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Pete whitfield's Blog (23)

String Loops

I've completed another loops library for Loopmasters. As I'm not primarily a composer but an arranger and instrumentalist, I believe I have to be imaginative and adaptable in the ways I try to earn a living. So, in between jobs, I put my time, effort and investment into these string loops libraries. These aren't sample libraries - I'm not competing with the Viennas and East Wests - but loops libraries of typical string lines.



For this latest pack, I've tried something a bit different,… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on December 2, 2010 at 4:43am — No Comments

Score Preparation

It's not composing, it's not recording, it's not even performing. It's a thing in between!



Most of my work involves arranging and recording strings. But some orchestration and score preparation comes my way too. It's an enormously satisfying part of the music making business, not least when I

get to attend and help out at the orchestral sessions which have taken

me to studios all over Europe.

I had a go at a YouTube vid about score prep a long while…

Continue

Added by pete whitfield on November 2, 2010 at 8:45am — 6 Comments

live vs sampled strings

I've wanted to do this for absolutely ages - a direct comparison between live and sampled strings.



About a year ago I commissioned an online mixer from a genius Flash developer (Chris Savage) and it's taken me another year to organise a suitable example and get my butt into gear to set it up.



The piece of music is a short cue by Aaron Sapp who has kindly allowed me to stream his composition. I recorded the live version of the cue with 5… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on September 27, 2010 at 3:15am — 5 Comments

Inside the music

About 10 years ago I bought the url insidethemusic.co.uk I was working on elearning for musicians at the time and the aims for the site were two-fold; host music theory and aural learning materials, and explore a way of presenting a song that got inside the music, with the sort of detail and background that gave a guided tour of how a song was created… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on August 12, 2010 at 1:39am — 1 Comment

Realstrings loops pack 3

This is a demo from my forthcoming realstrings loops pack 3. (I've already done a couple for Loopmasters.) This one is inspired by the music of electronic/classical crossovers, like Cinematic Orchestra and Hybrid, and many movie scores I guess.



The pack will contain about 200 loops that could be used individually, but are grouped into 12 construction kits, where all the loops will work together in any combination. As well as pop producers, I'm aiming this at sound editors and anyone… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on July 28, 2010 at 4:11am — No Comments

Arranging strings for Letter by Rhymefest

The creative and technical process of making music is fascinating and I wish more musicians would expose their own professional practice.



Here’s my short contribution – a video that explores how I came to put strings on Rhymefest’s song ‘Letter’ and some suggestions about how to approach arranging strings.



I am an entirely amateur video maker who believes video is such a great communicator! I’m using Snapz Pro to make screen shots and Final Cut Express…

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Added by pete whitfield on May 14, 2010 at 12:00am — 2 Comments

What does a song look like?

What does a song look like? If you could represent the shape, character and feel of a song graphically, how would it look?

I’ve played around with this concept for a while; it’s something that helps me, as an arranger, to get inside music and understand how it

works. I’m interested in getting a clear vision of musical form

because as we listen to music, we hear only the moment, and while we are

aware of what has gone before and we anticipate what is to come,…

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Added by pete whitfield on May 8, 2010 at 12:42pm — 4 Comments

Disco Strings

I had a go at a loops package for loopmasters last year and it has sold enough to cover my costs and time, so I tackled another - something bigger and more ambitious. Disco Strings.



You might balk at the idea of making music with loops, but many people do, so for me it was a way of extending my professional work and finding another income stream.

I've made a short video reflecting some of the… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on April 10, 2010 at 9:48am — 12 Comments

That was 2009

It's that time of year (31st December!) when we look back over the past year and look forward to the next. One of my holiday treats was to learn a bit more about Final Cut Express (got the book for Christmas) and so I've done a review of arrangements and stuff that I've worked on in 2009 in a… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on December 31, 2009 at 4:29am — No Comments

Strings in Bratislava

London, Warsaw, Prague, Moscow, Sofia and now Bratislava; recording strings in studio 1 at Slovak Radio is my latest experience of string sessions around the world!





This one was the toughest test yet for an orchestra; a rhythmically and harmonically complex score for a video, composed by… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on September 24, 2009 at 2:16am — No Comments

String arranging

I'm delivering a guest lecture on string arranging in a couple of weeks, so I prepared an introductory video, focusing on an approach to arranging string… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on February 6, 2009 at 4:38am — 5 Comments

YouTube annotations - an update

Annotations on YouTube videos have been in beta for a while, but it looks like they are official now and one new feature is that when the video is embedded outside of YouTube, the annotations now play properly. This is a great tool for musical analysis, and particularly for students to demonstrate their own evaluation of their work, directly linked to the track, Pure text is so dissatisfying for musical commentary - but so sweet when connected directly to the music! Soundcloud allows you to do… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on October 31, 2008 at 3:30am — No Comments

Soundcloud

Soundcloud.com is a cool new web service for anyone dealing with audio. You really have to sign up and play around with it to get a feel for what it is! As well as being able to upload large audio files and share them, you can attach comments to the wave form. Hopefully it will embed here, if not, try looking at it on the soundcloud website.

Roll your cursor over the little avatars under the… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on October 30, 2008 at 4:30am — 3 Comments

a modes overview

I've dabbled with interactive web tools for music language - mostly aural but a bit of theory too. Here, I've tried to present a reference for various modes, bringing together the names, spelling and sound. If you click the mode names randomly you get either a complete mess or a contemporary… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on October 29, 2008 at 1:09pm — 1 Comment

note flight

No, it's not something by Rimsky Korsakov but a new web service for creating online music notation.





One cool tool for music educators. Currently in… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on October 27, 2008 at 7:31am — No Comments

projects

I only dabble with composition; I'm primarily an arranger, specialising in strings, but you have to keep re-inventing yourself to keep working (and earning) so I'm looking at a library music project. I've done a lot of arranging work for a UK library music company and I want to pitch an idea to them - an album of string moods with contemporary beats, maybe offering 2 mixes (with and without beats). So my rough mixes are work in progress (imaginatively entitled track 1, 2 and 3). My advice to… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on September 15, 2008 at 2:34pm — 1 Comment

helping young composers

I've noticed there are a few student composers in this network, who are looking for guidance and support from more established members. One of the problems they face is lack of resources, whether that be reference books or software. I'd like to propose an award; if some members of the community are willing to pledge a small amount of money by way of a prize, we could make a valuable contribution to the development of young composers.

I'll start by pledging 50 dollars.

If it works it… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on August 31, 2008 at 4:12am — 1 Comment

slideshow with music tutorials

All music should exist with images - discuss! Certainly many pop tracks are released with a music video, and much of the business of making music takes place in relation to visual media - tv, video and film.



Cohen and Bollow iLife08, Apple Training Series 2008, suggest:

"An interesting irony of film and video is that roughly 50% of what you see comes through your ears." In other words, sound is more influential in our experience of visual media that we might… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on August 15, 2008 at 7:20am — 1 Comment

Surviving as a musician

There is no single route to making a career in music, so no-one can offer bullet-proof advice, only provoke you to find your own way. Some of these suggestions may seem contradictory, but developing a creative career will be multi-faceted and tricky to balance, so deal with it baby!



What is your personal musical identity? Find it and develop it.

What are your influences, passions, skills? Don't try to be something else - develop these. Find your niche.



Diversify -… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on August 10, 2008 at 7:30am — 1 Comment

new cool widget

This just came through from widget laboratory - a free widget that let's you make a slide show from the Ning network photos (hope folks don't mind) with a music track of your choice! Had to try it… Continue

Added by pete whitfield on July 17, 2008 at 12:33am — 1 Comment

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