Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/44580
Music & sound Library Roundtable CLOUD: "When it comes to providing temp SFX to picture departments, the Sound Ideas and Hollywood Edge Premiere Edition get tossed around a lot because they're so bountiful and cover a large amount of 'generic' sounds." DEFORD: "My one best sources to date has been Twisted Trax, just because of their variety and diversity." DICESARE: "For music, there is only one that I use and that is APM (Associated Production Music). I can't say enough good things about them. I use them almost exclu- sively for two main reasons. First, their music is not only great, but also useful. I know that sounds simple, but it is not as common as you might think. I work on a lot of spots for Crest toothpaste, Purina Cat Chow, Cascade, and the like. I need a different approach where the music is simply an underlining feel- ing rather than the focus of the spot. "Many other music libraries overlook this need. APM has somewhere around 300,000 selections and there are plenty of the cool- est, latest current trends for music. But they do not ignore the more functional music that has to act as a bed without over powering the voiceover. As mixers, how many times are we asked to make the voiceover or dia- logue louder? Every mix I do, practically. In my world, the music often has to function as support rather than the star. They get that. "Also, APM's Website is one of a kind. It acts more like a software program rather than a Website. You set up your project folders, search and share things as though it is a standalone program. The site also has searchable keywords that are 'client speak,' as I say. Often my clients have no musical background, so they do not know the proper musical terms to explain what they want. Instead, they use words like, sunshine, or thoughtful, or cold. APM has a searchable database using all these types of non-musical descriptions." HOLLAND: "There are the usual sus- pects like Sound Ideas and Hollywood Edge, but I am really digging the sounds from Blast- wave FX; they seem like they have a newer library that hasn't been used everywhere yet, as well as some smaller companies like Hiss And A Roar and Boom Library. They have a limited selection but the quality is outstand- ing and the prices are very low." POST: Do you prefer royalty free? Licensing? CLOUD: "We buy the library outright so we don't have to track how often we use it." DEFORD: "I really have no preference." DICESARE: "For sound effects, I prefer royalty free without a doubt. Otherwise, I would have to track, notate and fill out the forms for each sound I use. That could be hundreds of sounds, which would be way too costly and time consuming to do. "For music, I prefer licensing. Generally, licensing is very affordable for stock music and offers the widest selections. The few royalty free libraries that I have come across seem to have a very small selection of pieces and are usually not-so-great. Plus, royalty free libraries have an upfront cost that our studio has to pay with no guarantee that we will make that money back. With licensing, it works as a pay-as-you-go by our clients, not us directly. That's a huge advantage." HOLLAND: "This does not really apply to sound effects libraries, which is mostly what we use." POST: How do you get your collections? Hard drive, Website, CDs? What is your pre- ferred method? CLOUD: "As is such with every industry nowadays, it seems like the Websites and downloading has usurped the physical media world." DEFORD: "I prefer to have a CD avail- able and not download sounds or libraries." DICESARE: "Most sound effects librar- ies offer audio files either on drives or down- loads that can be used with Soundminer. Soundminer has become the go-to database for all of our sounds. For music, APM's Web- site is the easiest and best way to go. "In both cases, music and sound effects, CDs have gone the way of the dinosaur. I cannot be slowed down on a session to load up a disc when I can be one click away from a download." HOLLAND: "I prefer a file with the metadata already created and ready for searching. Whether it is delivered on a drive or by the Web depends on the size of the library." POST: If you could change one thing about working with canned music or sound effects, what would it be? CLOUD: "For directors and picture edi- tors to not fall in love so madly with their temp tracks. You're paying your sound team good money to tell your story in a sonically special way and the least unique sound is the one everyone and their mother has heard." DEFORD: "I don't know that I would change anything. The resources are amazing to me and the variety of audio is so vast, I can't imagine not finding a sound that's needed with today's potential." DICESARE: "Actually, the one thing that I thought could never change has slowly been changing over the past five years or so. That is people's perception of sound effects and library music. When I first started out over 20 years ago, stock music was a bad word. But now, most everyone realizes that using stock music or stock sound effects isn't 'cheating' or sub-par in anyway. It is just another tool in our audio toolbox- es. This more positive perception toward libraries is one change that I think will continue more over time." HOLLAND: "I would love more libraries to be offered in true 96kHz 24-bit quality, and not just upsampled from 44.1kHz and 48kHz. When you are For this Michelin test spot, Ultra-Sound's Ron DiCesare used stock laughter and manipulated it. heavily manipulating stock sound effects to make them one of your own, having that higher resolution means you can push the envelope further before things start sound bad." www.postmagazine.com to Post • October 2011 39 "When I first started out over 20 years ago, stock music was a bad word." — Ron DiCesare