quick-tips

5 Tips for Success

I usually offer my personal advice, but this short article echoes my thoughts perfectly, so click here for today’s quick tips.

Quick Tip: Email Signatures

If you’re like me, you send out countless work-related emails a day. That means signing off on countless emails, which typically means ending with “Sincerely” or “All the best” or “Thanks” – whichever you like to use – followed by your name. Or maybe you’re a minimalist and you just like to use your initials.

Whatever the case, I recommend creating a signature that’s assigned to your email account, which has the sign-off of your choice.  It’ll save you just a second or two per email, but it all adds up over time.

And one more tip – include your phone number in your signature. Including your number makes it convenient for your clients, if they want to call you to discuss something in an email they don’t have to go looking for your number, it’s right there.

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If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.

Quick Tip: Plug-In Old Drives To Keep Them Functioning

I have lots of hard drives. I use external drives for projects. I use internal drives that I plug-in using a SATA hard drive dock for backups. I currently own about 30 drives, most of them are used for project backups…

Quick Tip: Backups

Backing projects up is extremely important. If you’re not already regularly backing up your projects, you need to start right away. In my experience the best way to run backups is to use a program that can run in the background and automatically run backups for you. That way you can set it and forget it.

I like & use Synk by Decimus. It’s very reasonably priced and full of great options. There are other good backup programs, and as long as it gets the job done, it really doesn’t matter which program you use, as long as you’re consistently running. it.

Typically when setting up a backup, you have the option to mirror your source, which will often delete files in the backup when you delete them at your source, or you can archive everything. Make sure you’re archiving everything!

I like to use a hard drive dock (there are lots of options) and backup my projects to external drives. I simply label them backup-1, backup 2 etc. and store them in anti static bags in my closet. I have a simple Filemaker database where I list what is backup up where, so if I have to bring up an old backup, I can look up what drive it’s on in my database and know which drive to plug-in.

Finally, don’t forget to backup you system drive. Start with a bootable clone of your system drive, and then update the backup so as you create new files, update software etc. the backup is updated, too.

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If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.

Quick Tip: Renaming Files Using Automator

Every once in a while, I find myself in a situation where I need to rename a lot of files. For example, if I receive a poorly labeled session with poorly labeled audio files and I want to add some information like a cue number, or the project name. Dong it manually is a pain and very time consuming. Thankfully Mac OS has an app called Automator, which is very easy to setup and does the job perfectly and super-quickly. Here’s how:

Step 1.
Open Automator, which you will find in you Applications folder and select Service.

Step 2.
From the list of actions, select Rename Finder Items (you can type in “rename” in the search box to quickly find it). You can choose to add a Copy Finder Items action if you want to make a copy of the files you’re renaming. I don’t usually do this since the whole point is to rename the files, and I generally have a backup of the original materials I’m sent already.

Step 3.
Adjust the following settings:

• Service receives selected: files or folders in Finder
• From the next dropdown select Add Text
• Add: Enter the text you want to add here, then select before name or after name or as extension
• Click the Options tab at the bottom and check Show this action when the workflow runs
  

Step 4.
Hit Command S to save your automator script and name it

Step 5.
Go to the folder that contains the files you want to rename. Select them and right click (or hold down Control then click) to open the contextual menu, select Services at the bottom and then your script.

Step 5.
A window will appear where you can adjust the renaming settings. If you’re happy with your settings, click Continue. Or do what I do – I created a script and then I just tweak it whenever I use it to the specifics I want.

Tada!
That’s it – here’s what the folder looks like with the renamed files. Create this script once, then modify how you want it to behave and speed up your file management.

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If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.

Quick Tip: Numbering Cues

There are several conventions when numbering cues for your project. The oldest was simply keeping a running tally of each cue i.e. M001, M002, M003 and so on. The M stands for Music, so this would indicate music cue 1, music cue 2, music cue 3 etc.

At some point a new convention became popular, starting with the reel or act number, then the letter M, then the cue number within that reel or act, for example 1m01, 1m02, 1m03, 2m01, 2m02, 2m03 etc. This system is still very popular and effective. It’s easy to see how many cues are in each reel or act using this system.

Finally, a variation on this system became popular, combining both of the above conventions. In this system the reel or act number is first, then M for music and then a continually escalating number for each cue like so: 1m01, 1m02, 1m03, 2m04, 2m05, 2m06 and so on.

In my entire career I haven’t seen the old serial system in use except when looking up old cue sheets for Bride of Frankenstein (1935) & The Wolf Man (1941). So I think it’s safe to say nobody uses it anymore.

I prefer the latter method for two main reasons. First, it makes it impossible to have 1m2 and 2m1, which can be easily confused, especially when it’s late and you’re tired and trying to beat a deadline, or if you’re dyslexic. Second, it’s not uncommon to re-balance reels after cue numbers have been assigned and using the latter system you can simply change 1m07 to 2m07 to indicate the cue that used to be at the end of reel 1 is now at the top of reel 2. It’s still cue 07, and always will be.

I also like using leading zeros when numbering cues (i.e. 1m01 not 1m1). This makes sure things are always sorted properly when looking at file names on my computer or using any database system I may be using to help manage my projects.

A few more conventions I like:

If a cue is added between cues, I will number it as the cue that precedes it and add a letter to the cue number. For example, if a cue is added between 2m04 & 2m05 I’ll call it 2m04A. If another is added between 2m04A & 2m05 I’ll call it 2m04B and so on. If a cue is added between 2m04A & 2m04B it can be 2m04AA or 2m04A2 – thankfully that’s an extremely rare occurrence.

If a composer choses to split up a cue into parts, I use the same convention. For example if 3m24 is split up into 3 distinct cues they will become 3m24A, 3m24B and 3m24C.

Finally, I like to have a quick visual in the cue number that lets me know if it is underscore for the composer to write, a needle-drop (source or song) or on-camera production (i.e. someone singing on camera). I don’t do anything for score cues. I add an “s” for needle-drop to indicate it is a song or source cue (i.e. 4m43s) and I add a “p” for production cues (i.e. 6m72p).

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If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.

Quick Tip: Kontakt Quick-Load

Over the years I’ve acquired quite a few sample libraries. I have a lot of libraries that are powered by Kontakt. Some come with built-in-libraries that you can load into Kontakt. Many don’t.

What I’ve found is that you really need to get to know all your libraries well and remember what you have and where in order to take advantage of them. And as your collection of libraries grows, that becomes harder and harder to keep track of.

Kontakt’s database is pretty good, but again limited to libraries that support it. However, Kontakt has a wonderful feature – the Quick-Load menu, which is completely customizable.

I’ve found it was well worth my time to spend a day or so building my custom Quick-Load menu system. Finding any sound from any library is a snap thanks to my well organized Quick-Load menus. Whenever I get a new sample library, I spend a few minutes adding its instruments & multis to my Quick-Load menu – those extra few minutes save me countless minutes later.

Here’s a screen-shot of my Quick-Load menu system. This works well for me. To keep things ordered the way I want them I use numbers in front of the folder names. I like to have things organized in score order with synths & other at the end. If you like it feel free to copy this structure and add your own instruments. Or make your own that suites your needs. Whatever you do, I think it’s wroth the effort and saves a lot of time when working. I never have to dig around for instruments, I know exactly where to go find them.

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If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.

Quick Tip: Audio Demos

When sending demos, consider these few quick tips to make sure your material is presented well:

1. Trim your audio files. Nobody likes a second or two of silence before the music begins when they hit play. Trim your audio so it plays immediately like every professional track you hear on every album you’ve ever owned. If it feels too abrupt, you can add a few milliseconds of silence, but don’t have long silences either before or after the music plays. And make sure when you trim the end of your audio files that yo do not accidentally crop the audio – make sure the endings sound nice and natural and ring out properly.

2. Manage your levels. Nobody likes to turn up the volume for one song, only to reach for the volume again because the next song is much too loud, or vice versa. If your tracks are unmastered, do a bit of self-mastering by adjusting levels so all your tracks play at relatively the same level.

3. Personalize your demos. If you’re pitching your music for a dramatic project, they don’t care about your comedic chops. Choose tracks that are relevant to what they are looking for.

4. Make custom demos if you can. If you are able, write custom cues just for the specific pitch. Create music that you think would be the perfect fit and place that music at the top of your demo.

5. Assign a cue order. If you want people to listen to your tracks in a certain order, but are just sending a link to files, or attaching MP3s to an email, start your filenames with a track number (i.e. 1 My first track.mp3, 2 My second track.mp3). That way when they save the tracks to their hard drive and listen, they will come up in order and the listener is more likely to listen in that order. If they’re streaming your music via an online player, set the order of the playlist to what you want them to hear.

6. Make your tracks downloadable. If you’re linking to an online player with your playlist, have a download option. Most producers, directors & music supervisors I know like to have the audio files on their computer. If they like what they hear, they may send a particular track to colleagues or even to a picture editor to try and cut it in as temp. Make sure they have the files and can do so.

7. Create clear and consistent file names. Make sure your track names are consistent. Don’t do this:

1m1 Main Titles.mp3
TD_M05_Chase.mp3
The beginning.mp3

Do this instead:

1 The Beginning.mp3
2 Jasmine Main Titles.mp3
3 Chase.mp3

Notice in the first example there are different extraneous things vs. the 2nd example where the titles look consistent, and the numbers also put things in order as described above in paragraph 5.

8. Clean up your metadata. Make sure your MP3 has proper ID3 tags. At a minimum have the track name & your name. As above, make sure the ID3 metadata is consistent throughout your tracks.

How you present your work is probably equally as important as the quality of your work. If you stuff sounds good but is a mess, you’ll probably make less of an impression than if your stuff sounds OK but is beautifully organized and presented.

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If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.

Quick Tip: Editing Soundtrack CDs

At the end of a film, I often have the pleasure of cutting the soundtrack CD. I find this part of the process to be especially fun because there are no more  picture constraints, no hit points, no sound effects to compete with. It’s all about the music. It’s also challenging to pick & choose which pieces to keep, which not to include, where to edit (if at all) and in what order they should play. Here are a few quick tips that I use when cutting soundtracks:

1. Start by building a session with all the cues in show order. Trim any empty space in the fronts and ends of the audio files so they are nice and tidy.

2. Shoot for a soundtrack that’s about 45 minutes long. Less seems short. More can be too much. This isn’t a hard rule, if the soundtrack feels right at 44 minutes or 47 minutes that’s fine. Trust your instincts.

3. Get rid of cues that are repetitive or based on other cues. These make a lot of sense thematically in the film, but if they are very similar there’s typically no need for more than one in the soundtrack album.

4. Trim the fat. Writing for film often means vamping, looping, stretching & holding in order to make a hit. Those types of things can be trimmed or entirely cut out of a track for soundtrack purposes. If there’s a phrase that, for example, is in 4/4 but has a 5/4 bar somewhere which was clearly added to accommodate picture, get rid of the added beat.

5. Pick a cue order. Start with the show order and take a listen. If there’s a lull, move things around. If there are awkward key changes that bother you, move things around. There is no formula or science to this – just play around and use your judgement. When you play through the soundtrack and time flies by, you know you’re in good shape.

6. Establish the spacing between tracks. Now that you have everything in order, adjust the spacing between tracks so it feels just right. Again, there is no magic formula. If you’re going from a big action cue into a quiet emotional cue, you may want a longer space between those cues than you would going from two similar cues. Again, do what feels right.

7. If you have the time, leave the soundtrack along for a day or two, then go back and re-listen. It’s amazing how much perspective you gain by revisiting it after a bit of time.

8. Finally, a technical tip. Work with the highest quality mixes you have, and deliver those to mastering. Never down-sample before delivering to mastering. If the mixes are at 96k, deliver 96k and let the mastering facility down-sample to 44.1kHz/16 Bit.

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quickIf you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.

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Quick Tip: Accepting Criticism Gracefully

It is inevitable when working in film-music that on occasion (or sometimes quite often) we are subject to critiques and commentary of our work. Whether we’re soliciting input from someone, or the criticism is offered uninvited, it is something we must all deal with.

Being able to take criticism gracefully is a useful skill to have, and one which can be learned. There’s really not much to it. First you must keep in mind that musical taste is entirely subjective, and therefore so is all feedback relating to it. So if someone doesn’t care for your music, or your choice of a temp track, or your choice of how to edit something etc., they are simply expressing their opinion, which in the grand scheme of things matters no more or less than yours.

Second, keeping the first thing in mind, if the comments are coming form your director or producer (or other employer), then it is their opinion that counts for that particular project more than yours. And naturally they will criticize what they don’t like more readily than praise what they do like. They’re there to tell you what’s wrong so you can fix it, not to stroke your ego. So keep in mind that the criticism is not personal, but professional. After all, they hired you in the first place, so they like you enough to have given you the job, and they expect and trust that you can handle their notes and address them.

If you disagree with a note or criticism, ask yourself – do you disagree because your feelings are hurt? Or based on your professional opinion. If it is the latter, by all means discuss your thoughts regarding the criticism. The best way to do it is to ask leading questions – i.e. “so when you say it’s not doing it for you, do you mean it’s not exciting enough? Not energetic enough? Not hitting picture right?” Help them explain the issue in more detail – you’ll be surprised at how often what seems like a huge criticism at first turns out to really be just a request for a minor tweak.

If your feelings are hurt, then you’re not able to be objective at that moment, and it’s best to leave it alone and come back to it after you’ve had some time to think. Just respond gracefully with something like “Thank you for your notes” or “I’ll see what I can do” or “Let me think about it” and move on. The worst thing you can do is confront the person offering their criticism and tell them they’re wrong.

If they are just a friend or colleague or professional critic offering their thoughts about your work, then it really doesn’t matter. If you disagree that’s fine, who cares? It’s just their opinion, remember the first thing I told you – it’s subjective. If they are your employer, or someone you reached out to for input and advice, confronting them will only make you seem stubborn and unwilling to listen. Taking some time to gather your emotions and then revisiting the cue at a later time can do wonders.

Finally, if you reach out and ask for someone’s opinion, you should just accept it and thank them for taking the time to critique your work, even if you think their feedback is completely wrong. It is just their opinion. And if you really can’t handle criticism, then you’re in the wrong business.

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If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.

Quick Tip: Cue Names

There are no rules when it comes to naming cues. However, here are a few tips I’ve come up with based on my experience over the years.

• Make names descriptive.
  Try to come up with names that are descriptive of the scene you’re scoring. That way everyone immediately knows what scene a cue is intended for. Here are some good examples  from Laurence Rosenthal’s score to Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story. “Bob’s New Gun,” “Losing The Baby,” “Money Troubles,” “Ramon Contacts Russians.” When I worked on 9 there were several action/fight scenes so we used the names of the creatures that were being fought in the cue names – “Winged Beast,” “Slaying The Beast,” “The Seamstress.”
• Make names unique.
  This expands on my first tip. Often there are common scene types that happen in many films – titles, fights, chases, shootouts, credits, etc. As a music-editor I have an extensive library of soundtracks containing countless tracks named simply “Chase” or “Titles” or “Shootout” and so on.  Adding a word or two to generic titles makes them unique. It can be as simple as adding the film’s name like “Hellboy II Titles.” Instead of “Chase” try a unique descriptor like “Chasing Across DC” or “Berlin Foot Chase” or “Studio Chase.” Here are some examples of “Fight” cues with better names “Airplane Fight,” “Alley Fight,”  “Bank Fight,” “Bathroom Fight.” By simply adding one descriptive word, you get a unique name.
• Keep names short.
  When you’re working on a film, you print out spotting notes, master cue lists and various other lists. Keeping names short makes formatting these various lists easier. I try to keep names to no more than 3 words. There are often exceptions, but that’s what I aim for.
• Use existing conventions.
  Often by the time you join a movie and spot it, the director and editor and others on the team are referring to certain sections of the film by descriptive names they assigned them. If they’re already referring to a scene by a certain name, and you’re going to have a cue for that scene, use that name. This will eliminate any confusion by having different names when referring to the same scene. Instead of their name when talking about the scene and yours when talking about the cue for that scene, just use the same name they’re already using.
• Use lines of dialog.
  Sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what to name a scene. There’s no simple description that makes itself obvious as a great name. Often in those cases, there is some key line of dialog that everyone working on the film will know and associate with that scene. Using that line (or paraphrasing it into 3-4 words) is an effective way to name cues. Here are some examples from when I worked on Go On, and even though a couple of years have passed, these key lines of dialog still remind me of the episode and scene right away “May I Follow Ryan?“, “Porsche, Ignition On!“, “I Can’t Stand Being Alone“, “I’m Gonna Dump Him“.

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If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.