Composing

Many years ago I used to run RAID. But the odds of losing 'static' data such as samples is extremely low and I don't create many files a day which the software backs up on a regular basis. So the bottom line for me is that I am willing to take the risk of losing up to one day of dynamically changing data (my composing files).

Here is why:

1. My desktop and laptop have two bays each. I put the critical software (composing, video, etc.), my operating system, and all my samples on the C drive. Everything else goes on a D drive. Both are SSDs.

2. I have software called Allway Sync. I have routines I have defined for it to synchronize between my desktop and laptop. I sync at least once a day and sometimes a few times a day. So I can do anything on one that I can on the other EXACTLY (just a bit slower on the laptop). In fact, I composer on my laptop in coach on a plane (with a small midi keyboard which goes in front of the tray table). So when I get back to the studio - a single sync and everything is now usable on the desktop.

3. I also backup todays data to an SD card once a day - usually only a couple of files.

4. Every 4 to 6 months I do an image backup of both the C and D drives to a 3 TB external hard disk (which normally has room for two backups for each drive).

So for me, I see no benefit for RAID - I much rather have my laptop and desktop duplicate/sync each other exactly.

Here's a discussion on RAID systems and if they're worth it to composers: https://vi-control.net/community/threads/raid-0-no-benefit-on-my-end.77970

I don't use a RAID system myself. Between my use of VEPro on my main hub-PC and two satellite-PCs, and Digital Performer's V-Rack, my workflow is such that I can load in my film's template once and leave it up. So load-time isn't much of an issue with me. But if you're loading in sounds for every cue, I could see where a RAID system might save some time.

Hi Chris, great! Thanks for sharing!

... I was going to post about acoustics and mixing, but Jonathan has beaten me to it and been far more informative than I could ever aspire to be! Exactly what he said, the acoustics are a problem for mixing as well. I've heard about the Abbey Road plug in, it sounds interesting but I have heard very mixed reviews. I hadn't heard of that SonarWorks one but it looks very useful- worth noting that some other composers are saying it takes over your system and starts messing with things that are perfectly well calibrated, but you can just use a VST rather than a systemwide version to solve the problem from the look of it. That one is going on my Black Friday list, thanks for the heads up!

Thanks Jonathan for the very informative information. But perhaps you would be interested in commenting on the original topic of using a home studio versus paying for a location somewhere else? Do you see pros or cons for one versus the other - especially for those who who are just starting out or at the beginning of their careers without a lot of income currently.

My bases or places I stay are always home offices/studios. I prep the room to do whatever I want, wherever I’m staying. I would never ask permission or pay for another building. Acoustics are extremely easy fixes and I’ve recorded a ton of stuff in home studios. I don’t give a freak what the rest of the house looks like or anything. I have one concern: can I get a quality recording with solid producer. It’s like shooting a scene on a city street. If I wait on the city to give me permission I’ll never get the scene done. If I shoot and get busted, which never happens, I’ll ask for forgiveness. But I haven’t had to apologize yet. Do you bro. The city doesn’t give a sh.. and neither will your clients. If you were in Denver I’d record a song with you today. Hope this helps. Take what you like funk the rest. Always here for u

As for the Abbey Road plug-in, I only recently tried it out. I had just moved and was in the middle of scoring a zombie feature. My new space wasn't treated yet and I was faced with sending preliminary mixes to the director with either a) a headphone mix, or b) a mix in a highly reflective room with no bass traps. So given those options I decided to take a chance on the Abbey Road/Nx Head Tracker. Before the delivery mix, I got my new space treated and SonarWork'd and was able to double-check the mixes, and here's the thing: I didn't change any of the mixes. They were good to go. So, was mixing my score like being in Abbey Road Studio 3's control room? Nope. But was it a useful plug-in that allowed me to mix on my headphones? Seems like it. I'm still not completely confident enough to only use ABS3, but I now use it as an alternate source. Kind of like how you might take your mix to other studios, or your car stereo, to see how your mix translates.

As for SonarWorks systemwide, I was running it systemwide for a time, and I can't remember why I stopped. I don't think it was anything major. But Joanna, you're right, its main use is as a plug-in on your monitor bus (or master bus if you don't use a monitor bus).

As for my space...it's always been a home studio for my own work. I like to be near my family. It's easy to clock in 70+ hours a week scoring a film, and I appreciate being able to see my family during that time.

Good stuff, Jonathan Price!

Would love to talk About what you need Jzac1961@gmail.com

I get what you're saying, Joel but I am familiarized with composition, I already have some pieces of my own! That's why I feel confident that I can write my own score for my films.

Writing music, even orchestra music, and scoring cues that fit and support the action of the film could be different. If you feel confident then go for it. When the film is completed, get feedback on everything from someone outside the film biz.

Joel made some valid points. One suggestion - Determine the scenes in your film that you feel need music. Choose existing music from your music collection (or anywhere else) and place them under your edited film, both ambient (background) and songs (if necessary) . If you hear Zimmer's Inception score or a Chainsmoker's song in a scene, place it in. You will have created your own Temp Score. After creating your ideal, "unlimited" budget Temp Score that you feel best supports & enhances your film, you will then be able to determine if you currently have the skill set to compose a score that benefits your film. The Other Suggestion - Take a go at scoring it yourself. See if you like doing it and if it works for your film. If nothing else, you have tried something that will expand your knowledge & ability to talk with a film composer should you choose to hire one in the future. Good luck!

Thank you so much, Allen!

Hi , if you have a budget i can score something for you , feel free to reach out and talk more , Best

Thank you. That’s what I thought but I had a parody called a cover and I corrected the person that called it a cover but thought I’d better make sure.

There is a good and bad associated with that. Composing/scoring is much the same as any other profession - if you are a service/product provider and your customer likes the service/product, they will continue to do business with you. I work with a particular filmmaker who started using me back in 2014 and we have now done over 10 IMDB films together since then including two already this year.

That is the good news. The problem/issue occurs when the person (filmmaker / director, etc.) is not in a position to make the decision to use you. This has not yet happened to me but it I believe it will inevitably will. I have a scoring peer in Houston who composed music for a local filmmaker for a few of her films including ones which showed on Lifetime. Eventually the filmmaker/director began working with a producer and the films were no longer produced in Houston but in Canada (where many Lifetime and Hallmark films are produced) - the producer had people not from Houston and all the post production work left the city including the film scoring.

So what does this mean - it is unfortunately totally normal. Has happened for decades in Music industry for example - a relatively unknown singer signs with a record label - say Sun Records in Memphis and has a great relationship. But eventually the singer becomes famous/popular and moves to a different label - RCA. Sound familiar - Elvis Presley! :)

So we create a relationship with others in the film biz - not just the filmmakers and directors who hire us - but all the various people and jobs. Film is often about collaboration and interaction. And then we enjoy the ride because it won't last indefinitely! :)

I mean, my guess is you don't change a team that wins. Just like in team sports. If I were a film director and I have my go-to music composer, the latter will be more of a priority than others. For the rest, I believe Joel pretty much summed up the whole thing.

I like your thoughts on creating working relationships with many of the creators within the film industry.

This is my input 'from the outside looking in' as I neither work for a production company or live in LA.

1. As I spent 23 years at Exxon, my initial take is you learn and use the tools used at the company. Your background in your tools is used primary for considering you for the job. The assumption is, for example if you are expert in one or more DAWs/sequencers and many VSTs, then if they use others you can quickly come up to speed.

2. The tools and data formats you use are primarily important if you are part of a larger 'workflow' which most of us are. You get your 'stuff' from someone and you provide your product to someone else. So, you need to work with the formats you get and you need to insure the data/formats you provide are what your co-workers need to work with/expect.

As I, for example, am independent and not as part of a production company, those who dependent on me really don't care about that 'black box' in the middle as long as I score the scenes as directed and provide the audio editor with the files they need. They should not care, for example I that I use Sibelius with various VSTs and instruments - I am one of those 'types' that don't use a DAW/sequencer at all since I want to score once and potentially use the score for both electronic distribution and live performance (i.e., charts) :)

I am still a part of a larger 'workflow' so before I start after the cues are defined (or I am given the ability to create them on the fly) - I come to an 'agreement' with the person(s) who are providing me with the film -- locked or not, what format, file type, etc. And then I get agreement/buy-in on the type of WAV (or WAVs) and as these are short films (normally), whether I would pre-mix the levels (with pre-defined 'keyframes') so all the audio editor/mixer needs to do is put a single WAV file (untouched) into an audio track in the film OR whether they will be responsible for doing the mix and setting of the keyframes in the score.

Hi Sarah. I hear Logic is big in LA, and Cubase in London, though London seems to be becoming more Logic too now. Pro Tools is more generally used for mixing, mastering and the final mix than composing, though some composers use it for everything. What kind of jobs in LA are you looking for? As Joel mentions, if it's a scoring job then they shouldn't care too much what DAW you use. If it's some kind of production house, then either ask what they use, or look on their websites to see if it's mentioned or if you can sneakily see any pictures of monitors with a DAW open on them!

Cubase could be big in the U.K. because it is a product of Steinberg which is a U.K. company. Steinberg also now sells one of the top three notation tools, Dorico which competes against Sibelius (part of Avid which also sells Protools) and Finale.

I believe I heard some years back from one of my profs that Irving Berlin could not read or write sheet music - he had to hire someone to do it for him. Was he a composer?

Composer is just a term and in my opinion from the creative vantage, anyone who write music - no matter what it is, is legitimate. Now not every piece of music belongs in a film and not all cues or styles of music work for any particular filmmaker. It is not my job, interest or intention to critque anyone's score. You see, I would be comparing my experience and sound to their's and that may not be the type of music they are interested in creating. In my 'day job' for example, in wedding videography, I have been told by 'peers' that my quality is poor, my equipment worse, and I should get on the ball and shoot like them. Thing is, my style is 'documentary' and not 'cinematic' and my market doesn't want all the things that I have been criticized as not having or not sufficient quality. Another way of looking at it, is anybody can be a chef - one can be a successful chef at McDonalds. But chefs at multi-star high end restaurants would say they are not chefs - their just cooks. So what the heck - why do we even have to delve on what we call ourselves? I get every position / hat on a film has a name and so the person creating the music is called a 'composer'. So then if we merely suggest that the term is such, then it merely means one who has written music for a film. period.

The music normally speaks for itself and filmmaker have ideas of the type of music they want in a film. If your previous stuff matches what they want, you're a candidate for the job. If not, I hope there is some discussion on whether you can AND have the interest and talent to create the music they want. I worked on a film last year - scored it three times and finally the filmmaker walked away saying she need something that sounded more like 'millennial' music written for the female under 30 age group. Wish we had worked that one out before I started :)

If you a 'beat person' and know your market, then there is ample opportunity for films which need your style. And beat music creator need not be concerned with music theory, chord progressions, modes, etc. They may never score a $10+ million film but that is not their market. So in my opinion, those who are successful film music creators don't only know how to mingle and sell themselves with filmmakers from a business perspective, but know where their 'sound' gets the most miles. To name a few - there are styles for TV and web series, styles for video games, styles for children's TV, superhero styles, epic music styles, etc. My sound tends to be acoustic and orchestral (or jazz ensemble/big band). You wouldn't hire me to score a film needing gospel style music or music using rock music. I would not be the right person to score a live action musical or a film that is musical based (like Mary Poppins Returns) though I can certainly work with a lyricist I know to write a song that an actor/actress would sing in the film - though I would need significant lead time to arrange it for an ensemble - especially if there is on screen dancing.

So as creators of musical content, it is our job to market ourselves AND our product. The marketing of ourselves is something most of us at a minimum know how it is done - we mingle at mixers, mingle at film festivals, get ourselves on film teams / competitions like the 48 hour film project (where I got my first IMDB credit), mingle, mingle....

But what about our 'product'. Music for film has customers and products. We are really no different from any other profession. We have to interview for our jobs (unless we are lucky enough to get repeat business) and interest our customers in our product.

Film makers not only care about interacting with us but want to know what we bring to the table. If we have worked on films (and most of us start in the 'shorts' world), we need to make some or all of our music accessible to the 'stakeholders'/film makers. So many of us have parked our music at places like Soundcloud, Reverbnation, or perhaps our own websites. We then need to decide how to do it. Many composers create a single MP3 with excerpts. Or perhaps small clips (often less than 1 minute each) of music from a film they scored. Those with short versions of their music (single or multiple files) are often concerned about their music getting 'used' without permission or 'stolen'. I don't worry about that - I put out scores/soundtracks in totality for every film I score though I will eliminate cues that are 'boring' without watching the film. I also get permission of the filmmaker and have unlisted films I have scored (or links to them) on Youtube (though others prefer Vimeo). Of course, this makes more sense for shorts than features.

The final part of the 'business' of composing is LOCATION. How many times have we experienced ourselves or know someone who scores a feature for a local upcoming film maker and then when it comes time for another film collaboration, the 'producer' (or another stakeholder), contracts with a CA or LA based composer instead of us? For better or worse (imho), post production jobs more often than not end up in California. So for composer like me in Texas who has chosen not to re-locate or spend the money commuting, it is done with an 'understanding' that for some of the film scoring markets - not being in LA/CA is career limiting. But that is OK for me - for example - I am perfectly happy scoring shorts from Texas. I have scored 27 shorts in the last 6 years and about to score 3 alone next month for the 168 film festival - and one of them is a 'repeat filmmaker' from last year or lives and works in LA.

Well said Joel - I still feel a gravitational pull to "add more" and then guess what? I think even a bit more would be even better to the point where I've created this cycle that goes something like this -

1. Piano scetches, preliminary orchestration

2. Primary orchestration

3. "This sounds good in there too" orchestration

4. Here's more "stuff" that seems to work - and then finally

5. The Realization - it's too crowded, too big and simply too much! Then I begin the "thinning out process until I find myself back where I was 3 steps ago!

Unfortunately I still go through this process I think because we "hear" and "create" on the fly as cues come together -

Less is not always "more" but less is usually "better".

Yes.....the pause....