[ChuckMott]

I’v asked myself this question also. I’ve started looking at where the stumbling blocks are. Is it i the writing? Production? Often listening to similar tracks by other composers or listening to similar things in high end libraries. Find a reference track and build your track around that, obviously without plagiarizing. TAking an honest appraisal of the idea. If the idea doesn’t start forming ideas for a full blown composition after a few hours of trying, I would say if it doesn’t interest you, may not interest someone else and don’t be afraid to trash it. Or taking your “this has kinda been done before” and putting a fresh spin on in, adding something to make it unique and yours. Taking care of yourself – taking a walk. If you are the lone composer guy which I am assuming most of us often are, do something so you are not just isolating yourself in your little room. Absence of ideas and being stuck in your own head I think leads a lot of us to slip into a depression, not necessarily in the sense of being sad, but more in the sense of feeling hopeless and stuck. If you absolutely can’t get anything going , walk away, do something else, the agonizing over how to move things forward is just part of the process sometime.

[ChuckMott]

BTN Live and Big Football and Beyond had most of the plays, the rest the plays were spread out amongst another dozen shows or so. All for one track.

[ChuckMott]

MusicTechHelpGuy probably does the best free Logic Pro vids on youtube, and he does pro tools as well. I’ve always liked the oure mix stuff, even if it does seems they are trying to convince you to buy plugins. Denis Woods suggested Michael Mhite mixing course, that is good and is paid, but he has a lot of vids on youtube under Mixing With Mike. Recording Revolution was hugely helpful, maybe geared more toward beginners.

I stated using Logic a couple years ago after afger making the leap from pro tools, basically just taught myself, with the assistance of some vids. So I am going through the Music Tech Help Guys Logic vids and am surprised how much I am picking up and rethinking parts of my workflow.

[ChuckMott]

My thoughts: starting to think there should be at least as many links/you tube videos on building an interesting composition and the art behind it, as there are videos on, for example, “Learning Logic Pro X’ and “How to Use Compression In A Mix”. Composing videos that go beyond basics “This is a major scale” and “This is how you find notes in a chord”. Any links/suggestions here, for folks who already have a good background in theory, but don’t read (music smart guy) all that well?

[ChuckMott]

Even with great music, I have no idea how difficult it would be to get in with one of those libraries. Better to approach with an album’s worth of quality stuff, I am thinking, or echoing ….

[ChuckMott]

I was thinking about writing a bunch to see what sort of music they were in need of, just for the sake of research, but the kind of music they take is somewhat obvious if you listen through their catalog. Being a member doesn’t make you a top tier library (although maybe being distributed by Warner Chapel does) just like being a member doesn’t make me Hans Zimmer, but there are some great libraries that are members.

[ChuckMott]

Trade secret in the sense that people mention high end libraries, but noone mentions which, probably rightfully because they don’t their favorite library getting flooded wit competing, or just plain bad, music. There is at least one on there I would like to target , but I really want to make sure what I would write would be up to snuff before I submit. I can’t think of a term other then to say, maybe a better term is stock music libraries. But then again they all stock music, right? Royalty free in the sense you are not going to see much in back end, usually because they don’t farm out to television.One library (label?) on that list stands out as having several nominations and listening to stuff on their site, another stand out feature is their uniqueness.So I think of it as a term for a library that doesn’t seek out placements that pay back end. We know there are some nice exceptions.

[ChuckMott]

Where I kind of hamstrung myself on this is playing a note and letting it spill over nto the next section, so that no matter what I do I cut it off. The beds actually sound nice (maybe better then the full track playing the melody) so it might be good for some bed edits no matter what i do. Good idea, I may see if I can get away with muting that whole lick and that just might work.Thanks everybody.

[ChuckMott]

Meaning just aligning them in time to make the edits easier? You lay out your tracks and where the edit points in your DAW before you bounce? By, for example, aligning them in your DAW?

[ChuckMott]

All this should probably go under AS although that wasn’t the intent of this thread but here is the quote form their site under a Q&A.

Q. Should I take my full tracks and create 30 and 60 second versions out of them for upload to AudioSparx?

A. Definitely NOT! Your production of 30 and 60 edits should occur at the same time that you are doing the original music production and mastering process, so that you can adjust the music instrumentation and performance to make your 30 and 60 versions have natural, organic endings, rather than just arbitrarily imposed 30 and 60 durations that result from the process of chopping up a full stereo track. Please definitely do not cut up your existing full tracks to create new, shorter versions.

[ChuckMott]

H0ws this for a rephrase. Are there systems for maiking your tracks more editable in the end product so you don’t have to re-record separate projects.

[ChuckMott]

You’re misunderstanding. On their site, they mention they don’t want you doing edits from the full track, they would rather you re-record or pre-record 30,60 second versions. So I try to make them as seamless as possible. This track is difficult to do that on without slicing it up and making it sound edited. Wondering if there is a workaround, the only one I can see is creating those from the bed versions because i am cutting last note of the melody off short. SO my question in general, I suppose , is there a workaround for this type of problem. And how many people just record 15,30s and 60s rather then editing because it sounds better and you can dodge the headaches.I generally always do edits despite what i had I had said a couple of months ago. Oh and FWIW I mentioned that also because it was reported that Erwin Steijlen is/was making about $7000 a quarter, and on the large majority of his tracks, there isn’t an edit to be found. Of course Erwin is one of my production music , er, heroes (yes I bought his book), for lack of a better word, and his stuff always sounds phenomenal. And the fact that according to the last , ok the only, PMA eventI attended, that was geared toward ad music, they seemed to point out that most clients know where they want their edits better then the composer does. But I sell more edits then anything else so….Not suggesting anyone not do edits , actually suggesting the opposite based on my sales .

[ChuckMott]

I would argue especially put your exclusive tracks in there.

[ChuckMott]

Congrats Abby. Awesome first placement!

[ChuckMott]

I wouldn’t say one single placement but had a sports track last year bring in almost $1000 in one quarter, was used in several college sports shows.

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