Composing : Greetings everybody! And a question... by Roger Hewett

It would have a lot to with the platform you are on and what you customer base is. In my case, for example, I have always been on a windows platform and since I score for both electronic and live performance, some years back I stopped scoring with a DAW and I score now both ways using Sibelius. As you know, the samples and samplers are as important as the tool used to manipulate them. I started back in 2000 with Gigastudio and associated samples and then like many moved to Kontakt. While I have many sample sets I started with Mirosolav, moved to Cinesamples, and now in the process of EWQL (though I am not a big fan of iLok or any other dongle).

I have been for decades influenced by Cirque music and my first Cirque was Mystere in 1997. I even flew a year or so later to Ottawa to see the last NA performance of Saltimbanco. I have always thought that Rene Dupere and Benoit Jutras had amazing pieces and arrangements. And you may already know this, but I am friends with Kit Chatham who is perhaps one of the top percussionists/drummers anywhere, not just Cirque. (Ask him about "Dichotomy" which he did in 2008).

And since I have also over the decades been influenced by new age and nature inspired music (I have dozens of CDs of the "Solitudes" series), I am also very inspired by the compositions, arrangements, and performances by the Canadian composer, John Herberman.

Hey Joel,

Thanks for replying. I tend to use DP for demo/mockups before importing into Sib for live. I recall Giga well; I'm on Mac, but ran a separate PC for Giga many years ago. I probably wouldn't even know how to set it up again now! So glad things have come a long way since then! I run a variety of Kontakt and other sample libraries, but infinitely prefer to go live when possible. I like to focus on smaller ensembles too, so at least the cost can be kept moderate.

I was a huge fan of Dupéré's music. Classic Cirque. Benoit Jutras too. I was working on a project with him when he was signed for Quidam. His music in 'O' is outstanding.

Kit Chatham was Corteo's first percussionist and had a huge hand in establishing the on-stage drum character, which is a big hook in the show to this day. He stayed with us until moving to Elvis in LV. I agree...a phenomenal percussionist/drummer. He filmed 'Dichotomy' on the Corteo stage, over a few nights after the show. Isn't it a great piece?! He also taught drums to my eldest son when he was touring with me. Small world!

I'm not familiar with John Herberman...I'll certainly have to look him up. Cheers!

John Herberman is a film composer in addition to all his other works. He is on perhaps dozen's of the Dan Gibson "Solitudes" series but a great place to start is "Piano Cascades" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8VSLqpjeQ0). He is not just a pianist - I have a CD of his of big band music, for example.

Thank you! I'll take a look!

DP user here. I've been tempted to go Cubase, and still might since I've switched to PC (cuz I could build a more powerful system for less money than a Mac). DP on PC is...wanting. A lot of great audio plug-ins, especially in 5.1, simply don't work. What keeps me here is the Chunks/V-Rack combination. I can have a full feature's worth of cues (30-50) as chunks and then switch between cues in a couple seconds or less. My V-Rack is full of VEPro instances that are on the host computer as well as satellite computers. VEPro definitely helps the CPU hit with virtual instruments. I wouldn't want to load those instruments into DP directly. Logic seems to be much more efficient with that.

Hi Jonathan! I actually began on Cubase many years ago., and changed to DP when it was simply P! I learned it to collaborate with a composer I was ghost-writing for. I upgraded to DP10 only recently, and am loving its new features. I couldn't handle the jump to PC without major hickups with all my other software, so I bit the bullet and stuck with Mac. I need to explore the V-Rack side of things more. Great tip that will probably save me a loads of time. Cheers!

I use Acid Pro, it's been updated a lot since the early days and runs modern VSTs without too many issues on PC. :)

Moe Brodie Hi! I had to look that one up! It's been around for a while now. Looks pretty good.

Yep Roger Hewett it was bought out by Majix from Sony a few years ago. The sound engine has been improved. I especially like that tracks and samples are visible as waveforms in the main window, and they can be edited pretty easily there.

A fair amount of film composers use DP, because of the Chunks feature. Have you seen Spitfire's video with Dario Marianelli? https://youtu.be/_VRXbhdx4PU

Jonathan Price No, I hadn't seen that. It's a cool interview. Thanks for the link!

OMG, Jonathan Price! That is such a great interview! Would you start a new post sharing it? I want to make sure the rest of the community sees it!

Hey Roger! Nice to meet you here! I'm so old, I remember when Digital Performer was just "Performer" - and it was only a MIDI sequencer. I use Logic now, but I actually started on Performer. Went back a few years ago to try Digital Performer, but found it a pretty huge learning curve and not very intuitive. Logic has its own issues, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Hi Jeff Alan Greenway! Yeah, I think once we are settled into something, it's there to stay. The ultimate end result...a quality wav file, is the same on whichever platform. It's hard to believe what we used to use. I still have a stack of unused outboard gear in my studio, including an Emu E5000 sampler, Proteus 2, a Korg 03R/w. I fired up the latter two a few weeks ago! Sadly there is a DAT tape jammed in my trusty Tascam DA-30mkII. I do miss my old Mackie 32 board, but love having such a compact studio.

Very true. The ultimate result is what counts. As long as you are happy composing on a platform and it works for you, it's the right platform. Wow! DAT tapes and Mackie boards - brings back a lot of memories from my singer/songwriter days with reel-to-reel 24-track, DATs, ADATS . . . and those tapes weren't cheap!

Great to meet you here too Roger! Have a great weekend! Rachel

Hi Roger, I am fairly new here too, just 2 days or so and its great to meet you in the lounge ;-) I am using Logic for so many years now but i can imagine that if you are used to that DAW its not that easy to switch. And if it works its not needed to learn another DAW. Good luck!

Cheers Ruud Hermans! Nice meeting you here too.

Hi Roger! I'm a DP guy. :)

Linwood Bell ...Yay! I knew I wasn't alone! Pleasure!

I've been there since 2.7 I think. Too old to switch, but I did a couple mixes in Luna last week and I enjoyed mixing in it. I'd still do midi in DP though. The tape and Neve summing is pretty sweet in Luna.

A Logic X man here