Have you ever composed any music?
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Well, have you?
And to the members here who actually are composers, I want to ask a different question: Do you feel like you get the proper amount of assignments these days to make a living?
Well, have you?
Yes 😉
And to the members here who are actually composers, I want to ask a different question: Do you feel like you get the proper amount of assignments these days to make a living?
That would really be interesting to hear as AI is surely is leaving some casulties behind on music for media, especially things like advertising I would expect. I heard of illustrators who already lost jobs because of that.
Ah, not sure I will or should 😉 I can share one thing as that is public anyway. I did this trailer for an extension for the open source project I am involved with that some years ago:
Yeah, that’s the feeling I got. I have no idea which tools you used to compose that, but it sounded slick and professional.
“That’s music to my ears” 😉 It was done using a very old version of a DAW named Reason and I think the included libraries augmented with some others. Actually it quite badly mixed and I wanted to re-do it some time.
I have actually composed a few bits, on the piano, back when I was noodling around on it in my childhood and teenage years (see the “Do you play any instrument?” thread).
One of those melodies was clearly inspired by Jean Michel Jarre’s “Calypso, Part 3” from the WAITING FOR COUSTEAU album, although I wouldn’t have admitted it at the time.
Another melody was a strange case, though — many years after I had composed it, I was SHOCKED to hear how similar it was to the main theme from John Williams’ THE EIGER SANCTION. I had churned out that thing years and years before I had even heard of THE EIGER SANCTION. But in recent years, it’s occured to me that the inspiration may have come from somewhere else: Dimitri Tiomkin’s eternal “The Green Leaves of Summer”, which – in some form or fashion – I might have heard during my childhood. There is a link between that song and THE EIGER SANCTION in that melancholic, slightly baroque style. OR – the tune is so straightforward in its “walk up and down the scale”, it’s easy access for everyone.
Other bits and bobs that never amounted to much.
First, it’s been far too long since my last login to this lovely forum. I’ll try to do better!
And to the members here who actually are composers, I want to ask a different question: Do you feel like you get the proper amount of assignments these days to make a living?
I’ll be completely honest, the last couple of years have been kind of rough. I think it’s a combination of several things.
1) We are still feeling the aftermath of Covid. Some projects end up getting cancelled, so there are more «talks about projects that end up leading to nothing», regrettably still filling up valuable time in your calendar.
2) Everything from food to rent to living costs in general is way more expensive than five years ago, yet the admission prices for composed music have stayed more or less the same. This is also related to the fact that projects, if they get funded at all, often get funded with sort of a minimum amount of possible money. So unfortunately, we’re not really in a position to expect a pay raise, most of the time. People still get paid, but often no more than the bare minimum, it seems. This probably applies to everyone within the arts, and not only composers.
3) For me, some projects have simply been more time-consuming than before, meaning room for less projects in total. This is kind of random, though. I am also in my mid 40s now, and really don’t have the drive or energy to work all day and night like I used to in the old days. Not to mention I have a three year old kid, so I seriously can’t. 🙂
4) As for AI, this hasn’t affected me that much, as I mainly compose for theatre and fiction films. For people working a lot with music for commercials or reality TV, they must be feeling it for sure. Luckily, the directors I work with are simply not at all interested in an AI’s «artistic voice», and neither am I.
That’s an interesting peak behind the curtains, Eirik.
I sometimes put dots on paper that may or may not qualify as music, but nowadays I’m mostly decomposing.
I sometimes put dots on paper that may or may not qualify as music, but nowadays I’m mostly decomposing.
Same for me.
Apart from that, I have been writing songs since 40 years.
Unfortunately a lot of it lost in time. But nobody would be listening anyway.Other than Malte’s video above, are there any bits you’ve composed that you’re in a position to share here? I mean, for the non-composers among us?
I am, in my “spare time” a composer of various kinds of music, since I was 16 years old! I’ve written music for films and for fun, in various styles from rock to symphonic to Japanese animé.
I’m particularly glad to be finished with the “Slogans” project Parts 1 and 2. For some reason Apple only has part 1. If you like dystopian science fiction, then this “radio theatre/audio book” whatever called “Slogans” might interest you. It’s the most complex project I’ve every worked on in terms of amount of music, themes, timing, and instrumentation!!
I also have a special 2026 edition of Fragile Earth coming out for Sir David Attenborough’s 100 birthday (crossing fingers that the publishing schedules cooperate). I’d love to know what people think.
You can find my music here:
https://markburgess.org/music.html (homepage)
https://music.apple.com/no/artist/mark-burgess/68272771/full-albums (itunes)
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3pxgJ5xNHCyO0dsfDxceG7 (spotify)
etcI’d love to hear what anyone thinks of any of it. Especially the Slogans, which cost me a lot of tears, blood, and mental seizures.
Mark, I moved your post here. Hope that is OK! It’s easier to navigate with just one thread per topic.
Thank you for those links. I will investigate at first convenient opportunity, and get back to you with some feedback. Impressive roster!
Mark, I had a brief listen-through of some of your stuff. Seems you veer more towards the textural than in-your-face thematic, but many textures to explore, for sure. For the approximations of orchestral music, have you used the same software for all of it, or have you changed gear over the years since 2017?
Amusing bits into other genres too, like indie rock. Or those lovely guitar bits on A SUMMER ENDING (loved the “Tentative Decisions (Folias)” cue).
And that FRAGILE EARTH, is that actually for a David Attenborough thing, i.e. with his or his crew’s involvement? Or inspired by his nature documentaries?
Mark, I had a brief listen-through of some of your stuff. Seems you veer more towards the textural than in-your-face thematic, but many textures to explore, for sure. For the approximations of orchestral music, have you used the same software for all of it, or have you changed gear over the years since 2017?
Thanks for listening, Thor. You’re right, I rarely go for obvious themes, with only a few exceptions. If there are themes, they are often buried motifs that come back in different forms, so you have to watch out for them. Like in Valentine Skies, and Cupid Conspiracy etc. But then there’s the elephant march, which is a deliberately Indiana Jones heroic theme.
The orchestra tech has evolved a lot since 2017, yes. The whole industry is better than it was. I am also more skilled at using it than I was. It takes a lot of twiddling to make a convincing performance. Every note has to be adjusted for phrasing. There are some things you just can’t play convincingly. I always write every part, like a real score, just in case I can persuade someone to play it one day 🙂
The David Attenborough was inspired by him series, and a couple of short film sequences that we put together. But these were never used for anything in the end…which is a shame, since i put a lot of work into those pieces.
I should add an addendum to the last part — that many soundtracks from Hollywood also use orchestra simulation rather than the real thing, since it’s obviously much cheaper. Those people use much more sophisticated (and expensive) synchronized computer than I can possibly justify, but then they get the big bucks. They might overdub some strings later, since they are the hardest instrument to simulate.
At least everyone uses that for mockups nowadays.
I always write every part, like a real score, just in case I can persuade someone to play it one day 🙂
A big wallet might help here 😉 I cannot write real scores. For things I puzzle together I for sure would need an orchestrator to make it playable and possible fix some oddities 😉
Thanks for the information, Mark!
I definitely understand the issue of cost. And very often, you do get the “sensation” of an orchestral performance even if it isn’t. In fact, when I asked Eirik Myhr (who also posts here) to write an original theme for the podcast series, my brief to him was to start off with something “in the vein of the opening from Michael Kamen’s ROBIN HOOD, then into Zimmer, then a coda with a kind of Williams or Elfmanesque quality”. To cover the many faces of film music, it’s intended as pure pastiche. I think he delivered in spades, and of course the orchestral bits were very much sample-based.
Nice moody track as Thor already mentioned.
Thanks! There’s a whole album of flying birds and collapsing ecosystems too 🙂
Thanks! There’s a whole album of flying birds and collapsing ecosystems too 🙂
As always: So much music and so limited time! But I will try to listen to more. What DAW do you use? Any specific libs. I use Logic and since I only occasionally do things at all I use just what comes with it and that is a lot. Of course there is always better… There are a few newer free and a little limiteed libraries that I want to expore when I get the time. I have basically no budget to buy any expensive library… That or or music by proper composers is the choice basically 😉 (Just realize that is more for the other topic but we can move it later)
Yes, it’s an expensive hobby. I now define it as “research” in my company so it becomes an expense 🙂
I also use Logic Pro, and I use the Opus East/West symphonic library for rendering. That maxes out my budget already (and my diskspace!)
Using libraries is complicated, I think. I’ve learned a lot by doing (and redoing) many times. Logic isn’t my ideal system, but I sort of know how to do stuff now…I now define it as “research” in my company so it becomes an expense 🙂
Being freelancer I don’t think this trick will help me in any regard 😉 I used Reason years ago, a very short time a limtied version of Cubase and then 15 years ago Logic when my then new Mac allowed it. And the overall package is quite unbeatable as with no other DAW you get as many sounds included. I started on tthe C64 by programming in music in Basic and then with Soundtrack on Amiga, so I find Logic quite comfortable. As with any tool, it’s also a matter of personal taste and such.
then with Soundtrack on Amiga,
Ah, an Amiga man! I actually owned the very first original Amiga (later called 1000) to arrive in the UK (and then the prerelease Archimedes, which I’d been commissioned to write some software for) back in my sordid past. It was a bit too early to have any affordable software for the Amiga though. I did make a few simple bits of music with it much later on, like this:
I just had an Amiga 500. Your track sounds right like these demo ones 😉 Mine were a bit less sophisticated as I just had the Soundtracker 2 program (here the first image https://www.amazona.de/uebersicht-tracker-vom-c64-ueber-den-amiga-bis-heute/) and some sounds discs. I could not sample and I had no keyboard or such back then. But fun days and how much time I wasted with it 😉 I still have a few dozen tracks I could save from an MC decades ago, the C64 ones didn’t survive sadly.
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