The opportunity to score this film came about a bit strangely. I got an email from a masters student at the London Film School saying that she needed a composer for her short film project, outlining the plot, and that it had to be ready within the next week. I had no idea how she had got hold of me, but I replied enthusiastically saying that I would really like to know more, and could be available for the task. She also included a phone number so I sent a text too since it seemed that time was of the essence, suggesting that we could meet and talk about it later that day if she was around. It made sense, since I moved to London to be available for scenarios just like this one. This all went down well, so we met for coffee, and chatted and discussed the film. It already seemed sure that I would be scoring it.
How did this happen?
This was an interesting turn of events. Finding a project has never been so nice! It usually involves searching, pitching and waiting, and none of these had happened this time. I wanted to know how this had happened so I asked. First off, it transpired that I had sent an email to the London Film School nearly a year before. I had only a received a “we will pass on your details” response at the time and nothing more, but had presumably ended up on some kind of list of available composers for the students. This had come round a year later when Franca, the director of this film, had needed somebody and messaged some composers from this list. I had been the fastest to respond, and the only one who had got in touch by phone as well as email. I was also the only one who suggested to meet. Naturally she was interested in somebody who really wanted to be involved, particularly after some previous bad experience with composers who communicated poorly and could in fact disappear entirely half-way through a score.
Luck had been on my side, but it had also been on the side of the other composers on that list. The rest was on me and through being genuine in my enthusiasm to score the film, being prompt in my communication, and having faith in my own ability to deliver what was needed, I had the opportunity to collaborate and to meet somebody new and interesting. Luck is only one piece of the whole puzzle, and each piece is necessary.
The Score
While I can't show you more than 30 seconds of the film at once due to copyright, here is a short clip showcasing some music.
Franca had been clear from the beginning on wanting the cello, and I thought this was a fine choice. It can be a very dark and moody instrument when it needs to be. Very evocative. This was exactly what the film needed to support it. The visual style served as a further pointer as I thought it would be able to support a quirky, slightly avante-garde sound. There's some moody piano in there too, and some cool piano textures which are made using granular synthesis; a process which I'm really keen on for texture effects which blend well with the overall tone. Since the whole film is just less than thirteen minutes including credits, there was relatively little music needed, using just one thematic idea. The film was also working well already- I didn't have to try and “fix” anything, only to work with what was there.
Working With a Cellist
I took the opportunity to record this with a live musician, since it was a small score with just the one lead instrument. I asked a good friend of mine who is assistant to a composer here in London and works with a lot of live musicians who would be his first choice for the job. The really cool thing about this is that I still went through the process of making a midi mockup for the drafting process, meaning I can show you the direct comparison between the synthesised mockup, and the score as played by a real cellist, the excellent Peter Gregson. This comparison is something which you very rarely get to hear, if at all. Listen below, it's well worth it!
Talk to me about that because in my opinion the difference is huge and the two are incomparable. I think this must be clear to anyone who hears the two side-by-side. I was so glad that I made this decision to get the music played for real because the result speaks so much better for the film, and for my own standards. You can hear each version individually here, for your own comparison.
I learned plenty as well. It's great to hear how a player treats a score particularly in comparison to how it sounds when programmed; that's a very valuable experience which I intend to repeat as often as possible. Each time I'll get a stronger knowledge of how my score will ultimately sound. Working with real players is really the only way to get fully used to how they perform, and reaffirms that virtual instruments are not at all the same thing and ultimately don't sound the same. Some things didn't turn out quite as I had wanted or anticipated because of this lack of experience, but I am still a hundred times happier with the live recorded version than with the midi score.
Second important potentially embarrassing lesson is to get someone else to proofread the score! I went over it plenty of times before sending it to be recorded and there were still really bad mistakes in two or three places. Proofreading your own work is a bit rubbish and having someone else's eyes on it will work wonders. They'll see things when you're too used to it and have lost the ability to do so. If mistakes like this crept into an orchestral session, I'd have a real job on my hands.
You can have a look at the PDFs of the score here-
I had to work on making it really clear since this was a remote recording and I wouldn't be there to give instructions. Speed is also important since good players are invariably expensive, so it's best to get it right and wrapped up as quickly as possible.
As always I hope you enjoyed. Get talking to me and have a look at my social-y links below. They're fun!
There's a massive difference Been playing the violin (classical) for 20 years and it just sounds weird that you can't hear the bow when listening to the midi version. You can clearly hear the real cello changing the pressure on the bow during the note and the midi veriosn sounds so flat because of this.
On November 20 2015 10:30 loginn wrote: There's a massive difference Been playing the violin (classical) for 20 years and it just sounds weird that you can't hear the bow when listening to the midi version. You can clearly hear the real cello changing the pressure on the bow during the note and the midi veriosn sounds so flat because of this.
The flatness jumped out at me more than anything, I agree. The cellist has such fine control over the bow pressure for musical effect whereas there isn't a hint of that really in the midi performance. I really have no way to get that into the midi either, too many dynamic rises and falls would sound so weird, and I'd probably end up with phasing issues as the samples rapidly fade between different dynamic layers. Another huge problem.
20 years is a long time to be playing, do you play with an orchestra or any other ensemble?
On November 20 2015 03:03 JieXian wrote: the dream
and now you're back in your forte
Thanks man!
I listened to your track for the CS:GO video, I particularly liked the way the Act 2 music begins. It really feels American Revolution-y in a marching kind of way, that was really successful.
I would say that throughout a three minute piece, three distinct acts is too many and it loses cohesiveness. Have you done many exercises to strengthen your longer form thematic development? I know that's something which has really helped me- I struggled for a long time with theme development and it was hard to create longer structures using the same theme material.
Also, as an aside, the logo thing at the end is really cool in how it responds to the sound. How did you do that??
On November 20 2015 03:03 JieXian wrote: the dream
and now you're back in your forte
Thanks man!
I listened to your track for the CS:GO video, I particularly liked the way the Act 2 music begins. It really feels American Revolution-y in a marching kind of way, that was really successful.
I would say that throughout a three minute piece, three distinct acts is too many and it loses cohesiveness. Have you done many exercises to strengthen your longer form thematic development? I know that's something which has really helped me- I struggled for a long time with theme development and it was hard to create longer structures using the same theme material.
Also, as an aside, the logo thing at the end is really cool in how it responds to the sound. How did you do that??
Thanks!
Yes I do agree that 3 themes is a lot for such a short video, I did it because of I thought it was suitable for the director's plan
The plan was to have 3 acts
Act 1: Americans getting murdered – Americans usually don't do well Act 2: American highlights – hope: 3 American teams have managed to qualify for this Dreamhack Act 3: European highlights - The hard climb to the top, the challenge ahead
I personally can't think of a smooth way to do this while maintaining a contrast ie Act 1: sad, Act 2 hope, Act 3: the villain threatens the hope. I am very interested in your suggestions and ideas that I'm sure you already have in mind The most I could do, which I did, was to keep everything in the same key and in a similar chord progression.
Somewhere a while back around the time my cousin bought a violin, I remember reading something about how classical stringed instrument players are trained to automatically use vibrato on most notes, for exactly this reason; they do it so the notes don't sound flat and annoying and vary the dynamic actively for expressiveness (hence the stereotypical sawing "screech" sound of a bad violin player). One of those little things that no one ever talks about but you'd know it if you learned the instrument. It's pretty stark to hear the difference directly compared like this though, and it goes beyond just analog recording of the instrument vs. digital reproduction. The cellist is making a huge difference himself, and it's very interesting to hear it.
Also, "relatively little vibrato" = still quite a lot of vibrato? I guess I'm just conditioned to listening to guitars too much where any vibrato is pretty distinct, or the cellist was just making a judgement call since he would know better what it would sound like than me.
The sound of the real cello is much richer, but I don't think the midi is bad by any means. I don't see you mention the acoustics of the room you're recording the instrument in, nor microphone impedance/placement/quality you're recording with. I think those 2 things matter a lot if you want to replace your, in my opinion, already okay midi file.
I'm going to use your blog as an outlet for a quick rant as I think it's fit here... + Show Spoiler +
I've been asked to give a piano concert at the end of December and I've been working on and off on translating (orchestral) music to piano. Luckily I already have most of the work done for me, but I'm trying to create something even more closer to the original. I pretty much have to get it done by this week so I can fully focus on practice, as it is a piece I'd like to play at my concert. Something that is really bothering me is that once I have finally figured out how I want to play a certain part on piano, I cannot recreate in midi close enough to what I'm playing. I really want to be able to listen to my re-arrangement, because it helps me tremendously with memorizing the interpretation I want to show at my concert. It's driving me nuts. If only I could just record the essential parts live and then use those recordings to overwrite parts in my midi. Ultimately I wanna make a video-recording at home after I finish the concert. Do you know of any 'cheap' quality microphones? My current digital camera has a really shitty microphone for recording. :\
On November 23 2015 21:52 Peeano wrote: The sound of the real cello is much richer, but I don't think the midi is bad by any means. I don't see you mention the acoustics of the room you're recording the instrument in, nor microphone impedance/placement/quality you're recording with. I think those 2 things matter a lot if you want to replace your, in my opinion, already okay midi file.
I'm going to use your blog as an outlet for a quick rant as I think it's fit here... + Show Spoiler +
I've been asked to give a piano concert at the end of December and I've been working on and off on translating (orchestral) music to piano. Luckily I already have most of the work done for me, but I'm trying to create something even more closer to the original. I pretty much have to get it done by this week so I can fully focus on practice, as it is a piece I'd like to play at my concert. Something that is really bothering me is that once I have finally figured out how I want to play a certain part on piano, I cannot recreate in midi close enough to what I'm playing. I really want to be able to listen to my re-arrangement, because it helps me tremendously with memorizing the interpretation I want to show at my concert. It's driving me nuts. If only I could just record the essential parts live and then use those recordings to overwrite parts in my midi. Ultimately I wanna make a video-recording at home after I finish the concert. Do you know of any 'cheap' quality microphones? My current digital camera has a really shitty microphone for recording. :\
I didn't mention the room because it was a remote recording that actually took place at the cellist's studio which I have no info about. Same goes for the mic. I do agree with you that it's not worth replacing a MIDI recording like this one with a poor quality recording, but anyone set up to offer remote sessions should be offering high quality raw recordings, in a sympathetically chosen room and a quality mic for the purpose. Peter Gregson who recorded this for me is a highly regarded session cellist in London, so I safely presumed that his setup would be of high quality before I booked him.
The best solution to your midi problem would be a stage piano with MIDI output recording directly into your DAW. I can see why you would be hesitant to do this given that you already have an actual piano, but there really isn't any other way to get truly human performance timing into MIDI aside from playing it in.
As far as recording goes, I've used a Zoom Q3 HD in the past for recording videos with good quality sound, and the audio results were genuinely impressive even closeup or at high volume. This was recording a metal band, not piano, but I think it would still give good results.
On November 22 2015 02:23 Ghost151 wrote: Somewhere a while back around the time my cousin bought a violin, I remember reading something about how classical stringed instrument players are trained to automatically use vibrato on most notes, for exactly this reason; they do it so the notes don't sound flat and annoying and vary the dynamic actively for expressiveness (hence the stereotypical sawing "screech" sound of a bad violin player). One of those little things that no one ever talks about but you'd know it if you learned the instrument. It's pretty stark to hear the difference directly compared like this though, and it goes beyond just analog recording of the instrument vs. digital reproduction. The cellist is making a huge difference himself, and it's very interesting to hear it.
Also, "relatively little vibrato" = still quite a lot of vibrato? I guess I'm just conditioned to listening to guitars too much where any vibrato is pretty distinct, or the cellist was just making a judgement call since he would know better what it would sound like than me.
Neat stuff.
I think there's a definite judgement call going on with the vibrato in the performance, but it could go a lot bigger than that. I'm also a long-time guitar player, and I hadn't thought of that bias! I have this terrible tendency to over-vibrato notes, and have to battle it often because, you're right, any vibrato on the electric guitar really comes through and has to be chosen tastefully. Ahh how my band-mates used to tell me off...
One of the first instruments that I actually learned properly was violin, but that's long enough ago now that I don't really have the instinct of a player any more, having been mainly a guitar player for the last 12 years at least.
On November 20 2015 10:30 loginn wrote: There's a massive difference Been playing the violin (classical) for 20 years and it just sounds weird that you can't hear the bow when listening to the midi version. You can clearly hear the real cello changing the pressure on the bow during the note and the midi veriosn sounds so flat because of this.
The flatness jumped out at me more than anything, I agree. The cellist has such fine control over the bow pressure for musical effect whereas there isn't a hint of that really in the midi performance. I really have no way to get that into the midi either, too many dynamic rises and falls would sound so weird, and I'd probably end up with phasing issues as the samples rapidly fade between different dynamic layers. Another huge problem.
20 years is a long time to be playing, do you play with an orchestra or any other ensemble?
I mostly played quartets once i graduated, but i'm no professionnal. Did you write anything for a quartet ? I'd love to hear it
EPT
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