Hello all,

Here's my latest video and this one a bit different.

I wrote this piece for a movie scene about an ancient Native American returning home to his village high in the mountains.

Film music is always fun to create because it allows you to explore ideas that reach beyond the confines of contemporary music yet combine those ideas with contemporary melody.

Music for picture is awesome because there are no boundaries.

This ones called "The Mountain Tribe".
Thanks for listening.

-Kevin

I love your music. You have a lot of talent.
Film music is a great outlet and it can be profitable.

Loved that clear mountain air Kevin.

Our brother who never sits still.

Breathtaking, not to mention strolling over to the double bass.!

Wow, so great again Kevin. I don't know what you're using for the percs but it sounds great. Very often when I see an upright bass player I ask him if he's using the bow...and many times the answer is...NO...lol. I know how hard it is to be on pitch using the bow. I play a bit of cello and to play ''pizzicatto'' it works well...but as soon I'm using the bow it's like playing 2 instruments at the same time...the cello and the bow...lol. Great job...and it's always fun to play music for a movie. I did it in the past...many years ago. I'd like to do it again. Beautiful music.

Thank you, I really appreciate that! I started writing music for television in the early 2000's and from there I expanded into cartoons, film and games.

I recently calculated that i've spent 7 years of my life playing in clubs but to this day the overwhelming majority of money i've made in music has been in creating music for picture. I've been fortunate to have had some incredible mentors during my LA years and i've invested 1000's of hours in arrangement, entertainment technology, music production and audio engineering.

Even still I have been really blessed and lucky to be able to create music for a living. Music is a tough, tough way to make a living. If you have any success there is a bit of luck involved.


Yeah brother, breath it in! Lol
Thanks David, always appreciate you hanging in there with me!


Thank you!
You're so right, I never sit still. There's so much music and creative tech in the world i've often said that I need at least three lifetimes to accomplish all of my dreams.

About the double bass - when I graduated high school I entered college as a classical performance major playing upright bass violin. I left college after three semesters and never owned a bass violin so I hadn't played in decades.

Fast forward to three years ago - I walk into a music store to buy guitar strings and I see a used Zeta electric upright bass. I've dreamed of owning a Zeta but I couldn't afford them when they came out. The instrument was in really rough shape so I got it cheap but it needed a lot of setup and electronic work that thankfully I was able to do.

Zeta's are no longer made and are especially unique because they were the only EUB's ever made with individual pickups per string built into the bridge (so with a custom cable) they can be connected directly into a Roland V Guitar or V Bass synth. More of that in the future...
Having not played for decades i'm still a bit rusty as a player but I love the instrument and what it brings to compositions. Plus it looks really cool! Lol


Thank you!
For drums and percussion I use right around a dozen different VST's but 90% of my drums are all custom loops that I've made. Being a bassist I've spent tens of thousands of hours of my life standing next to a drumset with a great drummer playing it. The emotion of that sound is baked into me so it drives me to create my own beats and grooves. That being said, nothing replaces a real drummer.

Regarding playing with a bow - you nailed it!
Playing with a bow is a completely different animal but if you are able to bow the instrument you gain access to a universe of emotion that the instrument can create.
I need to practice more but it's tough to simultaneously improve on multiple instruments. Again, I need more lifetimes to accomplish all my dreams and goals but no complaints, i'm having a lot of fun with this!

Thanks to all of you for the great replies and comments.

-Kevin

Hi Kevin,
What’s your compressor you’ve mentioned in the past - particularly for the bass side?
Did you use a Drawmer 441? I recall you talking about frequency-band compression. Interested to know more if you can share!
Cheers

In another thread,
Kevin stated that he uses the Waves CLA 76 (1176 clone)
https://www.waves.com/plugins/cla-76-compressor-limiter
set to factory setting for Bass.

Sorry for the slow reply on this -

My compressor of choice is the Waves CLA 76 set to the "Blacky" setting and using the "Bass" preset. You can slow the attack a bit if it clamps down too hard.

Hope this info helps.

Thank,

Kevin