Standard ways that songs are requested??? - Newbie Question

[moodscape]

Hi All,

I am curious and can't find definitive answers out there. Any input you can give would be awesome...

What are some of the typical ways that libraries and Music Supervisor's request songs in?
Do they often want the stems (mastered or not)?
Should I be creating Cues for all the tunes that I submit so I have that ready? (I'm pretty sure that I'm correct that cues are short transitions that ring out at the end, often used to go from one scene to the next or back from a commercial break, etc.)

Is there a Taxi article on the web out there explaining this or somewhere else on the web? I would really appreciate some info I'm really trying to excel in the film/tv music world and I want to be as prepared as I can.

Thanks,
Tory

[Russell Landwehr]

Hi All,

I am curious and can't find definitive answers out there. Any input you can give would be awesome...

What are some of the typical ways that libraries and Music Supervisor's request songs in?
Do they often want the stems (mastered or not)?
Should I be creating Cues for all the tunes that I submit so I have that ready? (I'm pretty sure that I'm correct that cues are short transitions that ring out at the end, often used to go from one scene to the next or back from a commercial break, etc.)

Is there a Taxi article on the web out there explaining this or somewhere else on the web? I would really appreciate some info I'm really trying to excel in the film/tv music world and I want to be as prepared as I can.

Thanks,
Tory

Hi Tory.

Do they often want the stems (mastered or not)?
It's rare for them to ask for stems, but sometimes they will. If you are mixing yourself and can pull up your DAW and break out the stems on demand, don't worry about taking the time for it now. However, if you are paying a studio to do the work for you, it is best to get stems at that time just in case. As far as "mastering" just make sure your song sounds the best it can.
Now, that being said... if you want to make alternate mixes (like no percussion or acoustic only or something like that... as long as they make musical sense as a stand-alone piece of music) it's good to do those right off the bat. If you are doing songs with vocal, then it is also best to have an instrumental version ready to go as well.

Should I be creating Cues for all the tunes that I submit so I have that ready? (I'm pretty sure that I'm correct that cues are short transitions that ring out at the end, often used to go from one scene to the next or back from a commercial break, etc.)
A "Cue" is industry speak for an instrumental piece about 1:30 to 2:00 that can be used usually under dialog (underscore). "Cues" can also be used during action scenes or panoramic scenes or montages... etc. Michael Laskow recently differentiated between "Instrumental" and "Cue" in TAXI listings. "Instrumentals" would mean instrumental songs that can stand on their own and don't really sound like something that would be used as supporting music for dialog. Instrumentals (as opposed to Cues) work better as "source music" (a band or a radio or a DJ or a jukebox in the scene) and in montages or panoramic scenes or scenes that have no dialog.

The shorter things are called "stings" or "bumpers" and they are used to transition from one scene to another or to tag the end of a scene.
There are some Libraries that like to have those, but once again, if you have the ability to go back to your mix and create them, I wouldn't worry about it until you have to cross that bridge.


There is a search feature for the Forums, it's in the top menu. If you search for certain keywords or phrases, you may find more information. Sometimes it may lead you to more questions. ALWAYS feel free to ask questions here in the Forums. It can be educational for everyone.

Regards
Russell Landwehr

EDIT: about making stems... it IS a good idea to render all your individual tracks to disk as audio. Sometimes software upgrades have made saved projects unusable. This will make it possible to re-mix stuff from audio when some virtual instrument or fx plug-in setting fails to work in upgraded software.

[TheElement]

Russell provided a lot of good info. Welcome to the forums!

I would just add for dance music they like sub mixes...drum and bass only, no lead, no lead + no fx, alt stinger endings etc. lots of different sub mixes. I do AIFF and WAV master files as well.

Sub mixes are time consuming but easier when track has clean edit points.

[moodscape]

Awesome info. Thanks a lot!!!

Russell, you're right on the money. After reading in the forum for hours just consuming info I ended up with these questions just cuz I wanted to be clear on my understanding. Beware of taking in too much info at once (brain=kaboom!). LOL!!!

Thanks again!

[Russell Landwehr]

Awesome info. Thanks a lot!!!

Russell, you're right on the money. After reading in the forum for hours just consuming info I ended up with these questions just cuz I wanted to be clear on my understanding. Beware of taking in too much info at once (brain=kaboom!). LOL!!!

Thanks again!

DUDE! I totally understand... I suppose you saw this thread? http://forums.taxi.com/topic131990.html

[moodscape]

Yeah! That's one of the ones that I ran across! Thx