My take on the composer's union negotiations

I sympathize completely with the composers who support a composer's union or guild. I would like to be optimistic about it's success but I'm ambivalent at best. I don't have a dog in the hunt at this time, I'm mostly oriented toward composing for production music libraries, which some may feel is part of the problem. Libraries provide "stock" music to productions and a great majority of reality shows and much cable is scored using this music by music editors and supervisors.

There's been lots of confusion in the library composer world about this whole thing. I'm not 100% up to speed on the whole thing, but I'll add my 2c to the discussion, FWIW.

So here's my take on the composer's union:

It's really oriented to the composers who score films and tv shows. The producers are doing more package deals where all the production costs come out of the composer's fee, which is the entire music budget. Yet the producers want fully realized demos (because they have no imaginations for music), which take a team of assistants working around the clock to do due to the extremely strenuous deadlines. And they want some live players, which also comes out of the composer's package payment. So there are plenty of stories of composers going in the hole to complete a score. Imagine working your ass off for 6 or 8 weeks, 18 to 20 hours a day and then have to take a loan out to pay your employees at the end of it. Bummer.

And if there is a music budget separate from the composer's fee, it's much smaller than it used to be, but the amount of music per show is going up. And the composer's fees are going down too. Part of this is due to the ability of excellent composers to turn out awesome sounding music from their garage or spare bedroom, and the producers realize this and feel that they can pay less because the composer's overhead is less. Which is partly true, except for the fact that the composer still needs a team of hired guns to help get the music delivered to the mixing stage on time, which might mean, with more music, the composer's overhead is actually the same or more. Not to mention keeping current with technology. A busy composer doesn't have time to learn every new software instrument, yet the business demands new and fresh sounds all the time. Guess what? Hire a hotshot programmer to learn the software instruments and help realize the score using the new sounds. It goes on and on.

So it's understandable why these folks want to unionize. But the problem is, there's so few of them compared to the total population of composers, that there's no way they can speak for the majority on this. There's about 25 or 30 composers in Hollywood who do most of the big films and then a few hundred picking up the crumbs, and many thousands playing gigs, waiting tables, etc., trying to break in to the business. That last tier of folks probably can't afford the union dues anyway, and they'd take any gig that came along just for the resume building and credits, thus undermining the whole purpose of the union.

But library composers are feeding a different market. There's some overlap, but library music is used either as an adjunct to, in addition to, or for the entire score, mostly for lower budget TV like reality shows (Some daytime TV is handled this way as well. I write for the Harpo Sounds library which the producers and editors of O***h have complete access to). Of course, there's a huge market for library music outside film and TV as well. It wouldn't make sense for a library composer to join this union unless they were also pursuing composing for hollywood films and network tv shows

So that's probably only a small part of the reason these guys are trying to get this union going. The ground is shifting underneath their feet and it's making them nauseous.

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Reflections on Road Rally 2009

As I sit in my studio the day after coming home from the 2009 Taxi Road Rally, I'm reflecting on the weekend and feel compelled to share.

First of all, I'm pretty blown away by the Community Leader award that was given to me Saturday morning. I love to share what I've spent my life studying, partly because I love to share and partly because I learn so much by doing it. To be recognized for sharing my life's work is quite humbling and gratifying. Thanks to everyone and particularly TAXI for allowing me the forum to share.

Now to some things that have been rolling around in my head:

If you've been to the Rally even once, you've probably sat in a panel and heard "get to the song", "keep the intro short", "get to the hook". Yet every year, folks put their artist CD into the bin as is, with their artistic long intros. The A/R folks, and most of the audience who want to hear a lot more material, need to sit through the often wonderful, but way too long, intros. I strongly advocate that you do a "radio edit" of your song, put it on a CD on it's own with your contact info everywhere and put that in the bin. If they like the song (at least they'll appreciate the short intro) and want to hear more, well, guess what, you can try to get to them after the panel, or if they took your CD, it has all of your contact info on it. If you can't do the editing yourself, then get a friend who is familiar with it to do it for you. It's not that difficult to get a nice, short, musical intro just by editing the stereo master. Your full version is still safely immortalized on your artist CD, but this "radio edit" version just might get you the listen you've been waiting for.

Another observation from one who doesn't write that many songs: I honestly don't care that much about the verse the first time I hear the song, unless it's really quirky or catchy. If the chorus pays off BIG TIME, then I'm much more inclined to pay more attention to the verse the next time it comes up. That being said, I think two long verses before the chorus is one too many. This is pop music, not literature, I want a big hook I can sing right away and then I'll go back and listen to your story next time. Set me up with a great, easily understandable vocal and a hook that "hooks" me and I'm there. There are tons of formulas for writing pop songs and they are used because they work every time. Trying to break new artistic ground before one has mastered these formulas usually doesn't work because the results sound like someone who is trying too hard to be "original". This is pop music, not literature. Make it pop and you'll have a much better chance of getting heard.

Creativity is inevitable, infinite and always available. Artistry is what we do naturally as writers and composers. After we do our artistic work, we need to learn to step back from it and the wonderful energy we channeled to create it, and see it as a product. In the marketplace of music, the folks looking for music to place and pitch see it as a product. They aren't personally attached to the music, it's simply either what they're looking for or it's not. If you're looking for a pair of sneakers, Nike isn't going to be bummed if you buy a pair of New Balance this time, it just means they'll have to work harder to get you as a customer next time. It's the same with our music. To some this may seem harsh and cold, but it's the reality of the business. It's always been this way, but we tend to romanticize it and forget that the industry buys what it thinks it can sell, which is probably on different terms that we would choose as artists. So, we need to get over ourselves and at least try to learn to get some emotional distance from our music so we can more effectively sell it.

Directly related to the above paragraph is the issue of defining the genre of our music. Every artist has more or less trouble with this but it is a huge factor in determining one's success. This year at least one country song was pulled from the "pop" bin at the listening panel I attended. Now the style was pop country rather than straight country, but the steel guitars and vocal style were still dead center country, most definitely not pop. And if you put it in the "wrong" bin on purpose hoping it will get you heard, then you actually did yourself a disservice. The panelists were not happy with being told they were going to hear one style and then another came on. It was pretty blatant and won you no friends. As a writer sitting by yourself in your home studio, it's easy to get micro focused on your music and to lose perspective on where it fits. And that's OK because you have to do that kind of focus to get it done. But if you aren't writing to a specific style target or listing, then you need to find out what the industry is going to want to call it so they can more effectively sell it. Musicians hate this stuff but it's the common language of the industry, so bite the bullet and categorize yourself. Post the music on the TAXI forum and get some feedback, take it to songwriter groups, get a custom critique via TAXI or some other service. Do whatever you can to learn where you fit and then be open to that knowledge. If your ultimate goal is to sell your music, then this is non-negotiable.

This is a long term business. Those of you in the 5 year plan class saw some royalty statements from Matt and I which hopefully illustrated not only some growth potential, but also how long it takes to get some traction in the business. You probably also heard Matt talk about how many hours a day he works (at least 10 hours a day, 6 days a week), and how the stuff he's working on today may not pay royalties for 1 to 3 years. If you love writing music so much that you'll do it no matter what, then you know that you'll do whatever it takes to write, produce and sell it. You will also learn patience or you'll take your ball and go home, the choice is yours. I suggest that by continually learning and improving and writing every day, you won't have time to think about giving up or where your first placement will be. When that day comes, the victory will be much sweeter. So get to work!!! :)

Social networking is the business model of the now and future, for all musicians. Yes, it's still shaking out how anyone will actually make money from all of this, but it's starting to happen and the time is now to get involved. I had some a ha moments in Ariel Hyatt's class this year. I was a partial skeptic going into it, but now I'm convinced that generating buzz and creating value online will motivate people to want to buy what I have to offer eventually. It's marketing 101 but with a different delivery medium. It's still a bit Wild West out there but the beauty of it is that navigating through it and figuring out a personal slant on it can be as creative as writing a great song. For some, like me, it was a stretch to think outside the box of the old business models, but I saw through the keyhole and now I "get it". In a few years, this will be a bigger panel than the A/R panel, I predict.

For all the buzz about social networking online, there's absolutely no replacement for face to face time, and there never will be. Yes, we can communicate with more people at one time than ever before, but we don't usually twitter or post to facebook as a group! We're usually in our studios, or at work or at the coffee shop by ourselves when we do it. So gatherings such as the Road Rally will always be relevant because of the human contact factor. It's such a relief to get to the Rally every year and hug and shake hands and eat and party with composers and writers that are all on the same path as I am. I don't know about you but I don't get that opportunity every day, and as much as I love seeing everyone on the TAXI form and Facebook, etc., those are poor substitutes for the real thing.

That's it for now. Love and blessings to all of you that I saw and met at the Rally and my prayer is that anyone who didn't make it this year can make it next year. You owe it to yourself and your music and your career to figure out a way to make it to the Rally. As corny as this may sound, it will probably change your life in some way. You'll go back home a little or a lot different than when you arrived, in a good way.

Thoughts on creativity and composing

I posted this on the TAXI forum on a thread titled "How do you compose?".

Embrace the idea that you are always creating, no matter what you are doing.

The actual bringing the final product to life in the physical world is probably the smallest part of the process (although it might not feel like it sometimes!). I believe we bring the sum total of who we are to bear in every moment, to a greater or lesser degree, and that applies to writing as well. The best writers are able to tap in to that and have practiced and honed their writing chops so they have some modicum of that life experience available to them at all times.

We never stop creating, and just accepting that for yourself will help you be able to be creative at the drop of a hat. Jazz musicians know this process intimately because improvisation is the whole purpose of jazz. The river of music is always flowing and learning to swim in it is a lifetime process, but it's there and available, even when you're sleeping.

Beethoven used to take walks. He would walk and hum and had a pencil and paper with him at all times. When I get "stuck", I'll go out and walk up a hill (not hard to find in my neighborhood in SF!! :) ) and invariably the solution to my musical problem will reveal itself (not comparing myself to Beethoven, just borrowing his walking technique). For me, the process of doing something different allows my mind to open up and find the solution. I"m composing even if it doesn't look like I am!

Orchestra piece progress 007: Wrap Up and MIDI moments

Fig 1.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

I've decided to put some screenshots of my Digital Performer session from the piece "Odyssey Begins", just to show a bit of the actual nuts and bolts sequencing process. Also I'll put in a wrap up of the entire process.

Fig. 1 is a shot of a portion of the track layout. As you can see, there's a lot of tracks. Look at the woodwinds in particular. As you can see, there's a separate track for each articulation I used, sustained, stacatto, runs and trills. I did that because the library I used doesn't use keyswitches (Westgate Studios). I know there's a way in Kontakt that one can switch programs inside of a bank, but I've never explored that, although I may soon.

Fig 2. is a Cello track playing the spicatto articulation. Notice the controller lane below the track and how it has peaks and valleys. That is CC11 and it is used to give an undulating feeling to the track. I also try to sequence parts like this so they don't do too many repeating notes at one time. This way, the "machine gun" effect is less noticeable. Even with round robin programming, the effect can get machine like, so adding the controller data for volume variation and also repeating only two or 3 notes at a time, can help give a more realistic sound.

Last but not least, is a shot (Fig. 3) of a portion of the flute part. From top to bottom, the tracks are: Flute Legato, Flute Stacatto, Flute Octave Runs, and Flute Trills. In this example, you see the track alternating between short and long notes and then an octave run blending in to the first note of the next phrase. The octave run (chromatic scale up) is a sampled run so it looks like a single held note, but that note triggers a scale run. It also looks like it bleeds into the first note of the next phrase, but it actually ends just before it. When placing runs like this, some experimentation with the exact placement is necessary to get the run to end at the proper time. The start is sometimes less critical and can even be faded in with controller 7.

To summarize, here's what I feel can help when undertaking a large piece like this:

1. Determine the form ahead of time. In this case I laid out the rhythmic structure and length in minutes and seconds before I started.

2. Determine a harmonic structure ahead of time. In Odyssey Begins, I used a common device of film composers which is moving chord changes in minor thirds. This creates an unresolved feeling and also adds drama. Mixed in with this were other harmonic moves, but overall modally this piece stays in the minor mode realm. I did venture in to Lydian, which can be thought of as being derived from a major scale, but in this case, I kept the minor modality in the upper voices and moved the bass note to create the Lydian feeling (E minor triad/F bass).

3. Create a thematic structure. The melody in this piece is very simple. It is then varied slightly and transposed as the piece progresses. Having a melody is not necessarily a requirement, particularly if the piece is meant to be a "bed track", but for a more cinematic approach, a melody that can be varied can help the audience follow the story.

4. Choose the orchestral palette. For this piece I consciously decided to add woodwinds, which I don't use that often in big, bombastic electro/orchestral pieces, but this one was intended to be more organic sounding, with the power coming from the low percussion. The low percussion was chosen from Stormdrum 2 and Heavyocity Evolve with a Taiko loop from Nine Volt Audio Beat Bandit Takio Edition for Stylus RMX.

Orchestration can be done while composing, but try not to let the orchestration dictate the composition. Applying the orchestration to an already well written piece will make for a better overall presentation, IMO.

5. Once you get everything loaded up in the computer, save it as a template. It will save time the next time you get a call for a Big Dramatic Orchestra picece!

With this material gathered ahead of time, when the computer is fired up, there's less time spent fishing around for ideas. Of course, you'll find that things will change as you start entering the parts. Pay close attention to the ranges you are having instruments play in. Instruments have a different sound depending on the range they are playing in and trying to give a big melody to flutes playing on the treble clef staff won't be very effective in "real life" if the rest of the orchestra is playing fortissimo!!

Have fun, happy composing!!

Mazz

Orchestra piece progress 006

The "final" mix is up on the player (in the number one spot!).

You'll hear percussion: A couple of big drums from Stormdrum, an EW snare, EW cymbals and gongs.

Also added in the beginning and ending: Celesta, Harp, Chimes

I need to go sleep now, but I'll do a debriefing on the process in the next day or so.

Thanks for reading!!

Orchestra piece progress 005

Odyssey Begins RF4 at the bottom of the player.

All the parts are tracked to audio now, with the exception of the percussion which still needs to be added (whew!!).

The choir has been added to this rough mix. With the exception of the strings, everything is pretty much mono right now. I thought that this might be a good contrast as the piece progresses to hear how much difference panning can make on an orchestral piece. The EW libraries and to some extent the KH library comes "pre-panned", but for this piece I'm using primarily SAM orchestral brass, SampleModeling Trumpet and Westgate Studios Woodwinds, which aren't pre-panned.

One thing I like to do is to bus all the individual sections to their own bus, which allows me to add a global amount of reverb via a send to each section individually. I can do detailed balances within each section with automation and then when I'm doing the very final mix, I have just a few faders to deal with. I can always go back in and tweak an individual instrument if necessary. I will do the panning on the individual tracks, but they all end up on the same bus which means if I need more trombones, I just pull up one fader. If I want to move the bones back in the room a bit, I just add a bit more verb send and drop the level down a shade if necessary.

More to come!!