Hello again everyone.
I’m going to be serious for once. This is a post I’ve been thinking about writing for a while now. I want to talk to you about mental health and about making mistakes. Both of these things are not spoken about much, so I’m going to tell you a personal story in the hope that it will help one or two people.
In 2005/06, I started working as a freelance composer. It was scary, but exactly what I wanted to do, and my parents had always said, “If you don’t try you’ll never know. You don’t want to end up regretting not trying.” My stance on it was, if it doesn’t work out, I’ll do something else.
Fast forward to 2014. I’d had nine years of non-stop work on big shows like Planet Earth, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Wizards vs Aliens. I was, by some measure, a success. I had managed to make a decent living doing what I loved. What luck! But…
I was tired. Working very hard had drained me. I wasn’t in the best place, so I decided that I would take a few months off to relax and get myself in better mental shape. I was lucky that I could afford to do so. But that’s what I’d worked so hard for, right? I enjoyed those few months, so I decided to extend them a little so that I could work on writing my first album (The Forest, which was released much later). I hadn’t written music just for the sake of it for nine years; it was going to be fun. And it was.
Here is the mistake: “Time off”. I put it in quotation marks because I was working; I just wasn’t getting paid directly for it. I hate it when people say creatives “aren’t working” because they’re not currently under contract (I could do an entire post just on how wrong that perception is). Yes, I’d just had a few months of swanning about in my underwear, binge-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, but now I was back to work. Working as hard as anyone else does to create a good product that I could sell.
Five years later and I have worked very little in film and television since. I have been incredibly productive – I have written and released three albums (and am finishing my fourth), along with a number of production music albums. I have begun writing a musical. I’ve contributed to a book. I’ve been pitching for ads. I’ve been trying to network to get jobs. I’ve been attached to three projects that have fallen through (which is soul-destroying). I haven’t stopped working. I just haven’t had very many commissions.
What I should have done is kept working, because in this industry, you have to be busy to be seen. I wasn’t busy. I wasn’t seen. Now people have forgotten the work I have done and who I am (not in a “don’t you know who I am?” way – just, literally, my name doesn’t resonate because it hasn’t been seen or heard in the right circles for a long time). So in 2016, when I started to try and get work again, nobody wanted to hire me. It was like starting my career all over again.
While all of this was going on, unseen by me, my relationship started to have trouble. The beginnings of a breakdown in communication: small and seemingly insignificant at first, but which would eventually (spoiler alert) decay into a breakup. I’m not going to go into great detail out of respect for my partner’s privacy (and my own) but, after a 15-year relationship, I ended it. The hardest decision of my life. It was taken because my mental health (both due to work – or lack thereof – and the relationship) was at its lowest. I was depressed. Drinking a bottle of wine every night. No, let’s be honest. More than. Starting at 6pm. Then 5pm. Then 4pm… It was a real problem. There were times when I was suicidal. My physical health declined, too. I was broken and trying to numb myself. Eventually, I had no option but to change the cycle, or I’d probably have drunk myself into an early grave…
Mistakes happen. You can regret them but, ultimately, you have to deal with them. I am dealing with mine. I moved to Manchester. I have had to start my career from scratch – again. It’s still an uphill struggle to get work, but that will change. I know I’m good at what I do and I know that the right thing will turn up soon.
I have a new partner who loves me like crazy and I love him twice as much as that. I’m barely even a social drinker these days. I'm happier than I have been for longer than I can remember. I still have bad days. There are still times when I think I’ll never get hired again. There are still times that I don’t think I have any talent, that I’m not good enough. But that’s okay. It’s okay to not be okay all the time.
We live in a world where happy faces doing exciting things greet us daily on social media. Where everyone in the world is constantly having fun… and it’s a massive lie. I am guilty of the same thing. The majority of my social media posts are positive, silly, or of fun stuff I’m doing. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Who wants to see a constant stream of misery? But maybe, like this blog, we should all be peppering our “public image” with the odd not-so-fun thing. Real life is hard and full of struggle. It’s also fun and full of love. We should remember both of these things, because if we believe one or the other is the only way it should be, it can only lead to bad things.
Much love,
Sam
P.S. Any directors/producers/execs looking for a composer? 😉
Tuesday, 2 April 2019
Friday, 15 March 2019
Gallifrey One 2019
Hello all,
I am back from LA. Yay for LA! What a fabulously bonkers place it is. I do love it.
Hopefully, I saw some of you at Gallifrey One – and, if not, maybe I will next year (if they’ll have me back)! For those of you who don’t know, Gally is the largest and longest-running annual Doctor Who convention in the world. And what a lot of fun it is! Shaun and his team do an astounding job, from the breadth of panels, the variety of guests, and the way guests and attendees are looked after to the inclusive, safe space they create.
This year was a busy one. I started off on a panel about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer “reboot” with my partner, Mick, which was a lot of fun. Lots of people with great opinions and knowledge of the extended world of Buffy from the comics to the novels – and a lot of great discussion about what people would like (and not like) to see from the TV “reboot”.
I then had a great time on the main stage with Mark Ayres and Blair Mowat talking all things musical in the world of Doctor Who. The lovely Edward Russell guided us through it and kept us in check. It was interesting to hear Mark’s and Blair’s experiences and how they differed from mine. The one thing that was definitely consistent was the feeling of being a team, a family even, when working on the Whoniverse. It’s a very special thing.
The annual music panel was next. Again with Mick and his friend Ramie – the two of them started the music panel at Gally nine years ago, along with two other friends who sadly weren’t there this year. We’ll have to think of something special to do for the tenth anniversary next year! We were with our friend Kat, Doctor Puppet composer Scott Ampleford, and a lovely fan called Brian whom I first met at The Attic (the tenth anniversary convention for The Sarah Jane Adventures) a few years ago. We chatted about the new series of Doctor Who and, of course, focused on Segun Akinola’s new take on scoring the show. There was a lot of love in the room for him, even if I do look angrily animated in this photo… I think I was saying how I love that Segun doesn’t crash all over dialogue with heavy drums…
Following on from that was a kaffeeklatsch with me, Mark, and Blair. These are possibly my favourite thing to do. It’s a small group of about 12 people who come to have a coffee and a chat. It’s informal, friendly, and really good fun. This one was interesting. I think it was as much fun for me to just get to chat nerdy music things with Mark and Blair as it (hopefully) was for the attendees. There were some great questions about things ranging from technology to composition process and the three of us got to tell some of our favourite stories and generally have a good laugh. Mark was a little late and there ended up being no seat for him so…
I also did a few signing, which I still find a strange concept. Mick edited my name card to let people know who I am…
This actually came from a conversation in the lobby with a very lovely guy who, when he found out that I’d worked on The Sarah Jane Adventures, said, “Oh! You’re a minor celebrity, then.”
Finally, the closing ceremony – also a lot of fun. The guests all parade onto the stage and say a little something about their weekend. It’s lots of thanking Shaun and the team (rightly so!) and thanking the fans (also rightly so!). I usually attempt to be funny – not always the best idea; this year I think I said I was sad about the fact that it was the last year at the convention with the carpet. We all love the carpet. Look at this beauty!
Next year, they will be auctioning off sections of the carpets from the convention floor (well, not actually off the floor itself). I may have to save up and bid on one.
The closing ceremony also lead to a very silly thing on Facebook. We ended up posting a picture back and forth with more and more marking up done on it in a game of spot our friends/spouses/selves:
Aside from my own programming I also attended a couple of things Mick was doing, starting with a a panel about science (with our mate Rod – everyone should have Rod in their lives; he’s truly one of a kind), which was fascinating. He also led a workshop on scientific realism in sci-fi, which was so much fun, fascinating, and a really big hit.
I was also dragged on stage by Tony Lee to moderate a panel on writing audio drama with Lisa McMullin, Tony, Simon Guerrier, Darin Henry, and Lance Parkin. That sort of spontaneity sums up both Tony and the things that happen on panels at Gally.
We also got the chance to catch up with friends. We had a very pleasant lunch with Richard Dinnick (a truly lovely man with whom I always enjoy spending time, and I’m not just saying that because I want to work with him on a show…), as well as chatting with Tony Lee while he demonstrated his new iPad’s drawing features on us.
We always have a laugh with Tony; he’s a great example of how genuine and caring the guests at Gally are. Simon Guerrier is another example of this. A fun chap to sit and chat with. It was also great to catch up with Audry Taylor and David Wise, a “relationship goals” couple if ever there was one.
Making new friends is always easy at Gally. This year, we met Lisa McMullin. Lisa is a wonderful writer and one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. It was a true joy spending time with her. I would put her in the same category as Katy Manning – those who leave you feeling happier and richer. Speaking of which, we managed to fit in a hug with the lovely Katy too. One of life’s unstoppable forces, Katy is one of those people who makes everyone feel welcome, happy, and loved.
LobbyCon, as it has become known, is possibly my favourite part of the convention. Hanging about and just chatting with anyone and everyone. You meet so many great people and it’s often the only time you have to catch up with friends. We managed to make the White Elephant Gift Exchange again this year – it’s run by our friend (and honorary godmother) Anna. She has a couple of fantastic shops in Santa Clara which she runs with our other friend Mark – if you’re there, you must go.
If you’re not familiar with it, a white elephant gift exchange is such a fun thing: you bring a gift, if you can (if not, Anna and Mark bring spares!), and you take turns picking one. They’re all wrapped, so you have no idea what they are. Each gift can be stolen twice, which adds a fun element. The gifts we brought were hotly contested by a couple of our friends – who wouldn’t want Star Trek Trivial Pursuit on VHS? I picked a bag that contained a stuffed narwhal. I instantly fell in love and hoped that nobody would steal it from me (fun fact: I love whales). Luckily, they didn’t, and he now lives in our living room. He’s named Shaun after the convention’s founder, naturally.
It was also a great pleasure meeting Chase Masterson (I know, Leeta! I did have a bit of a fanboy moment). We love her charity, Pop Culture Hero Coalition – it’s such a great idea and really makes a difference. Hopefully we’ll be able to help her bring it across the pond and do some good in the UK, working against bullying, racism, misogyny, homophobia, cyber-bullying, and other forms of hate. We will get around to emailing you, Chase, I promise...
Outside of the convention we got to have a little downtime, luckily. Our friends Jennifer and Blake came with us to Disneyland. What a place! Luckily, it was terrible weather, so it was really quiet and we got to go on loads of rides. My favourite was the Indiana Jones ride. It was a lot of fun and great to spend time with friends whom we only see once a year.
We also went to Manhattan Beach with Chris and Kat. The weather wasn’t the best, but we still had a great time eating seafood and ice cream – not together, obviously. That would be gross.
On the last morning we went for breakfast with Mark Ayres and his lovely wife Nicki, along with Edward Russell and his adorable husband Gareth. It was a very civilised way to end the week. Great company and a good few laughs to end our time in LA. We even got to wait about for the planes with Mark and Nicki, which certainly made the time fly.
Well, now that you know absolutely too much about the trip to LA, I’ll leave you in peace. Have fun, and I’ll be back soon with more (un)interesting stuff.
Sam x
P.S. Thanks to Mick and Audry for the additional photos.
I am back from LA. Yay for LA! What a fabulously bonkers place it is. I do love it.
Hopefully, I saw some of you at Gallifrey One – and, if not, maybe I will next year (if they’ll have me back)! For those of you who don’t know, Gally is the largest and longest-running annual Doctor Who convention in the world. And what a lot of fun it is! Shaun and his team do an astounding job, from the breadth of panels, the variety of guests, and the way guests and attendees are looked after to the inclusive, safe space they create.
This year was a busy one. I started off on a panel about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer “reboot” with my partner, Mick, which was a lot of fun. Lots of people with great opinions and knowledge of the extended world of Buffy from the comics to the novels – and a lot of great discussion about what people would like (and not like) to see from the TV “reboot”.
I then had a great time on the main stage with Mark Ayres and Blair Mowat talking all things musical in the world of Doctor Who. The lovely Edward Russell guided us through it and kept us in check. It was interesting to hear Mark’s and Blair’s experiences and how they differed from mine. The one thing that was definitely consistent was the feeling of being a team, a family even, when working on the Whoniverse. It’s a very special thing.
The annual music panel was next. Again with Mick and his friend Ramie – the two of them started the music panel at Gally nine years ago, along with two other friends who sadly weren’t there this year. We’ll have to think of something special to do for the tenth anniversary next year! We were with our friend Kat, Doctor Puppet composer Scott Ampleford, and a lovely fan called Brian whom I first met at The Attic (the tenth anniversary convention for The Sarah Jane Adventures) a few years ago. We chatted about the new series of Doctor Who and, of course, focused on Segun Akinola’s new take on scoring the show. There was a lot of love in the room for him, even if I do look angrily animated in this photo… I think I was saying how I love that Segun doesn’t crash all over dialogue with heavy drums…
Following on from that was a kaffeeklatsch with me, Mark, and Blair. These are possibly my favourite thing to do. It’s a small group of about 12 people who come to have a coffee and a chat. It’s informal, friendly, and really good fun. This one was interesting. I think it was as much fun for me to just get to chat nerdy music things with Mark and Blair as it (hopefully) was for the attendees. There were some great questions about things ranging from technology to composition process and the three of us got to tell some of our favourite stories and generally have a good laugh. Mark was a little late and there ended up being no seat for him so…
I also did a few signing, which I still find a strange concept. Mick edited my name card to let people know who I am…
This actually came from a conversation in the lobby with a very lovely guy who, when he found out that I’d worked on The Sarah Jane Adventures, said, “Oh! You’re a minor celebrity, then.”
Finally, the closing ceremony – also a lot of fun. The guests all parade onto the stage and say a little something about their weekend. It’s lots of thanking Shaun and the team (rightly so!) and thanking the fans (also rightly so!). I usually attempt to be funny – not always the best idea; this year I think I said I was sad about the fact that it was the last year at the convention with the carpet. We all love the carpet. Look at this beauty!
Next year, they will be auctioning off sections of the carpets from the convention floor (well, not actually off the floor itself). I may have to save up and bid on one.
The closing ceremony also lead to a very silly thing on Facebook. We ended up posting a picture back and forth with more and more marking up done on it in a game of spot our friends/spouses/selves:
Aside from my own programming I also attended a couple of things Mick was doing, starting with a a panel about science (with our mate Rod – everyone should have Rod in their lives; he’s truly one of a kind), which was fascinating. He also led a workshop on scientific realism in sci-fi, which was so much fun, fascinating, and a really big hit.
Mick was mobbed in the corridor afterwards. Hopefully, he’ll be able to put it on again next year.
I was also dragged on stage by Tony Lee to moderate a panel on writing audio drama with Lisa McMullin, Tony, Simon Guerrier, Darin Henry, and Lance Parkin. That sort of spontaneity sums up both Tony and the things that happen on panels at Gally.
We also got the chance to catch up with friends. We had a very pleasant lunch with Richard Dinnick (a truly lovely man with whom I always enjoy spending time, and I’m not just saying that because I want to work with him on a show…), as well as chatting with Tony Lee while he demonstrated his new iPad’s drawing features on us.
We always have a laugh with Tony; he’s a great example of how genuine and caring the guests at Gally are. Simon Guerrier is another example of this. A fun chap to sit and chat with. It was also great to catch up with Audry Taylor and David Wise, a “relationship goals” couple if ever there was one.
Making new friends is always easy at Gally. This year, we met Lisa McMullin. Lisa is a wonderful writer and one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. It was a true joy spending time with her. I would put her in the same category as Katy Manning – those who leave you feeling happier and richer. Speaking of which, we managed to fit in a hug with the lovely Katy too. One of life’s unstoppable forces, Katy is one of those people who makes everyone feel welcome, happy, and loved.
LobbyCon, as it has become known, is possibly my favourite part of the convention. Hanging about and just chatting with anyone and everyone. You meet so many great people and it’s often the only time you have to catch up with friends. We managed to make the White Elephant Gift Exchange again this year – it’s run by our friend (and honorary godmother) Anna. She has a couple of fantastic shops in Santa Clara which she runs with our other friend Mark – if you’re there, you must go.
If you’re not familiar with it, a white elephant gift exchange is such a fun thing: you bring a gift, if you can (if not, Anna and Mark bring spares!), and you take turns picking one. They’re all wrapped, so you have no idea what they are. Each gift can be stolen twice, which adds a fun element. The gifts we brought were hotly contested by a couple of our friends – who wouldn’t want Star Trek Trivial Pursuit on VHS? I picked a bag that contained a stuffed narwhal. I instantly fell in love and hoped that nobody would steal it from me (fun fact: I love whales). Luckily, they didn’t, and he now lives in our living room. He’s named Shaun after the convention’s founder, naturally.
It was also a great pleasure meeting Chase Masterson (I know, Leeta! I did have a bit of a fanboy moment). We love her charity, Pop Culture Hero Coalition – it’s such a great idea and really makes a difference. Hopefully we’ll be able to help her bring it across the pond and do some good in the UK, working against bullying, racism, misogyny, homophobia, cyber-bullying, and other forms of hate. We will get around to emailing you, Chase, I promise...
Outside of the convention we got to have a little downtime, luckily. Our friends Jennifer and Blake came with us to Disneyland. What a place! Luckily, it was terrible weather, so it was really quiet and we got to go on loads of rides. My favourite was the Indiana Jones ride. It was a lot of fun and great to spend time with friends whom we only see once a year.
We also went to Manhattan Beach with Chris and Kat. The weather wasn’t the best, but we still had a great time eating seafood and ice cream – not together, obviously. That would be gross.
On the last morning we went for breakfast with Mark Ayres and his lovely wife Nicki, along with Edward Russell and his adorable husband Gareth. It was a very civilised way to end the week. Great company and a good few laughs to end our time in LA. We even got to wait about for the planes with Mark and Nicki, which certainly made the time fly.
Well, now that you know absolutely too much about the trip to LA, I’ll leave you in peace. Have fun, and I’ll be back soon with more (un)interesting stuff.
Sam x
P.S. Thanks to Mick and Audry for the additional photos.
Tuesday, 22 January 2019
Sample Libraries
Hello again.
Today I’m going to talk about sample libraries – digital recordings which are loaded into virtual instruments for use by composers/arrangers/producers. There are hundreds out there. Huge full orchestras, tiny finger cymbals, guitars, pianos, pretty much anything you can think of. I mainly use products by CineSamples, Spitfire Audio, Orchestral Tools and Cinematic Samples. The range and quality of the sample libraries out there is amazing. I often layer them up, so I’ll put Cinematic Studio Strings on top of Symphonic Strings or the full string staccato patch from Inspire over the Cinematic Studio Strings playing staccato. This creates a full, thick sound and allows me to choose the sort of sound I’m getting from the strings – or whatever instrument I’m using.
Sample libraries like Orchestral Tools’ collections allow you to quickly create realistic-sounding orchestras with minimal effort. There are patches that allow you to play an entire woodwind, brass, percussion, or string section in one go. There are patches that you can layer on top of smaller groups of instruments, such as legato violins, should you need a soaring string line over the top. This is great when you’re on a tight deadline, which you often are in film and television. I often have five days to write 20–25 minutes of full orchestral music, so any shortcuts to making it sound great are very welcome.
CineSamples have produced libraries that allow you to play individual instruments. You can, for instance, play each of the woodwind instruments individually (three flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, and contrabassoon perhaps). They are great and allow you to decide on the balance and exact orchestration. The only downside is that this approach takes a lot longer to write, play, and mix.
VIs and sample libraries allow the composer to create music that sounds as real as possible without the need for a full orchestra. Why? So that it can be heard by directors and producers before being recorded, or in case the budget only allows for synthetically created music. That’s why they’re a composer’s best friend… but why are they also our nemesis? Sample libraries have become so good now that many people believe there’s no longer a need for live musicians. That isn’t true! No matter how great VIs and sample libraries are, there is no substitute for live musicians playing the music, feeling it, and expressing it. I always try to convince the people I’m working with of the vital role musicians play in breathing life into a score. Not every production can afford (or requires) a full orchestra, and there is a time and a place for electronic scores – but, even on a production with a small budget, I will always try to use one or two live musicians. It lifts the score so much – you can’t sample emotion.
Sam x
Today I’m going to talk about sample libraries – digital recordings which are loaded into virtual instruments for use by composers/arrangers/producers. There are hundreds out there. Huge full orchestras, tiny finger cymbals, guitars, pianos, pretty much anything you can think of. I mainly use products by CineSamples, Spitfire Audio, Orchestral Tools and Cinematic Samples. The range and quality of the sample libraries out there is amazing. I often layer them up, so I’ll put Cinematic Studio Strings on top of Symphonic Strings or the full string staccato patch from Inspire over the Cinematic Studio Strings playing staccato. This creates a full, thick sound and allows me to choose the sort of sound I’m getting from the strings – or whatever instrument I’m using.
Sample libraries like Orchestral Tools’ collections allow you to quickly create realistic-sounding orchestras with minimal effort. There are patches that allow you to play an entire woodwind, brass, percussion, or string section in one go. There are patches that you can layer on top of smaller groups of instruments, such as legato violins, should you need a soaring string line over the top. This is great when you’re on a tight deadline, which you often are in film and television. I often have five days to write 20–25 minutes of full orchestral music, so any shortcuts to making it sound great are very welcome.
CineSamples have produced libraries that allow you to play individual instruments. You can, for instance, play each of the woodwind instruments individually (three flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, and contrabassoon perhaps). They are great and allow you to decide on the balance and exact orchestration. The only downside is that this approach takes a lot longer to write, play, and mix.
VIs and sample libraries allow the composer to create music that sounds as real as possible without the need for a full orchestra. Why? So that it can be heard by directors and producers before being recorded, or in case the budget only allows for synthetically created music. That’s why they’re a composer’s best friend… but why are they also our nemesis? Sample libraries have become so good now that many people believe there’s no longer a need for live musicians. That isn’t true! No matter how great VIs and sample libraries are, there is no substitute for live musicians playing the music, feeling it, and expressing it. I always try to convince the people I’m working with of the vital role musicians play in breathing life into a score. Not every production can afford (or requires) a full orchestra, and there is a time and a place for electronic scores – but, even on a production with a small budget, I will always try to use one or two live musicians. It lifts the score so much – you can’t sample emotion.
Sam x
Monday, 21 January 2019
Virtual Instruments
Good evening/morning/January/birthday/elephant*,
I hope you’re well and looking forward to a bit of a read. In this post, I’ll be talking about virtual instruments and in my next post I’ll talk about sample libraries. These are a media composer’s best friend and also nemesis – I’ll explain about that in the next post.
Virtual instruments (VIs) are also called software instruments or software synthesisers (softsynths for short). They generate digital audio and can be standalone programmes or plug-ins that are opened within a digital audio workstation (I use Pro Tools). They can be an emulation of an existing instrument (like a Moog or Roland synthesiser), designed to create new sounds, or a piece of software designed to host other sounds (like sample libraries).
One of the industry’s leading (and one of my favourite) VI makers is Native Instruments. I use their Komplete bundle on almost everything I do. Kontakt, Absynth, Massive, and FM8 are absolute go-to instruments for me. I own and use many VIs and sample libraries but there is one that I use above all others, and that’s Kontakt. It’s a sampler that hosts sample libraries so that you can play anything from a drum to a piano to a full orchestra.
My other favourite VI is Keyscape by Spectrasonics. I used it exclusively on my album Cypher. Unlike Kontakt it is a standalone product – a VI and sample library in one.
Omnisphere by Spectrasonics is an example of a VI that allows you to play with waveforms and all sorts of settings to make your own sounds. You can do this in VIs like Massive and Absynth, too. They also come with premade patches that you can use as-is or tweak to make your own version of the sound. (In fact, Absynth has a “Mutate” button you press to randomly modify the patch you’ve loaded – it’s a lot of fun and a feature I use often). Sometimes it is necessary to use the sounds that come with a VI, but I prefer to make my own (or at least tweak them) if time allows.
Many sample library companies are now starting to make their own VIs – which is great, because they can be adapted to work perfectly for the sample library they’re hosting. However, sometimes it backfires; the VI can be clunky or drain too many resources from the computer. Spitfire Audio have made their own and it’s pretty good. It works especially well for their Evo Grid concept. An Evo Grid is a collection of samples that have subtle movement in them. They’re great for creating atmosphere and giving your music a sense of realism. You can also select different parts of the grid to change the sound so it makes it sound a little more unique.
Hopefully this has been interesting or useful or at least not entirely boring. If you have any questions or comments please do use the comment section below. I’ll be back tomorrow with a follow-up post about sample libraries.
Until then, TTFN.
Sam x
*delete as applicable
Thursday, 10 January 2019
New Year, New Music
Hello all,
Happy New year. I had a great break over the holiday season and I hope you did, too. I spent it with family and then had a week away in Kielder Forest (what a stunning place). I'm now back in the studio working away and will bring you new posts about music, drinking coffee, and the dog soon (I know you're all really here for the dog).
Here's to a bright, successful and happy 2019.
Sam x
P.S. Here's a picture of the dog dressed as Santa. You're welcome.
Happy New year. I had a great break over the holiday season and I hope you did, too. I spent it with family and then had a week away in Kielder Forest (what a stunning place). I'm now back in the studio working away and will bring you new posts about music, drinking coffee, and the dog soon (I know you're all really here for the dog).
Here's to a bright, successful and happy 2019.
Sam x
P.S. Here's a picture of the dog dressed as Santa. You're welcome.
Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Hi!
Hello all,
It’s just about possible you’ve noticed the lack of posts recently; sorry about that. I’ve been busily working on a number of production music (library) albums. Currently, I’m working on a superhero album. Here’s a little clip of me writing one of the tracks.
I’ll be back in a few days with a more interesting post. I promise!
TTFN
Sam x
Monday, 22 October 2018
Reflections
Hi! How the devil are you? Excellent!
Sorry I’ve not done a proper post in a while. Usual excuses plus some unusual ones, but anyway – on with the show.
Firstly, I want to say a huge “thank you” to everyone for the amazing response and kind words about my new album, Reflections. It’s been lovely to hear that people are enjoying it. I thought I’d use this post to take you through the album a little.
I first thought about making this album as I was writing The Forest. I knew I was going to be in the studio with a fantastic string quartet and thought to myself, “Why not record a second album at the same time?!” Yeah, not much work at all… I adore strings. They are my favourite instrument family. Cellos are probably my favourite instrument of all time.
I had a few pieces already written (this post will follow the timeline of when the pieces were written, not the order they appear on the album). The first was Dan and Lizzie, an imaginatively named piece written for the signing of the register at my eldest brother Dan’s wedding (can you guess his wife’s name?!). The second, my first string quartet, I wrote for my friends’ Chloë and Simon’s wedding and had always wanted to record. It starts with a lively, syncopated movement followed by a slow, more romantic section, and it ends with a busy, mostly pizzicato (plucked) movement, the middle of which has some portamento (sliding). I asked the players to play it as if they were drunk – it was a wedding, after all.
I thought I should write a second one as it had been so long and I had enjoyed the first so much, so I wrote String Quartet No. 2 (again, I hope you’ll notice the imagination that goes into my track names). When I played this one to a friend of mine he said it was “like a rock n roll quartet”. I rather like that! In the final movement, there is a nod to my favourite composer, Dmitri Shostakovich – can you spot it?
Okay, I’ll tell you. There is a way of using musical notes to spell things out called cryptograms. Many composers have put messages into their music, mostly their own names. Bach did it using B♭, A, C and B♮. In German musical notation, B♮ is written as H (B♭ is B) and E flat is written as Es (S). So B♭, A, C, B♮ = BACH. Shostakovich used D, E♭, C, B♮, or “D.SCH,” so I put those notes in, played in unison, as a nod to him. You can hear it just before the players stamp their feet. The first time they did this, it nearly knocked the microphones over, so they had to be a little more gentle with their stamping in subsequent takes.
The first movement of the title piece from the album started life as part of a score for a TV show I did many years ago. It wasn’t used in the show, so I decided to rework it into a new piece. The other two movements just followed on from there. It became a very introspective piece, hence the title.
Finally, there is an “acoustic” version of Abundant Life from The Forest. I included this because, when we were mixing the albums, fabulous mix engineer Joe Rubel had muted all the synths and electronics and was concentrating on the balance of the strings and piano. He turned to me and said, “You know, this is pretty cool as an acoustic version”. As we listened, I realised it worked rather nicely without the additional elements and decided to included it on Reflections as a sort of “bonus track”.
I’m really proud of this album. I think it’s some of the most “me” music I’ve ever written and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed writing and recording it.
Reflections is now available to buy online via iTunes, Amazon and many more – and to stream on Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming platforms.
A huge thank you to the incomparable Laurie Anderson, Peter Gregson, Kirsty Mangan, Angus MacRae and Sara Wolstenholme for their amazing performances, to Joe Rubel for his fantastic engineering and mixing, and to John Webber at Air Studios for his amazing mastering skills.
Sorry I’ve not done a proper post in a while. Usual excuses plus some unusual ones, but anyway – on with the show.
Firstly, I want to say a huge “thank you” to everyone for the amazing response and kind words about my new album, Reflections. It’s been lovely to hear that people are enjoying it. I thought I’d use this post to take you through the album a little.
I first thought about making this album as I was writing The Forest. I knew I was going to be in the studio with a fantastic string quartet and thought to myself, “Why not record a second album at the same time?!” Yeah, not much work at all… I adore strings. They are my favourite instrument family. Cellos are probably my favourite instrument of all time.
I had a few pieces already written (this post will follow the timeline of when the pieces were written, not the order they appear on the album). The first was Dan and Lizzie, an imaginatively named piece written for the signing of the register at my eldest brother Dan’s wedding (can you guess his wife’s name?!). The second, my first string quartet, I wrote for my friends’ Chloë and Simon’s wedding and had always wanted to record. It starts with a lively, syncopated movement followed by a slow, more romantic section, and it ends with a busy, mostly pizzicato (plucked) movement, the middle of which has some portamento (sliding). I asked the players to play it as if they were drunk – it was a wedding, after all.
I thought I should write a second one as it had been so long and I had enjoyed the first so much, so I wrote String Quartet No. 2 (again, I hope you’ll notice the imagination that goes into my track names). When I played this one to a friend of mine he said it was “like a rock n roll quartet”. I rather like that! In the final movement, there is a nod to my favourite composer, Dmitri Shostakovich – can you spot it?
Okay, I’ll tell you. There is a way of using musical notes to spell things out called cryptograms. Many composers have put messages into their music, mostly their own names. Bach did it using B♭, A, C and B♮. In German musical notation, B♮ is written as H (B♭ is B) and E flat is written as Es (S). So B♭, A, C, B♮ = BACH. Shostakovich used D, E♭, C, B♮, or “D.SCH,” so I put those notes in, played in unison, as a nod to him. You can hear it just before the players stamp their feet. The first time they did this, it nearly knocked the microphones over, so they had to be a little more gentle with their stamping in subsequent takes.
The first movement of the title piece from the album started life as part of a score for a TV show I did many years ago. It wasn’t used in the show, so I decided to rework it into a new piece. The other two movements just followed on from there. It became a very introspective piece, hence the title.
Finally, there is an “acoustic” version of Abundant Life from The Forest. I included this because, when we were mixing the albums, fabulous mix engineer Joe Rubel had muted all the synths and electronics and was concentrating on the balance of the strings and piano. He turned to me and said, “You know, this is pretty cool as an acoustic version”. As we listened, I realised it worked rather nicely without the additional elements and decided to included it on Reflections as a sort of “bonus track”.
I’m really proud of this album. I think it’s some of the most “me” music I’ve ever written and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed writing and recording it.
Reflections is now available to buy online via iTunes, Amazon and many more – and to stream on Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming platforms.
A huge thank you to the incomparable Laurie Anderson, Peter Gregson, Kirsty Mangan, Angus MacRae and Sara Wolstenholme for their amazing performances, to Joe Rubel for his fantastic engineering and mixing, and to John Webber at Air Studios for his amazing mastering skills.
Sam x
Friday, 12 October 2018
Hello all,
Sorry for the silence; it has been a very busy few months. But I'm back with a quick announcement. My new album, Reflections, is out TODAY!
It's now available to buy online via iTunes, Amazon and many more – and to stream on Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming platforms.
A huge thank you to the incomparable Laurie Anderson, Peter Gregson, Kirsty Mangan, Angus MacRae and Sara Wolstenholme for their amazing performances, to Joe Rubel for his fantastic engineering and mixing, and to John Webber at Air Studios for his amazing mastering skills.
I hope you enjoy listening to this album as much as I enjoyed writing and recording it. I'll be back soon with a more in-depth post about Reflections!
TTFN
Sam x
Sorry for the silence; it has been a very busy few months. But I'm back with a quick announcement. My new album, Reflections, is out TODAY!
It's now available to buy online via iTunes, Amazon and many more – and to stream on Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming platforms.
A huge thank you to the incomparable Laurie Anderson, Peter Gregson, Kirsty Mangan, Angus MacRae and Sara Wolstenholme for their amazing performances, to Joe Rubel for his fantastic engineering and mixing, and to John Webber at Air Studios for his amazing mastering skills.
I hope you enjoy listening to this album as much as I enjoyed writing and recording it. I'll be back soon with a more in-depth post about Reflections!
TTFN
Sam x
Friday, 21 September 2018
An Early Halloween
Hello all,
Sorry for the radio silence. It has been a very busy, very tough month or so. I’m just starting to get back to some sort of normal, but regular service should now resume.
I’m in the midst of a million (well, four) library albums at the moment, two of which I’m trying to finish in time for a Halloween release (ooooooh!!!). One of these is based on the idea of a haunted fairground and circus, so lots of creepy waltzes and scary sounds.
Sorry for the radio silence. It has been a very busy, very tough month or so. I’m just starting to get back to some sort of normal, but regular service should now resume.
I’m in the midst of a million (well, four) library albums at the moment, two of which I’m trying to finish in time for a Halloween release (ooooooh!!!). One of these is based on the idea of a haunted fairground and circus, so lots of creepy waltzes and scary sounds.
You may have seen this little video of me composing one of the tracks on Instagram or Twitter, but I thought I’d post it on here too. Enjoy, and I’ll be back with a more in-depth blog soon.
Sx
Monday, 13 August 2018
Oh My GISH!
Hello once again.
How the devil are you? Well, I hope.
You may have seen me tweet recently that I was helping some friends out with #GISH:
What is GISH? I hear you ask. Well, it’s only the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt! Set up by actor Misha Collins, it’s a scavenger hunt across the globe every year for his charity Random Acts. Teams are sent a huge list of challenges to complete, and the team with the most points at the end wins. It’s really creative and a lot of fun.
Some of the challenges are things like, “Earn a gold medal in the Bellyflop Olympics. You must have judges and large score cards present,” or something like, “Beard garden”, which you must interpret for yourself. Many of them are incredibly charitable – competitors this year had to bring comfort items to children in foster care and play the nose flute (complete with lessons!) at a children’s hospital. So as well as being a lot of fun, the items have real social impact and will make a difference, which is what I love so much about it.
One of this year’s challenges was, “Make a super scary movie trailer of a visit to somewhere completely boring or normal (like a DMV – but now you can’t use that). You are not allowed to use any ‘jump scare’ scare tactics or actors. The suspense can only be created via how you shoot ordinary objects or people, and the score.”
I offered to help a friend’s team out by scoring their entry for this in the hopes that having some bespoke music might get them an extra point or two. It was a lot of fun, and the incredibly over-the-top result can be seen in the video below.
Told you!
If you want to do something good and have fun doing it, consider signing up next year and getting involved. But don’t all come to me if you need a video scoring; I’ll be too busy making a wire wool muffler or performing a magic trick in front of the Porta Alchemica in Rome or whatever the team at Random Acts comes up with next!
TTFN
Sam x
How the devil are you? Well, I hope.
You may have seen me tweet recently that I was helping some friends out with #GISH:
What is GISH? I hear you ask. Well, it’s only the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt! Set up by actor Misha Collins, it’s a scavenger hunt across the globe every year for his charity Random Acts. Teams are sent a huge list of challenges to complete, and the team with the most points at the end wins. It’s really creative and a lot of fun.
Some of the challenges are things like, “Earn a gold medal in the Bellyflop Olympics. You must have judges and large score cards present,” or something like, “Beard garden”, which you must interpret for yourself. Many of them are incredibly charitable – competitors this year had to bring comfort items to children in foster care and play the nose flute (complete with lessons!) at a children’s hospital. So as well as being a lot of fun, the items have real social impact and will make a difference, which is what I love so much about it.
One of this year’s challenges was, “Make a super scary movie trailer of a visit to somewhere completely boring or normal (like a DMV – but now you can’t use that). You are not allowed to use any ‘jump scare’ scare tactics or actors. The suspense can only be created via how you shoot ordinary objects or people, and the score.”
I offered to help a friend’s team out by scoring their entry for this in the hopes that having some bespoke music might get them an extra point or two. It was a lot of fun, and the incredibly over-the-top result can be seen in the video below.
WARNING: Video contains scenes of an incredibly ordinary, possibly boring nature; no strong language, no sex, no violence, and the most cliché, over-egged score you will ever hear.
Told you!
If you want to do something good and have fun doing it, consider signing up next year and getting involved. But don’t all come to me if you need a video scoring; I’ll be too busy making a wire wool muffler or performing a magic trick in front of the Porta Alchemica in Rome or whatever the team at Random Acts comes up with next!
TTFN
Sam x
Wednesday, 25 July 2018
Libraries - Not the Reading Kind
Hello everyone,
Sorry I haven’t written a post in a while. I’ve been swanning around Quebec City and San Diego as you do – a little bit of work, a little bit of holiday, which is always nice. But I’m back and I’m raring to go.
As I’ve been banging on about library albums here and on social media, I thought it was about time I wrote a post explaining a little about them. Here goes...
Library music, also known as “production music” and sometimes “stock music” (like stock photos), is music that hasn’t been written for a specific project, but is licensed (or lent out, if you like) to companies for use in a TV show, film, commercial, or whatever they want music for. Often, a library album will be written to a theme – something like “dark documentary”, “Hollywood action”, or “fantasy orchestral” – with a number of tracks in a very similar style. This makes it easy for editors, directors, or music supervisors to find the kinds of music they need. For example, somebody making a documentary on gang crime can find the “dark documentary” library and pick tracks from it, whereas somebody making a superhero feature film can look at “Hollywood action” music for the big fight sequence.
There are many production music companies out there who specialise in obtaining and placing library music. They all work slightly differently, but generally, they ask a composer to write an album – for instance, Bosworth (the company I mostly write for) have me writing an 8-bit video game album at the moment – and then put it into the catalogue of music they sell and try to get placements for it.
When writing a library album, I tend to be asked for 10 tracks, each one three to three and a half minutes long. Then, I have to produce alternate versions and what are called “cut-downs” for each of these tracks. Cut-downs are shorter versions of the track that can be used where the longer version isn’t necessary or as title music, for scene transitions, or as interstitial stings (the short versions of titles before and after adverts). It makes things easier for the company that wants the music for their production. Each track on the album will end up with between six and ten versions, depending on what is required. I usually end up writing:
1. Full version
2. Underscore version (or instrumental version if it’s a song)
3. 29-second version
4. 15-second version
5. 10-second version
6. 5-second version
The full version is the track in all its glory. The underscore version is a slightly thinned-out version of the original track. For this, I often take any melody away and I sometimes thin out the orchestration (depending on the style of music) so that I end up with what my brother Dan and I call “wallpaper” music – music that is really unobtrusive and easy to edit, which library albums often need because they are going to be used across a number of different productions*. Then the cut-downs are needed. The 29-second version is often useful in pre- and post-title sequences. The 15-, 10-, and 5- second versions are often just the last bit of the full track; in fact, the 5-second version often ends up being a few notes or sometimes even a single chord.
I don’t usually do the cut-downs until the full track has been mixed. This is mainly because it’s easier and faster not to have to mix six or more versions of the same thing. The only downside to it is if you have to rewrite anything to tweak it so that it works as a shorter version – then you have to mix it all over again. (You can avoid this by writing everything at 120 bpm, which makes for lovely cut-downs, but also risks limiting your music and making it less interesting.)
I usually do the cut-downs for both the full and the underscore versions (not something every production company requires), because it gives clients the most choice and flexibility when placing music and often means that they can use a single album for the majority of their production, giving the score a consistent sound.
I really enjoy writing production music as it allows me to explore genres that I might not otherwise get a chance to write music for. It’s challenging to write without the input of a specific project, because you have no story or images to guide you (which is why the “wallpaper” style of music works best); I often make up a scene to write for so that I can capture a specific mood or style more easily. The more I write library albums, though, the easier it gets and the more I enjoy it.
I had better get back to funky 8-bit music now. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from people reading this blog!
TTFN.
Sam x
*If you’re lucky, that is! If a library track is really good, productions with very different genres and styles (think romance and horror) will use the same track – so it has to be versatile.
Sorry I haven’t written a post in a while. I’ve been swanning around Quebec City and San Diego as you do – a little bit of work, a little bit of holiday, which is always nice. But I’m back and I’m raring to go.
As I’ve been banging on about library albums here and on social media, I thought it was about time I wrote a post explaining a little about them. Here goes...
Library music, also known as “production music” and sometimes “stock music” (like stock photos), is music that hasn’t been written for a specific project, but is licensed (or lent out, if you like) to companies for use in a TV show, film, commercial, or whatever they want music for. Often, a library album will be written to a theme – something like “dark documentary”, “Hollywood action”, or “fantasy orchestral” – with a number of tracks in a very similar style. This makes it easy for editors, directors, or music supervisors to find the kinds of music they need. For example, somebody making a documentary on gang crime can find the “dark documentary” library and pick tracks from it, whereas somebody making a superhero feature film can look at “Hollywood action” music for the big fight sequence.
There are many production music companies out there who specialise in obtaining and placing library music. They all work slightly differently, but generally, they ask a composer to write an album – for instance, Bosworth (the company I mostly write for) have me writing an 8-bit video game album at the moment – and then put it into the catalogue of music they sell and try to get placements for it.
When writing a library album, I tend to be asked for 10 tracks, each one three to three and a half minutes long. Then, I have to produce alternate versions and what are called “cut-downs” for each of these tracks. Cut-downs are shorter versions of the track that can be used where the longer version isn’t necessary or as title music, for scene transitions, or as interstitial stings (the short versions of titles before and after adverts). It makes things easier for the company that wants the music for their production. Each track on the album will end up with between six and ten versions, depending on what is required. I usually end up writing:
1. Full version
2. Underscore version (or instrumental version if it’s a song)
3. 29-second version
4. 15-second version
5. 10-second version
6. 5-second version
The full version is the track in all its glory. The underscore version is a slightly thinned-out version of the original track. For this, I often take any melody away and I sometimes thin out the orchestration (depending on the style of music) so that I end up with what my brother Dan and I call “wallpaper” music – music that is really unobtrusive and easy to edit, which library albums often need because they are going to be used across a number of different productions*. Then the cut-downs are needed. The 29-second version is often useful in pre- and post-title sequences. The 15-, 10-, and 5- second versions are often just the last bit of the full track; in fact, the 5-second version often ends up being a few notes or sometimes even a single chord.
I don’t usually do the cut-downs until the full track has been mixed. This is mainly because it’s easier and faster not to have to mix six or more versions of the same thing. The only downside to it is if you have to rewrite anything to tweak it so that it works as a shorter version – then you have to mix it all over again. (You can avoid this by writing everything at 120 bpm, which makes for lovely cut-downs, but also risks limiting your music and making it less interesting.)
I usually do the cut-downs for both the full and the underscore versions (not something every production company requires), because it gives clients the most choice and flexibility when placing music and often means that they can use a single album for the majority of their production, giving the score a consistent sound.
I really enjoy writing production music as it allows me to explore genres that I might not otherwise get a chance to write music for. It’s challenging to write without the input of a specific project, because you have no story or images to guide you (which is why the “wallpaper” style of music works best); I often make up a scene to write for so that I can capture a specific mood or style more easily. The more I write library albums, though, the easier it gets and the more I enjoy it.
I had better get back to funky 8-bit music now. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from people reading this blog!
TTFN.
Sam x
*If you’re lucky, that is! If a library track is really good, productions with very different genres and styles (think romance and horror) will use the same track – so it has to be versatile.
Tuesday, 19 June 2018
Studio Move
Hello!
As you may or may not know, I recently moved to Manchester, and this meant that I had to move my studio with me. What fun that was! Luckily, it’s all set up again now, and I have a bigger studio space than before. What’s in there? Take a look:
Let me take you through the setup. I work in a programme (known as a digital audio workstation, or DAW) called Pro Tools, which you can see on my screens. This handles the video, audio and MIDI (the signals from my master keyboard), and allows me to record real instruments or use virtual instruments and sample libraries.
Pro Tools has two windows: Mix and Edit. They make it quite simple to use – one reason I love the programme. The Edit window is where you input all the data – like MIDI and audio files, time signatures, and tempi – and then edit it as needed.
The Mix window is where you can, well, mix the music (more on that later). It is also the window you use to put virtual instruments and effects (like delays or compressors) onto tracks.
Next to my computer screens, I have my monitor speakers. I use a set of Genelec 8020As, which I love. They’re great for writing and doing rough mixes, which is exactly why I need them. They’re real workhorses – I got them in 2005 and they’re still going strong!
Under my screens, I have an Arturia Beatstep Pro, which I use mostly for drum programming (by playing the grey pads in different patterns). There are all sorts of twiddly knobs and buttons on it that I’m yet to get fully to grips with, but it’s a great bit of kit.
Next to the Beatstep Pro, I have my Avid Artist Mix. This is a mixing desk made by the same company that makes Pro Tools. This allows me to mix with actual faders, which have a much nicer feel (and are much easier) than using a mouse to move the virtual faders in Pro Tools.
My screens, the Artist Mix, and the Beatstep Pro all sit on top of a rack unit holding my outboard gear (anything external to the computer, like amplifiers or modular synths). What’s in mine?
On the right, I have an M-Audio Midisport 8x8 and a UAD Apollo audio interface.The Midisport 8x8 is connected to my master keyboard (see below) via MIDI and to the computer via USB, so that I can record straight into Pro Tools. The Apollo is connected to the computer via Firewire and lets me hear what Pro Tools is playing, as well as plug in microphones and record real instruments. You’ll notice that there’s a gap in the right-hand rack; that’s where there should be an Eventide Eclipse, a great effects unit that adds all sorts of delays and reverbs. (GIVE ME BACK MY ECLIPSE, DAN!) I used it heavily on my score for Stormhouse.
On the left I have a Focusrite OctoPre MkII Dynamic preamp and an Avid Digi 002 Rack. You plug microphones into the OctoPre so that you can record instruments. (“Isn’t that what you said the Apollo does?” Well, yes – the OctoPre is mostly a backup nowadays.) The Digi 002 is the first audio interface I ever owned. Made by Avid, it was linked into Pro Tools when I got it, but now it’s another emergency backup.
In front of the rack unit is my Kensington trackball mouse and an EditorsKeys keyboard. I use the keyboard because it has all the shortcuts for Pro Tools marked on it. It’s very handy if I have a memory blank and can’t remember what to press for a certain command. Below that, I have my master keyboard. I use a Casio PX-5S stage piano. The keys are fully weighted so it feels like playing a real piano – great for getting proper expression into the music.
Right at the bottom, I have the computers. I currently run a 2009 Mac Pro with 32 GB of RAM and 18 TB of hard drives (half of which which is just for samples). I use OS X El Capitan (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it). And, speaking of not fixing what ain’t broke, I also have a PC linked to the Mac using Vienna Ensemble Pro, a networking programme specifically designed for studios. That still runs Windows 7!
Finally, it all sits on (and in) a custom desk made by my brother Joe. There’s a lot more furniture (drawers and cupboards) that is spread around the studio now, rather than all connected as it was in my old studio space – you can see it all in a blog post from when I first got it, many moons ago. It’s gorgeous and works much better than adapting a shop-bought desk. I haven’t got any acoustic treatment up yet; that will have to wait a bit.
So, there you go. That’s my studio. I might go into more depth about things in a future post (I’ve already promised one about sample libraries and virtual instruments… must get on that…).
TTFN,
Sam x
As you may or may not know, I recently moved to Manchester, and this meant that I had to move my studio with me. What fun that was! Luckily, it’s all set up again now, and I have a bigger studio space than before. What’s in there? Take a look:
Custom desk, studio equipment and a “Send Help” picture given to my by my brother Dan and his wife – apt when there’s a tight deadline and the computer isn’t cooperating!
Let me take you through the setup. I work in a programme (known as a digital audio workstation, or DAW) called Pro Tools, which you can see on my screens. This handles the video, audio and MIDI (the signals from my master keyboard), and allows me to record real instruments or use virtual instruments and sample libraries.
Pro Tools on my 20-inch Apple Cinema displays
Pro Tools Edit window
Pro Tools Mix window
Graeme sitting on top of a Genelec 2080A
Arturia Beatstep Pro controller and sequencer
Avid Artist Mix
On the right, I have an M-Audio Midisport 8x8 and a UAD Apollo audio interface.The Midisport 8x8 is connected to my master keyboard (see below) via MIDI and to the computer via USB, so that I can record straight into Pro Tools. The Apollo is connected to the computer via Firewire and lets me hear what Pro Tools is playing, as well as plug in microphones and record real instruments. You’ll notice that there’s a gap in the right-hand rack; that’s where there should be an Eventide Eclipse, a great effects unit that adds all sorts of delays and reverbs. (GIVE ME BACK MY ECLIPSE, DAN!) I used it heavily on my score for Stormhouse.
Top to bottom: M-Audio Midisport 8x8/s; UAD Apollo Quad; gap for my Eventide Eclipse (seriously, Dan, give it back).
Top to Bottom: Focusrite OctoPre MkII Dynamic, Avid Digi 002 Rack.
Editor Keys keyboard, Kensington trackball mouse and Casio PX-5S stage piano
Mac Pro
Custom PC with its little monitor hidden under the desk. In case you were worried that 8 TB wasn’t enough samples, almost all of the PC’s 6.5 TB of hard drive space is… guess what…
Finally, it all sits on (and in) a custom desk made by my brother Joe. There’s a lot more furniture (drawers and cupboards) that is spread around the studio now, rather than all connected as it was in my old studio space – you can see it all in a blog post from when I first got it, many moons ago. It’s gorgeous and works much better than adapting a shop-bought desk. I haven’t got any acoustic treatment up yet; that will have to wait a bit.
So, there you go. That’s my studio. I might go into more depth about things in a future post (I’ve already promised one about sample libraries and virtual instruments… must get on that…).
TTFN,
Sam x
Thursday, 7 June 2018
Recomposing
Hello, me again!
Just a quick post this time. I'm currently reworking the Dracula score for a library album. For this, I'm having to either edit down or expand existing tracks to fit the library album format (yes, I know – I keep mentioning library albums and not explaining them. I promise I'll write a post about them soon!). Here's a little video of me adding a few extra bars of piano to one track. Enjoy!
See you soon.
Sam x
Just a quick post this time. I'm currently reworking the Dracula score for a library album. For this, I'm having to either edit down or expand existing tracks to fit the library album format (yes, I know – I keep mentioning library albums and not explaining them. I promise I'll write a post about them soon!). Here's a little video of me adding a few extra bars of piano to one track. Enjoy!
See you soon.
Sam x
Monday, 21 May 2018
Decoding Cypher
Good morning/afternoon/evening*!
Well, I’m back with another blog post. This time, I’ll be talking a little about how I composed some of my latest album, Cypher. I’m going to look at the first track on the album, “Tetralogy I”, and deconstruct a section of it. In the press release for the album, I talked about how Cypher was never intended to be an album. It started out as a trial of a new virtual instrument (VI). Every time I buy a new sample library or VI (which I’ll explain in a later post), I write a track or two just to get to know it – but with Keyscape by Spectrasonics, those one or two tracks turned into eight. It’s such a great library of keyboard instruments that I couldn’t help using it to explore a more minimalist, contemporary style. I was so inspired that the entire album took just two weeks to write, record, mix and master.
As the title suggests, the album explores the idea of numbers and codes. I wanted to use those concepts to show the wide variety of moods and sounds keyboard instruments can create. The tracks are titled by the number of instruments they use; each track is composed of blocks of musical ideas that are repeated, moved around, and manipulated, or of a single idea or repeating chord pattern that I explore through texture and rhythm. “Tetralogy I” and “II” also explore how multiple instruments can combine to create patterns – many of the “heard” melodies and basslines are actually a combination of several instruments. This is what I’m going to talk about in this post.
“Tetralogy I” is a piece for four pianos. I used Keyscape’s LA Custom C7 grand piano for the recording – and I used the VI tools to customise each one to sound slightly different, so that it feels like there are four different pianos playing. (I’ll talk about manipulating instruments in a future post, too!)
I started by coming up with an idea for one piano – a riff, if you like. These were short ideas (two or four bars long) that I then repeated to make an eight-bar section. I wanted building blocks of music, so that each piano could be layered on top of the first to fill out a pattern. I could then change one or two of the patterns to change the sound slightly – or change all of the patterns for a more prominent shift in the music. After writing a few patterns for one piano, I built the next ones around the first, so that a bassline or melodic pattern appeared across two or three of the instruments. I might make Piano II and Piano IV, share a bassline, for instance, by making their patterns run up and down the keyboard in opposite directions.
I kept going, layering corresponding patterns (for Piano II, then III, then IV) on top of one another until I’d written the whole piece. It was a challenge to fit all the parts together without it sounding too muddy or cluttered – but it was a fun challenge, like a really tough jigsaw puzzle.
So that there was a bit of structure to the piece, I sometimes returned to previous patterns, rather than constantly creating new ones. Occasionally, I kept a pattern in two or three of the pianos and added something a little different on top to stop it from being too repetitive – a difficult task when the whole concept is repeating patterns!
Here’s a closer look at the ending of the piece. Firstly, take a look and a listen to what Piano I is doing (don’t worry if you don’t read music; that’s what the audio clips are for!):
Piano II sounds like this:
Piano III is having fun playing this:
And Piano IV returns to playing the opening pattern (but where that was in a minor key, this part is transposed into the major to give the ending an uplifting feeling):
What do they all sound like when put together? Like this:
Hopefully, that explains a little about the process of writing Cypher. It was a lot of fun, even if pieces like “Tetralogy I” were challenging at times. I’ll be back soon with another post, probably something a little easier on the brain!
Sam x
Like what you hear? You can stream Cypher on Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Napster and many other platforms, or buy it on iTunes, Amazon, Pro Studio Masters and more!
*delete as applicable
Well, I’m back with another blog post. This time, I’ll be talking a little about how I composed some of my latest album, Cypher. I’m going to look at the first track on the album, “Tetralogy I”, and deconstruct a section of it. In the press release for the album, I talked about how Cypher was never intended to be an album. It started out as a trial of a new virtual instrument (VI). Every time I buy a new sample library or VI (which I’ll explain in a later post), I write a track or two just to get to know it – but with Keyscape by Spectrasonics, those one or two tracks turned into eight. It’s such a great library of keyboard instruments that I couldn’t help using it to explore a more minimalist, contemporary style. I was so inspired that the entire album took just two weeks to write, record, mix and master.
As the title suggests, the album explores the idea of numbers and codes. I wanted to use those concepts to show the wide variety of moods and sounds keyboard instruments can create. The tracks are titled by the number of instruments they use; each track is composed of blocks of musical ideas that are repeated, moved around, and manipulated, or of a single idea or repeating chord pattern that I explore through texture and rhythm. “Tetralogy I” and “II” also explore how multiple instruments can combine to create patterns – many of the “heard” melodies and basslines are actually a combination of several instruments. This is what I’m going to talk about in this post.
“Tetralogy I” is a piece for four pianos. I used Keyscape’s LA Custom C7 grand piano for the recording – and I used the VI tools to customise each one to sound slightly different, so that it feels like there are four different pianos playing. (I’ll talk about manipulating instruments in a future post, too!)
I started by coming up with an idea for one piano – a riff, if you like. These were short ideas (two or four bars long) that I then repeated to make an eight-bar section. I wanted building blocks of music, so that each piano could be layered on top of the first to fill out a pattern. I could then change one or two of the patterns to change the sound slightly – or change all of the patterns for a more prominent shift in the music. After writing a few patterns for one piano, I built the next ones around the first, so that a bassline or melodic pattern appeared across two or three of the instruments. I might make Piano II and Piano IV, share a bassline, for instance, by making their patterns run up and down the keyboard in opposite directions.
I kept going, layering corresponding patterns (for Piano II, then III, then IV) on top of one another until I’d written the whole piece. It was a challenge to fit all the parts together without it sounding too muddy or cluttered – but it was a fun challenge, like a really tough jigsaw puzzle.
So that there was a bit of structure to the piece, I sometimes returned to previous patterns, rather than constantly creating new ones. Occasionally, I kept a pattern in two or three of the pianos and added something a little different on top to stop it from being too repetitive – a difficult task when the whole concept is repeating patterns!
Here’s a closer look at the ending of the piece. Firstly, take a look and a listen to what Piano I is doing (don’t worry if you don’t read music; that’s what the audio clips are for!):
Piano II sounds like this:
Piano III is having fun playing this:
And Piano IV returns to playing the opening pattern (but where that was in a minor key, this part is transposed into the major to give the ending an uplifting feeling):
What do they all sound like when put together? Like this:
Hopefully, that explains a little about the process of writing Cypher. It was a lot of fun, even if pieces like “Tetralogy I” were challenging at times. I’ll be back soon with another post, probably something a little easier on the brain!
Sam x
Like what you hear? You can stream Cypher on Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Napster and many other platforms, or buy it on iTunes, Amazon, Pro Studio Masters and more!
*delete as applicable
Thursday, 10 May 2018
Top Trips
Hello, all!
Sorry I’ve been a little quiet. I’ve been away seeing my family and enjoying the sun. Sun! Actual, like, summer-style sun. On the coast. It was lovely.
(I’m back in the studio now, though, and there’s much less sun in here.)
I was staying with my brother, Dan (pictured below pulling his most alluring of faces) – the man responsible for mixing my music. The normal process is that I write, make sure everything is as close as possible to how I’d like the finished product to sound, and then I hand it to Dan. He waves his magic wand and says a spell (or something – I don’t know how it works – mixing is an ancient, mystic art) and sends it back to me sounding all sparkly and great. I’ll go into our working relationship more in a later post. Who knows – I might even get him to write a guest post about the process of mixing on here!
We didn’t set foot in his studio this time, though – although I did leave him with a hard drive full of work. Instead, we enjoyed a barbecue with the rest of our family. It’s such a hard life. I think Eddie enjoyed himself, too.
TTFN,
Sam x
Saturday, 28 April 2018
Fang You For the Music
You may be aware that I recently scored a theatrical adaptation of Dracula, penned by the one and only Phil Ford (The Sarah Jane Adventures, Wizards vs Aliens) and directed by Chris Finney (Wizards vs Aliens’ very own Caractacus Crowe!).
By necessity, I worked entirely from script – I didn’t even see the play until closing night! Normally, I’d go in during rehearsals and sculpt the music around what was being done on stage, timing scene changes and the like. That wasn’t possible this time, so I just had to use past experience and Phil’s script to guide me. Even though it was a little “seat of the pants”, it was a lot of fun to do. And luckily, it all worked well.
Phil’s adaptation stuck very closely to Bram Stoker’s novel so it was nice and dark. Chris and I tried out a few different ideas, but settled on a modern-sounding, synth-based score despite the play’s being set in the Victorian era. Here’s a little excerpt:
I used a lot of dark drones backed up with a bowed piano (one played by running a bow across the strings, rather than by hitting them in the usual way) and some ebow electric guitar (which I recorded with my own fair hands, despite not having practiced the guitar in… some time…). What’s an ebow? Pretty much exactly what it sounds like: an electric bow. It uses a feedback circuit (among other things) to create string vibrations when placed near the guitar’s pickups, so that instead of a “plucked” sound, you get an eerie, bowed sound.
There were a few times that I used sul ponticello strings to eerie effect. That’s a technique where the players play close to the bridge of the instrument to create a glassy, unstable sound; in fact, dependent on how hard and how close to the bridge the player plays, sometimes the notes actually jump entire octaves. I also used a grand piano and an upright piano, which I put through a number of delays to create a disorienting effect, and a harmonium, which I mangled a bit with various plugins so that it was both familiar and alien-sounding. (I’ll talk more about plugins, including using delays, later on).
Chris also wanted to explore the idea of a heartbeat – appropriate enough for a vampire story! – so I used a kick drum and two synths to create a musical approximation of a heartbeat that I could play in or out of time with the music, dependent on what effect we wanted to create. I also got the chance to write some Victorian parlour music – a nice little waltz for string quartet for the scene set in Lucy’s engagement party. Not something you get to do every day!
Overall the music, lighting, sound design, direction, and acting created a great show, and one I was really proud to have been a part of. And the music will live on – I’m currently reworking it slightly, and it will be released in time for Halloween as a library album – one of many I’ll tell you about in a future post!
Sam x
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