Charlie’s Music Production Lessons Podcast
1) 30. Drone Variations
A common request from directors is to provide mood-setting music that doesn't call attention to itself. One of the best ways to do this is with long, held tones. Making these drone tracks can be quick...Show More
2) 29. MIDI Remix Quest
What would you do if you were given a barebones MIDI file, and told to fill it in with whatever sounds you want? That's the challenge I posed to Composer Quest listeners, and in this episode we'll get...Show More
3) 28. SEGA Counterpoint
Early video game music was in some ways a revival of Baroque counterpoint. In this episode, I share one of my video game-y tracks inspired by counterpoint techniques, and inadvertently inspired by Son...Show More
4) 27. Surfing from A to B
What do you do when you've written an A section and B section that don't quite fit together? In this episode I analyze my surf-inspired chiptune track to figure out how to smooth this transition point...Show More
5) 26. Skydiving Payoff
To have any real emotional impact, music has to have some sort of payoff, through repeated themes, sounds, or lyrics. When you're scoring a film, you should also keep this idea of musical payoff in mi...Show More
6) 25. Film Scoring Puzzles
When you're scoring a film, some scenes have an obvious emotional direction to follow. Other scenes leave you with a puzzle to solve. In this episode, I break down my scoring for two of the hardest sc...Show More
7) 24. Doritos Melody
How would you score a scene where a guy looks longingly at a bag of Doritos stuck in a vending machine? That was one of my recent scoring puzzles I had to solve. In this episode, I share some tips on ...Show More
8) 23. Tropical Island VGM
Video game music seems to have cliche sounds for different types of levels: ice world music, jungle world music, etc. In this episode, I talk about how I approached making a stereotypical tropical isl...Show More
9) 22. MIDI Masterpiece
Sometimes you have to give yourself weird challenges to get out of your comfortable habits. In this episode, I describe a technique I'm calling visual MIDI improvisation, where I draw in MIDI notes in...Show More
10) 21. 7th Chords and Queen Vocals
Changing a single note in a chord can drastically alter the mood of a piece, like changing from major to minor. In this episode, I show how different types of seventh chords can give your song a diffe...Show More