Thread: basic books or courses on music for fim/video?

Hi!
I'm a violinist and guitarist. I have my own home studio [fast PC with Samplitude Pro V8, decent mics and preamps, Yamaha S-90 and synth modules, East West gold symphony etc]. I compose and perform and record my originals. I'm expecting a project shortly to put music to a one hour video.

I'm looking for books or courses etc that will give me the information I need on the technical aspects of writing for video/film but written in a very non-technical manner. Not looking for info on composing, or on marketing. Just want to get a good grasp of practical how to's of doing this stuff in the computer etc. In general and then more specifically in Samplitude.

cheers
Dave
www.violindave.com

Here is a great list online. Some of these won't be relevant, but many of them are exactly the stuff you're looking for:

http://www.filmsound.org/filmmusic/filmmusic-books.htm

For classic film sounds, the Mancini book listed in there, "Sounds and Scores," is awesome! It comes with a CD to examine excerpts in depth, too.

To that, I'd also add a couple of Berklee Press books, too. For general info, try the "Complete Guide to Film Scoring." And for orchestration guidance for hip arrangements, try "Modern Jazz Voicings." Here's a link to that one: http://www.berkleepress.com/catalog/...&category_id=7

And of course, just listen to everything you can. That's the best non-technical learning you can do. Get the soundtracks, and watch the stuff in context in films, too. I'm partial to Morricone, Mancini, Michael Nyman (especially the crazy scores for Peter Greenaway's films!), Rota, Angelo Badalamenti, and John Barry. And there are so many new good film composers out there, it's impossible to list them all.

And I'll second that Adler book, too. That was the orchestration text I used in college--it's a good one.

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