er The Ink and Paint

of Music er
by Amin Bhatia

A
t 6:45 am on a w eekday fun and the nightmare that is film
morning the routine begins: scoring.
O pen all doors, turn on the O n a live-action project, the dia-
office computers, server, an d the logue and the sound effects are real-
printer. Turn on the po w er bars for ity. Sound effects are especially com-
digital audio, samplers, and MIDI plex with location audio, ambiances
and boot up. Check the Po wer Mac and foley (. . .the added footsteps,
and confirm no backup problems grunts, groans an d body move-
the night before. ments) . Music must carefully play
Coffee: decaf with one package outside this and be the emotional
of S w eet and Lo. Your treat for this reaction of the scene, rarely leading
morning: A Sausage McMuffin you the story or accentin g a visual
picked up on the w ay over. S avor moment.
each bite as you load up the second This is not so in animation.
Mac in the MIDI room with spotting Because there is no location audio or
notes. Four computers, tw o racks, reality to simulate, music has been
four digital samplers, a printer and granted the license to lead the
voice mail are standing by. Revie w action and provide the extra ener-
the w orklist database and decide A min Bhatia. gy and motion in the audio track,
which music cues to do today. Close to make up for the missing detail in
the door and start. You have at least The musician’s tools have soun d. This philosophy hasn’t
t w o hours before any other staff changed from pencil and changed, from the black and w hite
come in so get creative. Don’t come scorepaper, stopwatch and a days of S teamboat Willie to the
out for a break until 2:00 pm. Don’t roomful of musicians, to digital cyberw orld of Reboot. The bottom
go home till 9:00. audio and MIDI workstations, line for the composer is: You can get
The above scenario, w hile par- and racks full of synthesizer a w ay with a lot more in animation!
ticular to my studio, is typical of an and audio sampler modules. Anythin g ever written about
electronic composer in the middle music for animation inevitably pays
of a netw ork animation series. Just Disciplines and Deadlines homage to Carl S tallin g, an d as
as with the animator w hose ink and Nevertheless the discipline and much as I tried to, I couldn’t avoid it
paint tools have become digital deadlines are still the same. Even in here. Most noted for his scores for
tablets and S GI stations, the musi- the cases w here real musicians will the classic Warner Bros. cartoons in
cian’s tools have changed from pen- be brought in for the final record- the 40s and 50s, Carl defined the
cil and scorepaper, stopwatch and a ing, a film composer must still use all too w ell kno w n musical style of
roomful of musicians, to digital audio his tools and techniques to perform playing every visual gag with a musi-
and MIDI workstations, and racks full the arduous task of en hancin g a cal soun d effect. W hether it be a
of synthesizer an d audio sampler group of images (in a very short group of plucked violins tiptoeing
modules. amount of time) with an underscore across the screen in perfect sync, or
that, at it’s best, becomes an uncon- the surprise “oh-no” orchestral phras-
scious part of the w hole. This is the

ANIMATIO N W ORLD MAGAZINE April 1997 8

 The Process producer will just have to sw eat it
out with each other until it sounds
The process of initial writ- right to both of you. I’m fortunate
ing is a slo w and labori- in that Nelvana’s producers and edi-
ous process. It begins with tors are a good bunch of people . .
meetin gs an d spottin g . . O ne does not always get so lucky.
sessions with the produc- O nce the style and themes are
ers, w ho determine the shapin g up, the actual writin g of
overall style of the music, music to picture begins. In live
be it orchestral, rock, eth- action, one w aits until the picture is
nic, country . . . ( O n a “locked” and there are no more edits
recent project, I asked the in sho w timing. In animation, the
picture is usually
the last thin g to
sho w up! In my
w ork w ith
Nelvana, I start by
readin g story-
boards and listen-
ing to a prerecord-
ed dialogue track
that has beeps to
tell me w here in
the storyboard I
am. From this, I
Screen shot from Studio Vision, a MIDI Digital Audio sequencing program by Opcode Systems. can time out my
scenes and orga-
es that preceded every exploding
producers about style an d the nize my computer metronome track
Acme device, Carl and his peers cre-
answ er w as simply, “Yes, w e w ant to block out the beats and bars of
ated a set of musical rules that have
style.”) From these meetin gs, one music I have to write to. The picture
sho w n up on every single animat-
runs back to the hovel of a MIDI stu- itself is being rendered and colored
ed project since then.
dio and experiments with themes, in another department across town,
This business is about teamwork variations, ideas and anything that or sometimes overseas. I don’t get
and relationships, and you and strikes a fancy. These w orks of to check my w ork against picture
the producer will just have to Wag nerian art are then eagerly until tw o days before the final mix
sweat it out with each other until played back to the producers, w ho of music dialogue and sound effects.
it sounds right to both of you. respond with, “O h . . . that’s. . . well, Thankfully, I don’t do this alone.
it’s . . . interesting . . .hmmmmmm. (Those glossy ads of one person sit-
. . No, that’s not quite right . . . I can’t ting in a room spouting music from
Why Carl? And why always Carl?
quite tell you w hat I w ant, but I’ll his or her electrified fin gers are
I’ve seen cases w here producers of
kno w w hen I hear it.” absolute crap!)
a ne w series (especially a computer
Like any creative art, there are I w ork w ith Mag netic Music,
generated one ) w ill plan for an
semantic frustrations w hen a com- w hich is a music production / edit-
audio track that uses sound effects
poser an d producer must w ork in g /supervision company run by
and underscore in a conventional
together, each using a totally differ- David Greene. The Magnetic cre w
live-action approach. Yet, w hen the
ent vocabulary. It doesn’t matter supervise the meetings, and orga-
sho w is previe w ed, the inevitable
ho w cool your MIDI studio is, or nize spotting notes that give me a
request comes through to “make the
your résumé, or musical back- breakdown of the action right down
music busier”. . . “play the gags”. .
ground. Those are already a given. to the hour minute secon d an d
.”it’s missing something”. . . All this
But this business is about teamw ork frame. They also produce the music,
is Carl’s fault!
and relationships, and you and the and are my objective ears w hen

ANIMATIO N W ORLD MAGAZINE April 1997 9

 after w orkin g on a t w o minute the final mix of all the various
piece for eight hours, I can’t hear it audio tracks ( never mix your
anymore. It’s w onderful because I o w n music), w hich can have as
actually rent my studio space from many as 40 different synthesizer
them for my MIDI w orkstation. We sources. Nelvana’s producers are
bring each other a lot of w ork and present durin g this an d, if all
they’re always down the hall when g oes w ell, w e tell jokes an d
I need them. The relationship is well drink coffee durin g the mix-
w orth the added expense an d do w n. If somethin g feels
much better than a second bed- “wron g” to them, everythin g
room studio in my opinion. grinds to a halt. I dash to the
computer to re write sections of
Examples music, w hile they sit patient-
Nelvana’s Tales From the Cryptkeeper.
The follo wing audio exam- ly and ponder hiring a differ-
ples give you an idea of the melody and make sure it w orks to ent composer next time.
writing stages. Care has been taken the picture timings. Working with a The music mix is the second last
to process these so they sound the MIDI sequencer is akin to a w ord step in the process. The inevitable
least offensive in eig ht bit mono processor. You can juggle notes and final mix or dubbing is w here sound
(ugh!!), and I look forward to the day tempo about, just like w ords and effects, dialogue, and music meet. If
w hen you can do w nload a Q uick fonts, and never commit to anything everyone has done their job w ell,
Time movie of this w ithout dyin g till you finally “print” it to tape. Yes, it’s the dialogue presents the story, the
from graybar fatigue on the World fun, but just as a w ord processor sound effects provide the reality (or
Wide Wait! cannot write for you, a sequencer hyper-reality), and the music empha-
cannot compose for you. You’ve still sizes the emotion an d “fun.”
Yes, it’s fun, but just as a word got to kno w your stuff. Hopefully, you hear them all w ork-
processor cannot write for you, ing together. That’s the goal . . .and
a sequencer cannot compose Audio Clip 1: Skeleton Sketch sometimes w e achieve it. Take a lis-
for you.You’ve still got to know ten.
your stuff. The analogies betw een anima-
tion and music making are many. Audio Clip 3: Final Mix with
The scene is from Nelvana’s Tales Both require imagination preplan- S FX and Dialogue
from the Cryptkeeper, episode 14, nin g, an d perspiration! O nce the
entitled Game Over. O ur hero, that skeleton sketch is done it’s hours of
All audio Copyright 1994 Nelvana Ltd.
snickering punster the Cryptkeeper, adding in all the other instruments: Music Composed by A min Bhatia,Theme
is tryin g to get some peace an d w ood winds, strings, brass and per- by Danny Elfman
quiet w hile his t w o enemies, the cussion.
Vaultkeeper and the Old Witch, are A note to potential MIDI com-
trying to steal the sho w from him. posers w ho expect to play a key-
The Vaultkeeper has hijacked his cab board patch called “ O rchestra.”
and the witch is follo wing behind Forget it. In animation, you can’t Composer/synthesist Amin
on her broom. (Listen for a musical copy and paste a water texture. You Bhatia has been writing for film
quote from The S orcerer’s have to paint it, one wave at a time. for nearly 20 years. R ecent pro-
Apprentice for the broom. This job It’s the same with music. The only jects include O nce a Thief,
has it’s perks.) w ay to sound like an orchestra is to directed by John Woo, and
The first audio example is a skele- build up each part one note at a Nelvana’s animated series
ton sketch ( no pun intended!). Just time! Blazing Dragons. He has
as an animator w ill first do a line w orked on album projects with
dra wing or pencil sketch to deter- Audio Clip 2: Finished Music David Foster and Steve Porcaro
mine speed and pace before filling and is currently w orking on the
thin gs out, I use only one or t w o After I’ve finished writin g, I sequel to his solo CD Interstellar
synthesizers to flesh out the actual entrust the staff at Magnetic to do S uite.

ANIMATIO N W ORLD MAGAZINE April 1997 10