Importance of Elite Libraries

[LAwriter]

Beyond a great tracking front end, a killer 2Buss chain would be the #1 thing IMO. There are dozens of pieces that would help out. A Manley Vari-Mu is awesome, a great 2Bus EQ, an SSL compressor…there’s so many to choose from. One of the new saturation boxes like the HG2, Louder Than Liftoff box, or Overstayer MAS can work wonders. All these pieces add a 3 dimensional aspect to your final mix that working ITB won’t give you.

Stand out from the crowd is my motto. If everyone else is cutting corners — don’t.

Dam!!! I’m giving away way to many secrets. 😀

[Paolo]

All these pieces add a 3 dimensional aspect to your final mix

thank you for the suggestions. Is this gear only to help make live instruments sound bigger in the mix? Or do you mean that the outboard gear is used when doing the stereo mixdown of both live and virtual/ITB instruments?

I’m giving away way to many secrets.

LOL! Ahhh.. but what feels better than helping a former-gigging
musician? 🙂

[LAwriter]

thank you for the suggestions. Is this gear only to help make live instruments sound bigger in the mix? Or do you mean that the outboard gear is used when doing the stereo mixdown of both live and virtual/ITB instruments?

sure.

All of the above. It’s all about making the mix pop. Making it 3 dimensional whether it’s a synth or an orchestra. Making it sound like it was mixed on an SSL with a top engineer. IMO (extremely biased) it cannot be duplicated ITB. Once you mix with that stuff, you come away jaded. It’s neither cheap nor easy though. But IMO I wouldn’t do this without it.

LOL! Ahhh.. but what feels better than helping a former-gigging
musician? ?

helping one that’s still gigging?? 😀

[boinkeee2000]

“Ask and ye shall receive” . . . once again thanks for taking the time and effort to answer my question LAWriter, I dont think anyone has ever broken it down so eloquently and descriptively the way you did here or in any other forum with no holds barred. I’ve heard your music, seen your beautiful studio, and have conversed with you a few times (if you are who i think you are 🙂 and do see you as an educator as well as an accomplished composer with many decades of experience and credits, who is also willing to assist those in need for free.

Most of your points hit me to the core almost like it was tailored to me ha! (I was the one bold enough to link my soundcloud page for all to critique, and dont worry im not onionskinned :D) and made me rethink on how I view what production music is. At different points through this journey, the advices ive gotten and that i heeded were “do minimalistic cues, thats whats needed”, then it was “Do the genre you do best and dont hold back”, and then there were more… “orchestral/piano music is whats considered evergreen”, “deadmaus uses this if you want to compete”, “use such and such sample libraries”, “analog summing is the key” etc etc etc….hence the byproduct of all of that is my “frankenstein” of a catalog, which now that i think about it, has no real direction or identity . . . with folks 50/50 on which were good tracks and were not (obviously the tracks I created specifically to those who advised me to do them was in favor of those) . . .

with no real placements under my belt, im trying to write production music for what i think it is, not for what it really is, like in a music supervisors POV.

I had an image before coming into this field that the process was like this . . . the sup send out a scene, folks try to write music to that scene and submits it, and they pick the best one that best fits. But to my surprise suddenly im working on material I have no idea where its going to go or who’s going to use it (not talking about briefs here)…

which then let me to a place on why this whole thread was conceived. “should i start writing music just like what i hear in the libraries? wait then i just become like the rest”, “would this library help me secure a spot?, but what if this library sucks”, “Should i buy all this expensive gear to compete with the big boys?, but how do i recoup that back if I dont get placements?”, to the point where “maybe the Elites are the key and i should strive for that” . . . I dont think any of the decades vets had to go through that mind$%# of a scenario in the 80s/90s. but thats the conundrum most of us newbies are in.

I’m pretty sure music for picture wont go away anytime soon, and the vets will pass on and be replaced by the newbies in the future, and all that crap with netflix and PROs will be sorted out. so im still hopeful that there will be a way to make a living in this field later on, i mean music (especially current) will still be needed right? And i sure hell aint stopping writing music just cause people (in general) say it sucks lol…

[woodsdenis]

– your music has to be not ITB produced. Not all samples, not all plugins, not mixed ITB with no “real gear”, microphones, outboard, consoles, etc. attached to it.

Not wishing to get into a debate about this and go off topic BUT “Mind Heist” probably the most successful trailer/library music of the last decade was done “in the box”. I am of an age where we mixed on SSL etc you can have terrible sounding music on either platform, IMHO of course.

[LAwriter]

Not wishing to get into a debate about this and go off topic BUT “Mind Heist” probably the most successful trailer/library music of the last decade was done “in the box”. I am of an age where we mixed on SSL etc you can have terrible sounding music on either platform, IMHO of course.

I agree. Outstanding music can be done either way, and I don’t want to start and ITB/OTB war here.

But for me, I want my music to sound “different” than the rest of the crowd. I’ve spent a lot of time mixing music for major motion picture releases, academy award winning films, records, etc. where I was paid a lot of money. It doesn’t have to be an SSL. It doesn’t have to be a PTHDX rig. It can be anything as long as it’s 3 dimensional, expensive sounding and — different and standout from the crowd. The more you can do to stand out from the crowd – and I can usually hear an ITB composers mix a mile away – that’s what I’m going to do. I want it to grab the listener and MAKE them want to keep listening because it’s different an intriguing.

If working ITB is your best choice, go for it and make it as good as you can. If you have the chance to try some expensive hardware on your 2 bus, please report back with your findings.

Not to dis the that piece, but that track (might be because it’s on youtube) sounds totally 2 dimensional to me. That’s not what I’m after sonically or emotionally.

[UpFromTheSkies]

100% agree with woodendenis on that point. I’ve had thousands of airings of my cues – broadcast and cable – most engineered ITB. It’s not the tools, it’s the artist.

[LAwriter]

“Ask and ye shall receive” . . . once again thanks for taking the time and effort to answer my question LAWriter, I dont think anyone has ever broken it down so eloquently and descriptively the way you did here or in any other forum with no holds barred.

Thanks, and you’re welcome. That’s one of the reasons I prefer to stay anonymous – so that I can tell it like I see it. This biz is a lot smaller than one might suspect.

if you are who i think you are

I wouldn’t be so sure. I don’t think my wife even knows who I am….. 🙂 And my soundcloud comment was not directed at you specifically. I suppose I should listen to it then….

[BEATSLINGER]

LAWriter, you are also making me feel like I should stress the importance of “Near-Field Monitors”. A lot of people in “Modern Music” do not have access to some of the better quality outboard gear like Manley, Tube Tech, Neve, LA2A, Urei, GML, etc. As well, a LOT are using Headphones to be their reference for mixing. I cannot stress how important a pair of Near Fields, like “Good Ol’ Auratones” are for achieving good balanced mixes; that can be played ANYWHERE!!

[LAwriter]

Agreed. And room treatment to go along with it. 🙂

[Mark_Petrie]

“Shoot for 5 super high quality tracks that will earn you 50K over 5 years in sync fees…etc.” The bottom line Mark and all is that it did take you writing 2000 for 5 to take off! Everyone of us vets here is saying “I wrote 1000 or more tracks”.

For sure – through sheer volume you’ll eventually stumble upon a quick and dirty track that is an unexpectedly big earner.

That said, most of my top earning tracks are ones where I spent days getting the music as authentic to the genre as possible, and as useful as possible (evocative, catchy, properly structured).

On the subject of working in the box, I sweeten maybe half the tracks I write with live orch elements. Samples are so good now that if you know what you’re doing, there’s very little to be gained from live orchestra unless you have a lot of exposed legato lines – and if you’ve actually written music designed to be played by a real orchestra (not for samples). I often add live guitar though, and get synth programmers to contribute parts to my music so I’m not reaching for the same palette over and over again.

There are trailer music libraries like Colossal and RSM that have almost no live parts in any of their music, and those guys are getting placements every week. Their main focus at the moment seems to be sound design heavy hybrid music (like Mind Heist but even less musical), so live stuff isn’t really needed.

But overall I agree with LAWriter – live parts are important for longevity and helps elevate the production value above competing tracks.

I don’t really agree with the comment about needing 1000 ‘amazing’ tracks (let’s just call them competitive with the top 10% of library music)… I certainly don’t have that many – maybe 100 what you’d consider really good ones? And those tracks, along with a mountain of ‘OK’ ones, pay my mortgage in the LA area. I imagine 1000 amazing tracks would easily make you seven figures, if the tracks were in the right hands!

A good example would be Two Steps From Hell – I doubt they have more than 200 tracks between them, yet they are massively successful. It helps that they’re pretty much the best at what they do.

[Dannyc]

and i think that is the key Mark. aim to be the best of what you do and you can also pull in a great living. thats what i firmly believe anyway. i don’t see the point in getting into music if you’re main aim after 10 years is to be just another mediocre composer that is a jack of all trades. i think if you haven’t a least developed some sort of sound after 10 years you probably never will. the people who make the great livings in any sort of music are those who are identified by their sound, that’s even the same with pop music.

[boinkeee2000]

It seems like any scenario is possible Dannyc, Ive been following your soundcloud page and i think your great at what you do best (orchestral/piano). . . I on the other take pleasure in the challenge of writing other genres for TV/Film. grew up listening to most of them and my favorites keep changing. My main thing is blues, rock and singer/songwriter stuff on the commercial side (not on my soundcloud page but it is on spotify). . . but i just cant see writing a 1000 of those on this side of the biz, 100 maybe, so i feel the need to diversify and separate my passion from the business side…

I dont have an orchestral background like most of the folks here but i love the music, so i try and create that with my measly VSL kontakt library in Komplete. whether any library will buy or take them is another matter, but no one can say i didnt put my heart & soul to it. same way i dont knock the cheesy midi keyboard blues guitar piece i heard on an RF site while I painstakingly record myself running through my Toneking Imperial with a 62 Fender Strat boosted by a blues screamer & miked with an SM57. maybe somewhere, somehow, someone would need that cheesy midi sound for their project and not mine.

I think you got it right when you said do what you do best, but i also believe theres nothing wrong in writing for genres that are not your best for the sake of diversity and just the love of writing as a whole… like i said its amazing how polar opposite strategies can still yield the same outcomes. and while i may never be good enough to create trailer music, i may get lucky and get one of my rock songs in a commercial ad or two. and who knows maybe later in the future Mike Petrie or LAWriter can compress their talents in orchestral music into a zip file and email it to me so i can one day be the next hans zimmer 😀

[NY Composer]

. I on the other take pleasure in the challenge of writing other genres for TV/Film. grew up listening to most of them and my favorites keep changing. My main thing is blues, rock and singer/songwriter stuff on the commercial side (not on my soundcloud page but it is on spotify). . . but i just cant see writing a 1000 of those on this side of the biz, 100 maybe, so i feel the need to diversify and separate my passion from the business side…

Absolutely. Diversity is the name of the game.

Although I am not a seasoned pro like some of the guys on this thread, I have enough experience in the Lib business to see what my contacts want and have too much of.

Being a session drummer for many years, I was fortunate enough to to get immersed in Straight Ahead Jazz, Funk, Latin, Metal,. You name it. These musical styles are not impossible to learn. Just listen, listen, listen. One of my music mentors once told me ” You are what you heard”. Although I do a lot of Epic/Action Orchestra, I am always up to writing a Bossa Nova, Hard Bop, Oakland Soul or Samba track. Libraries will eat up a good track in these genres.

[NY Composer]

I don’t really agree with the comment about needing 1000 ‘amazing’ tracks (let’s just call them competitive with the top 10% of library music)… I certainly don’t have that many – maybe 100 what you’d consider really good ones? And those tracks, along with a mountain of ‘OK’ ones, pay my mortgage in the LA area. I imagine 1000 amazing tracks would easily make you seven figures, if the tracks were in the right hands!

Thanks Mark,

Having a passion for music and working a “Day job” to pay the mortgage is very frustrating. I always wanted to do music full time. Although I am impressed by a 2000 quality track count, I am very glad to hear that a few hundred catchy and useful tracks can help a career prosper.

[Author]

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