Music, Music, Music (page 2)

SmartSound markets several products that let you create perfectly-timed compositions in a variety of musical arrangements. In its simplest form, the procedure involves selecting a track, choosing a style from a list, and entering the required length. With that done, a mouse click generates a version customized to your program.

It's a real composition too, not just a hunk of underscoring. That's because each composition is supplied with a beginning, middle and end. The sneaky part is in the middle section, which can be cut anywhere at one-second intervals and seamlessly joined to the engine and caboose. The pieces are so cleverly composed that they sound perfect, regardless of length. The music is about the same quality as buyout music and some SmartSound tracks are actually derived from the Music Bakery's buyout library.

Admittedly, video sections don't usually end in even seconds (with a time code address like 00:03:21:00). However, if you want to time music to the frame, simply use rolling edits to adjust some shots by a few undetectable frames each until you come out in sync with the music ending with the last shot.

SmartSound programs come in three flavors. Movie Maestro ($50) includes the basic functions and allows royalty-free use in non-commercial and educational applications. You can add to the compositions supplied by buying SmartSound CDs and then selecting the styles suitable for the programs you produce.

Quicktracks (bundled with Adobe Premiere Pro) adds several useful features and grants you full commercial rights. SonicFire Pro, the flagship product ($300-$500), also carries full commercial rights and adds a score of features. You can preview and download SonicFire originals, work with any sound file, including MIDI and audio CD tracks and control composition and editing with great precision and finesse. The results are so good that many small production houses rely on SonicFire exclusively.

If you want to customize music even more completely, loop-based composition may be for you. The basic idea is simple: compose original music yourself by manipulating repeating segments of music (called "loops" because their analog ancestors were lengths of recording tape with head and tail spliced together to make a circle that could be replayed endlessly). ACID from Sony (purchased from Sonic Foundry) is the oldest and most popular software suite for loop-based composition, but there are several other products as well, such as Fruity Loops, Adobe Audition or Bitheadz.

Working horizontally (on a timeline), you pick a starting track, often some sort of rhythm instrument, and lay down one or more sequences of repeated loops. Then you lay down a second layer on the next track on the timeline, perhaps a bass line. You continue this process with additional layers and instruments until you've achieved the desired effect.

This sounds crude until you recall that loop-based software can access literally tens of thousands of different loops, performed by professional musicians on real instruments (as opposed to synthesized equivalents). Selected, combined and enhanced with ingenuity, these components will yield music that sounds sophisticated and completely original.

The good and bad news about loop composition is the same: it involves creating actual melodies and arrangements. If you have musical talent and at least some experience, you can achieve results that are remarkably fine and personally gratifying. On the other hand, if you compose just by randomly noodling around, you may never get satisfactory results.

Talented or not, you'll spend a good chunk of time on each piece. Imagine building a 30-second, multi-layer video montage, manipulating tempo and color, adding effects and compositing 3D moving titles. Creating a sophisticated loop-based composition can be similarly time-consuming.

As we promised, each type of music has its place. If a specific piece of music is important, it may be worth renting the rights to it. If you specialize in a certain genre of video, a good library of buyout music may be the fastest way to achieve a professional sound. If you produce a variety of styles of programs, then customizable tracks from SmartSound offer great versatility and lightning speed. If you have the time and the talent, nothing is more creatively satisfying than layering up loop-based music.

Well actually, one thing is more satisfying. But if you could compose, arrange, perform and record your own original music, you wouldn't need these other solutions anyway.

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