I remember the day I held it in my hands. I remember installing for the first time, loading it up into Sonar and giggling giddily. Yes, giddily. What followed was a love affair for the mockup – making orchestral music using nothing but a computer, a keyboard, and the infinite patience of my parents as I bashed my way through learning how to use it.

The sounds… ahh the sounds. Oboe 2 was just sublime. I loved recreating ‘Princess Leia’s Theme’ repeatedly with it. Full Strings Spiccato, and Slow Strings were my go-tos… the old reliable patches that made every piece, for their wicked attack, and their cinematic warmth. I felt like Hans Zimmer. I even think some of the percussive orchestral hits found in the Percussion patch made Brad Fiedel’s score to ‘Terminator’. They were hidden, but just like certain Stormdrum patches – you can pick them a mile away.

Sadly, the rest of the music community didn’t receive the library as well as I did. I think it was on the most part to the cheesy demos available – which can make or break a library release. But I knew better – barring a few dodgy patches (especially in the brass regions) the Edirol was a beautiful library, full of little gems and an ease of use which I’ve never encountered since.  Best of all, the Edirol was extremely lightweight – the entire softsynth is ~100MB, and could easily run on more modest systems; not a common trait of most orchestral libraries. Not sure how they did it – but compared to competitors at the time (e.g. EWQL Symphonic Orchestra), it was far from an unmanageable beast.

I remember holding this box! Ahhh... memories.

But alas, maybe due to it’s lack of commercial success, support for the library faded pretty quickly. Now, users (like myself) are finding it difficult to get the library to run on newer operating systems (most won’t even let the installer run!). [A little tip - if you can 'acquire' a copy of the library of v1.03, it will successfully install on newer Windows systems... .] 

But, if you are one of the lucky ones that get’s it chugging again – it’s like coming home. I feel all warm and gushy for writing again – those old patches are just magic, and still work wonders on a mix. I’ve started adding the sounds into my palette again, and have found I’ve made my orchestral template much more lightweight and efficient because of it, without little or no compromise in sound quality. In fact, I feel that I can work more musically, and more quickly now. Expect to hear a lot more of the library in my future music releases.

I know – it’s weird right… this library is OLD, and you’re right in thinking it has nothing on your modern sample libraries. But I’ve always thought quality mockups have always been in the realm of the composer wielding the library, and not in the library itself. I’ve heard some god-awful mockups from users with extremely high-end systems, who obviously have more money than sense. I’m not saying I’m better than anyone – but I know that if I work hard enough at a mix, it might just not matter as much that I’m using old libraries.

Sooo… anyone else have fond memories of a particular library, or even a piece of old software? Anyone keen to relive their glory days?

-s

Yes, you are allowed to use my music in a monetised YouTube channel. I understand that the suits at YouTube regard the use of music in a monetised channel as a commercial use (and rightly so), which violates my prime directive of ‘non-commercial use’ of my music. BUT… I also understand that the majority of you will only receive a modest revenue from monetising your channels – which I think should probably stay with you (although you are most welcome to DONATE something my way!).

If you are required to provide evidence that I allow the use of my music in a monetised channel, please feel free to contact me. I will forward you a letter with your details, to quell the suits.

I hope this helps you guys out. The idea of monetising seems compelling, so I hope this allows a few more people to atleast make a few bucks from what they do.

-s

It’s a somewhat uplifting track, featuring synths, orchestra and percussion – my usual thing. I’m not excited about this track to honest, but I’m just gonna give it to you all anyway – better to be out there than sitting here on my hard drive wasting space. Hehe …

Icarus | DOWNLOAD >>
Download audio file (sb_icarus.mp3)

‘Icarus’ is released under the Creative Commons ”Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported” License. For other licenses (including commercial), please contact Scott.

Check it out!

-s

The film is great, and can be freely downloaded from www.sintel.org – I highly recommend it. Amazingly, the film was created using Blender, an open-source animation package – which goes to show you don’t need to have exclusive proprietary software to create something truly beautiful.

Anyway… enjoy the video – I had fun creating it

This video uses:

Sanctum | DOWNLOAD >>
Download audio file (sb_sanctum.mp3)

‘Sanctum’ is released under the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported” License. For other licenses (including commercial), please contact Scott.

Alright, for some people, Windows on a Mac is probably not a big deal. But this is not an article for you – this is for anyone wanting to harness the pure beauty of a Mac for some perverse Windows action, and has NO idea where to start.

Welcome to Bootcamp

There are multiple ways of getting Windows onto a Mac. Programs like VMWare and Parallels run inside Mac OSX, allowing you to ‘seamlessly’ install and run Windows inside OSX. This might seem like a convenient option, but for resource hungry applications (like music sequencing and recording) you may find that two operating systems running simultaneously is not the brightest of ideas.

In this situation, the best option is a free OSX application called Bootcamp. For a full Apple-sponsored guide to installing Windows, check out the official installation guide. But I’ll give you an idea of how things played out for me.

After downloading some crucial Windows Bootcamp drivers onto a USB drive (automatically done via the Bootcamp app), I needed somewhere to install Windows. I had at my disposal an internal 1Tb harddrive, as well as an external 1.5Tb Western Digital drive connected via Firewire 800. As a rule, it’s better to install an OS on an internal drive due to faster internal connections for increased performance. Seeing as OSX was installed already, Bootcamp kindly partitions this drive for me, allowing me to select with ease the size of both OSX and Windows partitions.

Partitioning is easy as pie!

Bootcamp will format the new partition into NTFS – a must for installing Windows. Upon completing the format, Bootcamp asks for your Windows 7 CD. Now here is where things got a little weird for me…

I personally have an upgrade for Windows 7, which requires an initial installation of Windows XP to register correctly. But to my surprise, my Windows XP disk is NOT supported under Bootcamp 4, which ships with Lion. An odd omission in my opinion, as why should OSX care what version of Windows you have installed?

Anyway, there is a work-around; I found that by throwing in the Windows 7 upgrade disk, Bootcamp will proceed to reboot and start the install. But before it successfully reboots into the Windows 7 setup (which doesn’t register properly… I tried ) hold OPTION, which halts things at a boot option screen – at which point you can remove the Windows 7 disk, and insert the Windows XP disk. Tada!!

Anyway… most of you probably would have a fresh Windows 7 install disk. Good for you – you save yourself a helluva lot of trouble. Just allow Bootcamp to reboot into the Windows 7 setup and install Windows as normal (just be sure to format and install to the partition you made earlier… otherwise things might get ugly!). Once all is well, load up the Windows bootcamp drivers from the USB drive (downloaded earlier), which installs all the Mac specific hardware features, including mouse/keyboard, WiFi, internal bits ‘n’ pieces etc., alongside a neat app that allows you to alter the boot sequence of the Mac (so you could change the boot sequence to favour the Windows installation), or to easily reboot into OSX. Congratulations, you now have Windows installed on a Mac!

Getting Geared for Music

For years, I’ve used a Echo Layla 3G as my audio interface – a PCI card connected to a breakout box. Its aluminium casing is sexy and sleek, and I’ve made some great music with it. But alas, I have no PCI slot to work with in the iMac, so it has been replaced with a downsized M-Audio MobilePre. Yes, I know – it’s definitely a downgrade, but apart from some occasional glitches when playing system sounds, it’s doing a great job.

My humble M-Audio MobilePre

So the lesson here is – if you already have an interface, be sure it is compatible with your Mac. The same goes for any other gear you might want to use – keyboards, controllers or any other external gear. Most devices these days are USB or Firewire which solves most issues, but it’s just good to be sure.

I chose to install my sample libraries on an external WD harddrive, connected via Firewire 800. To this moment, I’ve found no impact on the performance of the system by storing my libraries this way, but I’ve always trended towards smaller manageable templates in Sonar.  For those with massive templates, this might not be the solution for you, but I’m not sure if any single-system solution is; at which point I’d recommend you look up some network solutions and creating a small computer farm… ’tis the way to go, especially with today’s ever-more power-hungry libraries like, for example, Hollywood Strings.

Ahh... glorious real estate!

But really, once you’ve booted into Windows, things are just as they always were. You won’t have to adapt your workflow, everything is as you would perform on your regular PC system. And best of all, your Mac just became an instant gaming system, giving you the best of everything!

So don’t be scared – give it a try. I’m lovin’ it

-s

Revealing more than their first trailer released quite a while ago – the new trailer features some amazing imagery and promise for a seemingly indie production. I love the use of Vengeance too – just how I always imagined it could be used. Watch and enjoy, and be sure to check out the series when it is released sometime this year!

SURVIVING (2011) – Official Trailer from 2Illusions Filmworks on Vimeo.

Vengeance | DOWNLOAD >>
Download audio file (sb_vengeance.mp3)

‘Vengeance’ is released under the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported” License. For other licenses (including commercial), please contact Scott.

‘Your Number’s Up’ is somewhat of a short crime drama, but with a twist – you will have to wait for the full film to find out what though. The trailer features some snippets of the soundtrack, an edgy mix of guitar, electronic and orchestral, which I had a ton of fun creating. I’ll hopefully release the score in it’s entirety when the film is released. In the meantime, check out the trailer!

It’s 2012 now… atleast that’s what my calendar tells me. I think I’m overdue to release some new music. Trust me when I say it’s in the works – I’m currently relocating my gear to a new computer (a MAC!!!), but with a few technical issues to solve, there’s going to be a bit of a delay. Be patient folk – hopefully you like what I’m coming up with recently…

Until then… -s.

A field in Akaroa

A shipbound sunset.

A mud pool at Rotorua.

A gorgeous building @ Otago University. I got the t-shirt.

Mountains near Milford Sound.

A... uh, flower.

Inside the Dunedin Railway Station

I was recently inspired to play with the Dragon Age themes after watching the ‘Dragon Age: Redemption’ live-action web series (http://youtu.be/-093SQo9NWM), which if you haven’t seen, you really should. The track starts out simple with vocals, percussion and flutes, but ramps up into an epic choral ending.

I had fun with this one, just because the themes are so good – although it is worthy to note that I pulled much of the thematic material from the first game – Dragon Age: Origins, as Dragon Age II doesn’t have too much in the way of themes other than a simple repeated motif. Anyway… I hope you guys enjoy!

Dragon Age: Road to Redemption (NEW!) | DOWNLOAD >>
Download audio file (sb_roadtoredemption.mp3)