The Recent Evolution of Film Music - Part 2
In the last part of this article, I was explaining how I think that the change in the way how film music is being created has influenced the music itself.
The fac...
2020-11-20 08:50:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Robin Hoffmann posts
Orchestral Voicings Part 16: Dynamic Envelopes
A big factor that helps us to recognize instrumental colours is in fact not only the mixture of the harmonics of the sustaining sound but at least to an equal part its dynamic envelope, particularly the attack of the sound. As attack time, we usua...
2020-11-18 08:49:23 +0000 UTC View PostGazing at the Night Sky - Composition Walkthrough Pt.7 - Bars 76 - 87
Welcome to the final part of the composition walkthrough for GAZING AT THE NIGHT SKY. Today, we focus on the last section with the sentimental string ending.
As usual, Score, Audio and Midi attached at the bottom of the post.
The previ...
2020-11-16 09:07:17 +0000 UTC View PostWhy Do Brass Instruments Sound Like That?
One of the many nerdy obsessions that I have with music is to not only understand how instruments sound but also why they sound the way they do. I'm fascinated by the reasons why certain instruments are constructed or shaped the way they are and w...
2020-11-13 08:39:36 +0000 UTC View PostA Media Composer's Moral Responsibilities
The art of writing music for a visual medium and the obvious emotional influence that music can have on the audience has always been subject to exploitation in morally problematic ways.
Since the beginning of film more than 100 years a...
2020-11-11 08:26:13 +0000 UTC View PostHero - Short Film Score - Walkthrough Pt.10 - M3 (Part 1)
Welcome to the next part of this composition walkthrough. The previous parts of this series are available here.
In this part we will co...
2020-11-09 08:47:07 +0000 UTC View PostToo Many Themes
The concept of associating a theme with a character in a movie is probably one of the strongest and also most well known properties of film music. In fact, this scoring approach has become so well known that it almost feels like the default for fi...
2020-11-06 08:55:17 +0000 UTC View PostNotation and Engraving for Scoring Sessions - Part 2 - Score Sheet
As I wrote in my last post in this series, when notating for scoring sessions, the highest priority should be to be as easily readable for the musicians. Over time nota...
2020-11-04 08:42:15 +0000 UTC View PostA Father's Job - M10 (Anna) - Multitrack/Score/MIDI + Basic Mix Tutorial
I got a few messages from some of you guys who said that they often are overwhelmed by the Multitrack Sessions that I make available here not really knowing what to do with these many tracks. And I can totally understand that opening up such a lar...
2020-11-02 09:05:53 +0000 UTC View PostOctober 2020 Wrap-Up
Another month is coming to an end and I'd like to give you a little informal update about what is going on with this Patreon site.
Unfortunately, Europe is currently seeing a large second wave of Corona which causes many things to become inc...
2020-10-31 14:35:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe Recent Evolution of Film Music - Part 1
Every few weeks, on any of the online communities for media composers there pops up a discussion that essentially boils down to "John Williams vs. Hans Zimmer" with both sides argueing for the approach, craftmanship and execution of musical ideas ...
2020-10-30 08:33:07 +0000 UTC View PostA Father's Job - OST - Score Sheet and Audio Download (+ Bonus Track)
A few days ago, my score for A FATHER'S JOB was released on all streaming platforms. Spotify was so nice to put it into their Editorial Playlist "Classical New Releases" so it's currently getting a lot of plays which is great.
Exclusively fo...
2020-10-28 08:51:53 +0000 UTC View PostGazing at the Night Sky - Composition Walkthrough Pt.6 - Bars 68 - 76
Today, we're going to have a deeper look at the Brass Chorale part in GAZING AT THE NIGHT SKY.
As usual, Score, Audio and Midi attached at the bottom of the post.
The previous parts of this composition walkthrough are available 2020-10-26 08:56:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Podcast about Filmmusic, Film and HERO
I spent my Saturday afternoon nerding out with Nate and Drew Garcia about film, filmmusic and the movie HERO we did together in 2017. It was a lot of fun and became quite philosphical at times.
2020-10-25 16:06:55 +0000 UTC View PostThe Side Effects of Teaching Music
If you are relatively new here, you will probably not know that I have a quite long history of teaching music online. For many years I have been giving private lessons over Skype to students from all around the world and have written a "Daily Film...
2020-10-23 07:48:41 +0000 UTC View PostOrchestral Voicings Part 15: Registral Homogenity
One of the biggest problems that I see quite a lot with learning composers and orchestrators is the lack of registral control in voicings. This whole subject touches heavily on orchestration already and requires a deep understanding of the propert...
2020-10-21 07:43:09 +0000 UTC View PostHero - Short Film Score - Walkthrough Pt.9 - M2 (Part 3)
Welcome to the next part of this composition walkthrough. The previous parts of this series are available here.
In this part we will co...
2020-10-19 07:53:10 +0000 UTC View PostA Father's Job - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Early Access
As I mentioned already a few weeks ago, I recored a score for a short film in July with a very specific line-up and seating.
This score will release on all stre...
Scoring Session 101 - Part 5: Recording 1
After all preparations for a successful scoring session are done and everything is set, it is time to record.
All other parts of this ongoing series is available 2020-10-16 08:25:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Notation and Engraving for Scoring Sessions - Part 1 - Introduction
Welcome to this brand new tutorial series! In this multi part tutorial, I will focus on the notation side of things and while this might not be of interest for a few of you (who see their work in virtual orchestration only), it might still be wort...
2020-10-14 07:59:20 +0000 UTC View PostPastry Party - Feed the Puppies - Multitrack and MIDI Download
It's time for another entire multitrack session from a orchestral recording. We're continueing with the score from Pastry Party that I recorded in 2015 in Prague.
Communication and Organisation Schedule
Being self employed or freelance very often means to be a one man show in every regard, Only very few composers can or want to afford having one or more permanent assistant(s) and even if you can, certain "non-composing tasks" will always land on ...
2020-10-09 07:51:49 +0000 UTC View PostA Father's Job - Short Film Score - Concept and Main Theme
In July and August, I had the pleasure to write the score for the very ambitioned short film "A Father's Job" which we were lucky enough to record in Prague in a phase of relative low Corona cases.
Here's the trailer for the movie:
Gazing at the Night Sky - Composition Walkthrough Pt.5 - Bars 50 - 69
After the more low energy B section, we return back to the A theme of the piece, effectively following a quite common ABA structure for the first half of the piece.
You can read the other parts of this walkthrough 2020-10-05 08:24:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Scoring Session 101 - Part 4: The Booth
After having a look at click tracks and session preparations in the previous parts of this series, it is time to finally g...
2020-10-02 08:18:59 +0000 UTC View PostDiminished Chords
In a post a while ago, I spoke about symmetric scales which have specific properties that cause them to behave quite differently to "regular" diatonic ...
2020-10-01 09:02:40 +0000 UTC View PostSeptember 2020 Wrap-Up
With September coming to an end, it is once again time to do a wrap-up of the last few weeks and the coming weeks and months.
As you hopefully have noticed, I announced the first 2020-09-30 08:00:49 +0000 UTC View Post
Orchestral Discovery Session - Requirement Reminder
Just as a little service post, if you want to be eligible to apply for the first ORCHESTRA DISCOVERY SESSION to be held in the first half of 2021, you sho...
2020-09-28 16:04:29 +0000 UTC View PostHero - Short Film Score - Walkthrough Pt.8 - M2 (Part 2)
As discussed in the last part of this series about my score for the short film HERO, this cue generally has a more light hearted a...
2020-09-28 07:57:59 +0000 UTC View PostWorking Backwards
When writing music, in certain situations it might be benefitial to work your way through it backwards rather than forward. What I mean by that is that it is generally easier to set yourself a musical target, like a key signature or a climax chord...
2020-09-25 08:03:55 +0000 UTC View Post