Mad Max's Course in Film Scoring/Creating the sound of fear
< Mad Max's Course in Film Scoring
These instructions are designed for GarageBand 3 plus the sounds of a symphony orchestra.
GarageBand is easy and fast yet powerful enough to do film scoring.
Please, tell me if you find anything as good!
 Creating moods using individual musical notes |
Overview
- Single notes
- Some of the instruments of a symphony orchestra create a mood when you play even a single note.
- That means all you have to do is play a single note to create a film score.
- Wow! Even filmmakers who are not musicians can do that.
- Example
- You can create the sound of fear by playing a violin trill. At a certain pitch, the violin trill sounds really scary.
- The purpose of this lesson
- The purpose of this lesson is to show you that you can create a film score just by playing a single note... if you use the right musical instruments.
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The Sound of Fear
- Creating moods with individual notes
The texture of the sound of certain musical instruments automatically creates a mood. You don't have to do anything special. Just play that one note.
- "It gives me a trill!"
A trill is a special musical sound created with rapid bowed instruments such as a violin.
The average filmmaker can never play a trill on a real violin. Not in a million years.
- Your computer makes it possible
With GarageBand and Jam Pack:Symphony Orchestra, filmmaker just press one key on the keyboard to get a wonderfully realistic trill sound.
For filmmakers with no musical talent, this is a miracle. Using the software instruments in the Macintosh computer, a filmmaker can create fantasitc sounds for motion pictures.
- There is a problem
Just playing a violin trill is not enough. When you play a violin trill with GarageBand, the trill turns on and then it turns off. Not realistic.
To make the trill seem realistic, you must adjust the volume of the sound so it fades in and fades out. That is simple!
- That's it!
This entire process is fast. Super fast!
Once you have found the correct musical instrument, you simple adjusted the volume of the note. |
Required Software
- Apple's GarageBand
- This course is designed for Apple's GarageBand.
- For filmmakers, GarageBand is easy to use. And after you find all the hidden features, it is powerful enough to use for film scoring by non-musicians.
- plus
- Apple's Jam Pack:Symphony Orchestra
- A source of symphony orchestra sounds is Jam Pack:Symphony Orchestra for GarageBand. This is a fantastic combination for filmmakers who are not musicians who want to create film scores.
- and/or
- The free Boldt packages
- Another source of symphonic musical instruments is Ben Boldt's instrument packages] for GarageBand. Note: these packages do not have a violin trill. But they have other great sounds.
- If you are using GarageBand with the free Boldt packages, you must hunt through all the instruments and find the best one (along with the best pitch) for the sound of fear.
- Not recommended
- An alternative to Jam Pack:Symphony Orchestra is MOTU Symphonic Instrument. However, your instructor does not recommend using MOTU Symphonic Instrument with GarageBand. Too awkward.
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The next page
- The next page explains the how to get started with GarageBand.
Contact your instructor
- Your instructor for this film scoring class is Robert Elliott.
- You can email me by clicking here.
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Completed homework assignments for the Sound of Fear for narrative music
- Eze has created the sound of fear - 30 April 2007 - 6 points
- DanielPhillips8 has creates the sound of fear using other instruments. Here is his Fear, Fear #3, Suspense, and Suspense #2 - 19 May 2007 - 6 points.
- Requiescat has creates the sound of fear using other instruments. Here is her Sound of Fear - 18 June 2007 - 6 points.
- Bob DeYager has created the sound of fear - 2 August 2007 - 6 points
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This lesson is part of the
course on film scoring
for non-musicians |
Shortcuts to the other music lessons for film scoring: The Introduction → "Fear" → "Joy" → "Drama" → The Workshop
