Orchestral Scoring in Studio One 2, Part 5. Video!
June 26,2012
Part V: Video!
I’d like to talk a little bit about writing music for video in Studio One. I had to do a multimedia project at my university as an exam, so I made a short trailer-type video by using trailer from Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” video game, and I decided to score my own music for it using my orchestral template.
The process is pretty simple actually. All you need to do is import a video file in Studio One Video Player and it will automatically play whenever you click Play on the transport controls. (Studio One doesn’t have video tracks, by the way.) If you want to add marker positions for your video, you have to scroll through the video and place markers on the marker track when the appropriate scene shows in your video. I like to keep my transport bar count set to bars instead of frames, because when I am writing music for video I need to sync my music to it and still follow the proper musical beat.
I always take a look at the video cue a couple of times and think about what kind of music I am going to write for it. Then I start placing markers and name them to describe the scene that the video player is about to show.
- Video Scoring
Placing markers is pretty much the same as in other DAWs. Find the place where you need to put marker, and click the “+” button on the left of the marker track, and you will see the marker tagged with a number on the marker track.You can rename the marker by double-clicking on it and typing in a name in the pop-up window.
Sometimes the time signature doesn’t fit the video, and you want the important scenes to change in a musically relevant manner, by following the time signature. Place a marker on that scene and right click above it and choose “set time signature.” The pop-up window will show and you can input your desired time signature. This is useful when syncing music to change right with the scene. For example: if your time signature is set to 4/4 and the scene is not changing exactly on the metronome’s beat, you will need to add or remove a couple of beats to perfect the timing. Here’s how the finished marker track looks after adding markers and time signature changes to the video:
- Marker Track
Once you’ve done that, you are ready for some serious professional scoring.
I had a lot of fun with this project, and I am definitely seeing myself using PreSonus Studio One as my main DAW of choice from now on. Need I say that I’ve un-installed my other DAW I was using all these years? The guys from PreSonus are doing a great job with this and with some patches and new versions, StudioOne has a bright future in becoming the industry’s top DAW out there.
And feel free to visit my Youtube Channel. You can also listen to some of my tracks at Reverbnation and visit me on IMDb.
[Update! For your convenience, here's the rest of the blogs in this series:
- Part One: Intro and DAW setup
- Part Two: Panning and placement of instruments
- Part Three: EQ
- Part Four: Reverb
- Part Five: Video
Category Studio One | 9 Comments »
Posted by Bellsauce
[editor's note: this e-mail comes to us from Mike at Red13 PA in the UK.]
Hi guys!
Here’s a couple of StudioLive 24.4.2 ” in the wild” pictures I thought you might like to see. Red 13 PA (named after a Journey EP) is based here in the UK. This pic is of our rig at a festival for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee last weekend. At the end of the night we had around 1000 people going nuts in the marquee!
We engineered for 8 bands that day. Headliners were The Great Pretender, a Queen tribute act, and before that was New 2 (a U2 tribute), both are highly regarded over here. The marquee reputedly holds 1000 and it was packed later in the day. We’ve had very complimentary feedback from all the bands involved and the organisers, especially regarding the sound quality on stage… and FOH as well. One of the organisers has put his review on Facebook.
Category StudioLive 24.4.2 | 5 Comments »
Posted by Bellsauce
Attack of the Rev. 2!
June 22,2012
Last autumn, PreSonus released V2 updates of our popular TubePre and BlueTube DP microphone/instrument preamps. With preamps so beloved, our intention wasn’t to completely re-create either of these products, but rather to refresh them and bring them more in-line with our current offerings.
PreSonus BlueTube V2
By now, most of our loyal customers are very familiar with our popular XMAX preamp design. This circuit is employed on nearly every current interface product and, of course, our award-winning StudioLive-series of digital mixers. A little known fact is that both the TubePre and BlueTube DP preamps use early versions of what would eventually become the XMAX microphone preamp. Over time, this circuit has been tweaked and perfected into the XMAX mic pre our customers know and love. The biggest change to both V2 models was to update their preamp circuits to the current XMAX design.
Because of the updated preamp design, both V2 models feature new extended Gain Ranges: -15dB to 85dB (Mic) / -30dB to 50dB (Inst) as compared to 0dB to 60dB on the older models. Another consequence of changing to the current XMAX preamp design is increased headroom.
PreSonus TubePre V2
The original TubePre featured a -20dB pad; however the XMAX design we use today offers so much headroom that attenuation pads are simply not necessary. With the TubePre V2, the pad was removed and an input select switch was added. This allows the user to leave both their microphone and instrument connected at the same time, making it an even more convenient tool for home recording enthusiast and professionals alike.
It should be mentioned that the version of the circuit in the BlueTube DP is closer to the current XMAX design in this regard. This is why the BlueTube DP had no attenuation pad to remove.
Other changes in the V2 models are as follows:
- Both V2 Models also feature a new VU Meter design that is more brightly lit than either V1 model.
- Both V2 models feature a new industrial design that adheres more closely to our current products.
- Both V2 models were given a new lower profile power supply to free up valuable surge protector real estate.
- The orientation of the BlueTube DP’s Tube Drive and Gain controls was changed to match the Tube Pre (Tube Drive on the left, Gain on the right) for consistency and ease of use for those customers who purchase both products.
We hope you all enjoy employing these products as much as we enjoyed engineering them! Please feel welcome and encouraged to share your recordings featuring these products on our Facebook wall.
Category TubePre V2 | 2 Comments »
Posted by Queen of All Things Technical
Hi Ryan!
Neil
Category Studio One | 0 Comments »
Posted by Bellsauce
We didn’t choose the name “StudioLive” arbitrarily. The whole point is that the idea of mutual exclusivity between “studio” and “live” environs is becoming something of an anacronism. This is a paradigm shift which we endorse wholeheartedly.
Case, meet point. This is CRUSH, performing “Faithfully,” recorded live in a modest practice space. But it doesn’t sound live, it sounds like a studio sesh. Get it? We’re impressed, and you think you will be too.
Note that any similarity between “Faithfully” and the music linked below is likely unintended—but pretty hilarious.
Category StudioLive 16.4.2 | 1 Comment »
Posted by Bellsauce
Nobumasa Yamada, Love Psychedelico, and PreSonus
June 19,2012
Check out this great story from MI7 Japan!
“In live concerts, there are improvisational aspects that cannot be captured in studio recordings. We had a chance to speak with Nobumasa Yamada, known for his works with Love Psychedelico, about his passion in recording these live concerts and his techniques using PreSonus mobile recording gear. Mr. Yamada shared how he built his system, the actual set-up and some techniques, based on the recording of Kemono held in Ogikubo Velvet Sun.”
Read the full article here.
Category FireStudio Project | 0 Comments »
Posted by Bellsauce
Orchestral Scoring in Studio One 2, Part 4. Reverb!
June 18,2012
PART 4: Reverb!
Now, the most difficult and most-discussed theme on orchestral composition forums is applying reverbs. This is the most important part of the orchestral mixing process as far as I’m concerned. I’ve watched and listened to loads of tutorials and lectures on reverbs for orchestra—which one is better? Why?. There is a lot of controversy on impulse response reverbs vs. algorythmic reverbs. Whatever you pick, the most important thing is that it sounds good to you. My main reverb is Altiverb and sometimes I use Lexicon PCM Native. Here’s how I apply them to my orchestra sections:
Every section has its own reverb that processes it. I like to use Altiverb’s IRs of stages like Todd-AO or FOX Scoring Stage. I like the fact that it has three different mic positions that were used to capture the impulse responses, so I can use them on individual close-miked sections of the orchestra. There are three IR patches of wide mic setups that I use. The closest one is for strings, the middle one is for brass and woodwinds, and the farthest one is for percussion and choir. I apply very little reverb on close mic sections just to give them air, and I apply more of it to stage mic sections to give them room.
- Close Reverb
Here’s an example of proper reverb settings using Lexicon PCM Native:
I use two instances of Lexicon. The first one is for close mic setup with a very small pre-delay and short reverb time. I use only 50% of the mix.
- Lexicon Close
The second instance emulates stage and far-miked setups, which requires a sizeable pre-delay and long reverb time. Its mix is set to 100%.
- Lexicon Far
If I have a solo vocalist in my session, I usually use any vocal plate preset for it.
This covers the reverb for the orchestra. Next up we’ll look at using the Studio One Video Player for scoring.
[Update! For your convenience, here's the rest of the blogs in this series:
- Part One: Intro and DAW setup
- Part Two: Panning and placement of instruments
- Part Three: EQ
- Part Four: Reverb
- Part Five: Video
Category Studio One | 6 Comments »
Posted by Bellsauce
Category StudioLive 24.4.2 | 4 Comments »
Posted by Bellsauce
More from InfoComm
June 15,2012
Category Uncategorized | 0 Comments »
Posted by Bellsauce
InfoComm 2012 is Almost in Full Swing…
June 13,2012
Check it out, I got some shots from the team at InfoComm 2012 in Las Vegas. From the looks of things Kevin, Brad, Rick, Paul, Justin, John, and more are all setting things up during the work day—and tearin’ things up at night.
But hey, it’s Vegas, right? And in this day and age, what happens in Vegas stays in ̶V̶e̶g̶a̶s̶ on blogs, Facebook, and perhaps worst of all, YouTube.
More coming soon, including a full day of Webcasts live from the show. That’s tomorrow, in fact.
