You ever spend way too long getting one tiny section right…
and then realize no one listening will even notice it?
Perfectionism… maybe.
But it still has to feel right.
Do you keep tweaking—or move on?
Composing
Discuss, share content, offer tips and advice on hardware, software, style, strategies, process, work-flow and the business of scoring a film, video or theater production
Liked by Morgan Aitken and one other
Liked by Michael Dzurak
Your *Inspiring* (NOT) Quote Of the Day
"Just as the synthesizer, Photoshop and CGI revolutionized sound and visuals, AI will be a boon to the creatives who are ready to lean in,"
Mark Zukerberg
Anybody with a difference of opinion?
Michael Dzurak
- 6 hours ago
If he means that AI is a tool to be learned and mastered, then I agree. It's not some miracle tech that will just make magic happen. Photoshop takes time to learn. As does a synthsizer. The possibilties are cool though. Same with AI.
The title says it all. Although I am interested in knowing how a synthesize...
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Liked by Ioannis Gogonas and 3 others
Instrument / Medium for composing
What do you use most when you’re composing?
Piano, guitar, voice notes, full DAW… something else?
And is there a different instrument or setup you wish you used more?
Morgan Aitken
- 2 weeks ago
Phone. It's easier to carry than a pipe organ.
Harold Ferré
- 2 weeks ago
I'm not a music composer, but I still love playing guitar and piano. To all you production guys who can play every instrument? I love you guys. But I'm also a killer DJ!
Hello!! My name is IOANNIS GOGONAS. I am using mostly my MIdi keyboard, I FOCUS A LOT and I use CUBASE. I LOVE MUSIC !!
Hiya Ioannis Gogonas ! Cubase is the bees' knees. What makes it your all-caps DAW of choice?
CUBASE IS VERY GOOD IN THE USER INTERFACE. IT IS A GREAT DAW!! I LIKE IT AND YOU CAN DO MANY THINGS WITH VIRTUAL LIBRARIES ( VIRTUAL STUDIO TECHNOLOGY LIBRARIES ).
Writer Liaison at Stage 32 ♦ Screenwriter, Producer
2 days ago
Super Mario Galaxy Movie Composer Brian Tyler Worked on the Movie While in the Hospital
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie composer Brian Tyler kept a secret from the team behind the new Nintendo movie: He worked on “a lot of the main themes” while in the hospital.
(https://www.ign.com/articles/super-mario-galaxy-movie-composer-brian-tyl...)...
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Short Video Game style Animation
Hey folks! Just finished the music for this little gem Created by Blender and scored by moi. Hope you like it!
Morgan Aitken
- 5 days ago
Just finished? I'm thinking the wrong video got linked. What played is something I saw on Blender Studio years ago. But it's brill animation and soundtrack.
Michael Teisan
- 5 days ago
Morgan Aitken Haha, yeah the video was made a while ago, but the score is original and done by me. I kept the credits proper at the end. The only thing that's different about it is all the music and s...
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Writer Liaison at Stage 32 ♦ Screenwriter, Producer
7 days ago
The Music of Project Hail Mary, with Composer Daniel Pemberton
Composer Daniel Pemberton discusses his inventive new original score for “Project Hail Mary.” He breaks down how he built a custom musical language for the film using everything from wooden blocks, body percussion, treated vocals, bowls of water, and even a squeaky water tap recorded on his iPhone....
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Music concrete - something I recall from my heady uni daze. Running around getting real world sounds, usually from construction sites, bringing them back to the studio and sequencing them into somethi...
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FREE Webinar – April 1st: How to Navigate the Cannes Film Festival Marché du Film
This Wednesday, April 1st, Stage 32 is hosting a FREE webinar you don’t want to miss:
How to Navigate the Cannes Film Festival Marché du Film
We’re bringing in Guillaume Esmiol, Executive Director of the Marché d...
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Is Melody Dead: Have We All Become Loop Zombies?
Hey, how many of you still collect little musical gremlins?
A riff. A motif. A strange little tune that wanders in, lights a cigarette in your brain, and refuses to leave.
Do you squirrel those things away and later build something properly obscene out of them? A cue, a song, a score, a whole piece?
Or...
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Bruce Bray
- 2 weeks ago
Melody is not dead to me. at least when it comes to composing that is. I still have an old school approach and try to mix that in with the new way of composing as well. I find it now filmmakers are mo...
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I'm glad to hear it Bruce Bray ! It's definitely not dead to me, either. In fact it's the movie soundtracks that are built on melody rather than sound design that I remember the best. For instance I m...
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Ted Nichols, Famed Hanna-Barbera Composer on ‘The Flintstones’ and ‘Scooby-Doo,’ Dies at 97
He may not have been a Film Composer but he was very influential. We heard his works every Saturday morning. RIP https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/ted-nichols-dead-scooby-doo......
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Morgan Aitken
- 2 weeks ago
So sad, the greats are leaving us.
Harold Ferré
- 2 weeks ago
My deepest condolences! Rest in peace, Ted Nichols!
Songs You Don’t Just Write… You Live
There are songs you write…
…and then there are songs you live.
I wrote this piano piece, Ember, during a moment where I felt something deeply… but couldn’t act on it.
That quiet intensity.
That ache that doesn’t go away.
That kind of feeling that just… lives in you.
Music became the only place it could ex...
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Marie Hatten
- 2 weeks ago
Kat Spencer It's beautiful and haunting.
Gave it a listen. Thanks for sharing this, Kat Spencer !
What I liked is that it doesn’t lunge for cheap drama. It stays in that suspended ache, like a thought you can’t quite put down and can’t quite...
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AI in composing?
What do you guys think about AI use in composing and songwriting? Do you think that it should be limited/banned from commercial use, or embrace it with open arms? I do understand the difference between AI generated songs and AI tools.
Robert D. Carver
- 2 weeks ago
Morgan, I research the pre-existing music most closely associated with the historical period and location in which my script is set. For example, If the musical takes place in the High Medieval (14th-...
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Nico Abondolo
- 2 weeks ago
To echo, Robert D. Carver's point, researching pre-existing historical music might well enhance a period script. A trained ear can pair styles beautifully. On the other hand, a historical contrast mig...
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Robert D. Carver
- 2 weeks ago
Nico, AI is only a tool and should be used with discretion, if at all. Composers--or songwriters--should rely on their own talent and training.
Nico Abondolo
- 2 weeks ago
I definitely second your view.
Robert D. Carver
- 2 weeks ago
I would no more trust AI to write lyrics than the man in the moon!
What was the most FUN piece of music you ever composed?
It's the weekend (well almost) and that's usually when I can compose. My day job consists of protecting families and we get into some pretty heavy stuff. Yesterday, I had to help a wife talk through logisitics and realities of her husband passing from Stage 4 cancer. So, this weekend, I'm sure I'll...
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1 person likes this
My tweaking has both decreased and/or become more streamlined since I spent much less time on it than in my early scripts. I was once on page 60 of a script, had watched some interesting vlogs concern...
Expand commentMy tweaking has both decreased and/or become more streamlined since I spent much less time on it than in my early scripts. I was once on page 60 of a script, had watched some interesting vlogs concerning tight writing, so I went back to the beginning, applied the tips and now had 56 pages of the same script.
Doesn't happen these days.
1 person likes this
Great Q, Kat Spencer ! I tend to be in the perfectionism camp. What about you?
2 people like this
Kat Spencer I have discovered that when I ignore those 'perfectionistic tendencies' at the early stage of composing, I usually end up going back to that point after mixing and mastering to do what I w...
Expand commentKat Spencer I have discovered that when I ignore those 'perfectionistic tendencies' at the early stage of composing, I usually end up going back to that point after mixing and mastering to do what I would have done earlier. And in some cases where I didn't, I find myself feeling some level of regret whenever I hear the finished piece. So, it's better to tweak till it feels right, than to move on and regret later. The exception is when I'm on a tight schedule.
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Ah, the tight schedule, Emmanuel Obiejemba ! I know it well, and the accompanying line, "We'll fix it in mix!"
1 person likes this
Morgan Aitken The delusion of "fix it in the mix"