HEAVYOCITY - EVOLVE - Feel The EVOL

Got a lot of response from people about the OMNISPHERE blog I posted so I thought I would try and keep up with all the stuff I buy and use – talk about the stuff that works for me. Talk about things that will improve your life, make you a better man, help you better understand the intricacies of choosing a qualified running mate.

When it comes to learning a new interface, my level of patience is on a par with a pissed off Bill O’Reilly. I load the new software up and just start poking at it until something oozes out. Apparently I have time to write blogs but not fiddle with software or read manuals. Because of this unbecoming flaw, I like software well organized, easy to use, with simple interfaces, big buttons - things a monkey(or a tv composer) can use even if their faculties have been – uh, compromised.
So I loaded up Heavyocity’s EVOLVE (www.heavyocity.com) – and btw – I tried real hard to come with some clever pun on the title involving the word LOVE and EVOLVE but kept getting stuck on EVOL which I realize is love backwards but figured you’d rather hear about the product than me complaining about the “jumbled word syndrome” I’m seeing a doctor about.

Heard about the product from a composer friend who heard from other composers in LA who are using it and loving it. I figured I should rush out and get it so I could sound like everyone else in LA and land that next weight loss reality show gig. Fingers crossed! You gotta buy EVOLVE direct from the website - $400 – no street price –– Heavyocity tells me they have made a distribution deal and it will be in stores soon. (Translation: cheaper???)

EVOLVE runs in Kontakt 2 - so that’s easy. It’s made by composers who know what it takes to score 4,000 minutes of music in a day. It’s geared towards tv/film/game composers who like to be dramatic. Wishy washy, namby pamby, “I’ll just score this bandsaw decapitation scene with flute and harp” maestros need not apply. The website blurbs claim it works on dance remix material as well but it didn’t strike me that way on my first pass but I’ll give it a spin around the block on this techno record I’m doing and let you know how it turns out.

THE ONE SENTENCE REVIEW:
Great sounding hits, FX, weirdness, rhythmic and tonal sequences that are well organized, easy to find and well suited for dramatic scoring.
Should you get it? 99% Yes. The only people who might not need it is the few freaks who already own 20 other pieces of software like both Storm Drums, Omnisphere, Stylus RMX, both original Distorted Reality sample CDs, another 100 sample CDs, and a bunch of other weird shit – and these people have spent 6 long months pulling the best stuff off them and reorganizing them into an easy to use interface in categories that make sense, making sure all the looped material syncs correctly to your sequencer, all the levels are balanced, blah blah blah. If you’ve done that, you can probably live without EVOLVE. The rest of us will buy Evolve and spend our time writing music and making money.

EVOLVE isn’t a band in a box. Evolve is the cherry on top, the specialty freaky groove in the middle, the ominous on the bottom, the bitch slap when you need it. There are no strings, brass, or other typical bullshit. Evolve is meant to slip over the top of your usual instrumental genius - kind of like a musical condom - only this one has sharp creepy prongy things on it.
EVOLVE comes as instruments and multis – so I loaded a multi first cuz I’m lazy– they have descriptive names like Trailer Smash or Ghost Stories. I threw some keys down in Logic for each of the 8 parts and had a scary weird cue done in about 5 minutes. It didn’t have much pitch or melody but then again if you add this to your habitual cheesy string parts I think you’ve got yourself an Emmy nod. I then tried an experiment where I loaded a new multi and kept the exact same midi tracks and voila! Another scary weird cue done. I muted one part cuz it was just too weird but the rest of it wasn’t bad. Time for me to enlist my gardener writing cues! I tell ya, loading up one of their multis really gives you about all you’ll need to amp up your track. I like things that are quick, easy and make me feel good. That’s why I like beer and girls with big boobs.

LIBRARY CONTENTS:
Looped grooves tonal, rhythmic, weird: real nice stuff in here. Definitely usable. One groove per key so you can just keep adding keys until you run out of fingers. Want more intensity? Have more fingers sewn onto your hands – do I have to think up everything for you?
Don’t be fooled by names in the rhythmic grooves section that say things like Tambourines or Hand Percussion – these have all been effected and fucked with so they aren’t your grandpa’s perc (there are some traditional instruments in the “Traditional” folder but you already own all that stuff.)
Don’t look for traditional rock drum kits – the kits here are all high on acid. Look for the unique here not the mundane.

HITS – I like hits that make me rectally bleed. And the hits here are top notch. I had to double up on my Depends just to get thru them all. In fact, although I said there weren’t many trad instruments – there is a bass drum that is the best I’ve ever heard. Not that washy, tubby, boomy realistic, authentic sound – but a ballsy, slappy, belly fat slap sound you can really rattle the viewers with. Kind of like the big Remo tom on Storm Drum 2 only better!
METALS & CYMBALS – Heavyocity knocked this shit out of the park. I am so sick of regular cymbal whooshes I wish I couldn’t hear above 2k. A while ago, I went so far as to effect my own cymbals so I didn’t have to use the same old thing again. Well, Heavyocity did it here too only they did it better. Prepare yourself for soggy Levis my friends.
The Dumpster Scrapes are the Distorted Reality sounds for 2009. Updated, rougher, meaner. I mean these scrapes are from the streets! You can almost smell the decaying food and discarded hookers in the dumpster they sampled. Use these now or forever be branded boring.
ODD NOISE & BUILDUPS – lots of different ideas in here. Ignorance alert! And I fully admit I write music and not software – but since these are all one shots that whoosh up to a climax, why make me waste my time backtiming the effect to land in the right place when a bit of programming would release the climax part when I release the key? That would make me happy. And when I’m happy, I drink less – no, wait – maybe I drink more – whatever – the point is for a piece of software meant for composers, everything needs to be geared towards saving time.

BASSES – there are only a few so you should really rely on your old standbys not Evolve. The few they threw in have standouts like Gnarly Piano Gods and Nuclear Bass Strike. Those 2 patches made me think that I want a section called something like “Final Notes” – huge, cranium exploding single notes that you would use to accent a very dramatic moment – like THE END! I do things like those 2 patches all the time but it takes me 10 minutes to stack the 5 synths and samples to make it. Evolve needs more of them.
There are a couple of drone type things but they didn’t really rock my world. Again, they’re fine but you probably have something better somewhere else. And I have a nit to pick about any synth or sound design patch made by anyone out there. Why doesn’t every programmer make my mod wheel do something? It is so ingrained in me to play a pad, a drone, etc and reach for the mod wheel expecting something extra to happen. I don’t know why I do it because most of the time no one has assigned the controller to do anything. But still I keep on twiddling my wheel hoping for some hot action. Now Heavyocity has done a pretty good job of assigning the mod wheel on quite a few patches but it seemed to me that it missed some opportunities. I’m not talking something fancy – hell, resonance only would be fine – I know I could assign it myself – but that slows me down – and if 1,000 composers have to do the same thing then we’ve all wasted time – time that could have been better spent smoking weed and watching Soul Train.
Lots of strange and different sounds can be found throughout. I have no idea why there’s an unaffected Toy Xylophone in the library – kind of oddly normal for the rest of the collection but still it’s A REALLY NICE TOY XYLOPHONE. There’s a bunch of female opera licks – again, surprised me to find it but when you need a diva hitting the high notes – you’ll be glad they are there. There’s a Pads and FX section – limited but good quality (alas almost no mod wheel assigning). It won’t replace Omnisphere by any stretch but they aren’t trying to. A lot of the collection feels like these sounds were created throughout the careers of the composers behind the software and they’ve pulled the best of them together in this collection. Sure, it’s eclectic but if you’ve created a killer Toy Xylophone, why not spread the love?

Overall, Evolve covers a lot of ground for the dramatically hip. The action/energy grooves are really great, the single hits fantastic, and the scary/weird factor is covered extremely well. Evolve has become my defacto sound design generator. But don’t expect this collection to be the only thing you need to land that Oscar. So lay it on top of your VSL, EWQLSO or your trip hop didgeridoo collection and sit back and wait for that call from the Wachowski brothers.

From Here To The Infirmary . . . Why Is Finishing A Record So Very Hard To Do?

Why is finishing a record so goddam hard? Oh, the writing, recording, overdubbing, arranging, mixing, editing – they’re all hard as shit too. But finishing? Locking it up? Admitting there is no more to be done or that you are out of time? Out of money? That’s the crunch time that demands balls of steel. A will power unequaled by mere mortals. Starting is easy. Fuck starting. Any moron can start. Finishing separates the men from the boys. Or is that a crowbar?

I just finished producing and cowriting a new CD for my record label (blatant plug) with two amazingly talented singers and songwriters, Jessica New and Dannielle DeAndrea. (paid endorsement) The group is called Sweet 17 and the name of the CD is SupaBeat. Order yours now! (Call to action in infomercial parlance)

It couldn’t have been a more pleasurable experience. We laughed, we cried, we spilled juice on our good pants, we got along like best friends, we pushed the limits of our creativity, we learned a lot about each other – like who likes to get spanked when in the throes of passion but that’s another (much more interesting) blog, we learned about ourselves, we all grew as writers and artists, and we all enhanced our lives. Goddam love fest, huh? This time yes. But it doesn’t always turn out that way. I’ve learned that the hard way.

So this enjoyable experience got me to thinking about two things that are guaranteed to happen while you make a record and how embracing these two concepts will make your life better. And by better I mean, enjoyable, fulfilling. Concepts that steer you away from aneurisms and stress inflicted strokes.

1. “You’re going to spend a lot of time on it so do it with people you like.” Don’t bother trying to keep count of the hours – you will spend a lot more time than you ever thought possible working on this record. Alone. With your partners. With musicians. With those voices in your head. Morning. Night. Weekends. Holidays. Funerals. Making a record nearly kills me every time – sheer exhaustion - and if I had to do it with someone I didn’t like? Either it would never get done or someone (I’m in favor of the unlikable character) would have to die a slow painful death. It’s just too much pressure, too goddam hard, too demanding – and to attempt it with people you don’t admire, people you don’t like? You did that in your marriage – why do it with your music? Pick your partners for their creativity AND their likeability. Who cares if some asshole is really good at lyrics if being with them gives you the runs? You’ll never really love the song you write together. It might become a hit and it might make you some money – and you will like that – but you will never like the song because that song will always make you shit your pants. And not in a good way. Work with talented people you like. Aim for less soiling of shorts. It’s unattractive for artists of your stature.
2. “It will never be perfect.” Yep, no matter how many lap dances or Christmas mornings you miss, it will never be perfect. It’s like one of those gameshows where they give you the winnings at the beginning and you try desperately to lose as little as possible throughout the show. Although every project starts off with aspirations of 100% perfect. 100% amazing. We slowly fuck it up until we decide we’re done and that’s the number we’re left with. I guess I could be less pessimistic and say that a song begins at zero and your unrivaled genius raises it day after day until you begin to approach God-like perfection of 100% perfect until you run out of steam, time or money. But it feels more to me like creativity is handed to me in a kind of confused state of perfection and my job is to sort it out as best I can. Get out of the song’s way, gently guide it, coax it to the perfect spot. It’s a puzzle, that inherent in it’s design, is the fact that you will never be able to fit all the pieces together. Some pieces will be left out. Pieces fall by the wayside. Like sand falling thru your fingers. To try and hold all that sand, to tighten your grip, often makes the process less enjoyable. And the outcome less desirable. I think we’re supposed to drop some of the sand – or maybe a lot of it. Maybe by dropping the sand we find the beautiful shell hidden in it. We started with expectations of what perfect is and as we dig deeper into our project we realize it isn’t that at all. It is what it is. So it will never be perfect. And it isn’t supposed to be. Perfect doesn’t make you feel welcome. Perfect isn’t personal. Perfect doesn’t make people happy. When you get down to picking the nits on your recordings, by far most of them have been scrutinized with a Hubble telescope clamped to your head. Give them some damn distance. Look at your nits with regular old human eyes. Embrace the charm of human error and randomness. This is your recording; you are allowed to be human.

And to that point, as the girls and I got down to the end of the record, and we were living with my 5th version of “final mixes” – we all had comments and/or notes to address. Most of the fixes went quickly. A couple we fought over – it wasn’t that anyone was right or wrong (but since you asked . . I was always right and they were wrong) – they were differences of opinion with no right answer. But there was one line in the first verse of a song. It just didn’t seem right in pitch, or rhythm or something. I fiddled, fucked and fondled that line with Autotune and Melodyne and editing and just about every trick I could come up with and it seemed kind of OK. Pretty good. We were on a deadline to finish. We all agreed it was fine – OK, one of us was still unconvinced. But we beat her into submission.

I boarded a plane to Hawaii, recording done – free upgrade to First Class – congratulations from the captain – sex in the bathroom with the flight attendants. All of the things normally associated with finishing the recording of an independent release. Three days into the trip, I throw the CD on to take a listen. Might as well have one more listen while the graphics guys finish up - before we press ourselves into posterity. When I heard that troubled vocal line, I knew it wasn’t good enough. Maybe I convinced myself before that it was good enough because we were out of time. Maybe not. Doesn’t matter. I knew the girls had to resing it. Record on hold. Not what I was looking for, but we had already delayed once because we thought one or two songs could be better – and we were right. We fixed it when I got home. And now the recording was done. Almost.

And this is where finishing the recording feels like only one small part of finishing the record. Graphics, mastering, duplication, marketing. . . . (loud scream heard behind back shed)

Off to mastering. I used Brian “Big Bass” Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Big Bass does all the big hits out there. The guy is the Zeus of mastering. But I gotta wait 3 weeks for an appointment. Sure, I should have scheduled ahead of time. Don’t bust my balls here. After numerous postponements, I wasn’t really sure when we would finish. But we get in. Brian massages his knobs, tweaks and twiddles, caresses and coos – OK, maybe I didn’t hear any actual cooing from Brian, it might have been me ogling the double platinum records on the walls. Next day, reference CD. I want to remix a song. Mastering can change things. Change things a lot. Especially at the levels of compression we’re all used to nowadays. I remix. I drop off the new mix and give Brian a couple of brief notes on a couple of other songs. A new reference CD. Somewhere in the shuffle, the new mix doesn’t get mastered. The other fixes sound great. Brian finds the right mix. Another reference.

As I pick up this latest reference, I’m on cloud 9. The record is done. Nearly. I can smell victory. I’m in Hollywood so victory smells like summer sweat and day old dog urine. One more careful listen in the studio and it is off to the pressing plant. I can’t resist. I shove the CD into my car CD player. I’m rockin’. I’m really diggin it. No traffic, I’m home in ten minutes. I hit the eject button – ready for my final listen in the studio – the CD JAMS IN MY CAR STEREO! It’s stuck. I get the tweezers. A long screwdriver. KY jelly. I reach for the hammer. I’m ready to tear the fuckin dash out of the car. I want this record done so bad. I feel like that female marathon runner a few Olympics back who crawled to the finish line like she’d had a stroke and there was nothing that could stop her from finishing. Finishing. Why is it so goddam hard?

I’m beat up, bloodied, bruised and sober. It’s a bad day. I drive to the car dealer and beg the service technician to get the CD out. He takes my predicament to heart and says “You’re fucked maestro, we have to remove the whole stereo and send it to the factory.” As a favor, he can put a rush on it – 6 weeks. Then they’ll send me the CD. 6 weeks - $600.00! Another reference cost $175. Not a call I want to make. I make the call. 5 hours later I have another disc. (Thank you Marie!) 11 at night, in the studio. I load the disc. The music starts and with the first few notes, the hassles, the difficulties, the hurdles, the obstacles – they begin to melt away. And I realize the importance of this. The important thing is NOT how good the record is. The important thing is the miraculous human ability to conceive something and then execute. To finish. To create. To be alive. To finish.

And that feeling is so rewarding it is worth putting ourselves through almost any amount of suffering.

Of course the record isn’t finished yet. Graphics and pressing still to go. More to come.

How To Build An Orchestra And Live To Tell About It

I have been complaining (a lot and mostly to myself) about the lack of useable support for orchestral libraries. The massive amount of hours each of us has spent experimenting, learning, reading, and listening, in a futile effort to create the optimal orchestral template is staggering. The outrageous cost of the sample libraries themselves pales in comparison to the cost of our “wisdom.” I’ll pay any amount (and I think I already have) just to get something that sounds great and works.

None of us could ever look, with pained, exasperated faces, to the supreme sound developers for help. There wasn’t any. “Everyone uses our products in a different way so there’s no point in us trying to explain it.” I actually saw (drugs may have been involved) “Good luck trying to make this shit work all at the same time” written in 2 point on the back of one sample library box. The Garritan Personal Orchestral had the right idea, load up the orchestra and start writing. Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of the sound quality. I want great sounds and a basic template that I can fiddle with. What about it East West, VSL, Sonivox?

Well, I believe I have stumbled (drinking may have been involved) upon my (our) orchestral salvation. Piccolos at the ready!

Yesterday, I accidentally ended up at the VSL site and there, http://vsl.co.at/, like a pot of gold (blow) sitting in the middle of the street (console), were placed video tutorials on how to use their sounds. Maybe they’ve been there since Nixon, but I never got the email about it.

No shit. It was almost like going to the Apple site with their really great video tours. Really well done, well-explained, clear, concise videos. It’s a three part series dissecting a composer’s (Christian Kardeis) piece of music – IN LOGIC! (extra bonus for all Logic users) – showing how all of the instruments were laid out, how to manipulate the sounds, how to load an entire orchestra. Almost everything you need to get working with a great sounding orchestra – hell, they even threw in a few orchestration/composition tips. (love what you did with the cembalo Christian) And as if that wasn’t enough (and all sample libraries feel they have already done enough just by making the stuff) . . . They’ve included a downloadable template – the exact piece of music that Christian worked on (sure it’s in Logic 7 but opened perfectly in Logic 8) (Performer, Sonar and Cubase available as well) – complete with the impulse responses he used (because as the voice over correctly states, “the sound of the room is almost as important as the sound itself.” Yep, the whole setup. One easy download. I put the impulse responses in their proper folders – I launched Christian’s template – and, like it was a product from Apple (more blatant stock price manipulation) – it worked! And now, as a customer, I was actually able to dig deep into the sequencer template and have a look at exactly how this guy was using their sounds. He busses instruments “pre fader” to adjust reverb; he controls volume and expression in the VSL player; see how he layered a portamento string patch on top of another string patch and with a flip of the mod wheel the strings beautifully scoop up to the next note. I dug deep enough into his template to find I was developing a little crush on him. (blush) Naturally, since none of us can ever refrain from making the world a better place by fucking with everything!!!!, I “fixed” some of Christian’s patches (matrices in VSL speak) – he had loaded just what he needed for his piece and only used the VSL Special Edition – and I need a more versatile setup than that (i.e. worthy of my stature), but it was a great start to explaining the VSL player and one very good way to build an orchestral setup. BTW, the Special Edition version really kicks ass. Under $500 and you’ve got 90% of a balls deep orchestra. Sure, my Appassionata Strings sounded bigger (and bigger is always better, right honey?) than the Special Ed strings – but the “short bus” version did the job admirably. Better than admirably. So don’t look down on them for their size and limitations, praise their “specialness.”

In short order, I built a killer orchestra in Logic 8. Yeah, I’m on an 8 core MacPro (blatant cock waving) with plus size model ram (12 gig) but I’m thankfully out of the “Kontakt 2 ram is low” pain in the ass issues and I’m writing music! (Note to self: writing music pays bills, dicking with templates and writing blogs does not!)

OK – yes, I still had to load a couple of Kontakt instances (begrudgingly) because damn EW had to go and make their French Horns sound soooooooo killer - big and blatty – (horn players with balls as big as their bells) the Ethel Mermans of the horn sample world - that I refuse to write another cue without them (same goes for their timpani) - (which, if I’m not mistaken, they sampled while they beat it with a 30 lb. sledge hammer). And then, just to prove once again that you never get everything you need for $10,000, EW chose to include the absolute worst woodwinds to counter these fine patches.

My pimped out template loads in 3:30 - just enough time to cruise by youporn.com to check on their beta version and report any bugs – and I’m ready to put in another 12 hour day behind the screen.

Is this nirvana? Is this the reason I got into music? No – that’s still chicks and drugs. But it is why I got into film and tv scoring. I prefer writing music to staring confusingly at a computer screen trying to figure out why Controller 67 won’t route my pedal volume to the filter bank controlling my vibrato on my slide whistle. Yes, you will change things in the template. Yes, you will substitute, add on, tweak, layer and finger fuck Christian’s template to your own liking/working style. But I tell you, within couple of hours, you will have a working knowledge of the VSL player and a damn decent sounding orchestra. And you’ll be writing music.

And after 10 years of trying and crying, don’t you think we all deserve that?


Scooter