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September 2017

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www.postmagazine.com 23 POST SEPTEMBER 2017 AUDIO FOR COMMERCIALS et's face it, budgets exist and there's no getting around them. But while music may seem like a small portion of the pie, there's a good reason why more funds should be allo- cated for it. Music is the emotion of a project. It has the power to speak to the soul, to add punch or excitement, or to pull on the heartstrings. So why just throw a stock music bed under a spot when advertisers can strike the right chord with consumers through a custom music score? These four composers share their thoughts on custom music tracks and discuss details of their recent advertising scores. Bulletproof Bear: The Long Game LA-based music production company Bulletproof Bear (www.bulletproofbear.com) offers clients licensable tracks as well as custom score options. Co-founder Jason Moss helps clients find the right music for their projects. When music supervi- sor Karen Falzone of Mostly Music Agency (in collaboration with ad agency Hugo & Marie) was looking to score a spot for Glenmorangie, The Long Game, Moss had a few composers in mind. One of those composers was Gil Talmi, an Emmy-nominated artist with a studio in Brooklyn, New York (www.giltalmi.com). In The Long Game spot, pro golfer Justin Rose putts a golf ball into a Rube Goldberg-style maze that eventually ends with the ball dropping into a glass of Glenmorangie Scotch Whisky. Ad agen- cy Hugo & Marie wanted a music track that was sophisticated yet not stuffy, playful but not funny. They wanted orchestral instrumentation and a track that perfectly scores the action as opposed to just acting as a bed of music. "The music needed to basically say everything. There's no voiceover; there are no sound effects. The music needs to go along with the visuals and catch and hit things very specifically. That would be close to impossible to do with pre-existing music. Scoring allows us to hit everything that we need to. The music tells the whole story," says Talmi. Editors generally cut to a temp music track, which acts as a roadmap both in terms of timing and tone. Temp music can be a double-edged sword. It's necessary for picture editorial but it can also cause 'demo love' — clients become accus- tomed to the temp track and are reluctant to stray from it. Demo love can "really put shackles on a composer and stifle creativity. But that wasn't the case with Mario Hugo and Masha Spaic at Hugo & Marie. They had fantastic temp music but they didn't have temp love. They allowed me to go and do my thing, to bring in my own creativity and really tell the story. It was really a fun collaboration and it was very productive," says Talmi. Talmi used all virtual orchestral instruments to compose the score, such as 8DIO's Adagio Strings, Agitato Strings, Claire Woodwinds and 1928 Steinway Grand. "This is a totally orchestral spot but the budget didn't allow for recording live instruments. I absolutely love 8DIO's instruments. They sound real and have some grit to them. There's something about them that makes them sound as close to real as possible," says Talmi. He composes, mixes and masters all in Apple's Logic Pro X (10.3.2). For mastering, Talmi likes UAD's Chandler Limited Curve Bender EQ, and their Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor. He also uses iZotope Ozone 7 Advanced's Imager + Maximizer for mastering. "That's a great way to quickly get a fantastic sound. The Imager really gives depth and width to the stereo image and lets things come out very naturally. The Maximizer allows me to get the track nice and loud without squishing everything, which is especially helpful for orchestral music. It's so important that it can breathe and sounds natural," says Talmi. He also finds the Softube Console 1 and SSL XL 9000K plug-in to be especially helpful for orchestral music. "It has this big, beautiful openness on the high frequencies and low frequencies. It really ac- celerates my workflow to do things quickly and it integrates with the UAD plug-ins really beautifully." While stock music can offer affordable music options, particularly when it comes to orchestral music, Talmi feels that custom scores give advertis- ers an edge by allowing them to tailor the music to what's happening in a spot, both from an emotion- al perspective and from a timing perspective. It also contributes a unique flavor to the brand over- all. "You're creating a unique sound that you don't hear anywhere else. It can be unique in its melodic approach, or its orchestration, or its production value if you're not using orchestral instruments. That's all part of the branding to create a unique sound that becomes part of the commercial or the campaign," he concludes. Nylon Studios: Fox: Bradshaw Stain Nylon Studios (www.nylonstudios.com) is an award-winning sound and music production L The music track for The Long Game is orchestral and sophisticated. Nylon's workflow for Fox: Bradshaw Stain Bradshaw Stain Bradshaw was split between its Sydney Australia and New York studios.

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