music for video

[alangeering]

OK,

the situation:
I've been asked to film a big party sometime soon so that the event management company can use the film to promote thier business.

Now:
This would mean recording people whilst dancing, which means there would be music.

THe issue:
It's going to be difficult to get a big name DJ to grant copyrighted privaledges for such a project (except at great cost).

The subsequent issue:
Silence is not an option when the people on the screen are obviously jumping to some beat.


Do I:

Persue the trying to get the DJs company to release material? (have any of you any experience as to how easy/hard this is)?

Use production music and use the dancing just as a slightly disconnected immage?

Make my own music and try to sync it to the dancers?

Do something else?



I would also be interested in hearing about other peoples normal way of going about music for video.

Do you get tracks from bands you like and clear them with the Copyright holders?
Do you use mainly production library stuff? Royalty free? Library liscensing?

Do you make your own music loops well enough that you can do that? What are your favourite tools?


I've got a few video projects stalled on this one issue of music. Some companies want many thousands of pounds, in the case of a big business this would be fine. One of my projects is for a charity in Mexico, and I'm self funding it to try and raise money for them, I can't afford to spend ???? on that one but stilll want it to sound reasonable!

Thanks,
Alan

[sondz]

i would just raid your CD collection for something similar to what was played on the night. Then just use a bit of clever editing to coverup to bodge job. you will easily get away with it, if you watch club scenes on TV (which we clearly shot in a studio with no music) you still have to relly concentrate hard to work out if its location sound or not.

As for copyright issues: i dunno, i'm a student and in my head i don't have to worrie about those sort of things! but i really need to get a grasp of the issues, where to go, how to pay, how to get clearnace etc.

xl

[solly]

HI
I would say to flim the people and sync it to any music you want. I am sure it doesnt have to be perfectly synched like a dj mix but you can either slow down the movie or the sound. Hopefully the movie is not too long so the synch doesnt get complicated, otherwise cut the movie in different parts with not leaving the tempo so that it looks like it follows the music you choose. If you lose a tempo, put an effect so that you meant it to not synch. etc. etc.
Solly
PS I use Vtrack

[JeSs]

Yeah Alan its really easy to sync music to dancers. And really hard to tell its been done (once done properly).
I'd compose my own music, you could do too or find a mate thats up for it. It also depends how much edits you got to put music to. If its only a few cuts here and there, you can just make a nice groovy beat and that will do.
The important thing is tempo. Just count. 4 beats. (I guess the music will be 4/4 - 4 beats to a mesure). So scrub the video slowly from the start of a mouvement, and count the dancer doing that full mouvement 4 times (as if you were making a video loop). Then check the lengh of that loop. Divide by four, you got the time for ONE beat. Divide 60s by that number and you got the BPM !
egg : loop = 2s
/4= 0.5s by beat.
60 / 0.5 = 120 BPM !!

Tools :
I use reason but you should also check out Fruityloops. Both these softwares are very good to create music from scratch.

[alangeering]

guys, thanks for the posts on creation of music.

I play trumpet and tuba but have never really composed anything before. How difficult is this loop composition of which you speak and is the quality suitable for a commercial product?

Alan

[sleepytom]

loop based music production is stupidly simple (providing you want to make pretty generic 4/4 dance music)

however composition / production is a skill in its own right and not something you can learn overnight (although your proper music experiance gives you a massive head start) - all in all i recomend that you try and hook up with someone that is making some music allready - chances are that they will be happy to help you out and may well have some finnished tracks that you can just use.

[alangeering]

If it were a classical score I needed I'd be sorted. I live with a violin player, a 'cello player and a pianist, all of whom have done some composition work. One of the housemates also works typesetting new music for festivals, so I've got some skilled people around...

...but none of them have done anything non-classical as far as I'm aware.

If I were to go down the loops road, what software is recomended beyond that allready suggested (fruityloops)?

[many2]

For classical musicians pretty much any kind of music is easy to understand and I suppose, to imitate. Classical music is much more complex than most of the music we are listening to today IMHO.

[alangeering]

OK I'll run it past Matt and see what he thinks... I konw he did some odd compositions on ScreamTracker when he was younger (and we were using archemedes and 386s).

What happened to those Trackers? They were pretty nifty in the filesize to quality stakes.

Alan

[sleepytom]

try acid it's great (the software from sonicfoundry is pretty decent too!)

also reason is good

[myogenic]

toms suggestions are good :)


acid is especially good if you know how to use vegas video, as its basicly the same prog but for audio only.

I'd also recommend soundforge for audio editing.

[sleepytom]

also you can buy loop cds with copywrite free loops in wav format - they come in a vast range of styles so just get one for the genra of music you need - stick the samples into acid and arange your composition - if you prefer more of a realtime jamming aproach use abelton live - you can jam away whilst recording your actions for editing in nonrealtime later

reason is more like a virtual studio with drum machines and synths and stuff - its good for making your own original loops and works very well with a midi keyboard (if you can play the piano a bit)

its good fun :)

[dongbamage]

Fruityloops is pretty cool for this type of thing...

WHat kinda tune? I may have some stuff you could use, but it'll cost you something (not neccesarily cash)...

If you're interested pm me

dongbamage

[BrainStove]

If you still have those 386s handy, you & your pals love Trackers and they are more experimented with Classical Music using standard MIDI gear... then I?d say some of my ancient musical weapons could be useful to you too. :)

My long time Freeware Jewel ModPlug Tracker (http://www.modplug.com/modplug/tracker.php3?session=)
Used to be a real quarry of cheap & excellent golden minerals (http://www.maz-sound.com/main.php?show=product)
Just a very good personal choice (http://www.makingwavesaudio.com/makingwavesaudio_studio.html)

You know, exactly like old beggars & broke students like it. :love: