# *UPDATE 2* Tutorial Series for film composer beginners (Youtube)



## Michael Firmont (Apr 14, 2016)

Hello to the hole VIC community 

I have to create a tutorial for a special subject at my university and thought about creating a small series with some topics I think can help to find an easier way as a beginners. It's for sure as well a matter of taste, but as well (personal) experience and there are tons of informations to find, but some basics are just missing. I try to catch them in my tutorials.

I would love to get some feedback and as well your experience and if it is ok for you, I would love to imply it, to show a wide spectrum of people.

First a rough overview:

_DAW + Libraries _
_Mac/Win/Hackintosh, how powerful_
_VEP5, Why, How-to, setting up a System_
_Audio Interface, Monitoring, Headphones_
_Cubase (basic Template, how to set it up, Variations)_
_Why Cubase + Tips&Tricks_
And now to the first to points my summary:


*
DAW:*

Cubase, Pro Tools, Studio One, Digital Performer, Logic, all have their advantages and disadvantages, matter of personal taste and workflow, and some require a specific system ( Logic = Apple)


Cubase: PROS: very common, easy to organize, Expression Maps, Batch Export, fast, stable, good workflow, runs faster on Windows (audio engine) /// Cons: mix window, can#t copy sends, TempoMap+Marker not visible/changeable in midi window, selection bar for VI's in midi window not as good as in PT,DP,SO


ProTools: still the Industry Standard for production, should be known, when working in bigger studios, PROS: very good for audio editing/recording, reliable, mixer works wonderful/same concept as a real mixer /// Cons: more complicated on Win machines (can't split Windows easily), no folder function, bad support policy, batch export only PT HD


Studio One: Pro: great update policy, extremely fast growing DAW with a clear professional vision, extremely good usability, batch export, editing like Pro Tools, but more easy and even faster, innovative /// Cons: Midi Window is not as comfortable as the rest, no Expression Maps, 5.1? , just 3 sample rate changes >>> NOT usable for film composers


Logic: Pro: Expression Maps add-on, but can't say much about it, 'cause I don't use it, but it's getting less and less used by professionals


Digital Performer: very interesting concept, a little bit like VEP and a DAW in one System, specialized on film composers, CONS: little bit laborious, no Expression Maps (even when aiming on film composers)
*Libraries: *


countless good and „not so good“ libraries


Orchestral Tools, East West, Spitfire, Embertone, VSL, Project Sams, Cinesamples, Strezov Sampling, Audiobro, Sample modeling, Native Instruments, Imperfect Samples, 8 DIO, Cinematic Strings, ….


it#s good to have different libraries from each kind


Layern . Important technique, usage of different instruments of one kind for the same line


EWQL: industry standard, especially Hollywood Strings&Brass, very very good price performance (always deals with 50% and more off), good sound, very emotional, extensive, stable /// CONS: Play Engine (not modular, not changeable), very very disk intense, very high ram-usage


Orchestral Tools: VERY extensive, many articulations, good sound, nice engine, very adaptable, high comfort, /// CONS: high ram usage, very expensive


Cinesamples: fast workflow, some good libs (Brass, Perc, Winds), price performances most of the time good (ignore Voxos  ) /// CONS: little articulations, Editing ( shorts too loud)


Spitfire: good sound, great room, many articulations /// CONS: very very expensive


VSL: many Articulations, great player/engine, great support // CONS: expensive, very specifically sound , totally dry, recordings very sober


Cinematic Strings: very strong Legatos, full of emotion, good price CONS: little articulations


Strezov Sampling: amazing Choir libs


Native Instruments: good lox budget starter package CONS: lot of not so usable stuff

_UPDATE:_ next video a little bit faster, but as well with German English  

_UPDATE1.5:_ A small tutorial about send channels:


* MAC vs PC vs Hackintosh, and how powerful:*

matter of taste (Windows vs Mac OS) and a matter of money


Mac: expensive, more stable on audio/video, New Mac: Thunderbolt (pro for some great audio interfaces, but there is something coming up for Win as well more to that later), Mac Trashcan >>> no PCI-E Cards, very expensive to update, lots of cables, Apple is not very fast in updating this system, it's not their “cashcow”


Win: good ready built audio systems (like from DA-X) or DIY with a bit of know how, very good to update the hardware, can be found more and more in professional areas (Junkie XL)


Hackintosh, nice idea, but not so stable and reliable to work with on a daily professional basis


How powerful:


at least 16 GB of ram, 64 ideal (more is always better here  )


SSD for system and most important, hardware intense libs ( 2x 512gb are a very good start, at least 256 for the system)


HDD for the rest, a 2 TB HDD for the project folder


graphic unit passive >> silent


silent cooling, good damping


It's great to have 2 monitors or at least one big one


too much money? Slave and Main Unit 

_Update:
_

Please feel free to share your thoughts, critiques and ideas. If you think, it's boring and there are too much tutorials, it's ok as well, I have to do it anyway 

All the best

Michael


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## d.healey (Apr 14, 2016)

Welcome to the forum. You missed Reaper from your DAW list, and no mention of notation software. Also missed Kontakt's factory library from your sample libraries list, every Kontakt (full version) user has this, it's not great but it's something.


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## R. Soul (Apr 15, 2016)

Possibly best first post ever 

Loads of great info, even for veterans.

D. Healey... I'm not sure why Reaper should be essential? There's no mention of Sonar either for example.

And considering how little the Kontakt library is mentioned around here I don't think it needs to be on the list.
How about some credit, for what is a very valuable post, instead of criticising the couple of things that be missing..
As far as I'm concerned OPs post is a better resource of info than 95% of the posts around here.


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## d.healey (Apr 15, 2016)

R. Soul said:


> Possibly best first post ever
> D. Healey... I'm not sure why Reaper should be essential? There's no mention of Sonar either for example.


I just like to plug Reaper whenever I can because I'm a fan boy 



R. Soul said:


> How about some credit, for what is a very valuable post, instead of criticising the couple of things that be missing..





> Please feel free to share your thoughts, critiques and ideas.


Just doing as the man asked.


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## AVaudio (Apr 15, 2016)

Great post! +1 for Reaper from me also. 

Maybe info about studio monitors and midi controllers as well? 

Genelec, Bluesky, Dynaudio and Adams, from my own experience, are stablished, reliable standards, even the more affordable ones. 

For midi keyboards, 88k are getting better and better for the mock-up artist these days, but it's a bit confusing to find the right one IMHO. Same goes for knobs-and-faders controllers. I can speak highly of the high end M-audio ones and others, while the avid ones I find really expensive. 

Also, if you mention notation programs, I think Notion and Musescore should be mentioned, apart from the obvious Finale and Sibelius. 

Just my 2 cts.


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## JJP (Apr 15, 2016)

Am I the only one who finds it a bit disappointing that so often when people talk about tips for beginning film composers the first topic is gear? It's rarely about understanding pacing, thematic writing, composing around dialogue, developing a sound over the course of a feature, reinforcing character and story arcs, conforming to edits, deciding which onscreen action to follow, hit points, highlighting intangible elements in the scene, finding tempos, etc.

This isn't a swipe at the OP, it's just a reaction since this popped up in the Comp & Orch Technique section and with subject "Tutorial series for film composer beginners". I came to the thread expecting something completely different. (I know this is a site about virtual instruments, but I think the discussion is still relevant... perhaps in another thread, though.)


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## tack (Apr 15, 2016)

JJP said:


> Am I the only one who finds it a bit disappointing that so often when people talk about tips for beginning film composers the first topic is gear?


This is why Mike Verta's classes are worth their virtual weight in gold. He doesn't even _like_ to talk about the libraries. When asked, he always sighs and isn't exactly sure and says something like "this week's strings are ... ah, Berlin."


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## Smikes77 (Apr 15, 2016)

tack said:


> This is why Mike Verta's classes are worth their virtual weight in gold. He doesn't even _like_ to talk about the libraries. When asked, he always sighs and isn't exactly sure and says something like "this week's strings are ... ah, Berlin."



Except he uses these...


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## bcarwell (Apr 16, 2016)

And I'd bet he uses Berliin WW since he wrote the demo for them. Check it out- very skillfully done.


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## Michael Firmont (Apr 17, 2016)

WOW!

Guys, thanks for all your great feedback  I am amazed and happy that you like it and give me so much input.

First of all to *d.healey and AVaudio*:

For sure, sorry that I didn't think about _Reaper_. It is appearing more and more often, but I have only used it for a week about.... 6 years ago or so? SO I can't say anything about it! :D Maybe you have some good tips, where I can gather the most important information, and I will mention it. Sonar is totally unknown to me (only the name).

*The factory libs*: I want to include them to the "Native Instruments" part, because they belong (in my opinion) in this section. A little mention is important (in my opinion), because even when they are not so great, they can be THE important tool to start of.

*Notation software:* You are totally right about this. But I was not quite sure where to mention them and maybe want to create an own episode for them  But again, THANKS for that, I should def. do that.

*AVaudio:* To all your other ideas about monitors: Lots of great ideas, I can say something specific to midi controllers, because a friend of mine and me will build a special midi controller for "film composers", a modular one this summer (as a Bachelor thesis) and I will present it to VI, when the basic stuff is working and to get all your feedback to this. What you want, what your ideas and wishes are 

*JJP:* Hmm, I agree to your point and understand your problem with this post. Please believe me, when I say, that this post is not meant to be as a "gear is the important stuff". But I have experienced (can only speak for myself) a hole group of people with a good musical knowledge but without all these informations. This is the group I am aiming for (and all the other ones, that are interested in). If people will like my tutorials and will ask for more, I am totally willing to share mock up techniques, composing techniques and "how to score to picture", VERY important "what to do, when picture cut is changing" and all the other things you mentioned. They are VERY important and I am aware of that. From my perspective, such a tutorials that I am planning, is still missing. Because of this, I want to start with this  

Thanks again, you are great!


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## WorshipMaestro (Apr 17, 2016)

Michael Firmont said:


> Hello to the hole VIC community
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I must take issue with this point. I've been building and using Hacks for several years now. I just finished a new one - the first that I didn't set up to dual boot Windows. The installation was uneventful and is running the latest El Capitan flawlessly over the past few weeks. This computer runs 24/7 and has yet to hick up.


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## Michael Firmont (Apr 18, 2016)

@WorkshipMaestro:

I will take not of that and I am pretty sure, that you are not the only example of a constant running Hackintosh  Thanks for your feedback!


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## d.healey (Apr 18, 2016)

Best place to find out about Reaper is to download it from http://reaper.fm, the latest beta has an excellent first generation score editor too. To do justice to any software in a video though I think you'd need to be a regular user of it.


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## tack (Apr 18, 2016)

The thing about Reaper is that it's unpleasant to users coming from other DAWs. Just enough things are different, and the (re)learning curve is reportedly quite steep. You will spend your first days (and weeks) just beating it into submitting to your own personal will -- which _is_ possible as it is highly configurable.

Consequently, Reaper leaves a foul taste in many people's mouths, at least those who poke around the edges for a day or two just to see what the fuss is about. This isn't entirely unjustified either, as out of the box it is not really friendly to those who do a lot of MIDI. Its pedigree is recording and mixing, and managing a large orchestral VI template and all the workflow involved therein really takes an investment in time.

In exchange for that investment, you get a powerful, low-cost DAW that is highly custom tailored.


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## Jimmy Hellfire (Apr 18, 2016)

Generally not a big fan of these "pros" and "cons", since so much of it is personal preference and heavily context-dependent, and also always comes with a selection of perpetuated colloquial myths, platitudes etc. ..


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## Ashermusic (Apr 18, 2016)

Michael Firmont said:


> Logic: Pro: Expression Maps add-on, but can't say much about it, 'cause I don't use it, but it's getting less and less used by professionals.
> 
> Michael



Do not make the mistake of thinking this forum is a microcosm for professionals. It isn't and a large percentage of people here are not even full time musicians. All the DAWS do indeed have their pros and cons, but that is not a reason for choosing or not choosing Logic. Allan Silvestri, John Powell, Sean Callery, Jeff Beal, Klaus Badelt, and on and on and on still use it.


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## d.healey (Apr 18, 2016)

tack said:


> The thing about Reaper is that it's unpleasant to users coming from other DAWs. Just enough things are different, and the (re)learning curve is reportedly quite steep. You will spend your first days (and weeks) just beating it into submitting to your own personal will -- which _is_ possible as it is highly configurable.
> 
> Consequently, Reaper leaves a foul taste in many people's mouths, at least those who poke around the edges for a day or two just to see what the fuss is about. This isn't entirely unjustified either, as out of the box it is not really friendly to those who do a lot of MIDI. Its pedigree is recording and mixing, and managing a large orchestral VI template and all the workflow involved therein really takes an investment in time.
> 
> In exchange for that investment, you get a powerful, low-cost DAW that is highly custom tailored.


This is very true. I came from Cubase and it took me a good while to get to grips with Reaper and I'm still learning new things all the time. The best resource I found was the Groove8 Reaper tutorials, a little out of date now but still great for getting up to speed quickly.


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## tenyuhuang (Apr 18, 2016)

Speaking of completing the DAW list - as an FL user I totally agree NOT including FL Studio into the DAW list in the first place for having a hard time getting it along well with 10+ instances of Kontakt on version 11...

And you might ask why not upgrading to the latest version - in case you wanna ease the situation by doing so, FL 12 will just break your project randomly with no notice, if it's big enough. This hasn't been solved even in the latest patch, my colleague has suffered great loss from such bug and converted to Sonar X3 :D

To make things worse, for beginners who might have not learnt to play keyboard or working completely by ear, FL can be hard to ditch once you get attached to it. It has am incredibly mouse-friendly piano roll, which is not so good as seen: since you'll find it hard to convert to any other DAWs when you're in need of doing so.


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## Michael Firmont (Apr 19, 2016)

@Jay: I am aware of this, but thanks for the input! 

Yes, as I mentioned as well, it is a matter of taste and this is my opinion and my personal experience, maybe you think some of the points I don't like are no problem for you  But with mentioning them, it maybe something helpful for someone else. (for example the few framerates in Studio One) 

It is impossible for me, to talk about all DAW, even writing in detail about 3 is difficult (for me  ) cause you need a lot of time, to work through these. So I can mention Reaper for example, but I just don#t have the time, to say something more about it than "there it is, it is interesting, has some cool ideas and maybe worth a try?"  I hope you understand! 

@Jimmie: As I wrote above, yes, pro and cons is an individual thing. But my tutorial will aim on a specific topic. I try to describe my experience, what was helpful for me and what not and why. It is in NO case a "this DAW is good and THIS is bad". Just wanted to say, that I don#t want to create this feeling


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## Michael Firmont (Jun 20, 2016)

I finally made it  I had a ton of other work to do, but here it is. Far away from being perfect, I know I talked to slow and have a worse German English, but I hope it is helpful anyway!


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## Baron Greuner (Jun 20, 2016)

Your wideo is weally weally good.

You sound Dutch?


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## Michael Firmont (Jun 20, 2016)

Thanks so much!  

No, I am German, but I am living in the Netherlands by the moment


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## synthpunk (Jun 20, 2016)

+1



R. Soul said:


> Possibly best first post ever
> 
> Loads of great info, even for veterans.


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## Baron Greuner (Jun 21, 2016)

Michael Firmont said:


> Thanks so much!
> 
> No, I am German, but I am living in the Netherlands by the moment



Ahh. I haven't lost my touch. Danke.


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## Michael Firmont (Jul 6, 2016)

And the next little tutorial. This time it's about "send channels", I thinks it's an improvement to the last one  I hope you like it and I hope it can help some of you! The next one is about MacvsPCvsHackintosh  AND there will be a Hackintosh guide in some weeks as well! 

If you like my work and have any wishes, please just say so


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## Michael Firmont (Aug 17, 2016)

And the next one, hope there are still some interested people  The next one is a very difficult topic and I am prettyx sure, that there are lots of people with different opinions about this topic, but I want to share my thoughts about this old struggle: Apple vs Win

The next bigger tutorial should be about building my hackintosh  

Enjoy!


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## URL (Aug 19, 2016)

...look forward to hackintosh building.


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## synergy543 (Aug 19, 2016)

A nice balanced presentation and great production. Also looking forward to your Hacintosh tutorial!


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