March 2020 Wrap-Up

Since I wrote my last Wrap-Up article four weeks ago, many things have changed and most likely everybody here is in some form or the other affected by this pandemic.

Last month I wrote I would be documenting my work on a short film from writing to orchestral scoring session here on Patreon, however as with many other film projects, this project has been canceled due to what's currently going on. In fact, the entire orchestral recording session industry has come more or less to a stop. Mid march I still attended a recording session in Budapest via Source Connect to record two projects that I have orchestrated/arranged which was already a quite weird experience knowing that there is a crowd of 60+ people sitting tightly packed in a studio to record music while on the other hand I knew that all of their other jobs with playing concerts or teaching were cancelled and doing session work was their last source of income.

The whole situation is quite surreal and I have to admit I continuously struggled this month to write music for the projects that I fortunately still have, just being massively distracted and worried by the continous stream of news rushing in. Nevertheless I'm still in a very comfortable situation of being used to "home office" and being able to still work while others struggle way more. I'd be interested to hear how your life and work has been affected by what's going on so if you want, feel free to share your thoughts below.

In spite of the growing insecurities it is great to see that the community here is still growing so welcome to all new patrons and thank you so much for your support, especially in these times. I'm doing my best to create some valuable content that you don't get in the many available other educational outlets on the internet. The multitrack recording of GAZING AT THE NIGHT SKY as well as my Template Walkthrough attracted quite a lot of new patrons so it is really great to see that this content is well received.

So what's to come in the next weeks? I'll finally get to doing videos of the mockup-process of my piece WE HAVE TO SHAKE THEM OFF as well as continue the ongoing series about orchestral voicings. As I already mentioned in another post, I will also do a follow-up video of the multitracks of GAZING AT THE NIGHT SKY, walking you through how I mixed it. My professional expertise in mixing however is pretty limited and I let myself guide by my ears so don't expect a technical masterclass on this topic. :)

By the way, currently the poll I recently started about which piece to do a walkthrough about next is inconclusive. So if you haven't voted yet, maybe do so now and help me decide.

Other than that, I hope you and your loved ones are all well and safe. Thank you again for your continuous support in these difficult times. I hope the next monthly wrap-up will be more positive.

Robin