I’m a fairly new composer (7 months in) and I’m finding that there’s one thing I’m REALLY struggling with. Adding dynamics to my music in Cubase is proving really hard for me. I don’t seem to have any aptitude for programming, and I find myself spending longer on trying to sort out the dynamics than on the actual composing, and not ending up with a great sound even then. It’s sapping the limited time and energy I really want to be using for composing.
I had the idea of some sort of partnership with someone who’s really good at that side of things and does it naturally. I’d need to find someone who really likes the music I make, and they could receive a portion of any money that comes from use of the actual MIDI recording they’ve contributed to.
So, I’m wondering:
1 – Are these sorts of partnerships a common thing?
2 – Where would be the best place to find someone like this?
3 – Is there a typical range of what sort of percentage someone could expect to receive in an arrangement like this?
It’s classical rather than film music, but there’s always the possibility of breaking out excepts from it and making them available as background music so there may actually be good potential for revenue.
Replies
Until I'm fairly sure my new computer is actually fixed which will take a few days at any rate, I'm not going to reinstall Cubase. I don't use it much but surely dynamics is just a matter of drawing lines or curves using the appropriate dynamic controller in the piano roll just as it is in Steinberg's Dorico which is what I primarily use. When I do finally get round to installing it, I expect I could fairly quickly help pointing you in the right direction for dynamics -- but then again, Cubase is so widely used that probably someone else here would be at least as good.
As regards partnership, well I'll let someone else perhaps come with suggestions there as purely for that, you don't need a partner -- just a quick tutorial in how things work.Had you thought of using notation software? I used to use Cubase for about the first decade of composing but then found my music improved considerably when I got used to working with notation from the outset as it's much easier to see what I've done and correct it.
Thanks David - that's kind of you. I don't read music, so notation software won't typically work for me. Maybe one day I'll get to the stage where it can... I think I do need a partner based on my current level of expertise in programming, and my obvious lack of aptitude for it. it may theoretically be possible to learn to do it well, but that will be a long and intense process, and would probably kill my enthusiasm for composing, so I'd rather let someone else do it and find a way to split any proceeds with them.
when I switched to notation software, I didn't change my actual composing method at all - I still used the MIDI keyboard to do step input of the notes as before. The only real difference is that decent notation software like Dorico will produce a neat and readable score for you or anyone else who might be interested in looking at the music (and of course if you ever want someone else to perform it, it will be essential). And I guess you could gradually learn notation just from what the programme produces as desired -- or go back to the piano-roll (key editor) if that's what you find easiest to read. If you use libraries with lots of different articulations, I find it far easier to read them in Dorico than Cubase where you likely as not do one track per articulation -- or how do you do it?
But if you'd rather someone else do it, then that's fine!
Thanks David - maybe I'll look into it. Scoring is a big deal - not sure how skilled you have to be to make a fully engraved score for professional musicians. Ideally I'd love someone else to do that for me, but that's a luxury I might not be able to get. But for the dynamics, it's essential, as I'm ploughing far too much time into it and it's killing my composing urge.
I don't do one track per articulation. I know a lot of people find that more tidy to have a template where it's already programmed in and they just need to keep changing where they input the music, but for me it just seems to get fiddly and complicated switching between different tracks for the same instrument. i find it much easier to use articulation maps to switch between articulations on the same track - so I can more easily follow what I'm doing and what instrument is playing what. Sometimes, I'll do an extra track if I want a particular effect - e.g. a staccato note at the start of a longer note - then I'll have them play at the same time....