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  3. "new" composer humbly requesting advice...

  • "new" composer humbly requesting advice...

    S
    S
    ok, here's the scoop.

    i've been diddling with sequencing for about 9 years now, but mainly with general midi, soundfonts, and a love affair with a korg t3 a long time ago. i've never conducted nor been performed by a live orchestra.

    well, i recently landed my first commissioned project - a 4-hour series on barbarians for the history channel, a major television network in the u.s. i had no right to get this gig - other, more experienced composers had their demos shot down, & for some reason the 3-piece demo i threw together in fruityloops with soundfonts won me the deal.

    now i'm in trouble. i'm working on a korg triton studio, recording (for various long-winded reasons) analog in to a software sequencer & piling up the wave data. you can imagine the frustration, & the amateurish results. recently, the exec producer got the rough cut of the 1st 1/2 of the show & had a lot of negative things to say about the realism of the orchestra. duh.

    i know what i need to do to get the realism - i've heard the demos, i know how much this set costs, & i understand the basics involved in putting out the music. but i've never actually worked with these samples & have never worked with giga. i know this is the right path to success, but i'm really worried about the learning curve involved on top of the time spent retooling my workflow & the money needed to do it. i know i can compose the right music for this show. despite my lack of good tools, i believe in my music itself.

    so my question is: after a few hours of setting up hardware & software, what can i expect in terms of creative flow - sitting down & cranking out music - is it possible to start right off laying down parts & have something roughly usable in matter of hours, or am i looking at several weeks of tweaking & fiddling with stuff to get it to sound like it's supposed to?

    after 32 years, the only dream i've kept alive is that of scoring film for a living. now all of a sudden it hurtles out of the sky & lands right at my feet, a big flaming radioactive ball of opportunity. any advice on how to proceed is desperately welcome.

    thx n adv,
    david
  • G
    G
    Hello, Cheese!
    Sounds like you're in a predicament. Well. How much of this kind of freelancing have you done before? There are a couple things to consider when deciding how to proceed from here.
    First, how quick are you at learning new software and technology? Second, what's your initial budget? Third, when's your deadline?
    My intuition would tell me that for this job, stick with what you know, especially if you have a tight schedule. It's almost never a good idea to try learning a new method in the middle of a project. Myself, I'm a sequencer/sythesizer junky looking at greener pastures on this forum, which is why I assume you are here too.
    I am not trying to dissuade you from buying VSL (heavens, why would I do such a thing when I want it so much myself!), but I would recommend against getting it now unless you have a pretty forgiving schedule. If you already have nine years of synth/sequencing behind you, you may be better off upgrading your synth hardware. After finishing this job, hopefully with faverable results, I recommend revamping your entire studio if you intend to go further in the business. Hopefully your contract with the History Channel will put a little spending cash in your pocket.
    Right now, I use the Roland XV series syths with the Symphonic Strings sound module and I can achievesome remarkably realistic music with it. Nothing close to VSL, of course, but enough to garner faverable comments from Chicago Symphony Orchestra members.
    So that's my opinion, but I am entitled to it. Someone with more experience with the hardware and the music business (I am using basic freelance principles learned in the graphic design business) may have something better to tell you. In which case I'll be happy to sit back and learn something from them myself . . . [:)] See you at the History Channel!

    ~Chris
  • K
    K
    well

    It depends on what you're using. If you're still using fruity loops, you're gonna have a tough time getting realism out anyway. I can tell you that the performance set will add an incredible amount of realism, with little work from you for legato lines.

    The rest will prolly sound better than your riton in general, but you've got to understand some of the basics of orchestral music.

    With synth patches, you can load up "warm violins" and play a complete piece on it with ranges that go below the violin itself. Thats impossible to to do with samples made to mimic actual violins (without some editing).

    I'm not sure if I'm telling you things you already know here [:)]

    I think any of the newer orchestral sample based libraries will help in terms of realism, but may destroy your work flow if you're not used to working with actaul samples, and trying to recreate real orchestral music.
  • B
    B
    superstrincheese:

    Get your hands on David Govett's "GigaStudio Mastery". It's about four hours of material and can be found at the Tascam site. Simultaneously, download the VSL documentation (I assume that's possible for prelim Users, but don't know for sure.) After both, a total of eight or so hours, you should be in a position to judge whether VSL will assist, or detract from your current workflow.

    FruityLoops is not a "dumb" piece of software. Neither is the Triton necessarily an "easy" piece of H/W. You must already have some technical know-how, chops. It may be transferrable.

    Remember your use of VSL deos not need to be all-or-nothing. You could use it supportively!

    regards

    bc
  • S
    S
    thanks for all the feedback!

    i've come to the decision that the only way to get what the producer is looking for (not to mention myself) is to go with the vsl (or some similar collection, but why not go with the best?) the difference between what i'm working with now & the vsl is, to say the least, VAST. if the demos i've heard on this site are any indication of the power of this set, i know i will do great things with it.

    also, i have to mention how encouraging it is to read posts on this forum that have been answered within a matter of hours by the minds behind the entire project - i don't think i've ever seen anything like that before. that was a BIG plus for this purchase!

    i'm eagerly anticipating working with this superb toolset, & looking forward to asking more dumb questions... [:O]ops:

    david