Help With Software Only Setup For Film/orchestra, Software, Orchestra library, etc. Options

[henryaz]

I'm a composer who years ago got tired of the distraction of technology and sold all of my synth equipment. I much prefer to work with traditional scoring. I've been lucky enough to have some of my works performed by professional bands, orchestras, and choirs.

I have an opportunity to write an orchestral score for a VERY low budget film, an opportunity I've been seeking for a while. My desire was to write the score and have the producer find someone else to realize it (hiring an orchestra is out of the question). His inquiries to his studio contacts failed to produce any takes, and he doesn't want to go the live musician direction -- even if the film was scored for chamber size.

So, I'm exploring the feasibility (from a cost & time point of view) of realizing the score myself. Here are the potential constraints and opportunities:

- Supporting a family of 4, I can not lose money on this proposition. So, what I get paid needs to cover the cost of my equipment. Once I determine what the costs will be, I will propose a contract that covers the purchases plus a little for myself.

- My priorities:
1) Quality of the final product;
2) Cost
3) Ease of use

(everybody's priorities, right?)

- I'm focused on a realistic orchestral output that I can sync to the film. I'm not interested in lots of bells & whistles. I don't even need real time output of the final product (but real time rough preview would probably be a necessity).

- Ideally, I'd like to be able to use the accumulated equipment & experience for future projects, too.

- My current (and relevant) equipment:
--- Emac G4 800MHz 512MB Superdrive with not much free hard space. OS 10.2.8 (an external fire wire hard disk is at the top of my wish list)
--- Sibelius 2.1.1
[Pretty sparse, eh? I should mention that 2 years ago I sold all my PCs and accumulated music software, too, to switch to Mac...]

- My first task is to score and realize a 2 minute trailer. If all goes well, all indications are that he'd hire me to do the 90 minute film. Therefore, it's conceivable that I could make a partial purchase of what I would need and have the trailer costs cover that, and then make more purchases once I had an agreement for the full film.

So, keeping in mind that this is a low budget film, what would be possible (and what are my tradeoffs) with, say:

- $500 (anything?)
- $1000
- $2000
- $4000

Thanks much!

[Dimora]

I also agree wholeheartedly with Ion. Garritan is the way to go for affordable and great sounding samples.

I have never used Logic Express so I am not sure if it will give you the adequate syncing you'd need. I use Digital Performer which is ideal for scoring but also pretty pricey. In the future I highly recommend investing in it.

I think mpmoceri has a good game plan for you though You will have all your bases covered with the what he's suggested and I know Logic Pro should more than cover any scoring needs.

Word of advice though, Garritan is pretty big and likes to gobble RAM. How much hard disk space do you have? You're going to need a bare minimum of 2GB for Garritan alone. 512MB of RAM isn't ideal for Garritan but it will do (I have just over that and manage alright by upping the buffers).

Also, I am not sure how fast you are with entering notation (since you said you work in the traditional mein of scoring and have Sibelius) if you are looking to REALLY cut corners you could export MIDI files into Logic or your proggie of choice and manipulate them that way but a Keyboard is pretty important....almost crucial. You will also need to have an understanding of MIDI modulation (e.g. expression) - that can be pretty daunting to deal with at first.....I think I may have said too much lol....Just a suggestion though that's how I used to work in college because I didn't have room for a keyboard in my room.