>> [MUSIC] I think when it comes to technology production, software, any composer,
but especially young composer,
when you're not in a position to have a support staff,
you need to know how to do it all yourself.
When I first started out,
right out of college,
everyone always would joke about, well,
the answer is always yes,
especially when someone asks if you can do something.
I remember going in and the first time I went into Basil Poledouris's studio,
who ended up becoming my mentor for five years,
and was like a second dad and we're now here,
and I went into his studio and he said,
''Hey, do you know how to load that sampler?''
I had never even touched that sampler before,
it was the first time, I was like, ''Of course I do.''
Then I went home and I called one of my classmates.
I was like, ''Do you have the manual for that thing?''
We then didn't have the Internet back then, [inaudible].
But I went and I read it all night long and I stayed up all night to figure out how to do
that and learn how to load the sampler,
which then ended up giving him the idea that,
''Oh, I should hire this guy full time.''
I think anybody can do that,
especially now because things are a little bit more affordable and in smaller packages,
you don't need racks and racks of stuff and a huge studio.
You can actually do just about anything you need to do in the box and at home.
So the real key is doing it and learning how to do it.
The one trick, I mean, I don't think it's a trick.
It's a inspiration for me.
I carry manuals and I can't sit
around online trying to figure out how to do something without actually doing it.
For me, one of the things that I used to do,
I used to hold scenes of videotapes back in the old days and just shut off the music.
I would be like, I need to write a new piece of music for here,
and I need to do it all in a different style than it was a really scored.
If you're doing a scene from Rocky,
instead of doing it with big trumpets in the 70s beat, it's like,
okay, well, what does Rocky feel like with a fourth floor EDM thing.
Then by giving yourself that assignment,
you now have to learn all the software that will give you those things.
You need to find whatever plugins can give you
the [inaudible] side chainy effects that they do,
you'd have to go and look where do I find those sounds?
Where to find those drum sounds, or those percussion sounds.
What I like to do is find something that I'm already interested in,
both stylistically, and find a movie I really love or a scene I really love,
and then pull it out and say,
I'm going to use this as a learning experience to discover which programs,
which software, which sounds I can do, and how to tweak them.
What happens when I open up filters and do all that kind of stuff.
I think that's important to give yourself those reasons to figure it out.
It's not just, "All right, well, today,
I need to learn how to use x."
That said, it's pretty obvious what the main tools of the trade are.
I happened to have write in Cubase,
and then I print and mix in Pro Tools.
So I know how to use Cubase Pro Tools.
A lot of people are also still in the performer and logic.
The DAWs are pretty much the same.
The digital audio workstations are the same,
other than little things,
I think you can pick one and go with it that you're feeling good about.
Just a little aside,
if you know them all,
you might have more luck getting an assistant job because if you can work with one that
your prospective employer uses and needs you to be fast at,
it'll certainly be helpful.
But I think it's important to get the concepts behind all of them,
behind recording audio and midi,
and how to program the samples to sound really great.
That's the other thing that I used to do,
and I think a lot of best programmers do is actually,
they'll find the piece of music that they think sounds
amazing even if it's recorded live and they'll try to
reprogram that cue not live and see if you can make the sample sound 80 percent,
90 percent, which is really hard to do.
It takes a lot of time, but you get faster at it by doing it.
Especially in the early part of your career and my career, everybody's career,
you're probably not going to have huge orchestrates or massive studios at your disposal.
So if you can make your stuff sounds way better than everybody else's,
people will keep calling back and they're going to keep wanting to hear more and more.
I think that's a really important thing too.
[MUSIC]