My latest project

Scaler 2 General Discussion
1

One of my New Year’s Resolutions (I don’t have many…actually, I don’t REALLY have any…) is to be less shy about sharing my work.

My primary DAW composing focus has been scoring slideshows of several travels through the UK with my wife (I’m from the US). It’s an odd sort of conceit, I suppose; posting pictures of our vacation online, with original music, expecting The World to care about either. But then, isn’t all publicly shared creative media a product of conceit to some degree? Another time, another discussion…

Anyway, our obsession is exploring castles, cathedrals, monastic ruins and old British churches. I call my series “The Old Bits”, partly because we focus on old structures, and because I think of ourselves as the Two Old Bits, both of us being over 60.

My latest project, about 10 minutes in length, is linked below. I used Scaler on all but the first track - in some cases I used Scaler midi patterns, but migrated to different instruments, and in a few I edited the notes Scaler gave me. I violated all kinds of rules about chord progressions - I just used what sounded right to me.

I’ve done 9 of these projects so far - seven with original music, and the last four with Scaler in my toolkit. I use Studio One and one little midi keyboard. I’m a rusty, aged guitarist, and can’t play keys at all. I’m also not very skilled at mixing.

I have photos laid out for the next project, but no music yet.

Anyway, in case anyone has interest, link below. Grateful to be part of this knowledgeable and supportive community, and very grateful for Scaler. Cheers and best wishes for a redemptive 2022 to all.

The Old Bits: Chapter 8

5 Likes
2

The idea to make music for our own slideshows and movies is cool

I use my music in almost all my nature videos, while looking at my shoots I usually play famous songs
but maybe I’ll change my habit following you
:smiley:

BTW, I am a fan of medieval architecture as well, and Gothic art also

1 Like
3

Thanks Claudio ! The first slideshow I did, about a year and a half ago, I used music from Mike Oldfield (“Ommadawn”) and Ian Boddy (“Veil”), two pieces I have always appreciated and I thought fit the visuals well.

But of course, when I published them to YouTube, I got hit immediately with copyright restrictions, and as a result, that video is not available for viewing in the United Kingdom. The next one I did, I used a stock music service, copyright-free, and the music was VERY good…but it wasn’t mine. After that, I decided to just compose music myself.

Would like to see/hear your work sometime, if available online.

3 Likes
4

I’m glad one of your New Years resolutions has been to share your music.
Congratulations. It is a beautiful presentation with music very appropriate to the images. Thanks for sharing, DaveK58

5

Sure, not a problem Dave

there are a few videos with my music: one in the Pre-Scaler era like this one

And a few others in the Post-Scaler era
for example, this one or this one

6

Thank you for the kind words, sir.

7

Very nice, Claudio. A true nature-lover ! I’m afraid my Italian isn’t very good, but I enjoyed the images very much.

I have given some thought to adding narration to my videos, but for now, I prefer to just do the music.

1 Like
8

That is wonderful @DaveK58 ! Both the photos, presentation and the music. I do a lot a photography (also have a Nikon D5200), but it never occurred to me to do a slide show with custom music for the purpose of chronicling/presenting one of my trips. I guess I did use some of my photos to come up with visuals to an existing recording for a jam I did with some folks online. But not in the sense to keep a travel diary, that idea was inspiring!

1 Like
9

Thank @Bernd , appreciate the kind words. We have something like 45000 photos from our 6 trips over to the UK, I thought I really should DO something with them. And composing the music just came to me when I got hit with a copyright claim - it’s fun, because it’s teaching me music composition as well as working in a DAW: I had really no experience with either two years ago.

And…being unemployed for a year and a half gave me plenty of free time. Have since been re-employed, these things take somewhat longer to assemble now.

10

Glad to hear that you’ve found employment again. I’ve been in the same boat, not so much because I got laid off, but because I lost my energy that I usually draw from travelling and meeting folks in person. That’s why the Scaler forum has become so helpful, to meet new folks to relate to and have a connection with.

On the topic of making our own soundtracks, I am working on creating a video series for professional training (I work in data analytics/technology architecture), and I was thinking how I wanted some casual background music without getting into the whole copyright claim stuff. So if you or anyone wants to collaborate on that (no money in it, but could help with credits/showcasing your work?)

11

That being said, I am also looking into learning “story telling”, both in terms of presentation narrative, but also musically. Not in the sense of writing a musical, but fitting background music to the visual presentation and didactic narrative. I’d imagine that are ways to underline questions/answers, suspense, or oddities with a fitting chord progression etc.

12

There absolutely are but not necessarily progressions but tonality and musical color as well.

13

I am available Bernd
Select any song you find useful on my SoundCloud page, and I’ll send you the MP3, MIDI or whatever you need
Let me know