Award-Winning music Composing for Marvel, now leveling up Bands & Record Producers

Avoid the Uncanny Valley of Music

Avoiding the Musical Uncanny Valley — what exactly is that? It’s a common unsettling feeling people experience when audio/visual simulations closely resemble humans in many respects but are not quite convincingly realistic. This is the metaphorical expiration date on the timelessness of your music. One of the main objectives we should be aiming for is to make our music timeless, unforgettable, and the highest quality we can.

Do you remember your first time seeing CGI in a movie or on television?

The Mummy Returns (2001)

the #1 example of “fake”

Have you revisited that same film or show recently, and noticed anything funny? CGI is an incredibly powerful artform that is so beyond the comprehension of someone like me. I have a huge amount of respect for CGI artists. But most CGI artists will tell you that their job is to make their artform as realistic as possible, and for as far into the future as they can. It needs to be believable.

 

  • One of the most notably artificial layers on records and songs I hear is insourced writing with VST choir and orchestra libraries. Insourced, meaning: I can tell either someone in the band gave it their best shot - or - the producer gave it a go at cracking open a VST choir orchestra library and plugging in some MIDI. Sadly, this is where the production quality suffers the most - and when I say “sadly”, I mean it. It’s a shame when something that’s otherwise exciting and flawless in it’s production is marred by the very obvious Musical Uncanny Valley typically found with insourced composing.

it’s important that you hire an expert composer for orchestra and/or synths

How do you avoid the Uncanny Valley of music on your own?

  • If you want to be timeless, and sound as authentic and believable as possible, you have to become an expert at understanding proper composing for all 4 main members of the orchestra family: bowed strings, woodwind, brass, and percussion (not to mention keyboards and the guitar family).

  • Next bridge you’ll have to cross is becoming a wizard at understanding the mechanics for all 40+ instruments in an orchestra and how their dozens of techniques per instrument translate to composing with VST (Virtual Studio Technology) synthesizers.

  • This is the biggest mistake a band or producer can make: using choir VST libraries without understanding how voice works. The human voice is our natural instrument. Using a VST choir library incorrectly is a bad enough offense, but nothing is worse than identifying vowels and words from libraries other people use too. It takes us out of the moment instantaneously.

  • There’s more facets to what it entails to do this line of work than I think you’d be interested in reading, so just skip to the section “How to Completely Avoid the Uncanny Valley of Music”

How to Completely Avoid the Musical Uncanny Valley

  1. Hire someone like me. I do all of that, and I have a team of people who work with me.

Check out my Band & Record Producer Composing Reel

  • It was January of 2021, and one of my favorite producers reached out to me via Facebook. He asked if I’d be up for adding some cinematic and composer-centric elements to an album. That producer was Jens Bogren (Opeth, Devin Townsend), and the band was the legendary Amorphis. Working on “Halo” for Amorphis illustrated a path for me to follow in parallel to my career as a composer for film/tv/games. Working with bands & producers keeps me active in the music community I was practically raised in as a metal musician from age 16 in 2002 to now.

Benefits of working with a composer who has been involved in the band world for 20 years, but works in film/series/video games/trailers:

  • There’s only so much bands can do to stand out in today’s day and age — that’s where film/tv/video game composers like me come into play.

  • There’s not a whole lot I wont understand about the process of working with a band.

  • All of the obstacles and struggles are very close to home for me

    • Budgets are constantly ebbing and flowing with the wind

    • Sometimes that budget is out-of-pocket, and there isn’t much of it

    • Emotional attachment to the music and story

    • Fighting to control the end result and maximizing the creativity

    • The quality expectations for the ever-changing music listener/record industry

  • I started my band back in 2004 when I was just 17 years old. In the near two decades of putting out music with my band, I never expected that I’d be typing what I’m typing to you right now. There’s multitudes of reasons I enjoy this “return to form” of working with bands & producers on their music. But the main reason is that I can do so much more for the music world now that I’ve been so creatively elevated by my work in film/tv/video games.