So many people hold their cards close to their chests... You sir, have my respect (and not just mine I imagine). Share, and the world shares with you... Keep it up.
Tom, For as gracious as you are thanking the people that helped you get into the business of composing you have pushed it forward 100X! If I’m ever accepting an award for Best Original Music Score I’ll be thanking you before my family. ;)
Tom, thank you sooooo much, this is God-sent. I’m an actor but I started out as a singer-songwriter-arranger and after doing a few musicals ended up mostly acting. I have now written and directed a movie and decided to go back to my first love and write the score for it. After 15 years the learning curve is rough but with the impressive generosity of such talented composers like you, I can count on a wealth of resources. Wishing you the utmost best!!!! Bruno
Hi Tom, about the horn attack problem, "Hollywood Brass" offers a "Sus. Accent" for all brass sections. We save time and tracks because there is no need to add short notes. Sincerely, Johnny.
Just thought you should know if you notice your subs are going down, UA-cam removed me from your subscriber list for no apparent reason, i was still subscribed yesterday and was looking for your dark tower vids in my sub feed and couldn't see you so had to resub. I pulled a tommy wiseau and yelled 'this is bulshit! i did naahht!..... oh hai mark' and now i can enjoy the junkie again and ive hit the notification bell this time too. Thanks for the great educational tools Tom! You're an asset. Broden
I always thought how he composed and worked while i listened to your compositions over the years. Now it is very nice to access beautiful valuable information. I love you, master of wonders!
Those vids are precious! Thanks, Tom :) as per the film itself - great picture, I really enjoyed, but not enough for me... wanna get some quality 3 hours of Roland's story :) really looking forward for TV show of DT in the future :) cheers!
Hi Tom, I have a question for you, can you please explain what happens AFTER your cues are approved, how it goes from Cubase to the studio and then what they do with them, please show us how you mix the stems from Cubase to Pro Tools to the way they are exported and delivered to the studio and if any additional live orchestral music is added, where this goes in the workflow? Perhaps a good subject for one of your excellent videos? Thanks!
Hey Tom. A lot of composers in interviews, biographies, etc, say that they got their start by apprenticing under a working composer. What are successful working composers looking for in an apprentice?
Hi Tom, i am a big admirer of ur music works and the way u teach ppl... i would kindly request you to make a video on Spotting music cues with cubase using markers time sign tempos etc. And the biggest thing is after u set up ur cues in various time signs and tempo changes, if the director wants u to change certain cues , how do yu do that in cubase without affecting the other cues sync points with the video and bars etc. I have tried to figure this out in all forums but in vain! Since ur a thorough user of cubase i hope you would help in this... Thank you.
You mentioned Piano in Hell, So how do you choose your own sample instruments for different projects. And why the Piano in hell will be still relevant for The dark tower. Is it the script, is it your approach towards the queue or is the director is insisting upon using it?
Could you explain what "Sound Design" is? It's possible it's a industry term but I'm not familiar with it, and I hear you use it a lot. **I think** it's a form of ambient or environmental audio that you design for mood, or at least that's what I pick up from context. Anyway, love your videos and the series! Thanks so much for producing them!
JeffIrok Sound design is the process of creating and manipulating sounds for use in a production. They are not limited to ambient sounds, but are often used as such. For example, synthesisers are a device that enables the designing of sounds as you can manipulate frequencies or sample an audio file and edit that.
JeffIrok No problem! I have an ambition to become a composer, and it's terms like these (which have multiple meanings in different contexts) which are quite confusing to start off with! That's why a 'just Google it' comment isn't very useful.
Hi Junkie XL, I was wondering what should I study (speaking about the "formal" music study) to be able to make such complex soundtracks, with so many different instrument lines, sound "harmonic". Great Video man!!!
just simply study music theory starting from the basics and also pick the best instrument to learn in this case you should go definitely with keys or piano because that's the first instrument that you're going to use to create music no matter what if you are into technology (midi,daws etc.) or not for example john Williams im pretty sure he doesn't have all that technology that junkie have in his studio but who cares? he only needs he's piano to write, that's the way he's been doing it since indiana jones,et and all that...
My mind is trying to get around that many tracks... at tops I'm playing with 60 tracks and I struggle to get more in the stereo image (to distinct them). Does that help that you're doing everything in the quad imaging or it's just my mixing skills needs some boost ? :) Thanks again for those tutorials Tom, they're just brilliant !
ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗ ΦΟΡΜΑΤ thank you! Interesting point of view. Will try it for sure. The thing is that I dont hear the difference if I bring more tracks/instruments passed 60 tracks. And yet I know it could still sound fuller frequency wise. Maybe diff delay/reverb options?
Mixing at low levels will make you have really detailed decesions with just micro adjustments At these levels (-30 i.e.) 0.2 db would make a huge difference to your mix ,that is the point to have everything in position dynamically wise ,mixed and separated with no phase etc. Then you can see what needs emphasising with reverbs .Delay is not a natural fx for orchestra .
Gain staging helps signals not to get distorted INSIDE the chanelstrip's plugins . Signals gets digitally distorted if not fed -18 rms inside the plugs . This is not displayed at the chanelstrip outputs by default . Logic pro has a key for that in the transport select menu. No matter the daw or the audio interface used except protools i guess , each plug-in must be fed with signals up to -18 rms or else it gets distorted . That is the case.Controlling signals lower to - 18 rms is called gain staging . Now you should also give a headroom more than 10 db ,lowering down the mixer's outputs . (rms speaking always). Pump up your monitors ,since your system hits really low now , close all windows /mac sounds (These remains 0db) and try to keep mixing this low . The more down to the noisefloor you go the best relationships between the freq.'s . This way you accomplice "crest factor" waveforms with clear transients (peaks) Low latencies ,high sample rates ,high quality only plugs usage keeps transients clean Clever instrumentation is also a factor . i.e. when Junkie XL
Do you make all of these musical cues without any video playback or sync to visuals? Do you just make the music & somehow edit it later to fit the final scenes?
Tom, one thing I have noticed by watching your tutorials is that you don't dive into music theory for example the long chord you play at 8:51 is A#/E add(b5) spread across octaves. I feel that music theory is the foundation for film score and without it even the most expensive toys won't make your scores sound good. So........ WHY??
Probably he's like hans zimmer, he doesn't have a proper music education (read or write music) which sometimes it's the best..... music education like any type of education it's based on some type of rules that you have to follow to be able to be good at that (irony), Im not saying studying music will make you lame or something it's actually the best first thing you have to do to became a composer but then you have to know a lot about technology, being creative, known all the samples,knowing about DAWS, recording techniques ,supervisor, some mixing skills and some many stuff that you're not going to find it just only studying music theory I know so many incredible musicians who play amazing and doesn't know how to produce or don't have the capacity to create a piece of music just for the fact that it's not the only thing you need to become a great composer or music producer... it's all about being creative and be different more than been "super talented and play 43920419039 instruments"
So you are one of those people who value practical knowledge rather that theoretical knowledge, huh? I get where you are coming from but I never said "learning music theory will guarantee that you will be successful in the music industry" instead I believe learning music theory is just one piece of the puzzle. It makes you appreciate the music you are listening to more holistically . Also it omits the guessing part when you are creating a melody or a chord progression eg. What will sound good after this Fmaj chord, Dmin or Cmaj?? I asked this question in the first place because I know he reads a lot of books on music which he, himself mentioned in one of his tutorials so I was curious to know how he applies all his knowledge while film scoring !
In my opinion ：theory is not the foundation for music ，it just makes us a easier way or shorter path to make music.And I m not saying anything bad about theory ,of course we need learn theory but not be constrainted
practical knowledge always it's going to be better than theoretical not everything has to come from a book especially in any form of art which freedom it's the principal thing you had it's all about the passion , theoretical it's just going to make you build the path but that's it like I told u before, there's no such a thing as good or bad in music, there's plenty empirical artist's out there who doesn't know how to read or write music and that's doesn't mean that they are good or bad the same with people who know how to read or write music there's plenty of bad "college" musicians, but im complete agreed that if you can study music that would be awesome I was just trying to explain why junkie doesn't speak in music language because he's probably not a "real" musician which doesn't mean he's not an incredible composer or produce... see the point ?
It´s just and Bb or A# lydian Sound, all you need is getting comfortable within the different modes ;-) Or even the string lines are "only" well structured figures within the halftone/wholetone scale. theory helps to demystify and recognizing that everybody is just cooking with water :)
Ok so I'm not criticizing but I'm confused on something. What's the point of having East West and all of these fancy libraries if the score is going to be played by live instruments eventually anyway?
Before the music is recorded by live instruments and artists (an orchestra recording session does not come cheap), the score needs to be approved by the director of the movie. The closer you can get to the final sound, the easier it is to have a precise idea of the futur result with live instruments. And the work on the midi orchestration is a blueprint to edit the cues on paper for each stem and instruments/sections of the orchestra.
Because directors want to hear the biggest, best sound possible from the composer they hire before any recording work is done, primarily because they don't trust composers to do their jobs correctly. The caliber of effort the composer provides also determines whether the director feels a heightened sense of schadenfreude when they chop it up in the editing room later because they can't make up their bloody minds about whether they should show the teal or amber scenes first. Remember: you're not telling a story through the soundtrack, you're composing a backdrop for a sequence of visual cues that function exclusively to reference memorable older works in higher definition. Everything must work in isolation, even before it's recorded - and your audience is the director and no one else. That's the golden rule.
ok, so we can consider majority of movies are scored with samples and after recorded by a real orchestra? No examples of scores done 100% by VSTs/libraries?
It doesn't have to be. There's plenty of stuff online that's free, VST synths especially. And some DAWs are really affordable. Tom is definitely on another level with all this gear, but I think that should only inspire you to make something with the tools you have available : )
TOM.....you are a Musical philanthropist! You do not need to give, but you do. Thank you, it is so appreciated.
Thank you for making these videos, sir. They're really special.
this is the best "how I did" video I've seen. Tom is so nice. Incredible.
Thank you so much for these videos
So many people hold their cards close to their chests... You sir, have my respect (and not just mine I imagine). Share, and the world shares with you... Keep it up.
Great Tutorial!! Thank you for your tutorials!!
I know, I know, the real deal is live, but the MIDI already sounds awesome 👍
Sounds good even just at its midi stage... amazing
Priceless. Thanks so much! Great piece, so much going on. Loved hearing all the elements.
Tom, For as gracious as you are thanking the people that helped you get into the business of composing you have pushed it forward 100X! If I’m ever accepting an award for Best Original Music Score I’ll be thanking you before my family. ;)
Thank You So Much! Can't tell you how much I appreciate you making these tutorials. So helpful and inspiring
3:37 is so awesome!!!!!!! i could listen to it on loop for hours
Tom, thank you sooooo much, this is God-sent. I’m an actor but I started out as a singer-songwriter-arranger and after doing a few musicals ended up mostly acting. I have now written and directed a movie and decided to go back to my first love and write the score for it. After 15 years the learning curve is rough but with the impressive generosity of such talented composers like you, I can count on a wealth of resources. Wishing you the utmost best!!!! Bruno
JunkieXL is the chosen one.
Awesome, and again, thank you.
Damn, and that Matrix Brute is just being wallpaper, how I envy this guy. Hugh respect!
Brilliant and enlightening.......
Awesome series. Awesome video. Incredeble music. Thank you so much junkie xl
Tom you are a BEAST!
Hi Tom, about the horn attack problem, "Hollywood Brass" offers a "Sus. Accent" for all brass sections. We save time and tracks because there is no need to add short notes.
Sincerely,
Johnny.
Thank you Tom !
Just thought you should know if you notice your subs are going down, UA-cam removed me from your subscriber list for no apparent reason, i was still subscribed yesterday and was looking for your dark tower vids in my sub feed and couldn't see you so had to resub.
I pulled a tommy wiseau and yelled 'this is bulshit! i did naahht!..... oh hai mark' and now i can enjoy the junkie again and ive hit the notification bell this time too.
Thanks for the great educational tools Tom! You're an asset.
Broden
Masterful !
Awesome tricks! Thanks a lot for this knowledge!
Love it
I always thought how he composed and worked while i listened to your compositions over the years. Now it is very nice to access beautiful valuable information. I love you, master of wonders!
Ahhh!! End product is so good!
Those vids are precious! Thanks, Tom :) as per the film itself - great picture, I really enjoyed, but not enough for me... wanna get some quality 3 hours of Roland's story :) really looking forward for TV show of DT in the future :) cheers!
Hi Tom, I have a question for you, can you please explain what happens AFTER your cues are approved, how it goes from Cubase to the studio and then what they do with them, please show us how you mix the stems from Cubase to Pro Tools to the way they are exported and delivered to the studio and if any additional live orchestral music is added, where this goes in the workflow? Perhaps a good subject for one of your excellent videos? Thanks!
Hey Tom. A lot of composers in interviews, biographies, etc, say that they got their start by apprenticing under a working composer. What are successful working composers looking for in an apprentice?
Marc Giguere Probably they are looking for someone who does not ask dumb stuff on UA-cam.
Heel cool en heel interessant. Bedankt...
I love decapitator :) I use to all my sounds in the mix .
Hi Tom, Thanks for all your videos. Can you please make a video on VSTi you are using along with FXs.
Best Regards
Hi Tom, i am a big admirer of ur music works and the way u teach ppl... i would kindly request you to make a video on Spotting music cues with cubase using markers time sign tempos etc. And the biggest thing is after u set up ur cues in various time signs and tempo changes, if the director wants u to change certain cues , how do yu do that in cubase without affecting the other cues sync points with the video and bars etc.
I have tried to figure this out in all forums but in vain!
Since ur a thorough user of cubase i hope you would help in this...
Thank you.
Wow!
I see the Arturia Matrix Brute!
See you tomorrow!!!
I heard some Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (baba yaga) kind of lines in the Trombone and Tuba parts around 12 minutes in. Great!
Congratulations .You Know very well how to use tecknology.............
Can the round Robin played in a random order or is it always linear? Would make it more variable
I see someone already has the MatrixBrute. Video please!! :)
You mentioned Piano in Hell, So how do you choose your own sample instruments for different projects. And why the Piano in hell will be still relevant for The dark tower. Is it the script, is it your approach towards the queue or is the director is insisting upon using it?
Could you explain what "Sound Design" is? It's possible it's a industry term but I'm not familiar with it, and I hear you use it a lot. **I think** it's a form of ambient or environmental audio that you design for mood, or at least that's what I pick up from context. Anyway, love your videos and the series! Thanks so much for producing them!
Why don't you google it .This is not an industry term!
JeffIrok Sound design is the process of creating and manipulating sounds for use in a production. They are not limited to ambient sounds, but are often used as such. For example, synthesisers are a device that enables the designing of sounds as you can manipulate frequencies or sample an audio file and edit that.
Thanks Sir Bungly - My recording is on the amateur level and although I've done similar things, I'm not familiar with the term.
JeffIrok No problem! I have an ambition to become a composer, and it's terms like these (which have multiple meanings in different contexts) which are quite confusing to start off with! That's why a 'just Google it' comment isn't very useful.
Agreed - That wasn't helpful, and I appreciate you chiming in!
👌
Hi Junkie XL, I was wondering what should I study (speaking about the "formal" music study) to be able to make such complex soundtracks, with so many different instrument lines, sound "harmonic". Great Video man!!!
Junkie's way is to just casualy become friends with Hans Zimmer ;)
just simply study music theory starting from the basics and also pick the best instrument to learn in this case you should go definitely with keys or piano because that's the first instrument that you're going to use to create music no matter what if you are into technology (midi,daws etc.) or not for example john Williams im pretty sure he doesn't have all that technology that junkie have in his studio but who cares? he only needs he's piano to write, that's the way he's been doing it since indiana jones,et and all that...
Why are the Videos not showing up on ur channel?
....youtube....come on....
Jakob Haertel these are unlisted on purpose.
Jakob Haertel yeah youtube sucks right now
marctronixx productions, llc But why are they listed now? :D
because the owner of this channel "listed" them. the channel owner did the exact same thing on part one.
marctronixx productions, llc ...
Sounds Kinda like Alan Silvestri's style, I like it.
My mind is trying to get around that many tracks... at tops I'm playing with 60 tracks and I struggle to get more in the stereo image (to distinct them). Does that help that you're doing everything in the quad imaging or it's just my mixing skills needs some boost ? :) Thanks again for those tutorials Tom, they're just brilliant !
Try to keep your levels down to -30 db rms while mixing ,including "gain staging technique"
ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗ ΦΟΡΜΑΤ thank you! Interesting point of view. Will try it for sure. The thing is that I dont hear the difference if I bring more tracks/instruments passed 60 tracks. And yet I know it could still sound fuller frequency wise. Maybe diff delay/reverb options?
Mixing at low levels will make you have really detailed decesions with just micro adjustments
At these levels (-30 i.e.) 0.2 db would make a huge difference to your mix ,that is the point to have everything in position dynamically wise ,mixed and separated with no phase etc.
Then you can see what needs emphasising with reverbs .Delay is not a natural fx for orchestra .
ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗ ΦΟΡΜΑΤ cool, thank you for your feedback! With the next tune for sure I will apply this technique!
Gain staging helps signals not to get distorted INSIDE the chanelstrip's plugins .
Signals gets digitally distorted if not fed -18 rms inside the plugs .
This is not displayed at the chanelstrip outputs by default .
Logic pro has a key for that in the transport select menu.
No matter the daw or the audio interface used except protools i guess ,
each plug-in must be fed with signals up to -18 rms or else it gets distorted .
That is the case.Controlling signals lower to - 18 rms is called gain staging .
Now you should also give a headroom more than 10 db ,lowering down the mixer's outputs .
(rms speaking always).
Pump up your monitors ,since your system hits really low now ,
close all windows /mac sounds (These remains 0db) and try to keep mixing this low .
The more down to the noisefloor you go the best relationships between the freq.'s .
This way you accomplice "crest factor" waveforms with clear transients (peaks)
Low latencies ,high sample rates ,high quality only plugs usage keeps transients clean
Clever instrumentation is also a factor .
i.e. when Junkie XL
Do you make all of these musical cues without any video playback or sync to visuals? Do you just make the music & somehow edit it later to fit the final scenes?
DJBENVERA nice question
your good
yea. he owns good.
Yeah. He does.
yea. he does
did he compose all midis here ?
Tom, one thing I have noticed by watching your tutorials is that you don't dive into music theory for example the long chord you play at 8:51 is A#/E add(b5) spread across octaves. I feel that music theory is the foundation for film score and without it even the most expensive toys won't make your scores sound good. So........ WHY??
Probably he's like hans zimmer, he doesn't have a proper music education (read or write music) which sometimes it's the best..... music education like any type of education it's based on some type of rules that you have to follow to be able to be good at that (irony), Im not saying studying music will make you lame or something it's actually the best first thing you have to do to became a composer but then you have to know a lot about technology, being creative, known all the samples,knowing about DAWS, recording techniques ,supervisor, some mixing skills and some many stuff that you're not going to find it just only studying music theory I know so many incredible musicians who play amazing and doesn't know how to produce or don't have the capacity to create a piece of music just for the fact that it's not the only thing you need to become a great composer or music producer... it's all about being creative and be different more than been "super talented and play 43920419039 instruments"
So you are one of those people who value practical knowledge rather that theoretical knowledge, huh? I get where you are coming from but I never said "learning music theory will guarantee that you will be successful in the music industry" instead I believe learning music theory is just one piece of the puzzle. It makes you appreciate the music you are listening to more holistically . Also it omits the guessing part when you are creating a melody or a chord progression eg. What will sound good after this Fmaj chord, Dmin or Cmaj??
I asked this question in the first place because I know he reads a lot of books on music which he, himself mentioned in one of his tutorials so I was curious to know how he applies all his knowledge while film scoring !
In my opinion ：theory is not the foundation for music ，it just makes us a easier way or shorter path to make music.And I m not saying anything bad about theory ,of course we need learn theory but not be constrainted
practical knowledge always it's going to be better than theoretical not everything has to come from a book especially in any form of art which freedom it's the principal thing you had it's all about the passion , theoretical it's just going to make you build the path but that's it like I told u before, there's no such a thing as good or bad in music, there's plenty empirical artist's out there who doesn't know how to read or write music and that's doesn't mean that they are good or bad the same with people who know how to read or write music there's plenty of bad "college" musicians, but im complete agreed that if you can study music that would be awesome I was just trying to explain why junkie doesn't speak in music language because he's probably not a "real" musician which doesn't mean he's not an incredible composer or produce... see the point ?
It´s just and Bb or A# lydian Sound, all you need is getting comfortable within the different modes ;-)
Or even the string lines are "only" well structured figures within the halftone/wholetone scale. theory helps to demystify and recognizing that everybody is just cooking with water :)
Ok so I'm not criticizing but I'm confused on something. What's the point of having East West and all of these fancy libraries if the score is going to be played by live instruments eventually anyway?
exactly what I was thinking... Tom, could you help us to figure this from a professional perspective?
Before the music is recorded by live instruments and artists (an orchestra recording session does not come cheap), the score needs to be approved by the director of the movie. The closer you can get to the final sound, the easier it is to have a precise idea of the futur result with live instruments. And the work on the midi orchestration is a blueprint to edit the cues on paper for each stem and instruments/sections of the orchestra.
Because directors want to hear the biggest, best sound possible from the composer they hire before any recording work is done, primarily because they don't trust composers to do their jobs correctly. The caliber of effort the composer provides also determines whether the director feels a heightened sense of schadenfreude when they chop it up in the editing room later because they can't make up their bloody minds about whether they should show the teal or amber scenes first.
Remember: you're not telling a story through the soundtrack, you're composing a backdrop for a sequence of visual cues that function exclusively to reference memorable older works in higher definition. Everything must work in isolation, even before it's recorded - and your audience is the director and no one else. That's the golden rule.
ok, so we can consider majority of movies are scored with samples and after recorded by a real orchestra? No examples of scores done 100% by VSTs/libraries?
It needs to sound stinking good in presentation. The days of a piano map and then hear it later are long over!
Ugh. Music synthesis is so expensive. Analogue synths and VSTs and DAWs....
It doesn't have to be. There's plenty of stuff online that's free, VST synths especially. And some DAWs are really affordable. Tom is definitely on another level with all this gear, but I think that should only inspire you to make something with the tools you have available : )
First! :)
30th
Hey Ashton! Great to see you here.