Dipping my toe into film audio and scoring

After a couple of failed attempts to hook up with a film-maker I decided to bite on the bullet myself and find something to add sound and music to.

I wanted a film without dialogue and something that would suit a mixture of interesting sound effects and ambient music. After scouring Vimeo for several days (wow, there's an app that needs a decent search engine!!!) I came up with this by Petr Šprincl. I'm uncertain of what license is associated with this film, so let's be clear. I did not create, nor do I hold the copyright on this film.

https://vimeo.com/43559211

In my mind the last minutes of the film could be cut without affecting the story. But, bear in mind that I've only WATCHED the original. I haven't listened to the audio as I didn't want to become 'tainted' by the original. For all I know there could be a narrator explaining everything that was left to my imagination.

Anyway, part of the deal I set myself was to spend less than eight hours on this, and finish it. Since it was my first attempt at anything like this I decided that I shouldn't do my usual trick of spending weeks on something and not actually finish it.

I did get permission from Petr to create a derivative work, so here are my efforts:

Thesys versus Numerology

In the last little while I've discovered a fantastic sequencer app call 'Numerology'. The only snag: it's for Mac, and I don't have a Mac. I looked at buying Macs, both old and new. I tried to install MacOs on a virtual machine running on my PC, which led to failure, and my PC has never been right since.

Recent bouts of insomnia have led to lots of late night browsing, and by chance I came across an oddly named app called 'Thesys'. It seemed to be very similar to numerology, but had the key difference that it was both a bit cheaper, and available for PC and Mac.

I now own Thesys, and despite being feature rich it's quite easy to use. I'll post a link to a sequence that despite being only a few seconds long repeats in slightly different variations. The best thing: ratcheting is build in!

https://soundcloud.com/bubble/thesys-3

The Rules

There aren't many:

1. The sequences should EITHER be so damned good that you can happily listen to them for many minutes (i.e. Klaus Schulze) without any variation or evolution OR sequences should evolve and vary in both content and timbre to prevent tedium setting in. (*)

2. No guitar solos. Ever! Guitars have their place in electronic music, but never as a solo / lead instrument. Using them occasionally to add tonal variation and background drones is permissible in small quantity.

3. Avoid 'live drumming'. This isn't jazz. This is structure, patterns, purity, mathematics. Hyperactive, poorly executed drumming is going to draw attention from the song.

4. Sounds should be 'old school'. If it needs more than a 3-oscillator Moog it probably doesn't belong in this genre.

5. Take the sequences and sequencers seriously, but don't take yourself seriously. There are dozens of Scandinavian chaps who are far better at this that you, and even they aren't going to be popular, famous, or mainstream. You're making music for yourself, and maybe a handful of others.

(*) Since there's only one Klaus Schulze, this rule really becomes: sequences should evolve and vary in both content and timbre to prevent tedium setting in

What I strive for, and what I don't

I guess I should provide some examples of the music and styles I'm talking about...

Here's a typical Redshift track that exemplifies Berlin School sequencing. Note in particular the 'ratcheting', especially at 11 mins, 15 secs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU4tHA-KgOQ

In this live version, there is some nice ratcheting at 6 mins 30 secs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbVwhMZWI0U

I'll be talking a lot about 'ratcheting', but in summary it's when a repeating sequence suddenly has a coughing fit, and previously individual notes in the pattern are replaced by multiple shorter ones. Redshift use ratcheting a lot, and so did TD in the good old days.

Redshift make a point of having sequences run, but altering and evolving them in real-time. This is in contrast to Klaus Schulze who is a master of sequencing, but he tends to just let the sequence run and run unchanging, and in this extract we see he takes a literal 'hands off' approach:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvhxqZkZdJo

I consider Klaus a genius, but there's no point trying to emulate him, it would just be embarassing, he's too close to perfection. It's no surprise there are no Klaus Schulze tribute bands; nobody else can get close.

Speaking of embarassing, here's what has become of Tangerine Dream, even when they play some of their classics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPUomQU0Wkg

I especially enjoy the drummer who has no sense of timing, and that fact that they all look as if they are having dental surgery.

O' Tangerine Dream

When I was very young I was introduced to Tangerine Dream by one of my siblings. Most of it was too ethereal and spacey for me, but I found that some of it I loved. It was only decades later that I found out that the TD that I loved is classed as 'Berlin-School' sequencer music. I like most forms of electronic music, but there's something about Berlin-School sequences that really appeals to me - deeply.

As TD became awful, irrelevant, and frankly, embarassing, I discovered artists like Klaus Schulze who showed that electronic music could evolve, and it was possible to produce BS sequenced music using modern sounds and for it still to have emotion and power. Recently I discovered Redshift. I'm probably the last person on the planet to discover them, but I'm glad I did. I was beginning to think that it was a genetic requirement to be German in order to produce BS music, but Redshift (who are English) have put paid to that fallacy.

Now, I want to produce Redshift-like BS music, and in the process document my findings and my tools along the way.