Dramatic News Instrumental Cue

[RichardCharles]

#3

The piano is much better. imho I am still hearing the piano as a bit too loose in the intro. As it is the lead rythm in the intro I would for sure quantize to make sure it is spot on.




Also, the Michael has harped on making sure your piece starts immiediately. Your piece seems like it could use some trimming at the beginning.

It's a nice piece of music you have.

[mikeymike2000]

Hi Richard,

I appreciate your comments and opinion. In this case though I am going to stay with the piano that is more "urgent", #2. This is a style issue. I am pretty sure that my intro is spot on though, cause I completely dissected this piece for all to see and looked at everything under a microscope.

In terms of starting right away, I don't think I will ever do that even if 'The Michael' calls me up and demands it. I ALWAYS put one measure of silence before and after my work (sometimes more but for Taxi just one). Whoever has it can chop it off as they see fit. I think this is personal opinion of people and I prefer to give 'them' more than they ask for and they can trim the fat or not. The main reason I do this before the music starts is to give everything room to breath. I am 100% samples here and I find that if I start a section right now right now, it sounds like garbage cause everything loads up at once. This factoid has also been confirmed in the super duper MIDI programming book I am reading.

So, that said, if Michael tells anyone that I am guessing you/they are either all 'live music' or he has never programmed. Either way though if I were the guy that puts the file in with the video I would like to have some extra room to snip...

[crs7string]

Hi Richard,

I appreciate your comments and opinion. In this case though I am going to stay with the piano that is more "urgent", #2. This is a style issue. I am pretty sure that my intro is spot on though, cause I completely dissected this piece for all to see and looked at everything under a microscope.

In terms of starting right away, I don't think I will ever do that even if 'The Michael' calls me up and demands it. I ALWAYS put one measure of silence before and after my work (sometimes more but for Taxi just one). Whoever has it can chop it off as they see fit. I think this is personal opinion of people and I prefer to give 'them' more than they ask for and they can trim the fat or not. The main reason I do this before the music starts is to give everything room to breath. I am 100% samples here and I find that if I start a section right now right now, it sounds like garbage cause everything loads up at once. This factoid has also been confirmed in the super duper MIDI programming book I am reading.

So, that said, if Michael tells anyone that I am guessing you/they are either all 'live music' or he has never programmed. Either way though if I were the guy that puts the file in with the video I would like to have some extra room to snip...

Mike,

I agree with the approach of leaving some room on the front end of a track when you are developing the track. I usually start at bar three. Then there is some room to add a lead in of some sort.

However, when delivering audio, it is not common practice to leave a measure of silence. I think this is especially true when delivering tracks to a library. They don't want to load up your music and snip the first measure off the track (and why would they?)

A library may bring up the levels and add a some subtle eq and compression, (this is info I received recently from a library owner), but the expectation is that the track is "ready to go", with no "snipping" required. (starting to sound like a vasectomy )

I do have a measure or two of silence in my audio when I save the file. I import all my tracks to Sound Forge and use it to trim the beginning and end of the audio as well as raise the levels if necessary.

I'd hate to see your tracks not being considered because of your "one measure of silence" and that could very well be the outcome.

Chuck

[RichardCharles]

Great to hear that you locked it in. I'm sure your eyes and ears are better than my ears.

The main reason I do this before the music starts is to give everything room to breath. I am 100% samples here and I find that if I start a section right now right now, it sounds like garbage cause everything loads up at once. This factoid has also been confirmed in the super duper MIDI programming book I am reading.

Interesting for you to say that. I've just been noticing that with my midi based projects. I found myself wanting to put a shaker or something small at the beginning, but hadn't quite had the insight you have.

Thanks for sharing.

[mikeymike2000]

Chuck,

Thanks for the tip! I will check out sound forge and see about snipping. Although I have never been told by Taxi that I should so this and I would still want to have this flexibility if I were the end user. - Like that one Taxi TV where there was a library owner how said I love people who put BPM in the title but most people don't. I really think it is an idiosyncrasy that will change with each listing or each screener or each client.

If I had to guess, as I have not yet made a deal with Taxi, if one of my songs were forwarded and then picked there is always gonna be paperwork so that would be the time the client says make it start immediately or give us all the stems etc.

Richard, it is odd but if you put a blank measure in front of all tracks that are MIDI / Samples, they will sound better on the initial attack. Not sure why it's just that way. Also, if you have a big chord attack going you can change the start time by little amounts to help it not sound like a big computerized chuck. { Like C note would be 2.1.000 and the E note would be 2.1.020 and the G note would be..... } That said, if you start your tracks immediately you will have to check out Chuck's suggestion to snip expos facto.

[crs7string]

Mike,

I can nearly guarantee to you that leaving a measure of silence is not stadardized practice with any library. (at least any that I have deals with)

I'm of the opinion that we as composers should make the end user's life easier. If the library wants the BPM in the title, put it in the title. If they want alt mixes, give them the alt mix.

Why would you deliberately start a relationship with an approach or procedure that is no where near "common practice" in the production music world.

If you try to think like a library owner, they don't want to spend excess time "educating" composers on standard procedures. (file formats, levels, ring outs, track start times etc. etc. etc.)

Chuck

[mikeymike2000]

Hey Chuck,

I am not trying to argue with ya, I have simply never been told thus far, including the libraries I am in, that I need to cut out any silence in the beginning of my tracks. I don't think it is all that prominent though either. But we are talking about one specific track here so I will have to go have a listen and see if it is more than usual for me. Also, I believe this specific track in question has a slight fade in on the piano and at that point it is a solo instrument. - It seemed to be less harsh that way. Maybe that is what you are referring to.

I appreciate your time and comments. Also, I like "After Dark".

[fusilierb]

I have to agree with Chuck. You really don't want any silence at the beginning of your final mixed down audio file. I understand why you are doing it when everything is midi as there can be a ramp up period while your samples are streaming from RAM. But that should be cut off once the final mix down is done.

In fact, I always render all of my midi tracks to audio (and in cubase click the import into project button on the render window) and then turn off the midi tracks and do a final mix with the audio files, not the midi files. You have much finer control of balance then.

But trust me, you don't want to send out a track when the listener hits play and is confronted with a stretch of silence.

hth's

[mikeymike2000]

Hey Fus,

I actually never gave this a thought until now. So I went in to listen to all my songs and while some of them do start at "0" most of them start between 0:01 and 0:02. Since I now know this is actually a big deal I will shave off the first second after my final mix.

- I also transform all my MIDI tracks into audio solo tracks first before final mix down. Just goes to show ya, when you think you have learned everything there is to know for the 30th time, there is something else hahaha

As always, thanks for tall the comments and the knowledge.