Titan Line Audio

The original scene from “Tombstone” has no music until the transition at “let’s not bother ’bout the luggage”, so I took it as an opportunity to work around the dialog and action, and use some music devices to work through the scenes.

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I enjoy the work of Jerry Goldsmith, and the score to “The 13th Warrior” is no exception (notwithstanding the fact that I would love to hear Graeme Revell’s rejected score for the film). It’s difficult to believe that this scene was un-scored in the original film. But that makes the job just a bit easier for me.

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Like all of the other films I use for spec cues, I really like “Three Kings” particularly the scenes (among which I slice and dice a bit for this cue) that set up the series of events for the remainder of the movie. It’s a very tight (and slightly deceptive) first act.

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This is another spec clip meant to explore some opportunities for mixing genres - this time it’s a combination of flamenco styled guitar and percussion with a definite electronic backbeat.

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This video clip is actually an MP4 that’s embedded within the WordTube plugin. Unfortunately the streaming bit is not set properly on this (older) video file, so it will download the entire clip to your browser cache before allowing you to view it. I’ll fix that with a new version off the original master clip sometime over the next week or so. The good news is that once it’s downloaded, you can click the FULL SCREEN button on the right side of the transport bar and see a pretty decent rendering of the video clip - by web standards, at least.

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Since I’m spending the week between Christmas and New Year away from the main studio, I decided to put together a  road-worthy kit to take with me for sonic sketching on the road. Of course there’s the obligatory laptop, along with Cubase, 32-key USB MIDI keyboard, and Korg nanoPAD, and an external hard drive for audio. I decided to use the built-in audio chip set on the laptop, mainly because of space considerations - but also, with the ASIO4ALL driver, I’m getting some really respectable latencies - certainly good enough for idea generation. I’m sticking with set of quality cans - Sony’s venerable MDR-V600 headphones - again to make packing easier, but also to keep from annoying other people in the house while I’m riffing and tracking. I also brought along an external keyboard with the Cubase commands overlaid on the keys. I’ve become so accustomed to the SmartAV Tango that I’ve practically forgotten the Cubase QWERTY command layout.

TLA's portable sketchpad

I’ve had the Arturia Analog Factory Experience keyboard for a while, but only brought it out occasionally. This kind of situation is precisely what it’s made for, and I definitely appreciate being able to plug in a USB cable right into the laptop and wail away, albeit on a 32-note keyboard. The nanoPAD is the latest addition, and I enjoy the touch pads for tapping out percussion parts, and the gray touch pad to the left is a great X-Y controller (with after touch). It will be fun using that for imparting some wild expression passages on all kinds of parts. I just downloaded the editor to remap the keys, so that will be something to try out.

This will also be a chance to gain some familiarity with the built-in instruments in the latest version of Cubase. I just didn’t have time to install more than the Native Instruments Kore Player libraries before I left, so this will be a chance to explore some new sonic territory. I find the Spector and Mystic synths to be very interesting, but I haven’t had a chance to dig into them all that much - this week may be my chance to do that. And then there’s all of the garden variety stuff from HALionOne, which I’ll use for the basic tracks before migrating the project back into the main studio and re-mixing with the larger/more detailed libraries on the main DAWs there.

The last and most important piece of this puzzle was the latest addition - the M-Audio Studio Pack backpack - which fits *all* of this gear into it - and is small enough to be used as carry-on baggage for flights. It’s really great to have everything compartmentalized, so it makes for easy unpacking/re-packing when going through security. I think there are a few TSA security people that are running out to the local music store to pick up a nanoPAD today…

There was a time when my trusty M-Audio BX-5 speakers were a mainstay on my desk. While not the most elaborate near fields, they had a decent range of controls for tuning their response, and seemed to give an honest acoustic portrayal of what’s piped through them - for their price range. But with a recent spate of surround work, they managed to get pushed to the back of my gear closet and have been gathering dust for some time. I had grown accustomed to the sound of the LX-4 5.1 surround system, and often used them for stereo work by simply routing to them in a 2.1 configuration.

Of course it’s much better to check mixes through multiple speaker sets, to increase the chances that a problem hiding on one set of speakers might somehow emerge on another, making for a more even mix that will translate well to “the real world”. Now that I’ve installed the SmartAV Tango and an extension bay, there’s a lot of new flexibility in routing through Nuendo’s Control Room function that makes checking mixes through multiple speaker sets a real breeze. I’ll be cutting a video or two to show how that works, but before any of that could happen I really need to have everything set up and calibrated.

M-Audio BX-5 speaker setup and calibration

As usual, it took a great deal more time than I had originally expected. That’s because, of course, once I moved the left and right LX-4 speakers around to make room for the BX-5s, they needed to be re-calibrated as well. Plus I think the SmartAV console is entering into the acoustic picture more than I expected. I think there are some additional things I can do to make the room a more “friendly” acoustic space, and reduce the amount tweaking I would have to do in order to get things dialed in. My first guess is that the large angled surface of the Tango console has done something to change the initial reflection of sound in the room, which can affect overall sound perception fairly dramatically. I think I’ll move some of the acoustic treatment around to compensate.

In the past I’ve managed to generate some controversy around statements I’ve made regarding the amount of money people should spend on near field monitors versus the budget for acoustic design/measurement/treatment in the room.  I believe that a lot of folks get caught up in an acoustic “arms race” of sorts, wasting time and money and in essence trying to solve the wrong problems with the wrong tools. And here I am at the limit of what’s possible in my space, trying to apply those very maxims to my situation. I’m just about “maxed out” on the amount of money I can spend on speakers *or* acoustic treatment for the studio I’m in. I might just have to learn to live with the changes and “adjust” my ears to compensate. It will take some initial changes, some listening to old and new material (plus some favorite music that I know well as a baseline) and see what needs to be done next. At a minimum, it will give me an excuse to create some new music for my reel - but all of that will come with the New Year.

Anything more than that and I’ll have to seriously consider moving to a larger space and setting up a mid-field arrangement. Here’s to hoping that the projects in 2009 will support such a move. Until then, I’ll keep playing, composing, arranging, recording, mixing, and of course listening and adjusting.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here - dealing with some personal and logistical issues over the past few weeks which kept me busy. The latest bit of studio news is the installation of an extension to my SmartAV Tango console.

Tango Extension Bay at Titan Line Audio

I’m really excited about having the additional 12 physical faders, as well as a second 22″ touch screen surface to work with. This is going to greatly expand capabilities here. Look for a series of videos demonstrating the Tango with Nuendo and Cubase early in 2009!

How cool is this! Celtx is an end-to-end pre-production software package that is OPEN SOURCE. I know, I know - I’m *just a composer* and not supposed to care about this - but I’ve got a script in mind and have been looking around at the solutions out there. I thought about using an MS Word template - and Julie uses Screenwriter which I considered, so we could send files back and forth and review each other’s work. But this seems like a much more robust (and extensible) solution. And it’s FREE!

There’s also a lot of options for collaboration and secure backups online - it seems they’ve really thought through the ways to leverage current technologies to make this approach really work. The creative and the geek in me are summarily impressed. I wish that I would have made this discovery *before* I started the industrial video project in my studio. This beats the HELL out of doing everything with an Excel spreadsheet.

http://www.celtx.com

I’ve got to give props to my friend Luis Sinibaldi for recommending this on his blog. Thanks, Luis!