...I feel an urge to thank this community for what it's done for me over just a couple of weeks.
To share some background, I hold a BA in Music (Musicology) from a Portuguese university since 2008 but haven't unfortunately worked in the industry. After I finished the BA, I applied and got accepted to Kingston University's MA in Composing for Film and TV - my dream was to work as a full-time media composer.
The plan was to find a job for a year or two to save for the tuition and delay the course. The problem was life got in the way and one year turned into two, then three and it's now been 13 years...
Throughout the years, I have written many music sketches of different styles but haven't had the motivation to turn them into finished pieces. More recently (in the last year or so), I've been on a mission to clear the 'rust', work on my craft and invest in decent software/hardware.
One of the first things I did was to take part in a 30 days production course by Andrew Huang. His musical style is not what typically interests me but the challenge of 'producing' 3 songs in 30 days appealed to me. It was a great way to get back into the world of DAWs and general music 'lingo' if you will. Perhaps more importantly, after that, I started writing small pieces for film scoring competitions and reading a lot about composing for media (which really is my passion).
This last point is what eventually led me to this community, for which I am already super thankful. To be more specific, these are the things I did as a result of reading so many of your recommendations:
1. Bought Omnisphere 2. I don't have many libraries at all and this felt like the best option in terms of sample quality/quantity, as well as sound design capabilities.
2. Almost bought 47 other libraries but decided instead to...
3. Invest in myself! As a result of multiple threads, I have bought George F McKay's Creative Orchestration book, bought Philip J's Orchestration Recipes and today joined ScoreClub.
4. My main libraries are from EW's composer cloud. I know that on its own won't turn me into a Hollywood composer :D but for an amateur like me, it's got plenty of great stuff. So I decided to hold off on buying any new libraries until I feel there's absolutely no alternative.
My goal for this year is to get my knowledge back into shape and practice a lot through scoring short videos, trailers, competitions etc. If I feel comfortable about my progress, I will apply to a postgraduate degree with someone like ThinkSpace in late 2021 or 2022, coming full circle to what I should have done 13 years ago!
I leave you with my humble entry to the recent score relief competition, so it's not all just words! I find it hard to do this though, as I don't feel the quality is anywhere near what it would be were I to do it again in a few months once I up my orchestration game a little. There's also not much mixing or mastering, so the volumes aren't great etc. Anyway, enough with the excuses
Thanks for reading and I look forward to keep on learning from everyone here.
Tiago
P.S. - I'm a Portuguese guy living in Edinburgh, UK. Hoping to get back to Portugal in the coming year or two.
EDIT: grammar fix in the title.
To share some background, I hold a BA in Music (Musicology) from a Portuguese university since 2008 but haven't unfortunately worked in the industry. After I finished the BA, I applied and got accepted to Kingston University's MA in Composing for Film and TV - my dream was to work as a full-time media composer.
The plan was to find a job for a year or two to save for the tuition and delay the course. The problem was life got in the way and one year turned into two, then three and it's now been 13 years...
Throughout the years, I have written many music sketches of different styles but haven't had the motivation to turn them into finished pieces. More recently (in the last year or so), I've been on a mission to clear the 'rust', work on my craft and invest in decent software/hardware.
One of the first things I did was to take part in a 30 days production course by Andrew Huang. His musical style is not what typically interests me but the challenge of 'producing' 3 songs in 30 days appealed to me. It was a great way to get back into the world of DAWs and general music 'lingo' if you will. Perhaps more importantly, after that, I started writing small pieces for film scoring competitions and reading a lot about composing for media (which really is my passion).
This last point is what eventually led me to this community, for which I am already super thankful. To be more specific, these are the things I did as a result of reading so many of your recommendations:
1. Bought Omnisphere 2. I don't have many libraries at all and this felt like the best option in terms of sample quality/quantity, as well as sound design capabilities.
2. Almost bought 47 other libraries but decided instead to...
3. Invest in myself! As a result of multiple threads, I have bought George F McKay's Creative Orchestration book, bought Philip J's Orchestration Recipes and today joined ScoreClub.
4. My main libraries are from EW's composer cloud. I know that on its own won't turn me into a Hollywood composer :D but for an amateur like me, it's got plenty of great stuff. So I decided to hold off on buying any new libraries until I feel there's absolutely no alternative.
My goal for this year is to get my knowledge back into shape and practice a lot through scoring short videos, trailers, competitions etc. If I feel comfortable about my progress, I will apply to a postgraduate degree with someone like ThinkSpace in late 2021 or 2022, coming full circle to what I should have done 13 years ago!
I leave you with my humble entry to the recent score relief competition, so it's not all just words! I find it hard to do this though, as I don't feel the quality is anywhere near what it would be were I to do it again in a few months once I up my orchestration game a little. There's also not much mixing or mastering, so the volumes aren't great etc. Anyway, enough with the excuses
Thanks for reading and I look forward to keep on learning from everyone here.
Tiago
P.S. - I'm a Portuguese guy living in Edinburgh, UK. Hoping to get back to Portugal in the coming year or two.
EDIT: grammar fix in the title.
Last edited:
