This is a video demo of Microsia – an interactive sound game/tool which lets you dive into a plant cell to explore the sound of the microcosm.

Within the cell there are a multiplicity of cell particles which you can manipulate to generate music and visual effects. The particles’ interplay creates new audio-visual compositions again and again.

System Requirements: Windows XP/Vista, 1.8GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM (1GB for Vista users), 64 MB Graphics Card, DirectX-compatible sound card

A demo version of Microsia is available.

We’ve mentioned previously that Daft Punk was scoring the new Tron movie Tron: Legacy, due out in 2011. Here’s a preview of the look and sound of the film, from Comic-Con 2009.

This is unconfirmed info, but Daft Punk is rumored to have written 24 new songs for the film. The Comic-Con rumormill also has it that Daft Punk will be touring their TRON: LEGACY soundtrack. Director Joseph Kosinski was asked if Daft Punk would tour their soundtrack and he replied that there would “definitely be Daft Punk Tron-themed events on the horizon.”

Anybody ready for this, right now?

via davecobb

At Flynn’s Arcade at the viral event for TRON: LEGACY at Comic-Con 2009, a secret door opened up and led down a hallway to reveal a full-size model of the SPECTACULAR new lightcycle design.

Also notice the music in the background — possibly part of the new Daft Punk score?

Shot and uploaded live during the event using an iPhone 3GS.

And here’s the HD Tron: Legacy preview, too!

Click here to view the embedded video.

“I think his legacy is to have been amongst those who really revolutionised the modern soundtracks world,” said Jean Michel Jarre of his father. “The specificity of his work and his talent was to create such strong moods and melodies attached to movies forever. You can listen to three notes of the soundtrack of Lawrence Of Arabia or Dr Zhivago and it’s a very strong reminder of the whole movie.”

Jean-Michel explained why his father’s soundtracks were so different to those made today.

Jean Michel is currently working on his In-Doors World Arena Tour, and sees it as an opportunity to keep the memory of his father alive.

“I’m quite moved by starting this world tour and carrying and conveying and spreading his name all around the planet, in the next few days and weeks, so it’s kind of a continuity.”

The Lovely Bones is based on Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel about a murder victim watching friends and family from beyond the grave. The movie is expected to start Mark Wahlberg & Rachel Wiesz.

Eno’s last score was for the 2005 film The Jacket.

THX trailers have wowed movie going audiences for more than two decades. This video takes a look at some of the secrets of the sound design of THX trailers. 

Amazing Life explores the lives of photo-realistic organisms growing from a metallic surface. As the story unfolds, the organisms grow to cover the surface of the metal, with each one communicating through their own unique sound. These sounds build upon each other, becoming more harmonious, and eventually culminate into the THX Deep Note crescendo. A final panning shot reveals the metallic surface to be the THX logo covered by these vibrant, living, musical creatures.

Marco d’Ambrosio designed the more than 160 soundtracks, featuring “voices” of “Speaker Flowers,” “Helicopter Plants” and other unique organisms. The final mix was completed at Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Sound under the direction of d’Ambrosio and re-recording mixer, Gary Rizzo.

Speaking to BBC 6 Music on the Shaun Keaveny Breakfast Show, Palahniuk explained it all came from his love of the band’s music, saying:

“Clark Gregg, who directed the movie version of Choke which comes out on September 26 (in the US), he knew that I’d written Choke while listening to Radiohead’s Pablo Honey, with Creep, over and over and over,” said Palahniuk.”

“So Clark got Radiohead to contribute a song; to write a song for the very end of the movie, the final credits. Apparently Radiohead liked the movie so much, they’ve written the score, most of the ambient music throughout it,” adds Palahniuk.  “So it’s ‘Choke – with the music of Radiohead’.

Sounds like it should be a treat for Radiohead fans.

Update: false alarm

via ateaseweb

The opening and closing tracks are from a documentary about director Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant) titled Odyssey in Rome. Another track comes from a Spike Jonze skate video, titled Fully Flared, and Trouble In Paradise (Variation On A Theme) is from a television advertisement.

The 22 track album features contributions from Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Black Mountain, James Petralli (White Denim), Joel Cadbury (South), and James Griffith (from UNKLE’s touring band) among others.

Tracklist

• End Titles
• Cut Me Loose
• Ghosts
• Ghosts (Strings Reprise)
• Kaned and Able
• Blade in the Back
• Synthetic Water
• Chemical
• Nocturnal
• Cut Me Loose (Strings Reprise)
• Against the Grain
• Even Balance (Part Two)
• Trouble in Paradise (Variation on a Theme)
• Can’t Hurt
• 24 Frames
• In a Broken Dream
• Clouds
• Black Mass
• Open Up Your Eyes
• Romeo Void
• Heaven
• The Piano Echoes

via RA

Electronic Musician has released their latest podcast:

Film-and-TV composer Ramin Djawadi talks about his score for the hit movie Ironman, and comments on examples from it. He also discusses working in Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control complex, the differences between film and TV composing, and more.

What’s New: Len Sasso looks at Rob Papen’s Predator synth, two new versions of Native Instruments Guitar Rig, and Haunted House Records’ Electronic Critters, a sampling DVD of circuit-bent childtren’s toys.

You can preview the podcast below:

To subscribe to the podcast add this URL to your podcast client:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/EMPodcasts

“The introduction of Abaltat Express enables video editors working at any level to achieve a unique soundtrack that enhances their visual work,” said Siun Ni Raghallaigh, managing director at Abaltat. “With powerful, proven technology and an easy-to-use interface, Abaltat Express offers an affordable entry into the world of software-aided soundtrack composition without having to be a musician.”

Abaltat Express uses the audio engine and sounds native to a computer, allowing editors to maintain their completed compositions within the Abaltat program or export them to any software that supports the standard MIDI file format. The new software from Abaltat is an ideal tool for the users of Apple GarageBand, Apple Logic, or similar software, and importing compositions to any of these packages is simple. Editors can then render their composition to an audio file using the software instrument of their choosing.
The Albatat Express Workflow

The workflow for Abaltat Express is straightforward. The user simply drops a QuickTime® file of the edited video sequence into Abaltat Express, clicks “Compose,” and selects parameters for composition. The soundtrack is composed in a matter of seconds, and the arrangement can be refined through adjustment of keyframes on the timeline. Once the project is complete, it may be exported as an .aiff, .wav, or MIDI file.

Abaltat Express comes bundled with three free Abaltat Bands: Atmospheric One, R&B One, and Ensemble. Abaltat is also releasing a further four bands for use with both Abaltat Muse and Abaltat Express.

A plug-in for its video-driven soundtrack composer, Abaltat Muse, Abaltat Band allows the user to specify and combine the genre, instrumentation, and performance style of music composed by the Abaltat Muse software. The new bands will be previewed at IBC2007 in Amsterdam and are expected to be available in early Q4 2007.”Abaltat Band is designed to extend control and creative range for users of Abaltat Muse, and we developed each of our new virtual band plug-ins to provide a particular style and sound that complements video and film production,” said Siun Ni Raghallaigh, managing director at Abaltat. “Soundtrack composition should definitely be about more than canned music or music loops, and the combination of Abaltat Muse and Abaltat Band offers video editors a selection of richly textured composition styles that complement and enhance their work.”

The four new additions to Abaltat Band include Minimalist One, Minimalist Two, Dub Reggae, and Percussion One. These newly introduced bands join Abaltat Band’s existing talents: R&B One, which features basic guitar sounds in a 12-bar blues style; Ensemble One, a subtle combination of classical orchestral instruments; and Atmospheric One, a keyboards band modeled on the atmospheric sound created by synth combo. The entire Abaltat Band collection is also compatible with the new entry-level music composition software Abaltat Express.

Minimalist One is inspired by the minimalist composers and features a rhythmical, interweaving, slowly evolving composition on acoustic orchestral instruments. Minimalist Two is inspired by the music of minimalist composers such as Philip Glass and uses a sound canvas of electronica and synth pads to achieve a contemporary, dark, moody feel. Dub Reggae features the bass lines and percussion riff of Dub in the Caribbean, spiced up with guitar chord riffs and Hammond stabs. Percussion One is dedicated to rhythm and features drum patterns that evolve and follow the colour and intensity of the video.

Abaltat Beat reads and analyzes a cut picture’s edit decision list (EDL) using comparative analysis of beats-per-minute (BPM) and the edited rate of the picture to suggest a series of best-possible fits. This BPM can be played back in sync with the picture using a series of drum patterns included in Abaltat Beat. The time signature and tempo of the drum patterns can be adjusted (from 3/4 to 4/4, for example) to allow for a complete recalculation of the drum track to evaluate suitability of the music style to the edited video.

Abaltat Beat can export these results to a midi file, so the project can easily be sent to a musician for further composition work. It can also be sent as a QuickTime file with the audio in sync to the picture. Because the time is expressed in BPM, Abaltat Beat makes it possible to search music libraries for pieces using the desired BPM.

All BPM selections work with Abaltat Muse, a video-driven soundtrack composer.

“The highly imaginative technology behind Abaltat Muse allows video editors to actually create original compositions tailored to their specific picture sequences,” said Siun Ni Raghallaigh, managing director at Abaltat. “The software actually writes the music to the picture and provides the editor with tools for refining or updating tracks at any point. The resulting music has the aural quality of a recorded band and can be altered in real time to achieve just the right sound.”

Among the elements that help the video editor achieve the right sound are the preferred style of music, the elements in the picture, the instruments needed, and the time signature that works best with the edit. Once a best fit is achieved, the user has limitless options in adjusting the composition using factors such as melodic constraints, scale modulation, and audio mix. All these adjustments can be performed using keyframes in a timeline synced to the picture.

Abaltat Muse composes the music and plays it out using a sample player and virtual instruments. The software incorporates technology from experts in the audio industry, namely Native Instruments and Garritan Libraries. Consequently, the audio and instrument quality is extremely high. The audio can be exported as AIFF or WAV files. The composition can be exported as a MIDI file, should the editor require a composer to do additional work on his or her composition.

What makes Musicbed interesting, though, is that it isn’t a standard collection of stock music, but an application that lets you generate music based on stock themes and the requirements of the job at hand.

Tools within Musicbed let you adapt the stock music themes, giving you control over pitch and tempo. You can also control high-level aesthetic aspects of the music, like whether the music should be more melodic or more percussive, or whether it should be more electronic or more acoustic.

The software also lets you mold the music over time, so that you can build the music to a climax, create sharp transitions, and make the music more or less prominent as needed.

While Musicbed is designed to be easy to use by non-musicians, it also has some professional capabilities, like the ability to export music stems and surround sound support.

Getting Started

Installation is painless. Musicbed comes on one DVD that contains the Musicbed editing application and a library of stock music themes.

When you open Musicbed, you find a sensibly arranged screen (right).

The interface is broken down into three main areas:

• The top section has tools for importing video, exporting finished music and adding Markers.
• The middle section lets you browse and select Music Packages on the left side, and has controls for viewing the completed video on the right.
• The bottom section is a timeline that you can use to scroll to a specific place in the video or the soundtrack. This section is also used to add markers and to create transitions in the music.

To test out the program, we imported a short video. You do this using menus commands or the top icon bar:

Once you’ve imported a video, you can preview it on the right-hand side of the screen:

You can also use this section to adjust the relative volumes of music vs. audio from the film.

Next, you can browse through the Music Packages to select the style of music you want to use:

Music Packages are orchestrated themes. They aren’t stock chunks of music, though; they are malleable themes that you can shape, changing orchestration, tempo, pitch, density, etc.

Musicbed lets you browse by genres, or you can just select a Music Package. You can preview the music by selecting a Music Package and then clicking the play icon.

Once you find the Music Package you like, you can drag it into the timeline and stretch it to the correct length.

Customizing Your Soundtrack

What makes Musicbed interesting is the way it makes it easy to shape and adapt the music. Here are a few examples that demonstrate how the program makes it very easy to create custom soundtracks.

For the purposes of testing out the program, I created a soundtrack section with these (arbitrary) requirements:

• It needs to be thirty seconds long;
• It needs to start fairly laid back;
• After 10 seconds, it should transition to a more driving middle section;
• 25 seconds in, it should peak and then die out.

In order to do this, I selected a Music Package and dragged it to the timeline:

At top of the timeline, you can see markers set at the transition points. The bottom section shows the title of the Music Package, “Full Heart”, structural sections within the music, and a section where you can draw in automation.

I adjusted the music to be the correct length, and selected the structural sections (Intro, Section B & End) that I wanted to use.

Next, I drew in some automation to shape the music. The interface overlays all of your automation curves, with the active parameter highlighted with a bold line. The screen capture above shows the Smooth – Punchy parameter, but you can select any of the other parameters, like Synthetic – Organic or Sparse – Dense, and create automation curves for each.

Here’s an example of what Musicbed sounds like. (MP3)

A feature that will really come in handy for some people is that you can change the Music Package at any time, independent of your timeline and your automation curves.

Here are some variations that were created by changing the Music Package and making minor tweaks to the automation:

• Cyan Music Package – adjusted to be more organic
• Cyan Music Package – adjusted to be more synthetic
• Full Heart Music Package

Once you’ve got the music customized to meet your needs, you can export it as a stereo mix, as stems or as 5.1 surround sound. You can tweak surround settings such as the cutoff for the bass channel.

Summary

Synk Audio’s Musicbed DV is an easy-to-use Mac application that lets you manipulate musical themes to create custom soundtracks. You don’t need any musical knowledge to use the program, but there is a lot of power “under the hood”. Once you get familiar with the program, you can work very rapidly with it.

The program is very responsive. I tested it on an early Intel Mac mini, and was very impressed with Musicbed’s speed. The only times I had to wait on the program were when I imported video or exported the final music.

The Musicbed themes (Music Packages) provide enough variation to meet a variety of needs. I’d like to see inexpensive add-ons that focus on specific styles of music, such as jazzy/downtempo music or electronica. This would make the program more appealing to users and make it easier to get a Music Package that meets your needs.

I asked my contact at Musicbed about this, and she said that “third party music packages are not available right now, though we would very much like that to be the case and are working on strategies to make creating music packages attractive to third party content developers.”

Synk Audio has more Music Packages in the pipeline, but doesn’t have a release date yet.

It would be very interesting if Synk Audio opened up the Musicbed format and provided documentation for it. This would allow a Musicbed community to develop, which could dramatically expand the amount of content available for users to work with.

When I asked Synk about this possibility, they said that “Though we have not settled on a final strategy, in the future the music package format and/or content creation tools will be available for third parties.”

I’ll be interested to see how this develops. If Synk could open their platform and get others to build upon their foundation, Musicbed would be that much more useful as a tool.

Musicbed retails for $249. Synk has created a Musicbed DV screencast that does a great job of introducing the application. You can also download a demo of Musicbed from the Sync Audio site.

Features:

Music Browsing

• Browse by story genres (Action, Drama, Sports, etc.).
• Browse by story moods (Progress, Major Setback, Climax, etc.).
• Browse by music genres (Cinematic, Electronic, Pop, Rock, etc.).
• Browse by music moods (Aggressive, Positive, Melancholy, etc.).
• Browse by music styles (Background, Percussive, Dense, etc.).
• Browse by music texture (Intense, Spacious, Punchy, etc.).
• Browse by music tempo and pitch.
• Browse by factory and user presets (Ambience, Background, Full Mix, etc.).
• Real-time music previews while playing video or audio project.

Music Editing

• Adjust music style (Synthetic, Organic, Percussiveness, etc.).
• Adjust music texture (Intensity, Spaciousness, Smoothness, etc.).
• Adjust music with factory and user presets (Ambience, Background, Full Mix, etc.).
• Adjust pitch and tempo independently.
• Adjust duration without changing pitch and tempo.

Music Timeline

• Automatic generation of music clips for specified start, stop, and duration.
• Non-repetitive music generation without loops.
• Non-linear editing of music clip start, stop, and duration.
• Music clip theme/section editing and arrangement.
• Seamless and gap-less music theme/section transition editing.
• Overlay or overwrite multiple music clips in the timeline.
• Music clip package switching while retaining existing timing, transitions, and keyframes.

Music Keyframes

• Sculpt music style and texture over time with keyframe automation.
• Keyframe add, delete, and edit operations with easy-to-use dragging, button, and keyboard commands.
• Keyframe automation curve overlay display.
• Keyframe snapshots generate style and texture values over a time range. Useful for quickly controlling builds and punctuation.
• Intelligent keyframe generation feature creates style and texture variations at markers or time intervals. Useful for quickly generating evolving styles and textures.

Video

• Any file type supported by QuickTime.
• Project creation via QuickTime file drag and drop.
• Visual markers display video frame at marker location.
• Video timeline scrubbing.
• Video scrubbing during music clip add.
• 30 fps, 29.97 fps drop and non-drop, 25 fps.

Markers

• Visual markers display video frame at marker location.
• Synchronization of music clip start, end, and duration using markers.
• Precise positioning of keyframe time using markers.
• Import chapter and scoring markers from Quicktime, including those from Final Cut.

Export

• Export mixes as stereo audio files.
• Export instrument submixes as stereo audio files (Bass, Percussion, Instruments, etc.).
• Export 5.1 surround music as 6 mono audio files (L, R, Ls, Rs, C, LFE).
• Surround mixes for multiple usage scenarios (Immersive, Theatrical, etc.).
• Export tempo maps.
• AIFF and WAV file types.
• 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 96 kHz sample rates.
• 16 bit, 24 bit, 32 bit depths.

Miscellaneous

• Professional audio limiter eliminates digital overs.
• Factory presets for useful stock music styles.
• User music style preset creation.
• Custom location for music content on disk.
• Automatic and manual music detail preferences for optimal system performance.
• Automated cue sheet generation.
• Unlimited undo.
• Royalty-free license, use as many times as you like without incurring additional fees or costs.

YMO Reunion

The original members of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) were back together in Japan recently to celebrate the launch of the group’s first ever song being available for sale by download. Many obstacles have kept the group’s music off download sites for years, but they were recently able to record a new version of Rydeen, retitled Rydeen 79/07, available for sale in Japan from the commons/Avex label.

YMO teamed up with Kirin Beer to celebrate the occasion with the Kirin Lager meets YMO ad campaign. Since the site is in Japanese, we’ll save you a few hapless clicks by telling you to click on the yellow circle on the bottom right corner of the page.

Silk Soundtrack

Ryuichi Sakamoto is currently in production on the original motion picture score for director Francois Girard’s (The Red Violin), Silk. Based on a novel by Alessandro Baricco, Silk tells the story of a married silkworm merchant-turned-smuggler in 19th century France traveling to Japan for his town’s supply of silkworms after a disease wipes out their African supply. During his stay in Japan, he becomes obsessed with the concubine of a local baron. Starring Keira Knightley and Michael Pitt, Silk is currently slated for a fall, 2007 theatrical release.Radio Sakamoto Podcast

Highlights from Sakamoto’s J-Wave (Japan) radio show are now available around the globe via podcast. Generally airing six times a year, there are currently three episodes available for free download.

Radio Sakamoto podcast details
Additional information is available at the show’s J-Wave homepage (Japanes):

Ryuichi Sakamoto+Shiro Takatani Artists in Residence @ YCAM

Ryuichi Sakamoto+Shiro Takatani present the “LIFE – fluid, invisible, inaudible …” opening event with a special laptop concert on Saturday March 10th at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM) in Yamaguchi, Japan. The opening will be followed by a special artist talk with Sakamoto and Takatani on March 11th.

After the opening “LIFE – fluid, invisible, inaudible …” can be experienced daily at YCAM through Monday, May 28th (closed Tuesdays) from 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM.

Chain-music updated

Sakamoto’s chain-music project has just been updated with a contribution from agf. The piece can be heard in its entirety at http://sitesakamoto.com/chainmusic.

To date, 22 artists have made a contribution to chain-music: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, Towa Tei, Atom Heart, Ryoji Ikeda, Carsten Nicolai, David Sylvian, Mika (Pan Sonic), Thomas Knak, Cornelius, moOg Yamamoto, Christan Fennesz, Paul D. Miller (a/k/a DJ Spooky TSK), Daniel Bernard Roumain, Hector Zazou, mukul, Taylor Deupree, Christopher Willits, groopies, O.Lamm, sutekh, and more to follow!

Here’s Sakmoto’s official ‘notion’ for chain-music:

”In March, 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, I felt that I had to advocate peace over war, so I started this little web project. Even though the 100,000-plus Iraqi civilian and the 3,000-plus US military lives lost to date can’t be brought back, I want to keep this project alive and open until the war has ended, until peace comes to Iraq. The idea is to chain musical pieces from one artist to another, like a chain letter. The purpose is to musically mark the passage of time that Iraq is in a state of war, to mark the steps to peace, to take each day that there is war and build a musical memorial to the desire for peace as well as to mark off the time of war. So far 22 artists have contributed their musical pieces, adding on to the existing work vertically as well as horizontally, overlaying or extending the existing creation. There are no rules how to contribute musically, except that the contributor must not eliminate any of the existing music as he or she adds to it, because the existing music is the result of the artistic contribution of the other artists.”
-Ryuichi Sakamoto February, 2007

Babel

Babel recently won the THE ANTHONY ASQUITH AWARD for Achievement in Film Music at the 2007 Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAS) for the original score composed by Gustavo Santaolalla. In additional to Santaolalla’s score, Babel also prominently features several Sakamoto compositions, including Bibo no Aozora in the film’s closing scenes.

Musicbed DV is an easy-to-use Mac program for generating custom music soundtracks that match the mood and timing of video and audio projects. Users are offered a unique set of versatile controls for adjusting musical intensity, complexity, dynamics and more, all in real-time. Control curves may be used to add musical builds and punctuation that underscore and accent the emotional movement of projects. Music soundtracks of any duration may be generated without compromise and exported with a wide variety of options, including stereo and surround music. Designed for video and audio creators who may not have the time or desire to create professional music soundtracks from scratch, Musicbed DV is perfect for video and film projects, Podcasts, DVDs, or any project that calls for a music soundtrack.

Musicbed DV 1.6 is now bundled with new music packages in many genres and genre-mashups, more than doubling the available music content. The Musicbed DV Bundle includes the Seasons 1 and 2 customizable stock music libraries, adding thousands of music theme variations and an unlimited number of time-based variations using Musicbed DV’s unique music style and texture control curves. Combined with the new Music Package Swap feature, which allows the mood, genre and instrumentation of music in the timeline to be changed independent of timing and control curves, the creative possibilities for music soundtrack creation are vast.

This new version also contains a number of music generation enhancements, including Keyframe Snapshots for taking snapshots of music style and texture customizations, making it even easier to create and manage musical builds and punctuation. Keyframe Generation creates keyframes with varying values that hit markers or periodic time locations, which can be used for quickly generating musical textures that evolve over time. Music Clip Overlay/Overwrite is a new preference that lets the user specify whether adding music to the timeline overlays or overwrites existing music. Music in the timeline may freely overlap, allowing for seamless transitions between different music themes.

Musicbed DV 1.6 also contains new surround mix presets for various surround music usage scenarios. Narrative projects may benefit from the theatrically oriented surround mix preset while entertainment projects may be enhanced by the preset for an immersive surround music presentation. Music packages contain hundreds of non-linear audio tracks under-the- hood, all of which are mixed according to the desired preset for a true surround music mix.

Musicbed DV is a standalone Mac application with extensive import and export options for easy integration with Apple iMovie and GarageBand all the way up to Final Cut Studio and Logic.

Pricing and Availability

The Musicbed DV plus Seasons 1 and 2 Bundle is available now at an introductory price of $249.

A fully functional trial is available.

Theme libraries are self-contained music content packages that have been engineered exclusively for use within Cinescore software. Each Theme contains multiple variation presets that can be fine-tuned by adjusting settings like mood, intensity, tempo, and more. The result is an unlimited number of unique, royalty-free compositions that fit perfectly to the length of a video clip.

Pass the Ring includes musical expositions of love, emotion, and celebration, which in large part called for orchestral musical selections. NOTION Music was called on to deliver arrangements as well as final audio files of such classics as Mendelssohn’s Wedding March, Wagner’s Here Comes the Bride, and Pachelbel’s Canon.

“This project was a great creative opportunity for our team of score creators as well as a chance to push the envelope of our NOTION technology,” said David Oertel, Music Content Manager at NOTION Music. “The team was challenged to come up with many variations on standard wedding themes. While the Caribbean version of Here Comes the Bride or the country version of Canon didn’t make the final version, it really showcased the caliber of our content creators as well as the sound quality and flexibility of our NOTION software.”

Oertel’s team was able to deliver finished content utilizing only NOTION software and in-house sound libraries, which contain thousands of samples of the renowned London Symphony Orchestra recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studio. Once the arrangements had been finalized, the virtual orchestra was then mixed inside the software and “performed” with NOTION’s NTEMPO real-time playback feature. This feature allowed the team to “conduct” the software to capture an expressive performance with real-time tempo changes and holds. These performances were then captured as .WAV files for final delivery to Sony.

In his direction to composer Jeff Beal, Caron asked for a main title sequence that “sounded like death – cold and scary”. To achieve this effect, Beal used the short bow and non-vibrato bowings from the new Kirk Hunter Concert Strings library. “They had a great scary vibe to them,” said Beal.

When the producer heard the final recorded version sweetened with a 12-player string section, he decided on the original version featuring the Kirk Hunter Concert Strings. “He thought the “live” version sounded too old and less scary,” explained Beal.

Beal also said that the Kirk Hunter concert strings are of amazing quality and value: “The sounds have great ‘big movie’ size, with a lots of emotional variation, bite and warmth.”

“Kirk made sure the programming lends itself to working fast, which is always a necessity in my projects. The ‘load and go’ approach makes using these sounds very fun and intuitive. I also like to program my own patch variations – this is simple to do given the inclusion of every layer as a separate program in the files.”

More information on the Concert Strings in GigaStudio format is available at the Kirk Hunter site. A version in Kontakt format is expected to be available at the upcoming Namm 2005 Winter Show.