The results I’m discussing in this review came from my own out-of-the-box orchestration approach to library testing that doesn’t make for great audio demos. Also, I tested with a number of works that were not PD including my string octaves tests with the opening to Air Force One by Jerry Goldsmith. So I have to apologize, I have no audios to share with you at this time.

VERSION
L.A. Scoring Strings is currently on version 1.5 with the new auto arranger feature. I have not touched on these features for this review, preferring to stay focused with my first level orchestration approach to evaluating the library based on which orchestral devices as a single library it’s capable of doing. More on this shortly.

When LASS was first released, it was detuned a little more than we all expected. Andrew has consistently tightened this to be close but not exactly perfect. Because of this tuning approach, as you’ll read, LASS avoids several troublesome issues that have plagued multipart vertical string harmony within a single library.

Documentation with LASS is better than I’ve seen with other libraries. It’s well laid out and easy to follow. Those who get LASS from Alexander Publishing, also get our LASS Class which speeds up an already quick learning curve.

There’s lots to LASS, more than I cover in a single review. But again, my focal point is one of orchestration: how many orchestral devices within the LASS string section do I have to work with for my electronic scoring?

EXPECTATIONS
In approaching any library with the word Hollywood (like Hollywood Studio Brass and Woodwind Collection, Hollywoodwinds), Los Angeles, or some word dealing with film in its product name (cine is another word as in Cinescore, Cinesamples), two expectations are raised.

The first raised expectation comes from the composer and the second by those who may be contracting the composer to create an entire score electronically and expecting it to sound like a live film orchestra or very close to it.

For the composer, the expectation based on demos, forum comments, et al, is that because of the name, this library can/should sound like a live recorded string ensemble, therefore, when the client asks if a real film string sound can be delivered, the composer can confidently answer, “yes,” thus satisfying both sets of expectations.

Put differently, the standard composer’s question is, “Will this finally be the one library I can go to for a majority of my work and use other libraries to fill in the gaps?”

That’s certainly my question, and one I wanted to answer. But after beta testing several libraries and co-producing one for E-MU, I’ve learned that the best way to find out is to first test the library with the standard string writing devices. Then you know what you really have to work with, and conversely, not work with.

However, there’s another, usually unverbalized, expectation from a composer and that’s the business career recognition that the composer is an artist, and that with the right libraries the composer can write, electronically produce, and potentially release new works for sale via MP3, or by providing MP3s as a prelude for score purchasing or getting commissions or having their works performed live.

However, demos are demos and they don’t always point to what a library is really capable of, or where the weaknesses are. Hence, the only way to find out is to test the library, to put it through its musical paces to find out what it can really do. The Greek word for such testing is peirasmos and it’s the picture of an individual refining gold ore to remove the dross to see how pure the gold is.

This is how I approached L.A. Scoring Strings not just to test it, but to learn it. And, it’s the way I approach any string library.

MY TWO MAIN QUESTIONS ABOUT LASS
I started out with two main orchestration questions towards LASS based on its main product features.

1. Could it, as advertised, really create an authentic divisi sound with relative time ease? Divisi is part of the writer’s vocabulary, so I wanted to know how much vocabulary I had to work with. There was also a subset to this question which I’ll cover shortly.

Time ease is a very important consideration because with a combination of libraries that were not marketed as divisi, the divisi sound has been achieved, ably demonstrated in demos for the Vienna Symphonic Library by both Jay Bacal (Fantasia On a Theme by Thomas Tallis and The Rite of Spring) and Andy Blaney (Jeux de vagues from La Mer and Jupiter from The Planets.

2. Could LASS, based on how it was recorded, enable a writer to tap electronically the live strings vocabulary of unisons, octaves, lite harmony, and basic divisi such as Vlns 1 div a 2, etc.

Again, both of these questions revolve around a single orchestration consideration: orchestration vocabulary.

Divisi
Divisi is the source of sumptuous colors in the strings, open and muted. Yes, divisi can be simply used to add an extra harmony part, which is certainly useful, but its potential rests in creating beautiful ensembles and textures within the larger string ensemble along with both solo and creative doublings with woodwinds and brass to create an even more brilliant tonal palette.

So being able to record with divisi strings is a big deal for the broad number of colors that previously were extremely difficult to achieve with sampled string libraries without hours of work. With LASS, mini-ensembles were organized in an extremely thoughtful manner.

Divisi is also used to divide the section for polyphonic writing which can be seen in works by Bach, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Hector Berlioz, and many others.

Listen carefully, and you’ll hear that most developer divisi demos are along this latter usage of divisi, as LASS’s have been.

But the library that says it can do divisi does bring up a tactical writing/production question: how many vertical harmony parts can you have in a stack without hearing beading or the dreaded organ/accordion sound?

Testing via orchestration devices reveals that answer.

Unison/Octave Combinations
Based on how LASS was recorded, how many of the 65 string combinations I researched for Professional Orchestration 2A: Orchestrating the Melody Within the String Section could LASS do? These 65 combinations aren’t just vocabulary, they’re the core vocabulary for coloristic writing whether for film or some other genre.

So, with LASS, or any string library, how much vocabulary do I have to work with out of the box where the result is a sound like recorded strings as opposed to a big synth sound with indistinguishable string colors?

As I learned from John Williams’ orchestrator, the late Herb Spenser, to be successful in Hollywood, you need to know about a thousand devices (combinations, doubles, etc.).

So to know which string devices and how many you have available, is to know what you can produce with a specific library. The end result, hopefully, is a higher level of coloristic electronic string scoring previously unavailable.

The career end result is having a set of colors available that set you apart from everyone else.

So yes, it’s an artistic issue, but it’s also a competitive one, too.

Other LASS Features
LASS has many great features which I’ll only briefly touch on because my main thrust was in testing divisi and the unison/octave string combinations.

Again, the number of these that work and sound like recorded strings, the greater my vocabulary and the more I can produce with greater ease and speed.

LASS comes with First Chair solo instruments that are recorded in the same space, in the first chair positions. This means that you can write for a soloist, and the soloist will match the ensemble, and for MIDI mockups, you can also layer the solo strings on top of the larger section. You also have the option of writing for either string quartet or string quintet.

Not often mentioned with LASS are the recorded muted strings for sustains, to be supplemented later in 2010 (or early 2011) by a separate recorded muted strings legato library. Though they are sustains, I pushed them to do the opening of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and they sounded fantastic.

For each mini-ensemble, LASS has a full complement of legato and staccato bowings, pizzicato, a special repeated notes feature to avoid the machine gun sound that often accompanies repeated sequenced notes, genuine spiccato, and the new Auto Arrange feature. I could easily write another 1000 words just describing those features, but I won’t because my single emphasis was in determining how many string devices (to use Herb Spensers’s term) I had to work with.

Testing Divisi – #1
Since one picture is worth several paragraphs in a review, CLICK HERE and look at the Details Tab and you’ll see two diagrams I created that explain the ensemble approach Andrew Keresztes used to record LASS.

When looking at these graphics, keep in mind that every articulation was recorded with each of these mini-ensembles. I mention this, because as you get into LASS, you see the kind of meticulous detail that Andrew as a single individual, doing this with no corporate support, put into both recording and programming it.

LASS, NELSON RIDDLE, AND NAT “KING” COLE
I only had to do one initial divisi test to get the first wave of questions answered. Thanks to my friend David O’Rourke and his contacts at the Nelson Riddle estate, I was able to get a copy of Nelson Riddle’s arrangement of Unforgettable, which at one point has nine (9) vertical harmony parts.

If LASS was going to bead or sound like an organ, it would do it right here. From this one test, I’d essentially know what LASS could or couldn’t do.

So the first thing I need to report, which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, is that while LASS is recorded on the onstage position so you don’t have to pan it, you do have to set the volume levels for each section to have a balanced sound.

Because they’re less memory intensive, I used the Leg_L (legato) for all the large and mini-ensembles.

Thanks to how LASS was recorded, I could set up 8 Violins 1, 8 Violins 2, 6 Violas, 6 Cellos, and an acoustic pizz bass which LASS has. I could then divide these sections into 4 & 4, 4 & 4, 3 & 3, 3 & 3, and pizz bass.

Right here I need to point out, today, you can only do the above setup with LASS. Another point. This setup, while used for Nat Cole, is also a setup that some kid composer named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart also used when budgets permitted. For a smaller, more “authentic” Baroque sound, I could even write with 4, 4, 3, 3, and 2. Again, no other single string library on the market today enables this but LASS.

Test Results – No beading, no organ/accordion sound.

Testing Divisi – #2
The one test with Nelson Riddle showed me that LASS could be used for dense vertical harmony so that 6-part or more vertical voicings used by Debussy, Ravel, and others are achievable if I wanted to write it.

But what about other four-part harmony ensembles?

To answer this question I used Ralph Vaughan Williams Norfolk Rhapsody #1 in E minor to test with. This work for full orchestra has a number of exposed lines, div a 3 with Violins 1, smaller ensembles within the larger ensemble, and in one section, what some would define as a big band brass voicing in the strings.

Testing Divisi – #3
The first combination I tested was a four-part harmony section with Violas div a 2 over Cellos div a 2. This is a very standard combination used in the repertoire, by Mancini, Goldsmith, lots! Jerry Goldsmith also used it in Air Force One.

LASS replicated the recorded version quite well without beading or the organ/accordion sound.

Testing Divisi – #4
Next in the same score was 8-part vertical harmony with divided Violins 1, 2, Violas and Cellos. Unlike Nelson Riddle where it was more appropriate to use the smaller ensembles, here it was div a 2 with 8 players for Violins 1a and 8 Players for Violins 1b, etc. The voicing was a four-part triad in the upper register (violins) doubled an octave down with the violas and cellos.

Again, no beading, no organ/accordion. The sound achieved was comparable to the recording.

Observation
So whether I used the larger ensemble div a 2 or a smaller one, neither beading nor the organ/accordion effect appeared.

UNISON/OCTAVE COMBINATIONS
So the questions are:

1. Will Violins 1 + Violins 2 (in LASS in any library) sound like 32 violins or just a bigger sound, like putting two synths together in a layer (unison combination)?

2. Do the unison combinations sound like or comparable to their live recorded counterparts?

Part of what’s behind Question #1 is that all the libraries with strings recorded in their seated positions are left to right Violins 1, Violins 2, Violas, and Cellos. However, there’s also what’s called the European seating plan which is Violins 1, Violas, Cellos, Violins 2.

This second arrangement is really ideal for electronic scoring because for a unison sound for the violin section, you’re getting the same line out of two audio monitors. And that tends to create a lift, and a bigger sound, giving the listener the sense there are more musicians playing.

So while I think LASS did a good job on this combination, I still preferred panning Violins 1 a little left and the Violins 2 a little right.

Here I need to make a scoring comment.

Regardless of the genre, Violins 1 + Violins 2 is one of the standard devices. In the low register it creates this amazingly rich sound. In the high to very high registers, it adds excitement, romance, etc.

That I’m aware of, while several libraries have recorded individual Violins 1 and 2 sections (L.A. Scoring Strings has Violins 2 derived from and programmed from Violins 1), none of them have recorded the sound of Violins 1 + 2 in unison.

So, in my view, this is a hole for all the libraries.

Violins + Violas
You can do Violins 1 + Violas or Violins 2 + Violas. In LASS, either creates a slightly different sound since Violins 1 are a little edgier and Violins 2 are a little softer.

Violas + Cellos
Very impressive, especially in the upper register. Sounded realistic not like a big synth.

The Most Used Octave Combinations
These are Violins 1 – Violins 2, Violins – Violas, and Violins 1 – Violins 2 – Violas. There are more, but these are the simplest and most frequently used, and I tested them with the full ensembles.

All of these worked. No beading, no organ sound, etc. Lower octaves can predominate at times so that requires some editing of velocity or CC11 depending on the line. I also observed that to get the realistic sound, you have to play in each line. Copying and pasting, sliding tracks, etc., still sound stiff to me. Keying in each line individually makes the difference.

THE QUESTION: DOES LASS LIVE UP TO ITS NAME?
Yes, in testing with real scores including one cue, it’s definitely L.A. Scoring Strings and you have a huge flexibility in using this library with the opportunity to recreate literally dozens of the standard scoring techniques for divisi, unison, and octave combinations.

LASS AND EDGINESS
To achieve the non-organ sound and other issues, LASS has been programmed in a detuned way that can be unsettling to some at first, but I’ve noticed that this is mostly in Violins 1. There is also a bit of edginess with Violins 1 you don’t hear with Violins 2. You can deal with this by applying EQ in the 2K to 3K range for Violins 1. I also used the Spectrotone Chart and comparing the EQ between Violins 1 and Violins 2, made additional changes in Violins 1 lower register so that both Violins 1 and 2 sounded the same.

Pads
When you make this EQ change with Violins 1, you can get a very good sustained pad sound across Violins 1 – Violins 2 – Violas – Cellos with Basses playing an alternate part or being tacit.

I confirmed this by testing the pad found in Professional Orchestration Volume 1, Flute with Dvorak’s New World Symphony (#9) which I compared to the recorded YouTube version I found with Herbert Von Karajan conducting. Once the EQ is added to Violins 1, you get close to Von Karajan.

One of Jerry Goldsmith’s favorite low string pad voicings used, in order, Root – Fifth – Third with Basses – Cellos – Violas, or Cellos B – Cellos A – Violas (non-div). Either of these are achievable with LASS and are beautiful sounding, regardless of which ensemble you select to use.

Reverb
Every sampled string library needs reverb, and some ship with the reverb on so that on first hearing out of the box, the library sounds big.

LASS is no exception. It needs reverb, but when you first hear it, it’s dry, so you have to add ‘verb. There’s reverb inside the Kontakt player and LASS also comes with convolution impulses created by Numerical Sound’s Ernest Cholakis which are worth your going through. I use Logic so I had no problem bringing them into Space Designer. But Ernest’s work can be imported into any convolution reverb.

A lot of LASS owners, though I can’t give you a statistically accurate number, use Altiverb. Still others use the Vienna Suite with the Forti/Sorti Impulse Responses Ernest Cholakis did.

A very few have a Lexicon 960 and record their tracks at 192, which is where I understand Shawn Murphy also records (I was told this by a friend who interviewed Mr. Murphy – so this is strictly anecdotal).

CAN LASS BE USED AS YOUR CORE STRING LIBRARY?
Yes, but…there are still other articulations and runs you’ll want in which case Symphobia 1 and 2, and a number of our colleagues are getting a great sound by blending LASS with QLSO and other libraries. Some also like the string runs in VSL to supplement with LASS.

SYSTEM SPECS
I’m now running LASS on an older G5 dual 2.7GHz with 4GB of RAM and Logic 8.x.

For a new system, I’d look to get (for the PC) an i7 930 with 24GB of RAM, and Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB drives with 60MB cache. With 24GB of RAM, you can load a rather complete string template into RAM and record in one pass. For this you’ll need Kontakt 4.1 which reads all the RAM in the system.

As I’ve written in other places, on the PC, look at the Vienna Ensemble PRO, particularly if you’re using the PC as a farm system. If you’re using the PC for your sequencing machine, both Sonar and Cubase are 64-bit native. This is not an endorsement, just a statement of specs.

On the Mac, if you’re going new, I’d go for a Mac Pro 8-Core, and Logic 9.1.1 since Logic is native 64bit, too. Same rec, 24GB of RAM but you can get it a LOT cheaper from an independent Apple dealer. Because of the name Apple, RAM is over priced when you buy it and they install it.

CONCLUSION
At this point, this is as far as I’ve gotten. I’ve answered my main questions. What I’m satisfied with is that I can do divisi, that the standard divisi vertical harmony combinations work, that I do NOT get the organ/accordion sound with a dense vertical harmony stack, that depending on the creative situation I have the option of writing with varying sized ensembles.

Here I offer a word of caution regarding the word “chamber” as applied to strings and in particular, LASS. A full-sized orchestra is about 80 musicians and up. A chamber orchestra is about 50 musicians and less.

LASS is organized as a Mahler-sized/large film string orchestra, but you can also create smaller large orchestras.

LASS is setup for 16 Violins 1. That’s nearly as large as the New York Philharmonic string section. You can create a beautiful sounding 12 Violins 1 which is still a pretty standard sized symphony section. 8 Violins 1 is a small symphony section, which you can also create with LASS.

Any of the LASS string ensemble setups you use, balance with a large number of woodwind/brass sections, just as they would with a live ensemble.

So again, there’s lots you can do with LASS for years.

For more information, please go to STUDY HALL where you’ll find a series of LASS class videos I produced.

NEXT
Knowing what I have to work with, my next action is going through the staccatos and seeing what’s there by type and length. After that I’m looking forward to some serious production work!

Peter Lawrence Alexander is the author of the multi-volume Professional Orchestration Series and How Ravel Orchestrated: Mother Goose Suite.

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First of all before I lift off into social media spheres I wanted to mention that of course the most important thing is to be a good composer. What do I mean with being a good composer?
 It’s fairly simple: You are skilled, you have experience, you know what you can do (and what you can’t), you know your gear and you are a nice person, which I consider the most important thing at all – nobody likes to work with assholes, we all know that. Period!

Okay, so now what is social media?

Generally social media consists of all those socializing platforms you should have at least heard once. If Twitter, Facebook or MySpace doesn’t ring a bell, you are either a very successful composer who doesn’t need it at all … or you do something wrong! Seriously, I mean it … look back a few years into the past and think about a few “vintage” social media platforms. There were letters, then there was the telephone, then we had emails and messengers, … and now we simply have social media. It is just the next step of communication – nothing else.

So, if you think that Twitter is just good for people who want to tell how their apple pie is tasting or that you are becoming too transparent when using Facebook you should stop reading here. Everyone else who is further interested in this topic and what social media can be for us composers, I would welcome you to read on!

Generally I want to add that if you don’t like social media, there is no problem at all. There have been people who don’t like to talk on the phone or don’t like writing letters or email. This all is absolutely no problem and there are always solutions to make it and reach your goals – but you have to admit that it can be a disadvantage to tell a customer that you don’t like to talk on the telephone, which has kind of an insulting touch – something like: No, I don’t like to talk to YOU!

And what does it mean to we composers? 
It’s really simple again, the two main reasons why social media is important to we composers is:

1. publicity
2. staying in touch with people

I am sure you know the situation. You received a call from a client, you talked about the project and all its details, you started working together … and after the gig was done there have been those obligatory words:
Thanks for all your good work, let’s stay in touch! … and then there was silence! 
Okay, there are several different reasons why there is silence. Humans are just complex chemistry and sometimes it just doesn’t ignite, .. but most of the time it is simply the case that everyone is so damn busy that you or your client just forgets about to send that “Hey, how are you” message from time to time. Now, here comes the strength of social media platforms … and now let’s dive into it and how we can make advantage and use of social media as composers.

In my opinion the most important social media platforms for composer are: Facebook,
 Twitter
, MySpace
, YouTube,
 Vimeo,
 Soundcloud, 
and ReverbNation

Disregarding your profession you should make sure to be present on LinkedIn and XING (if you are living in Europa) and of course have your own website!

FACEBOOK
In my opinion the best way to stay in touch with your friends, customers and fellow composers. I always like to see the timeline as a customized newspaper about all the news from people and topics you are interested it.
The options are to either publish your projects and valuable thoughts through your personal profile or via fanpage. It really depends on what you prefer. Don’t get irritated by the word fanpage. I simply see it is as a good option to separate your private from your business life. Also there is a variety of applications (such as MyBand, powered by ReverbNation) to help you boosting your profile or your fanpage.

Basically you can do everything you think is right and fair to boost your career such as publish new tracks, post news when a video game or movie has been released etc., but there are a few important things I would not do:

Facebook Don’ts
There is an option to invite friends to your fanpage. It is okay to suggest your page once … maybe a second time to all your friends after a few months (remember, we are all busy, some things are simply not that important or get lost over time). It’s also okay to suggest your fanpage to all new friends, but never ever suggest your page to everyone in your friend list every week. This makes an impression of aggressively trying to boost your fan count. Remember you are dealing with real people here, not with words or little icons. Just compare all those situations when dealing with social media with real happenings. Would you call your client every week and trying to convince in your studios guestbook once he friendly rejected the offer?

Don’t publish content for the sake of publishing! What would be the purpose of reaching out for a lot of people but deliver them tracks which are done in a hurry? Most important thing is, there are a lot of experienced and professional composers out there and they can easily comprehend how long one actually worked on a track and how much passion was invested! What’s even worse is to post tracks with the notice that it is WIP – “work in progress”. This is by far the poorest excuse to always have the perfect excuse if someone throws you a negative comment!

Never react angry to negative comments! Be nice! If someone posted a negative comment to a track of yours, be thankful! 
In the end someone invested time to react on your action! You wanted comments?! Here they are, now also deal with the negative side. You simply can’t expect the whole world to love your stuff. Even if you would have the writing and creative potential of hundred combined skilled and experienced writer, there would be simply people disliking your stuff. Why? Pretty simple – Taste! 
But of course, if someone writes something like: This track sucks!!!11!!!11one … it would be okay to at least ask that it would have been nice to know WHY the track sucks!
Most people see that you are interested in their opinion and that you care. Maybe you get even more valuable information, maybe you get even more stupid comments. Live with it!

Never tell anyone that he/she doesn’t have a clue about what he/she is talking when it is about your music. Remember, you are the guy who did the music, but others are the ones who have to listen and deal with it. If they don’t like it, then maybe because there is TASTE?! (again). If someone states that he/she didn’t like the track, it doesn’t mean it is bad. It just stated that it is something which simply doesn’t fit his/her taste.
On the other side, we all agree that it is always nice if the commenter would write something like: Certainly not my style and I don’t like it, but it is well done! … but again, live with it and simply be thankful that people took the time to listen to your music!

TWITTER
This is a really cool way to quickly let people know what you are working on, what you are doing, where you are etc.
Twitter can be also very very informative. Not only you see what all the people you are interested in are doing, I also added all the companies I am interested in.
Within a few minutes of reading every morning you are totally aware of new released vsti’s, plugs, gear and updates. Considering that there are people out there who shake their head when they hear “Miroslav”. I think you get the idea! … I think it is very important to stay in the flow technique and soundwise.

As mentioned in the beginning. I know a lot of people who think that Twitter is just good for writing stuff like: Going for a shower, eating a burger, feeding the dog.
Let me ask the other way round. A one million bucks piano can be lame too if you just play one key over and over again and don’t care what this thing is capable of – it is what YOU make out of it!

Twitter Don’ts
Don’t try to force people to follow you. It becomes pretty obvious when a person is just trying to boost the follower count. If you post valuable information, people start following you automatically.

Don’t use words like e.g. hate in combination with your profession. If you write something like: “I hate working on my current track”, the client you are currently working for can easily comprehend. If you feel like expressing yourself, then maybe write it down on a piece of paper, ball it up and throw it in the corner of your room. Never express negative feelings regaring your own work to the public!

It is a nice move to follow someone back. Don’t think you are a superior composer than anyone else, even though the guy is only working on hobby projects. Things may happen even quicker than you think and suddenly that guy is in a major position and providing others with lots of work. I know it is a lot of if’s and when’s but you guys all know how life can be!

Even though there are tools such as Twitlonger etc. you basically have 140 signs. Think well about what you write!

You are a human being and there is no mistake by showing it to the world. If your little profile description or your posts just say: “We deliver the best music, we create awesome sound, all for the lowest price” … does that sound good? 
Let people decide if you are awesome and deliver the best music. You like to ride your bike? Cool! Maybe that one client who is thinking about hiring you for his next projects is a passionate bike driver and likes to ride in the mountains. Not only sh*t happens!

The follow friday! … if you “meet” nice people during the week you have the chance to feature them on the follow friday (which is basically setting the hashtag #ff in your post).
To be honest I am just a few months into Twitter, but I certainly fell in love with Twitter … I experienced the follow friday quite a few times now and I find it is a cool feature which is going on there. So remember, write some valuable stuff and people might think of featuring you on the #ff

MYSPACE
To be honest I don’t have too much to say about MySpace. If you are not really into HTML or other languages making your MySpace site look fancy can be very time consuming and mind boggling.
General usage of MySpace is kind of clumsy and kinda constructed out of little pieces … to me it seems it’s not really a complete thing such as e.g. Facebook. Nevertheless you shouldn’t ignore it, since you will meet very nice people!

MySpace Dont’s
Lots of people use the comment section to feature their own material. To me this is okay, but please dear posters – if you post material such as YouTube videos, make sure that autostart is off. 
I experienced the situation that someone posted a video to my comment section and as soon as someone, including me, visited my MySpace site, I heard someone else’s music. This can give a wrong impression.

YOUTUBE/VIMEO
The same here, not much to say about those two platforms. It is simply great to not only have your audience listen to your latest track, demos or project but also combine it with pictures or videos.
Most people are visually driven. Meaning if they listen to something they try to go back to something different. If there are pictures or a video going on, they might stay a bit longer with your compositions.

SOUNDCLOUD
By far the most fancy player around. If you don’t have a host or a place where to put your files, Soundcloud is really a cool thing to go with.
Besides the fancy player you get a lot of sharing and embed options. Definitely worth to check out.

REVERBNATION
This place is simply awesome! The features, options and widgets on how to present your music and yourself is awesome. Without a doubt even this platform would burst this post!
Just go and try it yourself!
Some more important things? YES!

Now, we have gone through the most important social media platforms. To get a clearer picture on each, you simply have to check it out. Also you have to be patient. It is not enough to simply create a Facebook fanpage you will get your first contract to a Hollywood movie the other day. It takes time and effort to care about those profiles. It is important to stick with it and don’t let your fans, followers, friends or simply interested people hang. You want attention? Work for it!

Now since you created profiles on some, most or all of these platforms it is important to kind of close the circle. Make sure to feature each of those platforms on your website. Make sure to get a Twitter plugin on Facebook and link back to your website. Then again make sure to post about your YouTube or Vimeo videos on every other platform. Most, if not all platforms offer you crosspostings, means that you can activate your Twitter stream inside ReverbNation or LinkedIn. The reason should be obvious to do so. Once someone shows interest in you or your music it is the most important thing to keep his/her attention and – in a positive sense – catch and hold this person as long as possible.

Now it’s up to you! I hope you enjoyed this article and you can gain some info from it … and always remember, social media is not the holy grail to your goal, it is just another tool to present you, your company and your music. Don’t expect million dollar deals within the first weeks, but if you stick to it, you will see all kinds of little wonders happens.

Finally and of course, I would be very happy to get connected to you guys. You will find all my social media profiles at the very left of the screen. Let’s get connected!

Oh! And since we’re talking of humanity and not being perfect! Just in case I forgot about any important platforms I would be happy to hear from you!
 Use the comment section below.

Thanks a lot for your time and now spread the word!!

That’s when Inon Zur’s award-winning music for the dark fantasy role playing game Dragon Age™: Origins will be performed by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra at the “Joystick 3.0″ symphonic video game music concert in Sweden on May 21st, 2010.

The Joystick concert series currently holds the world record for a game music performance with an attendance of 17,000 at the first show in 2006. Tickets for the concert can be ordered from the Malmö Symphony Orchestra website www.mso.se.

“We are very pleased to invite the music from Dragon Age: Origins into our family of game music,” said Joystick concert producer Orvar Safstrom. “Inon Zur’s compositions transcend the genre, by not only enhancing the game’s scenes but also by contributing unique and powerful elements to the overall atmosphere and storyline. Our audience is in for a real treat.”

Dragon Age: Origins was recently honored with Best Original Song (“I Am The One”) and nominated for Best Original Score at The Hollywood Music In Media Awards. The soundtrack album is available for download from popular digital music stores including iTunes and reached #1 on Amazon UK MP3 Soundtracks Chart in December, 2009.

Developed by leading video game developer BioWare, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., Dragon Age: Origins was named the “RPG of the Year” by Game Informer, G4, Spike TV, AOL.com, and PC Gamer and received over 30 “Best of 2009″ awards from a wide range of respected media outlets around the world, including USAToday.com, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, The Associated Press, GameSpot, IGN, and many more. For more information about Dragon Age: Origins, visit www.dragonage.com.

Los Angeles, April 15th, 2010 – Award-winning composers Inon Zur (Dragon Age: Origins, Prince of Persia) and Rod Abernethy (Rise of the Kasai, The Hobbit) have composed and produced an original score for the innovative massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), TERA™. The atmospheric and emotionally engaging fantasy compositions written by Abernethy and Zur for TERA were recorded with the acclaimed Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra and feature traditional acoustic guitar, ethnic instrumentation and evocative vocal performances. Currently in development for PC by Bluehole Studio in Seoul, Korea, and published by NHN Corporation, TERA is the world’s first action-MMORPG launching in Korea in Summer 2010.
 
“The general direction for the music for TERA was to have an original score that sounded grand and to match the large-scale in-game world, mixed with some warm sounding music,” said Mr. An Yong Jin, Audio Director for TERA at Bluehole Studio. “Inon has created world-class quality, epic orchestral music, which is his best attribute; his sweeping symphonic music is outstanding. Rod’s beautiful compositions for TERA span a wide scope of musical styles. His expertly crafted blend of acoustic guitar and orchestral compositions is incredible for enhancing the musical atmosphere and their popular music appeal.”
 
TERA is an innovative massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in a richly imagined fantasy universe. TERA ushers in a ground-breaking interactive combat system that allows you to instantly respond to real-time combat conditions. Throughout a battle, you’ll move around your enemy and dodge its attacks as if you were playing an action game on your console. Furthermore, TERA raises the bar for visual beauty and varied gameplay in the MMORPG genre.

As a citizen of TERA, you’ll guard and eventually transform your world in a way never before experienced in online games. Unlike faction-based games, TERA unites players everywhere against truly dangerous foes: the rampaging monsters, insidious demons, and many horrors of a world torn apart by the gods themselves. Visit the official TERA website: www.tera-online.com.

About Bluehole Studio
Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, Bluehole Studio, Inc. aspires to become the preeminent global MMORPG developer through its unwavering belief in its people and its core values. Bluehole formed in 2007 with an intense focus on attracting pioneers and innovators with a shared vision to create the next flagship MMORPG for the global market. The studio’s inaugural title, TERA, is scheduled to launch in Korea in 2010 and features a dynamic battle system, next-generation graphics, and a gamer-centric community experience. For more information, visit bluehole.net/eng. 
 
All trademarks are property of their respective owners.

New York, April 6th, 2010 – Tom Salta, one of the most decorated and prolific music composers for multimedia, has produced an original music score for Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands™ for the Nintendo Wii™ system. Salta is renowned for crafting memorable, emotionally engaging scores for the medium and delivers a melodic and deeply immersive soundtrack that is essential to the rich gaming experience of Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands™. Developed by Ubisoft®’s Production Studio in Quebec and built entirely from the ground up, Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands™ for the Nintendo Wii™ is a new chapter in the critically acclaimed Prince of Persia® The Sands of Time series, which introduces players to a brand new storyline complete with new characters, and powers that transcend both nature and time. Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands™ is scheduled to be commercially released on May 18, 2010.

“An outstanding composer, Tom Salta is extremely passionate and truly committed to our project,” said Aurelien Baguerre, audio director for Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands™ on the Nintendo Wii™. “The action and gameplay are remarkably enhanced by Tom’s beautiful orchestrations which unmistakably evoke Persian colors, providing a grandiose and emotional dimension to our game.”

To fully immerse players in the Prince’s new adventure, Salta composed and produced an intensely atmospheric and intricately woven original music score that captures the essence and spirit of the original Prince of Persia® The Sands of Time and supports the new story and gameplay of Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands™ with a contemporary world music aesthetic. The score features performances recorded with globally revered percussionist Bashiri Johnson, dark hypnotic vocals by world music singer Azam Ali and ethereal vocals by international recording artist Judith Bérard, as well as world music and middle-eastern instrumentation such as doubek, kora, khangira, bowhammer cymbalom, lakota slide, walimba, ney, duduk and custom made instruments.

About the Video Game:
Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands™ for Nintendo Wii™ is a new installment in the popular Prince of Persia™ series and presents a new adventure within The Sands of Time universe. After leaving his father’s kingdom to prove his worth, the Prince is drawn toward a mysterious realm. He quickly discovers that he must harness his acrobatic abilities and powers over the environment to not only survive, but to save a mystic palace from unfathomable evil. For more information on Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands™ please visit: www.princeofpersiagame.com.

About Ubisoft®
Ubisoft is a leading producer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products worldwide and has grown considerably through a strong and diversified line-up of products and partnerships. Ubisoft is present in 28 countries and has sales in more than 55 countries around the globe. It is committed to delivering high-quality, cutting-edge video game titles to consumers. For the 2008-09 fiscal year Ubisoft generated sales of 1.058 billion euros. To learn more, please visit www.ubisoftgroup.com.

© 2003 – 2010 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Based on Prince of Persia® created by Jordan Mechner. Ubisoft and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands are trademarks of Jordan Mechner in the U.S. and/or other countries used under license by Ubisoft Entertainment.

Wii and the Wii logo are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2006 Nintendo

New York, March 17, 2010 – Renowned composer Tom Salta has written and produced an original musical score for Red Steel™ 2, Ubisoft’s new first-person action title developed exclusively for the Nintendo Wii™ and designed with full Wii MotionPlus™ integration. In Red Steel 2, the player becomes a swordsman who finds himself in a remote mixed metropolis in the middle of the American desert, where Eastern and Western cultures collide. To reflect this adventurous new setting in Red Steel 2, Salta composed an action-packed ‘Wild West’ guitar-driven score blended with evocative Asian music influences. Developed by Ubisoft Paris, Red Steel 2 is scheduled for release on March 23rd, 2010.

“Tom Salta is an extremely versatile composer and delivers a unique and dynamic soundtrack for Red Steel 2,” said Isabelle Ballet, music supervisor for Red Steel 2. “He has crafted various music styles including mixing blues guitars with traditional Asian instruments to produce an energetic, hybrid score that motivates and immerses players in the action. We can’t wait to share this experience with everyone!”

For the Red Steel 2 score, Salta enlisted the virtuosic guitar performances of veteran studio musician Steve Ouimette and recorded various instrumentalists for Chinese percussion, Shakuhachi, Fue, Pipa, harmonica and violin. Salta previously scored the original Red Steel soundtrack that received numerous accolades for its vibrant musical palette, including IGN’s Wii Award for Best Original Music.

Red Steel 2 is a revolution in the action-fighting genre, taking full advantage of the capabilities of the Wii MotionPlus™ accessory. Your movements are faithfully replicated on-screen, putting the emphasis on swinging, shooting and fun! With the ability of the Wii MotionPlus to sense the strength of a swing, you will literally be able to make an impact on your adversaries through power and precision. For more information on Red Steel 2, please visit www.redsteelgame.com.

About Ubisoft:
Ubisoft is a leading producer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products worldwide and has grown considerably through a strong and diversified line-up of products and partnerships. Ubisoft has teams in 28 countries and distributes games in more than 55 countries around the globe. It is committed to delivering high-quality, cutting-edge video game titles to consumers. For the 2008-09 fiscal year Ubisoft generated sales of €1,058 million Euros. To learn more, please visit www.ubisoftgroup.com.

© 2010 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Red Steel, Ubisoft and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Wii and Wii MotionPlus are trademarks of Nintendo.

http://alexanderpublishing.com/studyhall.aspx

Narrated by Peter Lawrence Alexander, author of the Professional Orchestration™ Series, the audio seminar covers what string divisi is, how it’s created, and how it applies to the new string sample libraries offering it as a feature. Alexander is a graduate of Richard Bland College of the College of William and Mary, and Berklee College of Music in Boston. His books on orchestration and harmony have been endorsed by winners of the Academy®, Grammy®, Emmy,® BAFTA, and G.A.N.G. Awards. He’s Film Music Magazine’s award winning journalist and the host of Sonic Control’s DAW School webisode series.

Direct-to-customer-only from independent developers. Their prime source of distribution is their web site with the sale being either a downloadable product, a boxed product, or a combination of the two. Advertising is first derived by word-of-mouth on forums, sometimes banner ads, and occasionally, small print ads in select music magazines whose focus is on electronic music production. These developers are found world wide, from China to the Netherlands. Consequently, outside of local geographic customers, they have no show room to demonstrate their products or to give customers a direct hands-on experience to play-and-hear. Thus, their web site must do it all from sales to customer service to tech support.

A majority of independent developers will house their product in a Kontakt player. While extremely costly to go this route, the benefit of being housed in a Kontakt player means that Native Instruments takes on the responsibility for system integration for both Mac and PC formats. Consequently, the system specs for the Native Instruments Kontakt player will also be their system specs.

Larger developers with multiple sales channels and who’ve R&D’ed their own proprietary player. East West, IK Multimedia, Spectrasonics, SONiVOX, and the Vienna Symphonic Library all have R&D’ed their own proprietary sample library player. Excluding Spectrasonics, all sell through retailers and direct-to-customer. However, Spectrasonics sells exclusively through distributors, who in turn sells to retail and direct-to-customer. Within this group are those developers who’ve amortized their distribution costs by sub-distributing other developer’s product. Companies that do this include Best Service, East West, ILIO, and SONiVOX.

With the exception of a few music technology software products in Best Buy, such as Notion 3 and Sonar, all retail distribution is accomplished through music stores and online merchants.

So for this group, they’ve spent R&D money to develop their own player and they sell through multiple distribution channels: to distributors, to retailers, and direct-to-customer.

THE CHALLENGE – WHAT’S IT SOUND LIKE?
What makes or break library sales from any company are audio demonstrations, especially if they’re released throughout the sales year so that demos of existing products keep the product name in front of the customer generating new word-of-mouth, while also showing versatility of use. An ongoing demo program has another side benefit when placed on non-company web sites – virtual free advertising for the developer, especially if a non-employee has created the demo.

The Vienna Symphonic Library is one developer who consistently releases new demos promoting their libraries and now MIR, their proprietary virtual sound stage for mixing and recording.

Demo Costs. Audio demonstrations are created by composers either for a small fee plus a copy of the library, or, more commonly, in exchange for a copy of the library. Here, sample library developers face a serious challenge: there are more libraries than there are composers who can afford to create great demos for free. Creating a great demo takes several days or longer. Some have taken two weeks, four weeks, and most recently for Vienna’s electronic realization of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, nine months. A professional composer grossing USD $100,000 annually has to generate $1923.10 weekly to meet expenses. Given the time required to learn the library and then to create a demo, few composers can “gift” a developer with two or three weeks worth of working for no pay to get a free library.

This may not be an issue for larger, well financed developers, but for smaller under capitalized developers, it’s a very big deal.

The historical sales pattern is this: without an ongoing PR plan, an independent will see an initial burst of sales, which will then fall, level out, and then drop to a trickle, or zero. So the more frequently a developer can release fresh demos into the market, the better for their sales in the long run.

Two types of audio demos. The first are those produced by the developer for the initial product launch. The second type of demos taking on increasing importance are those coming from the Innovators, representing 2.5% of the market, the first purchasers of a new library who produce their own demos which are shared in forums. The importance of these demos is that they show what the “average bloke” can accomplish in a few hours vs. spending days perfecting and ultra polishing a two-three minute work. User demos can be less than pristine because they’re both experimental and works in progress.

Nonetheless, both are needed for marketing and sales. What should be stressed about demos is that they now precede print publication reviews. Except through careful coordination, and usually only with major advertisers, most print reviews of a new product will not take place for 30-60 days or longer after the release of a major product. By then, the street reviews are out, in some cases, the same day as the product is received post-purchase.

CHANGING SPECS
New technology creates new specs. Even so, developers must be observant as to how backwards compatible their sample players will be. On the Mac, Power PCs are rapidly becoming obsolete as only Intel-based systems are now being supported. For operating systems, OS 10.5 is as far back as many are going. The new development wave is getting software operating for Snow Leopard. At this writing, not all programs or audio card drivers are Snow Leopard-ready. On the PC, Windows XP and Vista are being supported, and ultimately, Windows 7.

Customers buying Mac Pro Nehalems and PCs with the i7 Processor, will get the biggest bang for their buck – today, if they can afford it.

Because of lack of organized industry research, no developer or retailer can guess how many customers with older systems will be knocked out of buying the new computer hardware, and thus, the new sample libraries.

COMMODITY PRICING AND FLAGGING RETAIL SUPPORT
In the past 12 months, three major developers have done buy 1/get 1 free sales which they’ve offered both direct and through their dealer network. While such sales boost immediately the OEM/distributors sales, the net result, as many music retailers have expressed is that the big players are training their customers to wait for the sale pricing.

Another issue at retail is tech support. With so many sample library products on the market, few retailers can provide the tech support and customer training needed. Nearly $8,000 in hardware alone (computers, monitors, audio cards, MIDI keyboards) is needed to setup listening stations, one for each platform. And if the developer doesn’t provide free in-store evaluation copies, then the dealer must purchase the software either directly or by getting a review copy from buying in quantity.

Additionally, a retailer must also have employed an individual fluent on both platforms, knowledgable about software for both platforms, and able to tech support customers. An individual with this level of knowledge and applied skill is handily worth USD $50,000 annually, if not more. Few music retailers can afford such an individual. And none have yet formed the music industry’s response to Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

Thus, retailers, both brick-and-mortar and online, are in the awkward position of trying to maintain quality sales and service, while competing with other dealers who slash product pricing to the bone (“We beat any price!”), or with developers offering special direct-to-customer pricing dealers cannot compete with.

TREND LINES
What’s been happening in other retail segments and in other industries has now firmly planted itself in the music technology sector of the music industry. Developers selling direct-to-customers doesn’t necessarily translate to lower consumer prices for the simple reason that even with higher marketing costs for independents, developers keep more money, which enables and empowers them to continue the R&D required to create new products.

By taking this approach, independents can avoid commodity pricing of their products, but the trade off is that they’ll sell fewer of them. To avoid this, developers have to create alternative lower cost distribution channels along with having an aggressive PR plan.

However, once a developer begins selling through retail distribution, commodity pricing is automatic. Once a retailer begins cutting prices then the developer who’s also selling direct, now finds themselves competing with their distribution and having to sell at lower costs to maintain cash flow.

The only tool a developer has with retailers to avoid commodity pricing, is to create a reasonable price, and then give short discounts to insure that product value is upheld.

Part of product value is tech support, and tech support is labor intensive. Unless the developer is selling a one-off product, profits will be needed not just for personal income, but to build that organization called, a company.