Film Score Daily: Composeronymous: Vancouver Part 3

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Composeronymous: Vancouver Part 3

Posted By: Todd Richards on February 28, 2010 - 9:00 AM

Well February just flew by as well as my self imposed deadline of completing the Vancouver piece. I will be finishing it up today in the midst of Ebay sales I've completed and getting ready for vacation and all that jazz. I did have some writer's block and a bit of confusion while working on this piece. As great and smooth as somedays in the composing room come, where everything you write or try just works fabulously and your creative juices are flowing like crazy, there are the other days. Like the one you'll see in this video.

I was hesitant about putting it up because I felt like I didn't get much done but then I thought it might be neat for you to see one of those not so great moments. Subsequently, the next days writing seemed to get worse too, which usually never happens. Normally, after a "bad" session i can come back the next day and really bang it out, but that wasn't the case. Yesterday's session was rough. It was one of those days where I didn't like ANYTHING I was doing but persevered because I am trying to make my "deadline" but I have the rest of today to complete it. Maybe it won't sound that bad today as i thought it did yesterday. Time will tell. So enjoy this video, if you can, cause you'll probably get a kick out of my frustrations and confusion. Then, when I get back from vacation I will post a quality audio version of the piece you all sat in on!!

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Comments (3):

Posted by bryan2449 on February 28, 2010 7:58 PM

Posted by Todd Richards on February 28, 2010 10:41 PM

It's interesting to see how you work through these frustrations and what not. Now that I have been watching you work for a while, I had a few questions, some of a technical nature and some of a more musical nature. I hope I can steel a few minutes of your busy schedule:

(1) You mentioned that you were buying a M-Audio Prokeys 88 for your master controller but what I am seeing in your video looks to be something else. What do you use and do you do any live input of CC data?

(2) You talked about keyswitches. Do you always use them, where available, as a rule? If so, how do you keep track of them? (ie. for the cello, A1 is this, A#1 is that, B1 is whatever). Do you just deal with the inaccuracies of starting the project in the middle somewhere, assuming that some of the keyswitch values will not be what they are supposed to and will play back differently?

(3) Do you always compose and orchestrate directly into Logic? I can understand playing a melody into a sequencer but how do you keep track of everything when you are looking at a piano roll? I guess what I am asking is, during what you are showing on the videos, do you work from anything written? My usual workflow is I sketch onto paper, notate and orchestrate into Sibelius and then play in or import MIDI into SONAR to create the mock-up. Is that similar to what you do? If not, how do you keep track of voice-leading and what not?

Bryan

PS. We just moved from Naples. Too bad we didn't meet sooner!

We just missed then...would have been neat to meet up and chat.
Ok for the questions...

1)As far as my picture in the EW Forum that was my old casio controllr. In the video in an M-Audio Pro88. I was originally planning on the StudioLogic VMX188 because the action was incredible, but at twice the cost and not being a "pianst" I felt it was overkill. The only CC data I concern myself with are the Mod Wheeel and occaisional Pitch Bend. Although i am considering a breath controller mainly for string passages as i used to be a trumpet player so the phrasing makes sense to me.

2)I try to use keyswitches as much as possible since when I transfer the mock up to sibelius I have less editing to do. It allows me to write more like "the old days" which is cool. As far as keeping track of them I do a couple of things. First I "try" to put one at the start of each region, even if it is redundant so that playback has less of the inaccuracies you mention. Second, I always change the velocity to 1 so that it is very noticeable in the event list which I use a lot lately. I also (in the piano rolll) shrink the note to the size of a square. it may seem like a lot of work for a KS but it becomes second nature and really pays off.

3)For the most part yes, except for when I sketch , in that case I just run my sound libraries in stand-a-lone mode and commit everything to memory or paper. Then everything goes into Logic. As far as keeping track, I generally will play in every part the just do editing and clean up in either pianoroll or score editor,whichever suits my preference for the riff. I guess the videos I've done I show the piano roll more. I do use the score editor in logic at times to enter rhythms or notes too. I like the piano roll because its easier to change the durations of the notes and faster that in score editor.
Like I said in the video, i usually sketch on to plain paper with a lot of doodles and notes for me piece which I'll keep to refer to during the orchestration. I usually have a pretty good idea already established in my head before I start the piece, HOWEVER with the luxury of such powerful technology the "composition" stage melds with orchestration as I am allowed to experiment or work things til they are what I want. Although to be honest I have only been doing that lately for scoring to picture. This Vancouver piece was completely off the cuff, sketch to orchestratiion. you literally were with me when I was thinking stuff up. (which is why there seemed to be down time I reckon) The only thing I do in Sibelius is preparing the score/parts for printing.

Thanks for joining Bryan...See you here and at EW. Great to talk to you .

Posted by bryan2449 on March 1, 2010 12:14 AM

Interesting stuff, thanks for the reply.