Technologically, too, there has been tremendous growth in this area over the past few years. More and more companies are embracing the higher bit rates of advanced digital media and providing cleaner and quieter music and sounds in the process. The means of delivery are also changing rapidly: Though traditional CD-ROMs are still a highly popular and effective medium, increasingly clients are auditioning and buying material online--satisfaction can be just a few mouse-clicks away.

One thing that has not changed is the broad spectrum of businesses involved in music and sound content creation: Some are essentially solitary operations, with a single composer or sound shaper, perhaps with minimal administrative support, working in small, single-studio spaces and selling mostly to local clients. Others employ multiple composers and engineers, bring in top musicians to advanced multi-room facilities, and deal regularly with the top echelon of production companies. And, of course, there are a million levels in between: niche/specialty providers; mid-level facilities that cater to regional and some national clientele; broad-based multimedia providers who attempt to serve every level of customer.

Our hope for The Sampler is that it broadens your horizons by showing the depth and breadth of the industry and by spotlighting business and technological trends. We will talk about vital issues that pertain to the world of production music and sound effects libraries, and about the tools and techniques that have put some companies firmly on the cutting edge. Yes, this is a competitive business environment, but it is also a creative community filled with artisans who are dedicated to advancing the state of the art and are inventing new means and methods for doing just that.

The Sampler will be most successful if you tell us what you would like to read about: Project profiles? Equipment reviews? Tips and techniques? Industry news? This truly can be molded to your wants, but you have to tell us what's on your mind. Together, we can create a product that reflects both the incredible vitality of this business and the practical, solution-oriented mindset of its most successful practitioners.

So drop us a line!

Blair Jackson
Editor
The Sampler
blair@blairjackson.com

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Cakewalk Project5
By Frank McMahon

Video producers are always struggling with soundtrack creation. Some of us use off-the-shelf, royalty-free music beds, some hire musicians, and others create their own arrangements. Cakewalk's Project5 software for Windows is designed for those who want to create their own music. Not that it's quick and easy--but with a little time, you can come up with some really wonderful scores.

To read the rest of this review, click here.

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When overnight shipping can't get it there in time, choose Q-Disc from CSS Music to download entire royalty-free CD Volumes. From Download to Your CD-R in 30 minutes. No expensive overnight shipping or sales tax. Single track downloads also available. For more information call 800-468-6874 or visit www.cssmusic.com

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Inside Info
CSS Music
Los Angeles-based Creative Support Services (CSS) Music features royalty-free music in dozens of different styles, from classical to contemporary. The company's many libraries are available on CD-ROM and either single-track or bulk downloads, or through their popular UltraEdit hard drive, which, according to CSS's Mike Fuller, offers about 10,000 tracks on a hard drive that has a built-in interactive search and retrieval system. "We have to be ever more responsive to niches within the marketplace and to the person who's used to having a large library to work with and who does a lot of production. That person immediately sees the advantage of UltraEdit, which at just $1,995 is less than half the price of the same libraries," Fuller says.

He notes that the material is available in MP3 or the increasingly popular MP4 format. Asked about the practical difference between the two formats to potential buyers, Fuller says, "it's a little like the difference between a CD and a CD that's been dubbed onto the finest metal cassette you can find. The MP3 is like that fine chrome cassette. The quality is high. But MP4 is about 30 percent more efficient, it encodes a lot faster and at higher quality for less effort. In actual listening tests I've conducted, and which Apple computer have conducted, very trained ears cannot tell the difference between an MP4 at, say, 128 versus CD audio.

"We have about 14 national television programs currently using our MP4s and they have no problems with it. Six months ago those same producers were insistent that it be .WAV files. But the quality is so good on the MP4, and the conversion of an MP3 or MP4 [to .WAV] for use in Pro Tools is almost instantaneous."

Fuller adds, "The single track download phenomenon, which we've been in since 1997, has exploded and the main reason is people want to get what they want when they want it regardless of their economic situation."

For more info, go to www.cssmusic.com.

FirstCom Music
Located in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, FirstCom Music has been a top player in the Southwestern music library market for many years. With more than 35,000 titles to choose from, FirstCom prides itself on having a broad and up-to-date catalog--just their sports music area includes titles such as Serious Sweat, Thrash TV, and Rock V3. But other timely sets include Electronica 2, Hip Hop 3, Latin Promos, Funky Horns, and Electro Lounge.

FirstCom Music senior vice-president and executive producer Ken Nelson is also excited about the company's new EVO Unplugged series, which is part of their Acoustic Underscores offering. "EVO Unplugged features premium acoustic guitar performances from top musicians and unsigned bands," Nelson says. The discs in this series are all new, original recordings, created specifically for EVO. The initial releases in the series include Acoustic Chemistry and Acoustic Masters V1, which will be available in November of 2004. Future EVO Unplugged series releases will feature guitarists Randall Bays, Alex DeGrassi, Doug Smith, and Ray Russell, among others.

FirstCom's MusiQuick offers online search, audition and download services for either MP3 or full-res .AIFF files. Additionally, the EVO website contains easily accessible bonus tracks not available on CD-ROM. FirstCom expects to have a refinement of MusiQuick, called MusiQuick Local, available in January.

One other noteworthy area FirstCom is involved with is surround music. "With the onslaught of HDTV, DVD, and other formats that utilize surround sound, the need for surround product is going to grow. FirstCom was literally the first company to come out with the true surround sound production music," says Cristy Coffey, advertising/marketing manager.

For more info, go to www.firstcom.com.

RCB Music Library/Barclasion Music
Originally from Oklahoma City, where he played in bands and worked successfully scoring radio and television commercials and programs, Rick Barclay has spent the last several years in Valrico, Fla., offering his musical services to a broad array of clients. "I'm a keyboardist and percussionist. I have a degree in music. I've done music basically all my life," he comments. "Right now my operation is kind of small, but it's been growing, and we've established a good client base for the different services we offer."

Working out of his own Higher Ground Studio, Barclay generates both original, custom music and material for his ever-expanding music librararies, which he makes available to clients on a subscription basis. "I'm using a lot of SoftSynths and I also have a Kurzweil, and I use Pro Tools," he says. "I know a lot of people use Digital Performer for sequencing, but I've learned to get around the limitations of the sequencer in Pro Tools, and I'm using that. I'm finding that so many people are working in Pro Tools these days it makes sense to go in that direction."

Barclay's music is available both on CDs and by download, and he says he works hard at staying current, so his clients have the latest sounds to work with. "The advertiser is counting on you to know what's hot and happening musically, so I try to stay on top of things," he says. "I also have a couple of CDs I've done for the library that hit all sorts of different styles. The other thing I'm trying to do with the library is, because I'm the composer and I can work so quickly and efficiently here, if a client hears a track [on a library] that they like, but they'd like this instrument out or they want some variation of what's on there, I can provide a custom mix for a small additional fee."

For more info, go to www.rcbmusiclibary.com.

Sonic Implants
Audio industry veterans will likely know the name Jennifer Hruska--she was an acclaimed sound designer/developer for Kurzweil for many years before going solo and forming a company called Sonic Network, based in Somerville, Mass. Sonic Network has two principal divisions: Sonic Implants, which is a retail product line of professional and consumer sound libraries; and Sonic Mobular, which is a mobile audio software technology product line, licensed to semiconductor and wireless device companies.

Given Hruska's background, it's not surprising to learn that Sonic Implants specializes in high quality samples and libraries. "Our big thing is making the sounds as real, natural, and life-like as we can," notes marketing director Al Jolsen. "Some [libraries] have too much ambience in their samples, while others are really dry. We take a middle approach--we believe it's easier to add ambience than it is to take away. But we also want people to be able to buy our samples and not have a tremendous amount of work to make them sound good."

Because the Sonic Implants series caters to a broad range of clients, including musicians, producers, game developers, and others, many of whom work in different formats, their CD-ROM, DVD, and downloadable music and sound collections are available in Gigasampler, Kontakt, Logic EXS, Soundfont, Kurzweil, and Akai formats.

Sonic Implants takes great pride in the quality of their recordings. While many are made at their inhouse facility, they also work outside it--for instance, its acclaimed Symphonic Brass collection features the Boston Pops Orchestra recorded at an acoustically superior Boston-area space called The Sonic Temple. The recordings had superior signal chain: B&K 4011, Schoeps CMC and Neumann U67 microphones, into Benchmark MPS-400 four-channel preamps and Troisi Octal DC8-224ADC eight-channel A/D converters, to Tascam DA-98 HR 24-bit recorders.

For more info, go www.sonicimplants.com.

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