Scoring Central

Hello all,
Just wanted to pop in and say hi to everybody and let you all know my background. I also have a questions
I began writing because I've loved compositional music since my early years. Since then I have improved tremendously off my own self teaching. Check out my work so far. Adventure Orchestra

I want to really make this a career. I don't care about the money or the luxury. I want to do something I actually care about. This has been the only thing I've ever really wanted to do. Being self taught, I have a lot to learn, and I am signing up for classes this fall. I don't even know where to begin to get a contract or music job. My biggest problem is that I can hear the music in my head, but putting it into the daw proves challenging. I plan on getting Cinematic Studio Strings soon to help with the audio quality. What recommendations do you have?

My question is, assuming I spend all my time digging into this, where to I look for a job?
Lastly, does anybody here teach or tutor?

Thank you for your time.

I cannot really help you regarding your career wishes, but I might be helpful regarding your problem of getting the sounds you hear in your head into the DAW. But you gotta be a bit more specific, what exactly is the problem. Do you have problems hearing the intervals of the melody or the chords? I would just generally suggest, if you got a strong vision that's really cool, but be careful to clinge on that too hard I have often made the mistake in the past to follow my ideas too strictly and ignore happy accidents, in the words of Bob Ross, but also get to a point where reality would prove my musical ideas wrong and I was too stubborn to correct. For example I would make a bassline really hasty and then recognize I could improve the song by making it a bit more stable in some parts, but I would ignore that instinct, because I was too engaged with my original intention. If you ever come into that situation, do yourself a favor and do whats best for the music

But nonetheless it's really good to have a vision, since ideas can be very crucial in that kinda craft. But now I was rambling a lot, I hope that was still helpful, if you can rephrase your question I might be able to give more specific tips

Always trust a man who quotes Bob Ross. Viktor is right, it's important to live in the moment as much as it is to have a vision and stick to it. I, too, have been so attached to my stubborn ideas in past experience that I've ignored making better decisions and ultimately ended up unhappy with the finished result. I've gone so far as to spend a few thousand making an album only to be disappointed with it in the end (That's one of the reasons I ended up here, actually). So I second Viktor's advice to do what's best for the music. Certainly work at it and challenge yourself, but don't let a good thing pass you by if you find yourself going down an unplanned path; that's how we learn. For example, you may have a melody you think will sound great on one instrument only to discover you like it even better on another and it changes your whole track from "Heroic" to "Ballad." One thing I often tell myself is that there is always new music for me to make, always a chance to try again or take a different approach.

Unfortunately I don't have any career advice because I don't have a career, but I will advise that you just keep working on music and practicing. And have a look at Mattias' articles (especially before you start spending money on libraries): http://mattiaswestlund.net/?page_id=29

On that note, I use Cinematic Strings 2 which appears to be the predecessor of Cinematic Studio Strings. Nice library for sure, but by no means totally comprehensive. It has Bartok pizzi (hard percussive snaps) which I quite enjoy. It also cost a lot of money when I bought it and eats up a fair amount of RAM, even for a light selection of articulations. So be sure to shop around to ensure you make the best decision for your music, system, and your wallet. Many older libraries are available at reasonable prices, too. We also have a number of sample developers here at the forum who offer both commercial and freeware libraries.

Anyway, welcome!

(05-25-2018, 11:46 PM)Nayrb Wrote: [ -> ]One thing I often tell myself is that there is always new music for me to make, always a chance to try again or take a different approach.

Gotta tattoo this one to my forehead.

Welcome. Ask what you want to know, someone here will answer. As for career options, you may want to look into providing music for small video game or indie film productions or trailers maybe? Hang out with these people, upload some music. Obviously the better your music is, the more likely you'll make it into some project.

Having decided that this is what you want to do with your life will help. It is good to know that. It's quite possible you'll need a second job for money, of course. But always have clarity about what your aim is.

What exactly is the problem with transferring to DAW? MIDI issues?