Bill Brown (sole composer of CSI: New York, movies include Ali, Finding Forrester, and Any Given Sunday, as well as for the Quake, Wolfenstein, Command & Conquer and Tom Clancy's game franchises.) |
In an attempt to help inspire industry composers and sound designers, Sample Logic met up for an interview with [Bill Brown] |
What is your primary instrument? |
Keyboard |
| How did you first get involved with C.S.I.? |
| I scored a film called "Trapped" for a good friend (and fantastic director) named Deran Sarafian who also directed the pilot episode ("Blink") for CSI:NY. He called me during the summer of 2004 to come by and meet with Anthony Zuiker (creator of CSI and the show-runner for CSI:NY) which was awesome! I was so excited about the show, I put together a DVD of new music, set to new aerial/city footage of NYC that Deran had just recently shot to share with Jerry Bruckheimer and the CSI:NY post production team.. It was pretty amazing how it all came together. |
| What's it like scoring for a hit TV series? |
| Intense, fun, challenging, rewarding - a blessing - it's basically a fantastic gig.. especially since CSI:NY is such an incredible show for music in particular.. the way these shows are designed to move into montage at certain points and tell the story with music is tremendously fun for me (as a composer and fan of the show) and pretty unique for television as well.. in my humble opinion.. |
| How much do you rely on midi mock-ups? |
| It depends on the project.. If I'm working on a film where I know I'll have a full orchestra at the end of the writing / demoing process, I'll go into less detail in the mock-up because I know what will get covered later by the live players. If I'm doing something for the TV show, I'll spend more time and use more orchestra sample articulations to help sell it. I also have at least a few live players on every episode, sometimes more depending on what we need specifically.. It's great to be able to bring in these amazing LA pros and seasoned veterans on every show, really takes it all to the next level every time. |
| What sequencer software do you use? |
| Logic Pro on a G5 |
| What is your ratio between live instruments and sample based instruments? |
| It depends on the project of course, but for CSI:NY it's mostly sample-based with a few live players to spice things up.. |
| What are your favorite plug ins and soft-synths? |
| Believe it or not, I'm still using GigaStudio 2.5! Love my VSL articulations.. I'm also using Kontakt2 and EXS a lot now.. Kontakt 2 is DEEP. And even though I purchased some of the best reverb plug-ins last year, I'm still enjoying using Space Designer almost exclusively in Logic! (that will probably shift this season a bit.. lots of new stuff happening along those lines.. VSL included..) I love Native Instruments across the board. I wish TC would come out with AU versions of Master X (for Logic) and their other plug-in suites as individual plug-ins away from PowerCore.. I used to love using their stuff, but don't like PowerCore.. (I just haven't had luck with it) So I continue to look for the ultimate mastering plug in! It's the journey, not the destination, right..? :) |
| How have you incorporated Sample Logic's AIR into you work? |
| Absolutely, one show in particular comes to mind.. In the first episode of Season 3 "People With Money", I used a few percussion loops from the library - mangled a bit with the AIR interface, as well as some big scrapes and fx.. it really helped make an impact. |
| What do you like best about AIR? |
| It's well organized and designed - and great little interface that helps with designing on the run (which is quite often in TV..) |
| Are there any up and coming projects you plan to work on? |
| I just finished the music for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.. (check out my site for more info.. http://www.billbrownmusic.com) There's another id project in the works that I can't talk about quite yet.. but soon! |