Music Composers Unite!

June 2007 Blog Posts (25)

Universal Collaboration Vol. 2

Here's the version that I am talking about in this blog:

Download merrittmusic-UCB-CMX-GM140.mp3 (Right click on the file name and save it to your computer, then play it from there.) For the beginning of this piece, the strings have to sell it. They have to be alive. Here's what I did. For each part (VLN, VLA, Cello, etc..) I loaded a full section patch and played it in with mod wheel and… Continue

Added by Chris Merritt on June 30, 2007 at 3:00am — No Comments

Universal Collaboration Vol. 1

I thought it might be cool for a lot of you to follow along as I compose a piece. It's the intro section for the "Longest Through Composed Piece" that we are all working on (see the "Groups.") Let's take a look... Here's my restrictions: It has to start in C Major at any tempo and end in G major at 140BPM, so the next composer can blend his piece in, and be less than - or about - two minutes. I figured this should be on the "serious" side of things, and maybe a little "badass" or epic. To me,… Continue

Added by Chris Merritt on June 28, 2007 at 1:00pm — 1 Comment

Ministry of Rock, ...

... a rock samplelibrary which contains various guitars, drums and basses, created by East West and Quantum Leap, has been released.

You can listen to my offical demo "Unreal" here on my site.
All instruments are from Ministry of Rock and vocals are sung by myself.

Hope you enjoy!!

Added by Alex Pfeffer on June 28, 2007 at 4:15am — 1 Comment

DVD Titles, demo production

Currently, I'm working on two projects.

The first is production work for a songwriter's demo. I'm trying to bring it to a high level of sophistication, as finished and radio-ready as possible. The first cut has been posted to his myspace profile:

http://www.myspace.com/nomirakaposhi

It was an interesting challenge taking his lyrics and vocal melody, and creating a whole style around it - he wanted something that had both pop and middle eastern sound influences. This… Continue

Added by Adrian Ellis on June 27, 2007 at 1:31pm — 1 Comment

Equipment and Systems

System 1 (composition):

Finale 2006 running on windows XP on a Dell computer
250 GB backup, CD-ROM and DVD/CD read-write drive, DSL internet connection
Garritan Personal Orchestra (as bundled with Finale)

System 2 (digital audio recording):

ProTools running on windows XP…

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Added by Karen E. Peace on June 27, 2007 at 4:32am — No Comments

Local air time

Well, "Tiny Lights" was played on my local radio station yesterday. I was very please about this, although I have to say that it sounded "unmixed" to some extent. I'm inclined to think that this is down to my need for more practice on the audio side of things, although I suppose it's conceivable that the station applied some compression or something and killed the dynamics. Who knows?

Anyway, it was good to have some visibility, and the DJ also plugged a forthcoming gig my band is… Continue

Added by Mike Torr on June 25, 2007 at 2:37am — No Comments

Studio Build Pt 4: Another Block in the Wall?

Well I hope I managed to terrify people with my previous blog. Building a studio can seriously damage your lawn!

Today I'll talk about building the rest of the shell. As I've mentioned previously, we decided to use 2 skins of 4" concrete blocks for the walls. Between these walls we left a 2" gap which was filled with insulation fibre; nothing specialist here, just the same kind of mineral wool people use to insulate lofts.

So here we can see the outside wall…

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Added by James Semple on June 21, 2007 at 5:29am — 1 Comment

Studio Build Pt 3: Laying down the bass .. er, base!

So, I finally have pictures ready for y'all!

Let's begin with my modest back garden. A poor, unsuspecting patch of badly-maintained lawn.

If you look closely you should see the four wooden pegs that mark the corners of the studio. That's a recently uprooted tree stump at the far end btw...

So, first things first. I brought in a couple of builders to dig out the area with mini-rigs.

As you can see, the lawn is now…

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Added by James Semple on June 20, 2007 at 7:39am — No Comments

My Latest Composition

My latest composition is "Blues Appassionato". I am honored by having two world-class musicians perform it; Amy Beth Horman on violin, and Frank Conlon on piano. Take a listen to the MP3 file. What a treat!

Added by David Rubenstein on June 18, 2007 at 10:01pm — No Comments

Here I am,

Still struggling with all this new technology (Good bye Sampler. Hello Plug In) .

I seem to have a complete lack of confidence and the growing realization that my strengths lie somewhere in arrangement and composition (I hope). I seem to be able to put the right sounds together (some people might disagree with that statement...well they can go to hell)

I am a solo " artist " and work mainly on Apple G5's and various Plugs from… Continue

Added by Michel Pete on June 17, 2007 at 8:41am — No Comments

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Added by Dick Aven on June 16, 2007 at 5:10am — No Comments

CellarRoom goes Hollywood

By order of Dynamedion, CellarRoom was able to contribute music to the following trailers:

Oscar award winning movie "The last king of Scotland" featuring Forest Whitaker
"Catch a fire" featuring Tim Robbins.

Added by Alex Pfeffer on June 15, 2007 at 12:54pm — No Comments

Feeling a little stumped

Being a songwriter who derives material strictly from inspiration, I find myself having a rough time with it lately. My solo material and my rock material are very different from eachother and I am feeling a little trapped by the band that I am spending most of my time focusing on. There is a fair amount of pressure to continue writing for the rock band and my personal material is falling by the waist side. In addition, I find that listening to a someone else's song, spurs my excitement and… Continue

Added by David Gielan on June 14, 2007 at 2:52pm — No Comments

Studio Build Pt 2: Planning the studio

Right, so let's get going with my studio build.

The first thing I had to do was actually plan what I wanted to build and see what I could build. The initial suggestion came from my Dad who is a builder (ah, now it comes out). I'll not deny that my Dad's advice and contacts have come in incredibly handy for this project however hopefully I can pass on all that I've learned.

Anyway, we realised that the best opportunity for me was to build an entirely separate building in my back…

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Added by James Semple on June 14, 2007 at 6:12am — 1 Comment

Building my studio

Well I'm not sure how qualified I am to speak about studio design and building but I'll at least tell the story of how my studio was conceived and constructed.

First, I'd just like to describe exactly what I've ended up with and it wasn't what I set out to build.

My studio's internal dimensions are around 5.2m by 4.5m (that's around 17' by 15' in old money). It's about 8½' high as well. The studio is a single room with no windows and a single custom built heavy door which is…

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Added by James Semple on June 13, 2007 at 5:27am — 1 Comment

Just saying Hi!

Hi to anyone who is reading this.

I just completed my studio this weekend and I'm in a great mood.

James in the studio

I've uploaded a small sample of my work here and I'll try and upload some more soon. Don't worry if you think this stuff is a little heavy, I write in a few different styles and these two orchestral tracks were the first I thought of. I do write softer pieces as well.

Check out my website…

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Added by James Semple on June 11, 2007 at 4:02pm — No Comments

Scoring Biz: Now and in the Mesozoic era - Part Deux: Spotting and Music Prep.

When I was began working in situations that required my music be in synch with the visuals many things were different -among them :

1. There were no computers with Quicktime built into the DP ( or whatever sequencing program was to come )

2. Scoring to projected film was pretty much restricted to LA , NYC, and one place in Chicago.

3. Due to the budgets we were working with, there was no provision for "music editor" ..that would be your gig ( prior to writing… Continue

Added by phil Kelly on June 10, 2007 at 5:58pm — 4 Comments

What I'm working on now . . .

Right now I'm writing an instrumental for a medium-size ensemble called "Interplay". The theme must be about "Halloween", and it will be the corniest music imaginable. But it will be fun!

Added by David Rubenstein on June 8, 2007 at 11:17pm — 1 Comment

Nine Billion Miles From Earth

After contributing to 3 canceled games for Adult Swim, one has finally been released. Check it out here...

http://www.adultswim.com/games/ninebillion/index.html

The game is a spoof of those old 60's sci-fi movies and the score features a overly dramatic and chromatic orchestral score. Definitely a lot of fun to write.

Added by Chris Rickwood on June 8, 2007 at 4:22pm — 1 Comment

Enough of this!

I'm so outta here. Goin' on vacation for a week at the beach in NC (Outer Banks.) We're supposed to have wireless net access at the house we rented, so I should be back on here in a day or two.

It's awesome that there are so many composers here now! Go to the groups section and join some groups, go to the forum section and reply or start some discussions. Go outside and see the sun once in a while...

Added by Chris Merritt on June 8, 2007 at 2:21pm — 5 Comments