dannthr

Treat your virtual instruments like human players. Visualize the orchestral setting. Here is a really old example, but one I've used before: http://www.dannthr.com/samples/sketches/dho2cm_i_nf_3.mp3 In this little excerpt, there is a flute solo. After the intro, when the orch dies down, I visualize a situation where the conductor is has brought his hands in to conduct the small beat rhythm while watching attentively for the flute solo entrance. I imagine that the conductor is following the floutist and the rest of the orchestra (especially the bass pizz) is watching the conductor for their cue. This results in a delay from the beginning of the flute solo and the beginning of the rest of the ensemble. In the beginning of the solo, the flute is really not on tempo (partly, I imagine due to the nerves of the player during the solo, getting slightly lost in the melody, etc--use psychology) but when the rest of the ensemble starts joining, the players get more syncronised as they have more information about their cues. Finally, when the climax comes, everyone is together. Humanization means making them human, and that process starts in your mind.

Yeah, Alicia's Keys was developed by Scarbee, a rock solid sample library developer who has recently partnered with NI to port all their libraries (bass guitar and electric keys) to the Kontakt Player. Alicia's Keys is sampled off of a custom built Yamaha Grand C-9 (very few of them around) and has a distinct sound to it. If you like Yamaha C grands, go for it (I actually really don't like the Yamaha C grands, I always feel like their tone is real bright and catered toward pop and bright jazz music--but that's just my opinion--my girlfriend loves that crisp Yamaha C sound). Alternatives to Alicia's Keys would be QL Pianos which has a sampled Yamaha C7 and Synthogy's Ivory Grand Pianos which has a sampled Yamaha C7 (the C7 to me sounds pretty similar to Alicia's C9--though there are variances--and both have that crisp, ear-popping tone that makes Yamaha grands perfect for pop/rock music where the piano has to really stand out in a loud setting). All things being equal (and based purely on the demos), I would probably pick QL Pianos (personally), as I prefer their Yamaha C7 to both the Ivory and the Alicia's Keys. But all things are not equal and I have many issues with PLAY. Still, make no mistake, Scarbee is an EXCELLENT developer and frequently teams up with one of the worlds best Kontakt programmers (Nils Liberg) on his products. So, I wouldn't hesitate on this buy based on the name branding--just be clear that it's actually Alicia Keys' personal custom Yamaha C9 that is sampled.

Tonehammer has Ethnic Vox: http://www.tonehammer.com/?page_id=1663 Samplemodeling has Trumpet and Sax (and soon Tbone): http://www.samplemodeling.com/en/products.php Precisionsound has a ton of small varied libraries (not great libraries, but they all serve their purposes): http://www.store.precisionsound.net/ Lyricaldistortion has a ton of tiny but useful guitar libraries (if you use them right): http://www.lyricaldistortion.com/store/ Orangetree Samples has GREAT guitar and bass samples: http://www.orangetreesamples.com/ Finally, there are several STORES where you can browse 3rd party Kontakt instruments to find your flavor: Big Fish Audio Best Service etc, etc, etc, etc

How much time do you got? This is something you spend your whole life getting better at and if you think for one second that you're as good as it gets, you're either wrong or severely challenged. Music is a pursuit, every different element that goes into creating that can take a lifetime to master. How much money do you got? This is also something you will never cease to do, there is no end to the development of technology and the production equipment and software costs are more like... a rolling expense for professionals. There is no first, these are skills that you will spend a long time developing, the important thing to understand is that when you're beginning/starting out, you need to separate the development of these skills so that you can understand your strengths and weaknesses and where to go next without being distracted by the other process (or, in fact, being held back by the other process). More vital is the ability to dissect a song into its parts to understand how the production or arrangement process came together for that particular track. You should be able to listen to a track and separate all the parts (whether it be instruments, or melody, or motifs, or production techniques applied) and analyze their usage in context. Listening should be an analytical skill. Yup. More importantly, you must have the attitude that you are going to engage the whole craft with the intention of learning (whether you're in school or not, with a tutor or teacher or not). One of the greatest distinctions between an amateur and a professional is attitude. Professionals push on when it gets hard or time-consuming, amateurs do not. A beginner might not quit entirely, but they might just stop for a while or do it when they're bored or when they feel inspired. Other than explaining that particular perspective, I don't know how such a statistic could be measured. Music production/composition, especially for games, is a full throttle enterprise--you really have to be willing to dive into it with full guns blazing with a willingness and fortitude to stick it out when the shit hits the fan because it will.

"they're?" The library that ships with Kontakt is pretty lack-luster compared to what is available for Kontakt. But if you're saying that all Kontakt libraries are not "the best around" then I'm not sure exactly what KIND of libraries you're refering to as I would say there are several libraries which could be counted as among the best if not THE best for what they do which are available only for Kontakt.

Maybe not the libraries that come with Kontakt, but there are libraries FOR Kontakt that are just spectacular and available exclusively to people who own the Kontakt sampling software.

Kontakt is a minimum requirement these days if you're going to do any professional (or professional-grade) work, in my opinion. The organs are actually pretty snazzy and there's an incredible variety of 3rd party libraries (including Zircon's) available ONLY to people with the Kontakt sampler software.

Akoustic Piano is available under a new name in the NI sampled instrument store.

I own this card because it's the cheapest card with a S/PDIF.

Fixed. Anyway, that warm, intimate piano sound is only possible when playing at low velocities. I think PLAY has a velocity range adjustment so you can keep them low at all times, otherwise, I know that my DAW has a velocity trim which will add or subtract from the original performance velocities--otherwise, buck it up and hand edit those bad boys yourself. EDIT: Play also might have a mute pedal input, not sure, that's how you'd get that with a real piano. Reverb and EQ are important too. Save your settings when you get it right.

gamedev.net indiegamer.com

It's all subjective with each job--going into the job you can't necessarily know what you'll be responsible for (you might have an idea though), so like exercise or eating your veggies, look into everything. It only makes getting a job EASIER, which I think everyone can appreciate in this highly competitive industry. If you go back to my post I say something like "Be a jack of all trades and a master of ONE." Learn as much as you can, but be good at that one thing that will get you noticed.

They can. The realm of responsibilities for a sound person in games is pretty broad and varied and may or may not include the following: * Provide Sound or Music Concept or Prototype Work * Compose Music * Sequence Existing Music * Edit Existing Music * Mix/Master Existing Music * Orchestrate or Arrange Existing Music * Provide Copywork or Clerical Prep for Recording Sessions * Provide Sound Design (including Foley, Synthesis, and Field Recording) * Design an Audio Engine * Provide Instrumental Performance * Arrange Contracts for Outsourced Services and Cast External Talent * Direct Instrumental/Voice Recording Sessions * Provide Voice Acting * Make Purchasing Decisions * Manage a Team * Coordinate Inter-Departmental Communications * Coordinate External-Departmental Communications * Prepare Presentations * Author the Audio Design Document * Maintain Departmental Sound and Music Library When I was Audio Lead with WAISoft, my responsibilities were more like this: * Provide Sound or Music Concept or Prototype Work * Compose Music * Provide Sound Design (including Foley, Synthesis, and Field Recording) * Design an Audio Engine (in concert with Audio Programmer) * Provide Instrumental Performance * Make Purchasing Recommendations * Coordinate Inter-Departmental Communications * Coordinate External-Departmental Communications * Prepare Presentations * Author the Audio Design Document * Maintain Departmental Sound and Music Library When I was Contract Composer with WAISoft, my responsibilities were more like this: * Provide Sound or Music Concept or Prototype Work * Compose Music * Orchestrate or Arrange Existing Music * Provide Copywork or Clerical Prep for Recording Sessions * Arrange Contracts for Outsourced Services and Cast External Talent * Direct Instrumental/Voice Recording Sessions As Arranger/Producer under contract with LucasArts, my responsibilities are more like this: * Sequence Existing Music * Edit Existing Music * Mix/Master Existing Music * Orchestrate or Arrange Existing Music * Provide Copywork or Clerical Prep for Recording Sessions I've definitely had indie gigs where my responsibilities were limited to one or two of those list items. How remote you are or how high-up you are on the development chain usually dictates your level of interaction with the producers, the programmers, the designers, and other members of the audio team. It also usually dictates how involved you are in the design and implementation of the audio engine. But my previous digressing post, "Understand the Job," was meant to encourage you to understand audio design and implementation, even if you can't do it yourself, for the purpose of making yourself desirable to a potential client or employer.

The tools I'm describing are not designed for programmers as there is no actual coding involved, these tools are designed for composers, sound designers, and audio implementers. Sometimes that's you, sometimes it's not.

No, these engines are not just for programmers, to be more accurate, you have to understand audio implementation and engine design. FMOD and Wwise, for example, both have designer oriented tools--like one half is design oriented and one half is the programming API. Knowing the designer side will take you pretty far.

GREAT QUESTION! Unfortunately, the tech is as such that any really good book is probably going to be outdated pretty darn quick. Best thing for the moment is to actually google these technologies, to go to the websites for them, and actually download the program (most are free for academic use) and read their tutorials and documentation. If there is a school teaching FMOD and Wwise, great, if there is a school teaching UDK, great! Go, if you can, but if you can't, you have to take it upon yourself to go to the next step--and honestly, game companies KNOW this. They know how hard it is to get into this cutting-edge technology and they respect people who can sit there and teach themselves something without anyone else making themselves. It means it's going to be easier to train you on existing engines or even on proprietary engines. It means that you are intelligent, a self-starter, a fast-learner, etc, etc, etc. All the things you want to put on your resume when you're going for a job, learning this stuff SHOWS you mean it.

Yeah, and if you're a composer writing music for games, you're not writing music for games that are going to license existing popular music. So if the goal is to write dance/pop that hits the radio top 40 with the hope of licensing your music for a game, then you don't want to be a composer writing "original music for new games." If you want to write original dance/pop music for new racing games, then there is still a lot you need to know about music and games before you can become successful at that. So you can't say that "game music" doesn't exist, and I understand what you're trying to say, so I want to say you're sorta right, but really, you're sorta wrong. There is actually such a thing as game music, not as a separate genre, but as music designed and intended for the specific medium of games. What kind of music you write for games is completely subjective to your own personal tastes and skills. Though, getting full time work as a composer in any studio, you will want to have some experience with almost any genre or style. The more you can flex, the faster you'll get hired.

Sorta true, and sorta not true. Because games are, so long as we can all remember, an interactive art--as such there's more to music and making music for games than simply writing a Top 40 Pop Song. There's also another key element in the video game arena that film doesn't really deal with and that's platform related. A buddy of mine scored a whole DS game with Reason and some custom samples. He didn't need a great computer, of course, because he wrote music designed to be played on the NDS. Additionally, I appreciate the wish/drive/desire/or whatever you want to call it to write specifically for this interactive medium, because I share that drive, there's something exciting about creating interactive music (to me at least) that goes beyond the nostalgia of my youth. So Yoozer is sorta right and sorta not right. And if you're impressed by Mike's video, and you want a setup like that, well, he's got a pretty beefy setup going on there and there isn't a laptop in the world right now that can do what he's doing. (I said right now) That being said, you will get more bang for your buck with a desktop. I'm using two desktops that I built with my own two hands and they've provided me with a lot of bang over the years for some very light buck, so to speak (at least in my opinion). First step: Become a good composer. You will never stop becoming a better composer (hopefully) and for all of us it's a journey that is frustrating and satisfying all at once. But there are a LOT of people wanting to work in games, you're not the only one, and so being a good composer is what it takes just to sit down at the table. When I go to GDC, and I go every year, I meet at least a dozen new and good composers all trying to break-in, it can be intimidating, but you just have to see it as playful competition. So the first step is to become good and to never stop becoming better. Second step: Become a great producer. No matter how good you are at composing, you can't ante in until you sound like a pro. This becomes a frustrating barrier when starting out because unlike any other game discipline, there is an incredible commitment required from composers and sound designers as far as initial investment. And yeah, that means you'll probably be spending some serious part-time dough on trying to make sure you sound like a pro. So threads like this where you're trying to figure out what gear you need are important. Learn as much as you can, but don't be satisfied by just asking folks on a forum, really search. Third step: Understand the job/work. You can sound like a champ, but if you're asked to deliver assets for a game, you gotta understand the technology you're dealing with. With a game in-development, you have to be able to ask the right questions not just of the developers or of the studio but of yourself. If the music is interactive, is there an audio engine being employed? Do you know what FMOD, Wwise, and XACT are? Do you know the best way to get a seemless loop? Do you know how to create one? Can you write parallel stems of the same cue that the audio engine will fade between to indicate when the player is fighting and when the player is eating bananas? No one is going to hire you if you can't do the job. My opinionated oft reiterated advice (for myself as much as anyone else): Be a jack of all trades and a master of ONE. You will need to negotiate a landscape of multiple disciplines and game styles. Be comfortable doing almost anything music related and be comfortable at least discussing almost anything related to game development whether it be programming, art, modeling, design, etc. But, be VERY good at at least one thing, so good, in fact, that peers in game audio will admire your ability (or commend it, at least). Be known. When a company wants to hire a composer, only team projects and companies that pay bottom dollar go fishing for composers, everyone else asks themselves "who do we know?" Your job is to be known. Not just to be known, but to be known for the better. Be ready when opportunity knocks. Knowing when you're ready isn't always obvious. However, you must understand what is involved in creating music for games, for implementing music in games, etc. Ask yourself, in all seriousness, how big a project can you really handle? Continue to ask yourself this question. I think it's good to get experience with non-commercial endeavors to push yourself--to impose demands on yourself that you wouldn't normally, since that is certain to happen in a professional situation. At the same time, spend a lot of time with personal projects to develop and hone skills related to YOUR interests in music for games. When you're good at that one thing, opportunity will be more likely to knock, when you're known for being awesome at that one thing, opportunity will be even more likely to knock. There is, of course, no formula for opportunity--simply that you must be open to it knocking at any time. It will likely catch you by surprise.

Hey Ray. Can I just ask you, what are your end goals here? What are you trying to achieve overall? Do you want to do remixes like most people here? And just rearrange existing game music? Do you want to write original music for new games? Just trying to get a feel for what you're building toward.

You have to use the Wordbuilder Multis, but you're only doing one voice with each multi.

Are you sure wordbuilder is updated? There are updates to wordbuilder itself, kompakt, and I think actual sample updates as well for choirs. Check out the soundsonline service center. I run Wordbuilder on a 32-bit machine, but I do run Kontakt on a separate 64-bit machine, but it wasn't always 64-bit (also my 64-bit machine only has 4GB of RAM). When using wordbuilder, I typically run each group separate, though with Kontakt, it's usually Men and Women. I run them separate from eachother and separate from the rest of the orchestra. For example, in this piece: http://www.dannthr.com/temp/Dan_Reynolds_-_Operation_Iron_Phoenix.mp3 The male choir at the bridge of the piece is a completely different Kontakt multi file entirely PM me your AIM or MSN address, man, if you want to talk choirs.

Being able to listen to a piece and break down its parts in an analytical light is highly important. Whether you're listening to a 4 piece rock-band or an 80 piece orchestra, you need to be able to dissect the music by listening to it. I suggested watching it to help you cue in on which instruments are doing what when.

Here you go: http://www.korg.com/product.aspx?pd=289 Record at 1 bit-depth, better than analog. Cheers,

Hm, I might not be as helpful as you'd like. I've tooled around with some Jazz theory books when I was first starting out playing piano in high school, but quite frankly, you can read 'til your eyes bleed and it won't necessarily teach you what you need to know. My recommendation, man, is to hit up some Jazz standards books, anything you read bout 20th century orchestration will apply nicely in Jazz or Jazz-fusion contexts, so really all you need to get used to is the Jazz harmonies. Then watch some youtube videos of 40s/50s big bands--seriously.

Hm. So... well... I'm not sure, I'm not using Win7, my slave computer, which is hosting my choirs, is using Win XP64. This is a bit of a hack, BUT, Kompakt is not a 64bit program, so I'm guessing that's why? One of the things I've done, which like I said, is pretty hacky, is use a program called LaaTiDo on Kontakt (or in your case Kompakt)--the program remains 32 bit, however, it will have Large Address Awareness which means it can see it's full 2^32 bytes (approx 4GB) instead of ... what is it something like 2.5 or some crap. Give that a shot, got nuffin' to lose! http://www.musikbanken.se/TechLaaTiDo.aspx