Catching Up With Myself

I received an encouraging email today from a publishing library I am a part. It stated simply that I had a statement online which was available for viewing. It appears that there have been some placements for a few of my tracks (Boolean, Null Pointer and Recursion) during the last quarter.

Unfortunately, due to the large number of placements they handle (and also the process in place for many of their larger clients), they cannot notify artists in real time of placements. I suppose this is fine, considering you do eventually find out about them and get paid your share, but I do find it a little disheartening that the statement doesn't appear to give a lot of detail regarding where each piece was used.

Now, I will admit that randomly hearing my music in a show or commercial without prior knowledge would be one sweet rush, but considering the amount of TV I watch the odds are extremely low. There is also the fact I only have the most basic cable package possible (barring none), making the vast majority of programs out of my reach as it is.

Surprisingly I did happen to find one of placements based on the show name, which made for a very welcome elated moment. Given the license date on the statement (6/30/2010) I assumed it must have been a fairly recent episode, if it had even been aired yet. My Google search led me right to a video, which I just assumed was the most recent episode. I (half)watched and listened and wouldn't you know it, Null Pointer showed up! It's merely a few seconds of the track, but still! I thought it was exciting.

Now, fast forward a couple hours and we come to the moment where I was trying to find it again to show my wife. It was upon this search that I found out the video I watched was not the most recent episode. Actually, it wasn't even from the same year. I am being paid this month for a placement on an episode which originally aired in March of 2009! How I got so lucky as to find the track in the first episode I watched, I will never know...

I guess what I've read is true, it does take awhile to get paid for licensing.

For reference, the show that used the track is called Gametrailers, which appears to play on Spike Friday nights. The episode in which Null Pointer is used can be found here. The track appears at about 16 minutes and 14 seconds in.

My track Recursion appears in an episode as well, but I have yet to find it...

Reaching Out

Some of you have probably already noticed the news that Among Them has received a little sonic makeover thanks to Bill over at MixLogics. The main reason I came to a decision to send this track out dealt with all of the recent reading I've done regarding mastering. I have done plenty of reading about this process in the past, but most of that was from a do-it-yourself point of view. Just recently I began to wonder if my track could actually hold it's own when thrown into a playlist of well known studio produced recordings. Though unfortunate, a song's sonic presentation can be just as important as it's true artistic appeal.

It's of little surprise to me that this new version presents itself better, but the extent of how much more lively the track feels is almost surreal to me. The reason for this undoubtedly deals with the access to professional equipment and an acoustically treated environment. But above those, a mastering engineer will always have one thing I cannot possess- a truly fresh perspective of my completed work. After spending hours upon hours listening to segments and mixes, I tend to build a preconceived notion of how the track should fill the audio spectrum. When it comes time to master, the proper adjustments would just feel wrong to me, leading me to create a sub-par master.

I guess the moral of the story is, outside input can be the spark that saves a project from certain death in mediocrity. We all can use a little help now and then.

Progressions of Thought

The past week's efforts were dedicated mostly to creating a track for the opening sequence of Relentless. This portion of the film was the inspiration for my last post, regarding the need to let go of (or set aside) ideas which didn't quite fit the mood or style. The main issue with the original was the separation of music and video. Without seeing James' vision in film, I brought myself to envision a sequence based on my track. This is quite backward from the standard process, so the fact of it being mismatched comes without too much surprise.

Earlier this week I started another arrangement, which seemed quite suiting. I played it back numerous times and managed to get it ingrained into my mind. Upon extending I managed to create another theme inside of this new theme. A theme which felt stronger and much more fitting. After sleeping on it, I played it all back the next day. My mind just gravitated to this new theme, making the original feel lackluster.

The last couple of nights I set out to extend upon this single theme idea. The ideas were racing in my head, at points moving so quickly I wasn't quite sure how to put them down. Thankfully the late night session on Saturday produced an arrangement I can truly stand by.

Looking back at the progression, if I hadn't recognized and accepted the issues and persisted despite them, I would have never created this new piece, which I truly look forward to sharing with you all in due time.

So this may very well mark the end of the first chapter with the scoring of Relentless. Next up: finding voices for the leading ladies.