MUSIC for Videos

[ppatton]

Do You create your own music beds? and if so what software do you use?

paul

[RatVega]

If you have some musical ability and the time, there are a number of programs that allow you to create original music; two we have on Macs are Garage Band (part of iLife) and Soundtrack Pro (part of Final Cut Studio) and then for the heavyweights there's Logic 7. All are from Apple.

If you're like me and can barely play a stereo, there's SonicFire Pro which uses professionally produced royalty-free music with metadata hooks that allow you to tailor a large number of selections in a large number of styles to fit your productions. SonicFire is available on both PC and Mac, so it's pretty widely accepted.

[AndrewMSV]

Do You create your own music beds? and if so what software do you use?

paul

I have used Sonicfire Pro for a corporate project and it worked OK. I didn't LOVE it but I liked it enough. I also don't have any of the expansion packs... just the default music that comes with the basic package. I think the way it handles blocks of music isn't very good. It's too easy to accidentally slip a guitar lick off by 1/16 of a beat or less... and it's too hard to get it to snap back into place.
I'm used to working with Fruity Loops for some creating loops and the way they handle blocks of music keeps you from ever getting off synch.

[kirklandvideo]

Sony's new Cinescore program is probably worth a look as well.

Mostly I write my own music beds but when I'm too lazy, I use SonicFire Pro. You can browse online and purchase just the track you need so I can usually find something that'll fit and just pass the cost on to the client.

[D4rK F0CuS]

Do You create your own music beds? and if so what software do you use?
Don't need software. I bang 2 pots together for all my musical needs.

You guys make it sound like creating your own music is easy to do, but I'll have to disagree. Use of these canned music loops and scoring software is the sonic equivalent of using Rab-Byte graphics. In a coupla years, all these uses of music will be laughed upon.

I'd rather risk using copyrighted music or half-decent pre-scored free music. I guess corporate video one doesn't have a choice, eh?

[kirklandvideo]

No choice at all for corporate - The copyright owner can sue you and your client (and your client will probably sue you) for using illegal music - and for my corporate clients at least, their entire budget wouldn't cover the cost of using a popular song.

Writing your own music isn't easy but it's not all that hard either. I was a professional musician for 15 years so I've got a head start but I figure I could teach someone the principals of writing their own video score in under an hour.

Usually the issue is that it takes time to write music and unless your client has the budget for it, it's cheaper to just launch SonicFire pro and grab something from there.

[ringkingstudio]

I don't know if this fits into what you are talking about. But we have gone another route when we need music. Although it doesn't always work. We talk to indpendent bands that haven't been signed, and looking to get their music out. We talk and keep in touch with local bands and some bands on MySpace. It can be hit or miss like a lot of things but we have found it an inexpensive and sometimes free way to get good music. We just finished up with a inhouse/training/introduction video for an insurance company here in town, and used music from a local band that sounded and felt great for the video.

[ppatton]

I don't know if this fits into what you are talking about. But we have gone another route when we need music. Although it doesn't always work. We talk to indpendent bands that haven't been signed, and looking to get their music out. We talk and keep in touch with local bands and some bands on MySpace. It can be hit or miss like a lot of things but we have found it an inexpensive and sometimes free way to get good music. We just finished up with a inhouse/training/introduction video for an insurance company here in town, and used music from a local band that sounded and felt great for the video. I too have used this approach on a couple projects, but still need other music beds for different feels in projects. Mostly for my day job, where they want stuff produced but dont think about stuff like this, and don't provide much of a budget, if any. And as it is for corporate
adetising, and I know they won't take the heat if I use copyrighted stuff (which I refuse to do).

[RatVega]

To D4rK: They may laugh at SonicFire in a few years but probably not like they gag hearing another Shania Twain (every bride's "personal song") right now...

Kirkland has it right; there's no choice for corporate, the better the client/work the greater the probability of a law suit. Weddings are a different thing; it's still illegal but the distribution volumes are so tiny they slip under the radar.

It's true that for non-musicians (like me) scoring or anything resembling it is very difficult. On the other hand, many of us go to great pains for "the other HALF" of the movie... Anyone who doesn't think sound is half of a cinematic production is in denial. It's not an afterthought unless we make it that way.

I'm sitting here wondering why if I can see a cut in my head when I listen to a great song, why cant I hear a great song when I'm shooting a production? I assume this is a shortcoming for many of us. Maybe we need to elevate music if we want "complete" results. The second question that pops into my head is whether musucians rail on us about this the way we whine about photographers... :uhoh: