Travis Dickerson Recording Studio Forum

TDRS artists, music and related topics => TDRS artists, music and related topics => Topic started by: Photon on April 22, 2010, 03:00:07 pm

Title: Question on Vince\'s Training Montage and Escape
Post by: Photon on April 22, 2010, 03:00:07 pm
Hi all, and especially hello to Vince DiCola!

I would like to ask if both Training Montage (Rocky IV soundtrack) and also Escape (Transformers soundtrack) songs were mixed and/or mastered in your studio Mr. Dickerson. They both are a true artistic achievement in my eyes and definitely possess the spirit of genius. But from mixing point of view, they sound quite different.

Also, if I\'m not asking for too much, it would be of great help to say if your studio is open for mixing/mastering songs coming from "outside world" or are you offering your great services only to the artists mentioned on your site? If yes, are there some conditions somewhere in the website regarding this?

Thank you very much for any information on this and congratulations and many thanks for existence of such talents as Vince DiCola!

Have a nice day.
Title: Re: Question on Vince\'s Training Montage and Escap
Post by: Vince DiCola on May 12, 2010, 07:19:59 am
Hello,

I\'ll do my best to address the part of your email that pertains to my pieces of music, but Travis will have to address the other part regarding his studio.  The scores to ROCKY IV and TRANSFORMERS were recorded in the same studio - Scotti Brothers (no longer in the studio business) - and engineered and mixed by the same engineer - Tony Papa.  Also, many of the same musicians played on both.  I used the same synth programmer/sound designer on both projects as well, so there are bound to be some similarities.  There may be several reasons why the 2 tracks sound different to you:

a) Even though I was writing the music for both and they were recorded in the same studio with the same engineer, the nature of the 2 projects was pretty different and the music needed to reflect that.

b) Guitar plays a bigger role on "Escape" than it does on the Rocky piece.

c) Obviously "Escape" features a tempo that\'s considerably faster than "Training Montage"; consequently there\'s more weight to "Training Montage".  Even though both pieces are energetic, the half-time feel of "Training Montage" makes it appear more like a march at times.  There\'s more of a drive to "Escape" as a result of the drums playing in regular double time there.

d) Even though my good friend and associate Casey Young did most of the synth programming on both scores, Casey always tried to change things up from project to another, and since the synths played a major role in both of these scores, I think Casey did a great job in making sure we didn\'t repeat ourselves too much from one project to the other.

e) The sound of the drums and the approach we took for that element of the music were very different on both projects.


There are of course some \'staples\' which I felt had to be featured on both scores, like the triumphant synth brass playing some of the melody parts here and there, and a few effects to mark the \'bad\' guys.  (Those similarities were actually intentional on my part, by the way.)

At any rate, I hope that addresses your question to your satisfaction.  Thanks for writing.  It\'s quite amazing and gratifying to me when I see this kind of interest in music I wrote and recorded so long ago!

Thanks.

Vince
Title: Re: Question on Vince\'s Training Montage and Escap
Post by: Travis on May 12, 2010, 11:53:50 pm
Thanks Vince. I had intended to reply to the second part of this question but got side tracked. As it happens, I have been contemplating expanding some of the studios services. I have gotten a lot of requests about this in the past and recently DJ Bonebrake and I have been doing drum tracks for people sending us their tracks to have drums added. I have rather enjoyed this process and have been thinking of expanding it to include other artists who work here including myself to be available to add tracks to other projects and some other studio services like mixing and light production. I have been and will be talking to other musicians who work here about this and thinking about the kind of services we could offer and add a page for it here on the sight. I welcome any feedback and hope to have more information soon.
Title: Re: Question on Vince\'s Training Montage and Escap
Post by: Photon on May 31, 2010, 01:25:36 pm
Hello again,

thank you very much for your answers.

I will definitely watch out for announcement, if and when the "public mixing/mastering of TDRS" goes live - it would be a pleasure for me to be amongst first "enjoyers" of it\'s qualities - in fact, can\'t wait for that day to come :-)

Many thanks also to Vince DiCola for such detailed answer - way beyond of what i expected. I really appreciate this kind of openness and am very glad to see, that the greatness of your talent is not bound only to harmonies in music, but is more universal. If your music has had such impact on me and my works, just imagine what must be the overall influence on a planetary scale - i think, that that silent feedback from all these never-known listeners alone is something, which has some kind of special value.

I wholeheartedly wish you less and less "friction" in contacting more people with your music, be it through new film score offers or other channels.
That what is so unique about your work and what is not expressible by words - the spirit of it escapes it\'s musical context and influences (in a positive way) much deeper elements of human psyche. This kind of composer-listener interaction always was and is even more rare today - it cultivates the "soul".

Have a nice day, nicer week, and the best possible life :-)
Title: Re: Question on Vince\'s Training Montage and Escap
Post by: Mixmaster on May 31, 2010, 07:58:00 pm
Wow... I have to thank Photon for asking this. And thanks to Vince and Travis for answering. I love these Studio and recording facts. It\'s great to learn each and every time something new about your recording\'s of, probably two of the biggest soundtracks you\'ve worked one Vince.
Title: Re: Question on Vince\'s Training Montage and Escap
Post by: Vince DiCola on August 22, 2010, 09:44:42 am
I would just like to thank Photon for his post of May 31.  I really appreciated your kind words.  The fan support for my work has been tremendous and I consider myself quite blessed to have the opportunity to hear from people like yourself who care enough about my music to post such supportive comments.  I know I\'m speaking here for all artists/composers/songwriters who have been hard at work on their craft and have remained totally committed to the cause when I say that it\'s comments like yours that keep us going when things get overwhelming and challenging (as so frequently happens in the music business!).

Thanks again and please keep the words of support and encouragement coming!  There\'s some really good music coming down the pike here over the next several months so stay tuned.

Cordially,
Vince