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!!

orchestra piece progress 004

Odyssey Begins RF3 at the bottom of the player list.

The intro is on. I used material from the ending in the low brass and horns. That and percussion will be the extent of the intro, I think. It will be a nice contrast for when the strings and woodwinds come in.

The woodwinds are complete. The EW strings have been brought down a bit so the other parts are more clear.

Still to come is the rest of the choir parts and, of course, the percussion. The choir isn't on these mixes cause it's on a separate computer and doesn't get bounced with the internal VI's.

After that, I will track all the parts to audio tracks and mix.

Next blog I'll attach screen shots of some of the parts to show the keyswitches and the separate tracks for different articulations, particularly in the woodwinds.

orchestra piece progress 003

The next iteration is up on the player: Odyssey Begins RF2 (at the bottom of the song list)

It's starting to morph a bit away from the sketch but not much really. The sketch is pretty "sketchy" which leaves room for interpretation and doesn't lock things tightly. I have chosen to be pretty true to the harmonic progression and the rhythmic structure, which will save time and hopefully make the piece feel cohesive.

The strings started out as only Kirk Hunter Diamond and have now been doubled with EW Platinum. The KH strings have more "bite" to them, to my ears and the EW have the hall sampled in on the releases which makes the sound "swim" a bit and smooths out some of the mechanical-ness. I'll do some more "humanizing" on the EW parts to make them even less mechanical.

Of course, on this mix, it's "ALL STRINGS ALL THE TIME" LOL

You'll notice that the piece goes all the way to the end now, still minus the intro. I've added a string melody, which I didn't think I was going to do but it just called for it after the string flourish at bar 54. The melody was actually derived from the brass melody that comes in at bar 70, the brass melody there came first and then the string melody was put in at bar 58.

The woodwinds are conspicuously absent from about bar 42 on but they will be coming back, particularly at bar 70 to reinforce the brass melody an octave higher.

The voices will be more prominent in the final mix as well. They will be coming back in off and on.

The percussion will really help to add the drama and support the build. I intend to add Taiko drums as the piece progresses. I'll start with a fairly sparse part since the strings are doing their part to move things along but by the time bar 70 rolls around, we should have a fairly rockin' Taiko part going. The trick with percussion is to use it for color and drama, a little goes a long way. I always find myself going back and taking out percussion or really trying to find the perfect spot to add it. It's tricky to find the right balance. I think if I'm adding too much percussion, I'm trying to make up for some deficiencies in the rest of the orchestration, at least for a piece like this. I love percussion, don't get me wrong! But for a piece like this, a little goes a long way, and judicious use of the percussion will really heighten the drama and the build.

Enjoy!! More to come.