(Yet) Another Attempt at DRAMEDY

[irthlingz]

Sharon wasn't able to participate on this one, so I take full responsibility (blame?) ...

All help greatly appreciated!

Michael



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ORCHESTRAL DRAMEDY INSTRUMENTAL CUES are needed by a Music Licensing Company with a HUGE list of placements in Films, TV Commercials, and A-List TV Shows.

NOTE: This Company has signed lots of TAXI members over many years and nailed down lots of placements for them!

This Company is looking for Instrumental Cues that could be found on a playlist with the following references:

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (From 0:59 - 1:55) - https://youtu.be/x4XWN5cohTY?t=59

RHOSLC Highlights S1 Ep6 (From 1:35 - 2:00) - https://youtu.be/9vnwMR-VCKo?t=95

"Sneaky Snitch" by Kevin MacLeod - https://youtu.be/l3_Fh24AGBE

Please submit well-produced Instrumental Cues that set the tone for quirky, light, dramatic scenes in Reality TV shows. Your submissions should have solid motifs and high-quality Orchestral instrumentation. Please craft your Cues around a singular motif and mood, and create a sense of dynamics and forward momentum by layering instrumentation in and out as they progress. Be sure to avoid submitting anything that sounds too busy, as it could interfere with a scene’s dialog. Your production should be polished and any virtual instruments or samples you use need to be top-notch.

Submissions should be about 2 minutes long, give or take, and have non-faded, buttoned/stinger endings. Do NOT copy the references in any way, shape, or form. Use them only as a general guide for tempo, tone, and overall vibe. Broadcast Quality is needed.

This company offers an EXCLUSIVE deal. You’ll split all upfront sync fees 50/50. They’ll get 100% of the Publisher’s share, and you’ll keep 100% of the Writer’s share. You must own or control your Master and Copyright. Since this is an EXCLUSIVE deal, please be sure the material you submit for this pitch is NOT already signed with other Libraries or Catalogs. Please send as many Instrumental Cues as you’d like, online or per CD. All submissions will be screened and critiqued by TAXI. All Submissions must be received no later than 11:59 PM (PDT) on Tuesday, April 19th, 2022. TAXI # S220419DD

[Casey H]

Hey M
Not being mean, just giving it to you straight. This is really bad. Unsettling rhythm, piercing annoying sounds, random uncoordinated sounds, too busy, no simple motif, etc, etc. It doesn't seem like you learned anything from the feedback on the last one.

Personally I encourage you to pursue songwriting, for which you have a knack, and not waste time and energy with these types of cues. We all have so much so much time and energy, may as well use it where it will do us the best.

Best,
Casey

[irthlingz]

Really appreciate the listen and the feedback, Casey. (Not just saying that.)

Michael

[myk247365]

Try cutting the tempo in half and look to create regular rhythms, 4/4 straight eights/quarters etc... The mood you are trying to create is someone sneaking around. If the character quickly steps up to the corner of the hallway, stands rigid for a moment, then slowly peers around the corner, what rhythm would you use for the quick movement, vs the slow movement? You need to create that contrast.

This piece sounds like many avant garde things I listened to in college. I didn't understand a lot of them until I realized, that's where the inspiration for horror music comes from. The Psycho shower scene strings didn't come from a Romantic composer. Bernard Herrmann is not a well known name, but everyone knows that sound when they hear it. You've got something here that might work well in a scene where there is little dialogue, but the camera movement and set/lighting design need something unsettling to create that frightening mood. However, that's not Dramedy. Get Dean Krippaehne's book "Demystifying the Genre". He does an excellent job of breaking down the elements of various genres like dramedy and explains what things work best to create what the music supervisor wants.

Listen to the reference and try notating what you hear. If you're not great with sheet music, just use the MIDI editor in your DAW. This will give you an idea of what rhythms, instrumentation, melody and harmony to use.

Hope this helps

Michael

[irthlingz]

Try cutting the tempo in half and look to create regular rhythms, 4/4 straight eights/quarters etc... The mood you are trying to create is someone sneaking around. If the character quickly steps up to the corner of the hallway, stands rigid for a moment, then slowly peers around the corner, what rhythm would you use for the quick movement, vs the slow movement? You need to create that contrast.

This piece sounds like many avant garde things I listened to in college. I didn't understand a lot of them until I realized, that's where the inspiration for horror music comes from. The Psycho shower scene strings didn't come from a Romantic composer. Bernard Herrmann is not a well known name, but everyone knows that sound when they hear it. You've got something here that might work well in a scene where there is little dialogue, but the camera movement and set/lighting design need something unsettling to create that frightening mood. However, that's not Dramedy. Get Dean Krippaehne's book "Demystifying the Genre". He does an excellent job of breaking down the elements of various genres like dramedy and explains what things work best to create what the music supervisor wants.

Listen to the reference and try notating what you hear. If you're not great with sheet music, just use the MIDI editor in your DAW. This will give you an idea of what rhythms, instrumentation, melody and harmony to use.

Hope this helps

Michael

See, Casey, it's not bad ... it's avante garde!!!

or perhaps horror ...

Anyways, we bought the Kindle version of Dean's book and listened to his "Tippy Toad" example, cut our bpm in half, used a more regular rhythm (thank you, Michael Bruce Miller!), and we gave it one last desperate try:

peek-around-the-corner-dramedy-t149239.html

[cosmicdolphin]

Listen to the reference and try notating what you hear. If you're not great with sheet music, just use the MIDI editor in your DAW. This will give you an idea of what rhythms, instrumentation, melody and harmony to use.

Micheal this is exactly what I told you to do last time ...recreate a small section of the ref note for note. You will learn so much. It's like a free training course, the info is all there.

I can't read or write music at all, it's all just meaningless squiggles to me - but replicating something by ear is not that hard in a DAW.

I have put together a playlist for you of the last time I used this technnique for a Magical Dramedy track.

Track 1 is the Ref provided by the LIbrary.

Track 2 is my recreation of the first 15s ...all figured out just playing along in the DAW ( my playing kinda sucks too as I taught myself sat at my computer )

Track 3 is my own track that I wrote using all the same instruments and similar patterns to what I'd learned making track 2...without recreating the ref track first I don't think I would have just " got it "

https://soundcloud.com/cosmicdolphin/se ... al_sharing

For the sanity of all who've been trying to help you out , please give this technique a try because if you can mimic the ref closely it'll be much easier to then write your own.

Mark

[irthlingz]

For the sanity of all who've been trying to help you out , please give this technique a try because if you can mimic the ref closely it'll be much easier to then write your own.

Thanks, Mark. This is helpful -- listened several times!

We actually did try this approach, recreating the beginning of "Sneaky Snitch" and then transmogrifying that into our own "Tattle Tail." But it's a fine line to walk, changing enough so that you're not copying, but still getting something strongly reminiscent of the ref. It appears there may be some room for improvement on our part.

[cosmicdolphin]

We actually did try this approach, recreating the beginning of "Sneaky Snitch" and then transmogrifying that into our own "Tattle Tail."

How close to matching Sneaky Snitch did you get ?

[irthlingz]

How close to matching Sneaky Snitch did you get ?

We reverse engineered the first four bars = 11 seconds.

In terms of the notes played, it was close. What we learned from the feedback on our attempt to do something similar was that our reverse engineered fragment (and therefore also what we developed based on it)

1) sounded "robotic" - probably mostly because there was very little dynamic (velocity) variation

2) sounded "boomy" -- too much reverb (using the free BBC Symphony Orchestra pizz violins and bass)

3) In addition, when we tried to re-mold/expand the reverse engineered fragment into our own original piece, we weren't focussed enough on the "tension and release" aspect of the melody.

So ...

1) We edited the velocities to try to give it some groove.

2) We switched to Cremona Quartet Stradivari violin and cello, which allowed us, for example, to put a mute on the instrument (less "boom") and to choose how much to emphasize the close, middle and far mic, respectively. At first we assumed the close mic would be best, but that was actually too piercing, so going mostly with the middle mic but mixing in a tad of close mic -- which may still be too piercing, so working with velocity and EQ.

3) Created another couple of cues, trying to focus more on the melodic structure, especially tension and release, and the general "feel." (Which led us ultimately to start over rather than try to fix what we had.)

===
Michael & Sharon
"progress ... not perfection ..."

[CTWF]

2) We switched to Cremona Quartet Stradivari violin and cello, which allowed us, for example, to put a mute on the instrument (less "boom") and to choose how much to emphasize the close, middle and far mic, respectively. At first we assumed the close mic would be best, but that was actually too piercing, so going mostly with the middle mic but mixing in a tad of close mic -- which may still be too piercing, so working with velocity and EQ.

Hi Michael

Obviously, it is important to analyze any sonic issues with VIs, but I also would try to not overthink it. I just had a placement in one of the two largest German TV networks with a quirky pizzicato piece for which I used the free Spitfire LABS strings. My recollection is that I used them pretty much straight out of the box with a little compression on them.

Tom