# My new column for Film Music magazine is up.



## Ashermusic (Sep 30, 2010)

My new column for Film Music magazine is up. It was inspired by a discussion here.
http://www.filmmusicmag.com/


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## bryla (Sep 30, 2010)

Great read, and we should discuss this honestly


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## Ashermusic (Oct 1, 2010)

Thank you. I hope it does not read as if I am against buying new libraries because I certainly am not. 

I just think that perhaps "great and new" do not necessarily mean "must have."


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## germancomponist (Oct 1, 2010)

Great read, Jay! o=<


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## rabiang (Oct 1, 2010)

just remember that libraries can be used for a lot of other things than mock-ups and film music.


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## Ashermusic (Oct 1, 2010)

rabiang @ Fri Oct 01 said:


> just remember that libraries can be used for a lot of other things than mock-ups and film music.



Absolutely true, but this is a column for Film Music Magazine and so that is the kind of composer's needs my focus is on.


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## Andrew Aversa (Oct 1, 2010)

This really is a great discussion topic Jay, and I'm glad you brought it up. I think you hit the nail on the head with your criteria for buying a new library. Here are my comments of each of them:



> 1. How much of my budget can I afford to use for new purchases so that I am amortizing the purchase? If it is for a project I do not have, how much will the purchases impact my finances if I do not get the project?



I think this actually boils down into three scenarios:

* You don't have a gig, and you're not bidding for one. In this case, you're not predicting an increase in income so my advice is generally to only look for sales or special offers that are temporary, as this might save money in the long run.

* You don't have a gig, but you ARE bidding for one. As you said, you have to ask yourself how this will affect current finances, and whether or not this will give you a significantly stronger edge against the competition (meaning a real return on investment.)

* You have a gig. You know you're going to get paid, and you can separate part of your budget out to get new gear that either (a) helps with your CURRENT gig, so you do a better job, or (b) will help you with future gigs/projects. In this case, I would defer to the first situation... only look for sales.



> 2. Will the product make the music sound better to the client and the end listener or to only to me and my fellow composers? If the latter, is that a worthy end unto itself? Maybe if it is $200, but what if it is $1200?



An excellent consideration. The question I ask myself is whether any particularly library or piece of gear will give me an edge. For example, I recently purchased a Roland V-Synth (at a tremendous discount.) I have tons of softsynths and electronic sample libraries, but so do a lot of other producers. As I enjoy producing + licensing original albums, maintaining a 'fresh' sound is important. Any piece of gear that is somewhat unusual can potentially give me a fresh new edge. 

On the other hand, even if you don't think a new piece of gear will impress a client, sometimes non-musicians can like something better without knowing why. I recently won a bid against a huge number of other composers, and I believe it had something to do with the extra time and money I spent getting several live musicians to perform on the track. I don't necessarily think the employer noticed this as they were blended, but I do believe if they had heard the non-live version, it would have sounded worse to their ears.



> 3. Will the product’s sound and capabilities inspire me to actually compose better music?



This is a really great point. It is very easy to fall into the trap of buying a library because the demos sound great or everyone is raving about it, but if it's cumbersome or uninspiring, it's not a good use of your money. Doing your best to try out any library or gear before you buy it is really important, lest you get something that gives you a headache every time you load it up.



> 4. What is the product’s learning curve? Will it be quick and easy to integrate into my workflow or will it take an investment of time that could be better used for other purposes? Does the product feature workflow methods that will save me time in the long run?



That last sentence is a key consideration that again I think is overlooked. I think it's the #1 most important thing on your list there. Even if a product has a sharp learning curve and even if its difficult to integrate, you have to look at the long term return on investment (time as well as money.) For example, if you don't like your current DAW, switching to a new DAW might result in weeks of time spent relearning some things, but it could mean that you work much more efficiently in the long run. So, you have to look down the road too, not just your current schedule.


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## Ashermusic (Oct 1, 2010)

Thank you for all the thoughtful comments.

Something else occurred to me: do we sometimes buy out of fear that if we do not buy the latest and greatest we will not sound as good and will lose a job to a competitor?


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## Dave Connor (Oct 1, 2010)

Very good article Jay and very true.


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## noiseboyuk (Oct 1, 2010)

Ashermusic @ Sat Oct 02 said:


> Thank you for all the thoughtful comments.
> 
> Something else occurred to me: do we sometimes buy out of fear that if we do not buy the latest and greatest we will not sound as good and will lose a job to a competitor?



Yes, and in a job where the samples are used for final mix it's an absolutely real consideration. If a producer wants a Hollywood score on a miniscule budget, of course they're gonna go for someone who a) has the talent and b) has the tools to realise it.

For the composer, it makes purchasing decisions hard. As you say in your article, will it just give a level of refinement that is apparent only to other musicians or composers, or does it fundamentally raise the level of realism (or alternatively improve the workflow?)


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## wst3 (Oct 2, 2010)

yet another detail or two...

There's a valid (I believe) concern about learning curves. Certainly you are not going to purchase a new library and become proficient with it in no time, and if you are under the gun of a deadline for a project it is not, perhaps, the best manner or time to learn to use a new library.

There's also the flip side, I've purchased tools (not libraries that I can recall) and spent some time learning to use them, only to have them trumped by a better tool for that particular task before I actually need to use them. A very frustrating scenario!

There is also the fact that some people (and I am one of them!) learn more efficiently if there is a real project at hand. I remember far too clearly purchasing Finale many years ago so that I'd have time to learn to use it before I needed it. I spent a fair amount of time dinking around with it - but I did not really learn to use it until I used it on a real project. And yes, there was some pain (and loss of sleepy time<G>) associated with that process!

Point being that the purchase of a new tool is always a compromise... purchase it too early and it could have a negative impact on your finances, or end up collecting dust for a while, grab it when you actually need it and you could add time to the project time line.

This past winter I made the leap and purchased a reasonably sophisticated orchestral library (KH Diamond) to provide me with a wider palette than I had with my 'beginner' library (GPO). I've spent a fair amount of time trying to get the hang of it, and I think I'm at the point where I can, when the time comes, use it to good effect. The discount that was offered at the time was a motivator, but I had hoped to land a project that would use these instruments by now, and it hasn't happened. On the other hand, the next version of my demo reel is shaping up quite nicely, and while there is no gun to my head it provides me with a nice project to work with.

No regrets whatsoever, I could afford to make the leap when I did, but by the same token, it does mean that I don't have the resources right now to purchase LASS Lite or Requiem Lite - both of which I suspect have an even steeper learning curve.

On the plus side, I also purchased Camel Audio Alchemy during their group buy, but mostly because I needed something that could do that sort of complex synthesis, and I was been able to put it to use. But I'm far from being a wizard at programming it, and I might have been able to use it even more effectively had I had the time to learn it.

I think every purchase one makes for one's studio (and this goes back to the mid 1980s when I was building a more conventional facility) is subject to these constraints. Microphones, compressors, equalizers, delays and reverbs all take time to get familiar with. And they all cost money. And there is, and always has been a balancing act between buying them too soon and buying them too late.


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