Having previously looked at the Orchestral Swarm instrument pack, notably used by Hans Zimmer for the Blue Planet 2 score, as well as the Chamber Evolutions pack, created with famed Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds, Point Blank Music School’s resident compositional wizard Kevin Kerrigan has recently been turning his attention to the excellent ‘Chamber Strings’ from Spitfire Audio.
The focus here is on getting straight to the nuts-and-bolts processes and workflows, rather than simply a general tour of a new instrument. Music composition forms an integral part of Point Blank’s music production courses, including their flagship BA (Hons) in Music Production and Sound Engineering, which is quality assured by Middlesex University.
For part 1 of this new series, Kevin ran through a number of ways he likes to start projects in order to get up and running as quickly as possible. From there, he goes over how to choose articulations and vary the voicing of chords to enhance a project’s musicality.
In part 2, Kevin turns his attention to adding inversions to a chord sequence. To demonstrate this he invites us to observe a mystery score he’s been working on, built with a heavily reliance on minor chords. As he’s stressed before, playing these chords in their root forms sounds slightly stunted, so open voicings, adding different mics and adding inverted harmonies are all drawn upon to widen the scope of what’s made here.
As well as the degree course in music production and sound engineering, check out Point Blank’s new BA in Music Production and DJ Practice, quality-assured by Middlesex University, which launches its first term next September. You can also find out about shorter courses available at the school HQ in London here. And if you’re not based in the UK, see their production courses in Los Angeles and online.
