Big Dramatic Music Scores - Volume One

I guess it is rare for Whitebeetle to release three royalty free music complilation CDs in a few days but that is what has happened and now our royalty free music CD category has thirty five CD titles. We expect this number to grow steadily in the coming months as we prepare for yet more compilation releases.

Today's release is really directed at both amateur and professional filmakers and video game producers, the title is Big Dramatic Scores - Volume One and it contains fifteen excellent music scores. In fact all fifteen music scores capture many different dramatic moods ranging from, for example, aggressive, angry, confrontational, dangerous, dark to disturbing, epic, explosive, haunting, intense, menacing, ominous, serious, Sinister and much more.

The styles also range from contemporary electronic with excellent sound stage and great percussion to more classic styles incorporating full Orchestral treatments with very sensitive and powerful compositions and movements available. The range of modern ambient, orchestral and electronic themes is breathtaking on this compilation, with a wide selection of instrumentation, sentiment and themes on offer.

To check out all the tracks included on Big Dramatic Scores - Volume One please visit www.whitebeetle.com. For the trailer version just check out our soundcloud channel below.

Thanks everyone,  John

Royalty Free Horror Music - Two Volume Release

Hello Everybody.

just a little post to announce the release of two volumes of royalty free horror music:

Both volumes are exceptionally well produced and contain a variety of special effects, sound stage techniques and top quality instrumentation ranging from male and female choirs, excellent percussion items, full and part orchestral arrangements to modern synthesiser effects and rock guitar. Volume One contains eleven royalty free music underscores and volume two contains twelve  royalty free music underscores . Enjoy!! Horror Music Compilation - Volume One & Two by whitebeetleltd

Mastered music for film: musicans beware

I was reading a forum post the other on the subject of film music and how it has become poorer due to cheap computers and music software. The guy's main point was that if you spend peanuts you get monkeys. Of course in many ways he is right but there still seems to be a lot of snobbery around the written to script composers; the library composer being more of a poor country cousin. What is interesting, though is many script composers are dishing up plenty of library music or royalty free music too.

To be fair, library composers are not working to a script so cannot adjust to dialogue et al; they create general moods, ambiances etc and while their equipment maybe cheap it does not negate a composer's' musical abilities. Secondly even composers lucky enough to be working to a script will have to have pieces "ducked" in places. Ducking, if yo do not know, is automatic compression applied to one audio source (i.e the music) so you can hear one of the other audio sources (i.e the dialogue).

The digital age has changed so much for musicians and film makers alike, it seems anyone can do either these days but one idiom always remains true: the cream always rises to the top. It is not all black and white though, some library composers are really on the money and some, mainly the inexperienced fall into the classic pitfalls of trying to master their own material and even upto 0dbs (mixed down material should not go above -6dbs).

The problem is musicians/composers do not really know how to master or normalize music though some appreciate what skills are required. Sure there are plenty of plugins out there that can used for these purposes but would you give the keys of your car to a blind man?

Crucially most studios and home studios will not give you properly mastered gear, because it is not their job (it is expensive and beyond their abilities). So buying something off some website, it may sound good, it probably is good but mostly it will not have graced the confines of a pucca mastering suite where all that mud, screeching highs and exaggerated bass can be controlled and refined. Composers should be working and mixing down to 24bit/96kz. Most studios, even home studios are at least mixing down to 24bit/96khz these days... 48khz is not so common these days but in terms of mix down quality, you may occasionally get higher quality if you ask: 24bit/196 khz though the project has to started at these rates, you cannot convert up and expect things to sound better. Though it is argued that 192khz is a salesman gimmick as no one seems to hear the difference between audio recorded at 24bit/96khz and 24bit/192khz.

Properly mastered audio will playback fine on any system. If you've got pops and clicks then, as is usually the case with cheap solutions, someone has not done their job properly (remember to crossfade guys)... you need GOOD headphones to hear some pops and clicks - like some sennheiser HD 650s. That said, getting rid of them is another headache.

Bottom end is a problem as it is difficult to gauge if you do not have the right mixing environment or speakers and only a mastering engineer (the guy that makes sure your sound is good) can properly gauge and treat/control frequencies below 80 hz as well as those above. Most music producers/composers are very conservative in this area and "roll off" (eliminate) anything below 40 hz to increase headroom for where the meat is at, i,e the real punch and dynamics. You're getting low now and from there on in it is sweet and pure Sub bass which is a very technical area and knowing how to to side chain and how to use a multi-band compressor is just the start of going "down there" and getting it right, this is not for your typical film guy to play around with.

Happily though, most music does not go below 40 hz.. yeah your action film sound effects, r and b  and other types of bassy pop music and dub reggae push the super low end hard and here, of course proper mastering is utterly essential.

So it all comes back to whether the music has been mastered professionally or not. Loads of films out there have amateur recordings plastered all over them (but they've been mastered first) and they cash in on it too.. i.e the punters like that intimate lo-fi sound: and there is nothing wrong with that unless you are trying to remake "Ben Hur" or "The Sound Of Music".


Cheers,

John

Classical Remakes CD - Volume One

White Beetle Ltd proudly presents Classial Remakes CD - Volume One. Containing 21 Classical music themes all reworked with contemporary styled production. Including famous works from Bach, Beethoven, Bizet, Borodin, Brahms, Gluck, Mozart, Offenbach, Pachelbel, Rossini, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Vivaldi . All titles are given a modern reworking from talented compoer/arranger Alex Khaskin. A variety of emotions and modern styles, such as pop, drum and bass, ambient, Latin pop and electronic dance music are on offer. The detail of the original versions have been highly respected and it is this merging of Classical instruments and melodies with modern arrangements and beats that makes for such an exciting and innovative royalty free music collection.

So if you have ever wondered what "Four Seasons" sounds like with a modern pop/dance treatment then look no further. The skill of the arranger/producer results in a very accomplished collection of adaptations of famous Classical and Baroque pieces. Each piece has its own web page where additional information is available on the reworking and also interesting trivia and details on the composers lives and works. From a professional perspective this CD compilation should prove an excellent addition to the media producers audio library not least for those working in commercial film, corporate film and commercial advertising.

Thanks for reading,

John

Two royalty free music CDs released today!

Today we have released two Royalty Free Music collections, the one shown above, Film Music Collection CD - Volume One (containing an eclectic mix of twelve modern film scores) and the one shown below: Lounge Jazz CD - Volume One (containing no less than fourteen very cool contemporary Lounge Jazz pieces). Both CD's contain great quality contemporary music that is eminently suitable for media producers working in film, televsion, radio, advertising, video games and the corporate world. We are really happy to present these two compilations as they both come from one of our top composers, Peter Schreiber. Media producers familiar with his work will testify to its high quality, accessibility and contemporary feel.

The Film Music Collection CD - Volume One, as you might expect is aimed at the film maker, particularly film makers fo limited means who need very high quality music at affordable price.
The beauty of this actual release is that each piece contains several different movements so if used wisely, with good editing skills, one can adapt one piece of music to several music beds.

The Lounge Jazz CD - Volume One oozes sophistication and charm and should attract the media producer in general, including television and radio advertising as well as corporate and web media producers. As ever, price is an important issue and as always we are working to offer great quality music at great prices with very interesting license options. With this in mind, our returning customers know that we suceed where many others fail. Please feel free to explore these new compilations at www.whitebeetle.com. Thanks for now, John

G.711 Music On Hold

Hi there everyone, just a shortish announcement to say we have now added the G.711 standard to all our individual music on hold/MOH products with CD compilations in G.711 A-law/G.711 u-Law formats coming soon.

The reason why we have added the G.711 A-law/G.711 u-Law format to our individual MOH products is because we often get customers asking us if we can do the conversion from wav or mp3 format to G.711 A-law/G.711 u-Law because their telephone systems will only accept G.711 A-law or G.711 u-Law. So, having the G.711 A-law/G.711 u-Law formats readily available should save time for our customers.

Why are there two different formats you may ask? Well, while G.711 A-law and G.711 u-Law are very similar they are not the same and telephony systems in Europe have been developed to work with the G.711 u-Law while in the US and Japan telephony systems use G.711 A-law.

To prevent clients from buying the wrong version we have bundled both products together. So when a client downloads the zip file they will find two folders inside, one containing the G.711 A-law format and the other containing G.711 u-Law.

Confusion over u-law, mu-law and µ-law is common place, so what is the difference you ask? Well, first thing is that all three refer to the same algorithim and format. The correct name is µ-law but because "µ" looks like a run of the mill "u" some people call the format "u-law" instead of "µ-law". Okay fair enough you say, so why "mu-law"? Where does that come in? Well the "µ" symbol is from the Greek alphabet and guess what? It is pronounced "mu"! So we have the scientific name µ-law, the visual interpretation u-law and last but not least the aural interpetation mu-law. Clear as mud, I know.

So just to recap, White Beetle Ltd now offers its individual MOH products in the following formats:

WAV 41100 khz (stereo)
MP3 320Kbit (stereo)
G.711 A-law/G.711 u-Law (mono, 8-bit,8khz)

That's it for now, thanks for your time.

John

iMovie & Royalty Free Music

Hi there,

just been playing around with iMovie at home, not something I normally would use and I was amazed at the great features and effects included; such as Ken Burns effect, the transitioning tools and also the title effect which also allow you to use your own fonts.

Also, using music, splicing and fading is really easy. I've used some of whitebeetle's royalty free music catalogue for this little video, in particular from the composer Alex Khaskin. The video footage is in the public domain and was shot by C E Price, while the stills are from my own colllection.

Just a bit of fun but you can see good results fast and this makes iMovie & www.whitebeetle.com great choices for getting your media out there fast.

Cheers,

John