Stock Music for Low Budget features/docs

S

Sharp-Shooter

Active member
Hi People,

I was wondering, is there some place where I can get some "stock" audio files for background sound, titles etc.

I wish to buy some not too expensive audio files for upcoming projects or any other solutions is more than welcome :)

Thankyou all in advance and I love this forum.

Cheers!!
 
You don't want 'stock music'. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is to go out locally and listen to local bands of different genres. Work out a deal with them about using their music in your film. I think John Lyons actually agreed to release a CD soundtrack of the music featured in his film. You need to be able to negotiate.

For a recent short film I did I was browsing online sites of music that people write. I found a song that I liked, emailed the artist and he is an 18 year old kid who makes music in his basement. He agreed to let me use the song in my film as long as I sent him a copy of the DVD and gave him proper credit.

If you use the search you will find an article about 'The Hidden Costs of Documentaries'. This article, from the NYTimes, goes into depth regarding how expensive even a snippet of a song is to get licensing for. It becomes astronomical very quickly. Personally I would always look to local artists, unsigned artists, and networking skills before ever attempting to look at anything royalty free. It's risk versus reward.
 
For the symphonic underscore sound I've made extensive use of the Orchestral libraries in the Sony Acid Loops collections.
 
Hello Sharpshooter, My name is Aaron Piotrowski and I represent Jamworkz Entertainment. I would love to provide you with some royalty-free score music etc. for your project/s. We will be happy to work within your budget. Let me know what price range you are looking to stay within and I will work within that. Upon determining this I would be happy to send you a catalog.
Sincerely, Aaron L. Piotrowski
Senior VP Operations
757.725.3425
 
Your basic options for music (other than licensing existing popular music) are:

1) Picking a song from a needle drop library and paying a user fee for each production you use it in.

2) Buying stock royalty free music from places such as The Music Bakery where you pay once for the music and can use it forever, in anything. Usually sound very good, but usually the most pricey of these options.

3) Doing as Yankee suggested and getting original music from unsigned artists.

4) Composing your own in Acid, Soundtrack, or Garage Band. Although time (and talent) consuming to score big songs, there are several "loops" out there that are useful as is.

5) Getting software created soundtracks using SmartSound Sonicfire Pro. The software creates whole songs for you (all you specify is the length) which can sound OK, if a bit canned.
 
Am I the only one who remembers the Mod Music Generation? People with Amigas used to use samples in Fast Tracker and Impulse Tracker and write music. This has been going on forever, and many of your 'techno' producers started this way because it was more cost effective than investing in Roland TB303's, TR909, & TR808's (not to mention the entire Juno line of synths). Either way, up until about 2001 there was an extremely active community of artists who would share their files, known as Mods (.mod) files with one another online in the spirit of music making. Currently the community has become much smaller as programs such as Acid, Reason, and the entire VST soft synth instrament series has emerged. Still, you can find a great variety of young artists who make music for pleasure rather than profit.

I make my films for pleasure rather than profit (because my movies suck) so... it is a perfect marriage of resources. As long as you are honest when you approach people and let them know about your project, what it will be, and what exactly you are doing with it, then you are in like flynn. The moment you start making claims about where the film will be shown, what you will give them, and things like that, well word travels fast.

Writing your own is great, but how many times have you tried to get a friend to hold a boom mic and they are six feet out of frame? The same goes for composing your own music if you have no musical training. Acid makes things easy, but in my opinion a lot of stuff ends up sounding the exact same (people using the same loops).

It's an option. I like to do it because it validates my indie spirit, but at the same time twice a week I go out and listen to local bands and always have a pocket full of business cards with me. This works well because you can offer people something as they offer you something... It's win win.
 
I just got SmartSound Sonicfire. I am way impressed with some of the capabilities. Their new set of film composer CDs by RIshard Band look lik ethey will be really useful, a step beyond the typical canned sound. Some of the other CDs are nice too, and some are overused and canned.

Here are a few things I learned.

1. When you buy the base software it comes with two CD's But they will let you choose any two CD's even though they do not say so on the website and most salespeople will not tell you that either. Since 99% of people get the standard two, choosing anything else will give you a less common base to work against. They also have a five CD starter package, saves you another $100.

2. If you ask, they will likely include the training CD at no cost. This has another 6-10 songs on it, some of which are on the "standard package" CDs.

3. Watch the training CD. It gets you up to speed quickly, and a few of the tricks are not so obvious.

4. You can download a 99% functional 30 day demo from their website. http://www.smartsound.com

5. If you only need music for personal projects, look for Music Maestro on eBay. This has been discontinued, but is a lot cheaper until the last copies run out. It will not use full library of their music though, so check compatilbility chart.

6. The demo and website do not really explain how many variations there are on a song. It really gives you wuite abit of control even wothout reassembling a song manually.

Sorry if this sounds like a shill. Keep in mind that I just got it yesterday. I did a lot of research and bought several "libraries" of music over the last year, which I found were too hard to use and ultimately did not have the selection and control I need. If I had time and talent to use ACid or similar, I might go that way. But I think the sound from them is a bit techno for my taste. If you like "club music" Acid is great.

Here is a link to the smartsound film composer series:

http://www.smartsound.com/filmscore/
 
I also want to add that the Yankee approach of using local bands is also a good (but time consuming) way to go. I did this on my recent NPO project and they did music for free. But lots of musicians will not follow through. Many of them would not cross the street to pick up a bucket of money. So if you do this, my advice is to not count on anything from them until it happens, and expect it to take ten times as long as it should.
 
I didn't mean to come down on SmartSound.

It's actually the method I use the most. Quick and acceptable results. Sometimes really good, often average.

I played music when I was younger, but don't have the time/motivation at present to make my own (either live or in Acid/Soundtrack).
 
Joe Kras said:
2) Buying stock royalty free music from places such as The Music Bakery where you pay once for the music and can use it forever, in anything. Usually sound very good, but usually the most pricey of these options.
Click to expand...


PDinfo.com has some old stuff that is about $30.00 per CD, while supplies last. Any sound on the CD is lifetime. Not a bad deal if you can find something you want.
 
Wow... you have have really been very very helpful.
What I was mostly looking for was, some music that I can use as "Background Score" or others usually to use with titles etc. But your leads are great...thanks everybody....and keep up the good work :)
 
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