Latest / 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast / Is This Dark Dramedy Cue Ready for Sync?
Transcript
- 0:33Dave Kropf: What is happening everybody?
- 0:34Dave Kropf: This is Dave Kropf, and welcome back to another episode of Ready for Sync?
- 0:38Dave Kropf: where we feature a cue written by a member of the 52 Cues community and we ask is my cue ready for sync placement?
- 0:47Dave Kropf: Today we are checking out a dark, dramedy cue written by Alan Moore.
- 0:52Dave Kropf: This is called Sarcastic Fringehead.
- 0:54Dave Kropf: We're going to take a listen to it and then we'll talk about it on the other side and answer is my cue ready for sync?
- 1:01Dave Kropf: That was Sarcastic Fringehead by Alan Moore.
- 3:02Dave Kropf: Thank you so much for sending this along.
- 3:04Dave Kropf: This was sent along during our week 46 weekly feedback thread.
- 3:09Dave Kropf: We put weekly feedback threads together every week and I feature a cue from those weekly feedback threads and this was also written as part of an album that he is working on in our 52 Cues album accelerator, and so if that's something that you're interested in, you can head over to 52Cues.
- 3:25Dave Kropf: com and join us with that album accelerator.
- 3:29Dave Kropf: But he says this is for a new kids album inspired by the Glass Onion trailer, and I've got to say first off the gate, the idea of calling it dark dramedy.
- 3:41Dave Kropf: This is what I would call this.
- 3:44Dave Kropf: So that kind of dark you know there's.
- 3:48Dave Kropf: What was it?
- 3:49Dave Kropf: What's the show called Like what happens in the shadows, or that kind of oddly dark, sinister death to Smoochie Elfman, tim Burton-esque type, you know type of vibe that I think works really well.
- 4:03Dave Kropf: And I have to say I am so impressed by these strings and I know I believe you said that these were Abbey Road two strings and they sound really, really, really good.
- 4:13Dave Kropf: I felt like some of the, some of the percussion was a little little transient at the top and I and I know that this isn't the final mix and master and I have boosted it by almost 5 dB here just to get it a little bit louder.
- 4:28Dave Kropf: So I know that this isn't the final, but that sounds great.
- 4:34Dave Kropf: That string quintet or quartet, but yeah, those drums right there are feeling a little overly, overly compressed and transient.
- 4:48Dave Kropf: What you're doing right here, kind of taking it from the celli and then over to the violas and the strings, and it's really doing a great, fantastic job of going across the stereo field, it's really impressive.
- 5:03Dave Kropf: Yeah, I'm really liking these.
- 5:13Dave Kropf: These really staccatissimo or spiccato, it's really feather, really light, really kind of dark and sinister, which I think works very, very well.
- 5:26Dave Kropf: That's nice.
- 5:35Dave Kropf: Now, depending on what you want to do here, love the key change, and I love the sustained melody.
- 5:40Dave Kropf: I wonder if you wanted like a clarinet would be nice there, because, depending on if we're thinking in string quartet or string quintet, it feels like a quartet two violins, viola and cello.
- 6:03Dave Kropf: I don't really necessarily hear a bass and so if you're going to have that high string you would have to take one of the violins off.
- 6:11Dave Kropf: It feels like we have our string quartet and then we added another layer on top of it and I think a clarinet would be just kind of haunting and melancholy enough.
- 6:26Dave Kropf: I love the line, and maybe this is where you bring in the double bass right and have the double bass into a real quintet.
- 6:40Dave Kropf: That's nice.
- 7:01Dave Kropf: And see if you had the quintet, then you could go violin one, violin two, viola, cello.
- 7:08Dave Kropf: Is that everything, or did we have?
- 7:12Dave Kropf: Yes, we have violin one, violin, two, viola, cello, and you could go boom, boom and then have the bass go boom, boom like that last note and really spread it out.
- 7:25Dave Kropf: Now, in your description you also call this metal.
- 7:29Dave Kropf: I don't know if necessarily.
- 7:31Dave Kropf: I see kind of string quartet plus metal.
- 7:33Dave Kropf: I like the drums here.
- 7:36Dave Kropf: I would go to a halftime kind of thing here.
- 7:38Dave Kropf: That's kind of what I would do.
- 7:47Dave Kropf: I don't know if I Maybe I need to go listen to the glass onion trailer to get a real feel for this, but right now it feels a little too Cha-boom, cha-boom, cha-boom.
- 8:00Dave Kropf: It took me out a little bit.
- 8:01Dave Kropf: Let me have those really high pits and you could also get away with adding some really low like synth drones or some sub bass or something to really kind of thicken it, increase the tension, thicken it up a little bit, and I think I would have really have liked to have come back to that.
- 8:37Dave Kropf: That would have been really really nice to come back at the end here, boom Like that and then hit that, just so it feels a little more earned.
- 8:57Dave Kropf: Right now it doesn't feel.
- 8:58Dave Kropf: It feels like we kind of stumble into a little bit, right, but if we go, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom boom.
- 9:09Dave Kropf: Oh, I biff the timing on that.
- 9:10Dave Kropf: Let's see if I could.
- 9:11Dave Kropf: If I could do it One, two and then hit that.
- 9:16Dave Kropf: But I liked this sarcastic fringe head.
- 9:21Dave Kropf: I'm not sure I would.
- 9:22Dave Kropf: I would have to hear everything else in the album in context.
- 9:26Dave Kropf: I'm not sure I quite.
- 9:27Dave Kropf: I quite follow that.
- 9:31Dave Kropf: To answer the question is this cue ready for syncing?
- 9:35Dave Kropf: By the way, I'm not really giving any mix notes because I know it's not mixed.
- 9:38Dave Kropf: Like I said, the drums feel a little overly compressed.
- 9:41Dave Kropf: The strings are the absolute star of the show and you nailed those Like I'm gonna.
- 9:47Dave Kropf: I'm gonna go check out I wonder if it's on Black Friday sale.
- 9:50Dave Kropf: But I'm gonna go check out Abbey Road too because that is absolutely stellar and sounds better than the Symphobia.
- 9:58Dave Kropf: One string quartet that I've been using for a long time or that might be a quintet.
- 10:02Dave Kropf: I'm lost as far as if it's quintet or quartet.
- 10:05Dave Kropf: But is this cue ready for sync as it is right now?
- 10:10Dave Kropf: I think?
- 10:10Dave Kropf: I think a library would take it with.
- 10:13Dave Kropf: I mean, I think there would need to be some tweaking and obviously getting getting the mix and master and we're assuming the mix and master is there the form, the structure, the compositional things, not the technical execution, but the compositional things are all there and I would say we are probably if I'm giving a percentage, we are probably 90%, 85 to 90% ready for sync, assuming that the mix and master is going to get up to where we need.
- 10:46Dave Kropf: But, Alan, thank you so much for sending this along.
- 10:48Dave Kropf: Like I said, this was sent along during our week 46 weekly feedback thread.
- 10:54Dave Kropf: So if you want feedback on your cues, we are collecting cues for week 47 and I'm gonna be featuring one of these next week.
- 11:02Dave Kropf: And if you found that feedback helpful and if you are wondering whether your cue is ready for sync, then head over to ismycueready.
- 11:08Dave Kropf: com and you can order up your own feedback video and I will be happy to check out the form, structure, harmonic language, melodic motifs, title, mix, master and all of that and I can give you an idea on whether or not your cue is ready for sync.
- 11:26Dave Kropf: And if you're looking for one-on-one coaching, then head over to 52 cues.
- 11:30Dave Kropf: com and click on coaching.
- 11:32Dave Kropf: We would love to have you over there and I would love to continue to work with you, but that is going to do it for me.
- 11:39Dave Kropf: Thank you so much for joining me today.
- 11:41Dave Kropf: I hope you have a stellar rest of your day.
- 11:43Dave Kropf: Until next time, peace.