Machinima for Dummies: Music Generators

Music Generators

Hugh "Nomad" Hancock — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:43:00 +0100

A quick tip: If you’re creating a Machinima piece and you’re not a good enough musician to compose your own work, you should definitely check out music generation programs like Sony’s Acid or Apple’s Garageband.

In many ways, programs like this offer a very “Machinima” approach to music creation - using pre-recorded loops, you can build up a surprisingly sophisticated and varied selection of instrumental music, very quickly.

I’ve been using them on Kamikaze Cookery to great effect - this trailer’s music took about an hour, for example. It’s not the same quality as getting an original score written specifically for your piece, but it’ll build and hold a mood, and that’s often what you need.

I don’t know too much about the differences between the packages. I must admit, I’ve found Garageband a bit wanting for more classical music, but it’s great for rock stuff.

Anyone used these packages on their Machinima? If so, what did you think?

"Music Generators" by Blackace

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:07 +0100

Production music can sometimes be better. There are huge libraries and the cost is not that great. For example, one of the main companies “Extreme Music” do make special deals for machinima artists, getting to use the stuff at a fraction of the price of normal production companies (forget the book price, phone and talk to them).

No good for cooking, but if you really want fantastic copyright clean music for am film its the best way to go in my opinion.

"Music Generators" by Hugh "Nomad" Hancock

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:42:54 +0100

Yeah, I loved the Ignis Solus stuff.

Quite a lot of Strange Company stuff has custom music too (notably Eschaton, which was entirely custom-scored, Ozymandias, and large chunks of BloodSpell, scored by Phil Rice), but for Machinima creators without those sorts of resources, it can be a hurdle.

(Obviously, as usual, we’d recommend contacting musicians via the internet or in your local area, but sometimes you don’t want to do that for a variety of reasons).

For KKCook, we’ve been using generated music as spot pieces when we need to, and it means that I can add in a piece even 24 hours before release - which is really handy.

"Music Generators" by Robear Stoneman

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:18:49 +0100

We’ve been using custom music for 2 years in our Machinimas so it’s not really new! Lit Fuse Film’s ‘Ignis Solus’ by Zach is one of the many Machinima’s that we’re proud to have used custom music and which its widely known for, with the awesome talent of our very own dedicated composer Lars Erik Fjøsne! Swwweeet