I've been playing trumpet for about 8 years. I can also play tuba / trombone / baritone / euphonium / and all that other stuff. Well, only if the tuba is in Eb. It's all the same.. heh. I have absolutely no desire to further my official music education, though I do play in various community bands (and the occasional Tuba Christmas.. Dec. 12th [grin]) and I volunteer/instruct at my old high school.

Quote: Original post by paradoxnj

Quote: Original post by enker
Well, now I guess I'll add John Petrucci to the guitarris list Mosh did!

I second that one and add Marty Friedman and Jason Becker.

Randy Rhoads, Chet Atkins, Clapton.

I studied piano for a number of years. Now I teach audio/music production (among other things) at University and run my very small company where I try to make some money making music for films, games and things like that.

I would still refer to myself as semi-professional but I am trying to make a living from these things. :)

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Martin - eimermusic.com

17 years classical cello, 13 years bass upright and electric, 10 years guitar, 12 composing. Accepted to Juilliard and San Francisco Conservatory of Music for composition, chose San Francisco for better faculty IMO. Have played with major symphonies around the US, have performed at Lincoln Center, and was in the first foreign orchestra to perform at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, Spain. Have performed in classical with artists such as pianist Christopher Jonson and with jazz artists such as Brantford Marsalis, Bobby Jones and Carmen Intorre, Jr. Seven national and international tours under my belt. 43 album discography. Currently working on the soundtracks for 11 games and 4 films. Does that count as "serious"?

I think the only appropriate response I have for that is damn. 43 albums? 11 games? 4 films? What are you doing HERE? The immediate followup question, I suppose, would be what would be your best advice in finding work in game audio? I'm sure we would all love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

To be honest Zircon, giving advice in game audio is going to very hard for anyone to do at this point. Gaming is it's own monster. What most places want now days in a composer, is also a sound designer, and also anything else.

Essentially, my best advice would be to learn as many uses for your computer as possible. Now days most entry-level positions with even moderately small studios are being taken by composers who are not only proficient as composers, but as sound designers and sometimes even artists, or modelers. It's growing more and more difficult.

With the newest software out there like GPO you can fool even a trained ear into thinking that you have a real orchestra at your disposal if you know how to work everything right. Learn MIDI. Make sure you know as much MIDI as possible. Because at the end of the day, even a perfect score on paper needs to be affordable to your company. Let's be honest, EA is not the first stop you'll be making in your career as a composer, therefore, the more money you can save a team the more attractive you will be as a potential hire.

Start working on the most comprehensive collection of samples you can. Start a bloody library of samples and cues that you have done. Try to get used to writing in every style you can think of. Take any influence you can find and use it. Sometimes I take an existing movie and write a new opening credit roll theme for it. Just so that I have one more piece of music to stuff in my pocket for a rainy day.

Turn those tracks into a demo. I cannot think of any more than 5 composers in the world who would be hired for a project without submitting a demo just like the average Joe. Have a good demo. Quality DOES matter. Make sure you buff and polish the bugeezus out of your tracks before burning them to a disc.

Then, save up for some fancy packaging. Let's face it, you're a product, and you are the marketing director too. New composers and sound designers need to understand that with modern technology, anyone can write music. I hate to say it but there far more people out there who THINK they can write music than people who really can.

A painful truth of this situation is that a studio can judge a book by its cover. The people who are just messing around writing dungeon music all night long in their mother's basements are usually going to send in a burned CD with their rouch tracks on it. (Please don't anyone take that the wrong way, just stereotyping, there are plenty of good musicians living in their mother's basements, I did it for a long time myself.)

On the flip side of that coin, a professional, experienced composer will know to present a studio with an attractive package and neatly marketed demo. With any demo, also have a professionaly formatted resume or CV, whatever you would like to call it.

Also... believe this one or not... get some photos taken at a studio... even as a composer, at least for film... you often times want to include a head-shot. As rediculous as that sounds, it's so much the standard in Hollywood to recieve demo reels and press kits with head-shots that now everyone wants a face for every position. This may not be as true with games as with films.

Keep your samples short by the way, you HAVE to remember at all times, that an average director, even on a small film, or even a small studio, while in production on a movie or game will recieve an average of 2,500 to 3,500 demos for composers alone. So, they're not going to listen to everything, and they certainly will not spend 60 minutes listening to your full anthology.

Final detail being the most important:

It will be hard, you will throw your hands up in angst almost like clockwork. You will most certainly be denied infinitely more times than accepted. So, take whatever you can get. Remember also, to start small. Mods are a good start. I am even scoring several right now because they make very good practice and resume material. Also, you never know really which MOD might be the next counter-strike, so who knows, you could end up famous by accident.

Don't give up, it will be hard, it will suck, and you will be working a full time day job doing something else before you make it as a composer I can gurantee. You will rarely get paid... but... eventually there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Stick with it and you will find that even as a "night" job, composing for multimedia is an extremely rewarding expereince, if not professionally, as an amature, just as enjoyable.

There is nothing quite like hearing your feelings and hard work sync up perfectly with that perfect moment in a scene. You'll see what I mean. Just keep up the good work. I am always around for questions also, so feel free to ask anytime!

wow I just wrote a freakin' novel, sorry about that!

Thanks very much for the advice!

Luckily, in response to one of your earlier points, I am fairly versatile. I do no sheet music composing; all of my work is done in my studio. I've spent a lot of time studying music production from writing the first MIDI note to adding automated impulse reverbs as send effects to handmade synthesizers and encoding the whole deal to a reasonable format. My orchestral libraries are a little on the weak side (I really need to pick up EWQLS or EWQLG), but aside from that, I have a veritable arsenal of sounds at my disposal.

Sound design is something I need more practice in, I admit. Ambient textures and soundscapes are no problem, as are electronic/scifi sound effects, but I don't think I'd know where to begin if asked for a sword slash sound, for instance.

I've been working on a solid portfolio of music for awhile now, though I've been having some fairly severe writer's block lately. I certainly acknowledge the importance of being able to write in any style, from hillbilly anthems to full-on symphonic epics.