Latest / 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast / Demystifying the Cue with Dean Krippaehne

Transcript

Demystifying the Cue with Dean Krippaehne · 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast

0:30
Dean: I made it just about every mistake you could make when I was into this business Because there were no books out there.
0:37
Dean: So that was a kind of a light to me.
0:39
Dean: I want, I wanted to have a book that I would have wanted when I was starting out and I felt that I could take three years off of somebody's learning curve so they wouldn't have to make all the mistakes that I made if I put this book out out.
0:54
Dean: And you know so, I, just I actually I began writing just little 700 word pieces on a blog.
1:02
Dean: Just I was gonna just have a blog out there.
1:04
Dean: That gave this.
1:05
Dean: And then after, you know, after a few months, I went well, maybe this is a book.
1:19
Dave: What is happening, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the 52 Q's podcast, which is dedicated to all things production and Library music, where we talk about industry topics and to take deep dives into the different aspects of being a working Production music composer.
1:34
Dave: If this is your first time here, welcome.
1:37
Dave: My name is Dave Croft and I'm a professional composer with hundreds of placements ranging from the NFL to Food Network, as well as an educator with nearly 25 years experience teaching music to career-minded composers Just like you.
1:50
Dave: This episode is made possible thanks to the support of the family, friends and patron Subscribers of 52 Q's, who have really helped keep everything running.
1:59
Dave: We are 100% Community supported.
2:01
Dave: So if you want to learn more about how you can help support 52 Q's while also Unlocking exclusive subscriber perks like live streams, workshops, zoom, coaching sessions and a ton more and be sure to click on the links in the description for more information.
2:17
Dave: You know there's no shortage of YouTube channels about production music.
2:22
Dave: I mean, you're watching one of them right now or you might be listening to this, you know, on the audio on the go, but there aren't that many books about production music.
2:33
Dave: So when I had the opportunity to sit down with one of the few people Really putting out great books about production music.
2:42
Dave: I was more than happy to jump at the chance.
2:45
Dave: I am so happy to have one of my favorite authors and one of what I think one of the first authors I can remember when I went into my production music journey.
2:58
Dave: The author, the composer, writer from everything from a music featured in Star Trek, strange New World, to Dancing with the Stars, duck dynasty, the daily show trading spaces, scorpion, the vampire diaries, and trust me, friends, when I say that is a small, small sliver of the credits that the Dean Cropane has to his to his credit list.
3:23
Dave: Dean, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.
3:26
Dean: Oh man, thanks, thanks for having me.
3:28
Dean: Good to be hanging out and chatting today.
3:30
Dave: Yeah, absolutely it was we.
3:32
Dave: I think it was, it was fortune or the universe conspiring in our favors when, at the taxi road rally, we happen to be sitting next to each other during one of the mentoring sessions and I was like I think that's Dean Cropane, hey, dean, and we introduce, introduce myself huge fan of your books and we're gonna be talking all about the books.
3:52
Dave: But I just want to start off and I start off Most my interviews this way, because there are so many different paths into the production music industry.
4:03
Dave: What did?
4:04
Dave: What did your journey look like?
4:07
Dean: It was.
4:07
Dean: It was the accidental journey, I think, which some people I was, you know, like, like, like a lot of Musicians I did, played in bands, had a little recording, demo recording studio back in the late 80s, early 90s and was, you know, trying to trying to be a big, famous Rock and Roll star and that obviously didn't work, but just kept recording, kept writing, kept playing and it really was joining taxi, which both of us are very familiar with.
4:45
Dean: That that Kind of got me into it, although when I was first joined taxi I was still writing songs and trying to pitch them to recording artists.
4:55
Dean: It was only by accident that I had recorded a, well, what I thought was acid jazz project.
5:04
Dean: It turned out to be a little more neo soul project for an indie label that that went kaput.
5:11
Dean: Yeah, I ended up owning the masters to it and there was a ad In taxi, a one of their submission deals that I saw for neo soul songs for TV show, and I thought, well, hey, I have these, they're sitting around, let me pitch them.
5:26
Dean: You know I pitched them I.
5:27
Dean: They got signed by a music library and they went right into a soap opera that was on at the time called One Life to Live.
5:36
Dean: Oh yeah.
5:37
Dean: And I still didn't think much about it until I got my royalty checks nine months later or a year later, and I saw that I got using quite a few episodes, but one episode in particular.
5:50
Dean: The song played three different times and I got paid each time.
5:55
Dean: It played in one episode and I looked at the money and looked at the show that was on five days a week and went, oh, you could, yeah there's a lot of shows out there.
6:05
Dean: You might be able to make some money at this thing, and that's really when I that was when I started thinking about it and there again started going to the Taxi Road Rallys, the convention that they have, the conference they have every November, and started meeting people and hearing stuff, and that's really was the beginning of my journey.
6:27
Dave: Wow.
6:27
Dave: So you had that kind of aha moment of seeing the royalties, not thinking much of it.
6:34
Dave: But then you realize that and that's for that to be your first placement, that's a huge placement.
6:40
Dave: We're not talking about a little background in the very, very sliver of a play, of a reality show.
6:47
Dave: I mean One.
6:49
Dean: Life to Live.
6:50
Dean: It was a good placement on a major network and I might have been a little spoiled by the amount of money that because maybe some of your viewers don't know that the major networks do pay more than cable networks or some streaming services.
7:04
Dean: But yeah, it was a great initiation and an eye-opener to me.
7:11
Dave: Yeah, absolutely.
7:12
Dave: And was it your songwriting prowess and collaborations that earned you the hardware right behind you on the wall, the gold and the platinum records?
7:22
Dean: Those, the ones directly behind me, are from, yeah, that's songwriting from a European artist, Stephanie Heinzman, who I have a song on a record of her some years ago.
7:35
Dean: And, yeah, songwriting, because I came into this whole business as a songwriter, so vocal songs and that's really, you know, was my love and my passion and what I was trying to do.
7:47
Dean: I learned as I started stepping into this business.
7:51
Dean: I learned quite quickly that probably 90% or more of the music used in TV ads, film games doesn't have vocals on.
8:03
Dave: It's instrumental.
8:04
Dean: So I quickly went into that and found out I could do that Instrumental things way quicker than I could do vocal songs.
8:12
Dean: It just takes so much time to get lyrics right in vocal songs.
8:16
Dean: I still love that, that's probably my main love.
8:19
Dean: But yeah, I saw this as I think you did and other people did.
8:24
Dean: This is when you start stepping, tiptoeing into it and you have some realizations, and one of them is doing music for film, tv ads, games is one of the few areas in recorded music where you can, and composing and songwriting where you can actually build a career for yourself.
8:45
Dean: So many of the other things are like, well, roll the dice and let me see if Taylor Swift is going to record my song.
8:51
Dean: And it was that appeal to me too that I could actually work and build a career out of this.
9:00
Dave: Now one of the things that I'm hearing is kind of a resurgence of vocal music and songs being sought after by the libraries.
9:10
Dave: Now is this just?
9:11
Dave: Is this a new trend, or is this something that's always been there, but now instrumental composers are trying to get hip to it.
9:18
Dean: You know, I don't know if it's a new trend or not, but there does seem to be a lot more when I see briefs coming by and ads coming out from different libraries.
9:29
Dean: They're looking for really good vocal songs and maybe that's because they can get feature placements sometimes with them which pay a lot more than background music.
9:41
Dean: Maybe there is a trend going on where vocals I know that the last probably two and a half years I had concentrated on doing vocal songs.
9:51
Dean: A lot more Vocal songs have probably been 10% for 15 years of what I did, and now they're.
9:59
Dean: Oh well, the last three years there are probably 80% of what I did are really concentrating going.
10:06
Dean: I'm going to do vocal songs again.
10:08
Dean: I'm going to try to get them signed and get them placed and pick one genre at a time.
10:15
Dean: I happened to pick old jazz, 1950s vocal jazz standards.
10:20
Dean: I always loved that music.
10:22
Dean: I've had some stuff that's with it before.
10:24
Dean: So I started writing those songs and yeah, and now it's where.
10:28
Dean: In fact, the Star Trek thing that you mentioned, that was a vocal jazz song that got in for one of their lounge scenes in that show.
10:38
Dean: So it's working, it's working.
10:42
Dave: So what would be your advice to maybe, an instrumental composer who is kind of wanting to get into that side of things?
10:51
Dave: Would it be find a collaborator, or would it to be, just go for it, get a rhyming dictionary?
10:57
Dave: Or what would be your advice for an instrumentalist wanting to get into vocal?
11:00
Dean: music.
11:01
Dean: If you're an instrumental composer, yeah, all those things.
11:06
Dean: First and foremost is, I would think, try to identify the one or two types of music that you're already pretty good at or maybe great at.
11:18
Dean: Instead of choosing let me take a shot at dramedy and tension and Southern rock and no try to identify those things that you're already really good at and get great at them.
11:32
Dean: And maybe that involves a collaborator, maybe I think its collaborations are great.
11:37
Dean: I mean, two heads are better than one or three heads.
11:40
Dean: The old saying is quite often true and I enjoy collaborating.
11:46
Dean: I don't get to do it enough.
11:47
Dean: But yeah, I would say, concentrate and get in the doors.
11:51
Dean: You usually get in with the things you're really good at first and then start branching out into maybe some other genres.
11:59
Dean: But just get really good.
12:00
Dean: Learn all your gear insight out, learn your sounds.
12:06
Dean: To me that's a big thing.
12:08
Dean: Anybody with money can go out and buy great software and maybe you're a guitar player, maybe you're a keyboard player, maybe you're a trumpet player.
12:18
Dean: Whatever you have that instrument, that is really good.
12:22
Dean: But if you're using virtual instruments, you need to learn how to articulate them.
12:27
Dean: You may not be a viola player, but you may have viola parts in your productions.
12:33
Dean: Well, you need that.
12:34
Dean: You can't just press the keyboard down and it may sound great, but it's not going to feel like a real viola player there.
12:43
Dean: And that goes for every instrument.
12:46
Dean: I think I had the great fortune I'm a guitar player and a keyboard player.
12:51
Dean: I'm not a bass player or drummer, but I played in bands for years and years and years and sat or stood next to bass players and right next to drum drummers.
13:03
Dean: So I hear those parts in my head because I did spend so many years playing in rock bands, pop bands, lounge bands, all of the above, so I was able to know what a drum kit should do, to know what a bass player should play or how they would play.
13:20
Dean: Are they playing with a pick or are they playing with fingers?
13:22
Dean: It's at a Fender P bass, all the various things.
13:26
Dean: How long do you hold a note?
13:28
Dean: If you're just a keyboard player playing that on there, well, you may be holding notes way too long or cutting them way too short.
13:35
Dean: That's right for whatever genre.
13:38
Dean: You're doing so really with every instrument.
13:41
Dean: Learning the articulations, that takes some time.
13:44
Dean: But boy, the templates are out there.
13:47
Dean: I mean, there's world-class guitar players, bass players, trumpeter sax players, violas out there.
13:53
Dean: Listen to them, figure out what they're doing and emulate that.
13:57
Dave: Yeah, it starts with knowing what it should sound like so that you know how to recreate it in the DAW.
14:02
Dave: Yep, yep, absolutely so.
14:05
Dave: You mentioned well, actually before.
14:07
Dave: Well, do you have any advice for songwriters looking to get into the instrumental side of things?
14:18
Dean: Ah, that would.
14:18
Dean: That would have been my path.
14:19
Dean: In fact, the first couple of things that happened for me, I turned down.
14:23
Dean: I don't write, I don't know if I can do that, you know.
14:27
Dean: But if your songwriter, first of all, if you're pitching your songs and your song gets in there always when you're recording a song, have the version with your vocal on it and then also run a version where you mute the vocal, which is just just the pad, every music library, every music supervisor will want that.
14:49
Dean: Why will they want that?
14:50
Dean: Because a lot of times they'll use, they'll use part of your vocal.
14:56
Dean: Sometimes they won't use any of the vocal, but they may use 10 cents, 10 seconds of the vocal, but then the actors dialogue starts and your vocal will conflict if there are actors talking.
15:07
Dean: So then they need to dub in the instrumental version.
15:11
Dean: But that's first the advice I'd given.
15:13
Dean: The second I would give is, if you're already writing and producing songs while you're, you're halfway there, you know how to.
15:20
Dean: You know, do chord progressions and do melody.
15:22
Dean: Um, uh, just start taking those chord progressions, those grooves, uh, those melodies, and doing uh instruments with them.
15:33
Dean: Only Not instrumental is in the sense that you're, you usually don't use quite as much melody in a a cue as, as we call them, an instrumental cue for film and TV.
15:45
Dean: So, learning how to modify that, I what I would do is I would go to some of the major big libraries For example, like a library like um megatracks, just, for example, there's, there's, you know seven, eight, 10, uh, major libraries.
16:01
Dean: Go to their search function of whatever genre you, if you want to do tension music, go in there and type in tension or some you know, tension, anxiety, whatever, and listen to the people that are already signed and already getting placed.
16:15
Dean: That's your template.
16:16
Dean: Listen how they build this to usually start fairly sparse in most genres, and every four to eight measures they either add an instrument or add an element that increases the emotion.
16:30
Dean: Because we are, when we're writing cues or instrumental cues, we are writing moods.
16:37
Dean: We're not telling a uh, uh, a lyrical story, uh, which you would in a song, or or conveying a lyrical emotion, as you would in a song.
16:47
Dean: You're trying to convey that emotion, whether it's anxiety, uh, tension, or whether it's mischievous uh, is that mischievous or mischievous?
16:58
Dave: I think.
16:58
Dave: I think we'll allow both, yeah.
17:00
Dean: Right, um, what, whatever, uh, whether it's heartfelt, whether it's sad, whether it's contemplative, uh, reflective, all those emotions, um, we have to convey in our cues and they have to from measure one.
17:13
Dean: You have to know what that emotion is, but then you have to grow that emotion, because all the scenes will, um, will want to grow.
17:22
Dean: I mean, they want to, they want, you know that's what you know, they want that movies are they're, they're playing with our emotions and building our emotions.
17:30
Dean: Movies, the TV shows, all that.
17:31
Dean: So I feel like I'm running off on a tangent here.
17:34
Dean: Steer me back.
17:35
Dave: No no, I, I.
17:36
Dave: I think that goes right in line with my question, which is, you know, I've worked with many songwriters, uh, or or instrumental composers, who write music as art and trying to kind of bring them back in and and simplify and keep a consistent mood or emotion, because a cue, quite frankly, doesn't need to tell nearly as an in-depth hero's journey as you would want in a song, and so kind of wrestling folks, you know, kind of staying, staying in one lane so that an editor can find the best use for it.
18:11
Dave: Yeah, I found that to be true.
18:13
Dean: Absolutely yeah, you want to, whatever emotion, whatever mood you're conveying in that, stay with that for the whole.
18:19
Dean: Usually people will ask music supervisors, libraries will ask for generally a two minute cue, that it can be a minute and 50 seconds or two minutes and 10 seconds, but generally speaking.
18:31
Dean: And some will ask for different, different lengths, but in that that should say two.
18:36
Dean: That's a real common standard um length that they will ask for.
18:40
Dean: And you want to keep that emotion consistent all the way through throughout.
18:45
Dean: Don't, you know, veer off into, don't be in four, four and then go to three, four or whatever you know, staying the same key, staying the same emotion and build it throughout and that, yeah, that's, you know, nothing will make you look like a pro right away.
19:00
Dave: Then you know, do that all the way through and uh, yeah, yeah, regardless of whatever your muse is telling you, you have to, kind of, you know, tell them to take a back seat, because we're, we're, we're working here.
19:13
Dean: Yeah, and I think it really that's a that's an important point, that those of us who still want to create pure art that comes from our soul, who cares where it flies, still do that, do that once in a while.
19:26
Dean: It's just here's this Money-making career opportunity to take all of the skills and the talent that you have and and here's a target that you need a hit for.
19:36
Dean: If you want to do this stuff, look at your target and hit it and then you know, on the days when you don't want to, just you know, let it feed your soul.
19:45
Dave: Yeah, whatever you want, go make your art.
19:47
Dave: Yeah, I tell my, my, my folks, you know you don't have to choose.
19:51
Dave: It's not a binary decision.
19:53
Dave: You don't have to be this or that.
19:54
Dave: You can make production, music by day, art by night, or vice versa.
19:58
Dave: There's room.
19:58
Dave: There's room in your spirit for all of that.
20:01
Dean: Well, and I like the yeah, that's.
20:04
Dean: That's a great advice.
20:06
Dean: I know I like the Q business because you always have a target.
20:11
Dean: You have a target that you need to hit and within that target you can bring your art, bring your muse, bring your creativity to make it a just a little bit different, or do something, you know, do something that sets it above the rest.
20:28
Dean: So, yeah, it's, it's much more craft, but you can bring your own personal art into it, as long as you stay within the target range.
20:36
Dean: Yeah, you know.
20:37
Dean: So I really enjoyed, I, when I'm with songwriting for artists.
20:43
Dean: You know, going down to Nashville or going to LA, it's you know what you know.
20:48
Dean: You know what Kenny Chesney is kind of doing.
20:51
Dean: Yeah, he's kind of, you know, island country.
20:53
Dean: You know what you know.
20:54
Dean: You know what different people are doing, but still you are.
20:58
Dean: So still you're doing some kind of a parameter.
21:01
Dean: But it's you.
21:03
Dean: It's really hard to find a target.
21:05
Dean: You just writing these songs and shooting, throwing darts at wherever you can throw them, and yeah, thing, as a singer, songwriter, do your own thing too.
21:16
Dean: You know, maybe you'll get lucky and and one of those songs will be in the foreground or be in a major motion picture and hey, it can break your career, you know yeah.
21:25
Dave: I just found that to be a heavy.
21:26
Dave: It was, almost it was a heavy burden.
21:28
Dave: You know of the weight of art and the blank dawn.
21:33
Dave: Everything that comes out has to be like this amazing expression of my inner soul and that, just that's a heavy ask.
21:41
Dave: When, when, when you're trying to make music, that's gonna go underneath, you know, a temper tantrum in toddlers and tiaras, right?
21:50
Dean: You know, I it's so.
21:51
Dean: I love it when I not to dwell on the having a target or it's too much, but actually right here on my desk I've got.
21:59
Dean: I'm so thankful when I actually get a real brief from a library and there's a.
22:06
Dean: Actually, this is a Production company for a major network that wanted me to do not cues, but they actually wanted me to do instrumentals, instrumentals of like 1950s, 60s jazz songs and they, they gave me all of the various things you know swing, improvisation, column response, blue notes, syncopation, all that.
22:32
Dean: But then they also gave me all these songs Okay, phelonious monks, straight.
22:36
Dean: No, chaser, miles Davis, so what?
22:38
Dean: Duke Ellington, coltrane, in a sentimental mood and I'm like, okay, those are my templates, let me just go there and use the vibe that they have.
22:47
Dean: They're not copy what they're doing, but use the vibe that each one of those artists had and Produce those songs.
22:54
Dean: And then, of course, I'm not a sax player or trumpet player, so I had to hire a couple great people that could handle, you know, coltrane or miles right.
23:04
Dean: Yeah, you know so.
23:05
Dean: So, but I love having that kind of a target.
23:10
Dave: Yeah, yeah, and your breadth of experience, your, your depth of experience.
23:15
Dave: You've Parlayed that into a handful of books which are my absolute favorite books, demystifying the cue, demystifying the genre, and right, submit, forget, repeat, so tell, tell us a little bit about how those books came, came about, and how each one really kind of says where each one's really really about and and what each one unpacks.
23:42
Dean: Well, they're really the books.
23:44
Dean: The first book which was demystifying the cue that came about it.
23:48
Dean: I was, I don't know, 10 years or so into the cue business and I learned so much from my own experience, from libraries, from music supervisors, from the community that I was now involved in, for you know, from the 30 or 40 People that I knew that we're doing the same thing and everybody had their own little tricks.
24:14
Dean: And what I began to realize before writing that book was I made it just about every mistake you could make when I was into this business Because there were no books out there.
24:27
Dean: So that was a kind of a light to me.
24:30
Dean: I want, I wanted to have a book that I would have wanted when I was starting out and I felt that I Could take three years off of somebody's learning curve so they wouldn't have to make all the mistakes that I made.
24:44
Dean: If I put this book out out, and you know so I just I actually I begin writing just little 700 word pieces on a blog.
24:52
Dean: Just I was gonna just have a blog out there.
24:54
Dean: That gave this.
24:55
Dean: And then after you know, after a few months, I went well, maybe this is a book and, and so I figured out how to you know, do all that stuff.
25:03
Dean: So yeah, in the in the first book, demissifying the queue, that's how it all came about.
25:08
Dean: I also had talked to a Kind of a career advisor.
25:13
Dean: At that point I said how, how can I become an expert in this business where I'm really not an expert?
25:19
Dean: He said well, there's two ways.
25:21
Dean: You can either get a PhD and I thought well, okay, I've had some college, but that's gonna cost me a couple hundred thousand bucks.
25:29
Dave: That'll take a while to or I can.
25:32
Dean: Or I can write a book which Won't really cost me anything and I can.
25:38
Dean: Maybe I'll make 50,000 bucks on it.
25:40
Dean: Anyway, those are the two ways, business wise, where you can be perceived as an expert.
25:45
Dean: So that was part of that whole journey to.
25:48
Dean: I thought, yeah, I'm not.
25:49
Dean: I'm not gonna spend, you know, another four or five years getting a PhD and spend all that money at this point in my life.
25:56
Dave: Yeah, I'm you, I'm with you on there.
25:59
Dave: There is a third way that I'm discovering.
26:01
Dave: Yeah, start a YouTube channel.
26:03
Dean: Yeah, right, right, right, that's that helps you know that is.
26:08
Dean: I think that's really, really valid, and actually I've recorded a bunch of bunch of stuff.
26:12
Dean: I'm not Starting a YouTube channel, I'm not gonna do a podcast per se, but I am gonna do a series of little five minute Tips and tricks of the business, which, which a lot of them, are the same thing that are in some of my books.
26:28
Dean: I just so many people use this Audiovisual Medium that we have now as opposed to opening up a book and flipping through pages, so so yeah, sometimes they may not be out.
26:40
Dean: This year it may be out.
26:41
Dean: I'm also trying to write a new book in the in the process, so I don't know which, and then and then I get slammed with more requests from you and then you know, do, do the job.
26:51
Dave: I boy, do I understand that.
26:52
Dave: You know the balancing, teaching and doing a channel and a podcast, a when that podcast is about Composing and about doing the work and balancing.
27:03
Dave: You know the work and the education.
27:05
Dave: It's tough, it could be really tough.
27:07
Dean: It is.
27:08
Dean: It is really.
27:08
Dean: You know that's so yeah, I don't know if the new book I hope to have that done and out this year.
27:15
Dean: But, as I said, demystifying the queue was the first one.
27:18
Dean: Demystifying the genre was really my attempt to Show people how to reverse engineer Music that was out there.
27:28
Dean: You know, if you want to do a Taylor Swift song or a Beyonce song or any instrumental cue, simply go.
27:36
Dean: The templates are out there.
27:38
Dean: And what is the kick drum doing?
27:40
Dean: What is the hi-hat doing?
27:41
Dean: What tempo is it in?
27:42
Dean: What's the chord structure, what is the?
27:44
Dean: And you know, go right there and reverse engineer it.
27:48
Dean: And so that was it.
27:50
Dean: Actually came from, I think, a friend of mine who I think you know are well acquainted with too, steve Barden, who also has written great books.
28:00
Dean: He was doing a my philasco of taxi had him on some years ago showing how he created swamp tunes or something like that, and he went through the process with his dober, with his acoustic guitar, and I thought, wow, that would make a good book if somebody wrote that.
28:20
Dean: So that really spurred on that one.
28:22
Dean: And then, of course, the third one that you mentioned write, submit, forget, repeat, which is a great mantra.
28:27
Dean: To have that one's a little more generalized, I wrote it not specifically to the music community, but just to the art community, and it has some more to do with the psychological roadblocks that can stop us in our tracks, both in music and our art but also in life, and so that's what that one is mostly about.
28:50
Dave: Yeah, it really reminds me of write, submit, forget, repeat, reminds me a lot of war of art by Stephen Pressfield, because it's kind of these small vignettes, these bite-sized things.
29:01
Dave: It's not a tough read, it's easy to pick up and put down, looks great on a Kindle.
29:05
Dave: By the way, I read it on an iPad and all of these are really good.
29:09
Dave: Of course, everybody, we're gonna have links to this in the show notes so you can be hip to that and if you haven't already, I mean it's not gonna break the bank.
29:18
Dave: We're not talking about like a college chemistry book here.
29:22
Dean: This is really really, really great books and I can't remember are those audiobooks yet and if not no, no, people have asked me about that and I think, as we were talking before this, that's a whole nother animal.
29:42
Dave: Yes, for the record, I am not volunteering.
29:43
Dave: I am done with that industry.
29:45
Dave: I've tried it, but as a consumer of audiobooks, I wish those were audiobooks.
29:54
Dean: Yeah, and that may happen at some point, but that is.
29:56
Dean: That's a whole, another animal of a lot of time, a lot of, and they're just as you've alluded to.
30:05
Dean: There's so many opportunities in life and when you start having some success, they just start falling out of the sky and you really have to pick and choose.
30:15
Dean: What am I gonna do, what's the smart thing to do, what can help people or what helps keep food on my table?
30:23
Dean: And, yeah, I have way more ideas than I have time I have a whole book, a whole book full of ideas here.
30:32
Dave: Yeah, I'm with you, I'm with you.
30:34
Dave: Let's circle back to taxi.
30:36
Dave: As you can imagine, a community like 52Qs, taxi looms really large in the community because it is one of the most direct ways that you can have an inroad into the industry.
30:49
Dave: To the point where I've been with taxi for several years and this year, 2023, is my personal year of taxi where I'm riding a taxi brief every week and I'm tracking those Qs across their placements and everything else.
31:03
Dave: So taxi is, with a capital T looms really large in the community.
31:09
Dave: As someone who has had great success with taxi and you mentioned that it was through taxi that you got the one life to live gig so I mean you're wow, you're home run first at bat.
31:22
Dave: Well done.
31:22
Dave: What are some things that maybe you've seen composers new to the industry, new to taxi, some things that you see kind of over and over that might be barriers for their success, specifically with taxi?
31:38
Dean: I think first of all is read the briefs and listen to the songs when taxi for those who don't know, taxi sends out in what libraries or music supervisors or publishers are looking for, and usually there's a small brief of the type of music that they want, and then they'll have up to three examples of songs or cues that a library, for instance, may be looking for.
32:09
Dean: And I would say, first and foremost, read the brief and then listen to all three of the examples and try to find what is the common denominator.
32:18
Dean: They may be a little bit different, these things, but there's usually a common denominator with these music.
32:24
Dean: So, yeah, I would say, first and foremost, listen to that and really study it, just really study it.
32:31
Dean: And, as I've said before, go and find, go to one of the major libraries, use their search function, find cues that are in whatever genre that is, and listen to what the people that are already had success, listen to what they're doing, study those things.
32:48
Dean: You know it's basically going back to college and study the things.
32:51
Dean: Do your homework, take your time and that's assuming that you've already studied all your virtual instruments, all your guitar, all your stuff and you can get good sounds and good articulations out of them and then use those three songs at taxi does end what you find in the libraries.
33:12
Dean: Use those as templates and as teaching tools.
33:15
Dean: Those are your instructors.
33:16
Dean: And then try and also Don't just jump at everything per se to pitch.
33:21
Dean: You know, when the listings come by, that's something that you're already pretty good in or you already have a handle on.
33:28
Dean: Jump on those.
33:29
Dean: I mean, I think it's fine to go and off on.
33:31
Dean: You know, if you wanna do you know hip hop, polka music or something you know, then that's fine to experiment around with it.
33:40
Dean: But don't be necessarily thinking that you're gonna have tons of success out of the box with something that you've never done before.
33:48
Dean: Right, that's probably a good lesson in all of life.
33:51
Dean: But yeah, it goes back to really studying, really listening to that music, learning all your articulations, even taking a song.
34:03
Dean: I did this at the beginning.
34:04
Dean: I would take songs, make an MP3 out of them and I'd stick them right in my DAW, right in my DAW, and I'd listen to the kick, listen to the snare, listen to the drums, not only how to do them and what they did, but where are they pant?
34:18
Dean: How are they mixed?
34:19
Dean: What kinds of reverbs or delays are they using and really study that so that my mixes would be better?
34:26
Dean: Cause you know I was.
34:29
Dean: I had some engineering experience when I got into this, but I wasn't a gifted engineer by any chance at the beginning, and now, for the most part, my mixes sound pretty good.
34:40
Dean: You know they, I know how, and then then, when you're done mixing, I always tell people this listen to your mixes on at least four, if not five, different sets of speakers, because it may sound great in your studio.
34:55
Dean: It may sound great in your studio and on your computer speakers, but then you may take it to a real stereo, or it may be like me I take it out to my Jeep, I put it in the system there and it sounded great on it sounded great in my studio, great in my office, great on my stereo system in my living room.
35:13
Dean: I take it out to my Jeep and I go oh man, the bass is just too muddy and boom.
35:17
Dean: You know which is my biggest problem is the ma I think it's most people's, and so I've got to tweak that a little bit, cause it needs to sound good on every speaker system that there is.
35:30
Dean: Or if you're lucky and like, I think a friend of both of ours, a guy, matt Hurt, a long time taxi member, matt, when he was living in LA he used to.
35:40
Dean: He tells a story.
35:41
Dean: He used to live near a best buy store and he knew the manager there.
35:46
Dean: So when he got done with his mixes he'd go in, stick the.
35:50
Dean: This is back in the CD days.
35:51
Dean: He'd stick a CD in their thing and all their sets of speakers that are lined up.
35:56
Dean: He'd just punch the buttons and listen to it on all the speakers.
35:59
Dean: So if you're lucky enough to have that, it's real quick.
36:02
Dave: Yeah, you do that now they'll kick you out.
36:04
Dave: Don't do that now?
36:06
Dean: Yeah, they probably will.
36:07
Dean: But yeah, all those things I think are as I think you do too.
36:12
Dean: I've been a mentor and a screener at the Taxi Rallies and listened to a lot of stuff.
36:20
Dean: The quality is really good for a lot of people now, but you do hear people that are just beginning and right away you can hear okay, either your mixes weigh out, you don't know the articulations for one of the instruments and all it takes is one instrument to stick out there and you're not listening to the song anymore.
36:39
Dean: You're listening to that instrument that's sticking out in a bad way structure, all those kinds of things.
36:46
Dean: But, as I keep reiterating, the templates are out there.
36:53
Dean: Go listen to them and study them.
36:55
Dave: Yeah, and it's never been easier.
36:57
Dave: The access to these things has never been simpler.
37:00
Dave: Yep, and yeah.
37:02
Dave: And to your earlier point about making sure that you are taking shots at things that are already I'm gonna say it a different way already part of your core competence, right, your core competency, so that you're not taking a swing at, like, an Indian bongra track or you're not going for a metal track and you don't play guitar and you're like, oh, I've got some sample libraries, the way.
37:27
Dave: I like to think of it this way when you're submitting taxi briefs, two taxi briefs, you're kind of like entering a competition.
37:35
Dave: If you will, and you wouldn't think, you would never think to enter a barbecue competition.
37:40
Dave: Like you wouldn't think of learning to barbecue.
37:44
Dave: By entering a barbecue competition, you're gonna get a cookbook and you're gonna study, you're gonna practice at home, and then I mean Wait that's a good point.
37:52
Dean: I wanna write that down for my next book here.
37:54
Dave: Just credit, just asterisk.
37:55
Dave: Yeah, it's like, yes, you'll get an education, but you're also going up against folks who are professional barbecue cooks.
38:04
Dave: They have all the barbecue tools and they know everything there is to know about the entire barbecue industry.
38:10
Dave: And you roll in there with your little Weber Kettle and charcoal and you're like, yeah, I'm gonna go toe to toe again, you'll get an education, but you'll probably get some bumps and bruises along the way.
38:21
Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah learn how to barbecue before you enter the competition.
38:25
Dean: That's right that's right.
38:26
Dave: This is coming from a guy who used to live in Memphis and the big barbecue company.
38:29
Dave: Or maybe I just need lunch, I don't know.
38:35
Dean: That's a great analogy, though, and that's yeah, I am gonna write that down.
38:41
Dean: Yeah, I'm not afraid of you?
38:43
Dave: Well, I'm a career educator, I think in metaphor and analogy.
38:47
Dave: So absolutely, hey Dean, if folks wanted to get in touch with you, where could they find you online?
38:54
Dean: Well, I have a website and it's my name Dean Carpain if you're lucky enough to figure out how to spell that Deancarpainnet and there's a website on there and I do believe I have an email on there and what I often tell people at tax when I'm doing the taxi rallies or other conferences if you send me an email, I'll answer any question and put well, I would say to this thing if somebody that's watching this, I'd say send me an email and put 52 cues on it so I can know where it's coming from.
39:38
Dean: It gives me a better idea of where they might be heading in how I may answer the question.
39:46
Dean: So, yeah, or it's the one I use for music I'll just say it right here is it's my I call it my retro account.
39:55
Dean: It is.
39:57
Dean: I have a business account too, but this is my retro account.
40:01
Dean: It's DeanCripp D-E-A-N-K-R-I-P-P at A-L-Lcom.
40:08
Dean: It's my retro.
40:09
Dave: A-L-L.
40:09
Dave: You keeping it real?
40:11
Dean: Did you get it?
40:12
Dean: That's all music and I know when it comes in there it has to do with music, unless it goes to my spam folder and it's somebody else trying to sell me some drug that'll make me more romantic.
40:25
Dave: Oh my gosh.
40:26
Dave: Yeah, yeah, absolutely so.
40:27
Dave: That's DeanCripp at A-L.
40:28
Dave: Did that come with the free CD?
40:30
Dave: For me, it's the free CD.
40:31
Dave: Does it say you've got mail every time?
40:34
Dave: Oh well, we'll absolutely have all of these links in the show notes.
40:40
Dave: But, dean, thank you so much Really really appreciate you, and thanks for your books.
40:45
Dave: The books were absolutely game changers for me and I read them at least once a year.
40:52
Dave: They're fantastic, and so if you're watching this viewer, listener, go get those books right now.
40:59
Dave: But, dean, thank you so much for joining me today.
41:02
Dean: Thank you so much and thank you for developing this community that is helping so many people.
41:07
Dean: Thanks a lot.
41:09
Dave: Once again, a huge word of thanks to Dean for joining me on the show today and remember all of his links are in the description below.
41:16
Dave: But that is going to do it for me this week.
41:18
Dave: You definitely want to tune in next week where I ask the question is this just your hobby?
41:25
Dave: And if it is, is that okay?
41:28
Dave: How do you define success?
41:30
Dave: And if you don't have a goal to get hundreds and hundreds of placements, is that all right?
41:36
Dave: Well, we're going to ask that question next week.
41:40
Dave: But, as I said, a huge word of thanks to the family, friends and patron subscribers of 52Cubes, who really help keep everything going.
41:47
Dave: We could not do it without your support, so thank you very much.
41:51
Dave: So if you want to join us, head over to 52Cubescom where you could subscribe, or you could join for free.
41:57
Dave: We would love to have you.
41:58
Dave: So I hope you've had a stellar week and remember, friends that I know, trust and believe that the universe has amazing plans just for you.
42:08
Dave: Until next time, peace.
42:10
Dave: The 52Cubes podcast is copyright 2023 at 18 Studios.
42:17
Dave: The music played on the podcast is copyright for their respective owners and is used with permission and for educational purposes only.
42:22
Dave: For more information and including joining the community and submitting your cue for consideration on the podcast.
42:27
Dave: Head over to 52Cubescom.