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EXCHANGE
- ARCHIVE #1
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5/31/00
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Who: michael white Message: hi, I'am new to scoring and am wondering if there is a standard data base template that film composers use to generate cue sheets? thanks. Jeff Rona replies: I'm not aware of one. Cue sheets are usually organized by a music editor using some specialized software (Opcode's Cue - no longer available). Other's do something similar with a spreadsheet or word processor, but there aren't any availble templates that I've ever seen. Maybe someone who knows of one can reply here. |
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Who: John DeBorde Message: Hi Jeff: I'm yet another SVP power user who has recently jumped
to Logic. Although I'm really enjoying Logic, a friend of mine who uses
Digital Performer showed me this extremely cool target frame/tempo calculator
feature which seems like a great asset when scoring to picture. Jeff Rona replies: I'm not too impressed yet with Logic's tempo calculation feature. It can do the job, but requires you to scroll through tempos until it tells you the one that will make the music hit as desired. The tempo tools in Vision were better in some regards, but Logic does include a number of nifty functions for fine tuning the manner in which the tempo changes. It produces a more musical result, but is a bit more labor intensive. I'm curious if any Logic gurus out there have anything to say about it. |
5/26/00
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Who: Mike Stevens Message: Jeff: Thank you so much for your frank comments on Vision and
your move to e-magic. As I have a day job, I just don't have time to evaluate
various sequencer options, and to get the opinion of someone who works
at it 18 hours a day (or worse) is extremely valuable. I'm a regular reader
and appreciate your descriptions of the trials & tribulations of dealing
with clients. I own an ad agency and have personally experienced all your
frustrations. I think it's very useful for young people to understand
how much of a role non-musical factors (playing politics, showing up on
time, etc.) play in the music world. Thanks. |
05/15/00
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Who: James Woody Message: Hi Jeff. I'm a musician and composer and producer of scores
for TV and films. I comprise 1/3 of Pray For Rain. We're a soundtrack
outfit located in San Francisco. We do quite a few made-for-TV flicks
for CBS and Showtime, et al. We also have been dedicated Vision users
for many, many years and we're VERY pissed off at what Gibson has decided
to do (or rather NOT to do) with Opcode. I read your column every month
in Keyboard and I guess you could say I'm a big fan. Jeff Rona replies: There's no question
that the Logic learning curve is very steep. The program is far more complex
and deep than Vision ever was. But think how long it took you to get proficient
at Vision, if you think about it. I think you need to get a local Logic
guru to walk you through it. It's what I did and it helped a lot. I still
have a ways to go, but I'm starting to get into the flow of the program.
I'm going cold turkey as of now, Vision-wise. I think we can be fairly
certain it is not coming back. If it does, I will not return to it anyway.
I couldn't bare giving Gibson one cent of my money. |
05/15/00
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Who: Damon Bradley Message: Jeff, I was wondering if you could give me some tips on mixing.
These days it seems like everyone has a studio and is doing everything
themselves including mixing, sequencing, and composing. Right now I have
a very small studio, just a computer with Cool edit pro, speakers, amp,
and Roland XP-80 keyboard. I plan on taking out a loan and getting a good
starter set-up (good soundcard, good moniters, amp, etc...) Jeff Rona replies: That's a pretty deep question. I'm not an engineer, but I've done it enough times to get what I want. I have some engineering tips in my new book, and I'm sure there are a number of good books on audio engineering available. Anybody have any suggestions? |
5/11/00
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Who: Greg Short Message: Hello! Do you know of a resource (on the 'net or off) for connecting filmmakers and composers? I am trying to break into the industry. Any help would be appreciated. Jeff Rona replies: As they say: "If it was easy, everyone would do it!" I don't know of any resources personally. Maybe some other people reading this do. |
5/04/00
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Who: Joris de Man Message: Hi Mr. Rona! Hadn't realised you were moving to Logic; it's a pretty solid piece of software, and I think you'll appreciate the way it can interface with sounddiver to manage a complex rig such as your own. On with the question; I'm considering adding some tubewarmth to my setup ; currently I'm going from a Yamaha 01V straight into a digidesign 882, but I think my audio is lacking some warmth (the climate here doesn't help either:). I'm considering sticking something like a DBX 386 inbetween, to tube things up. Does anybody else have experience with sticking a valve preamp inbetween your mixer and recording setup, and what kind of preamp do you use or can you recommend? regards, Joe |
5/04/00
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Who: BJ Leiderman Message: Jeff, How are you coming along with the change to Logic? I, too, was a SVPro veteran and was really pissed off at Gibson's move. Would love to talk to you, if there's such a thing as free time in your life. Be well, BJ Jeff Rona replies: TWell, not a day goes by whan I don't hum along to yor music! It's a pleasure to have you here. My move to Logic is just underway now, and while it is tough to go from being a super power user to a novice in one swoop, I am enjoying it more each day. I think that cold turkey is the way to go. Let us know how it goes for you. |
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Who: Chris Drake From:
Jeff Rona replies: The GigaSampler appears to be a solid piece of gear and one really worth considering for any MIDI studio. There are quite a few GigaSamplers here,and Hans has several as well. I am just putting my first one together now. I didn't want to do it in the middle of a project. As for Mission Impossible: What orchestra?!? |
| Who: George Guerrette From: Toronto, Canada Does: Composer Favorite Site: Email: agua@broadcast.net Message: Yet Another Qeustion About Demo Reels (YAQADR... pronounced "yaKAYder" ;-)Anyway, I just recently got myself a CDR and digital audio interface (believe it or not) and have just completed dumping all my past work in, trimming, normalizing, etc. I will be doing custom demo edits for prospective clients... and I would expect those reels to run around 8-12 minutes. I think they would be mixed, stylistically, as well as vary in "pallette", ie: one's an acoustic or orchestral track (even midi generated), the next a synth based texture, etc.). I am planning on contacting other composers in town to offer my assistance with their work (as I'ver done for two seasons of a series), or to hopefully obtain a sub-contract if they're too busy. I plan to really load up these reels, as I feel that I have a good grasp of diverse styles and who knows what someone might be looking for at any given time. My question is, would it be a good idea to seperate the tracks on these reels by pallette? Thios would allow the listener to check out my synth tracks in a row, then can skip to the next sequence of indexes where the orchestral stuff resides whenever they want to? I would still attempt to vary the pacing within a pallette sequence by tempo, tonal center, and overall energy level. Any comments? Thanks, and I truly value your columns! George Jeff Rona replies: Don't think so much in terms of "pallettes", but of musical style. By variying the styles of consecutive cuts on a demo, you keep things more exciting. |
| Who: Christopher Knight From: NYC Does: composer Favorite Site: Email: chrisknight@mac.com Message: Damon, I definitely agree. Although, if it had to lose I think "Red Violin" was a worthy winner, it too was a great score, and I have a lot of respect and admiration for the composer. |
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Who: Damon Bradley Message: How could "American Beauty" not win the oscar for best score? Newman deserved it in my opinion. It was one of the most experimental scores I've heard in quite a while. The guy has been scoring his ass off lately! "The Red Violin" was a great score, but I think this should have definitely been Thom Newmans year to win. Such a brilliant original score. I have to say I felt bad for him. Anyone else here agree? |
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Who: Christopher Knight Message: Hi Jeff, I was wondering what interfaces you use for ProTools. Have you heard the 1622? It seems like a good thing for going staight into ProTools with lots of MIDI gear. It would be nice to be able to dump 16 tracks of MIDI into PT at one time. You can adjust the gain in the DAE hardware control panel, which is pretty convenient. It has only 20-bit A/D converters though (probably the same converters as the 882). I would think that 24-bit converters would translate a little better for fat pads and synth bass. But maybe 20-bits is enough for most midi gear? What do you think? Have you had a chance to compare different converters (888/24, Apogee, O2R, etc.) and see if there is a qaulity difference? Thanks for you articles, can't waith for the book, Jeff Rona replies: I use the 24 bit 888 and an ADAT Bridge interface connected digitally to my 02Rs. I don't have the 1622 because I'm not mixing synths in ProTools. |
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Who: Aaron Symonds Message: I am just starting out as a film composer and am working as an assistant to a film composer at Fox Studios, Sydney. As part of my work I am responsible for programing orchestral samples on our E-mu E4XTs. The orchestral samples library is based around the Advanced Orchestra series. One of the areas where using samples seem to fall short is for fast legato passages for the strings. Do you have any suggestions as to how I could achieve realistic, fast and legato string passages? If necessary, purchasing another string sample library is something we would spring for. If anyone is interested is swapping orchestral samples programming tips feel free to contact me at my email address. Thank you. Aaron Symonds P.S. I have always found your column to be highly informative and insightful. Jeff Rona replies: It's amazing how much of a difference good orchestration makes to the use of string samples, or orchestral samples in general. The rules of orchestration, which help with clarity and even phrasing. In terms of legato phrasing, after I sequence in a line, I often go back in to the track and stretch all the notes ever so slightly so they all overlap a bit. It blurs them a bit and gives a more legato feel. Fast strings just need to be played carefully, sometimes doubling it with slow strings just to fill it out. |
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Who: JP Jones Message: You are basically, the reason why I decided to get into a career
as a film music composer. So I started reading and figuring how I could get a career going right here in small town America. I've joined taxi, and composersnet. And I have been getting some response. But that great break has not come yet. Which means I will have to be even more persistent. I know as one of the top composers, that I know of. You get a lot of material coming across your desk. A lot of it that is probably, financially speaking, not up to your standards. Maybe after checking out my sight, you might pass the address on to a few of your contacts, that might be looking for someone, that can meet their budgetary requirements. |
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Who: Brandon Thompson Message: Dear Jeff, My name is Brandon Thompson and I just got home from hearing you speak to the film scoring department here at Berklee. I just thought I would let you know how happy I was to hear your advice and how much I got from your talk. You for the inspiration and best of luck!!! I look forward to hearing you future works. Thanks again and best wishes, Brandon |
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Who: Darryl Taylor Message: I have been reading some posts lately on how to get a scoring
gig. I agree, in principle that you should be located in the "Movie Hotbeds"
if you want to have a shot at doing a Movie score or Television score,
but this is changing with time and advanced technology. I am currently
scoring a film from here in Kelowna, BC, Canada, that has been produced
in LA and Vancouver. The cues are digitized and posted on a FTP site and
I score them and return the cues in like manner. Fast and cheap ! I am
tired of being told " You have to move to LA or New York to get the Scoring
gigs" NOT!!! |
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Who: Klaus P. Rausch Message: Hi there ... Great to visit your website. Very exciting. As faithful reel world column reader since years I«m very happy about this great site. Take care :-) |
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Who:Ehsaan Noorani Massage: Hi Jeff , Greetings from India. Jeff , I was wondering that is it necessary that if you are tracking a film score is it necessary to do that in a large recording studio with high decibel monitoring or is it OK to track in a smaller studio using nearfields. I mean the studio would be large enough to fit in a few string players etc. I'm about to score the soundtrack for a major film in Bombay . I'm planning to do most of the tracking onto Ensoniq Paris after which I'll transfer all the tracks on to DA88 and take it into a larger studio to do the DTS / Dolby surround mix. I wonder if the bottom end will suffer if I'm tracking using Genelec near fields. Jeff Rona replies: There is nothing wrong with what you are planning to do. Lots of people track with small, nearfield monitors. The problem comes when mixing your final mix. Small speakers will not give you an accurate representation of most movie theatre sound systems, and you can end up with far too much bottom end. If possible do your final mix with a subwoofer system in addition to the Genelecs. Good luck!
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Who: Damon Bradley Massage: I appreciate you emailing me about my demo CD info! I was wondering how I could find an agent for soundtrack composers. Can I find agents on the Internet? I sent a demo to Basil Poledouris a while back (my girlfriend was best friends with his daughter in college) and he wrote me back and said he liked my stuff, but I need to target my demos to up and coming independent film directors, but unfortunately I reside in South Carolina and there aren't any directors here. So I figure I might need an agent that I could send my demo CD to who might know directors. Would that be the right thing to do? Thanks again for your time! Jeff Rona replies: It's great that such a wonderful composer has responded positively to your music. You most likely can not find a reputable agent who will represent you until you have at least one or two films on your resume and come to them with a project to negotiate. That's the typical starting point for a composer/agent relationship. I would be dubious of any agent that took me on under different circumstances. As for living in South Carolina, you must consider the relationship between what you want to do and where the best place is to accomplish that goal. If you live in Idaho, you probably won't find much work as an oceanographer. There are a small handful of places that have significant work for a film composer. In general, producers and directors expect you to come to them, and not the other way around. There are always exceptions, but it is something to think about. Good luck. |
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Who: Bengt Nilsson Massage: Hi Jeff I«m a swedish composer with a few questions. A few months ago I finished the music for the Swedish thriller "Noll tolerans" (Zero tolerance) What's the secret with a wide mix if you«re using orchestral samples instead of a real orchestra? I have a problem with the strings in my mixdowns. I used to put (for example) the violins between the leftfront-speaker and the center-speaker and the celli between the center-speaker and the rightfront-speaker but it does«nt sound wide enough (I use stereosamples). I have thought about panning the left-side of the violinsamples (the leftfront-speaker) a bit to the leftrear-speaker - maybe 10% or so, and the opposite for the celli. What«s "your tip of the day?" I Didn«t have any problem with the real orchestra because we used 29 channels on ProTools, but the fake stuff is a bit harder. I think this kind of problem is pretty new here in Sweden Because we only produce 20 to 25 films a year. The tradition is a 2-channel mix on the music. Why? There«s six speakers - let«s use them. Jeff Rona replies: One technique I have used very successfully is to put a delay of 20 to 60 milliseconds between the left and right channel of a stereo sample. This produces a very wide effect, and I use it on almost everything. Also, if there is anything you might want to have go into the surrounds, have them on a separate set of tracks for the mixers to handle. Good luck. |
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Who: John Mazzei Message:Reply to the post regarding stereo orchestral samples. I've often actually used mono samples panned to the area in the stereo spectrum that I want and then adding reverb, delay, etc. from there. This seems to allow the ear to pinpoint the initial sound created by the mono sample and then have the delays and reverb add the ambiance to the overall mix. Just another method to try. In fact, I'm going to try Jeff's approach of adding delay between the left and right side of a stereo sample. By the way, Jeff, when you use samples of solo instruments, do you use stereo samples or mono samples? Thanks Jeff Rona replies: I have stereo samples on most instruments. I still have a few mono ones which sound great, and don't seem to matter. I like things like harp over to one side and those are fine in mono. |
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Who: Damon Bradley Massage: I was wondering who I could target my demos to in the multimedia business. I've got a 4 song demo on CD, each song is about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes in length ranging from mid-eastern space music to experimental drum n bass to Indian-jazz fusion. Should I target commercial ad agencies for TV or find a reputable agent to do that? I've been working very hard on composing for the last 12 years and would love for someone to hear my work. I've finally got 4 songs that I'm proud of, but just don't know who to send my demos to. I would gratefully appreciate any info. |
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Who: Daniel Lee Message: Is anyone familiar with the Roland RSS processor? I'd like to know how well it works and if there are other companies building similar processors. Thanks. |
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Who: Paul Adams Hello Jeff: May I impose to ask a question. I have an old Mac that runs
on coal and need to decide between Mac and PC. Need to record multitrack
and would love to do some simple video stuff for my albums. Paul Adams The above is my web showing the 7 albums as well as the musical instruments I make! Jeff Rona replies: Except for the audio, you have complete exchangeability between Mac and PC using Standard MIDI Files. Then it's complicated. Video is not a standardized feature of MIDI sequencers. But the music itself can be exchanged, which is a good start.
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Who: Pete Calandra
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Who: John Mazzei Message: Hello, I have some specific questions regarding putting together my first demo CD (I don't have any film to submit yet) I have a number of pieces of different styles and lengths, many of which are too long, I believe, to put on the demo at their full length. Is is appropriate to fade in and fade out on some pieces? Are fast cuts better or is a small amount of silence between cuts acceptable? I have a good mix of melodic and textural pieces which I believe is a good idea but I have always wondered, what is a good length for a demo without video? I know there are no set rules, I'm just looking for some general guidelines. Thanks for providing this forum and I also find your articles in Keyboard very inspiring and educational. Jeff Rona replies: You're right not to make any cut to long. There's nothing wrong with fade ins or fade outs, as long as things feel somewhat musical. I think you might be better off doing some editing internally to each cue to shorten them (see above) while still maintaining there essence. |
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Who: Darryl Taylor Message: Jeff I enjoy your articles in Keyboard. I also have a few of your books which have come in handy. I would like to know if you have any suggestions for horn and orchestral percussion sample libraries. Jeff Rona replies: Always a tough question. There are a growing number of orchestral libraries, each with strengths and weaknesses. I don't listen that carefully to each one, since some time ago I did my own personal library in conjunction with the other composers at me studio. The Peter Siedlaczek Advanced Orchestra seems a very good choice. Roland's Orchestral Brass also sounds pretty good, if you have a Roland compatible sampler. Otherwise, if you can make over to a music store that sells libraries there are usually some demos available. Let us know what you end up doing. |
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Who: George Guerrette Message: Regarding the post about orchestral CD-ROM libraries, the January issue of Sound On Sound has an exhaustive review of over FORTY Orchestral CD-ROM libraries. Some of their articles are also available online, at http://www.sospubs.co.uk. |
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Who: Jim Clayton Message: Greetings from Toronto... I found your column on upgrading your SCSI on your 9500 (from August 1998) today. I also hung onto my 9500/132 because of the six PCI slots (and added a 266 G3 upgrade). I'd like to upgrade the external SCSI, as my new Castlewood Orb removable drive is ultra-SCSI, maxing out at 12.2 megs/sec. I'm told the 9500's external SCSI is only 5 megs/sec. My concern is the internal busses and such. Isn't there some point inside that all this new SCSI speed gets bottlenecked? The 9500's internal bus is 44mHz... does that affect SCSI speed? It boils down to this... I run Logic Platinum, and the activity meters show that the HD is getting close to maxed even though the CPU is barely straining. So, I think with a SCSI upgrade, I should be able to run a 24-track studio on this machine. But I'm not positive. If you can spare the time, I'd appreciate a yay or nay opinion. Either way, thanks for reading this. Jeff Rona replies: You are definitely in the right direction. I use an Adaptec SCSI 2940 accelerator. However they do have some new ones just coming out, so do check their website. The Adaptec card has 2 SCSI ports on it, and I devote one port and one hard drive only to video. This means that there is no other activity on that SCSI chain for the audio. This works very well. The SCSI port that comes on the Mac will not work. I have no experience with the Orb for video, but perhaps some other readers do. |
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Who: Christopher Drake I am interested in non-linear quicktime video sync, and am looking for some info about system requirements. Jeff wrote a column in Keyboard a while back, but I cant find it anywhere(maybe reprinted in Jeff's new book?) I am currently running Mac G4 450mhz, 256mb ram,18gb scsi hard drive, MOTU Digital Performer. Any advice appreciated! Jim Levine (Jeff's assistant) replies:
Quicktime video synchronizes to you sequencer automatically as long as
you tell the quicktime window in your sequencer to "Lock to Picture."
You must enter the first SMPTE frame of your quicktime movie in the SMPTE
offset window located in the quicktime window(sometimes there's a menu
in which you must select "show SMPTE offset.") Next you must set a SMPTE
start time for your sequence(Studio Vision, Performer), or song(Logic). |
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Who: Joe de Man Message: The message board is a great idea Jeff! I was wondering if anybody can give me a good advice on putting a good demo reel together. I have the ambition to move into doing music for film and television (well I can dream, can't I:). I don't have much experience scoring to picture and so my demo reel will consist only of music pieces I've done for various games. These are red book audio tracks though, no GM stuff:)My question is, what do music producers like to hear? Would it be allergist to do snippets of songs (30-60 seconds) to show some variety, or just include complete tracks? And in general, how many tracks should I include? Any advice will be greatly appreciated! regards, Joe Jeff Rona replies: Put as much as you
want onto your demo, but keep each piece relatively short. No more than
2 or 3 minutes at most. Preferably less. Be sure to mix it up stylistically.
Don't put more than one piece in the same style next to each other, or
even at all. Keep it changing. And don't put anything on the demo you
aren't absolutely pleased with. There are no excuses. If anyone else reading
this has any experiences with demos, please post them! |
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Who: Jeff Rona |