"BIG" Trailer Music composer here - Ask Me Anything!

[douglasricketts]

If you have any questions, I'll try my best to answer them

Hi Goran! Very cool of you to be in this forum doing this. I recently produced a track for an "Epic Trailer-Style Instrumental" listing on Taxi and would like to know what you think of it. It's only two minutes long. Is there a need in the industry for something like I've done here?

The track: https://www.taxi.com/members/1xEs3OLTQV ... -s-revenge

[Goran90]

Oh dear one! Teach me your ways I would love to learn more about trailer music please I like to think that I think outside the box some times when tackling certain genres like this. Sometimes it goes well but other times not so much and they don't like the trailer music I make. I would love to know what works and what doesn't. Thanks in advance!

I will teach you for just one time payment of 99 $ for my newest course... I'm just kidding, can't stand those stuff haha

It is hard to be objective when it comes to creating trailer music, especially when you are doing it yourself. I can only say from my experinece:

When I started out, I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know structure, I didn't know about the hook, I didn't know absolutely nothing except it needs to explode at the end lol Which was like almost 14 years ago and trailer music changed a lot these days. If you are starting out, I'd write to you that you completely ignore that epic, orchestral, hybrid style. I know, it sounds weird to read this, but it will make sense. If you watch trailers these days, you won't hear a lot of orchestral music in it, unless it's that big blockbuster trailer and even they don't go for that big orchestral sound. You, as a trailer composer, have only one job - to create music that will work so well with the picture and give goosebumps to the audience. It's really an art how editor creates a trailer and shows just enough to make it intriguing. We have worked recently doing custom music for trailer of HIM and Longlegs. The way the editor used our song and sound design was absolutely mind-blowing to the point that the trailer of Longlegs won CLIO Grand Jury Award - it just so happened to have our music in it. There was not one single melodic line in it.

What I'm trying to write is to focus on sound design. Make your sounds interesting, listen to a lot of sound design trailer music (I'm sure you can find our album DREAD I and DREAD II online somewhere - those albums had TONS of placements) and get a grasp of the style and structure. Listen to those signature sound designs, the ones that are, for the lack of a better word, "selling" the trailer. When you get a hang of it, the structure, creating unique sounds - trust me, it will be much, much easier for you to get into trailers rather than doing orchestral music. I know, I know, we all love creating those big sounding landscapes with amazing brass and hits and impacts that melt faces - but to do that you really have to know how to make your virtual instruments sound like real orchestra and your production really needs to be AAA level to land that placement. Not just that, the level of composers doing those kind of cues and new ones arriving are really raising the roof in terms of production so it's honestly really hard to compete with someone who already does (and does it amazingly good) those songs.

Even when we get submission and it's mostly orchestral stuff, I usually respond that we already have enough composers in our rooster that do these kind of songs on top level, but if I get some sound design track - I am more interested to hear what the composer came up with and what did they do with the format of trailer music.

So, if you ask me, that's definitely what I would go for.

[Goran90]

If you have any questions, I'll try my best to answer them

Hi Goran! Very cool of you to be in this forum doing this. I recently produced a track for an "Epic Trailer-Style Instrumental" listing on Taxi and would like to know what you think of it. It's only two minutes long. Is there a need in the industry for something like I've done here?

The track: https://www.taxi.com/members/1xEs3OLTQV ... -s-revenge

Hey, buddy. Before I write anything, just so you know that I hate doing this, reviewing other composer's music and giving my critique on it. Unless it is for the composers in our rooster, I stay aways from doing it since I really don't want to step on some toes or give someone citique that may dishearten them. My critique is only for TRAILER MUSIC so I can give you pointers of TRAILER MUSIC, not production music. With that being written:

This is not a song that fits into category of trailer music. This is a production music track that tries to emulate the feeling of trailer music - which is totally okay if the brief was for that. Of course there's a need in the industry for these type of songs, but it is leaned more towards production music - tv placements, National History documenatary placements, Discovery placement etc. If you want to get into trailers, check out the answer I gave to someone above you.

From now on my pointers (and this is only my opinion that may or may not be right) would be not about trailer music, but about your song and how to make it have a bigger chance of landing a placement:

1. Your orchestra sounds too much midi. I know, I've had a problem like that when I started out. Make sure you invest into better sample libraries or mask that orchestra by layering it with other orchestral sample libraries... even with synths - you wouldn't believe how many of my "pure orchestral cues" have synths in them. There's a spiccato line - trust me - there are fast synths there playing what spiccato strings are playing, but blended just enough to give them a flavour, sound or attack I want them to have. For example - Omnisphere has some really cool patches that can do that with some proper EQ.
2. When you are doing these type of songs, I realized that the brass should realyl be in your face. Make it louder since you are almost using it like braaaam effect in your song. I think I can hear some synths there that are brassy, combine them with overpowering brass. Brass in this type of cues is what makes or breaks your song.
3. Add a lot of pulses, especially in the low end and especially in the backend of your track. Give it that motion feeling of pushing forward. It doesn't matter if it will be heard on TV or not, it's about music supervisor listening to the song and having their mind blown so they have to use it, you get me?
4. Production really needs to be better. If you are not good with that part of the "job", find some publishers that handle mixing and mastering of your music. There are not a lot of them, but you can find them.
5. You have really cool drums at the end of your backend and in 4th act. They sound big and powerful. Make sure that all your drums sound big and powerful in all the rest of your cue, especially in that big backend.

Like I've said - I hate doing this and cirtiquing other composers work, but this was done only to raise the chances for you to get that placement. For example, the track below I'm about to post has what I've written above. It is used a lot on TV to this day, even though it was made almost 10 years ago. Check out how synths play some role and how they sound when the orchestra comes in. Also check how the drums go, how they always build in the intensity, especially in the backend. And also in the backend, check out how in the second part drums even go bigger with different patterns and more drums introduced.

https://soundcloud.com/goran-dragas/blo ... he-streets

I hope I helped a little bit! Cheers!

[LalyaPars]

Oh dear one! Teach me your ways I would love to learn more about trailer music please I like to think that I think outside the box some times when tackling certain genres like this. Sometimes it goes well but other times not so much and they don't like the trailer music I make. I would love to know what works and what doesn't. Thanks in advance!

I will teach you for just one time payment of 99 $ for my newest course... I'm just kidding, can't stand those stuff haha

It is hard to be objective when it comes to creating trailer music, especially when you are doing it yourself. I can only say from my experinece:

When I started out, I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know structure, I didn't know about the hook, I didn't know absolutely nothing except it needs to explode at the end lol Which was like almost 14 years ago and trailer music changed a lot these days. If you are starting out, I'd write to you that you completely ignore that epic, orchestral, hybrid style. I know, it sounds weird to read this, but it will make sense. If you watch trailers these days, you won't hear a lot of orchestral music in it, unless it's that big blockbuster trailer and even they don't go for that big orchestral sound. You, as a trailer composer, have only one job - to create music that will work so well with the picture and give goosebumps to the audience. It's really an art how editor creates a trailer and shows just enough to make it intriguing. We have worked recently doing custom music for trailer of HIM and Longlegs. The way the editor used our song and sound design was absolutely mind-blowing to the point that the trailer of Longlegs won CLIO Grand Jury Award - it just so happened to have our music in it. There was not one single melodic line in it.

What I'm trying to write is to focus on sound design. Make your sounds interesting, listen to a lot of sound design trailer music (I'm sure you can find our album DREAD I and DREAD II online somewhere - those albums had TONS of placements) and get a grasp of the style and structure. Listen to those signature sound designs, the ones that are, for the lack of a better word, "selling" the trailer. When you get a hang of it, the structure, creating unique sounds - trust me, it will be much, much easier for you to get into trailers rather than doing orchestral music. I know, I know, we all love creating those big sounding landscapes with amazing brass and hits and impacts that melt faces - but to do that you really have to know how to make your virtual instruments sound like real orchestra and your production really needs to be AAA level to land that placement. Not just that, the level of composers doing those kind of cues and new ones arriving are really raising the roof in terms of production so it's honestly really hard to compete with someone who already does (and does it amazingly good) those songs.

Even when we get submission and it's mostly orchestral stuff, I usually respond that we already have enough composers in our rooster that do these kind of songs on top level, but if I get some sound design track - I am more interested to hear what the composer came up with and what did they do with the format of trailer music.

So, if you ask me, that's definitely what I would go for.

Thank you!! I'll put your advice to work. I tried finding DREAD I and DREAD II is it released under a label? Like audiomachine etc...? The thing with me also is I tend to get bored easily when on just one genre. If I could just focus on one then I'll be really good at it. But because my focus is everywhere, I'm just ok on certain genres.

[douglasricketts]

I hope I helped a little bit! Cheers!

You did! Thank you very much for your time and attention.