Musings from a Matchbox

In this week, we reviewed the current state of our work on music for commercials. Among them were some fairly good results. Julio took us through how to develop a simple melody into something more professional. It started with a simple line of notes, creating a melody. Then you can add octaves and other intervals to make it more interesting. After this process of adding to a single melody, you then begin to expand that melody into several different instruments, for example, putting the main tune on a piano or violin, and having a string quartet accompany it with the rest of the harmonic accompanying lines.

Due to unforeseen consequences, apparently involving a bicycle, Gareth was unable to give this week’s lecture. We discussed with Tom Hall many subjects including microphone frequency responses, the polar patterns of different microphones and which situations would be best suited to which microphone. I also read the brief on the next task, Stereo Mic Technique.

This week, we started Task 3 – Sound for Advertisements.

What we saw were some examples of Julio’s previous work done for Greek TV channel, Mega, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. We discussed methods of composition, where the general theory is that once you have a melody composed, the composition will come together more securely. Also discussed was strategies for success in the real world of ‘jingle-making’, how companies will use terms like ‘not happy enough’ and ‘needs more bounce’ as a way of describing your work, and that we should create many versions of the same work to present to a client, to get a clearer picture of what is required.

We also learned that there is a specific structure to the advert breaks between programs, and that there are different types of advert: stings, promos, and next-ons.

We also tried our hand at composing a short piece for a channel ID of aforementioned Mega, as practice for doing the task.

I have chosen an advert from Dell for my task. In the video, many old computers are being destroyed in a variety of ways, and then a ‘beautiful’ new Dell rises up out of them. For this, I am torn between a number of different styles of music. One is a cool, chilled-out kind, reminiscent of “Epoca” by Gotan Project, used for many adverts in the past. The other is a slow, slightly humourous, waltz style. Respectively, one seems to emphasise the ‘beauty’ that the advert concentrates on of the new computer, and the other conveys that it sweeps aside the older, uglier competition with the ease and grace of a waltz. I shall compose both till I decide to go with one of the other.

This week, we went over the process for recording the script between two characters again, and discussed some details about how the final submitted piece should be created. Specifically, we discussed microphone patterns (cardioid, super-cardioid/figure-of-8 and omnidirectional) and which would be better for certain recording situations.

Also, we examined in close detail all the settings and results possible using Logic 8’s Channel EQ, Compressor and De-esser.

This week we watched and criticised our work on Task 2, the animation soundtrack. There were some really excellent offerings on show; mostly on cartoons other than the prescribed. One thing I noticed about them is that they are all cartoons without speech. This would make sense in that, unless you are writing a surrealist style cartoon (e.g. as an artwork rather than a children’s TV program) orchestral and electronic sounds as speech wouldn’t really fit with the style of the show.

With this task, like the previous, I find myself thinking that all the cartoons are going to have the same sound effects and orchestral techniques used for the same respective actions and atmospheres, especially since we are all reflecting on the writing style of Carl Stalling with the Looney Tunes music. It is, however, interesting to see that this style is so instinctive and flexible, that it can be written, with some success, for cartoons from all the other sources, such as Disney and Hannah-Barbera for example. I myself have chosen a ‘Tom & Jerry’ cartoon to score and the familiarity to the work so far to the Looney Tunes (and even the original soundtrack) is quite significant.

In this work I think it will be very difficult to produce anything dissimilar to that which has gone before, as the style is so imprinted in our minds that nothing else seems to work as well.

This week we looked at and demonstrated how to accomplish Task 2, to record a scripted conversation between two people playing Q and Bond. We discussed the best ways of recording two people in the same room and how to do it using the equipment provided. We were introduced to the set up in the two rooms, and how the studio box/snake is wired.

This task shouldn’t be too taxing, as we are to keep to a set of instructions as with the previous task, however it is important to get a good quality raw recording to start with, as it will ensure that the end result is of the best quality possible.

Last week, we looked at the workings of ProTools and the recording set-up in Hel033/029. I learnt about how to control the fixed microphone and camera in Hel029 from the desk in Hel033, and how to record sound using them. I also learnt about ProTools itself, the similarities and differences between it and Logic, some of the key commands, how to edit and record audio within it. Also, I was introduced to the hardware used in the room, and how to patch in ProTools to record from Hel 029.

This week we started Task 2, to score an animated cartoon. We discussed the works of Carl Stalling and watched a cartoon of Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner, while listening and noting down the functions of the soundtrack. This included things such as sychronised footsteps, dynamics, and ‘falling’ music.

Regarding the task, I think that Looney Tunes cartoons in general will be easier to write the soundtrack for than many others, as their expressiveness and the action on screen has been paired with this style of music writing for decades. This pairing has been played to this generation (and others) throughout their lives, so they will be familiar with the ideas within, even if they do not realise it.

Yesterday we looked at our work on a 30-second segment of “Persona” by Bergman, and my previous speculation on the dynamicism (?!) of the work producing a wide range of results proved both true and false in different ways. Seeing different examples such as a purely orchestral, musical piece, another that linked four or five different shots/scenes into one story, and another which presented a concrète perspective on the entire film, confirms my initial thoughts on this task. However, I noticed, with all the pieces that start at the beginning, that they all start with a fade-in, inexorably tagging along with the fading-in of the carbon rods of the projector. I got to thinking about whether there was any possible alternative, but have so far come up with nothing.

Another thing that I realised was that many of the work shown used strings, especially in the aforementioned gradual fade-in of the projector. The techniques of making more realistic string music that Julio mentioned today included automation (which I am familiar with) and the 5-samplers-in-one audio instrument, allowing quick and easy transitions between tremolo, arco, pizzicato etc (which was a shock to me ). Using these techniques will hopefully add some depth and variation on all string sounds from here on out.

Today, I realised what I mentioned below about Logic 8 being the best thing since sliced bread (and actually slightly better for audio). However, some little things really annoyed me. Trying to get my automated volume to go down to -20 proved to be impossible, as it always reverted to -19.8 or -20.3. But that was pretty much my only problem.