National Department of Imaginary Film Cues

[László]

Love my PRSes and pop styles, however, my first love is scoring to picture.

I decided over the holiday break that I'd assemble some new orchestral templates for my scoring work, as I'd been using the same stuff for years. I needed a change.

Of course, the only way to know how it works is to shut up and make some damn music!

I decided to create some imaginary film cues. I'm gettin' pretty happy with the combination of instruments I'm sorting out.

This one is titled Tension. All that's needed is to add a little imagination, i.e., the film action that would fit this cue.

https://soundcloud.com/lschefman/tension

 

[Tucson Thump]

Christopher Walken explaining to some poor unfortunate soul that they've suddenly mentioned something they shouldn't know.

 

[Tony M.]

Thanks a whole bunch for that.
Now I have to spend the rest of the day looking over my shoulder...

 

[Black Plaid]

Great! Now I'm all tense!

This is definitely a dark scene, like, a lone pair of survivors in a post-apocalyptic city trying to sneak by hordes of zombies after having retrieved an object of power critical to the plot!

 

[dmatthews]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Closes eyes...
Is it still there?

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Nice one Les, for some reason I’m now 8ft tall, in blue and I live in the roots of a giant tree!

 

[László]

Haha! Great imaginary scenes! I was kind of thinking “hiding tension scene,” where the protagonist is being hunted down by the Bad Whomevers. So in this scene, he/she is hiding in an alley or bush or something while the bad folks search. Of course, they search badly, or the movie would be over, so there’s that.

Meantime, I’m kind of digging the orchestral palette I’ve ‘curated’ (gosh that sounds pretentious, but it’s taken many years to find the right stuff).

The instruments are high strings and piano lavished with reverb and delay, low strings and brass for some growls and bite, some very volume-responsive tympani and orchestral percussion (the layers of the tympani samples are programmed to change using the mod wheel on my controller, so the timbre changes along with the volume), and my Prophet 12 synth to add some syrup here and there.

The orchestral elements are all from different sample libraries, sort of a “best I’ve found of this instrument” collection.

The hard thing for me is to decide in advance what kind of orchestral template I want to set up in my DAW (Logic). If I load up too many note articulations, my computer gets loaded down, but if I don’t load enough, my creativity is loaded down as I search for the right instrument and the right sound and articulation (do I want con sordino? Maybe a no vibrato note played very softly instead? Etc.).

Anyway, this is all fun and interesting stuff, if you’re into it.

 

[toothace]

This is really sweet Les! Keep that mind working and send us some more!!

 

[Black Plaid]

If I load up too many note articulations, my computer gets loaded down

I hear Apple has a new computer for professionals that should alleviate that issue somewhat.

You will have to put off buying a few Core PRSi for it though...

 

[László]

I hear Apple has a new computer for professionals that should alleviate that issue somewhat.

You will have to put off buying a few Core PRSi for it though...

Or I could add a Mac Mini to my system, and run instruments on it via Ethernet using Vienna Ensemble software.

However, I think a big bottleneck with my orchestral libraries is that I run them all from a single RAID disk that was bought for the purpose. I think the disk starts getting cranky when it’s running 20 different orchestral instruments at once.

I have many more libraries now than I did when I bought it, and they just keep getting larger and more complex.

What I plan to do this coming week is explore getting a couple of solid state drives to run the larger libraries. If the rig is still subject to slowdowns, I’ll have to get one of the new Pro models, either the iMac Pro or the Mac Pro.

I don’t mind spending money on a fast machine I’ll get 5-6 years out of.

 

[Black Plaid]

Or I could add a Mac Mini to my system, and run instruments on it via Ethernet using Vienna Ensemble software.

However, I think a big bottleneck with my orchestral libraries is that I run them all from a single RAID disk that was bought for the purpose. I think the disk starts getting cranky when it’s running 20 different orchestral instruments at once.

I have many more libraries now than I did when I bought it, and they just keep getting larger and more complex.

What I plan to do this coming week is explore getting a couple of solid state drives to run the larger libraries. If the rig is still subject to slowdowns, I’ll have to get one of the new Pro models, either the iMac Pro or the Mac Pro.

I don’t mind spending money on a fast machine I’ll get 5-6 years out of.

I was only really half joking, for someone who's livelihood relies on needing that much power, it totally makes sense to invest the 10-20k on a machine like that.

For me, not so much, work provides a machine that's got a ton of IT malware on it due to security concerns, so no chance of me getting one of the new Mac Pros.

That new monitor tho ... my future may see me with one of those to stare at for 8 hrs/day...

 

[Jo-]

That was downright creepy. *shudders*

 

[László]

That new monitor tho ... my future may see me with one of those to stare at for 8 hrs/day...

That monitor is awesome!

in truth, the base model Mac Pro just needs a little more RAM to run my libraries, But if I’m honest with myself, an iMac Pro would also be absolutely great and more than meet my requirements.

I actually kinda like the all-in-one thing now; In 2014 I replaced a Mac Pro with an i7 iMac, and it’s been great. I thought it’d be a placeholder until they sorted out some problems with the Apollo not working with the trash can model at the time, but I was shocked by how powerful it is, and I love using it!

However, recent libraries and soft synths are starting to want a bit more horsepower. So it’s time to do some looking at options.

 

[Boogie]

The iMac Pro models fill a gap at a price mark that makes a lot of sense. And, it comes with a free display!

 

[Wakester]

That was pretty cool, sounded like something from the opening scenes of Criminal Minds, where the camera slowly pans around the blood spattered room, to find the antagonist wiping down a hacksaw and other instruments of extreme torture. No remorse on his face, just a single drop of blood on his cheek, that he wipes off with a gloved finger.

 

[Going Modal]

Sometimes I've gotta stop & remember that there's (A) a bunch of people fussing, obsessing, and whining about gear on the internet forums [myself included!], and then there's (B) people actually practicing, playing, sweating, grinding it out, and constructing artful pieces of music that move us. Thanks for reminding me about B again, Les!

 

[pac90]

Nice, it sounds like you

 

[alantig]

You could warn a brother before you post porn music! I wouldn’t have listened to it where I did. Not I have to find a new grocery store.

Seriously, nice job Les.

 

[CandidPicker]

Mel Brooks in the phone booth.

 

[Black Plaid]

That monitor is awesome!

in truth, the base model Mac Pro just needs a little more RAM to run my libraries, But if I’m honest with myself, an iMac Pro would also be absolutely great and more than meet my requirements.

I actually kinda like the all-in-one thing now; In 2014 I replaced a Mac Pro with an i7 iMac, and it’s been great. I thought it’d be a placeholder until they sorted out some problems with the Apollo not working with the trash can model at the time, but I was shocked by how powerful it is, and I love using it!

However, recent libraries and soft synths are starting to want a bit more horsepower. So it’s time to do some looking at options.

Gotta agree on the iMac Pro, that's probably the best value proposition, and you get an amazing screen attached.

I have a cylinder (aka trash can) Mac, and it never really got as much use as I thought it would. It's likely destined to be turned into a media hub. At least it will look nice in the living room!