[LAU] LV2, DSSI and the future of plugins

[Paul Davis]

On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 4:42 PM,  <fons at kokkinizita.net> wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 04:24:07PM -0500, Paul Davis wrote:

>> but if you're someone who writes soundtracks for ads, tv shows or
>> films, the tools available now totally outshine what was available
>> 10-15 years ago. and that part is not BS.
>
> True, but these are tools targeted at one particular type of output,
> whatever marketing demands at any time. People are already getting
> tired of overcompressed audio, re-aligned drums, and the endless
> repetition of the same cheap effects. Much of this will be obsolete
> sooner than you'd expect.

i have 3 friends in the phila. area who do soundtrack and ad work.
they mostly layer their own performances on acoustic or electrical
instruments over rhythm tracks that they assemble from samples and
loops. they know all about the loudness wars, and it doesn't really
make much difference to them because their stuff is going to be merged
with voice-overs and FX work anyway, quite possibly ducked repeatedly.
they sometimes have to come up with 5 or 6 30 to 120 sec "pieces" in a
day, and tools that let them build rhythm tracks quickly, layer
repeated instances of their melodic/harmonic ideas throughout the
piece, quickly "master" it and move on are invaluable.

why does this matter? they get paid more, and get paid more frequently
to do this kind of work than other musician friends of mine. their
music has a larger "audience", but its an audience that isn't actually
listening to what they do - their work merely provides color or
texture or (often) some kind of geographic reference to a visual
experience. the tools they rely on have been created for what i sense
is now one the of the most common paid jobs a musician can have today.
i would guess that more music is written for this purpose than
anything else in contemporary western culture. i could be wrong, but
it has to be a close 2nd :)

the interesting part is that they prefer to use a quite different
workflow when they switch into "self-expression" mode (i.e. actually
playing music that means something to them).