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43
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Developer / Audio / Re: Composing Full/Part-Time
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on: April 26, 2015, 08:16:12 AM
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I composed full time for a while, and it was hell. Music becomes a job at that point so the motivation to do it just isn't there since you HAVE to write in order to make money. Currently I'm doing programming full time 8-5 M-F and then write music at night and on the weekends. Sometimes I write for about 40 hours a week, other weeks I might write about 15-20 hours tops. Just depends on how tired I am or whether or not I'm inspired. The one important thing I have to keep in mind is that it isn't really a job, just something that I love to do that happens to make money.
As far as taxes go... they are really difficult to measure so if you don't put in a lot extra in your main job then make sure you save save save and also keep a record of all your deductions(any purchases you made for music, new libraries, new computer, new game(research material)). You can also write-off your cable bill since it's used for writing music. An accountant works wonders here but you can also find tons of information for this online.
The deductions may actually save you... this past year I made way more than I had anticipated and before I applied my deductions I owed the IRS... afterwords they owed me a nice chunk of money.
Another thing to consider, that I am always neglecting... is to avoid taking on too much work in the music side. There will be periods where you might not get a single gig for months, and you'll become semi-desperate as a result. Then when a gig finally pops up, and then another, and another, etc... you'll accept all of them because you REALLY need it by that point. Then before you realize what you've done you have 6+ projects all expecting music to be done by the same time period and you just don't have the time to pump out that much music. So budget your time... it sucks to toss a gig but it's gotta happen. I usually toss the excess ones I get to random other composers I know that write a similar style to what was requested of me.
Also don't be afraid of dropping a gig that wastes your time. If they make you rewrite or modify a track over and over again... kick'em to the curb. Every modification and every rewrite is lowering the value of your music financially. I've dropped a few in my past, not many... but once I spent so much time on a track that it wasn't worth it I would email the person and let them know that I'm dropping them because it's a financial burden to me now and obviously not working out for both parties.
I think that's all the advice I have for now... someone is messaging me on skype and it's distracting as hell...
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44
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Developer / Audio / Re: Humanizing Virtual Instruments
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on: April 18, 2015, 06:39:17 AM
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Part of the humanization of a track involves removing the perfection of the performance from the track. Granted, a nicer sample library will generally help with this in some cases but things like a piano... repetitive staccato parts in other instruments, even with round robin it is easy for something to sound robotic and fake. Making good use of velocity shifts(assuming the samples you use have multiple layers of velocity of the instrument recorded), and modwheel/expression shifts will help tremendously.
Percussive instruments are often robotic sounding as well and are notorious for creating the 'machine gun effect'. That's where someone will have say... a snare part that is the exact same velocity on every note. Round robin helps here a bit too but even then it's still not fool proof. Accenting some notes while deadening others and also shifting the occasional note a few ticks to the left or right will put in the human error that is ever so subtle but always there. Humans aren't perfect and to really humanize a track the performance of your computer music be imperfect.
One feature I really like my sample libraries to have is true legato... even as big of a pain as it can be to use sometimes it helps tremendously with realism. The trouble it creates is due to the small delay between the start and end note caused by the legato shift. In most cases you will have to shift the ending note slightly to the left in order for it to be in sync with the rest of the track.
Just don't assume that higher quality sample libraries are easier to humanize because they always sound better in demo tracks. Some of them take a bit of time and patience to get the sound just right. You really have to pay close attention to detail when using them, and the more you practice trying to make a lower end library sound real the less of a nightmare it'll be to make a higher end library sound authentic.
Was going to answer your two questions directly but I'm not sure in what context you are using the word instrument. I can play piano, and I know the nuances required to make a virtual piano sound like someone is actually playing it... (and a cheap piano usually does a poor job helping with this). Good practice for humanizing is to listen to real instruments, particularly the ones you are using and then try to replicate the same sound in your music. Also be prepared to have your world shattered when you get to a point where your humanization is up there with all the audio demos you hear on sample libraries... because then the 'sample' aspect of them is all too clear and it's very easy to distinguish between real and fake. Mixing in real instrumentation with the fake helps to remove this fakeness from the piece though, so if I can afford it I'll try to hire someone to perform a key part in a track just to add at least ONE part that isn't sampled, but using a real performance.
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45
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Developer / Audio / Re: Why is composition so over-saturated?
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on: April 13, 2015, 02:28:47 PM
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That first track sounds like an 8Dio grab bag... basically a ton of sample libraries geared towards sounding like the overly cliche Zimmer sound. Tired of hearing it, and the fact it's a standard these days is an insult to originality.
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48
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Developer / Audio / Re: Show us some of your music!
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on: March 28, 2015, 09:58:25 PM
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ZackParrish - Yes yes yes. ((: This is majestic. How much time does it take you to write and produce a track like Remember When? I must admit I'm a little envious of your skill!
That particular track took about a total of 15 hours spread across 3 days. When I'm really into what I'm working on I can fly... other times it's just a casual walk... |
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51
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Developer / Audio / Re: Need info about mixing Rock music
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on: March 05, 2015, 07:27:42 PM
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- How many guitar layers should I use?
Depends on the type of track you are writing. But if you are doing rock/metal or whatever then two will suffice, panned between 50-70% to the right and left respectively to give better spacing to the mix.
- Should I pan everything or only guitars, leaving bass and drums in the middle?
Bass should be kept in the center, if not slightly to the right or left, or you can use stereo modelling to widen it's sound and push it away from the center a bit. Drums are typically panned according to their relative position to the real layout of a drumset. So your hihat would be on the left, crashes on the right and left but not too much. Snare would be to the left but not as far as the hihat, the kick would be dead center, etc. Most VSTs of drumsets are already panned so you wouldn't normally need to pan anything manually.
- Should I compress as much as possible or is there a limit?
Compression should always be used lightly and only in cases where it enhances your mix. If you mix things appropriately you won't need compression at all. In cases where you record something like vocals, or a live guitar playing, it can come in handy for leveling the dynamics of the recording... but outside of that it's really not necessary.
- Should I cut lower frequencies in bass and drums, maybe in everything?
...Why? What relevance is there to cutting the lower frequency? Unless you are correcting an already bass heavy track from poor balancing in the instrumentation, or a badly mixed VST/Sample, then there is not point for this.
- Should I use reverb for all guitars or some with and some without?
Sparingly. For lead lines(like a solo) reverb or delay is usually okay but for the rhythm parts you really don't want to slap on a lot of reverb because it can have adverse effects on the mix. A small bit of reverb with a short decay on it is useful for boosting the width of the guitars so they sound fuller. The bass I would advise not using any at all.
- How can I give more punch the drums?
Mid range frequencies are your punch factor in EQ, but if you want to boost the drums then mix it on the individual part of the drums you want boosted. It's usually not a good idea to EQ the entire drumset when certain parts of it are poorly mixed. Boosting treble will make your cymbals ear bleedingly hissy, boosting the bass too much can cause your kick to clip the track. If you wanted to brighten the snare you would want to do just the snare and not the cymbals/kick too. If you want the snare to have more of an audible punch you'd boost the mids/high mids but be weary of doing it too much. Raising the mids can quickly make your mix unbearable to listen to.
Of course, these are all my opinions seeing as I have no formal training in any of this stuff. I'm almost completely self taught so feel free to shrug off everything I said.
Also, if you want some good guitar VSTs check out Ample Sounds' guitars, or Impact Soundworks. I use Impact Soundsworks Shreddage X and Shreddage IIX for electric and Ample Sounds' Acoustic guitars for well... acoustic stuff. They have nice electrics too but I had already purchased the shreddage libraries before finding them. IS also has a nice bass guitar, and I believe Orange Tree Samples and Ample Sounds both have some nice bass libraries as well. Just make sure whatever(if ever) guitar libraries you buy that they do not have prerendered effects on them. Those are the WORST as you lose a lot of control with how they sound.
Okay... I'm done.
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Developer / Audio / Re: Show us some of your music!
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on: February 16, 2015, 01:46:34 PM
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oh my god you were the one behind the sakura games fuck they have cute music from what i've seen of the steam train play of sakura spirit, so good...job? No idea what that is... This Sakura is some project that fell into my lap about a month ago. interesting! curious about how you managed that one. the sakura games are really low rent terrible vns with bad dialogue and somewhat decent art that gets repeated over and over. i guess sakura fantasy must be the third? there are two more, and i only know there was one besides sakura spirit because it was on the steam "what's new" slideshow thing. apparently they make money, somehow, but they are Abysmal. ripe for decent lets plays in the right hands, though; i've never seen an lp of the second but i'd expect it'd be just as worthy of a laugh anyway your music is good and much better than that game is worth I wrote music for the guy that runs Winged Cloud before... about 2 years ago. I hadn't worked directly with him at that point but through a third party so he got my contact information from said third party recently. |
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Developer / Audio / Re: Show us some of your music!
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on: February 14, 2015, 02:33:55 PM
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oh my god you were the one behind the sakura games fuck they have cute music from what i've seen of the steam train play of sakura spirit, so good...job? No idea what that is... This Sakura is some project that fell into my lap about a month ago. |
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Developer / Audio / Re: Composers! Survey for research paper.
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on: February 13, 2015, 07:20:33 AM
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First two questions were okay but the 3rd question was too limited seeing as the team size can vary greatly from one project to the next, especially when freelancing.
Anyway, guess it's obvious I took it too.
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56
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Developer / Audio / Re: Show us some of your music!
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on: February 11, 2015, 02:53:24 PM
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That's a really beautiful and inspiring tune, good job! What are the instruments / vsts you used at 1:05? I can head a harp, a distant piano, a celesta maybe, and violins obviously, am I missing anything? EWQL Hollywood Strings Gold Cinesamples Cineharp Orange Tree Samples Zither EWQL Pianos Gold Believe that's it for that section in particular. |
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