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Structuring TV/Film Tracks: The Holy Grail On This Week’s TAXI TV

Click the link below to watch LIVE Monday at 4 PM Pacific!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3T7D4tp4g8

7 pm Eastern (EDT) / 6 pm Central (CDT) / 4 pm Pacific (PDT) 12 am London (GMT) / 11 am Sydney (AEDT)

Dear Composers, Producers, and Songwriters,

How’d you like a consummate Instrumental Cue Composer to show you what the most common Cue structures are for TV placements?

Great, I’ve got the perfect guest to lay those structures out in great detail on this week’s TAXI TV!

Steve Barden is a successful, longtime TAXI member, and a truly excellent composer. He’s the author of two great books on the subject. Click the links below to see just how good those books are!

https://amzn.to/415OPt1

https://amzn.to/3MIEvD0

Steve’s most recent book, Deconstructing Production Music for TV, is a deep dive into some serious analysis of nine cues, which you can listen to online. For each cue, Steve breaks it down as follows:

The Structure
Chord Progression
Melody
Instrument Choices
Style and Genre
The Emotion and Intended Use
The Sound Libraries he Used
Analysis of the Bars and Sections of the Score
...and Why the Cue Works!

I’m beyond excited to have Steve share his considerable knowledge with you. With any luck, we’ll be playing you some of the cues during the show, as Steve tells us what he did, and most importantly, WHY he did it!

Be on Time! Here’s Why…

The very first thing I’m going to ask Steve at the beginning of the show is to list the various structures most commonly used for instrumental cues. If you’re late, you’ll miss it!

Then I’m going to ask him if certain structures are used more often for certain genres. I’m pretty certain it’s not a "one-size-fits-all" scenario. You don’t want to miss the answer to that either!

And I’ll definitely be asking Steve to explain the difference between Instrumentals and Instrumental Cues! Again, don’t miss the beginning of this episode!!!

It will help put your mind at ease when you compose your next cue, and wonder, “Does this structure work for this type of cue?” Try really hard to make the live broadcast, so you can ask Steve your most pressing questions!

Click the link below to watch LIVE Monday at 4 PM Pacific!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3T7D4tp4g8

To Join the Live Chat During the Broadcast…

You’ll need to be signed up to YouTube (FREE) and be logged in to be able to join in on the chat during the show. Go to youtube.com and click the "Sign In" link in the upper right-hand corner of the page and fill out the short form to join. If you have a Gmail account, you’ll be able to associate your YouTube account with it!

7 pm Eastern (EDT) / 6 pm Central (CDT) / 4 pm Pacific (PDT) 12 am London (GMT) / 11 am Sydney (AEDT)

See you on the show,

Michael

One thing I understood ML to say on this episode of Taxi TV was that a reversed cymbal spliced onto a cymbal strike (so that the blend/splice point is on the downbeat of a section) was a bad idea because it made it hard for the editor. Isn't a reversed cymbal fairly common as a riser effect? I'm a bit confused by this. Thoughts, please?

.

Hi Alan,

Yep, I said that. As with many things, context is key. When I did audio post on TV commercials, (and some TV shows), there were many things with "tails" that bled over a rest or edit point that made it harder to edit and use. Of course, it all depends of WHERE it appeared - which beat, etc.

It's also worth mentioning that often times, risers are added on top of the cue in post. Frankly, I was shocked how much that happens in the trailer world!!

I thought all that cool stuff was already in the track, but I was wrong - first time ever, lol. So, it's possible that an edit was already made, and THEN the backward cymbal (or whatever is in the riser) was added after the edit was done.

In general, having reverb tails, instrument ringouts, cymbals, etc. over edit points can make it hard, but not if the same thing is on the other side of the edit. Then the law of reciprocity applies, and all is good!

ML

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admin wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 20, 2023 12:19 pm

Hi Alan,

Yep, I said that. As with many things, context is key. When I did audio post on TV commercials, (and some TV shows), there were many things with "tails" that bled over a rest or edit point that made it harder to edit and use. Of course, it all depends of WHERE it appeared - which beat, etc.

It's also worth mentioning that often times, risers are added on top of the cue in post. Frankly, I was shocked how much that happens in the trailer world!!

I thought all that cool stuff was already in the track, but I was wrong - first time ever, lol. So, it's possible that an edit was already made, and THEN the backward cymbal (or whatever is in the riser) was added after the edit was done.

In general, having reverb tails, instrument ringouts, cymbals, etc. over edit points can make it hard, but not if the same thing is on the other side of the edit. Then the law of reciprocity applies, and all is good!

ML

Thank you, Michael. Great info, as always!