This project has been technically challenging but extremely rewarding. Working towards a client project is something I haven’t really experienced before so I felt like I was thrown into the deep end with it. However, I found myself thinking of my client as a regular customer at work which helped the experience.
Building a rapport wasn’t 100% necessary for this project as I was working for my older brother, so we were already on the same page and both really excited to finally be able to work together. I found it really important to approach questions, that either myself or Nick had, differently depending on the information that I needed to be able to gain, this is something that I have already reflected upon in my blog. Being able to match Nick’s needs for the project was a steep learning curve for myself; I wanted to be able to create the piece of music that I had in mind but as I am still learning how to utilize orchestral instruments within a virtual environment I had a lot of work to put in. David pointed me in the direction of Spitfire Audio and specifically the video LCO Strings – How To Blend Dry & Ambient Libraries Together which discusses the technique of mixing and automating VST orchestral instruments together. Videos such as this combined with producers such as Varien and his videos on creating virtual orchestral music made a huge diffrence in how I have thought about approaching my mix and hopefully has transferred into the end product.
Throughout the entire process I have been sending Nick various arrangements and mixes back and forth to get his opinion and tailor the sound to his needs. He has been relatively happy and in the instances that he wasn’t, he sent me reference tracks to keep the project on track. An example would be when discussing the strings sections, Nick couldn’t explain musically what he was expecting, so he referred me to the Menu Theme of Tomb Raider 2. This worked really well in being able to communicate ideas back and forth in a language we could both understand.
Learning how to extract information from a client has been one of the biggest benefits I’ve had from doing the project. It is a skill which I have found incredibly useful and is something that will be used in any client based work I do in the future.
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