A Day in the Life – Tristan Noon

Tristan Noon                                                                                          Twitter @NoonWithATune
Photo by Susan Legg

What is the role of an arranger?

I always think of arrangement as a bit of a loose term as it’s almost like orchestrating, except you’re taking a pre-existing work and using that material to dictate how to arrange it further. For example, you could take a pop song, and instead of having the guitars playing chugging chords, you could split that out and have the strings from Violin I to the Double Basses playing the chord.

Also, instead of having a synth part playing a counter melody, you could then decide that you now want a vocalist to sing that line. Sometimes it’s a case of using what material is already within the song, and sometimes you’re free to add the music parts you wish, to make the arrangement different (I would say better, but often it’s very difficult to make an original classic song better!)

How do you split your time between: performing, arranging, writing?

My time split between those three can be very varied from one week to the next so it’s tough to give a definitive answer. When I was at sixth form, I used to play in a few bands but never anything serious. Although we were fortunate enough to play at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2013 and the following year (strangely, with another band). I very much enjoyed the days of gigging, but it was never something I was fully focussed on, which often means that you’re not dedicating your life to it and I think that’s what’s required to be successful.

I have always felt, especially in the music industry that you can’t half do something. You have to go at it like a bulldozer and really put your heart and soul into it. With gigging, it requires an enormous amount of spending money to rehearse, get to venues and get merchandise out there, which will probably make very little revenue unless you hit it semi-big. I was never interested in doing any of that, nor playing to two people in a darkened pub on a rainy Tuesday. Eventually,

I fell into the writing and arranging, which is how I now spend most of my time. I also do Music Preparation and Copyist work, which means getting all of the parts tidied in Sibelius (a notation software that most of us use to get music ready before tight deadlines) and then printed, sorted into pads (Trumpets, Horns, Tuba etc). Scores are then bound before being sent to the studio to be recorded. Often, copyists sit in on the session just in case anything needs to be reprinted or if a music cue comes in late and needs to be reprinted at the session.

Where did you study music?

I studied very briefly at the University of Surrey in 2013 as an undergraduate, but only stayed for about three months after realising that it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing. It was mostly essay based and I just wanted to be learning on the job. Fortunately, I’d been meeting quite a few industry people when I was at sixth form, so I had begun to make a small amount of money which meant dropping out wasn’t as risky as it could’ve been. Around that time, I was at a Downton Abbey recording session and met composer Simon Whiteside.

A few months later, Simon was looking for an assistant and I was fortunate that he asked me. After that, I’ve been very lucky to do the things I that I have done, and have met many more people in the process. The whole business is about meeting people and forming relationships, which sounds like one horrendous cliche, but it is true. Since then, I got another job to assist Stephen Baysted, as well as the work for Simon, which keeps my job varied!

I also work on my projects with my own clients. I’m a firm believer in that you can write as many essays as you want, read about it as much as you want, but you can only ever learn and gain experience by being thrown in at the deep end. It’s really the only way I’ve ever known, and I’ve enjoyed every second, despite being in some very high pressured scenarios in studios and at my home studio.

Photo by Maree Lock.

At what age did you get an interest in music?

I was a bit of a later bloomer in the way that I found music. I’d always loved the sound of the piano in particular from when I was in junior school, but never had the courage to get lessons. When I started secondary school I finally began to learn the piano and at one point had the intention of being a session player or a performer. However, once I realised my sight reading skills weren’t ‘up to scratch’, I realised that was a no-go. I began to push myself into writing songs and using music recording software at home.

I was into the Beatles massively around this time (year 8) and I was obsessed by their incredible melodies and harmonies. My parents aren’t musical at all, but my dad has a great CD and vinyl collection, so I got into music that way really. He used to play me lots of songs by The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Billy Joel, Simon and Garfunkel, so I was very much into that and not the music that all the cool people were listening to, so I was always a bit different to the rest of the kids in that respect.

I new a bit about modern music, but at the time I wasn’t interested. I just wanted to play The Beatles’ music all day, every day, trying to work out their chord progressions. It was only really around year 10 when I went to one of the BBC proms that I realised I wanted to be a film/television composer. Despite not being a Doctor Who fan, I liked the score by Murray Gold, so my dad and I went along to the Proms to see it. I can’t tell you the feeling that came over me that day. It sounds so cheesy, but I had this enormous desire to write to picture.

The BBC had a live orchestra which was playing along to a screen which was hanging down in front of the audience, playing the footage. I loved the feeling that the music gave you when it was juxtaposed with the footage. How one note or even a chord can hit you emotionally; make you laugh, feel sad or angry. I just loved the feeling that it gives you, and I still do. When writing to picture, I get a huge exhilarating feeling when I know that I’ve finally nailed the mood of the scene, having slaved over it for hours. Although sometimes it comes straight away; the picture is the inspiration.

Do you use traditional scores for your work or a computer?

90% of the time, I’m working digitally on my computer, so there’s no need for scores unless you’re lucky enough to get your music recorded by live players. If I’m at a session, there will always be a score to ensure that everyone can see what’s on the page. Usually one A3 copy of the score is needed for the conductor, and one for the composer. Then 2/3 A4 scores are needed for the engineer, assistant engineer and potentially anyone else sat in the studio. The copyist will read the scores from their laptop so that another one doesn’t need to be printed out. It’s a waste of money and paper otherwise.

Directors/all clients like to hear what we refer to as ‘midi mockups’ which is basically a digital demo of what the score will sound like (with samples) before it is recorded by a live orchestra. It’s too much of a risk for a production company to trust everything that you are creating is what they want before they get to the recording session. To stop this potential major drama occurring, the composer will mock up each cue using their sample libraries (digital sounds). Once that is agreed, it is then sent to the orchestrator to create the scores and parts for the players, then onto the copyist for tidying, and to be printed and bound. If there are no live players, the mockups are kept and used. This is most common on something that a BBC1 or ITV1 drama where budgets are tight, so fake instruments are used instead of hiring a real orchestra!

Which software would you recommend to someone just starting over?

You’ll need a powerful computer with at least 16GB’s of RAM, but I’d recommend 32 to be safer. You’ll also need a sound interface and lots of hard drives to store sample libraries on. In terms of orchestral sample libraries, your best bet is to head over to Spitfire Audio and Orchestral Tools. They are the best for orchestral samples, and most of the people I know use most of the libraries they produce! Things like a keyboard are useful, but you can get away with inputting notes into a sequencer manually. I use Cubase 8.5 as a Digital Audio Workstation, so I write all of music music in that program. It’s very intuitive to me and simple to use.

Photo by Simon Whiteside

You’ve worked at Abbey Road studios. How did it compare with working in other studios?

It’s a pretty amazing place, but just becomes any normal building after having been there so many times. Though I still get a buzz when I walk through the gates, up the stairs and through the doors into the hallowed walls! The sound of Studio One in particular is a favourite. The room has been treated so well acoustically, it’s hard to make something sound bad in there. The first time that you go it’s important to tell yourself that it’s just a job, you can’t be star struck or in awe of the place too openly.

Everybody is simply doing their job and nobody kicks up a huge fuss about it when you’re in there. The history of the place is impressive, and sometimes you pinch yourself when going up and down the staircases where you see all the framed photographs of the incredible musicians that have recorded there. I think the fact that The Beatles had so much history there is one reason it remains very special to me.

Any advice for parents?

Be supportive. Your kid probably isn’t going to be earning much for the first few years, but once they gain trust and experience, they’ll find their feet. Often parents don’t want their children to do creative subjects because there’s a stigma that there’s not much money in it. That can be true, but I know a lot of people that make a good living from music. At the end of the day, I’d rather do a job that I loved doing, rather than spend my whole life doing something I hated, just to earn lots of money…

The art of composition – it’s not over until the final mix

Below is an example of the art of composition and how music is arranged to create maximum impact. In the 1960s The Beatles worked on eight tracks, now a composer can create a piece using 20 or 100 tracks.

In a piece for the BBC, Tristan explains how the music was broken down into small individual parts.

“The high strings are providing the melody (1st violins and the violas in octaves for added depth) and the 2nd violins, and violas drive the music forward with the repetitive ostinato-like figure. The celli and bass play accented crotchets to further drive the piece.

The Horns are providing a counter melody and then a similar rhythm to the strings are at bar 16 with the trumpets and trombones playing the melody in 8va.

Synths are adding power and depth and more rhythm to the piece.

Percussion (and choir) drive the piece with their rhythms.

     ‘Over the Mountains’ – full piece

   Synths part only

   Strings part only

   Percussion part only

Example of score

Over-the-mountains-v6-1

Tristan Noon – CV

Tristan-Noon-cv-2016

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Tristan Noon
Media Music Composer | Orchestrator | Copyist
http://www.tristannoonmusic.com/
0794 8494 246
@NoonWithATune

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Children and Beethoven

Children and Beethoven

How to Edit Video on an iPad – sound mix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This lesson deals with what film editors used to call track laying: which translated means the editing and mixing of two or more different audio tracks in order to create an enriched soundtrack to your film.

Whether that be a feature film, short film, wedding video or a film about your dog, all of them will benefit from a soundtrack which has different elements.

Elements? Sounds like: dialogue, car doors opening and closing, rain, wind, music etc etc

Even a modest short film or home movie can benefit from the use of at least one music track. Though be careful of using copyrighted material. Some artists will let you use their tracks providing you give them a credit plus a link to their iTunes site; one artist has gone further, Moby offers a free license to use his music. Moby was the first one that I know to create a site where you can download his music and obtain a license for free. You will find a link to Moby’s site at the bottom of this post.

The iPad seems to come with a limit of two audio tracks but you shouldn’t let that hold you back. Though the iPad does have a gremlin in the way it works with audio tracks but I have found and easy way to get around that.

I am using a few clips from a short film I made about an English painter, Andrew Dixon. I interviewed him then later in the day I filmed Andrew painting by a canal. In this example I will show you how to have an opening shot with music; then as we cut into Andrew painting I add a voice over and finally cut to him in sync. Notice how I start with music then fade it down as I get into the painting sequence. Then as the interview ends I fade up the music to end the piece.

Let’s get started.

First here the cut sequence:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at the image above you can see the shots in the top of the timeline. Then come the two audio tracks.

The top BLUE track is sync effects: Andrew walking through the grass, sound of him painting and his sync interview.

The bottom GREEN track contains the music, a track called ROCK FACTORY.

iPad Gremlin

Unfortunately the iPad throws in an automatic slight fade down when the shot of Andrew walking through the field cuts in. I would have preferred to have my music kept higher at the start then have a longer fade out under his painting.

Using Music Track as Spacing

As you can see the music track appears to be in three pieces even though you only hear it at the front of the film and at the end. This is because iPad would not allow me to have a section of music at the front followed by a space before the end piece of music came in.

The way I found around this was to insert a section of the music again. I made this second section last until the place in the film where I needed to hear the music again. I then dropped in the music again for the third section which is the music you hear at the end. Then I dropped the audio level down to zero for the middle section.

I have used the middle section of the music track purely to space out the section 1 of the music and section 2, so that the end piece only comes in where I want it to.

How to create a fade up or down

You TAP on the section of the audio track that you want to fade in or out. Below you can see I have highlighted section 1 of the music.

Once you have TAPPED on the section you will see TWO YELLOW ARROWS appear.

 

 

 

 

 

You then slide one of the arrows depending on whether you want a FADE UP or a FADE DOWN.

You will also see that a SLIDER has appeared below the track. This enables you to control the audio level. When you have music playing under someone talking you will need to control the audio level so as to not drown out your interviewee with music.

Shoot and Edit Your Home Movies like a Pro (eBook with video examples + storyboards)

http://tiny.cc/iBookstore

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Many thanks to Andrew Dixon for use of his interiew.

Here is Andrew’s site:

http://www.andrewdixonartist.com/

Here is Moby’s site:

http://www.mobygratis.com/

Here is the sequence again.

Live it, don’t film it.

I wonder how many people, who go to a music gig, later regret spending their time filming it on a phone instead of simply enjoying the experience.

There was a rock gig recently where the band, The Lumineers, stopped playing and asked the audience to stop filming them.

I can understand people filming their friends who they have attended the gig with but not the band. It should remain in your head and your heart. No need to film it. It will not only look bad but also sound atrocious.

People don’t get a phone out at cinemas, theatres or art exhibitions. Maybe it is something in the soul of music fans in that they expect something for free all the time. Never satiated.

I expect Jimmy Hendrix’s album title ‘Are You Experienced’ make come to have a new meaning in the music gig arena.

Live it, don’t film it.

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