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Talented composers will make great music no matter what instrument they use, wether midi or otherwise. Anyone who blankly dismisses an art form,or ways of creating it because of a personal bias, usually is very insecure about their own abilities IMHO.
While on the subject of compression and limiting
VT editors that I know hate over-compressed music.
I suppose those same VT editors would not use a Rhianna/Metallica/One Direction track because in their “opinion” it was over compressed. I dont think they would last very long voicing that opinion do you. AFAIK VT editors edit video and don’t make musical decisions.
Wether I like it or not a “compressed/limited” sound is a part of a lot of popular music genres. We as composers are here to service a market NOT to lead it. If that is a popular and integral part of certain music types then thats what we do. Period.
Now that is completely different from over compressing all types of music just because you can, each piece has to be views separately.
As an anecdote many years ago (mid 1980’s)when working in Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, we were making copies and also listening to the new record from a young Irish quartet called U2. Terribly over compressed we muttered to ourselves, sounds terrible, out of tune, Steely Dan are much better etc usual muso/engineer BS. Well that record went on to sell over 20 million copies. 30 years later they are still the biggest band on the planet. Whats the point, people who buy records don’t listen for the minute things we do, they take it as a whole and make a judgement.Its about the music primarily, not the technique.
+1 Art.
@Ron and Wildman, yes TJ’s work is remarkable, AND there are tons of composers who do amazing mock-ups…Mike Verta, Alex Temple, Alex Pfeffer, Mark Petrie…
In another vein, Guy Bacos does great demos of the VSL library.
http://guybacos.com/audio/Strolling%20Joyfully%20on%20a%20Snowy%20Day.mp3
A good big band brass section used to be a weak link, but then came Sample Modeling…
http://www.sample-modeling.com/Demos/Orchestral/Printemps_(Samplemodeling_BigBand).mp3
If music lacks emotion, it is because the composer didn’t put it there, not because he/she used midi instruments. Moreover, the best use of midi involves performance not just programming and or cutting /pasting notes together. If emotion is missing, blame the performer (or non performer).
If music is unconvincing, it is because the performer/producer/composer most likely doesn’t know how to write and/or orchestrate for real instruments in the first place, and thus cannot translate that knowledge into effective use of midi instruments.
Too much evidence to the contrary and too much great work from so many talented composers using midi to support such a broad statement.
_MichaelL
“Telling library music composers to enter the “Loudness race” that is current in the pop industry is also a bit dangerous. Music supervisors and VT editors that I know hate over-compressed music.”
I think you are taking what has been mentioned in this thread the wrong way. No one is advocating over-compression or volume wars.
Using a compressor at the end of a mix along with many other mastering plugins is a normal, standard and I would go out on a limb and say required thing to do to create an acceptable mix.
From wikipedia in regards to the mastering process:
The source material, ideally at the original resolution, is processed using equalization, compression, limiting, noise reduction and other processes. More tasks, such as editing, pre-gapping, leveling, fading in and out, noise reduction and other signal restoration and enhancement processes can be applied as part of the mastering stage. This step prepares the music for either digital or analog, e.g. vinyl, replication. The source material is put in the proper order, commonly referred to as assembly (or ‘track’) sequencing.I was simply telling the ML composers who are obviously not using any kind of mastering software in their final mixes that they should probably invest in some plugins.
Not sure where a debate about the use of compression is even required in regards to mixing music.
Rule of thumb that I read reading Mike Senior that has stuck with me and to my ears seems to consistently ring true, usually if something is tome corrected and sounds stiff or mechanical it has more to do with the feel and how it was played. Goes on to say he has not heard a track played well with good taste and feel that didn’t benefit from timing corrections.
None of those rules are absolutes. They are good suggestions though.
Sorry guys, I don’t begrudge anyone their right to impart wisdoms but after listening through a dozen tracks on MusicLoops I’m confounded by these.
If what I’m hearing were *accepted* tracks I can’t imagine how any of these guidelines applied.
…I don’t imagine this post will be well received. Ah well.
…I don’t imagine this post will be well received. Ah well.
Only because you’ve given us no basis for judging the credibility or value of your opinion. You could be John Williams, or you could be a tone deaf musical illiterate.
About Compression in the master: somewhere between -15 LUFS and -10LUFS
“About Compression in the master: somewhere between -15 LUFS and -10LUFS”
Remixers generally hate over compressed music and struggle with getting it to sit under dialog. These days I deliver at -14 to -13 LUFS.
But there are a million reasons a piece might not get accepted. At one point, P5 rejected a TON of music I submitted at 48k. Go figure. This was a long time ago, but it was a pita converting everything back to 44.1k and re-submitting.
I’ve also had non acceptance for having a B3 in the track. That publisher was out of their mind though, cause everyone knows that real B3 / Leslie RAWKS!!!!
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