Unused tracks in a music library over 10 years

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stevebarden
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Re: Unused tracks in a music library over 10 years

Post by stevebarden » Tue Mar 01, 2022 2:53 pm

Hi Georgina! Being that those tracks are now 10 years old (or older), I wonder how the quality holds up to place them elsewhere. What I mean by that is, sample libraries have improved greatly in that time. I'm betting you could create much better tracks today than what you did back then. Use those tracks as a model (or template) to build newer versions. Change the key, change the tempos, change the melodies. I bet you could generate replacement tracks rather quickly.

Best of luck!

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Re: Unused tracks in a music library over 10 years

Post by georginasaint » Tue Mar 01, 2022 3:09 pm

Hi Steve! Nice to see you're still around here too! That is something I've thought too - that the instruments might be outdated now.
It's pretty good advice and I'll definitely think about doing that. I don't have any time these days to write music actually, but maybe I will come the summer.
Georgie

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Re: Unused tracks in a music library over 10 years

Post by VanderBoegh » Tue Mar 01, 2022 6:03 pm

Man.... I feel ya on this one! I've got about 50 tracks in a library that I signed with around 9-10 years ago as well, and that library was sold at least once (that I'm aware of). I don't even have a clue who owns it now. My grand total for royalties with those 50 tracks is around $10, lol. Similar to you, that library signed a handful of songs that I'd spent a LOT of money at a recording studio to make (this was before I made music in my own home). So yeah, every now and then, we strike out. Usually I don't care. But when I put a lot of money into the songs, it stings.

I've been thinking of reaching out to the former owner of the library in my scenario as well, to see how I can contact the new company in efforts to get my music back. Their contract was exclusive in-perpetuity, so I'm not expecting much. But still, I think for both of us, it doesn't hurt to ask.

Now, wether or not we can make money with those tracks in another library is something we don't know yet.... but we DO know we ain't made sh*t where they are!

Lemme know how things turn out if you send that email. I'll do the same.

~~Matt

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Re: Unused tracks in a music library over 10 years

Post by DesireInspires » Tue Mar 01, 2022 7:13 pm

Write more tracks.

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Re: Unused tracks in a music library over 10 years

Post by cosmicdolphin » Wed Mar 02, 2022 4:06 am

DesireInspires wrote:
Tue Mar 01, 2022 7:13 pm
Write more tracks.
Truth

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Re: Unused tracks in a music library over 10 years

Post by Casey H » Wed Mar 02, 2022 6:08 am

VanderBoegh wrote:
Tue Mar 01, 2022 6:03 pm
I've been thinking of reaching out to the former owner of the library in my scenario as well, to see how I can contact the new company in efforts to get my music back. Their contract was exclusive in-perpetuity, so I'm not expecting much. But still, I think for both of us, it doesn't hurt to ask.
stevebarden wrote:
Tue Mar 01, 2022 2:53 pm
Hi Georgina! Being that those tracks are now 10 years old (or older), I wonder how the quality holds up to place them elsewhere. What I mean by that is, sample libraries have improved greatly in that time. I'm betting you could create much better tracks today than what you did back then. Use those tracks as a model (or template) to build newer versions. Change the key, change the tempos, change the melodies. I bet you could generate replacement tracks rather quickly.
Great advice from both of you! I would learn toward asking with the "it doesn't hurt to ask" thing. While Steven (who knows a heckuva lot more than me about cues! He should write a book! :lol: ) is correct that you could write new ones with the old ones as templates, it's gotta be faster and easier to just take the old project and update the sounds. That assumes you've updated your sound libraries over the past 10 years. It not, there are bigger problems moving forward in this biz. Don't be shy! It's just an email question with nothing to lose!

Let's catch up soon, Georgina! PM me your email address. I may be taking a car in for an oil change soon, LOL! (personal joke between us)

:D Casey

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Re: Unused tracks in a music library over 10 years

Post by cosmicdolphin » Wed Mar 02, 2022 3:55 pm

Casey H wrote:
Wed Mar 02, 2022 6:08 am
it's gotta be faster and easier to just take the old project and update the sounds.
I doubt it - try opening a DAW file from 10yrs.

For me thats 4 major DAW releases, 2 O/S changes..3 computers ago...old 32bit plugins I no longer have etc.

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Re: Unused tracks in a music library over 10 years

Post by Casey H » Wed Mar 02, 2022 5:09 pm

cosmicdolphin wrote:
Wed Mar 02, 2022 3:55 pm
Casey H wrote:
Wed Mar 02, 2022 6:08 am
it's gotta be faster and easier to just take the old project and update the sounds.
I doubt it - try opening a DAW file from 10yrs.

For me thats 4 major DAW releases, 2 O/S changes..3 computers ago...old 32bit plugins I no longer have etc.
Good points. :D But wouldn't the problem be the same if you wanted to just use the old tracks as templates for new ones as Steven suggested? Either you can open the project or you can't? I'm beyond my area of expertise here so I could be missing something (or a lot of somethings).

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Re: Unused tracks in a music library over 10 years

Post by cosmicdolphin » Thu Mar 03, 2022 5:19 am

Casey H wrote:
Wed Mar 02, 2022 5:09 pm
cosmicdolphin wrote:
Wed Mar 02, 2022 3:55 pm
Casey H wrote:
Wed Mar 02, 2022 6:08 am
it's gotta be faster and easier to just take the old project and update the sounds.
I doubt it - try opening a DAW file from 10yrs.

For me thats 4 major DAW releases, 2 O/S changes..3 computers ago...old 32bit plugins I no longer have etc.
Good points. :D But wouldn't the problem be the same if you wanted to just use the old tracks as templates for new ones as Steven suggested? Either you can open the project or you can't? I'm beyond my area of expertise here so I could be missing something (or a lot of somethings).
Probably. Maybe he just meant the general ideas/arrangements and not the actual DAW project.

Personally I find it quicker to just write from scratch. Last month a 2021 track of mine that's had a lot placements was one of the references for a new brief - I could have just opened that project and deleted the midi then played something else with the same instruments ( and I did have a quick look at doing this ) but it was actually easier for me to start fresh with blank slate and a piano patch and work through the same process again. I still ended up with a similar sounding cue that they accepted and has already had a placement but it's an iterative process and better I find to go through the same steps than try to take a short cut.

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Re: Unused tracks in a music library over 10 years

Post by cosmicdolphin » Thu Mar 03, 2022 12:22 pm

CTWF wrote:
Thu Mar 03, 2022 10:49 am
cosmicdolphin wrote:
Thu Mar 03, 2022 5:19 am
... and better I find to go through the same steps than try to take a short cut.
Makes zero sense to me.
That's probably because you have an inefficient workflow - All the things we have spoken about..good sound libraries - FX - monitors - flat room response - reasonable playing skills and decent production chops mean once I get an idea I can probably get it to a finished product 10 x faster than yourself. So it's actually slower to unpick things and work backwards than it is to start from scratch.

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