Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1300552
SOUND LIBRARIES www.postmagazine.com 23 POST SEPT/OCT 2020 there was an abundance of great tracks that fit perfectly. The Vault does a wonder- ful job of adding themes and work from new vendors and composers. It's growing all the time." Petty adds that many tracks are avail- able with stem breakouts, or in multiple delivery formats, allowing for flexibility when doing music edits. "That's super useful from a design point of view," he says. "The Vault has been a good resource, a time saver and ultimately a tool that helps tell the story." WTVT, the Fox affiliate in Tampa, recently turned to The Vault for music for an image campaign promoting its mobile app for local news. The campaign is built around the line "Everywhere you go." The Vault staff worked with the client to find a vocal track that fit the mood, style, and pacing required, as well as provided the desired lyrical message. They then custom edited the song to the client's specification for the various spot versions. "We really enjoyed working with the team at Stephen Arnold Music," says WTVT VP of creative services, Mike House. "They were able to quickly adjust and tweak tracks to meet our needs. The result was just what we were hoping for and the music really is the heart and soul of the spots." The Vault has provided similar customizations for many clients, including CBS Dallas-Ft. Worth affiliate KTVT, Fox News/Fox Business, the Denver Nuggets and the Kansas City Royals. "Very often what starts as a simple production music license turns into a custom branding piece or a customization of an existing work," says Arnold. "It's an efficient way to create some- thing that fits and elevates the project." Syn's 'Made In Japan' reflects country's range of styles "Made In Japan" is a new collection of music produced and recorded by Syn (https://syn.world), the music agency and creative studio with locations in Tokyo, London, Los Angeles, Beijing and Manila. Available for commercial licens- ing, the collection is well suited for advertising, film, TV and other media. The process and journey of sourcing, curating and re- cording this collection of more than 50 tracks took over two years, and represents a diverse and eclectic expression of Japanese music and musicians, who use traditional instru- ments to create electric hybrid scores. Recorded and mixed at Syn Studios Tokyo using some of the country's top mu- sicians, this modern collection of Japanese music spans hip hop, electronic, zen meditation, J-pop, dark mysterious and dramatic, all with a contemporary edge. The project was inspired by Syn's Tokyo headquarters and co-founder/chief creative director Nick Wood's passion for his adopted home. "The popularity and influence of Japanese culture can be increasingly seen in film, television and advertising," explains Wood, "and we wanted to further expose people to the diverse range of styles and incredible artists present in Japanese music. Bringing our network together to create this series over the course of a few years was incredible and we are excited to finally share it with clients." "Made In Japan" is currently available for licensing through Syn. In addition to licensing "Made In Japan" and other collections, Syn also provides recording, music strategy, composition, sound design and sonic branding services. It's OK to buy complete libraries again BY MIKE FULLER FOUNDER CSS MUSIC LOS ANGELES HTTPS://WWW.CSSMUSIC.COM The old rule of thumb in the library business used to be that if you could find two tracks on a "royalty free" CD, it was worth buying. The logic was simple, there is never any accounting for taste. Clients like what they like, not necessarily what they should have. Compact discs are almost a thing of the past, but the idea of buying a volume of music tunes that are related by genre, category or concept is still a good idea, espe- cially combined with the motto, 'Know your library'. Knowing your library means ferreting out every editing post, change of mood or instrumentation. This quite simply makes sound design quicker and easier. This concept extends naturally to small- and medi- um-sized libraries. Buying entire music libraries certainly isn't a new idea, but it is an idea that needed to have the dust blown off it and perhaps reimagined for the digital age. Today, with mega libraries and music aggregators, there are literally millions of tracks to choose from. The problem is, the best search systems — even those with waveform analysis — don't always find those magic music nuggets that you won't find by listening to the first three seconds of a selection. KNOW YOUR LIBRARY First of all, you must have a library. CSS Music (www. cssmusic.com) has 16 libraries with over 450 volumes in aggregate. We don't sell CDs anymore, but we do offer downloadable virtual CDs called Q-Discs. You can buy one Q-Disc and get 50 percent off on a second. You can buy a full-service library, like the 70-volume Target Trax library for $495, featuring 70 different slices of life, over 700 base selections and 30-plus categories. It's not too small or too large. Some might say, "It's just right." CSS offers three file formats: .aif, Apple Lossless and .mp3 320. Yes, we have single selection down- loads with all the versions, subscriptions, pre-paid bulk downloads, and even free music for personal YouTube videos. But you can still get good old CD volumes, even a few from the old days.