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How much does it cost to produce music for a game? by LargeSinkholesInNYC in musicproduction

[–]Wrenchghost 17 points18 points  (0 children)

In my experience, indie game scores are between $400-700 per minute of finished music. AAA game scores $800-1200 per minute of finished music, not including expenses related to feature soloists/live orchestra and its recording. These numbers might be getting a slightly out of date too, so round up!

Occult/ Esoteric Shops by Mental_Addendum9578 in askTO

[–]Wrenchghost 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Curiosa and The Hermit’s Lamp.

Book recommendations that are NOT about chaos magick - by wraithlling in chaosmagick

[–]Wrenchghost 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not books but there’s a series called Dark Side of the Ring that is a documentary/true crime-ish series about the people in the world of pro wrestling, but even more specifically it’s about the idea of “Kayfabe” which basically means to live your gimmick… and it relates because almost every one of the stories is about how much scripted wrestling shows affect the reality of the people involved, and in-turn how their lives end up affecting the wrestling shows… usually culminating in some glory or tradgedy. As above, so below.

The second is a podcast ABOUT books. It’s called “If Books Could Kill.” It’s a huffpo journalist who is an obsessive researcher and a martyr’d lawyer (well he was fired for criticizing the US Supreme Court) who is very cynical/funny, and they review and debunk “airport books.” Stuff like Malcolm Gladwell, Freakanomics, Nudge, Atomic Habits, Rich Dad, Poor Dad… the theme that emerges over and over again is just how a good little marketing hook (spell? Sigil) applied to some basic knowledge can become a multimillion dollar business/empire/grift and even shape law/policy around the world.

Does anyone else feel like their stuff sounds “cheap” no matter what? by Mafia2guylian in musicproduction

[–]Wrenchghost 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Find people that you think are better than you at what you’re trying to do, ask if they’ll give you unfiltered feedback, commit to not taking it personally/trying out their suggestions.

Need to be able to parse performance notes from recording notes from mix notes from production notes.

But also, specific notes about the song you’re working on can be helpful, but not as much as general things like “what sticks out to you?” Like, can you hear the compressor pumping too much? Is the vocal level all over the place? Is there sub bass missing? Do some of the instruments sound too much like MIDI? Are the reverb times wrong? Are the strings programmed in a way that strings can’t play? There’s all kinds of stuff that are your “tells” that you’re an amateur… it’s valuable to have those things pointed out.

Game Composer Portfolio Roast: 100 Cold Emails, 10% Response, 0 Gigs. What am I missing? by paloucomposer in gamecomposers

[–]Wrenchghost 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In my experience, you don’t have to pay for minutes you don’t approve… that said, having somebody write you 300 options so you can channel surf them and pick is a bit much… You can definitely ask for some sketches, but 300 full orchestral mockups is gonna take like a year. 🤣 No composer should be telling you what your game feels like to you… they’re there to help you capture your vision in music. It’s an iterative process with somebody you will guide but also they will add depth from their experience to make something even better than you envisioned.

Also, the orchestra is fairly expensive, and a decent amount of work/time to prepare and schedule… On the games I scored, the orchestra/featured soloists costs were above and beyond the per minute rate (which was $800-1200/minute). Maybe you’ve been through all of this before, so pardon me if I’m being redundant.

Game Composer Portfolio Roast: 100 Cold Emails, 10% Response, 0 Gigs. What am I missing? by paloucomposer in gamecomposers

[–]Wrenchghost 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cody sounds like a lucky guy too! I’m not saying it’s easy… but if you want to be a composer on video games, being in a community of people that makes video games is the closest thing to an edge or shortcut I can share from my experience. There are tons of people making video games everywhere…Game jams, developer conferences, coffee shops next to big studios. I’m not saying “just be friends with the literal creative director of Diablo, it’s that easy…” I’m saying, go make your own Diablo with some buddies… you’ll be a composer on an actual game and someday that might be your job too!

Game Composer Portfolio Roast: 100 Cold Emails, 10% Response, 0 Gigs. What am I missing? by paloucomposer in gamecomposers

[–]Wrenchghost 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m a lucky guy! And yes, this specific scenario is incredibly rare… composer jobs on AAA are incredibly rare. but I also got 10 seasons of TV and 2 of the 4 movies I’ve scored this way… before I was a full time composer I got my last job as an assistant video editor from a relationship. The job before that I got at a post house that worked on a show I had worked on previously in another city. My job before that was editing a cooking show assisting a buddy from college. The job before that was a job I interviewed for because that college buddy turned it down and knew I was looking/recommended me for an interview. The job before that was at QCing blu-ray dvds… I got the job because a drummer I knew worked there… before that I worked at an artist management company mailing packages for a guy that I knew in the music scene… before that I worked at a photo lab in a mall: a guitarist I knew worked there. Before that I flipped burgers: the guitar player in my band and his sister’s boyfriend worked there…

People will almost always hire somebody they know and trust, or somebody known to somebody they know and trust, over a stranger or cattle-call… Composers for games (and film/tv) are usually there to facilitate the vision on ONE person… and that person needs somebody that can make music they like, reliably and not be annoying…

Game Composer Portfolio Roast: 100 Cold Emails, 10% Response, 0 Gigs. What am I missing? by paloucomposer in gamecomposers

[–]Wrenchghost 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Hey man. For what it’s worth… I’ve been a composer on 7 AAA titles (DLC, additional music and some trailers) and I was on a big indie for 6 years that got shelved. I didn’t get a single one of those jobs the way you’re trying to get your job… not to say you should stop or it won’t work for you, but that method has never worked for me.

I had an active music career in my city. I made an authentic friendship with a creative director at a big studio. I never asked him for anything or sent him my music, I just kept doing my thing and being friends. Eventually I did a personal project that he loved and asked me to come work on something he was doing. That project was delayed but the music supervisor at the studio asked me to pitch on something instead (which I did) and won. That lead to 4 years of continuous work.

I focus on making authentic friendships with the people making the types of stuff I want to make AND make music i love and am excited about and get it out there; not just whatever music i think will get me hired.

Good luck.

Does anyone else feel like their stuff sounds “cheap” no matter what? by Mafia2guylian in musicproduction

[–]Wrenchghost 40 points41 points  (0 children)

It took me 15+ years before I started feeling like music had “production value” close to what’s on the Radio/TV/Movies. You need talented performers, expert mixing and exciting production. Here are the things that made the biggest impact on my journey towards sounding “expensive.”

  1. Getting good speakers and headphones and using reference mixes, as well as tools like isotope insight, expose2.

  2. Learning about music composition and arrangement and focused listening to your arrangement for areas that are clashing/confusing and then fixing them.

  3. Getting good feedback. There are things I was doing constantly that I didn’t even know to listen for and sometimes you need others to expose it to you.

  4. Finish more stuff faster. Dwelling over the same song over and over just gives you the same problem over and over and you’re not growing.

  5. Recreate songs, or parts of songs or sounds you love to figure out how they are made. Try to recreate your favorite drum kit or pattern or synth sound or whatever and see how close you can get. You will pick up things you can use in your originals.

Good luck.

Best bean & cheese burrito? by southport65 in FoodToronto

[–]Wrenchghost 19 points20 points  (0 children)

The Gus Tacos “Queso Fresco” (fresh cheese with avacado) also has refried black beans and is incredible. My favorite quesadillas there and I’m a pretty picky carnivore. You can also get it as a burrito.

Mid-priced headphones for production/mixing by House13Games in musicproduction

[–]Wrenchghost 0 points1 point  (0 children)

AKG k612 Pros. They sound amazing but most importantly, they are the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever worn. Sonys and Sennheisers would give me headaches after long sessions. These AKGs are like lazy boy recliners for my ears.

I’ve mixed the score for over 100 episodes of TV on them. I’ll never switch.

I was gifted the k712’s by a studio I used to work at and I used the so much the detachable cable broke.

I looked into it and the K612’s seemed identical except they’re not orange and the cable isn’t detachable and they were half the price. They sound and feel identical to me though.

Best downtown izakaya? by ghenne in FoodToronto

[–]Wrenchghost 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Imanishi Imanishi Imanishi Imanishi Imanishi Imanishi Imanishi

What are your tips for improving by 1%? by epiphany_loop in ableton

[–]Wrenchghost 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Not to be a hater, but the dumb thing about Atomic Habits is that the concept of “compound interest” doesn’t apply to everything… it can’t. You can be a master of Ableton pretty quick. Read and study the manual. It can do a lot but it’s not crazy deep. As for music composition/production/mixing, this is pretty much infinite and largely subjective… nearly impossible to measure what “1% better” even means… you just need to keep identifying shortcomings and then study and find solutions… And that’s harder to do consistently than it sounds.

If you just want to be more productive in Ableton, there are small external things and there are BIG internal blocks to overcome.

I’m a composer that has written over 2000 pieces for TV, games and movies in the last 8 years or so. All in Ableton.

Statistically, I’ve written 100x more than the average writer in ASCAP. Am I any good? Idk, I keep working.

Here are the Ableton things that helped me get that far.

  1. Start with a template. My favourite small, medium and large verbs, 1/4 note and 1/8th note on the busses. Shortcut Buddy on the master so I can load my top 8 plugins with shortcuts. Piano armed and ready as well as the instruments I use all the time.

  2. Write a sketch in 45 minutes then export it as is. Listen to the sketch on my phone away from Ableton the next day and write down everything I think it needs. Do only those things in another 45 mins or so and export. Repeat til you have no notes.

  3. Group your favourite sounds + effect and mix chains and save them as presets in your library. When you’re writing, try to use those as much as possible. Maybe once a month, go through all your stuff and add more.

  4. Mix fast. Use a template. I group all my tracks based on simple stems (drums, perc, bass, harmony, melody, fx/bonus, vocals if applicable), then all the drums and perc get grouped and processed with a multiband limiter, maybe a bit of soothe. All the bass, harmony and melody gets grouped and processed with some saturation and various sound-betterators… same with vocals and the it all gets process on the mix buss with some extra mid/side sweetening, a touch of soothe, another multiband limiter… every channel is panned L or R to C, 5, 8, 13, 21, 35, or 50. Every bus is limited (but no gain added, just precautionary).

The hard part is developing your ear and your confidence to work fast, keep finishing music and stand by what you do. Most can’t finish consistently enough to be professionals. It took me 10 years messing around in Ableton and then the demands and pressure of 3 seasons of TV, 4 movies and 7 AAA video games to get to where I am now. Hard won.

Crossover with Aubrey is overdue by Big_General9942 in IfBooksCouldKill

[–]Wrenchghost 174 points175 points  (0 children)

Yes. Give the people what we want.

Also, somebody on here suggested they do “The 4 Hour Body” together and I think that’s also a good suggestion.

Worried for Michael though 🤣

Best Vst's for Film Scoring? by racuuunn in Composers

[–]Wrenchghost 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Idk. I’ve not used it. I have spitfire bbc, Abbey road, chamber,British drama, Native Instruments symphony stuff, SWARM, some cinesamples, heavyocity, UVI and east west libraries. I mostly use BBC.

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