easy to get through.
My next phase for the piece is to move into a more symphonic movement that keeps the pulse coming and going to pay homage to the track, with some of the dystopian electronic elements sprinkled throughout for the original flavor as the movement turns more action oriented. I can definitely imagine some type of spy scene of the Bourne supremacy likes or even Body of Lies, modern techno covert turns action.
Divisi (interesting article for reference) is a really cool way of dividing up a complex combination of notes to be played amongst the group of musicians. Especially strings which often account for a majority of the instruments in a modern or classical symphony. Usually these softer passages require the attention during a production recording to get in closer to the instruments with close or section mics, so you get more of the natural phenomena of the instrument (the sound of the bow scraping across the string producing a hissing or scratching sound) which is often diminished when larger groups play together, i.e.: the "chorus" effect. Breaking down the whole group of violins (1st and 2nd) into smaller sections and having them play the passage this way allows to get the softer dynamics and more intimate feel (granted the close/section microphones are available in the sample libraries).
The whole thing inspires me in the way John Powell's work on Bourne Supremacy soundtrack meets something like Battlefield 3's score (which is very electronic ambient; very different from their previous works). Even a little bit of Alexandre DeSplat with the fusion of electronic (much cleaner) and symphonic in Syriana.
There's also something else to the space created in the sounds, all the dystopia electronic drone work going on with the glitches and panning effects, coupled with the heart beat and pulse, then this distant washed out piano comes in with a sparse melodic chord change which is met with an intimate and close string section. I'd like to know what everyone's thoughts are on the picture being painted here. Please feel free to leave comments, flaming remarks, doodles, power-point presentations, links to unrelated events, even cast your vote for American Idol, whatever you like! Just kidding, but please if you have feedback of any kind I absolutely love to hear it!
In the last couple days I started a quick project in Sonar just to get back into things and play around a bit. Came up with this little idea i'm working on.
Troy had let me borrow his old Ibanez guitar to play around with and get in tune. I opened up Sonar and just screwed around with some plugins, noteably this really cool feedback looper I was messing around with. I laid down a couple takes and panned them wide in stereo and that started the track.
 |
| What the project looks like so far.... |
I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but I liked the idea of a pulse so I immediately looked for something bassy I could use. There's a few synths I had in mind but I also wanted to play around with sound design so I kept that in mind as i built the track. I played around with a bunch of synths for a few hours and then proceeded to tweak and dial in sounds until i landed on a couple that i liked, i simply played a single sustained note and some really cool ambient drones laid right over the guitar track I had, gave it life.
Since I hadn't done it in a long time, I started dropping some buses in to the project and using aux sends to create some alternate sounds with and start mangling up the ambiances I had started. The guitar tracks were fairly simple and got old quick so after the idea of the feedback loop had run its course the with the regular bass pulsing on, I created an aux send for the pulse to go to a bus called Pulse where I put some plugins called Betabugs Chorrosive and then into Absynth 5 to get this really cool sounding distorted heartbeat effect out of the bass pulse.
The other bus I created for an aux send was for one of the synth elements called Synth Drone which fills in for the guitar with the muddy distorted mid-range droning and the high end metal tones that come in and out throughout the rest of the mix.
I moved on in the piece quickly to piano and strings. I used the piano sound to try and play around with the chord Ideas I have in my head that I can hear the strings playing. I still have some work to do on it as I hear some other changes with suspended 7ths that I can't quite get down yet. I also fully intend on expanding on this idea and take it somewhere else.
I hope you enjoyed this quick mix. The strings are still just a bit harsh thought i did want the more intimate close feel, I used several Divisi sections, when layered with the piano make the symphonic components feel separate in the mix from the electronic sound-scape.
I didn't want the typical "LARGE" hall sound but that Sony sound-stage feel from a quieter more direct passage with strings. I used a subtle reverb on the whole symphony bus and it helped blend and marry the strings to the track without creating a tail or smearing the details of the string movements.
It's actually been really fun writing this piece with all the Divisi sections and a real learning experience. These are all just legato sections being played so it's actually fairly easy to get through.
My next phase for the piece is to move into a more symphonic movement that keeps the pulse coming and going to pay homage to the track, with some of the dystopian electronic elements sprinkled throughout for the original flavor as the movement turns more action oriented. I can definitely imagine some type of spy scene of the Bourne supremacy likes or even Body of Lies, modern techno covert turns action.
Divisi (interesting article for reference) is a really cool way of dividing up a complex combination of notes to be played amongst the group of musicians. Especially strings which often account for a majority of the instruments in a modern or classical symphony. Usually these softer passages require the attention during a production recording to get in closer to the instruments with close or section mics, so you get more of the natural phenomena of the instrument (the sound of the bow scraping across the string producing a hissing or scratching sound) which is often diminished when larger groups play together, i.e.: the "chorus" effect. Breaking down the whole group of violins (1st and 2nd) into smaller sections and having them play the passage this way allows to get the softer dynamics and more intimate feel (granted the close/section microphones are available in the sample libraries).
The whole thing inspires me in the way John Powell's work on Bourne Supremacy soundtrack meets something like Battlefield 3's score (which is very electronic ambient; very different from their previous works). Even a little bit of Alexandre DeSplat with the fusion of electronic (much cleaner) and symphonic in Syriana.
There's also something else to the space created in the sounds, all the dystopia electronic drone work going on with the glitches and panning effects, coupled with the heart beat and pulse, then this distant washed out piano comes in with a sparse melodic chord change which is met with an intimate and close string section. I'd like to know what everyone's thoughts are on the picture being painted here. Please feel free to leave comments, flaming remarks, doodles, power-point presentations, links to unrelated events, even cast your vote for American Idol, whatever you like! Just kidding, but please if you have feedback of any kind I absolutely love to hear it!
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