Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/724677
SOUND LIBRARIES www.postmagazine.com 33 POST SEPTEMBER 2016 me is how fast the search and audition from the cloud is, even on a wide range of Internet con- nections. I don't know how they manage it, but it's as fast as if it's on my local drives," he says. Another plus for Richardson is Soundly's tech support team. When attempting to export his Soundminer database into Soundly, initially he got an error message. He emailed Soundly's support team, and got a response right away. "Within five minutes, Peder [Jørgensen] emailed me a new version that implemented that fix. Five minutes is impressive no matter what time zone you are in, but he is in Norway, and it's six hours later than me. So, it was 11 p.m. his time," says Richardson, who continued emailing Jørgensen different ideas for the next version. "Peder was very receptive to any ideas, since I have such a long history in post. For example, I would make a suggestion based off the current keyboard shortcuts in my workflow, and the next day, a new Soundly release would be out that had not just what I had asked for, but three or four more things on top of that." Richardson feels that the Soundly team has hit a homerun, and that their contin- ued improvements to the program are very intuitive of his needs as a sound designer. His only suggestion would be to issue a manual. "There are so many little hidden nuggets that I just stumble onto in Soundly. Maybe some sort of manual might be good, just to show people how deep the program is. For instance, one time Peder and I were emailing and I just stumbled onto a way to add and save favor- ites, and he said, 'Yeah, I threw that in on the last release.' Just like it was a nothing throw- away little item, and here I am ready to shout that feature from the rooftops." WARNER/CHAPPELL PRODUCTION MUSIC Sonic Union (sonicunion.com) in New York City is a full-service audio post company that em- ploys music supervisor Justin Morris to help their clients find the right track. Morris has been work- ing as a music supervisor for advertising clients since 2004, starting at the now defunct HSR|NY and then continuing under his own JUMO Music before teaming up with Sonic Union. Morris says of Sonic Union, "They are an immensely talented group of people, and all sweethearts." Sonic Union offers clients a hand-picked collection of music libraries that are com- bined into the studio's music search engine called SuperSonic (http://sonicunion.com/ supersonic), which included tracks from Warner/Chappell Production Music (www. warnerchappellpm.com). SuperSonic is powered by Soundminer, so users enter a keyword to describe their desired music, like 'upbeat' for example, and Soundminer search- es through the various libraries simultaneously, using the tracks' meta- data to pull up appropri- ate selections. Morris, who curates SuperSonic's catalog of tracks, as well as handles music searches for clients on a per project basis, says one reason that Warner/Chappell Production Music stands out to him is because of their track metadata. "They are very orga- nized with their descriptors and keyword tags. It doesn't hurt that their online search engine is powered by the same company we work with in-house, Soundminer." Morris first worked with Warner/Chappell Production Music after it had acquired Non- Stop Music several years ago. Following that, they also acquired 615 Music. Morris says, "That meant I could work with Steve Hayes again. He's great! He'll work with almost any budget I throw at him, and he typically has a few music options up his sleeve if I am stumped on a search." One of Morris's favorite search features of the Warner/Chappell Production Music site is 'grouping.' When grouping is select- ed, all versions of a track are organized in a dropdown menu. He explains, "All cutdowns, instrumentals, underscores, etc., are listed. It's a huge time saver. I also love the 'browse' option. The browse button lists a group of keywords I can use to kickstart a search. Sometimes I just start there and then orga- nize my search results by the release date." In terms of what Warner/Chappell Production Music has to offer, Morris shares, "Less is more. I think Warner/Chappell Production Music is really trying to find the best music for their library — quality over quantity." VANACORE RELEASES VERE MUSIC VALENCIA, CA — Vanacore Music, which produces custom music for unscripted programming, has intro- duced Vere Music. The release flaunts a new genera- tion of music for films and trailers created by a team of hand-picked, award-winning art- ists, musicians and composers. The collection consists of three premium albums — Variation On The End (epic hybrid orchestral for trailer back ends), Funny Thing About Love (suit- able for romantic comedy trailers) and Skies Are Oceans (inspirational indie anthems). All three albums are available for streaming and licensing at Vanacore Music's Website (vanacoremusiclibraries.com). STIR POST FLOATS WITH GRAVITY One of the sample libraries I've had great success with lately is Gravity, by Heavyocity. It's not a sound effect library, but a synthesizer sample library. I find that all the pads and whooshy-type sounds are very organ- ic and fill in the gaps between sound effects and musical stings, which melt right into the music score. I did all the scene change accents and fly-bys in the first couple of minutes of a Lowrider documentary with it (www. youtube.com/watch?v=8itUES- RnCXA). Plus, it's got great risers and hits. All the car slams that happen at 3:50 are from Gravity. Also, I've fallen in love with the new synth module Alchemy in Logic Pro X. If I need to make electronic beeps and clicks for a keyboard typing SFX, it's my go-to synth. The built-in arpeggiator makes it a snap. — MICHAEL MASON, engineer/mixer/sound design- er, Stir Post, Chicago, stirpost.com. Michael Mason Justin Morris