In Page 1, I introduced a few organisations structure and my thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Preference  read more »

I mentioned some ideas about setting up a production company in order to complete the Side Project that I want to do.

In this article, I'll expand on those ideas and document a few issues that will have to be handled at some point in the organisation's lifetime.

Background  read more »

As well as composing and recording, I play guitar in a band, playing a mixture of covers and our own originals. We don't stick too closely to the originals when we cover them, realising that we only have four members (guitar, bass, drums and vocals) so many songs have to be stripped down to work.

Going from a song that has many parts to a cover version with only four instruments can leave you feeling a bit naked when playing live. It doesn't help that as guitarist, I often have to play several parts at the same time.  read more »

I wrote the bulk of this text a couple of months ago after a day of not producing as much as I'd liked to. There are no real suggestions of how to improve or learn, but I thought I'd describe my thought processes so others may learn from my experiences.

Yesterday  read more »

Science-fiction is heavily laden with context rather than plot. Those series that feature good plot and good, well-thought out character stand out from the crowd, even when the cinematography and set are not up-to professional standards.

I like the idea of something that stands out. Think BSG (either actually, but more the reimagined series), Lexx, Firefly, Red Dwarf.

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Check with your client before you delete anything

I was the client the other day and this happened to me.

Compositing

I'd passed the compositing tasks out to someone else. I sat in for a few minutes to check that it was going as I wanted it and make some decisions about how it would look. e.g. I'd prefer to have less foreground and no green showing rather than have the green showing in order to get the foreground complete.  read more »

Order

Have you thought about how you compose? Not which chords, but the order in which you approach composing?

My experience

I use a few different workflows, depending on what I'm aiming to produce. I change my approach if there's a video to sync to or if I need to incorporate other musicians and so on. I'm not saying that any one of the approaches is the correct approach for everyone, but I do what works for me.

Write first or play first  read more »

I've been starting up a Space Opera side project; it's part hobby, part ambition, part potential company. I haven't figured out how I'll set the body up, I'd like it to be close to a co-operative whatever the formal structure is. The principle is that everybody can get a share based on what they put into it. I've using the phrase "production company" loosely since it may not actually be a company.  read more »

I'd figured that with the amount of people trying to get into the movie industry as animators, compositors, etc plus those who are just involved as a hobby, there must be many sites about 3d modelling. Expect to find me on a few as I look to recruit members to my current Space Opera side project. The side project is becoming more major the more I think about it. Ideally I'll find a site or two that I can become a longer-lasting, active member on rather than the type of visitor who only registers in order to leech people away.  read more »

I've been thinking a bit more about the Space Opera side-project. Although I expected to have to leave this for a few months while I'm completing a consultancy project instead, I've found my mind playing around with a few ideas.  read more »

Music Thing has just released the first 25 of the music making tips from the site's readership.

My suggestion's in there. Care to guess which?

Recent Upgrade

I've just upgraded from Logic Pro 7.2 to Logic 8 in the last couple of days. And I'm more impressed than I thought I would be. It's odd, if you read the various support pages and sites, there appear to be a lot of problems, but I hardly found any issues. This is how far I got without reading the manual:  read more »

If you're stuck with a composition now, listen back to some of your earliest recordings.

Background
I've been composing for over 15 years now. I've been improving every year. I know that I am because I've recently come across some of my old recordings from the late-80s and I've improved since then. Yet oddly enough, in some ways I prefer them.

I've improved in many areas, yet there's an attractive rawness in the old recordings.

Clarity  read more »

I've just booked in a time-consuming consultancy role for a few months, so there won't be as many updates on certain areas of this site. Here's how I see the site changing:
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Aim
Listen critically to your compositions and spot the similarities. By identifying what you commonly do, you can start to change and improve your range.

My experience
I did this a couple of months ago and I found a lot of my compositions started with same two chord sequence but often using different keys. These were compositions that I'd approached by playing randomly on guitar, not by a more thought-out and planned approach. If I liked the sound, then I'd move to the next chord and so on.
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