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Nothing wrong with using loops at all, just check the license agreements with them as to the permitted use , usually its ok as long as they are not isolated, I did say usually as there are exceptions !!!! Some like Big Fish don’t allow use with library music at all unless you get a special license.
Hi I am not going to crtique simply because in the library business its very subjective and what is brilliant for one genre is patently wrong for another.
You are obviously into orchestral film score grand themes, have a listen to the track I linked to, not for style or composition (which are first class) but for the overall production and sound. That was done “in the box” as a demo for a string library, that is what you have to aim for in that genre. Check to Alex’s other stuff and Daniel James, Mark Petrie, Jason Livesey amongst many others. I think the first track has a really nice theme.
@Pat. Check out Dan Worrell’s tutorials on the Fabfilter youtube channel, apart from explaining the plugins he gives great general advice. A little bit at a time, it does get overwhelming to try and understand everything at once. I started working in professional studios 35 years ago, so I learnt little bits along the way and as digital audio came along I learnt progressively as it got more complex, and I still am learning !!!!!
Definitely check his mid/side stuff with the ProQ, basically you can sum the bass freq (100hz and below) to mono and cut it out of the sides altogether.He explains it much better, the end result being bass and kick are centered and all the redundant lo muck is cleaned up from the sides. Also boosting the sides at upper freq increases the stereo image.
@Pat, more headroom or volume ultimately can be achieved in two ways, reducing unwanted frequencies and reducing dynamics. If you are talking about a two track mix, cutting anything below 30-40hz with a steep hi pass filter. Sub bass like that is inaudible except with subs and club systems. You can hi pass individual tracks like this with a higher cutoff too for an overall cumlitave increase.
Dynamics, wether compression or limiting on individual or master buss to taste.
I think the important thing to emphasise here is that you should use the best tools you can, steep filters will cause a ringing effect at around the cutoff point, and all compressors and limiters are not equal in terms of unwanted artefacts. I personally would recommend all the Fabfilter plugins as incredibly transparent in doing this kind of thing. They do 30 day demos so no harm in testing them. The limiter especially is exceptional.For Orchestral stuff templates are a must, I dont do a lot of that so I have a load of vi’s ready to go. 2x Kontakt, 1x Omnisphere, Addictive, Stylus etc all loaded with multiple outs assigned but no patches loaded. I can then start loading as needed.
Bearing in mind that the big orchestral libraries can take many minutes to load Guy Mitchelmore’s template is the way to go if you do that kind of stuff.
FYI did you know that Guy Mitchelmore is veteran UK broadcaster Cliff Mitchelmore’s son
Are we not just playing with semantics here, its the perceptions of words that are important.
@AaronM I have no magic answers to give. Luck and timing have got a lot to do with it.
As general rule
Your catalogue needs to be as diverse as possible, what sells today doesn’t tomorrow. Don’t try and write cues in genres you don’t like or understand, I think it becomes obvious and there are to many other better composers out there doing it. Although I have done hybrid orchestral trailer music, full orchestral cues are not my thing for example, I am not saying dont try new stuff, but learn what you are good at and quick at too. I try and turn over 4-5 cues a week. That is not fast compared to others !!!! Most importantly have fun and enjoy what you do.
Listen to Art, MichaelL and Advice to name a few , they have far more experience in this game than I.
Some tracks sell on some sites and don’t on others, it really is bizarre sometimes, all RF sites do not necessarily feed the same client base.
As for AS and PT start writing and uploading the best you can, they are both good straight up companies.
Really, it is a difficult environment right now, and I would suggest diversifying in to some alternative areas such as royalty free might actually be a very smart move.
Tx for the insight BT, also what it shows is the fast pace at which things change. Don’t forget this is a global industry and music can and will be sourced from anywhere.
It surprised me to find out that AJ for example is an Australian company. Without getting into a discussion about their music pricing policy, their business model is very clever. By combining a lot of products in a marketplace that cross fertilize each other to an extent, is smart thinking. Gratis licensing is here to stay for certain programming. Royalty free will always have a market. Big exclusives will continue to service a market too. How this global pie is divided will constantly change, thats life and progress.
Diversify carefully with knowledge and information ( thats what we do here hopefully), no one model is immune to change, it called the library music business for a reason. It changes in the way that any other business does over time.
I do and lets be honest NS10’s by modern day standards are terrible.
Speaker design has come a long way even in the past 10 years, I dont think there are terrible speakers anymore in this range. ( I haven’t actually heard these) but lower end Yamaha/KRK etc are all good, so much so that you can see the high end manufacturers, Focal/Adam, making speakers for the lower end of the market. Ultimately you get used to your own speakers and thats your reference point.Some of the greatest records were mixed on terribly inferior monitors compared to todays ones.
I use DSP Quattro which I got for a “no brainer deal” a while ago, great for batch processing MP3.
+1 on all things Fabfilter! I use Pro L on every track. Pro Q and Saturn are also amazing.
Absolutely, the multi band is amazing too, very clever stuff.
Voxengo Span is free !!!!! and very good
@Davids I am a European writer, don’t know wether Ireland is old or new Europe. Our Pro system is based on the UK model (PRS) which used to collect for Irish writers until we got our own PRO (IMRO) a number of years ago.
I can see no reason at all to be anti PRO, it does a good job at collecting and distributing revenue, also our rates our mush higher than the States it seems. Collection is enforced here rigidly but not at exorbitant rates.
It seems that GEMA (Germany) is the most hardline when it comes to policing so maybe thats where some of the “anti” sentiment comes from in Europe.