Do you produce music based on..?

[classic]

I have been looking to the actual music in the charts and to the big blockbuster soundtracks and always had the feeling to fail making music.

On the other hand I created hundreds of piano tracks with wonderfull melodys.
Comparing them with the big sound from the blockbusters they seemed to be nothing.

I got frustratet. Then every once in a while I start listening to those piano tracks I composed and found thats me. Thats my music.

So its what comes out of you what makes you what counts.

There may be lots of knowledg to improve qualety and sound but the composing only needs you and what comes out of you

[jancivil]

I produce music based on...

Nothing.

[nordickvr]

I produce music based on...

Nothing.

I think it still too much.
I’d suggest to try...
What’s less then nothing again?
V’got a blank.
I’ll give a try to produce music based on a blank... page.

[herodotus]

On the other hand I created hundreds of piano tracks with wonderfull melodys.
Comparing them with the big sound from the blockbusters they seemed to be nothing.

Personally, I think the big sounding blockbusters are so much hot air.

It truly amazes me how much Hollywood movie music has gone downhill in the past 20 years. It is completely undistinctive music that sounds very nice but is completely forgotten in a week, a month or a year. Sound and fury signifying nothing.

Ennio Morricone, Bernard Herrmann, and Elmer Bernstein each had more musical talent than any five contemporary big names combined.

So keep doing your thing, and don't worry about those big sounds. They will soon be forgotten.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

On the other hand I created hundreds of piano tracks with wonderfull melodys.
Comparing them with the big sound from the blockbusters they seemed to be nothing.

Personally, I think the big sounding blockbusters are so much hot air.

It truly amazes me how much Hollywood movie music has gone downhill in the past 20 years. It is completely undistinctive music that sounds very nice but is completely forgotten in a week, a month or a year. Sound and fury signifying nothing.

Ennio Morricone, Bernard Herrmann, and Elmer Bernstein each had more musical talent than any five contemporary big names combined.

So keep doing your thing, and don't worry about those big sounds. They will soon be forgotten.

This has come up before, and someone posted an interesting video about it. Seems it's much more about how directors build scenes with already established pieces in mind, and then ask composers to, "give me something just like that". So it really becomes nothing more than a kind of composing-by-numbers type of gig

I'll see if I can find the video.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Guess I'd forgotten. Using temp pieces seems to have been going on for much longer. It's more about a more limited sound pool, and technology, and not so much about a lack of talent. What certain composers sound like when they are bereft of their Heavyocity percussion loops and EPIC strings libraries is another question altogether

A proposition and response:

[imrae]

I was especially disappointed with the music in The Last Jedi, where it felt like they were endlessly spamming Luke's theme. Ruined its impact, and didn't leave enough space to highlight new music.

Say what you will about The Phantom Menace but the score was cracking.

[mgw38]

I'll see if I can find the video.

You might mean that one:

https://www.score-movie.com

Highly recommended.

[jancivil]

I hope everyone understand my question:
do you produce music based on your interest

I think you mean interest in a certain genre. I said something maybe philosophical that isn't snarky.
"Nothing." IE: I don't parse things into <certain genre>. I wouldn't want to limit myself to something arbitrary which fits into attributes assigned to a genre, through itself. Sometimes there are attributes out of certain choices which are musical decisions, depending. If I felt I had to obtain approbation from a certain sort of group or identity, or if I was going to have jobs, I would make decisions adhering in certain ways to conventions of a style, or to suit an employer. I don't have that today, there is just me.

or based on what is naturally come out from you?

I have ideas all the time. It is like a mental condition. It makes me not a very good worker for someone else's profit.

So I actually make decisions as to a sound world; and this is ad libitum and somewhat ad hoc. There may be history to draw from, including my own musical history just in the digital realm in the modern DAW paradigm. I decided for the latest composition to use Reaktor Skanner, and my choices under its design and my understanding of its design are part and parcel now of my 'idea'; the sound design leads and is led in partnership with myself.
I leave myself open to chance, additionally, frequently enough. Programming Absynth, is usually fraught with lack of control and struggling to control but I embrace surprise, and awe. But at the same time I'm shaping the wildness in order to suit other notions that occur with the other more controlled instruments. And now, conceptions such as foreground and background are in a dynamic, in flux.

One way of looking at it is creating a world - creating definitions as to what will be possible (EG: 'Bassoons do not exist in this world') - and then populating this world. And once the characters become palpable they will let you know their idiom, how they speak; and how they speak, the accent and the envelope and cadence of their speech will suggest to you the things they will tend to say.

I come from performance and touch; and in classical, trained seal type of performance you literally must have control of every move and have the touch, the toca just predictable in order to replicate a performance again and again for survival. So there's a balance of control/controllable with chance.

But an instrument, a known instrument brings its history and history of culture into play. And a designed, synthetic instrument may well have some reference points as you shape that. It seems the obsession to control would be anti-chance but I don't find any necessity of dichotomy here. Or a necessary difference between literal touch and abstracting that into writing. It's 'free your mind and your ass will follow' time.

[Acid Mitch]

I know its a looong way to master one genre, but I'm just curious, do you produce music based on your interest or based on what is naturally come out from you? I hope everyone understand my question

You just have to work at it untill your interest is what comes naturally.
Can take a bit of time and effort to get there.

[herodotus]

This has come up before, and someone posted an interesting video about it. Seems it's much more about how directors build scenes with already established pieces in mind, and then ask composers to, "give me something just like that". So it really becomes nothing more than a kind of composing-by-numbers type of gig

Yes.

I remember one such thread, and I will re-quote the taxi.com listing that I quoted there:

EPIC, HYBRID TRAILER INSTRUMENTALS are needed by a Production Music Library with a long list of Film Trailer placements. They’re eagerly searching for action packed, Mid-to-Up-Tempo, Trailer-Style Instrumentals that could work for Big Blockbuster Hollywood Movies. Please listen to the following references to get in the broad and general stylistic wheelhouse of what they’re looking for:

Pacific Rim:

Kill Command:

Precious Cargo:

Attraction:

Submit heart-pounding Instrumentals with huge drum hits, an epic orchestra, coupled with hybridized elements (Hard Rock, EDM, Dubstep, Hip-Hop, etc.) Be sure your submissions use current sounding leads, risers, stings, and pads. The structure should follow what you’d typically hear in film trailers with three distinct acts that build to a climatic crescendo. Be sure your orchestral instrumentation sounds are very convincing, and please avoid anything stiff or obviously MIDI-driven for this pitch.

WANTED: Slavish imitators with lots of gear and no personal dignity or originality.

I personally have always believed that real musical talent is rare and more or less randomly distributed throughout each generation. The problem is that no one is looking for real musical talent in Hollywood. Especially not in a 100 million dollar blockbuster, where investors are most concerned about getting a big return.

Very few people care about great film scores. Who buys a movie ticket because they like the composer? And if any director does care about great film scores (like, say, Tarantino) they can always just sample the music from older movies.

Thank God for DVDs. I think I will put in "Once Upon a Time in the West".

Now THAT is a film score.

[4damind]

I've always interested in modern electronic music, such as drum n bass, techno etc. But when I tried to produce that kind of music, its always too cheesy (the melody, rhythm and sound design). I'm coming from traditional music background, playing guitar in bands...

This is often the problem for people with a deeper musical knowledge. They have no problem to find the right chord progressions and a nice melody but it sounds too cheesy and boring because it misses the random and imperfect elements. This random things are often easier for people working more with "trial and error" instead of the deep knowledge what they are doing

Often it needs a bit more understanding of this "technical" elements of a song like the different parts (verse, bridge, chorus,...) in combination with interesting transition effects

I've seen also very often, that people with a great experience of playing instruments, using effects only very sparely and/or they don't use automation (volume/filter/...) and this are important parts to make a song more interesting.

[eluherlu]

Its good to see different opinions here. I found out that I can get better result by changing my workflow, while still using some sense of rhythm and melody of mine. Less 'playing' and more 'programming'. Think outside the box, out of the theory, etc. Sound design and movements also important.
However, I just feel a little bit guilty for not using my knowledge from years of playing guitar, learn theory etc, to the fullest. And also, playing is much more fun than programming
Well, maybe it's just a journey of my music. And I definitely learned something new, which is a good thing for me.

[4damind]

However, I just feel a little bit guilty for not using my knowledge from years of playing guitar, learn theory etc, to the fullest.

Producing is not the same as playing an instrument, this are 2 different things. Producing a song needs some more understanding on the technical side and also this "bigger view about the whole thing".
There are many excellent singers/instrumentalists out there but only a few of them are also good producers.

IMO the "producer" is often more this bit nerdy type of musician, interested into song writing and also into this technical aspects of song production. As a conclusion it needs all this knowledge about a modern DAW and how to "build" a song, how to use effects, how to use automation etc. and of course the interest for trying out new things

[donkey tugger]

IMO the "producer" is often more this bit nerdy type of musician, interested into song writing and also into this technical aspects of song production.

I think that's quite accurate. A lot of 'producers' (and I use the term in the old, 'proper' way - i.e. someone who oversees the production of a song/album etc, not just anyone who has a computer and makes some music..) have done time in bands. Some band members like to get into the drugs/groupies etc, whilst there is usually one who hangs around with the engineers and technical people and gets into the process. I was one of those boring bastards....