Something for the Holidays

Happy Holidays everyone! To all my friends and family on the east coast, I'll be missing you this Christmas. To everyone else, I hope your holiday season is an amazing one. Here's a little something just for you. I hope you enjoy. This is a lesser known song called 'Come Buy My Nice Fresh Ivy'. If you listen carefully, you may hear a touch of 'Carol of the Bells' and 'The Holly and the Ivy'. Vocals by Lauren Martin.

New Commercials and a Fan Film

I've been on a bit of a hiatus lately. I recently got a job at the Apple Store to make ends meet until something happens with the music. It's such an amazing place to work. Apple really takes care of its employees and it's filled with people just like me. So many of my co-workers are in the film, TV or music industry and are in the same place I am, so we all have that in common. Many of them know I do music and I am already in the process of collaborating on a few of their projects. I'm very excited to see where that leads.

This week ended up being an unexpectedly busy week for music. I was asked to write for an Ace Hardware and a McDonalds commercial. I hope I get picked for one of those. So far none of my tracks have been picked for the recent commercials. It's such a competitive field. I'm sure that once I get my first, I'll know what sells and I can do a better job of writing what they want to hear.

I also was asked to write a sample track for a small production company doing a fan film on Harry Potter. They're looking for someone who can replicate the feel of John Williams. No one can ever come close to the real thing, but I had never tried to replicate his sound, so I was eager for the challenge. I did a small test track today and feel pretty good about this as a first draft. Have a listen!

Other than that, my secret Disney project takes a huge leap forward next sunday, so in a week or two, I will be able to reveal the project to you all. I know you haven't heard from me lately, but keep on tuning in. Things will be happening very soon!

I'm Not Dead!

Hey everyone. Just writing in to let you all know that I'm not dead. Things have been awfully slow in the last few weeks so there hasn't been a lot to report. Little things have happened here and there, but I'm beginning to feel the need to be doing something. So I'll give you a few little updates until something actually happens.

Firstly, as a continuation of my last post, the song I was previewing has been completed, entitled 'Quest for Asia'. I am very pleased with the new sound and am excited to start getting feedback on it. I'm trying a new way of sharing my music on this blog, so if anyone can't play the files, please let me know and I'll switch back to the old way of doing things.

Next, after a bit of a lull, I got a new commercial to score for Google. This one tells a bit of an uplifting story and they were looking for more traditional instruments, so this one really appealed to me. Here's the music I came up with.

The interesting thing that happened recently is that I received an email out of the blue from Robert Kral. Robert is the one I met during the fellowship working on the Scooby Doo cartoons. He asked me if I had made it to California okay, and was interested in getting more music of mine sent to him. I had already given him a CD of some of my stuff when I met with him. I can't help but wonder why he wants to hear more of my work if he's not looking for help. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but this is certainly a promising lead. 

I am also currently working on a Disney-themed project that I can't speak too much about right now. It's a personal project, but I have hopes that it may open a few doors for me. This project has both instrumental and vocal sections, so it will definitely be an exciting one. I'll keep you updated once things take a bit more shape. 

Finally, I've been here for 2 months now, and I'm at that point where I simply need something to do. I've started looking for any kind of work in the area just to keep me busy and give me a little spending cash until one of these composer leads pays off. I'm confident by all the feedback I've been getting that it's only a matter of time now, so the idea of temporary work doesn't seem so bad. Hopefully I'll have some good news for you all soon. 

Tim Jones, Prefaders, Multipressors and Greg Smith

So as the title suggests, I once again have quite a bit to talk about. Last week I had my first interview with Tim Jones, who was one of the composers who responded to my emails about needing an assistant. I took a drive out to Pasadena to meet Tim at his studio. He greeted me at the door and right away I was comfortable. Tim is such a genuinely nice and good-hearted person. I met his assistants and it was easy to see that they all had a great working relationship. Tim had described to me on the phone that his scoring rig was wildly complicated, but to be honest, I was not entirely prepared for what I was about to see. Tim has something like 8 to 10 Mac Pros networked together, plus a couple PCs and a storage array wired over two rooms, upstairs and downstairs. Upstairs, Tim's workstation consists of gear both old and new, including a synth rack, real instruments, a mixing board, an old tape machine for making his mixes sound real, among many other things. Tim described it as he's never satisfied with his rig so he's adding to it faster than he can organize, but without a doubt, Tim's music is fantastic, and the quality of his sound is spectacular. I spent most of the afternoon there and we talked music and gear and just had a good conversation.

In the end it became clear that Tim was looking more for a computer technician rather than a musician. He was so polite in telling me and was perfectly honest that he could tell I wouldn't be happy in the position. When I thought about it, he was right. He could tell I wanted to write music, and that's just not what he needed then. But he asked if I had any music for him to listen to, so we went up again to his station and he listened to my music. He listened and wanted to know the timeline of my work and said he could hear me improving from piece to piece which was good to hear. He asked if I would mind some creative criticism, which course I wanted. People always seem afraid to give tips on how to make your art better that I never get any help from people in his position. I was so grateful to get some from him. And it was like he was in my head. He said first I needed to work on 'instrument placement'. What he means is that even in stereo, you can have control not just over whether an instrument sounds like it's coming from the right or left, but how far forward or back it is 'on stage' in your mix. You do this with a reverb channel and prefaders.

Things are about to get technical so feel free so skip over this.

I'm used to putting reverb on each one of my instruments individually, but Tim tells me that makes for an uneven sound. To combat this, you add a reverb channel to your mixing strip, and you use the Sends on your mixer to route to that reverb channel. You then send each instrument track to that one channel. This way is sounds like all the instruments are in the same room. That's only half the battle. Then what you do is send that signal using a Prefader. Normally the fader on your mixer controls the volume of that track. Setting it to a Prefader allows you to route that volume out through the Send BEFORE it gets to the normal outputs. In this case, I'm sending it out through my reverb track. Now that fader essentially lets me place that sound forward or back by sending more or less volume to the reverb. It sounds complicated, and I'll be honest that I don't completely understand it all myself yet, but it works and it sounds amazing. The difference is night and day. I'm using Space Designer from Apple for my reverb impulses and they have some great effects in there.

Space designer gives you great control over what the space sounds like that you're putting your instruments in.

Then Tim asked me if I've ever wanted to get more punch out of my sound and if things seem to just sound flat? I'm still a novice at mixing and mastering (the process of making the music sound good on all speakers) and is something I've struggled with for a long time and no one could really help me with, so I was so excited for him to help me with this. Normally all I ever do to my music is compress it. Music (especially orchestral music) has loud parts and quiet parts. Imagine looking at a mountain range over the horizon.

The loud parts are the peaks and the quiet parts are the valleys. Well you can only raise the volume to a certain point before your speakers start to crackle because they can't go any louder. It's called clipping. When you increase the volume, it raises everything, including the parts that are already loud. When you compress something, you are essentially lowering the loud stuff, and raising the quiet stuff, making more of a plateau.

The problem with this is you can lose a lot of what makes music great. The swells from quiet to loud aren't as pronounced and everything just feels...well, flat. I never knew how to fix this. Tim told me the trick was to use a multipressor.

A multipressor is a compressor, but for individual parts of your song. If you want to make the bass more punchy, you can target only low frequencies, or only mids or highs. After my meeting I went home and tried these things out and I couldn't believe the difference in how my music sounded. In one afternoon my sound had made a quantum leap. I immediately starting writing a new song to test out these new tricks. It's a work in progress and stops suddenly in the middle as I'm still writing, but I want to show you the difference. First will be the song with reverb, prefaders and multipressing. Then will be the song with those changes not included so you can hear the difference. Take a listen!

Now if you listen to the version without all the effects added, you will here how flat and digital it all sounds. It's amazing what these three simple tricks can do to a mix.

So even though I did not get this job with Tim, there was definitely a reason for my meeting him. It may in fact be because of him that I do get my next job.

The rest of that week was very quiet but last monday I was able to get my talk with Greg Smith, who does extensive work for Disney. What I thought was going to be a very short conversation due to his schedule ended up being close to two hours, and could be one of the most important phone calls I've ever had.

Greg and I were supposed to talk a couple week ago but he was so busy he had to reschedule. I was expecting him to only have a few minutes to talk but that was not the case. First he wanted to hear my story, so I told him about the limited music opportunities in CT and the fellowship, and then the choice to move here and what I've been doing. He was very impressed with what I've gotten done and said that I'm doing so much, especially for my age. He gave me advice on business and marketing myself, and explained to me how far attitude can take you, and he said I didn't have to worry about it. He told me that sometimes when people call him, he get's off the phone and says to himself that they won't get far, mostly because of their attitude. He said that he remembered that when he had to reschedule with me two weeks ago I responded by saying that I didn't want to inconvenience him so whenever was a good time for him. he said that meant a lot to him and that's what people look for. 

Greg had much the same story as me. He grew up in a small town in Ohio where there was little music to do. He moved to New York to start doing commercials and wasn't entirely happy with it, so he came to CA and got his start so he could relate to my story. He thinks I'm making the right choices right now and just need to be persistent and patient. He started asking me about my skills and if I can orchestrate, or write songs, or if I had dealt with live players before. He said that it seems I have a lot more experience than most people in my position because of the Fellowship and the projects I've taken on. He wanted me to send him some of my music to listen to and see how he can help after listening to it. I told him I would. Then he told me something that he didn't have to and I'm wondering why he did. He told me not to feel like he was hanging a carrot over my head, but that he's getting to the age where he can't pull all-nighters anymore, and he may in the near future be looking for someone to help him out. Needless to say that got me very excited. So we ended it there and he said he wanted to talk again after he got my music. That night I sent it his way so we'll see what comes of that.

I emailed Adam Berry this week like he asked. I haven't heard back yet, so I'm going to give it a week and email him again. He is my last lead, so I may have to look for a job in the meantime until I have another one. That's fine with me as it was always a possibility. But maybe this is the way it's supposed to happen. Maybe I'm supposed to not find anything at the moment because the thing I'm meant to find isn't ready yet. So now it's back to waiting for a little while, but I'm okay with that. I know that when something comes up, I'll be ready and waiting to jump on it right away. 

BMI and Bulk Emails

This week started out as a bit of a melancholy week for me. No new commercials came in this week so I didn't have anything to work on, and with no new leads for composers, I was pretty much playing the waiting game. But on friday I had my meeting with Lisa at BMI. I drove down to Hollywood to have coffee with her. Right off the bat she was so easy to talk to and it was such a comfortable conversation. She explained to me that the industry isn't the same even as it was 5 years ago. There used to be a clear way 'in'. Now things are so different. The industry unfortunately is now less about talent, and more about who can get what they want for the cheapest price. Lisa told me that the best way in is to be doing as much as possible, every way possible. The fellowship opened the first doors, but no one is going to do anything for me, so I need to find any way to get an email, a phone number or a meeting and see what sticks.

She had some really great advice for me. First off, she said that although the SCL (Society for Composers and Lyricists) is a wonderful organization where one can learn a lot, it is not the place to go if you're looking for a job. Too many people are doing that now that the composers who may offer jobs don't mention it at SCL meetings or gatherings, so that's out. One things Lisa did say was a great move is to go online and look at who composed most of the TV shows out there. Odds are the majority of the composers have a personal website for their music career. Some of those websites have contact information on them. She said I should email as many people as I can find, and make sure I drop Mike Post's name and see if anyone responds. She also agrees with Christian's assessment that I should also try to attach myself to directors and producers either in film school or in the same position as I am, because should any of them make it into the industry, I could be 'their' composer, thus launching my career as well as theirs. All great things to think about.

In addition to that, she said that meeting with her was a good move. The collective resources of BMI means that as a company, they know and have access to literally everyone. Although they don't hand out phone numbers and emails, she said I'm on their radar now. They know I'm looking and what I'm looking for. They get asked a lot for recommendations from composers who are looking for an assistant. Now that they know I'm looking, if someone is looking for an assistant with my qualifications, they can pass my information along.

Finally she told me that because of the way things are now, I can't be picky to start. If a composer needs an assistant, and they happen to be unpleasant, she said it's best to stick it out right now. Better to have someone who's only okay to work for than not having anyone to work for. That's not to say I've had any unpleasant experiences yet. Everyone I've spoken with so far have been great people so I'm excited to whoever I make work for.

Fully inspired after our talk, I did exactly what she recommended when I got home. I went online and made a list of all the TV shows that I could find where the composers information was listed and I emailed all of them. Close to 40 people. I did this on a saturday. On sunday, I already had one response from Tim Jones. Tim said he is in the market for a new studio assistant. He asked me to give him a call on monday to discuss it. I was one for one, and I was so happy to hear positive news from my search so soon. Come monday I had my phone meeting with Tim. He wanted to know a little about my background and about my time with Mike. He said his rig is wildly complicated (though he is trying to simplify it) and he needs someone who can do a lot of the technical work. I told him that I haven't worked with a wide range of software and hardware but everything I know is self taught and I pick up the tech stuff real fast. He said he was working on a bit of a tech crisis at the time and that I should speak to him next monday to set up an in person meeting. Sounds good to me!

Then Lauren and I had a dinner date with Brandon. I haven't seen him since the fellowship so it was great to meet up with him. We met at this fantastic place in Hermosa Beach which had a kind of Mystic, CT feel, so it was good to be in a place that felt a little familiar. He had just started up with Mike again on the new season of SVU. Once we got in to the topic of music, he was surprised to hear how much I've been doing and how many people I've been in touch with since I got here. And here I was thinking I wasn't doing enough. We spoke about loops and he mentioned before I even had a chance to say it that a lot of people think using loops is cheating, and I just have to get over that fact. Everyone uses loops (which doesn't necessarily make it OK) but when I get to a point where I can hire live players and collaborate and such, I'll need to use loops much less. But for now, I've got to do it. He also gave me tips on which software to get next in order of importance. I told him about my call with Tim and he said I could give him his email in case he wanted a recommendation from Mike Post Productions. He told me he'd help with anything I need, and it's such a safe feeling to know that someone in the industry has my back out here. After dinner Brandon showed us around the area and we took off, but we plan to hang again soon.

With Brandon's help, I managed to get my hands on a copy of Ableton Live, which is a great program for loops, and (for you techies out there) it comes with a feature called Rewire, which automatically finds other programs with Rewire and links the two programs together without the need for any complicated tech work. So Live detected Logic right away and I decided to do a loops test. I wrote this little test piece that is half loops and half my writing. It's not the kind of piece I'd write every day, but I only have so many loops right now so the styles I can write in are a bit limited at the moment. I'm pretty happy with this as my first foray into composing with loops.




As I write this, another lead has come in from my bulk email kick. Adam Berry has also gotten back to me and has asked that I speak to him in October. On top of that, Greg Smith has also gotten back to me to schedule our meeting for the week of the 26th. With all this good news and so many people getting back to me, I can't help but be optimistic. Looks like next week is shaping up to be quite the week.

Loops

I had my meeting at Hifi on tuesday. I met with Paul to discuss rock for commercials. He told me that the problem wasn't my writing, but the sound. He said 5 years ago,  everyone in the commercial business did what I did for my tracks. They would 'compose' all the played parts, like drums and guitar. Now that everything is so cheap, both in the recording and library music areas, advertisers are expecting more and more. Paul said that it doesn't matter how real your samples sound anymore. At the end of the day, a piano player can never play on a MIDI keyboard a guitar or drum set and have it sound as good and natural as a real guitarist or drummer. You could learn how to play those instruments (which Danny Lux did recommend to me), but that takes time and you can't use that skill until you're a good enough player. The only option left to us is loops.

What Paul told me is if I want to get picked for rock tracks, I need to use loops like they do. He said that because of the sheer number of commercials they get each month, he only puts his hands on the keyboard maybe twice a week, and the rest is loops. It allows him to move more quickly and create a better sounding track than if he had to make the loops himself. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, a loop is a recording (either of a sampled instrument in MIDI, or a live audio recording) of a very small line of music, or just a part of a line where the end of the recording connects with the beginning, so when played over and over, or looped, it sounds like the beat of the music is constant. Using many loops together allows you to create a song out of those loops. It's more like arranging than it is composing. Paul said I need to start my loop library because 80% of the commercials they get call for rock or pop influenced tracks.

The other thing that he told me was that I need to start buying virtual instruments from other manufacturers. The reason for this is an acoustical phenomenon that occurs when you only use instruments from the same maker. You get an overall sense of 'fakeness'. Like when you see something that is CG in a movie, and you can't see that it's CG, but you can sort of tell just by the nature of it. He said that it mostly had to do with the fact that even though the samples sound real, all the instruments were recorded the same way, and the programming done on the software to make them work is also the same, so you get an almost imperceptible feeling of fakeness. To combat this, simply get other instruments from other makers and use them all together, and it can make your piece feel much fuller.

At first after all this news I was a little discouraged that I'd be doing less composing and more arranging of loops, but then I thought about it a little. Doing the rock pieces for the Expedia spot was kind of stressful for me because it's a style that I'm not very interested in writing often. If 80% of all the commercials I get need rock, it could be a stressful job. But with loops, I can do it faster, and the fact is I don't have to use all loops. I can use a few for the things I can't make sound real enough and still compose other things into it, so it still sounds like me. Also, I know that when they do get something that needs composing, I'll be more of their go-to guy.

Armed with this new knowledge I bought a few inexpensive loops to get me started. It's tough to justify a purchase like this right now having just moved and not having steady income yet, but I figure if I didn't get them, I'd miss out of 8 of every 10 commercials that I get and lose that much potential income. Paul gave me a bunch of places to look for loops and I picked 3 that I thought would get me the most loops useful for commercials. They are Quirky Guitars, which are indy pop and rock loops, Crunch, a series of all styles of guitar loops and Indie/Post Rock Drums, a set of 440 drum beats. This should be enough to get me started, and then if some of my tracks get picked, I can expand my library and get sounds from other companies.

Other than that, Paul told me that the timeframe for hearing whether or not your track got picked varies quite a bit to the tune of next day to a few weeks. The tracks for the last Expedia one I did went in on Tuesday so they have their fingers crossed for me on that one. Other than that, not a lot of new commercials in right now. I have my meeting at BMI tomorrow and dinner with Brandon from Mike Post's sometime next week. With so much going on, something's gotta happen soon.

Expedia, A Reality Check, and More!

I'm still used to being in CT where things move slowly, so I have all this time in between posts, but that's not the case here. I need to get used to writing more often so I don't have these monster updates to write. So here's a monster update.

First things first, I met with Christian, Rupert's old assistant that I was hoping to replace if I had gotten the job. We met at this coffee shop in Santa Monica where apparently all the big movie people go to, because while I was waiting, the people sitting next to me were talking about their sound work on Captain America.  Christian is this really great guy and we talked for about an hour and a half. He had a lot of great things to say that made me feel great about making the choice to move out here. He said he also came from a tiny little town in Colorado and moved here with only enough money for live for a couple months. He only had one contact, and within two months he was lucky enough to get his job with Rupert. He did that for three and a half years and he left because he wanted to start doing his own composing. He did tell me (which was both a compliment and a little bittersweet) that the only reason I didn't get the job with Rupert was because I couldn't start the literal next day. That sucks a little bit, but it was a compliment enough to know that if I was there, I had the resume to get a big job like that. Christian did say that at Remote Control, every 3 to 6 months or sooner there is usually an opening for an assistant, so I should sit tight and keep my ear to the ground and he thinks I'll have a job soon enough. He also said he thinks a runner job at Remote Control might be a good idea because that way I'd be the first one to hear when an assistant job opens up. He also mentioned that in his opinion, TV is the best way to go to get started right now, because you do much more writing and there are more opportunities to become your own composer faster than in the film world. It's all stuff to think about. He said to keep in touch and that we can help each other out. It was a great meeting and it inspired me to be proactive. He said with the fellowship behind me and the number of contacts I have puts me way ahead of where he was, so made me feel pretty good.

I went home and started setting up more meetings. The first person I called was Greg Smith (gregorysmithmusic.com). Birgit recommended that I call him, as he does a lot for Disney. I spoke to him briefly because he was very busy, but he said he loves to help people out, so I am to email him in a week to set up a meeting. Then I called Robert Kral. I left a voicemail with him, so we'll see where that goes. My speaker stands came in, so I was able to finish my setup and now my composing station is complete (well all the pieces I own are installed. My workstation is nowhere near complete).

Still no word on the American Express commercial yet. I think that means that I didn't win that one, but oh well, I was given quite a few more to try my hand at. After American Express, I was given a commercial for Expedia. It called for an aggressive rock sound. Also, the commercial travels through a few different locations. One is a high class restaurant, the next a plane full of annoying kids and finally a ski resort. They wanted the composer to briefly allude to those locations. I did 3 tracks for them. Here's one of them.

Then I got a reality check. The next day I received an email from Hifi telling me that this music wasn't right, so I'd have to sit this commercial out. This was really the first time anyone had told me that my music wasn't right for something and I took it harder than expected. This is what I've needed and wanted to happen to me for a long time now, but it didn't make it any less difficult. There is an upside to this though. Paul told me that we'd meet up soon and he'll give me a lesson on rock for commercials. He said that there wasn't anything musically wrong with the tracks I sent, but I guess in the advertising world, there is almost a formula for how rock music should be written for commercials, and I just need to learn that formula. So next week I have my meeting with him to teach me that. So I was feeling a little down, and really wanted another commercial so I could redeem myself in my own head. Unfortunately what came next was a Starbucks commercial that called for an indie-pop sound. I did a bunch of watching of Starbucks commercials online to get an idea of what that sound was and tried it out. It was due the next day and I could only do one version.

Then the next Expedia commercial came in. When I first saw it, I was a little discouraged, but in the email, Birgit said this one was right up my alley. Her and Paul are starting to get a picture of what kind of composer I am, and it turns out it's right what they need. More on that in a bit. This new commercial needed to be sparse but quirky, using odd combinations of instruments and a bunch of metal (like the material, not the genre) sounds that really follow the video and tell a story. So I set to work and I came up with 3 versions.

I sent these in and held my breath. I got an email back the next day, and they loved them! Thats when Paul called me. He started by saying he and Birgit really want me to get this one. He gave me a couple notes which were so simple. He said the music was perfect so don't change anything there. Just switch some of the lines to different instruments to make it sound a bit more odd and I'm good to go. Then he told me why it's good that I'm working for them. He said most of the people there have rock backgrounds and started by playing guitar and then learned piano after. He said they kill the rock commercials and struggle on the ones that require a bit more composing. I'm the opposite. So now I think they know they can come to me when a commercial needs a composers hand, or a more traditional sound (and if not 'sound' like in the Expedia case, then at least in how it is written). Then the next day I got an email from Paul asking me to write a specifically different sounding piece for the same commercial. He said this client is prone to changing their mind a lot about what they want, so he wanted to have another option ready, and wanted me to be the one to do it. So that was great and it was fun writing in this style, as I have never done it before. So here's the fourth option for Expedia.




You'll notice on that one the '.com' singing at the end. So it's possible that that singing bit may be at the end, so I had to transpose my original 3 tracks into the key of that audio clip just in case the client wanted to add that to the end of one. Interesting stuff. Finally, two days ago I woke up to an emergency email from Birgit. Kind of a calling all composers kind of thing. She said they had been asked to do a Sears commercial, but needed to get a track to them within one hour of us getting the email. They were looking for a 'homey' rhythmic sound, mostly or all piano that had 3 distinct 'acts' in the song. There is no video to score to on this one. Sears wants to pick the song first, and then edit their footage to the song. With 40 minutes left to write, I got to work and came up with this.




Birgit was very impressed with my speed and liked the piece, so I have 2 more commercials out there with at least a shot of getting picked.

Okay, almost done! Next week I have my meeting on tuesday with Paul for my rock lesson. I also have my meeting with Greg Smith to see where that leads, and I also have a meeting at the BMI office in Hollywood to see if they can give me any career help. So interesting things coming up. Whew. I'll be better next time and keeping up with everything!