[a work in progress]
The topic met with great interest especially among the group of TV and film composers. In several surveys, young entrants and established composers, as well as emmy award winners or nominees, gave insights into the current working methods with virtual instruments and DAWs. Some TV and film composers agreed to further inquiries. Classical contemporary composers were involved only in small numbers.
Other results are from surveys and interviews with faculty members and tutors in the field of film scoring (film music schools, commercially-managed training institutions, individual specialized tutors).
In addition, there were surveys and interviews with developers of DAWs, notation programs, software instruments and other tools. Again, there was great interest in the topic; however, because of deadlines, international fairs, etc. unfortunately not always were the favorite contact available.
The evaluation of results is based on the workflow within the film music production. There is no given standard. Depending on the type of production, certain processes have proven successful. Three aspects almost always crop up: the collection of ideas, the preparation of mockups for coordination with the director, the main production phase after the determination of the cues. A possible scenario is described by the authors James Bellamy, Paul Thomson and Christian Henson.
Virtual instruments are most often used by TV, film or game music composers. With relatively little technical effort you can make music or sound to the moving picture today. The results, which often sound quite realistic, can then promptly be presented to a director or producer as mockups, and then produced in the studio, depending on the budget, or by the composers on their own. The use of software instruments in conjunction with DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) can help save time and save the budget. Almost all of the interviewed composers shed light on how limited the available time is and how well the production tools must be coordinated.
Stylistics and musical material were not assessed in this project.
Some participants attached importance to anonymity - quotes with attribution were authorized by the respective persons.
The information on this website requires basic knowledge on the following topics:
Film music production, composition and arrangement techniques, acoustics, instrumentation or orchestration, studio and recording technique.
Anyone producing music or sound for speakers must be familiar with the phenomenon of sound generation. Acoustics, studio and recording techniques are usually offered during training at schools for film music or equivalent institutions. There are also professional training opportunities for these topics on the open market. Self-made composers should definitely keep their hands off the trial & error method - you can hear the shortcomings!
"They use high-quality microphones, create ideal recording conditions and some productions sound like they were produced with a bad MIDI module from the 80s."
[Tutor & Studioleiter]
Film music is only part of the soundtrack: other elements that overlay film music are e.g. sound effects and dialog. The final sound is not decided by the film composer. It is not unusual for directors to intervene at a late stage of completion: carefully expressed - a process involving many stakeholders and variables.
During the creative work, composers do not want to be bound by certain rules.
Introduction:
The surveys showed that TV and film composers also prefer DAWs in this phase of film music production. Several manufacturers are working on the improved integration of notation software into DAWs, since many music makers do not want to go without the most perfect score possible. However, notation editors in DAWs are not favored by the interviewed TV and film composers. Who needs scores and parts, accesses the favored notation software, even if he has the double work. The import of scores from notation programs via MIDI or XML in DAWs is possible, but requires rework. In addition, the material for the further production is at most a start. In the future, it should be possible to import entire templates including virtual instruments in DAWs. Manufacturers pointed out in interviews that their products (DAW and notation software) are not only being developed for TV and film composers. The group of users is considerably larger and the wishes in the forums are immense.
Starter bundles: "full orchestra"
Prices: under 100 EUR
That may be enough for a demo. Some composers even favor such products for the first phaese of production.
Special packages to complete orchestral libraries
Pricese: about 200 EUR to...
Manufacturers offer products for various applications.
Extended orchestral libraries
Prices: partly over 10.000 EUR
Millions of samples with a great variety of articulation.
The sounds of high-level film composers
not available on the open market
Top film composers join together and develop their own libraries. The advantage for the composers - their sounds can only be heard in their productions. This is not a mass product.
Note: this is about the pure samples, as offered by the manufacturers. There is a wide range of sound libraries on the market, which have very different intentions, ranging from simple single instruments to very handy packages with common articulations to libraries with typical Hollywood sound or orchestral instruments recorded naturally on scoring stages, packages with extraordinary articulations towards the best possible recorded sounds. The surveys showed that the choice of individual instruments or entire libraries depends on the personal taste of the composer or the director. And taste can be argued!
Hummie Mann
Emmy-award winning composer, arranger and sought-after educator, 2017
More than half of the respondents first browsed their available sound libraries for suitable sounds for a specific situation. For instance, ready-made melodic lines with different sounds are often "tried and tested", rather than the other way round, a melody line being composed for a specially selected instrument. Lecturers in film scoring training then occasionally use the term "lack of imagination". There are also counterarguments, which say that you can just unexpectedly find the ideal sounds when browsing. Ultimately, it also depends on which libraries a composer has at his disposal and how much time he is planning to search for.
Video portals such as YouTube or Vimeo have a large number of tutorials on a wide variety of work processes during music production; including many helpful posts from users, but also videos of "self-proclaimed" specialists. The information content fluctuates very much! (Main) manufacturers offer their own channels with product videos, but also instructions for specific scenarios. Despite search function, it often takes some time to find usable material. Furthermore, learning platforms for film scoring, e.g. ThinkSpaceEducation offer numerous videos, tutorials and interviews in addition to their paid offers. There are also e-learning providers such as Lynda, who offer courses lasting several hours to work with specific products or deal with higher-level topics such as "editing and mixing". This offer is free for many universities. Otherwise you can inform yourself about the offer using a free trial access.
I create a separate track for each articulation (for example, legato | staccato | pizzicato, etc.) and play the music with the MIDI keyboard.
I play the music with the MIDI keyboard; I add keyswitches later in the MIDI Editor or Score Editor.
I play the music with the MIDI keyboard (real-time or step-by-step), with one hand playing the corresponding keyswitches.
I play the music with the MIDI keyboard and then edit articulations using Expression Maps in the MIDI Editor.
I play with the dominant articulation in real time and write a CC automation for the articulation changes in the instrument track | A mixture of different tracks, e.g. 1. long, 2. short and there via keyswitches between different articulations, I edit the music with the mouse | I play the music including articulation change and controller rides live as far as possible.
I play the music with the MIDI keyboard and then edit the articulations using Expression Maps in the Score Editor.
Keyswitches are used to "switch" between articulations. Not all respondents favored the simultaneous input of keyswitches when playing the music. For this purpose, various reasons have been mentioned, e.g. also had to do with the size of the input device or position and division of keyswitches. It was also often criticized that the key assignment is very different, sometimes even within the same library. Some respondents wanted flexible keyboard layout. When working with keyswitches, the subsequent input by keyboard or mouse was preferred by the respective respondents.
from the perspective of composers, instructors and producers
The polls listed more points of criticism than positive reviews.
This says nothing about the frequency of use in practice.
Manufacturers invest a lot of money in the production of their samples. They offer music creators a source material that can be used both in its original form, but also in modified form through the use of the corresponding players. Depending on the player architecture or other attached tools, the behavior of the sounds can be influenced via MIDI controllers - "in the extreme case beyond recognition".
A studio director wrote that using the virtual instruments is not a problematic affair. The danger is that it is often believed that the mere use of virtual instruments can replace musical skills, knowledge and sensitivity. It is not so!
It was also criticized by studio technicians that, unfortunately, much too often without proper technical knowledge, the elaborately produced sounds are manipulated.
The difficulty in the production is due to the general sound behavior of instruments: the shorter the sound information, the more realistic is the result is. But this is different with longer sounds or sound surfaces: reasons for this are e.g. variable behavior of the dynamics, subtle changes in the vibrato, etc. Here you can see the advantages of the DAWs. The production process becomes more time-consuming the slower and more fluctuating the music is, and the more exposed e.g. strings are especially in the solo section.
"If you want to make music as close to reality as possible with samples, you need to be familiar with the musical instruments used, and my recommendation is to attend at least one lesson each for a string, woodwind and brass player. The professional musician should demonstrate the most important articulations and should talk about the difficulties. At least that's how you learn that a real violin can not play a looped [material] [or] that wind instruments can not play an infinite legato without breathing." [Studio Manager]
It is not without reason that sample producers like to present demos with impressive music, for example to action scenes, drama or fantasy. Such (often elaborately produced) demos are often used as a basis for own projects - which is not reprehensible at first. However, it is quite noticeable that you get to hear certain orchestrations over and over again in slight modifications. Not quite innocent of these stereotypes are also bundles with ready-made sequences for strings, winds or percussion, which slow down any creativity and exhaust their possibilities soon. For learning or for beginners, these products are helpful - rather not for professionals.
If you master it, of course you can do it. Only then the sound does become individual. No composer has to justify why he overlays his string samples with synthetic sounds.
However, if one tries to imitate the sound of a classical symphony orchestra, it would certainly make sense to orientate oneself to its sound aesthetics.
And the expert will perhaps smile when during a fortissimo tutti suddenly string harmonics have the same intensity as trumpets - this is only possible in the virtual orchestra.