Virtual Instruments View All →
Insights: Sample Modeling’s The Trumpet
My focus here is showing ways to get The Trumpet to fit into the mix, which is a common concern expressed on the various forums.
Read More →Insights: Vienna Dimension Strings – Part 1
Recently, the Vienna Symphonic Library released their new Vienna Dimension Strings. In this first Insights, I’m looking at DS from a Professional Orchestration perspective and what it lets the arranger/composer do.
Read More →Insights: Realivox -The Ladies
By Jose Herring Realivox-The Ladies is another tool in the scoring toolbox The human voice. In my opinion, the voice is the last frontier of sampling. It’s the most intimate of musical instruments, the one that 5 billion-plus people are most familiar. Instantly the human ear can tell if a voice is genuine or mechanical. [...]
Read More →Setting Up a Matrix/Template in the Vienna Instruments Player
A first glance at the Vienna Instruments player can appear to be both daunting and overwhelming. However, once you get past vision shock, within just a few steps you can create a template, actually, a matrix that you can call up and re-use whenever you want.
Read More →Insights: Storm Choir
Storm Choir by Strezov Sampling, produced by Oliver Codd and Jasper Blunk, is one of those products that doesn’t try to attempt to do everything that a real choir can do, but what it does do, it does extremely well and convincingly.
Read More →Insights: Chinee Orchestra
Luckily for us sampled based composers, the good folks at Kong Audio have meticulously sampled the gamut of Chinese instruments. Well performed by experts on these instruments this product captures the heart of China.
Read More →Insights: Berlin Woodwinds and Vibrato
This is my BWW weekend! In this Insights article we’re looking at vibrato specifically on sustained pitches, and particularly based on U.S. practice. Looking at BWW for Flute 1, you see three vibrato choices: Sustains Without Vibrato; Sustains Normal Vibrato; Sustains Progressive Vibrato. To replicate orchestral woodwind writing, which should be used? Look carefully at [...]
Read More →Insights: Berlin Woodwinds – First Thoughts
Last night and tonight I downloaded and installed the new Berlin Woodwinds from Orchestral Tools. What follows is my first “Christmas morning” reaction after going through all the instruments. Overview Berlin Woodwinds is the first sample library to offer a complete orchestral woodwind section allowing the composer to write for up to woodwinds in 2s [...]
Read More →Diary of a Rogue Economist View All →
My “Real Wealth” Accumulation Program…
The family publishing business has offices all over the world. In most places, we rent our buildings. But when prices turn down in a major way we look for better space. Needless to say, this is especially interesting when we can finance the purchase at giveaway interest rates.
Read More →Fracking The Family
I recently introduced a new idea to members of Bonner & Partners Private Wealth. I call it “family fracking.” It comes from the recognition that: (1) When your family finances fail it is usually your family that fails, not your finances. (2) You need to put your family under some pressure to toughen it up.
Read More →A Wealth-Protection Lesson From the Old-Money Rich
Market bottoms occur when selling has been exhausted and the market can go no lower. That’s when you find real bargains. Of course, this is also when buying is highly unpopular… and the herd is stampeding in the other direction.
Read More →A Lesson From My Grandfather
I got a lesson in the importance of macro thinking again last night. Exploring an old family desk, we came upon a cache of my grandfather’s letters. He had come back from World War I and begun a business supplying coal to the ships that used Baltimore’s harbor.
Read More →Unscrew Your Kids, Part II
by Bill Bonner, Chairman, Bonner & Partners Thomas Jefferson was familiar with debt. He carried a substantial burden of it throughout his adult life. At the time, there were no bankruptcy protection laws. If you did not pay your debts, your creditors hounded you… could take everything from you… and get you sent to jail. [...]
Read More →Unscrew Your Kids, Part I
by Will Bonner, Co-Publisher, Bonner & Partners Thomas Jefferson was opposed to a “national debt.” He thought it was immoral that one generation should spend on credit, forcing the next generation to pay the bill. Jefferson knew what a burden debt could be — especially when it is debt for spending he didn’t enjoy himself. [...]
Read More →Marketing View All →
The Consumers Are Coming: Olympus Is Downloading
That said, there’s no question that downloading is here to stay, especially as shipping prices, both domestically and international increase. But every good thing brings its own issues with it that need to be worked through and resolved.
Read More →The Consumers Are Coming: Demos and NFRs
Demos are a critical element in music sales because they give consumers the reference point as to whether to buy or not.
Read More →The Consumers Are Coming! The Consumers Are Coming!
Even though it’s early August 2012, Christmas planning has begun. For manufacturers it’s working out new products and sale pricing for a last quarter sales oomph. For customers, it’s planning budgets and purchases now, hoping their favorite thing is going to be on sale. And if isn’t, reverting to Plan B – sometimes rather vocally.
Read More →What Social Media Means to Composers
What Social Media Means to Composers is a special contribution from German composer Alex Pfeffer who’s sharing what he put into practice.
Read More →Taking Positive Advantage of a Negative Economy
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at how composers can market themselves in turbulent times. What’s opportune about these turbulent times for composers is that we, of all occupation groups, can demonstrate the power of technology and making money staying put. I have a colleague in Los Angeles who in one year did [...]
Read More →Selling MP3s On Your Web Site
Yet another break in the traditional record company’s hold on music sales has taken place, and a new one for the likes of Amazon, Apple and Wal-Mart, is the announcement of a new collaboration between the Wimpy Player company, makers of the Wimpy Rave Player, and the programming service of Soaring Music, which enables composers, [...]
Read More →Your Web Site and WordPress
In my attendance recently of the Virginia Production Alliance in Richmond, Virginia, I met Dan Portnoy of the Portnoy Media Group. Dan came and spoke about how producers and artists can use the Internet to market themselves and their films. As part of film/actor/composer marketing, Dan recommended building your web site with a free program [...]
Read More →Software Effects View All →
SPAT: Worth Its Bytes in Gold
SPAT. Say good bye to the old pan and send method of mixing and say hello to a true room acoustic simulator. On the surface, SPAT, seems as if it’s too hard to use for practical purposes. But that’s on the surface.
Read More →FORTI/SERTI: VSL’s Spatial Placement Secret Weapon
The 64Bit Vienna Suite with Ernest Cholakis’ FORTI/SERTI makes VSL the Proctor & Gamble of spatial placement with a solution appealing to composers, recording engineers, film mixers, sound designers, and post-production folks.
Read More →Spat 2: Positioning the Strings and a Flute
With SPAT, you can create your own scoring stage.
Read More →SPAT: Your New Best Buddy For Mixing
One of the most difficult problems in mixing orchestral mock-ups, knowing how to spatially place instruments quickly and easily, has now been simplified with Ircam SPAT, a 32Bit downloadable audio plug-in that works with any library.
Read More →Vienna Suite PowerPan – Percussion Placement
In this fourth part of the Vienna Power Pan Review, Ernest Cholakis of Numerical Sound demonstrates the pinpoint precision of Power Pan for percussion placement in a MIDI mock-up.
Read More →Vienna Suite Power Pan – Woodwind Positions
Ernest Cholakis takes you to the next step in more effectively panning your woodwind section using the VIenna Power Pan found in the Vienna Suite.
Read More →Vienna Suite Power Pan: Brass Positions – A Professional Orchestration Review
In this continuing review, Power Pan continues to demonstrate why it’s the Vienna Suite’s secret weapon.
Read More →EW Quantum Leap Spaces: A Professional Orchestration Review
The best way to describe East West’s new Quantum Leap Spaces convolution reverb is with the equation J2W2.
Read More →Inteviews View All →
Hans Zimmer On The Hans Zimmer Sound
Hans Zimmer explains how he gets the Hans Zimmer sound.
Read More →What’s a Convolution Reverb? Ernest Cholakis Explains
Ernest Cholakis, president of Numerical Sound, explains Impulse Responses (IRs), convolution reverbs, and discusses the Vienna Suite’s Convolution Reverb.
Read More →The Two Mike’s of Cinesamples Talk About VOXOS and More…
Mike Barry and Mike Patti of Cinesamples discuss their new vocal library, VOXOS.
Read More →Andrew Keresztes on LASS Specs and The Future
Less than a year ago, Andrew Keresztes was a composer known within a small circle in Hollywood and as a pretty cool guy to know on the forums. Then he released L.A. Scoring Strings (LASS), and the composer turned entrepreneur found himself with a hot product and the beginnings of a new sample development company. [...]
Read More →AcousticsampleS’ Arnaud Sicard
Arnaud “Arno” Sicard, President of AcousticsampleS, talks about the passion, art and state of sampling.
Read More →Revealed! Project SAM – The Hollywood Film Composer’s Secret Weapon
SONIC CONTROL EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW! With more and more music for film, TV and games being produced on computer in private home studios, how DO composers get that undeniable Hollywood sound in their scores? One secret is finally revealed – the three school chums that make up Project SAM.
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