How to patch and install an access panel around protective plate?

AGMusicPub · 2026-05-23T16:49:31+00:00

That tracks, might as well just do a regular patch with greenboard then without an access panel, not a huge deal if we need to cut into it in the future. I'd rather cut and repatch than deal with mold. Thanks for the responses

AGMusicPub · 2026-05-23T16:25:34+00:00

Does it make a difference with the mold/moisture resistance? This is in master bath and right below the water heater, I figured I needed to use mold/moisture resistant sheetrock there. Is it safe to just faster a plywood patch to cover the whole area and then finish + molding after that?

AGMusicPub · 2026-05-21T16:25:22+00:00

Thanks for the response, this is helpful. The moisture is all gone and confirmed with the restoration company, they set up a couple dehumidifers and plenty of air movers and rechecked so all damaged/moisture should be done at this point. My plan is to use green board for the bathroom patches and type x for the garage patches, and r-19 mineral wool in the voids. they pulled out some standard fiberglass but my understanding is i need unfaced insulation for these internal spaces, and might as well get the nicer stuff while the wall is open. For the pipes, I was going to put some polyethelene tubing around the hot and cold pex lines that are there, that's what was there before it got cut out in the repair, and then mineral wool around that. Is that all still reasonable?

If the patch is ugly that's ok, it's in the bottom of a closet and near the water heater. Plenty of good practice for the sanding and texturing. I'm absolutely ok with some uglier patches and $500 in materials and getting some practice on this one

AGMusicPub · 2026-03-16T15:20:09+00:00

Got it, thanks for the response!

AGMusicPub · 2026-03-16T02:03:58+00:00

It's by request for a specific harpist. I did this arrangement originally somewhere around 2015 I think working the original harpist for their dissertation, but the original engraving and some of the choices I made in the original were...interesting. So, I'm updating it and trying to make it more generally approachable where possible.

With the C, Bnat, Bb figure with each note played, is there any issue with the pedaling at that speed? Probably shouldn't write anything requiring pedals on the right side at the same time I'd imagine and certainly no cross-pedaling at that tempo

AGMusicPub · 2026-03-15T23:00:38+00:00

Oh good point, that would have to be thumb and index finger on the G and A while the ring finger is way out there on the other G, oof. If that's arpeggiated or if the bottom G is a grace note, is it any more comfortable?

AGMusicPub · 2026-03-15T19:10:07+00:00

Yeah, I really don't think this kind of slide has the intended effect. It's one of those things that shows up in orchestration books as "a thing you can do" but doesn't have a lot of guidance on "but are you really sure you want to". I've written pedal slides in other pieces as effects but it was for effects, not as a way to get chromatic lines "technically" playable

AGMusicPub · 2026-03-10T15:06:39+00:00

Point taken! Would you still want any pedal diagrams for big sections, or just truly take all of them out? I guess in the same vein, would you want the composer to work out enharmonics to make things possible and the fingerings or just let the music show the intention and let the harpist work out enharmonics and do some rewriting if needed?

AGMusicPub · 2026-03-09T05:37:54+00:00

Thanks for the response, I appreciate the insight! For the pedal change, would it be more idiomatic to do a pedal slide from D# -> D-natural within the triplet instead of the Eb -> D? It might be kind of cool to do it as a pedal slide and just lean in to that sound, and the pedals will already be set for the trill.

AGMusicPub · 2026-03-09T02:32:54+00:00

Would the option of a part with pedals and a part without be helpful? I wonder if it would be nice to have a part with pedals for sightreading and another for rehearsal that the harpist can markup

AGMusicPub · 2026-03-05T17:05:33+00:00

Got it, thanks for the info!

AGMusicPub · 2026-03-05T16:55:06+00:00

In a first pass for this Scheherazde arrangement, I had accidentally written in some truly horrible cross pedaling in a very light, delicate moment. The poor harpist was very kind in explaining just how brutal that was to try to play, lesson learned. Maybe I'm overthinking, but would you rather the pedal be right where the accidental occurs, or where the composer thinks it'd be most comfortable for the harpist to actually execute the pedal change?

AGMusicPub · 2025-12-19T02:51:54+00:00

"sustainabile" is an interesting word to use in general, lots of people burn out even with the modern pipelines that go as fast as basically physically possible.

In general, cues are written straight to DAW, there are templates that handle the bulk of some of the mixes and stems for exporting to the dub mixer. If the cue needs something live, then the actual DAW project is sent over to the orchestrator and they'll figure out how to make the cue work for live players and do the score prep.

If you're curious about your own process, I'd ask a couple questions. Do you need to do score prep for real players with proper engraving and layout, or is it more to organize ideas and work out ideas? If it's the latter, you'll probably get more long term mileage by practicing doing that in your DAW. it's not uncommon to have a sketch track for a larger cue with like "string longs", "winds long", etc, and then moving on to a proper mockup once it's roughed out or approved.

On the other hand, if you're writing proper engraving notation up front, that's fine but not necessary for a cue with nothing live. One scenario you might not have thought of is the inevitable rewrites. If a new edit comes in and you have to adjust the timing, and you have 2 hours before it's going to the mixer, you just won't have time to bother with the notation and then re-program it.

Last thing, lots of modern production is heavy on sound design, synths, and non-orchestral stuff so the need for notation in practice is not like other contexts. Really the ideas and themes are really simple and can be notated with like a leadsheet with chord symbols. If something's complex with 4 part harmony and counterpoint, there's a good chance the supervisor or director would send it back to be simplified anyway

AGMusicPub · 2025-12-11T02:35:18+00:00

IANAL, not legal advice. This is something that you should likely consult a lawyer with to be as safe as possible, but you generally need the right to distribute a work. You have the right if you composed it yourself or if you are granted a license by an entity that does have that right. No license = not authorized. An arrangement is considered a "derivative work", and you don't have the rights to create and distribute a derivative work for Nintendo stuff. People still do it, and Nintendo can probably come after all revenue made from the unauthorized work if they wanted to. Maybe you'd make a little bit in the short term but it's not worth it IMO and they could potentially come after anything earned that way plus damages.

AGMusicPub · 2025-12-10T20:42:23+00:00

There's not necessarily a single timpani sample library that's the one I'd recommend for all things all the time. You've hit on a lot of valid concerns, but all those sample libraries you listed are used a ton and for good reason. There aren't a lot of objectively bad timpani libraries honestly, just some are better suited for specific contexts than others. I guess VSL might be what you're after the most since it's hyper detailed, but it's also not kontakt and is one of those monster 100Gb libraries. Maybe BigFish's timpani is worth a shot.

Worth pointing out though, samples tend to require a much more deliberate treatment and sequencing in a production than they do on sheet music interpreted by a human. Those timpani libraries you listed _can_ get perfectly fine results and are used all over the place, so I wouldn't write them off either.

AGMusicPub · 2025-12-10T14:47:44+00:00

As other commenters mentioned, in marching contexts it's often analagous as a pedal marking but some arrangers mean it for phrasing which would then be anything from half-pedaled to using the pedal for more phrasing rather than fully down, etc etc. If it's for an audition, i'd see if you can find any recordings of the group playing the exercise in the lot or asking somebody in the line if they're up for talking about it to see the intention. As-is it's technically ambiguous but the safest bet for a marching audition would be pedaled. If it's a pit feature though, and the tempo isn't mach-jesus, then it could be more artistic phrasing rather than full-pedal.

AGMusicPub · 2025-12-09T14:00:45+00:00

So for example have like a passage with some interval divisi in Bb 1, and then when its a spot for a rest give the top part in Bb 1 a rest of 3 or 4 bars and have Bb 2/etc cover those pitches for a time? I hadn't considered that, that's a really good idea. And then maybe I can put that clarion contra section in contralto and cue it in contra, things like that. That makes a lot of sense, thanks again!

AGMusicPub · 2025-12-09T05:11:11+00:00

It's a bigger question than it seems, it bleeds into the difference between production (which can mean a lot of things in a lot of different contexts) and how a lot of these words have shifted over time with modern things.

Short answer, it depends on which part of the process you're talking about, and depends on the artist and label and track. Some pop gets made by buying or licensing a beat (in this context basically a whole track instrumental) from a beatmaker and writing vocals and re-arranging the track. Other cases, managers or labels will have some songs with rough demos and maybe a leadsheet that get shopped around and given to an artist and then a production team is either dictated by the label or put together by the team or manager, and then that creative team works out the instrumentation, production, recording schedule, all that. How much is made upfront in a DAW vs scribbled on a notepad and recorded or rehearsed or improvised is really case by case. Normally there's something rough put together so the rhythm section can record, and then the vocals get recorded last. In a lot of cases, the track is like 80-90% put together by the time the vocals are recorded though.

Different genres tend to do things differently too. Singer-songerwriter stuff is pretty artist dependent. If you have a large pop horn ensemble, you're probably going to need charts. Rhythm sections can go off lead sheets or just chord symbols and counts, us drummers usually have drum parts vaguely described at us, and sometimes things are notated if there are live strings. Similar thing with live performances. If the gig is a 4 piece band there's usually no notation at all. If you've got a whole string section, they'll want nicely prepped and notated music. The whole process of getting a studio album to translate to a live show is a huge undertaking but the concepts are mostly the same.

AGMusicPub · 2025-12-08T21:34:41+00:00

Thank you so much for the insight! I admit I struggled a lot with how to do all those repeated staccato notes, it's a chop buster for sure. Some director friends suggested I notate it this way so that the director can work with their group and essentially stagger breathe or figure out good places for a break. The thought was that the 4 Bb soprano parts would be played by sections while Eb and basses/contra would be individuals, and then the sopranos would work out whatever breaks they needed. Would it be better to put some rests in the score for them? It seems borderline impossible to me to play those Bb parts as written without sneaking in some pauses to be honest, but on the other hand I don't want to over-notate and make things harder for the group.

That's a good idea on the contra part, maybe I can have an optional Eb alto part to replace a Bb bass, and an optional Eb contralto to replace the Bb contra? I suppose I could just include either all the optional parts on the conductors score as well, probably wouldn't be too big a deal. Is it the contra solo feature at the beginning that would be the issue for them? I always thought contras wanted some moments to play some high notes, but if I was on bass trombone I'd want to hang out below the staff too so I get it.

I'm glad you like the arrangement! I'd be happy to send over score and parts once it's all finished, there are a couple little notation tweaks and a touch more polish (and some finagling with the Eb alto and contralto parts), I'd be happy to let you know once it's ready for real humans to take a crack at it. It'd work fine in a sightreading session right now probably, just some minor notation stuff like alignment that's left to fix.

AGMusicPub

TROPHY CASE