My Entry to MSF Music Competition - The Power Of Small

Here is my original entry to a music contest hosted by MSF, Doctors Without Borders, a charity pledging to help needy countries all over the world.

Please like the YouTube video to vote for the piece, if you like what you hear.

My soundtrack aims to be uplifting, with rising and falling dynamics matching to the timing and cue of the visual material.

It starts small, with a single piano, then builds up to a full band (a drum kit, bass, guitar, and some voices). At the end it goes back to a quieter and reflective tone, that urges the viewer to consider the implication of how a small giving can enable and empower MSF to reach out and help the needy.

You can check out the original competition site here: http://www.msf.org.uk/power-small-music-competition

How to Create Width, Height and Depth in a Mix

The Pro Audio Files

http://theproaudiofiles.com/width-height-depth-in-a-mix

This is a  great article about how to manipulate your audio content to create the perception of depth, width and height in a mix. This article is written by Matthew Weiss, a mixing and recording specialist based in New York and Philadelphia

I like the way Matthew breaks down width, depth and height and tells us how each of these are perceived. Once we know what governs our perception, he then tells us what we can do to accentuate or even exaggerate it in our mixes if we so choose to.

I enjoyed reading this and I hope you pick up a thing or two also.

Behind the Scenes of Disney's Frozen

Great to be able to witness part of the workflow, and amazing team of many people working in collaboration to make this movie happen.

The featurette begins with the voice actors recording their lines,
then at 7:00 we see some kind of dailies for the visuals.
At 8:15 we see 3D artists actually working with the poses and rigs in Maya.
At 10:13 we are shown the choir recording their parts.
At 11:58 we finally see the orchestra recording the cues.

This is really good stuff!

Grey Moments - Co_02c_FilmScore_TheViolin_V001_003

Here's a moody piece for a rainy day. This is for one of my online assignments, where I attempt to write expressively for just the string section, using a solo violin as the lead instrument.

The brief included words like, 'beautiful', 'haunting', 'world war 2 era', 'hopes', 'dreams'. I hope I managed to capture some of those in my track :)

Written in 3 days, programmed in Sonar X3. Since I read up on the assignment, I began to think about how the track would sound, in my mind, maybe about 3 days before. Therefore the song could have taken about 6 days. Along the way, I had 2 earlier ideas which I abandoned as the piece progressed.

On this piece, once I came up with the beginning of the melody, the track sort of shaped itself. It was coming up with that initial line that was hard.

The key of the song changed from F# Minor to B Minor almost without me noticing. I would be quite concerned over changing of keys in the past, because back then I felt like a key change would have to be intentional, with good reason. I feel I am going at it from a different angle now. We'll see where that takes me.

The time signature is set in 6/8 time. There are two places in the music where retard of tempo takes place. I still don't know how to handle that, whether to slip in a bar of 3/8 or to keep to 6/8 with a slowed down timing. I chose to go with the latter. Still do not know if it is the best way to do this. :)

I hope you like this piece. Do give me your feedback :)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Production Diary 14

Here's an excellent look behind the scenes of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Production Diary 14.

This installment of the production diary takes a look at the music and musicians behind the production of the larger-than-life soundtrack that sets the mood for the whole realm in the story.



I have just watched the film, it is awesome. Can't wait for the next one!

Enrolled myself into Thinkspace

I've very recently enrolled myself with ThinkSpace Online. So now I'm officially a music student! :)

I signed up for Cinematic Orchestration and Music for the Media.

ThinkSpace Online is an online learning organisation that offers quite a few courses for music composing students of different levels and backgrounds. The trainers and mentors are all working composers and that is what makes it so practical.

There are some sample material that lets prospective students experience how the course is structured and what to expect once he/she is enrolled into the curriculum.

After I requested an sample of the course material, ThinkSpace staff Dan Stearn had some correspondeance with me via email. I love the fact that he tries to find out about my background, and what I actually need in my musical journey as a composer, and suggested relevant courses that would value add what I already have.

Dan is very honest and supportive. I originally wanted to enroll only in Music for the Media, but Dan suggested Cinematic Orchestration too, since he finds that it would bring my orchestral arrangement to the next level.

Having signed up with them on the courses, I can say that I really appreciate their course resources on the topics of study.

For Music for the Media, They have audio and video interviews with working composers, who talk about their jobs, what it is they deal with day-in and day-out. Students are also exposed to hearing from clients, what they require from composers and what kinds of composers and attitudes they like.

For Cinematic Orchestration, it caters to orchestral writing for live players and how to create realistic orchestrations even for sample libraries. A huge part of the course material explores the difference between the two, approaches (live players versus writing with samples), so students are aware of how to handle the job at hand depending on whether it is live players performing the composition or whether the idea is going to be orchestrated in a midi-mockup. There are numerous interviews with composers talking about writing for each part of the orchestra, what they can easily achieve, and what is impractical for the musicians.

All in all the courses are loaded with information and I would say well worth the money.

I would definitely recommend any aspiring composers of all levels to consider ThinkSpace Online.

Free Shaker Virtual Instrument from Samplephonics

Samplephonics presents the community of electronic musicians and music producers with a FREE sampled shaker virtual instrument.

This free shaker percussion loops and samples is part of a bigger sample pack from Samplephonics called, 'Electroacoustic Shaker Percussion', which is going for only £9.70.

This free sample download comes with 10 free samples, all in 24-bit audio resolution.
Check it out and download it Here!

Do check it out, with all their other available products as well!