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This track was on repeat when I first heard it. 🔄
Vaughan Williams’ “Five Variants of ‘Dives and Lazarus’” is a gorgeous example of effective string writing, and to me, is highly reminiscent of some of Powell’s work in ‘How to Train Your Dragon’:
One of the things that strikes me about this piece is how Williams distributes the melody and harmony in the opening.
Violins 1 and 2 carry t
...Wired recently released one of the coolest videos on sound foley I've ever seen.
I've always been obsessed with telling stories through music, but it's fascinating to see how creatives in other departments of entertainment accomplish storytelling through their own means.
In this video Joanna Fang walks us through how different genres of media can influence how she approaches the characteristics ...
Once you learn this, you'll never fall for it again.
Have you found yourself suddenly dropping your price because your client threw a budget at you that was way off from what you had expected?
You think:
"If that's their budget, there's NO WAY they can afford my rate."
Welcome to price anchoring.
In short, price anchoring means that the first price someone hears becomes their frame of ref...
When I first moved to LA, I went to an 60-minute network mixer at VidCon - a convention for creators with over 75k attendees.
I was eager to connect with other artists, share my story, and build an exciting base of new clients.
Over the course of that hour, I chatted with close to 50 creators, accumulating 20 business cards and passing equally as many of my own around.
After I made it home, I u...
This topic stumped me for a while. Here's the short of it:
Computers do two things at once with data: reading and writing.
When composing in a DAW, your computer reads the sample from the VST folder... but it also writes data into your project file (wherever that file is saved).
Now imagine two currents, flowing in opposite directions--one for reading, one for writing. That's your computer.
Wh...
This channel is massively underrated.
Brad Frey has been doing orchestral score analysis videos for several years now, and recently did a breakdown of one of my all-time favorite JW cues:
What I love about his newest videos is that he takes the time to isolate individual elements from sections, both in score and audio, so you can hear the building blocks of the cue.
Highly recommend chec...
In 2022, Clone Wars composer Kevin Kiner offered me a full-time job.
Here's how it happened:
In 2018, I landed a gig preparing sheet music for Ocean Way Studios, an orchestral recording studio in Nashville (where I was living).
I got paid a small amount, but mostly did it for the chance to watch a live orchestral session for a score Kevin had written.
I won't lie--my first encounter with Kevin...
I’ve been using this plugin in every mix/mockup since 2022.
One noticeable difference between live instruments and sampled ones is the lack of “air” in the mix. When VSTs are sampled—especially quiet instruments like harp—mix engineers remove high frequencies to prevent noise floor buildup from the recording room itself.
That’s where Slate Digital’s “Fresh Air” comes in.
Download here: https://...
If you asked me to recommend one book to everyone in the world--especially creative professionals--this would be it.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - by Greg McKeown
This book taught me so many things:
- How to say "no" early and often
- How to prioritize my needs over others
- How to remove work that doesn't excite me
- How to be more productive, but less busy
I began reading ...
I'm often asked for recommendations on reading materials to improve orchestration/composition.
Honestly, I'm not a big reader of music books. I much prefer to study by listening to music I love, emulating it in a DAW, and making observations about the results.
That said, of all the music books I have read, this book is one of my favorites:
What I love about it is its practicality.
There are...