Newbie looking for tips for writing better cues!

[marczazzaro]

Hey Folks. I'm new to the game (not actually a Taxi member yet, but thinking of joining.)

I've got 2 cues that I feel are pretty good but not great. Thing is, I need a little direction Do you guys have any tips from either a technical (mixing, sample quality, etc.) or artistic (form, instrumentation, theme) aspect to help make these tracks stand out a little more?

I wasn't writing specifically for any requests, but there's definitely a setting for both:

"Electro Suspense" https://soundcloud.com/marc-zazzaro/electro-suspense I envision as a track that might play underneath, say, a hacking or robbery scene/montage on a TV show. It's somewhat suspenseful but not like a real suspense cue. It has more "action" to it.

"Who's There?" https://soundcloud.com/marc-zazzaro/whos-there is my take on, maybe, the opening or closing credits for a horror show. It has a lot of the classic tropes of horror music (tons of echoes, creepy metallic noises, etc.) but it's not in and of itself suspenseful and certainly wouldn't work during a rising action sequence.

I really appreciate any feedback. I have thick skin so feel free to eviscerate these. I want to learn!

Thanks,
Marc

[remmet]

Hey Marc -- Welcome to the Forum and a possible Taxi membership.

I'll comment on "Electro Suspense". You've got some good things going on, but there are issues holding it back as well.

1. For TV/Film cues not scored to picture, there's no way to know when a particular scene will end or change in character, pacing, etc. So your cue should stay at one tempo and maintain a consistent style. Electro Suspense is really 3 different cues. The comments below are in regard to the first section.

2. The sounds are pretty much all synth based. It would be helpful to mix the synth sounds with some organic "real" acoustic sounds. And the synth sounds themselves could stand to be more varied.

3. Repetition is one of those compositional techniques that while expected and necessary, is also easily susceptible to being overdone. You established a rhythmic and sound pattern, which is good, but then it keeps repeating without much change or development. There are numerous things you can do to prevent the cue from becoming monotonous and predictable, including: changing the rhythmic pattern in subtle ways over time, changing the sounds that comprise the pattern using morphing, layering, and substitutions, etc., and gradually adding background sounds and counter-melodies to give the cue a sense of increasing depth and complexity. (Note that this doesn't mean it needs to become overly busy. You can still keep things simple and uncluttered while the cue is building.)

You also have a chord pattern that repeats to some extent. You might want to extend the pattern from the outset so it becomes less predictable and serves to support the sense of depth and development you want to create.

4. The cue is in desperate need of percussion, and probably a bass line as well. Check out some of the software by Heavyocity (e.g., Damage, Evolve), Addictive Drums, Stylus, and many other excellent VI's for generating interesting percussion tracks.

5. Generally, it's a good idea for your cue to continuously build over time, leading up to a big - and definitive - ending. It shouldn't sound like you simply decided to end the piece by letting the pattern play one last time and then stopping.

I hope some of this is helpful.

Richard

[marczazzaro]

Remmet -
Thank you so much! This is exactly the sort of feedback I'm looking for! I think I actually unwittingly followed parts of your advice a bit more in "who's there?" which I suspect is why it feels like a stronger track.

You've definitely inspired a rewrite of this one, though. Thanks again!

-Marc

[HenriettaAtkin]

Hi there!

Here are some tips to get you started:

Read the book "Demystifying the Cue" by Dean Krippaehne. Dean is a veteran member of TAXI who has had many many placements in TV.

Listen to the forwards in your genre on the forward page.

Watch episodes of TAXI TV when Michael is reviewing cues that have come in, Steve Barden's episode where he actually writes a cue live, or basically any TAXI TV episode.

But if you really want to improve your cues, I would join TAXI!

It actually works out to 82 cents a day. Hmmm. That's way LESS than a cup of coffee.

And the growth you can experience here is EXPONENTIAL -- you're learning all the time.