Hey Christian. I've been working in Animation most of my career and I do 100% of my work in a single long sequence with multiple tempo/meter changes to accommodate all the different cues. I tempo map everything except the very rubato bits where it isn't helpful. I line up the start of the video to 1 00 00 00 and score each cue free hand.( i.e. I just start playing against picture until I like what I've played enough to develop it, no click) I will round the measure previous to the start of a cue to the closest 1/4 note, yielding a meter change and a tempo not wildly different to the one the cue is at. It's easy enough to use a count-off of 3 or five and at a different tempo. you'll remember the cues tempo against the count off.. really : ) Once I have a cue tempo mapped I will usually remove the tempo fluctuations from the cue, (sort of inverse quantizing I guess??), and finish fleshing it out. This process has become automatic for me, then I move on to the next cue and repeat the procedure. This yields a sequence with cues, separated by meter/tempo changes to accommodate the start and end points of the cues. Any ringout from the previous cue can live in the measure(s) between the cues. I'm not locked into any tempos this way. It took a bit of brain work to learn the tempo mapping, but once you memorize the appropriate key strokes it's pretty easy. I do this in DP, but my assistant who works in Logic has learned, at my behest, to do it as well. Revisions? If I have to change a cue to a new tempo within a sequence, I will lock the entire sequence to time code and save the conductor track from just beyond the new cue and reimpose it on the sequence when I'm done with the replaced cue. That either works perfectly, or your are copying your cue and pasting in back in to your saved copy of the sequence. You did save a copy?.. right?? : ) This process I can share with you. It's specific to DP, but I'm sure there is something analogous in Logic.
Hi Stuart, I use DP as well and this revision process give me headaches...I would love to better understand your locking process... Would you mind sharing any example with me?
What is the downside of just changing the tempo, rather than having all these subdivisions stemming from a single tempo? Curious how you would handle quantization if your grid is running at a different pace than your click. Sorry if I missed the point - I got a bit lost in the middle. Totally understand the benefits of working in a single session though!
I'm curious too. Some things can get crazy and out of sync when changing tempo, but it can be avoided using 'range-insert silent range-delete' and syncing with two sets of markers (timecode and musical). But this and masking some occasional sound artifacts seems worth it for all the benefits. Still, it can get messy when copying/pasting whole music parts and combining MIDI with audio, but I can't see this approach fixing it entirely either. Maybe it's something valid on Logic? Does it have as flexible tempo editing as Cubase?
The idea of a single session scares me a bit. What happens if the file gets too big and/or corrupts? You've lost the entire thing as opposed to just one cue.
Using tempo changes becomes more challenging when changes are made to the music and / or the cut. Knock-on effects of changes would be very annoying. Much easier to have one tempo. A single project can be easily backed up incrementally using Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner or similar. This is a great idea for some kinds of projects. Love it!
@@niallcomposerIt can be challenging, but after some practice, it can be straightforward and mostly problem-free (at least in Cubase). Plus, tempo changes can also help with new edits. With one tempo, there is one tool less to make a sync or change. I understand it's good to avoid it and use different options like 5/4 or 6/4 time signatures on transitions. But I still can't understand benefits of the proposed workflow.
Hello Mate , great idea man , I decided to work 1 Reel Per Project on my last project, I found the limitation was Logic handling massive track counts , finding sounds along with tons of crashing, which is why I took the hard step of switching back to Cubase , there are so many clever ways you can now bounce all the cues within a single project. at the end you can literally hit export and it will print all your stems , name the cues from markers , even deals with shared effects on sends and master buss inserts with ease saved me about 2 weeks !:)
Running in reels makes more sense because your cues go per reel instead of individually. I’ll download this and play with it. Thanks. I like the way you make my brain hurt. Cheers.
Subprojects in reaper is also a way to skin the cat. One big project with everything in but v easy to move or edit elements within that, without knock on tempo effects. Youd still have the "i want new reverb" issue but would be quick to remedy.
With the one-file-per-episode approach, how do you manage reusing themes or cues, like using EP1 1m05 as a basis for EP4 3m03? And is it practical to work on cues out of chronological order?
I'be been working with single Cubase project for the whole job for years. I change tempo for every cue and avoid everything else desynchronizing after that by locking other cues' MIDI/audio clips to time. Works like butter. Sure, it takes a little time to play with tempo and signature after tempo change to put following cues back on the grid, musially, but they're locked to timecode, still. And I'm sure there's some option in Cubase to do that, but I haven't searched for it. I suppose I'm fine with doing it manually for a minute :)
Great idea... I'm going to have to sleep on that so my brain can process the idea, but my initial thought is 'why haven't we been doing this before? Thanks Christian :)
What impeccable timing literally and figuratively! I’m working on a project and half of the cues are in one session and the other half are individuals. I was just coming around to this way of thinking but you’ve wrapped it up so succinctly. I’d love to see how this works in an actual project if that’s ever available. I need to play with this and will be back with questions I’m sure but I love this approach. Thx so much!!
I love the idea of having every cue on the same file! But I can't really find the benefit of using these pre-programmed click tracks over writing a cue with a dedicated custom tempo, and then locking all midi and audio info. The click track could be bounced in case a recording is needed. A marker could be created at the start of the cue indicating the chosen bpm in case any revision is needed. This way, there would be no need to mess with quantization or time signature changes.
This approach is great, but how would you deal if you have to write a different version of music for one scene? Soon it would be get out of control with many different versions and project would be complicated to work with.
I second this. This workflow could probably work for full score revisions rather than individual cues. First draft, second draft, etc. Then revisions are always kept in context, and done in batches. But individual cues allow for smaller file sizes and more efficient revision turnarounds.
As always, brilliant, brilliant stuff - Thanks, Christian! I have long been working with using as much as possible a single tempo and its subdivisions for some time because one of my teachers was adamant that you only change tempos if you really must (rubatos, fermatas, etc.), so it's easier on sessions, musicians, copyist and everyone. But I never thought of it as a project advantage - this is awesome. My question is, if you are not mixing this yourself and sending it to a dubbing engineer, logistically, how do you send it to them? A mammoth file? I'm curious about what would be the best way if anyone can chime in. Thanks again, Christian.
Christian, I like the general concept here, but I think this will introduce more problems than solutions. Cue revisions and file sizes have been mentioned in other comments. I think the way DAWs currently are just doesn't work with this system. That said, if one is working largely in the box, what prevents you from writing cues in individual logic projects, then importing MIDI regions/audio files into the overall project? The overall project can have the same general orchestral template as individual cues, while specific instruments can be created or tweaked per cue with the final instrument in the overall cue. You should leave the tempo the same throughout, using the exact tempo system you've mentioned here, so that importing and synchronizing the MIDI files will be a piece of cake.
The intro was really clever!!! Love that!! This is so useful!! Just having all the different divisions available in one track!!! Definitely using this, Cheers!!!
Hi Christian, great video. Would love to see the next one with this new method of working. BTW, I remember you saying that you were thinking of switching to Cubase, how is the "move" going? I decided to make this same move earlier this year but it has been a bumpy road. Curious to hear your thoughts?
Where can I find the associated files mentioned at 15:56? If they are in the HUB my eyes are playing tricks on me. And Christian, this is a Brilliant lesson that comes just at a perfect time as I am scoring for a VR Narrative based game, where I only want to fight with Dragons, not Cues. 🙂
There’s no rule that says you can’t change the tempo in the midst of a session file or song file. I’ve been working like that since the early 1990s when it was just MIDI, and the audio would have to be on 2” tape, synced via SMPTE LTC. One long sequencer or DAW file with tempo and meter changes as needed. Yes, it makes for a bit of math every time they send a new film or video edit. It’s pretty simple math, though, if you understand TC rates. This was, in fact, one of the great things about the lamentably defunct Opcode (Studio) Vision - one big file containing multiple sequences, each with its own tempo map, meter changes, and TC offset, each playable at any instant by simply hitting one key.
Hi Chris, brilliant concept, thank you. Please, can you point me to the Logic midi file as no link appears in the video description, unless l am not looking in the right place. Oh! Big shout out to the Crow Hill Crew, great work 👍🏾
This kind of blew my mind (like a lot of commenters here). I immediately thought 'But what if I need to go into the midi regions and tweak, it'll be so confusing!'. Then I realised that this approach will take away that tempation, I'll hopefully have more 'organic' natural results, without the tweaking.
Very interesting technique and actually interesting timing (no pun intended...). I've been playing around with this idea syncing multiple instances of a looper I'm working on, plus I'm also really into polyrhythms. Stay with me... unless you hate the relationship between maths and music… OK... so here's an idea. Instead of separate tracks, you do it with a plugin in a single track that generates your click dynamically according to a polyrhythmic timeline! So as per the example, with a base tempo of 120 BPM, 4 beats per bar gives a bar that's 2 seconds long. Change the division to 3 beats and that same two second interval is now 90 BPM. To my weird mind, what we’re doing here is creating a polyrhythm of 3:4 (3 beats over 4). So... I don't think of this as now being 3/4 timing - it's whatever you want it to be - just count the beats! It’s still 90 BPM and the length of the bar is totally independent. It's really just the same time interval split into 3 instead of 4. So for divisions 1 to 8, you have tempos ranging from 30 to 240 BPM in 30 beat increments. For example, 5 = 150 BPM, 7 = 210 BPM and so on. If you really want to get into the polyrhythmic weeds, instead of X:N (X beats over the time for N), where N is always 4, you could have 2:3, 3:2, 5:3, 4:7, etc., etc. Imagine the fun to be had there! However... things start to get a little tricky with quantising within the DAW. For example, a 16th note at 120 BPM is 125ms, but at 180 BPM (6 divisions) it’s approx 83ms, so the DAW is going to be blissfully ignorant of all this cheeky timing. A possible solution would be to handle quantisation in “realtime” using a MIDI plugin that understands polyrhythms. I don’t know if there are any plugins available like this, but I think they’d be fun. I’d develop them myself if I thought I’d sell more than one to Christian for a tenner :-) -Rob @ WI
Have you used Digital Performer? It’s the only DAW I can use quickly and the way you can handle Cues in the ’Chunks’ feature makes it standout. It’s popular in the US but not as much here in the UK because Cubase and Logic spread like VHS. Danny Elfman uses it and I think that’s as good an endorsement as any!!
When Christian started talking about things, I immediately thought about DP (and their "Chunks" feature) which I used for a while a long time ago. I quit using it because the interface was so small I couldn't read anything...
Interesting! Particularly because of the mistake: what you did is closer to quintuplets then triplets (in fact, a duplet equal to previous dotted-half, i.e. that would be notated as going from 4/4 to 3/4, and writing a quadruplet in it). And because it is more complex, the relationships between your metronomes are less trivial. Sometimes we do great things out of mistakes. I'm experimenting with tempo track alternatives combined with SMPTE-locks for my last project, maybe that approach would be of interest. Looking for an orchestrator job, BTW, or any composition-arranging-engraving job (just saying because why not)
Thanks, good and useful tip for me. I’ll try this rather than fighting with logics time and tempo features. That are not intuitive for the way I work. But I like the idea of more freedom and I also start from scratch every time. As a mix engineer as well as composer, I definitely like building from scratch so that I don’t get repetitive. At least that’s my approach..
I put all my cues into one project (or mostly into one project) when scoring for theatre but so far I've laid out my workflow horizontally rather than vertically. Typically it means having to adjust the flags and potentially tempo when exporting but it works for me. That said, I might try working vertically like you, if nothing else it would make it less of a headache to remember which tempo is on which cue (especially as I'm pretty rubbish when it comes to bouncing midi to audio 😅)
Really interesting video Christian, thanks. For clarity, from a workflow point of view this a lovely method, however, are you suggesting here that you deliver 1 single master cue to the client?
Great ideas here. I'm thinking that making the 1 beat, (or 1, 2 in the case of 6/8 times) a slightly different tone might help avoid confusion when switching between time signatures
1. There is the feature project alternative 2. You forgot that many plugins sync with the tempo change 3.Writing ✍️ music without gear will revolutionize your workflow even more
Thanks for the video, Christian. I'll maybe give a try of your method, could be usuefull, I'll see. For now I'm like everyone else, I deal with time signature changes and tempi variations. Regarding the big templates, I know I'm not in the trend, but like you I don't like them, I love to developp sounds and arrangements within the flux of my "creativity", in the context. Use in complement of a "great & expensive orchestral sounds" an unusual reverb, an obscure synth, a cheap woodwind library, etc. A big template gives me the feeling I'l somehow blocked.
I actually do this for short projects as opposed to long projects, minus the metronome tho, for me the metronome is limiting, i usually use notation software for the most part. I was Composer for a short animated film and I composed the score all in one file. In my opinion it does make it easier. For any parts without music i just tweak the time signatures until I get to a specific timestamp. And then I continue. Again, same tempo. I actually end up writing in a fast tempo but make things longer with double time, it is a pretty nice workflow *in my opinion*
I think we need the latest technology to calm Tempo in our every daw. Where the tempo can be pulled and speeded up or slowed down without affecting the film. It's about time the tech button was there.
any chance you can create a new mpe type keyboard with logic built in and a 2-4tb in-built Silicon chip, not unlike apple ? with its own internal OS , hdmi out with midi parameters via slide up keys ? Cheers 🎉😂
@@MichaelDowComposer what does this mean this single session will have multiple tempo changes in it or will the global BPM remain fixed all the way through?
@@michaelrasbury Global tempo stays at 120bpm, click tracks are divided up into musical timings of it for faster/slower speeds. I don;t think this would really work for all tempos... and may even make you record and play somethign that isn't really a good speed match for the scene!? It's a great idea but i'm sure there will stillbe times you want to change tempo. But Christian does admit this too. I think with all the divisions it would get you a long way, and you've then got all your work in one project. I'm not 100% sure why not just automate the tempo though for a different cue. Maybe logic doens't work very welll with tempo changes
On a much smaller scale, if I wrote for a cartoon short it was always on one linear timeline. If an event moved or was taken out it was a simple move on my part rearranging the musical cue pieces. At that scale it was easy, a little more complex for lengthier projects, I'm sure.
For over 30 years Motu's Digital Performer has been leading in the film/tv composers dep because of excellent , precise and easy to use conductor track, as well as the Chunks ! Check out the chunks .
I was going to ask how the players cope with reading crazy divisions.Then i see 'it went terribly wrong during an orchestral session' so it sounds like I'll find out soon enough :D
It isn't necessary, but it's a smart option for projects with a tight deadline. Avoids so many possible issues and stresses towards the end of a project, which is when you least need them. Thank you Christian.
I once heard John Powell say that he only works in 120bpm and just used sub divisions. Now I finally understand what he was talking about. Thanks!
one of my life lessons as a musician it made total sense and saw that in my time as a player on session as well for TV/Film
Hey Christian. I've been working in Animation most of my career and I do 100% of my work in a single long sequence with multiple tempo/meter changes to accommodate all the different cues. I tempo map everything except the very rubato bits where it isn't helpful.
I line up the start of the video to 1 00 00 00 and score each cue free hand.( i.e. I just start playing against picture until I like what I've played enough to develop it, no click) I will round the measure previous to the start of a cue to the closest 1/4 note, yielding a meter change and a tempo not wildly different to the one the cue is at. It's easy enough to use a count-off of 3 or five and at a different tempo. you'll remember the cues tempo against the count off.. really : )
Once I have a cue tempo mapped I will usually remove the tempo fluctuations from the cue, (sort of inverse quantizing I guess??), and finish fleshing it out. This process has become automatic for me, then I move on to the next cue and repeat the procedure.
This yields a sequence with cues, separated by meter/tempo changes to accommodate the start and end points of the cues. Any ringout from the previous cue can live in the measure(s) between the cues.
I'm not locked into any tempos this way. It took a bit of brain work to learn the tempo mapping, but once you memorize the appropriate key strokes it's pretty easy. I do this in DP, but my assistant who works in Logic has learned, at my behest, to do it as well.
Revisions? If I have to change a cue to a new tempo within a sequence, I will lock the entire sequence to time code and save the conductor track from just beyond the new cue and reimpose it on the sequence when I'm done with the replaced cue. That either works perfectly, or your are copying your cue and pasting in back in to your saved copy of the sequence. You did save a copy?.. right?? : ) This process I can share with you. It's specific to DP, but I'm sure there is something analogous in Logic.
Hi Stuart, I use DP as well and this revision process give me headaches...I would love to better understand your locking process... Would you mind sharing any example with me?
What is the downside of just changing the tempo, rather than having all these subdivisions stemming from a single tempo? Curious how you would handle quantization if your grid is running at a different pace than your click. Sorry if I missed the point - I got a bit lost in the middle.
Totally understand the benefits of working in a single session though!
I'm curious too. Some things can get crazy and out of sync when changing tempo, but it can be avoided using 'range-insert silent range-delete' and syncing with two sets of markers (timecode and musical). But this and masking some occasional sound artifacts seems worth it for all the benefits.
Still, it can get messy when copying/pasting whole music parts and combining MIDI with audio, but I can't see this approach fixing it entirely either.
Maybe it's something valid on Logic? Does it have as flexible tempo editing as Cubase?
@@robertostiakthere are many many tempo features in Logic, many based on the global tempo
The idea of a single session scares me a bit. What happens if the file gets too big and/or corrupts? You've lost the entire thing as opposed to just one cue.
Using tempo changes becomes more challenging when changes are made to the music and / or the cut. Knock-on effects of changes would be very annoying. Much easier to have one tempo. A single project can be easily backed up incrementally using Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner or similar. This is a great idea for some kinds of projects. Love it!
@@niallcomposerIt can be challenging, but after some practice, it can be straightforward and mostly problem-free (at least in Cubase). Plus, tempo changes can also help with new edits. With one tempo, there is one tool less to make a sync or change.
I understand it's good to avoid it and use different options like 5/4 or 6/4 time signatures on transitions. But I still can't understand benefits of the proposed workflow.
Hello Mate , great idea man , I decided to work 1 Reel Per Project on my last project, I found the limitation was Logic handling massive track counts , finding sounds along with tons of crashing, which is why I took the hard step of switching back to Cubase , there are so many clever ways you can now bounce all the cues within a single project. at the end you can literally hit export and it will print all your stems , name the cues from markers , even deals with shared effects on sends and master buss inserts with ease saved me about 2 weeks !:)
I’m going to need to watch this a couple of times to get my head round this concept. Thanks for sharing Christian.
Running in reels makes more sense because your cues go per reel instead of individually. I’ll download this and play with it. Thanks. I like the way you make my brain hurt. Cheers.
Subprojects in reaper is also a way to skin the cat. One big project with everything in but v easy to move or edit elements within that, without knock on tempo effects. Youd still have the "i want new reverb" issue but would be quick to remedy.
With the one-file-per-episode approach, how do you manage reusing themes or cues, like using EP1 1m05 as a basis for EP4 3m03? And is it practical to work on cues out of chronological order?
I'be been working with single Cubase project for the whole job for years. I change tempo for every cue and avoid everything else desynchronizing after that by locking other cues' MIDI/audio clips to time. Works like butter. Sure, it takes a little time to play with tempo and signature after tempo change to put following cues back on the grid, musially, but they're locked to timecode, still. And I'm sure there's some option in Cubase to do that, but I haven't searched for it. I suppose I'm fine with doing it manually for a minute :)
Well, this is certainly an absolutely and incredibly brilliant way of working!
Great idea... I'm going to have to sleep on that so my brain can process the idea, but my initial thought is 'why haven't we been doing this before? Thanks Christian :)
What impeccable timing literally and figuratively! I’m working on a project and half of the cues are in one session and the other half are individuals. I was just coming around to this way of thinking but you’ve wrapped it up so succinctly. I’d love to see how this works in an actual project if that’s ever available.
I need to play with this and will be back with questions I’m sure but I love this approach. Thx so much!!
I love the idea of having every cue on the same file! But I can't really find the benefit of using these pre-programmed click tracks over writing a cue with a dedicated custom tempo, and then locking all midi and audio info. The click track could be bounced in case a recording is needed. A marker could be created at the start of the cue indicating the chosen bpm in case any revision is needed. This way, there would be no need to mess with quantization or time signature changes.
It is a very good way to work, as long as your computer can handle all that load, specially when working with samples.
This approach is great, but how would you deal if you have to write a different version of music for one scene? Soon it would be get out of control with many different versions and project would be complicated to work with.
I second this. This workflow could probably work for full score revisions rather than individual cues. First draft, second draft, etc. Then revisions are always kept in context, and done in batches. But individual cues allow for smaller file sizes and more efficient revision turnarounds.
As always, brilliant, brilliant stuff - Thanks, Christian! I have long been working with using as much as possible a single tempo and its subdivisions for some time because one of my teachers was adamant that you only change tempos if you really must (rubatos, fermatas, etc.), so it's easier on sessions, musicians, copyist and everyone. But I never thought of it as a project advantage - this is awesome. My question is, if you are not mixing this yourself and sending it to a dubbing engineer, logistically, how do you send it to them? A mammoth file? I'm curious about what would be the best way if anyone can chime in. Thanks again, Christian.
Christian, I like the general concept here, but I think this will introduce more problems than solutions. Cue revisions and file sizes have been mentioned in other comments. I think the way DAWs currently are just doesn't work with this system.
That said, if one is working largely in the box, what prevents you from writing cues in individual logic projects, then importing MIDI regions/audio files into the overall project? The overall project can have the same general orchestral template as individual cues, while specific instruments can be created or tweaked per cue with the final instrument in the overall cue. You should leave the tempo the same throughout, using the exact tempo system you've mentioned here, so that importing and synchronizing the MIDI files will be a piece of cake.
The intro was really clever!!! Love that!! This is so useful!! Just having all the different divisions available in one track!!! Definitely using this, Cheers!!!
Hi Christian, great video. Would love to see the next one with this new method of working. BTW, I remember you saying that you were thinking of switching to Cubase, how is the "move" going? I decided to make this same move earlier this year but it has been a bumpy road. Curious to hear your thoughts?
Where can I find the associated files mentioned at 15:56? If they are in the HUB my eyes are playing tricks on me. And Christian, this is a Brilliant lesson that comes just at a perfect time as I am scoring for a VR Narrative based game, where I only want to fight with Dragons, not Cues. 🙂
There’s no rule that says you can’t change the tempo in the midst of a session file or song file. I’ve been working like that since the early 1990s when it was just MIDI, and the audio would have to be on 2” tape, synced via SMPTE LTC. One long sequencer or DAW file with tempo and meter changes as needed. Yes, it makes for a bit of math every time they send a new film or video edit. It’s pretty simple math, though, if you understand TC rates.
This was, in fact, one of the great things about the lamentably defunct Opcode (Studio) Vision - one big file containing multiple sequences, each with its own tempo map, meter changes, and TC offset, each playable at any instant by simply hitting one key.
Vision was my very first software sequencer!! Had a hardware Roland sequencer before that...
Hi Chris, brilliant concept, thank you.
Please, can you point me to the Logic midi file as no link appears in the video description, unless l am not looking in the right place.
Oh! Big shout out to the Crow Hill Crew, great work 👍🏾
This kind of blew my mind (like a lot of commenters here). I immediately thought 'But what if I need to go into the midi regions and tweak, it'll be so confusing!'. Then I realised that this approach will take away that tempation, I'll hopefully have more 'organic' natural results, without the tweaking.
Very interesting technique and actually interesting timing (no pun intended...). I've been playing around with this idea syncing multiple instances of a looper I'm working on, plus I'm also really into polyrhythms. Stay with me... unless you hate the relationship between maths and music…
OK... so here's an idea. Instead of separate tracks, you do it with a plugin in a single track that generates your click dynamically according to a polyrhythmic timeline! So as per the example, with a base tempo of 120 BPM, 4 beats per bar gives a bar that's 2 seconds long. Change the division to 3 beats and that same two second interval is now 90 BPM. To my weird mind, what we’re doing here is creating a polyrhythm of 3:4 (3 beats over 4).
So... I don't think of this as now being 3/4 timing - it's whatever you want it to be - just count the beats! It’s still 90 BPM and the length of the bar is totally independent. It's really just the same time interval split into 3 instead of 4. So for divisions 1 to 8, you have tempos ranging from 30 to 240 BPM in 30 beat increments. For example, 5 = 150 BPM, 7 = 210 BPM and so on.
If you really want to get into the polyrhythmic weeds, instead of X:N (X beats over the time for N), where N is always 4, you could have 2:3, 3:2, 5:3, 4:7, etc., etc. Imagine the fun to be had there!
However... things start to get a little tricky with quantising within the DAW. For example, a 16th note at 120 BPM is 125ms, but at 180 BPM (6 divisions) it’s approx 83ms, so the DAW is going to be blissfully ignorant of all this cheeky timing. A possible solution would be to handle quantisation in “realtime” using a MIDI plugin that understands polyrhythms.
I don’t know if there are any plugins available like this, but I think they’d be fun. I’d develop them myself if I thought I’d sell more than one to Christian for a tenner :-) -Rob @ WI
Have you used Digital Performer? It’s the only DAW I can use quickly and the way you can handle Cues in the ’Chunks’ feature makes it standout. It’s popular in the US but not as much here in the UK because Cubase and Logic spread like VHS. Danny Elfman uses it and I think that’s as good an endorsement as any!!
When Christian started talking about things, I immediately thought about DP (and their "Chunks" feature) which I used for a while a long time ago. I quit using it because the interface was so small I couldn't read anything...
I use DP as well but do my work in one single sequence. See my comment above
Interesting! Particularly because of the mistake: what you did is closer to quintuplets then triplets (in fact, a duplet equal to previous dotted-half, i.e. that would be notated as going from 4/4 to 3/4, and writing a quadruplet in it). And because it is more complex, the relationships between your metronomes are less trivial. Sometimes we do great things out of mistakes. I'm experimenting with tempo track alternatives combined with SMPTE-locks for my last project, maybe that approach would be of interest. Looking for an orchestrator job, BTW, or any composition-arranging-engraving job (just saying because why not)
Thanks, good and useful tip for me. I’ll try this rather than fighting with logics time and tempo features. That are not intuitive for the way I work. But I like the idea of more freedom and I also start from scratch every time. As a mix engineer as well as composer, I definitely like building from scratch so that I don’t get repetitive. At least that’s my approach..
Extremely useful solution - thanks for sharing!
I put all my cues into one project (or mostly into one project) when scoring for theatre but so far I've laid out my workflow horizontally rather than vertically. Typically it means having to adjust the flags and potentially tempo when exporting but it works for me. That said, I might try working vertically like you, if nothing else it would make it less of a headache to remember which tempo is on which cue (especially as I'm pretty rubbish when it comes to bouncing midi to audio 😅)
Mmmmm.... interesting! Am just about to start a new project so will defo give this a bash. Nice one Christian! ✊
Really interesting video Christian, thanks. For clarity, from a workflow point of view this a lovely method, however, are you suggesting here that you deliver 1 single master cue to the client?
Great ideas here. I'm thinking that making the 1 beat, (or 1, 2 in the case of 6/8 times) a slightly different tone might help avoid confusion when switching between time signatures
1. There is the feature project alternative
2. You forgot that many plugins sync with the tempo change
3.Writing ✍️ music without gear will revolutionize your workflow even more
Loving this videos and the fact you're using Logic! Hating the fact Crow Hill hasn't made Key FX available for Logic after all this time...
i suffer with dyscalculia and this really made my brain hurt. I know you did something wonderful I just dont understand.
Oh that sounds so useful. I've always messed with Tempo changes in the past and it's ok but it gets so messy quick.
This is great. Now I have to duplicate it in FL Studio. 🤣
Easy!
At Scorecraft Academy we call this metric modulation. I use it all the time!
Thanks for the video, Christian. I'll maybe give a try of your method, could be usuefull, I'll see. For now I'm like everyone else, I deal with time signature changes and tempi variations.
Regarding the big templates, I know I'm not in the trend, but like you I don't like them, I love to developp sounds and arrangements within the flux of my "creativity", in the context. Use in complement of a "great & expensive orchestral sounds" an unusual reverb, an obscure synth, a cheap woodwind library, etc. A big template gives me the feeling I'l somehow blocked.
Thank you! Very inspiring❤
What software do u use to sync video to logic without just importing it and making the logic file massive?
The link you mention at the end isn't in the description. Will you be putting it up on the Hub? Thanks
I actually do this for short projects as opposed to long projects, minus the metronome tho, for me the metronome is limiting, i usually use notation software for the most part.
I was Composer for a short animated film and I composed the score all in one file. In my opinion it does make it easier. For any parts without music i just tweak the time signatures until I get to a specific timestamp. And then I continue. Again, same tempo. I actually end up writing in a fast tempo but make things longer with double time, it is a pretty nice workflow *in my opinion*
I think we need the latest technology to calm Tempo in our every daw. Where the tempo can be pulled and speeded up or slowed down without affecting the film. It's about time the tech button was there.
any chance you can create a new mpe type keyboard with logic built in and a 2-4tb in-built Silicon chip, not unlike apple ? with its own internal OS , hdmi out with midi parameters via slide up keys ?
Cheers 🎉😂
I don’t quite understand? So this entire score will be at 120bpm with various different available sub tempos?
Yes, the different tempos just come from click tracks that are put into triplets or 16ths, or 5ths or whatever.
@@MichaelDowComposer what does this mean this single session will have multiple tempo changes in it or will the global BPM remain fixed all the way through?
@@michaelrasbury Global tempo stays at 120bpm, click tracks are divided up into musical timings of it for faster/slower speeds. I don;t think this would really work for all tempos... and may even make you record and play somethign that isn't really a good speed match for the scene!? It's a great idea but i'm sure there will stillbe times you want to change tempo. But Christian does admit this too. I think with all the divisions it would get you a long way, and you've then got all your work in one project. I'm not 100% sure why not just automate the tempo though for a different cue. Maybe logic doens't work very welll with tempo changes
On a much smaller scale, if I wrote for a cartoon short it was always on one linear timeline. If an event moved or was taken out it was a simple move on my part rearranging the musical cue pieces. At that scale it was easy, a little more complex for lengthier projects, I'm sure.
That’s it……. I’m completely buggered now…….way over my head ………😂😂😂. I’m sure it makes complete sense to more accomplished DAW users though!!!
For over 30 years Motu's Digital Performer has been leading in the film/tv composers dep because of excellent , precise and easy to use conductor track, as well as the Chunks ! Check out the chunks .
I was going to ask how the players cope with reading crazy divisions.Then i see 'it went terribly wrong during an orchestral session' so it sounds like I'll find out soon enough :D
Thanks!
back to Logic now?
Genius
Yep.
🤘
👍
My process would be more fluid & quicker if youtubers lost the superfluous monologues and just got to the point.
Seems unnecessary
It isn't necessary, but it's a smart option for projects with a tight deadline. Avoids so many possible issues and stresses towards the end of a project, which is when you least need them. Thank you Christian.
Thanks for all the effort you put into making videos for our community. You’re a gentleman and a scholar. 🫶🏻