Project 01 - Ambient Music Bed
Duration: January 22 - February 9, 2024
Description
This is the first of our projects that challenges you to complete a common task of a professional composer: create a custom music loop for visual media. While the creative aspects are always important, we’ll primarily use this project to establish our professional workflow and procedures.
Phases
All projects are broken into three phases: assessment, iteration, and implementation. Each phase includes one in-class assignment and materials to review and integrate into your workflows, toolkits, and processes.
Phase 1: Assessment (Week 01)
The assessment phase encompasses two distinct evaluations: functional and subjective. Functional assessment pinpoints the specific purpose of a given deliverable. Meanwhile, subjective assessment analyzes how sound can convey a brand’s values, identity, and desired emotional impact.
Students present the client with three initial options — musical, hybrid, and environmental — that establish a shared vocabulary before any contract is signed.
Phase 2: Iteration (Week 02)
Feedback on initial drafts and revision of the ambient music loop composition. The client’s notes (“wind chimes or bells,” “not too windy,” “clean, peaceful, fresh”) become three new variations, each delivered as a hybrid and an environmental mix.
Phase 3: Implementation (Week 03)
Final feedback, polish, and delivery of the completed ambient music bed: a 5-minute, seamlessly looping master, delivered alongside an example contract and invoice.
Skills & Standards
- Reading a creative brief and translating client language into musical decisions
- Blending orchestral, synthetic, and field-recorded material
- Professional delivery standards: peak levels, 48 kHz / 24-bit WAV, versioned file naming
- Seamless loop construction
- Contracts and invoicing for a small commercial job