Source
r/ableton•
disteff

Film scoring/ orchestrating within ableton

[Question]

Not sure what sub I should post in but hopefully this is ok.

I’m a a edm/hip hop producer and I’ve always been interested in orchestral music from films and just using it within my music. I have recently started watching junkie xl and when I go to see movies I’m focusing heavily on the soundtrack. I would like to get started in this side of music but I honestly have no idea where to even start. And tips,guides, pointers would be appreciated!

Posted Mar 9, 2019, 10:29 AM UTC

35
crabapplesteam•

From my experience, don't use Ableton. I love this software for so many things, but it absolutely blows for film. It has problems with even the most basic codecs and the file size seriously needs to be reduced. Plus if you're working with an actual audio department, there's no easy way to get an AAF or OMF file because they're not supported.. your best bet will be to bounce stems and hope that's good enough for the project.

That said, I have done film projects in ableton because there are just certain ways of making music that are the best. It's doable but there are so many headaches.

3
creamsodase•

Usually for film scoring ppl use a daw with video support, like digtal performer, cubase, reaper, pt. And orchestral libraries, which are usually a resource hog, kind of forcing you to use a slave vst computer and some kind of vst server technology like vienna ensemble server. Also you will want to make sure you set your track templates so you dont waste time adding 100 instrument tracks every time you get an idea.

2
pottering_theverb•

IMO, the main thing is learning about "articulations" in the orchestral libraries.

Problems are:

1- They vary according to the library. Some use a range of MIDI notes, others use MIDI CC. And what note range and what MIDI CC range are used varies according to the library...

2- The "articulations" refer to different ways of playing the instrument sampled, so you need to learn about how each instrument in a orchestra is played to use them well.

Don't believe the people that say "Ableton Live is not good for film scoring", at least 2 of the composers nominated for the Oscar this year are Ableton Live users, Ludwig Göransson (which won) and Nicholas Britell.

1
lestermagneto•

my issues with ableton and picture generally stem from time code issues, video codecs, etc. I love to write with ableton, but it can screw the pooch to picture at times (and for some reason it seems to be getting worse in it's "export" ability, could be just me), but also coordinating with as others have said, OMF or AAF etc. I WILL and DO write with ableton to picture all the time.... the problem is that generally I have to export and go to PT in order to complete the project.

1
Yanezuchi•

You need Kontakt and a bunch of libraries.

0