QUIRKY, PLAYFUL EDM INSTRUMENTAL CUES

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CEMundt
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QUIRKY, PLAYFUL EDM INSTRUMENTAL CUES

Post by CEMundt » Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:08 am

“QUIRKY, PLAYFUL EDM INSTRUMENTAL CUES are needed by a boutique Music Library that gets tons of placements in TV Shows!”

So we’ve seen a number of listing recently that say that the library will want stems and if they call you, have them ready within an hour. What do you think? Is that a hard hour or is that more like a day? I ask because it is a possibility that I’d be called during work and I’d have to rush home.

Of course, I could set up a large cloud storage with all of my work, but I’m not quite ready to lay down that investment yet.

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Re: QUIRKY, PLAYFUL EDM INSTRUMENTAL CUES

Post by Telefunkin » Wed Jan 05, 2022 3:33 am

It shouldn't take you long to prep stems. Basically, you're just rendering the project with some tracks in solo or mute, and you'll probably end up with around 5-7 stems. If it takes longer than an hour you've over complicated it :).

If you are confident that you have an ideal track that's perfect for this or similar listings you could always prep the stems ahead of submitting (or at least ahead of the due date). I would not suggest doing this normally though because there are some potential problems:-

- the library might request some changes before accepting your track
- you can never be sure what format they'll ask for (normally 48kHz/24-bit, but some ask for 44.1kHz and even 16-bit)
- many define stems as similar instrument groupings e.g. 'Synths' or 'Strings', but some expect separate instruments (except for drums and percussion).
- they might also request alternate mixes (e.g. Underscore, Drums and Bass, No Drums, Sparse Mix, No Lead)
- they might also request cut-down versions (e.g. 30s, 10s, 5s, or a 5-10s Sting)
- they will probably also expect some metadata, and it might be as easy as selecting a few items from drop-down boxes, or a more demanding manual choice of your own keywords and similar artists.

Therefore, its almost impossible to have all of this 100% ready to go if you want to cover all format possibilities, and furthermore, it would be largely wasted effort if your track isn't forwarded and subsequently accepted.

However, although I have no inside knowledge on this, I would also consider that libraries are run by humans who understand that musicians are human too. If they really need things 'within an hour' it must be urgent and if you're close to being ready to go with whatever they're willing to accept they'll probably be very happy, provided you can deliver whatever you have with little fuss and a.s.a.p.

Its good practice to have some metadata in mind for every track anyway (you could use the listing to help with that), and you could take a chance and prep some instrument stems for the most common format (similar instrument groupings at 4k8kHz, 24-bit). You could also make a 30s cut-down plus a 5-10s Sting, just in case. With all of that ready to go you'd be well ahead of most people. Its a fair bit of additional work to do upfront so I'd only do it if you think you have great submissions that are on the nose for these listings, but it could be worth the extra effort.

Of course, if you were lucky enough to get contacted by the library you'd also need to upload the files to their portal or Dropbox or whatever, and that can take a while too.

Good luck!
Graham (UK). Still composing a little faster than decomposing, and 100% HI.

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Re: QUIRKY, PLAYFUL EDM INSTRUMENTAL CUES

Post by cosmicdolphin » Wed Jan 05, 2022 4:21 am

CEMundt wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:08 am
So we’ve seen a number of listing recently that say that the library will want stems and if they call you, have them ready within an hour. What do you think?
Sounds like they may not very organised if they can't plan things ahead of time, Taxi has members all around the Globe so it could be any hour of the day or night if they got in touch.

That said, you should at least have a system and a methodology in place for exporting stems. Over the years I have learned that the quickest way is to add your mastering plugins to your DAW session so you're not bouncing out an unmastered final stereo mix which then needs mastering , it can all be done in one place.

The other tip is to group instruments together i.e groups for stems might be drums/bass/guitars/keys/percs and then use folders if your DAW has the option to export by folder which allows you to bounce out a bunch of stems as part of one export.

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Re: QUIRKY, PLAYFUL EDM INSTRUMENTAL CUES

Post by CEMundt » Wed Jan 05, 2022 8:47 am

cosmicdolphin wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 4:21 am
CEMundt wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 2:08 am
So we’ve seen a number of listing recently that say that the library will want stems and if they call you, have them ready within an hour. What do you think?
Sounds like they may not very organised if they can't plan things ahead of time, Taxi has members all around the Globe so it could be any hour of the day or night if they got in touch.

That said, you should at least have a system and a methodology in place for exporting stems. Over the years I have learned that the quickest way is to add your mastering plugins to your DAW session so you're not bouncing out an unmastered final stereo mix which then needs mastering , it can all be done in one place.

The other tip is to group instruments together i.e groups for stems might be drums/bass/guitars/keys/percs and then use folders if your DAW has the option to export by folder which allows you to bounce out a bunch of stems as part of one export.
I have stems for most of my work and my organization system is adequate, not to imply that it couldn't be substantially improved. My organization systems starts with folders for project files, plugins, instruments, and music files. When I save or render any files in the Music folder, I put "_01" and a description of what was done in caps. Stems are also created, placed in their own "Stems" folder, and organized with a similar naming scheme.

"thisdumbsong_01_MIXED LIKE A PRO.wav"
"Stems\This Dumb Song\thisdumbsong_01_MIXED LIKE A PRO_bass.wav"


That way, I can group files rendered from the same project in one folder. When a single file gets edited a second time in post, it gets another "_01".

"thisdumbsong_01_01_MASTER.wav"
"thisdumbsong_01_02_REMASTER.wav"
"thisdumbsong_01_03_I WISH I COULD GET THIS MASTERED RIGHT.wav"


And so on and so forth.



Thanks CosmicDolphin, you always comment on my posts. Do you have any links to music?

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Re: QUIRKY, PLAYFUL EDM INSTRUMENTAL CUES

Post by cosmicdolphin » Wed Jan 05, 2022 12:42 pm

CEMundt wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 8:47 am
And so on and so forth.
I think we may be talking at cross purposes again, when I say organise your DAW session into folders , I mean track folders within the DAW not system folders on your computer's O/S.

https://youtu.be/VYklYHHBGjU?t=31
CEMundt wrote:
Wed Jan 05, 2022 8:47 am
Thanks CosmicDolphin, you always comment on my posts. Do you have any links to music?
Sure here you go.

https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/se ... al_sharing

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