Joel Irwin: Music composer in Houston, Texas.

James Wunderlich Thank you!!! I appreciate that so much!

Gian Carlo Feoli Listening now! It's beautiful and so powerful. Wonderful job!

You're welcome

I took my first class "music fundamentals" in the summer of 2003. Before then I knew nothing formally about music and music notation. SO I was playing around with my DAW at the time (Sonar) and a sampler called Gigastudio. I had just acquired an orchestra suite known as "Moroslav". So my first piece had no reverb and was not aligned or clicktracked and was a bunch of experimental sections. It remains my benchmark of how far I have come since 2003:

https://soundcloud.com/joelirwin/secluded-beauty

The issue for me is the same as sort of when someone uses the word 'aspiring' - either you are or your not? I posted on this topic here a few months back and tried to differentiate the two by whether you get paid or not. But I'm not even sure of that anymore. Perhaps pay is associated with the word 'job'. And perhaps 'career' is associated with 'passion'. Be that it may, I am not sure whether my pursuit is rightly called a hobby or career. As I have scored 35 films the last 12 years and have been paid for for one - you tell me. And it took 25 years for my ASCAP royalties to make it to $14.55 - so what is my songwriting - career or hobby? I guess for me the bottom line is that the decision is sort of 'mute' - sort of whether I am or have been 'aspiring' or not.

That's awesome, Mark Gosney! I think that path is a great one, because I, like you, don't ever want the pressure to HAVE to create something. I'm a rebel, so you can imagine what happens when you tell me to do something. I think it's wonderful to have a part-time or full-time job (that you enjoy) that still allows time for creation. Best balance in my opinion.

That is a very good point Joel Irwin. It all depends on your mindset, perspective, and priorities. I do think for the purpose of my question, the difference between hobby and career had more to do with whether it paid your way, or if it (on taxes) was still considered a hobby. In our hearts, I think no matter what the monetary compensation is, our creations are our passions. And hobbies are often thought of as our passions. It's nice when we can make ends meet with our passions, but then there is the slippery slope of the pressure to do so. It's the biggest reason I didn't pursue a music career when I was thinking about jobs. I never wanted to lose my joy for it. And scoring 35 films?! That's pretty cool :)

Here is my website: www.thevoiceofleeloo.com. I am currently looking for work on any compositions that have the potential to get placed in TV or film.

I will wait for you to accept my request so I can send you a message :)

I haven't used it, but my friend Leo did an amazing demo with it. When you don't have access to singers and little or no budget with high expectations I can sure see where it'd be a welcomed piece of software to master. Of course it would be easier, better, faster, more fun with singers in the studio.

https://youtu.be/XiQRHs8NBKc?feature=shared

This is what I used to hear say 25 years about Gigastudio orchestral samples, "when you don't have access to instruments and little to no budget with high expectations...."

I know what you mean. I spent $5.6k on a Mac Studio two weeks ago. Before that I was working on an intel iMac that I paid maybe $2.7k for and it worked perfectly for 5 years doing this stuff. It ran Sibelius, Dorico, Digital Performer, all the VSL and Spitfire stuff, and Kontakt 8 all day long. You don't have to jump ship. You'd just add to the fleet.....and you're worth it! Credit card that muv! lol

This is what I found out from a search now on Dorico - VST 2.

https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/206899770-How-to-use-V...

I' not really using Sib. 7.5 anymore; I made the leap at beg. of the Dorico announcement, and I'm able to use NI 11 +, and other 3rd party software: Enbertone strings, and Spitfire programs. Wow, learning the SoundPaint interface is quite interesting for sure. I'm not answering your questions, .. only my experiences.

From my above link, looks like there are ways to use VST 2 sounds. Do a little more homework.. I'm off a Zoom call with a new short movie. ... Yea !! Lots of work for this short.

Hence the LLC I set up a few years ago! :~). www.kerrykennard.com - I have two gigs this weekend and had a friend / client pay for the percussion recording this week. First inquiry for Conga lessons came through the updated website this morning. No Hobby here!

Business can be such a creative journey, right? Just like in this artwork, it’s all about finding those unique opportunities and looking at things from a fresh angle. Real estate, for example, isn’t just about buying properties; it’s about exploring markets that are really on the rise. I actually started looking into real estate abroad and stumbled upon some great options in the Philippines https://mlsworldwide.com/en/sale-venezuela had listings that opened my eyes to the potential there. Sometimes, stepping outside the usual places can bring really cool investment ideas you might not have thought of!

Perhaps if you're somewhere in between you could call it a career

I’m really liking Dorico. I watched several tutorials. Some from them and I grabbed the Groove 3 and Udemy courses. I did my first arr using Dorico this week and it went pretty smooth. Took me longer than if I’d used Sibelius because I don’t have the key commands memorized yet. So things that I wanted to do I’d have to google or refer to the vids again, but I’m happy with the experience of it. One thing that got me right off the bat was working in the full score and then hitting “w” to look at parts. The parts from jump looked pretty darn good. Sure, if I was handing them out to players there was tweaking to do, but I printed them all out so I could play it in and I didn’t tweak anything and it was great for that. I can see that I can prepare charts much faster than usual. Plus the stock samples are better sounding to me. I have Note Performer, but haven’t tried it yet in Dorico. Glad I made the purchase. :)

Linwood Bell - try the drop down for each different part.

Yes, Dorico seems faster and cleaner / has less hit problems than Sibelius 7.5.

W - huh ? Hmm have not heard about this Key command for Showing parts. I usually use the Drop down menu to go to each instrument.

The version 5.1 manual is always helpful as well.

You can find the manual from Steinberg, I doing a Google search on it. I have it - if you need a copy.

Can I email it to you ?

Yes, some of Dorico’s HALion sounds are really nice! One of the Sax sounds has the real nice flutter nuances as well as the slide effect between notes. There’s the actual noise too - adjustable to your liking.

Thanks...I've got it all. :) The "w" key command was used in Sibelius for parts as well. I've still got an active Sibelius license for almost another year. I've got 20 years worth of "stuff" written in it that I need to deal with. I'll batch export to xml and be done with it. Lotta stuff to organize in the next few months and no joy in doing it.

Here's what I did in Dorico, btw. I played rhodes, bass, and drums in digital performer along with the vocal. ( That's my friend, Elisa. She was a bg singer for Prince.) Then I exported that midi to Dorico and wrote the chart there. Then printed it all out and played those parts back into DP and bingo. In Sibelius I use to be able to just bounce an mp3 and import that into Sibelius and write against it and that way I could hear the vocal as you're writing the chart. I don't think you can do that in Dorico (?) I tried, but couldn't figure it out. In .sib you just import it like you would a movie and it worked. It's a nice touch. https://www.linwoodbell.com/clientdownloads/Love%20Dance.mp3

Does the Director write the work for Hire most of the time, Joel ?

I read the first one is Atlanta. Are you close to this area ? I heard Atlanta has a good film industry.

I’m in Ohio and there’s a few things going on.

In Dublin / Columbus area there’s a new Studio for film/ Hollywood style production supposedly going up and being built.

Thanks for the story / info. to help us in our Composing careers. KK

If you want to see what classes there are for composers, go to the education tab and search by topic. That was recently updated to make finding specific topics easier.

My overall point is/was that he emails are all or nothing - everybody gets everything without any regard to interests. On your last comment for example, I can choose only to get emails on all educational opportunities - not just the ones of interest to composers.

I have been stage32 participant for well over 10 years and honor you for your choice to help out. However, the current support paradigm is not particularly effective. Though I agree with you that nothing is unlikely to change with the current coding model. For example, I have complained for over 5 years how difficult it is to edit an original post in a lounge or that you can attach pictures but not pdf's (which is how us composers share and discuss scores).

I just went ahead and turned everything off. shame - but too many irrelevant emails for me.

P.S. - this post was originally in the composing lounge. I am not sure why it was moved to acting but am a sure there is a legitimate explanation :)

Joel Irwin On editing. Hi John, you can go to the down arrow ^ at the top right of your post and click on it. There are lots of options there and one includes EDIT

Hi Joel, will there be a singer on the tune, Pooh ?

Flute does sound fairly real, … maybe make a little warmer sounding - if possible.

I used to EQ on some of my tracks; one is from logic Pro, and the other is from native instruments. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t., so I’ll turn one off, making sure it sounds more natura.

One small suggestion, .. is it possible to end at the 2:40 mark ? Thr other last bars seems a repeat of previous and to the IV chord right ? - before the end ?

It is something I learned recently, keeping it shorter and ending with the A section.

- from Michele Maslin

Otherwise, it’s a more piece !!

Keep submitting!

Kerry Kennard

When I create this type of file there is no intent for it to be considered a production file. I call it more of a manifestation file - it give the lyricist one way (in addition to the lead sheet with melody and chords), for the lyricist to 'imagine' the tune in order to lay down lyrics. I spend no time to 'fine tune' the piece. I picked flute for female and clarinet for male merely as place markers. On my previous collaboration, the imagined file I sent was not used at all. The melody was changed to accommodate the lyrics and the lyricist both sung and totally produced it herself in her studio. My total involvement was the melody and suggestions for chords and arrangements. When I collaborate on a song, I often find the track produced is many times 'better' in my judgement than anything I could have arranged and produced myself (as was the case in "In Can").

Check out the previous song I collaborated on: https://www.soundcloud.com/joelirwin/i-can

Sounds good, Joel. It’s perfect for giving them a clear idea of how you envision it and then you can work on it together later and tweak if needed. We are lucky that we can use samples and get our ideas out without having to hire anyone.

Hey, Joel Irwin. Hope you're doing great. What's your favorite genre to write in?

I love written lead sheets and big band charts and get to hear them played and improvised live.