EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

At 10:38 AM 12/23/2001 +0000, you wrote:
>Speaking of film music: The thought of composing music for films and
>other projects has probably occurred to many of the non-professionals
>on this list - but how do you get started writing, say, orchestral
>music, when you have no formal education?

Just do it!  Lack of formal education never stopped people like Danny Elfman.

>One place to start would be to look for a sample library with
>orchestral sounds and judging from various reviews it seems
>like "Advanced Orchestra" is a good choice. But since these CDs will
>cost you 5 * $250, most people will not buy them unless they're sure
>they'll be able to use them properly

Advanced Orchestra is good, but I'm finding I need multiple libraries to 
approach happiness. That's why I'm so in debt.

>According to amazon.com, there are some books about music theory that
>might be relevant, i.e.:
>
>* Samuel Adler, "The study of orchestration"
>* Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, "Principles of orchestration"
>* Kent Kennan, Donald Grantham, "The technique of orchestration"
>* Kent Kennan, "Counterpoint"
>* Cecil Forsyth, William Bolcom, "Orchestration"
>
>Which book(s) are recommendable to someone without formal musical
>training?

I'm familiar with the Rimsky-Korsakov, which is great for strings, but 
extremely dated in its information on winds and brass, and the Kennan, 
which is an excellent all-around guide.  Those two, and I'd venture to 
guess the same for all the rest, do necessarily delve into music 
theory.  Valuable in any event as guides to instrument ranges, etc.  I have 
the Samuel Adler on order, but the release of the CD's that go with it have 
been repeatedly delayed.  Something like that would probably be the best 
choice for someone with less music education.

>While you're saving up (!) for the full version of "Advanced
>Orchestra", you could rent some good movies and analyze how music is
>used in them. One could look for the list of previous Oscar winning
>film scores and make sure to look into different genres too. Also,
>both older and newer movies are relevant, i.e. the old Hitchcock-
>movies are said to use music very well (never payed any conscious
>attention to it myself; will have to rent some of them and listen.)
>
>You could also look into the works of some of the famous composers
>out there, i.e. Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer, John Barry etc., and
>maybe pick up one of the books with interviews with these people as
>it would give you an idea of how things work when you're writing
>music professionally.
>
>Finally: Is it possible (and legal) to rent a DVD movie and
>then "save" all or some of it in a format that can be loaded into
>Logic? If so, it would give you a chance to pretend you're writing
>the soundtrack for a movie which would be a very interesting exercise.

DVD's are a great resource.  Look especially for the increasing number that 
include isolated scores.  Hearing the music with the picture beats the heck 
out of listening to soundtrack CD's.  I don't know of a way to extract 
audio from a CD, but there's nothing to stop you from recording the audio 
analog realtime.  If you need picture, you'll likely need to use VHS and a 
video capture card.  Nothing illegal about it as long as you don't 
repackage and sell it!  BTW, get a DVD copy of Hitchcock's "North by 
Northwest," which has an isolated Bernard Hermann score, and you'll swear 
you're listening to a Danny Elfman score.  Elfman has singled Hermann out 
as his greatest influence.

>Anyway, this is hopefully a subject of interest to people on this
>list.
>
>Merry christmas,
>Henrik Jensen