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Hi, (this is about cinematic composing) I've been on many composer forums and I keep coming across this problem: - people underestimating the power of good sounding content or not being able to get the sound quality they want. so I'll give some tips on how to get this done: - where do I find good sounding sample libraries? I find the library's from heavyocity, output sounds, cinesamples and native instruments a good place to start. they are expensive though. they all require Kontakt 5. Don't underestimate free sample libraries. they might work just as good as professional libraries! - how do I mix them in a track? every single sample library is different and has a different sound. choose the ones you like most and maybe layer them with others to get the ultimate sound. make sure when you make certain articulations, that you use the samples designed for this. (example: when strings need to do spiccato don't use legato samples.) if not, the track will sound very unprofessional and cheesy. this sounds really stupid that I say this, but I've come across this mistake dozens of times. don't underestimate dynamics. I tend to do this as well. if you have your melody's and chords ready and you have a decent sample library, they will sound pretty normal without dynamics. this is just something to mess around with. keep in mind that dynamics improve your track dramatically. so try something. if you use a keyboard that has a modulation wheel, try some stuff out. make sure that the panning of all instruments is correct to your liking. if all instruments are in one place it will sound unprofessional and unrealistic. make sure there is a good variety of places where the instruments are placed. choose reverb and other effects individually per section. this gives you maximum control over the sound. - synthesizers synthesizers are a great help when it comes to building your sound. they can be used to boost a certain section of the orchestra or to give a feel to your track that organic instruments cannot accomplish. - live playing when you have the chance to play something live, take it. playing something live is in almost all cases easiest. if you are a bit of a musical person the dynamics will go automatically. just import your recording, put some reverb and EQ on it and done. if you are a string player, you might use autotune to make sure your notes are all spot on. I hope this was helpful Cheers! p.s. I've got a track attached that I created under 20 minutes or so, to show you what synthesizers do to the sound of a track. (Don't mind the ending though. it sucks.)

Hey all, So I'm on my last year or so of undergrad school, and that means that I'll be going through the the senior courses (no more 4 hour classes!), revamping resumes, my portfolio and expanding my internet presence. I'll also be proposing my (50's suspense music here) SENIOR PROJECT! In all seriousness though, i'm really excited! I've been looking forward to getting out there and starting to work with people in the real world. But enough of my ranting, time to present you guys with my proposal for my senior project! - A working VSI with the intent on it being useable in real world mock - ups. But before I really get my hands dirty: I wanted to hear from you guys and get the YC community involved with this project. I think this would be a really cool project to hear from other people and really to network with all of you guys; many of us will be working in the same industry more or less (some of us are already making their name out there) and it would be great to get feedback from peers in the composition community. I don't expect this to be the next cinesamples, but I do intend on getting to know those guys and other companies that create this software and be able to create my own custom instrument libraries in the future. Basically I wanna know: What UI options do you think are "essential" to make a user - friendly patch? What other software instrument would you like to see come out? What are some problems that you have sometimes with VSI's? Anything else that comes to mind :) The short version of my proposal is that I'm going to make a sort of "Scary String" library using some common effects used in commercial orchestral music and some extended string articulations. If you're interested in reading more, I've opened up my Prezi presentation online, the link is below. http://prezi.com/vjt...oject-proposal/ I look forward to hearing from everyone! Happy composing! ~J

I'm finding it hard to word this topic in paragraph form, so here are my questions in list form. -I hear some of composer X's work somewhere and really like it. -I want to draw from that style for my own compositions. -In particular I want to apply these styles in a cinematic way. (In the near future, I may get to score some student films.) -What is the best way to go about this? -Should I buy some scores and analyze them? -Are there particular analysis techniques that I should use for cinematic applications? -Should I write "practice compositions" where I attempt to duplicate the styles I want? -Am I over-thinking this? Thanks in advance for your answers.