Music Soundtrack creation

[Steve Rhoden]

You can do all that you described using both sony cinescore and
acid pro…..along with endless themes, loops and instruments
you can purchase and compose to your personal musical productions.

With SoundForge, Acid and Cinescore (which all integrates beautifully
with Vegas)….you need nothing more.

Steve Rhoden
Creative Director
TNX EFFECTS STUDIOS.

[Bruce Quayle]

Thanks Steve. But if I understand you correctly, I am going to need all 3 programs? Oops…just blown the budget (again). It seems awfully convoluted to me…having to use three different programs to achieve my result.
By the way, can the “Themes” offeresd in Cinescape be imported into Acid and used there without the Cinescope program?
…or am I missing something here?
Many thanks,
Bruce

[Rick Wise]

I have to repeat: I have no use for Cinescore, which provides and produces really boring music. You can go the Acid route and create your own loop-music, or modify some already created for you. Each week you can download free loops, if you register at Sony, and eventually build up an amazingly rich library of loops. The drawback, they tend to a similar sound, and I find them mostly unusable.

I have had the best results using pieces from Dawnmusic.com, which cost around $12-24 for full rights per cut. It takes hours of digging through a gigantic library to find anything you would want to use. But it can be done, especially if you are adept at then slicing and dicing to fit the scene. I think there’s a better library: freeplaymusic.com. Only drawback: full commercial rights are much, much more expensive. On the other hand, if it’s a non-commercial project, you can use their music for free.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Bruce Quayle]

Thanks Rick – appreciate your input and experience. I’ll look up the products your recommend.

Anyone else out there with feedback on this subject??

[Steve Rhoden]

No…No… not all of them,
You just would need Soundforge and Acid.
Acid to create your musical scores…Soundforge for final mixing and mastering.

You can also checkout smartsound.com for tons of scores and music which integrates with Vegas and soundforge.

Steve Rhoden
Creative Director
TNX EFFECTS STUDIOS.

[Bruce Quayle]

Thanks again Steve…I guess I would use my Nuendo for final mix and mastering – it’s a great program.
But what about other programs and media? Digital Juice, Smart Sound, etc…?

Bruce Quayle

[Allen Zagel]

Hi

For what you want to do, IMHO Acid would be all you’d need then. Plus maybe some of the Digital Juice stuff, of which DJ is having some really great sales going on right now. You can get their SooundFX series for FX and their Stak Trax for layering music. you can turn off tracks of the musical scores to create your own special pieces. Also they have a Back Trax series.

I asume you know that Vegas originally started as an audio program so I’d question the need for Sound Forge. You can do most all your mastering right in Vegas to save money.

I have Acid, Cinescore and Sonic Fire Pro. Got the most use out of SFP for my uses plus the DJ stuff.

aLLEN

ASX Media Group, Inc.
https://www.asxvideo.com

[Bruce Quayle]

Hi Allen,
Thanks for your comments. Yeah, I noticed the sales at DJ – will be looking at some of their stuff.
I was aware of Vegas’ pedigree – just wasn’t sure what Sound Forge was. Certainly if Vegas cannot do the final mix, my Nuendo will be able to cover that. Right now I’m more interested in the actual media side of it and am looking for the most flexibility so that I can create something more unique for my productions.
It seems that Acid may be the way to go, but I have been reading some worrying comments on various forums that suggest that Acid may soon be discontinued. Why do you think that would be?
Thanks again!

Bruce Quayle

[Steve Rhoden]

Bruce,
I hear so often where individuals speak a lot of bull on forums,
especially about this and that software will soon be discontinued
etc…..Acid isn’t going anywhere.
If you still don’t want to take the plunge in Acid, you can get
‘Sonic Fire Pro’ as Allen spoke of earlier…which works with
cinematic library music you can customize and manipulate infinitely.

Steve Rhoden
Creative Director
TNX EFFECTS STUDIOS.

[John Rofrano]

> but was wondering about other products like Stacktraxx, Sonicfire Pro and Cinescore. You folks must have used many of these before…what are your suggestions/comments?

I’ve got them all. Here’s my take on them:

Stacktraxx: This is royalty free music that you said you didn’t want to use. It’s great stuff (I use it) but you said “I’m not interested is basic royalty-free music ” so this is not for you.

Sonicfire Pro: This is royalty free music that is variable in content and has a clever editor that can cut a piece of music to the exact time you need with no musical knowledge on your part. If you want to compose your own music this really is not for you.

Cinescore: This is a royalty free music generator that allows some flexibility and hints that you can give the composer tool when it generates your music. It also allows you to add ACID Loops to mix things up a bit which is a nice touch. A clever tool aimed at videographers who are not musicians… again, if you want to make your own music, this isn’t really for you.

ACID Pro: This a DAW just like Nuendo that you have but it focuses its capabilities around loops and loop composition. I believe that this would be a great tool for you to try. Download the 30-day trial and check it out. Since you already have Vegas and Nuendo you might not need it though. That’s why I say try it out first.

Vegas: Now here’s a sweet little DAW that just happens to be ACID Loop aware. This means you don’t have to buy any software if you already own Vegas. Just get yourself some Cinematic ACID Loop libraries and compose your music right in Vegas. It doesn’t have some of the more eloquent features that ACID does but it does a good job with ACID loops.

> It seems that Acid may be the way to go, but I have been reading some worrying comments on various forums that suggest that Acid may soon be discontinued. Why do you think that would be?

Hmmm… Because someone who hasn’t a clue was making the post? Seriously, Sony has already stated that ACID Pro 7 is on it’s way. ACID isn’t going anywhere. It’s just getting better and better.

Bottom line:

Here is my recommendation: Go to the Sony ACID Loops site and listen to the samples from some of the cinematic loop libraries. Find some that are close to what you want and then buy them and have fun composing your own music in Vegas. if you’d rather use ACID you can start with ACID Music Studio which is a very capable program that is light on the budget. Music Studio doesn’t have some of the nicer features of Pro but Sony has a great comparison chart on their web site so you can see what you’d be missing.

All the other software mentioned is just variations on royalty free music for non-musicians. There’s nothing wrong with that. Like I said, I own StackTraxx, Sonicfore Pro, and Cinecore and use them all the time when I don’t have time for or the project doesn’t warrent composing my own music. It’s great stuff and very usable. But if you have your heart set on composing something that is your own, ACID or Vegas with ACID Loops will get you there.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com