Cool interview with Danny McCarthy

[Mark_Petrie]

Here’s a cool interview with Danny, who wrote a library track that ended up being wildly popular within the gaming community:

[MichaelL]

+1 Great interview. Thanks for posting Mark.

Take away quotes:

1) “It took about maybe 10 years before I got any gig whatsoever.”

2) “When I do production music it’s different than putting it out as an artist….”

[Stacktrace]

This is a great reminder of how hard work and a bit of good luck pays dividends. Thanks for sharing.

[Vlad]

@ Mark Petrie: Hi Mark, (this question is not intended to derail this thread, but I didn’t think it significant enough for its own thread….)

I did plenty of searching on MLR, and just couldn’t find the thread I was looking for which involved you giving sample library advice to someone starting with the epic orchestral trailer thing. You had boiled it down to several specific libraries, and presumably had budget reasons in mind for the advice you were giving. Can you or someone else (Art) please point me towards that thread?

And if you have arguments as to WHY those libraries are on the list vs. all that you own, I would love to hear them.

Much appreciated!

Vlad

words overused in this post: thread

Carry on, gents.

[Mark_Petrie]

Hey Vlad! I’m more than happy to help. Maybe the list needed a refresh anyway.

For epic orchestral music, it’s not just the quality of the samples, you really need to learn how to make them sound as convincing as possible. Even if a great engineer is mixing your track, they can’t fix mediocre
programming. I’m never satisfied with my midi, which is why these days I’m doing a lot more live recording.

I’m always blown away by the talent of some composers – not just their writing ability, but their production and programming chops. Check this guy out:

Or basically anything by Thomas Bergersen, who I’m sure you’re aware of.

I’m nowhere near these guys in terms of programming ability, but I can give you some library recommendations.

Strings
8Dio’s Adagio series – nice swells, I like the staccato stuff as well.
LASS 2 or Berlin (I don’t have either, but I might buy one soon)
Action Strings – don’t shoot me, I sometimes like to layer the basic repeating notes under ostinatos
Symphobia 2 – swells, fx, fullness
Lumina – swells, fx, fullness, nice pre-orchestrated patches
I’ll also boost strings with full sounding synths from Omnisphere

Brass
Cinebrass (and the PRO version)
Symphobia 2

Choir
I like Emperium, but I also load a lot of older choir patches, including ones in Omnisphere

Drums
I use about 50 different sound effect and drum tracks in my trailer music. It’s a blend of:
Storm Drum 2 (which barely works on my rig)
Damage
lots of small 8Dio libraries
Oracle
Old libraries like RMX single hits, True Strike

I used to have Hollywood Strings and Brass, but because I run everything off one Mac, the PLAY engine just killed my rig. Had to remove them.

The reason I have multiple libraries listed is that each does something really useful, but lacks something (of course, haha!)

[Mark_Petrie]

A follow up to my comment about needing to learn programming skills – here’s a great resource from Blake Robinson, who did that Hobbit track I listed above:
http://blakus.com/category/tutorials

[Vlad]

Hi Mark,

Thanks so much for all of the information! I really do appreciate that you took the time to write this and I will check out that video when I have more time.

I remember from the old post that I was surprised you mentioned Symphobia 2 + 3, but not 1.

And I am very familiar with your work. You are a badass.

Thanks again!

And indeed, Action Strings is a surprise I didn’t expect.

Vlad

[MichaelL]

A follow up to my comment about needing to learn programming skills – here’s a great resource from Blake Robinson, who did that Hobbit track I listed above:

http://blakus.com/category/tutorials

As long as you’re mentioning Blakus, don’t forget his cello! It’s a nice instrument.

http://www.embertone.com/instruments/blakuscello.php

[Author]

Posts