Primal Scene

Where Using CSS Music’s Nature Wild & Raw Makes Sense

Nothing sets a mood for a show or scene like a black screen with an unpredictable piece of music setting the mood. The tension—or perhaps humor—is immediately conjured in the viewers mind without ever showing a single image. For those of you producing reality television shows looking for ear/eye candy to freshen up a scene, try this…

 Let’s say you want to create a faux set-up for a laugh. Maybe one of your stars is wearing a bizarre looking hat, has an unusual injury, is in a funny situation, etc. Lay in CSS Music’s Super Themes volume 68 “All Five Senses”—the :30 version might be perfect--over black screen. Using your best movie trailer copy ideas, add text like “One Man,” “On A Mission Like None Other…” “Battling Odds Never Imagined…” etc. etc.

As the music builds, increase the drama by speeding up your bullet points; maybe use some flying fonts, add unusual colors on certain letters or words or go with the old Stars Wars scroll and mess with the fonts as you get close to the end of the music. When the final echoing chord strikes, hold your punch line for an extra beat. Then smash cut to a CU shot of the hat/wound/situation, etc.

Done properly, you should get an immediate laugh because of the juxtaposition of the dramatic/unsettled nature of your setup to the unexpected humorous payoff.

Not to say this is the only way this is the only way the CSS Music Nature Wild & Raw category can benefit your show.  On the same Super Themes Volume 68 is a terrific track entitled “Heart Pounding Hard” that features a driving electric guitar riff separated by quiet delayed guitar or synthesizer echoes. This tune is ideal when you have two situations you need to cover at the same time—someone is racing to get somewhere, somebody else is waiting or is dealing with a problem. With it’s fiery tempo, “Heart Pounding Hard” provides excellent short cues for you to cut to each situation.

Take a few minutes to audition the 4 pages we’ve culled in this category. You’ll find it on the CSS Music/Zero Fee Music home page under Hand Picked Genre/Category Hot List. See where your imagination takes you as you listen to these unique tracks!

Coming Up Short

Effectively Using CSS Music’s Intros-Endings

With the vast amount of music being used in reality television today, the need for long, extended tracks seems to have gone the path of the dinosaur. Today’s shows rely on :08-:15 music tracks to match the faster editing pace required to move shows along. And to make your job easier, CSS Music has created a section on our Hand Picked Genre/Category Hot List devoted to Intros and Endings. These handy little gems will serve you well with a myriad of music styles and tempi. And we’ve chosen 25 pages of these tracks to give you a potpourri from which to choose.

If you’re looking for Rock, might we suggest “Bubba’s Big Ass Truck” Powertrax volume 31, “Stop The Destruction,” “Hack Saw Tag” and “Lion Tamer Tag” from Powertrax volume 30. These are only a few of the many Rock styled tracks, but a good place to start.

When you need lighter fare, listen to “Chill Time,” Repro-File Plus 36, “Another Day” Repro-File Plus 38 or “Good To See Ya” Repro-File Plus 37. Please note that these cuts are longer than the aforementioned :08-:15 but they are eminently easy to chop to time. Their feel is right in line with the non-intrusive styles so popular in today’s reality television.

When you need Novelty-Specialty-Comical…”Sneaky Neighbor Tag” Repro-File Plus 39, “Sunday Morning Service-tag” Project Platinum 15, “Mr. Benny’s Violin” Digital Ditties 3, “Baseball Organ Climb” Digital Ditties 1, “Bayou Backwaters Boil,” Powertrax 33 and “Great Caesars Ghost-tag” Project Platinum 15 are just a few of the many tracks in this category.

You’ll also find a nice selection of fanfares, House/Urban/Hip Hop grooves and lots of Country/Swamp flavored short tracks that will really speed up your music audition and editing time. You’ll also find that nearly every one of the Intros-Endings end with a solid chord on the downbeat to make editing even easier.

Give these brief bites a listen. At CSS Music we’re listening to what you folks are asking for and will continue to update this category. And of course, be sure to check out longer selections in all our libraries!

Effectively Using CSS Music’s Intros-Endings

With the vast amount of music being used in reality television today, the need for long, extended tracks seems to have gone the path of the dinosaur. Today’s shows rely on :08-:15 music tracks to match the faster editing pace required to move shows along. And to make your job easier, CSS Music has created a section on our Hand Picked Genre/Category Hot List devoted to Intros and Endings. These handy little gems will serve you well with a myriad of music styles and tempi. And we’ve chosen 25 pages of these tracks to give you a potpourri from which to choose.

If you’re looking for Rock, might we suggest “Bubba’s Big Ass Truck” Powertrax volume 31, “Stop The Destruction,” “Hack Saw Tag” and “Lion Tamer Tag” from Powertrax volume 30. These are only a few of the many Rock styled tracks, but a good place to start.

When you need lighter fare, listen to “Chill Time,” Repro-File Plus 36, “Another Day” Repro-File Plus 38 or “Good To See Ya” Repro-File Plus 37. Please note that these cuts are longer than the aforementioned :08-:15 but they are eminently easy to chop to time. Their feel is right in line with the non-intrusive styles so popular in today’s reality television.

When you need Novelty-Specialty-Comical…”Sneaky Neighbor Tag” Repro-File Plus 39, “Sunday Morning Service-tag” Project Platinum 15, “Mr. Benny’s Violin” Digital Ditties 3, “Baseball Organ Climb” Digital Ditties 1, “Bayou Backwaters Boil,” Powertrax 33 and “Great Caesars Ghost-tag” Project Platinum 15 are just a few of the many tracks in this category.

You’ll also find a nice selection of fanfares, House/Urban/Hip Hop grooves and lots of Country/Swamp flavored short tracks that will really speed up your music audition and editing time. You’ll also find that nearly every one of the Intros-Endings end with a solid chord on the downbeat to make editing even easier.

Give these brief bites a listen. At CSS Music we’re listening to what you folks are asking for and will continue to update this category. And of course, be sure to check out longer selections in all our libraries!

The Synthesized Effect

Why Electronic Underscores Are So Effective

If you’re a fan of the great composer Hans Zimmer like we are at CSS Music, you’ve probably noticed his use of a “tick-tock” under opening scenes. His latest composition for the hit film Dunkirk utilizes the sound of an actual watch owned by the director Christopher Nolan and this sound evolves into an unsettling wash that creates a tremendous amount of tension.

More than just a simple single synthesizer or instrument, Zimmer creates what is known as the Shepard tone, or more precisely a Shepard-Risset Glissando. This is created using 3 chromatic, sequenced arpeggios—a high tone, medium register and low climbing tone, each an octave apart. The middle tone always remains constant. When the highest tone reaches its zenith it begins to fade as the low tone rises in level. The net result? A very eerie auditory effect where the music seems to endlessly rise but it’s the same sequence played over and over again.

When you’re looking for this type of sound for your show, CSS Music has a disc that decidedly embraces elements of this effect, Super Themes volume 68 Encounters (Tension, Suspense & Aggressive Undercurrents.) From the first cut, “Time Tracker” with its pulsing “time clock” accented with percussive elements, this track keeps you on the edge of your seat. Another track, “Heart Beating Tension” uses the sound of a heartbeat as the foundation and is then embellished with a dark and eerie pad that never evolves keeping scary tension throughout.

A less frightening take on this idea can be heard with “Clock Watching” that offers a static pulse with non-intrusive elements that augment the mood. If you need a more modern take on this type of music, “Remember To Breathe” offers an other worldly sequencer with a hip hop groove and piano-like melodic arpeggios. For something that still presents tension with a touch of New Age, “End Of The Day” will give you just the right vibe.

CSS Royalty Free Music continues to follow the trends in film music, advertising, pop culture and where the production music industry is moving. We will update our vast library with these new styles as they evolve and let you know via this blog what we’re doing. Til then, go forth and give your next show some super serious tension!

What’s Happened To Industrial Music?

How Pop Culture Sometimes Ain’t That Great

We at CSS Music have a question for you guys: Why is today’s corporate music so…wimpy? Has American business become too “chickafied?” What ever happened to red-blooded, rise-to-the-challenge messaging and the music that supports that message? Since we cut our teeth creating many volumes of Industrial music, we have our own thoughts and a challenge.

Just like the advertising business that looks to popular trends to “borrow” musical styles, the AV-Video crowd soon follows. With the introduction of Indie artists and the sudden rise in slightly-less-than-perfect timing of groove, ukeleles, accordions, acoustic guitars, orchestra bells, static melodies and repetitious chord progressions, the trend away from the traditional,  Light Industrial was born. While it can be said that this form of music offers a whimsical vibe, we wonder where the power and punch—even if it’s created via a strong melody and good arrangement—went? And should this new Light Industrial truly be categorized as Corporate? Really?!? Is American business now wearing flannel shirts and choosing to identify themselves as hipsters?

We think not. And CSS Music believes that like all popular trends, the public will grow weary of this musical style and revert back to music that has “emotionality” instead of light motifs with no balls. To do a comparison—and we do have hipster/Indie tracks in our library—let’s take “A Road Trip Quietly” (Powertrax 33) and pit it against “Picture Perfect.” (Super Themes 21) Both tracks have a sense of motion/forward progression and both are orchestrated with light rhythm sections, but which track stirs you? Does the laid back nature of “A Road Trip Quietly” evoke emotions like pride, can-do attitude and corporate strength? We don’t think so either.

Maybe it’s time for everyone to gaze into their crystal balls and think about what’s coming next—or where we were--and look at what really sells a scene. Do you really believe a corporate client wouldn’t like a melody they could call their own that inspires and motivates, versus a track that just sits there? We ask you to spend a few minutes with our database and explore what (we believe) is truly Corporate or Light Industrial. As mentioned, we do have Indie-inspired tracks, but exploring music with thematic continuity and a sense of purpose may put you on the path to being a real trendsetter!