David Lawrence

 

Steve Tavaglione

(worked on various films and television shows, including Bridge to Terabithia, Smokin’ Aces and CSI: NY)
 

 

What instruments do you play?

I play Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone Saxophones. I also play Clarinet, Bass Clarinet , C Flute and Alto Flute. Nowadays in the Studio Environment i play mostly the Akai 4000s Wind Controller and an M-Audio Keyboard Controller along with multiple Computer Software.
Give us a brief background about yourself, how you got started, why film and sound design, and how you made your connections.
I started out as a club musician soon touring and recording with various artists from Sly and the Family Stone , multiple jazz artists eg, George Benson , John Patitucci, Dave Weckl. Vinnie Colaiuta to pop artists such as Roger Waters, Michael Jackson, Sergio Mendez , etc. and progressing to TV and Movie Soundtracks.
I pretty much stopped touring and wanted to stay home with family. I met Jay Gruska 20 years ago and have done tv shows with him and others since then from 90210, Lois and Clark ,Charmed to presently CSI New York , CSI Las Vegas, Cane and Supernatural at this writing.
I have been very fortunate to hook up with Film Composer Thomas Newman with whom i have worked closely on his last 12 or so movies including American Beauty, Finding Nemo and the upcoming Pixar Movie Wall.e. I also work with Lalo Schifrin, David Holmes, Ed Shearmur, Paul Haslinger and others.
What are some of your musical projects and goals for the future?

I have completed an electro acoustical improvisational recording with Native Instrument's John Van Seggern along with John Beasley, Dave Carpenter, Judd Miller and Walt Fowler. I am intending to do a duet cd with John Von Seggern shortly. I want to continue to perform live in an electronic atmosphere more often.
How have major advances in sample libraries and computer technology altered your performance and composition techniques/approach?
I started with the Ewi with hardware synths such as the emulator , roland synths, and hardware plugins, With the amazing growth of computer software, i have switched almost completely to soft synths and plugins. The most influential software for me has been Ableton Live and The Native Instruments Synths along with new synths such as Tassman, Wallander Physical Modeled Brass and software plugins such as Speakerphone, Sound Toys , Wave Arts Plugins etc.
What is your production/performing process?
Generally, i am usually one on one with the composer. Sometimes i will read music with the ewi, being whatever instrument he or she wants or i will create my own instruments by combining elements of varied instruments then filtering, granulating etc. whatever will fit the storyline of the cue. Most of the time i improvise to the cue helped by my improvising jazz background. I also spend a lot of time creating and mixing my own sound design and playing that on a midi keyboard. I tune the sounds no matter how complex into a common tone and lay them across the keyboard transposing , filtering at wil.