http://composerfocus.com/-/articles/roundups/ Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:37:16 +0000 43200 http://composerfocus.com/-/articles/roundups/top-5-orchestration-books-r62

The Study of Orchestration - Samuel Adler

This work enables students to understand the basics of orchestrations by choosing the most appropriate instruments, instrumental combinations and instrumental techniques to write an effective orchestral score. It deals with orchestral writing for individual instruments, combinations of instruments, and full orchestra.

Available on Amazon

Principles of Orchestration - N.Rimsky-Korsakov

Rimsky-Korsakov, the great classical orchestrator, provides fundamentals of tonal resonance, progression of parts, voice and orchestra, tutti effects, and much more. This major document includes 330 pages of musical excerpts.

Available on Amazon

Instrumentation and Orchestration - Alfred Blatter

An accessible and complete introduction to writing and scoring music for each instrument of the orchestra. Clear explanations, vivid descriptions of various instruments, expert advice, and numerous musical examples to maximize the student's understanding of concepts being presented. A valuable resource and reference for students in their future professional endeavors, this text maximizes its usefulness beyond the classroom.

Available on Amazon

Orchestration - W Piston

Orchestration is notable for the clarity and logic of its organization. From a consideration of the individual instruments and their technical problems the author skillfully develops his analysis of orchestration, covering his analysis of orchestration, covering instrumentation of primary and secondary melodies, part-writing, chords, and contrapuntal techniques. Finally, he discusses typical problems in orchestration together with some examples of their solutions.

Available on Amazon

Essential Dictionary of Orchestration - T Gerou

An orchestration book tailor-made for the classroom musician on a budget. Any teacher, student or professional musician, whether a composer, orchestrator, arranger, performer or enthusiast will find this thoroughly comprehensive dictionary full of the most needed information on over 150 instruments. Designed for quick and easy reference, the Essential Dictionary of Orchestration includes those much-needed instrument ranges, general characteristics, tone quality descriptions, technical pitfalls, useful scoring tips and much more!

Available on Amazon]]> Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:02:37 +0000 82aa4b0af34c2313a562076992e50aa3 http://composerfocus.com/-/articles/roundups/8-unique-and-unusual-sample-libraries-r50 Violence - Vir2



Created for both musical use and sound design, Violence features an unprecedented deconstruction of a solo violin recorded from numerous angles: bowed, scraped, hit, plucked, played with mallets, chopsticks, guitar picks, and wet fingers. Then the sound design was repitched, layered, and post-processed through an array of unusual tools to produce sounds unlike any found in other virtual instruments. More than eighty unique patches were designed, each with a custom set of scripted knobs and controls all conveniently organized into four categories of sounds: Drum Kits, Melodic, Pads and Sound Effects, and Tempo-Synced.

$99.95
http://www.vir2.com/...uments/violence

Luminabells - Microhammer



Light Bulbs. Designed to perform a million tasks, in a million different shapes and sizes, the incandescent light bulb has illuminated human existence for over 130 years.

The fragile and inherently musical bell-like aspect of the old incandescent bulb has always fascinated us and we knew that time was running out for this poor little device. That is why we must now bring you Luminabells – the mysterious and angelic essence of the simple ordinary light bulb, captured as a tiny, starry galaxy of humble and yet beautiful sounds. We recorded all manner of sizes and shapes of the old filament style incandescent bulb, lovingly sculpted into a rich collection of tuned and un-tuned percussion, sustaining melodic tones and otherworldly effects.

$35
http://www.microhammer.com/?p=719

Anti-Drum - Tonehammer



The Tonehammer Anti-Drum contains 19 unconventional percussive instruments sampled in a variety of exotic locations totalling about 1GB and 2400 samples. It is a celebration of every day objects and sounds transforming into new- and interesting musical instruments. The Anti-Drum instruments ranges from workboot stomps to water bottle thwacks, clicking baby toys, wall balls, ukulele and guitar drums, to shock mount thunks and clapping ensembles. Many of instruments have been sampled in orchestral halls and large studio rooms, so they have a natural acoustic verb, which allows instant integration into scoring templates.

$49
http://www.tonehammer.com/?p=965

Braunschweig Upright Piano - Imperfect Samples



The Braunschweig Upright Piano has a distinctive sound character that's far more intimate than a grand piano, making it desirable for certain situations where you don't want the polished and precise sound of a nine-foot grand in a concert hall.

An original Schimmel Braunschweig upright piano was painstakingly recorded to create this beautiful instrument. As with all Imperfect Samples instruments, the emphasis has been placed on achieving a hyper-real and convincing sampled instrument, with performance sounds.

Sampled in multiple velocity layers, with release samples, and true staccato, the Schimmel Braunschweig Upright Piano was recorded at 24 bits, totalling over 5GB of data (Pro version contains 15GB). This sampled instrument's raw and distinctive sound is unlike any other piano sample library currently available.

~$60-135
http://www.imperfect...prightpiano.php

Glass Works - Sonic Couture



Glass / Works is a Kontakt player instrument which collects together 3 extremely unusual and rare musical instruments which use glass to generate sound : Le Cristal Baschet, The Glass Armonica, and a set of Cloud Chamber Bowls.

The Cloud Chamber Bowls are an instrument built in the 1950s by maverick American composer Harry Partch. It consists of hanging “bowls” which are sections of 12-gallon glass carboys. Since we were unable to locate a set whose owner was willing to let us record them, and since most sets are 'home made' anyway, in the spirit of Partch we decided that we would make our own set.

As with many things in life, it wasn't quite as simple as it looks - sourcing glass carboys that large is hard enough, since these days most people use plastic. Once we had found some, the cutting and drilling turned out to be a delicate and extremely time consuming task, taking a glass-worker several full days to complete.

~$165
http://www.soniccout...14-glass-works/

Sultan Strings - Sonokinetic



These are String ensemble samples like you’ve never heard before. Distinctive, effective and with an ear for authenticity, Sonokinetic is proud to announce and present another genuine first in sampling history.

You’ll never find samples anywhere else that match the uniqueness, originality and authentic middle eastern style that is found in this massive collection of string ensemble performances. Impossible to recreate or compose with ordinary string sample-libraries or dedicated string library platforms, this collection focuses on live performances by one of the world’s best middle eastern string ensembles and royalty free custom composed arabian styled phrases.

3 violins, 1 viola and 1 cello make up this strong and convincing performance sampling string ensemble. With our usual dedicated care we approached this recording with a ‘digital’ composer’s mind and need. Working from the base up we created a diverse collection of phrases that would need to be widely usable in music compositions and large audio productions. So tempo syncing and a wide availability in all keys has been top priority in this production.

~$115
http://www.sonokinet...sultan-strings/

Metallurgy - Cinesamples



The more Kontakt has continued its dominance in the sampling market the less we find ourselves with a desire to reach for other samplers. In fact more often then not we find ourselves trying to get older material into Kontakt. However we know that mapping and polishing patches can be a very time consuming (and demoralizing) process. We decided to do the heavy lifting for you here, setting up all the parameters in a recipe just reacquiring some creativeness!

We teamed up with the talented sound designers at Boom Library to create the source sample material. Their source material, with our interface, makes for a great pairing. This is vol. 1 of many more to come.

Kontakt already offers a wide variety of tools for modifying a source sound into a finished, produced sound however in the shadow of a looming deadline more often then not we are forced to use Kontakt pre-sets or other products to get what we need. Our intention with this product was to provide you with a set of tools, specially made for you to be creative without relying upon presets (even though we included a bunch of ideas just to get you started). Our first volume uses some wonderfully recorded metal/industrial source material.

~149
http://cinesamples.c...e-1-metallurgy/

Tibetan Bowls - Precision Sound

In Buddhist practice, singing bowls are used as a support for meditation, trance induction and prayer.
Today they are used worldwide both within and without these spiritual traditions, for meditation, relaxation, healthcare, personal well-being and religious practice. The best known types are from the Himalayan region and are often called "Tibetan singing bowls”.

Ethno Percussion Collection Volume 2 - Tibetan Bowl SampleSet contains multi velocity Bowl hits, loops, swirls and effects. We also included some treated bowl pads. This library is great for ambient music and film scoring purposes.

$19
http://www.store.pre...tanbowlinfo.php]]> Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:49:14 +0000 7ef605fc8dba5425d6965fbd4c8fbe1f http://composerfocus.com/-/articles/roundups/ipad-music-app-roundup-r32 Full Studio Apps

Studio Mini XL



StudioMini is a recording studio for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. It is powerful yet easy to use and offers users on all iOS devices the ability to multitrack record their music, just like the pros do in expensive studios. Users can create and share final mixes of their songs in CD quality audio, right from their iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.

Price: $10.99
View on iTunes

Studio Track



StudioTrack is a songwriting tool for musicians who want to capture musical ideas and record songs on their iPad. StudioTrack works with the iPad built-in microphone and headphones. WiFi sync allows StudioTrack recordings to be downloaded into any recording software to continue working on songs.

Price: $39.99
View on iTunes

iSequence



iSequence is one of the most powerful music creation studio designed exclusively for iPad. Thanks to intuitive 8-track sequencer, tons of instruments, flexible mixer with DSP effects you can easily program and record profesional loops, beats and melodies. Now you control every aspect of your music project.

Price: $14.99
View on iTunes

Controllers

AC7-Core



The AC7-Core is a wireless/wired control surface utilizing CoreMIDI for simple setup and reliable operation. There are dedicated modes for controlling Logic, Pro Tools, Cubase, Abelton and more.

Price: $7.99
View on iTunes

V-Control



V-Control provides a multi-touch control surface for Pro Tools on a Mac and soon on Windows systems. V-Control uses WiFi to control transport, editing, and mixing functions with Pro Tools 7 and later, HD or LE.

Price: $19.99
View on iTunes


TouchOSC



TouchOSC is an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad application that lets you send and receive Open Sound Control messages over a Wi-Fi network using the UDP protocol.

The application allows to remote control and receive feedback from software and hardware that implements the OSC protocol such as Apple Logic Pro/Express, Renoise, Pure Data, Max/MSP/Jitter, Max for Live, OSCulator, VDMX, Resolume Avenue 3, Modul8, Plogue Bidule, Reaktor, Quartz Composer, Vixid VJX16-4, Supercollider, FAW Circle, vvvv, Derivative TouchDesigner, Isadora and others.

Price: $4.99
View on iTunes

Instruments

KORG iMS-20



iMS-20 is a complete music production app for iPad. It consists of a complete recreation of the legendary Korg MS-20 analog synth with the patching capability, plus a 16-step analog sequencer based on the Korg SQ-10, a six-part drum machine which can create drum parts by simply tapping the buttons, and a seven-channel mixer with 14 types of effects.

Price: $32.99
View on iTunes

Pianist Pro



Pianist Pro is a virtual piano designed specifically for the iPad, with the same great interface and style that has made Pianist the best known piano on the iPhone, and a whole host of new features too.

Containing the full 88 keys of a professionally sampled piano with configurable soft and sustain pedals, up to 11 keys can be pressed at once and react to the touch just like a real piano. Choose between single or dual keyboards with a configurable key size.

Price: $32.99
View on iTunes

Synth



Synth is easy to use and fun to play! It comes packed with over 40 instruments and a series of effects to play with. Tweak the Mod wheel to adjust LFO or filters, while the delay and distortion knobs create a wide range of great sounding effects.

Re-live the Casio SK-1 days with the sampler! Sample anything with the iPad mic, and play it back on the keyboard.

Price: $0.99
View on iTunes

iBone



It's the Trombone for your iPad. A little big for your pocket, but easier to see and play than the original. It's still a great way to learn, and you're sure to impress your friends.

Price: $2.99
View on iTunes

Utilities

Symphony Pro



Symphony Pro is a multi-track music notation editor that allows you to quickly write and play back music from wherever you are.

Import in any MIDI, ABC, or Symphony file via URL, open up one of your saved compositions, or begin with a blank page, and you're ready to start writing.

Supports a wide range of notational elements, including arpeggiated chords, ritardandos, staccatos, tuplets, time and key signature changes, altername endings, and repeats.

Price: $12.99
View on iTunes

forScore



forScore was designed as a way to take thousands of pages of score with you on the go. By balancing innovative features like the visual metronome with a gorgeous interface and the most robust library organization of any music reader, forScore proves that you really can have an app that’s both powerful and beautiful.

Price: $4.99
View on iTunes

Guitar Lab



Guitar Lab video lessons are sourced from our most popular full-length study programs and then assembled into standalone "lesson plans" suitable for both short and long practice sessions with the app.

Price: Free
View on iTunes

Fun

Aura 2:Flux



Aura Flux is a unique and innovative ambient music creation App for iOS devices. Create unlimited, generative music by simply connecting nodes together drawing pictures. With a wealth of options available for each node the sound, frequency, pitch can be changed to your needs or set to random to create evolving music.

Price: $1.99
View on iTunes

Beatwave



Beatwave offers a comprehensive range of instrument samples, and endless ways to mix n match them, all wrapped in a stunning visual interface that gives even the most tone deaf would-be Dj the ability to visually create perfectly in sync hit tunes.

Price: Free
View on iTunes

Soundrop



Draw lines and watch as Soundrop uses them to create music! Listen with headphones for the full effect.

Price: Free
View on iTunes

Conclusion

The iPad has had time to settled and developers are getting their hands dirty releasing some fantastic apps. I feel we're only just starting to explore what's possible with the iPad and with iPad 2 round the corner, things can only get better.

What apps are you excited about?]]> Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:21:46 +0000 65ded5353c5ee48d0b7d48c591b8f430 http://composerfocus.com/-/articles/roundups/choir-sample-library-roundup-r35 Cinesamples Voxos



VOXOS: Epic Virtual Choirs is Cinesamples’ virtual choir instrument for professionals, containing a full epic choir, boys choir, soloists, an innovative phrase builder and the industry’s most realistic and powerful true legato engine.

Powered by the industry-leading Kontakt Player engine, VOXOS contains world-renowned choirs and soloists with over 15 years of experience recording for countless Hollywood films, trailers, video games and the concert stage. Recorded at the legendary Bastyr Chapel, with its gorgeous acoustics, the choirs were captured with multiple microphone positions in 24bit/48k 5.1 surround. The result is a pristine tone that sounds great right out of the box. VOXOS contains over 35,000 samples, at an uncompressed size of 35GB. VOXOS ships as digital download and boxed product.

$999
http://cinesamples.com/products/voxos/

Tonehammer Requiem



REQUIEM is the next-generation virtual choir developed for professional composers. The library is based on a variety of new recording- and sampling techniques some which have never before been deployed in choral sample libraries. The library can literally sound like a real choir and includes both full choir (SATB), divisi groups (males/females) and solo singers – all recorded in 24 bit / 44.1khz with 3 (5.1) microphone positions. The library contains true (polyphonic) legato intervals from piano to forte, sustains from piano to forte, staccato with repetitions, ultra forte marcato, BPM (host-synced) based latin chants recorded at different speeds across entire interval of choir, +1000 choral effects including whispers, shouts, clusters, demonic chants, sweeps, consonants without tone, claps, snaps etc.

Pro: $649
http://www.tonehammer.com/?p=4276

Tonehammer Liberis



LIBERIS is our next-generation choir library featuring a professional 45-piece multi-award winning Piedmont Children's Choir lead by famous choir conductor, Bob Geary from VOLTI. The library represents the most detailed sampling ever done of a high-end symphonic children's choir and the most ambitious release in the history of Tonehammer. LIBERIS allows you to create realistic sounding choir by using a variety of next-generation features, including true ensemble legato with speed control and legato for our poly-sustained chants. In addition the contains sustains from piano to forte, staccato with repetitions, marcato with sustains, BPM (host-synced) latin chants recorded at different speeds and velocity layers and a uncompromising effects section with +1000 effects ranging from basic consonant/vowels, clusters, sweeps, whispers, shouts, chirps, childrens songs, claps, snaps etc. In addition the library is recorded in 24 bit / 44.1khz with 3 (5.1) microphone positions, three different solo singers with poly-sustains and a gorgeous ambient section by Steve Tavaglione.

$499
http://www.tonehammer.com/?p=5953

EWQL Symphonic Choir



Imagine typing words into your computer, in any language, and hearing a world class Symphonic Choir sing those words in any key(s) you play "live" on your keyboard controller. Well imagine no more, that's exactly what Symphonic Choirs claims to do. In addition, this 24-bit Choir virtual instrument includes three simultaneous stereo mic setups (close, stage and hall), so users can mix any combination of mic positions to control ambience. The Choirs were recorded in the same concert hall, by the same team as the EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra and blend perfectly with EWQLSO.

WordBuilder is the word building software that enables Symphonic Choirs users to type in words for the Choirs to sing. This included software runs on both Mac OS X and Windows, and includes a pop-down menu (under the "tools" menu) that includes 28 popular Latin phrases that you can load instantly. Many choirs sing in Latin so this is a real time saver for those on a tight deadline. The phrases have been optimized for each Choir. The pop-down menu is completely customizable so users can add their own phrases to the menu for quick and easy access.

$445
http://www.soundsonl...mphonic-Choirs/

The Giovani Edition: Voices of the Young

Bela D Media invites you to discover an exciting and significant development in the world of sampled voice. The Giovani Edition is the first truly dedicated children's choir library determined to strike a chord with musicians ranging from the semi-pro to the most seasoned professional. Bela D Media has faithfully captured the glory of an authentic youth choir complete with 24-bit traditional church ambience. The Giovani Edition effortlessly produces a sincere, natural tonality alive with essential human characteristics.

Enlisting the talents of a professional 32-piece youth choir, the Giovani Edition achieves a sampling first by incorporating both ensemble and chamber sized vocal sections, finally enabling the correct composition of choral parts using a sample library. In addition, Bela D Media is the first to acknowledge and sample a complete girls' choir.

$375
http://www.beladmedi...iovani-edition/]]> Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:55:08 +0000 7f1de29e6da19d22b51c68001e7e0e54 http://composerfocus.com/-/articles/roundups/string-sample-library-roundup-r28 EWQL Hollywood Strings



Hollywood Strings has many groundbreaking features not found in any other collection. Finger position is, for the first time, controllable by the user, so you can play as far up the strings as you want, and get a fuller more romantic Hollywood sound. Vibrato intensity and extensive dynamics are controllable by the user. Extensive multi-dynamic true legato has been sampled for all sections in three different categories: slurred, portamento, and bow change. This results in unsurpassed legato performance that has never been available. Hollywood Strings has five user-controllable mic positions, including main pickup (Decca tree), mid pickup, close pickup, surround pickup, and an alternate vintage circa 1945 RCA ribbon room pickup.

Diamond Edition - $1495
Gold Edition - $795

http://www.soundsonline.com

LA Scoring Strings



LA Scoring Strings (LASS) brings a whole new level of expressiveness, realism and real-time playability to sampled strings.

At the heart of its revolutionary sound are Real Legato performance sample patches and a unique “layered ensemble” approach. These ensembles were all recorded individually in a large film scoring studio. Because they’re made up of different players (avoiding the dreaded “same player” sound), they combine seamlessly to produce entirely cohesive small, medium, or large sections with the right divisi ratios.
LASS also features solo instruments performed by the section leaders. Rather than sounding like “guest soloists,” these instruments sound like the first chair players they actually are, blending perfectly with the sections they come from.

The players are recorded in position on the scoring stage and mixed in the traditional orchestral seating perspective, making it simple to get a magnificent string mix out of the box. Meanwhile we took the utmost care to ensure that the instruments can be panned anywhere with virtually no phasing problems should you need to do that.

Full - $1399
Lite - $449

Cinematic Strings



The Cinematic Strings Pro Edition is an advanced virtual instrument for Kontakt 3.5+, which offers the user extremely expressive and realistic samples of a modern string orchestra. The Cinematic Strings Pro Edition features all the listed articulations at 24bit/48khz resolution.

Pro Edition - $699

Vienna Appassionata Strings



If you are looking for that larger-than-life Hollywood sound, the Appassionata Strings are the perfect answer. In particular the legato and sul-G-performances, with varying intensities of vibrato, provide a passionate, large and epic string sound. These big strings are designed for all kinds of cinematic music, from slow and lush themes to fast action scores. In addition to arco and legato styles, the 20 violins, 14 violas, 12 cellos and 10 double basses (six among them being 5-string double basses) feature accented interval notes, staccatos and spiccatos. While Appassionata Strings I covers a wide range of articulations, Appassionata Strings II offers almost all of the articulations in the first Collection, but played “con sordino”. Some composers even combine the “normal“ strings with muted strings, resulting in a particularly thick and luxurious sound.

Full - $1290
Standard - $810

http://vsl.co.at/

EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Play Edition



Recorded by 11-time Grammy nominated classical recording engineer Prof. Keith O. Johnson, the Eastwest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra is the most awarded orchestral collection ever, and the only orchestral collection to be recorded in a "state of the art" concert hall where orchestras mainly perform.

To achieve the feel of a live concert hall performance, each instrument and section was recorded with three mic positions, close, stage (conductor‘s position) and hall. By selecting different mic positions, users can mix these sounds together to create any kind of natural ambience their project requires. This eliminates the need for artificial reverb.

Platinum Complete Plus - $895
Gold Complete Standard - $445
Silver Complete - $175

http://www.soundsonline.com

Garritan Personal Orchestra



Personal Orchestra 4 is state-of-the-art software that reproduces the sounds of the musical instruments in a symphony orchestra, right from your computer. This award-winning collection has set the standard for orchestral sample libraries.

Create lush symphonic music with this collection of software instruments. There are well over 200 software instruments - delicious strings, joyous brass, intimate woodwinds, powerful percussion, glorious concert organ, Steinway virtual concert piano, heavenly harps and more.

Download - $149.95
DVD - $169.95

http://www.garritan.com

Miroslav



Philharmonik is a powerful integrated Orchestral Workstation combining the legendary Miroslav Orchestral and Choir sample collection masterpieces with a dedicated plug-in instrument specifically tailored toward classical sounds and arrangements.

Miroslav orchestral samples are some of the most playable and inspiring sounds ever produced for symphonic arrangements and composition. They've marked the atmosphere of hundreds of movies and productions and have become the tool of choice for many Oscar® winning composers.

Never before has so much feeling and emotion been captured in orchestral sampling. Miroslav was able to bring out the rich character of symphonic music with a special sound that is unique and powerfully expressive.

$229.99

http://www.ikmultime...om/philharmonik

Peter Siedlaczek String Essentials



Peter Siedlaczek's String Essentials library is now in its second edition and features the Kontakt 2 Player engine and extended programming. Peter Siedlaczek says, "Dear Friends, I am happy to introduce you this comprehensive, thought-through and ergonomic virtual string orchestra. It couldn’t have been realised earlier, without today’s computer and sampler technology. In its carefully programmed patches you will find many innovative solutions, to help achieve your music goals even more quickly. The result is a spontaneous, playful and intuitive handling of the sound material. With unified key switch system and direct, instant access to the all important articulations. Including quintuple alternation switch (Staccato, Quarter Notes) and precise control of the dynamic response of the samples using different MIDI parameters. String Essentials will enable you to focus on the most essential part of your activity - your music - creatively and easily. Just load and play it! "

~$400

http://www.bestservice.de/

SONiVox - Symphonic String Collection



Recorded by Emmy award engineer Antonio Oliart and RIAA award engineer John Bono, designed and produced by Sonic Implants engineers, the Sonic Implants Symphonic String Collection is gigabytes of the most comprehensive, beautiful and playable ensemble string sounds available. Rich, multidynamic instruments with resonant string decays intact and gigabytes of articulations to choose from. Designed for the utmost in expressiveness and realism; a joy to create with.

$995

http://www.sonivoxmi.com/


*Prices are correct as of publishing]]> Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:33:20 +0000 76dc611d6ebaafc66cc0879c71b5db5c http://composerfocus.com/-/articles/roundups/audio-file-formats-a-rundown-r24 Codecs, Formats, and other Funtimes

When we’re talking about digital audio, a file is going to fall into one of three categories:

• Uncompressed Audio
  
• Compressed Audio (Lossless)
  
• Compressed Audio (Lossy)

These categories exist as a result of the perpetual toss-up between audio fidelity and file size. In an ideal world, we’d have infinite storage space and be able to use totally uncompressed audio in every scenario for maximum quality, but the reality is that it’s not practical to do so in most cases.

Files in any of the three categories will be saved in various specific formats, the majority of which we’ll briefly look at below, but before we do it’s important to make a distinction between a file format and a codec. A codec is an algorithm designed to encode and decode digital media — it creates the data itself. A file format, on the other hand, is more like a container in which the data is stored. There are many more formats than codecs, and certain formats are capable of storing more than one kind of media data.

One other term that is often associated with digital audio (and other files, in fact) is metadata. Metadata can be considered all the “extra” information that is included with a file. In the audio world, it usually consists of album art, artist name, album, composer, etc. Many formats allow this information to be encoded directly into the file for ease of use.

Essentially, you’re only going to be worrying about the file format in most cases, since the codecs are fairly standardized and not generally toyed with too much for audio delivery purposes.

Uncompressed Audio

The first of the major digital audio categories is the easiest to explain. Uncompressed audio is exactly what it sounds like: raw, full fidelity data with no missing or altered information. Consequently, it takes up the most hard drive space, requiring upwards of 10MB per minute of audio. Typically, uncompressed audio formats are used for large-scale theatrical and television broadcasts, and for storing or archiving audio.

Major formats in this category include:

• WAV: a common and flexible format that can store lossless PCM (the major uncompressed codec) audio at several different bit and sample rates
  
• AIFF: the Mac-centric format designed to contain PCM data
  
• BWF: standing for Broadcast Wave Format, this is a more complex successor to WAV that allows for embedded metadata, which makes it a favourite among professionals for film delivery since timecode information can be placed right into the file

Compressed Audio (Lossless)

This category has been the subject of many developments in recent years, surging from obscurity to mainstream very quickly. Audio that falls into this category is compressed; that is, its original data is made smaller by use of algorithms that can intelligently shrink the file size.

Lossless compression is a newer method of reducing file size and requires more computer power to play since the data is reconstructed in real-time as you play the file, resulting in a nearly perfect (hence ‘lossless’) reproduction of the original uncompressed data.

The advantage is that you maintain audio fidelity and use up much less space, but the disadvantage is that it’s not efficient when you’re trying to minimize resource usage as in, for example, a game engine, which must play and combine files during gameplay.

Here, then, are the major players in the current world of lossless compression formats:

• FLAC: the Free Lossless Audio Codec is a popular and open-source format that uses the codec of the same name to produce files that are 50-60% smaller than the original with no loss of audio fidelity. FLAC remains unsupported on many portable audio players, but its support for artwork and other metadata ensures it will make its way further into the mainstream presently
  
• APE: known as Monkey’s Audio codec, this system boasts marginally better compression than its competitors, at the expense of being less resource-efficient. It is not entirely open-source and has not seen wide adoption outside of Windows platforms and extremely fast portable players
  
• ALAC (M4A): the Apple Lossless Audio Codec is stored in the MP4 container format as .M4A files, but it is not derived from Apple’s lossy AAC format; rather, it is a similar algorithm to FLAC and APE. ALAC’s advantage is that it is quite easy to encode/decode, requiring minimal computer resources, which makes it ideal for portable players. It supports metadata tagging and is also the only one of the formats officially supported on the iPod
  
• WMA Lossless: this Microsoft format has drawn mixed responses, with some arguing that it does not contend with the competing formats, which may explain its relatively modest spread. It nevertheless is a solid format allowing for high quality variable bitrate compression of audio for archival purposes
  
• WV: WavPack is another open-source codec that provides extremely good compression, especially for music with a lot of dynamic range (like classical). It is not widely used, but one feature that sets it apart is a ‘hybrid’ encoding mode that produces both a lossy compressed file that can be independently used, and a ‘correction’ file that can be combined with the lossy one to restore the lossless source

Compressed Audio (Lossy)

Lossy compression is the most frequently encountered and is the most relevant for media composers because we are typically called upon to deliver our materials in one of these formats.

Originally, file compression methods (before lossless came around) all worked by actually removing non-essential data in much the same way as image compression algorithms work. Now known as ‘lossy’ formats, these workhorses offer the smallest file sizes, but also result in significant quality degradation, especially at higher compression rates.

Of course, the fact that the compression is lossy means that there’s no reconstruction happening when you play back the file, meaning that they’re also much more efficient. This has made them the mainstay of game audio and other mediums where both size and efficiency are significant considerations.

Let’s take a look at the major lossy compression formats:

• MP3: The Mpeg Audio Layer 3 is a proprietary format that has become the standard for digital music distribution owing to its incredibly small file sizes. It works based on the perceptual coding method, which works by discarding or reducing the quality of elements that are considered beyond the range of typical human auditory perception. Several levels of compression are available, with only the highest being truly viable for music given the high quality of today’s playback systems
  
• AAC (MP4, M4A/B/P): designed to replace the aging MP3 format, Advanced Audio Coding is another popular format that achieves better audio fidelity at similar bitrates and file sizes. It represents the Mpeg-4 standard and has been widely adapted
  
• 3GP/3G2: this format is actually a subset of the Mpeg-4 formats above, but it is specifically designed for mobile phone usage and therefore is primarily of interest only to those delivering to such platforms
  
• OGG: Vorbis’ mighty open-source format has taken the gaming world by storm, becoming a quick standard for encoding video game audio assets. It offers much better audio fidelity than MP3, but produces slightly larger files and does not have any standard for including metadata
  
• SPX: known as Speex, this is a project similar to the Vorbis one that is designed specifically for use in compressing speech for podcasts, Voice-Over-IP, and other similar applications. It can also be placed within an OGG container file
  
• RA/RAM: the aging RealAudio format is seldom encountered nowadays except in the deepest wilds of the ancient internet, but it was a standard delivery format for many huge names including the BBC as recently as 2009. The format was one of the first to be designed for internet streaming, but no longer competes with the others in terms of audio fidelity

When To Use What

Okay, so now that we’ve taken a look at the formats you’re likely to encounter, we ought to take a moment to discuss when you’re likely to use them.

Whenever it comes to delivering for film, television, or other properties that are likely to be mixed professionally and displayed on very good sound systems like the ones in theatres, you will want to deliver in uncompressed formats. Which specific format will depend on the preferences of the audio engineer that will be using your files, but typically you can rely on WAV as your workhorse delivery format. If you can, consider delivering BWF because the ability to embed timecode data right in the file makes it that much easier for the mixing engineer to place your cues exactly where they’re meant to go. Uncompressed audio is also the preference for archiving your music files in the best possible quality, of course.

Games are possibly the more inconsistent medium when it comes to what format to deliver in. Sometimes, you’ll be delivering the uncompressed audio and letting the audio engineer figure out what format to convert it to, but in many cases you represent the entire audio team so you need to be able to make good decisions. Nowadays, music assets are frequently encoded in the OGG format because of its good balance between quality and size, but games for mobile platforms and Flash games will often still rely on MP3 to keep the file sizes as small as possible for more compact delivery.

Losslessly compressed audio formats tend not to be used in media properties because playback requires real-time decompression, which wastes precious processing resources. On the other hand, they are quickly establishing themselves as a favourable alternative to the older lossy algorithms for delivering music for listening purposes and even for compact archiving.

One last thing to consider is that even though you’ll be delivering a lot of lossy files, you should make sure to always make a fully lossless audio rendering of your work. This archival version can be yours to keep in case the project files get damaged or lost, and it allows you to easily go back and re-encode in a different format without having to re-open the project to do so if necessary.

Obviously, in most cases the format you’ll be using will be the one your producer asks for, but if you ever get a say in the matter you will now be equipped to give an intelligent recommendation!]]> Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:05:32 +0000 c8ffe9a587b126f152ed3d89a146b445 http://composerfocus.com/-/articles/roundups/notation-software-roundup-r11 Sibelius - http://www.sibelius.com

Now it its sixth generation Sibelius has grown to become the best selling notation software. The new version brings a great deal of new features and workflow improvements. The sloppy intergration of the Kontakt player in the previous versions has been replaced with a new built in Sibelius player. The magnetic layout has to be one of the most useful features to date.

Pros:

• Magnetic Layout
  
• Score versioning
  
• No more clumsy Kontakt player

Cons:

• Full version is expensive

Finale - http://www.finalemusic.com

MakeMusic's flagship music notation package Finale in its latest is a robust notation program that can notate advanced large-scale scores. Playback uses the bundled Garritan orchestra library using its new aria playback engine. Finale's features are in toe with Sibelius' the primary difference between the two is the user interface.

Pros:

• Cheaper than Sibelius
  
• Garritan Sample Library included

Cons:

• Bigger learning curve than Sibelius
  
• Cluttered user interface

Notion - http://www.notionmusic.com

Although Notion has been around for 5 years it's still the new kid on the block. After a rocky start Notion is now in its third generation and has matured into a very capable notation and playback program. Although it doesn't have some of the extensive features of the other programs the price point certainly makes it a good deal for beginners.

Pros:

• Cheapest of the three
  
• Contains samples featuring the London Symphony Orchestra

Cons:

• Note and stave spacing not configurable

Your Thoughts?

What notation software do you use?]]> Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:00:25 +0000 698d51a19d8a121ce581499d7b701668