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Dawn LaBuy-Brockett
- McHenry, IL
- United States
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Dawn LaBuy-Brockett's Discussions
Hi Joe!
7 Replies
Started this discussion. Last reply by Dawn LaBuy-Brockett Jul. 9, 2008.
Dawn LaBuy-Brockett's Groups
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Composition and Arranging
14 members
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Theory and Counterpoint
3 members
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The Business of Sound
22 members
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music professionals in...
8 members
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The Music Lounge
11 members
Dawn LaBuy-Brockett's Page
Profile Information
- Who are you?
- Composer, Sound Designer, Producer, Musician, Educator
- Whats your goal?
- Games
- Your website?
- http://www.angelfire.com/blues/onedge/
- What project are you currently working on?
- I recently finished my symphony, Conversations, and have heard over and over again how this could be good background music for a game. In any case, it's probably the most "publically appealing" piece I've ever written.
- Whats another project you are working on?
- I'm always working on something. Right now, it's transcribing Bach's 1st Invention to handbells. Let's call this an arrangement at this point. Most peculiar project. There should be so much dissonance, and I've written a lot of that too, but I have piles and piles of notes, and it all sounds good. If Bach had 30 fingers per hand, he would have written it this way. I know this for a fact!
- What project did you complete?
- I am also a Playwright. I wrote a full-length musical called "Butterflies." It translates the life of butterflies and moths into a traveling clown company experience. There are so many similarities. The music is also mine and includes Blues, Renaissance/Rock, Pop, A Patti Page type duet, a Halloween tune, and a Hindu based melody for the climax in conjure up rock mixed with acapella vocals. Oh, let's not forget the polka for the performances. The band only knows one tune, but it's a combo of many songs in the play. Someday I'd like to see this performed live, or have it done on film or video.
I've written many plays, the best of which is my latest. It's about prisoners who act very strange. The ending will surprise you.
Two collaborative pieces available on the Internet:
http://www.ssmrocks.com/kimnovak/mt/songs/archives/cat_choral.php
Many music friends answered my call to make a nationwide "Dona Nobis Pacem." After receiving my sound track, they sent their voices, and I mixed.
http://www.ssmrocks.com/kimnovak/mt/songs/archives/magic_musicbox.php
Kim Novak and I collaborated over the Internet on this lullaby. I did most of the music and mixed, while she added base and voice. People say it helps them sleep. Not sure if this is a compliment to the piece... ;-)
- Whats a project you would like to do someday?
- Whatever comes along, whatever pops into my head... ;-) One goal is that I'd like to be published, or be included on a project that gets published. I'm right here if anyone's interested!
- What's your OS of choice?
- PC
- What is your setup (hardware, software, mics, libraries, etc..)?
- Hmmm... I was running Finale on an IBM 486, which did amazingly well with my array of synthesizers over the years. My Dad always said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Well, I had the 486 running through a Korg Karma into a Toshiba with Windows 98 to record, with my E-Machine with XP off to the side handling all the Internet stuff. Memory got scarce on the XP, and CDR's started to not work, along with the whole sound system except for the Sound Blaster system I had hooked up just to get the MIDI connection.
To make this long story a little shorter, I now have Finale 2008 on XP, although the Garritan Instruments won't load right, so I'm waiting for a new CD. My symphony was recorded using their Synth Sounds. Not so hot, but I haven't connected my Karma up to the computer yet, and am waiting for the new disc. Playing out, I use a Roland, complete with an amazing sound system, and usually play for seniors now a-days. (I have an "Old-Time Sing A-Long" that they dearly love, with 4 hours their favorites available, and do this for free when I have time.)
(I was a cocktail pianist, a rock band keyboardist, a church organist, vocal choir and handbell choir director, all for many years.)
Much of my music was recorded off my Peavey synthesizer. I dearly love the woodwinds on this, can't find good equipment yet for brass, Roland handles the piano sounds quite well, and the Korg Karma is good for strings.
Not to give you any hints, but I'm sitting in my studio as I speak, and there's a dishwasher, stove and refrig right behind me... At least I can see the TV... A Sony 46", complete with surround sound...
Dawn LaBuy-Brockett's Photos
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Thanks for the kind words!
How's your dad? I hope he's doing much better. It's pretty cool that he's very involved in your creative endeavors.
And, my! What kitchen karma you have! Have you ever consider fire as a theme for one of your compositions? Of course, I immediately think of such titles as 'Ritual Fire Dance,' 'Firebird Suite,' 'Chariots of Fire' or even 'Great Balls of Fire." What fun!
I can understand the reluctance to get into music as a means of paying bills. There have been a few times when I've considered "grasping at straws" to do something different.
In fact, right now, my wife has been looking at motel properties out West (part of her family is in the business). She became unemployed when bot retail outlet stores she was managing were closed. I want to help her get into her own busines for several reasons. 1. It's something she's been wanting to do; 2. it would help our bottom line; 3. helping her with her marketing would allow me to do something very different, creatively; 4. perhaps she can be successful enough that I can "throttle back" on the game commitments and spend time again on those serious music sketches.
However, I approach such forks in the road a bit more carefully these days. In the past, each time I've started to veer off the audio-related career path (I was in radio for 21 years, jingles for a short time, game audio for the past 14), something pulls me back into it. Perhaps its the old "do what you love to do" message that's been preached by Earl Nightingale, Oprah...even Donald Trump in his latest book. If only bigger bucks would follow!
Music has almost always been a part of what I've done, careerwise. When I was still in college, I once met with an arranger who worked on sessions at the old Columbia Studios in Chicago. I've always felt there was some truth to his advice, "As long as you have music within you, you will never be satisfied until you do something about it."
The nice thing about game audio is the wide variety of things I get to do -- not just music, but speech and sound effects as well. And, on many of the smaller-budget projects, I often enjoy a fair amount of creative latitude.
Yes, there are those deadline crunch times, late nights and weekends filled with work. There are those occasional larger projects that take months, maybe most of a year...and you begin to think, "God, I'm getting sick of this already!" Or, everyone wants several projects done all at once.
But, I can also look back and feel blessed that people have asked me to produce music and effects for a very wide variety of game themes. This past year alone: 3 basketball games, air hockey, electronic foosball, pinball, video slots, merchandisers, a variety of redemption games, a driving game, several bartop video games...whew!
It hasn't been dull!
Plus, it's a real kick seeing how kids (and adults) react to things I may have done in some of these games. Like when both of my nieces (ages 7 and 8) gave me the big two-thumbs-up after driving the new Nicktoons Nitro.
Well, I had intended to keep this short. Bottom line, I haven't gotten rich...yet. But, by sticking mostly to what I know and love, I've managed to carve out a career that's been very interesting and, often, very rewarding when measured by the people I've met and affected...or by those who have affected me.
In retrospect, I have composed far more music as a direct part of my sound design career than I ever did when I used to pitch tunes on Nashville's Music Row (I'll admit that being on-the-air in Chicago at the time helped me get in a few doors).
Of course, Dawn, you're right in that you don't always get to compose what you want when you're doing it to make a living. But when I listen to people who are dissatisfied with their work or their lives, I remind myself that I've really been blessed. I've managed to find an outlet for my talents, where I can entertain others and get paid to do that. It's not the direction I originally intended to go. But, to date, it's been a helluva lot more interesting and satisfying than some of the other things I could have been doing right now.
Perhaps, as you get more works performed, the right opportunity could suddenly beckon you down a similar path. I hope you'll get many of those forks in the road. They're exciting and, sometimes, scary moments of decision-making.
At this point I should stop here. Or, as Larry King pointed out to Ben Stein the other night, "Alright, Ben! You've made your point!"
I am trying to take the bull by the horns, raise the bar a bit and attempt to chart a new course. The sub game sequel I'm working on right now, 'Sea Wolf II,' is one of those rare coin-op themes where I can compose original orchestral scores. Not long pieces, but 5 or 6 minute-long segments that I intend to place on a website I hope to have up in time for a November convention. The strategy here is to, in a way, work within the system -- to take advantage of a paying gig to propel me more in the direction I'd like to go musically.
And, with that...
"Alright, Ben! You've made your point!" One of those Larry King moments that will forever crack me up.
Thank you for your friendship and support. I am looking forward to networking and meeting new friends along our various audio journeys. As soon as possible, I will be posting some new works- in- progress. I am look ingforward to hearing from you and your latest works.
Sincerely,
Steve
Dawn, you asked what's up for the summer. I'm now gearing up for a sequal to a submarine game I worked on last fall called Sea Wolf. Because of it's WWII feel, it's one of the few opportunities I get in the coin-op realm to compose orchestral music (all in MIDI, of course), along with the usual sound effects and speech. I was due to begin work this fall on an MMO, or massively multiplayer online game. I was really looking forward to moving beyond coin-op into something much more dramatic, perhaps cinematic...but the publisher has cancelled the project. Bummer.
There are other smaller projects in the works...bartop and redemption games...which will keep me from my more serious theatrical aspirations for a few months. But, as long as the mortgage gets paid, I can't complain too much right now.
And, I'm also learning my way around a bunch of new plugins right now...principally a new orchestral and choral package...which I need to get up-to-speed on before the next pinball game comes along (possibly this coming winter).
And there you have the short answer:)
Jeff
Dawn
Dawn
I thought he was being totally sarcastic (his professional background is marketing, but he's very Mensa-like in his vast knowledge of things).
However, when he revealed his basic story line, I began to see the serious potential of the overall theme. But not as a musical. All along, I've felt that
the darkness of the subject he disclosed to me deserved to be treated with a much greater depth of musical writing and orchestration. It took some time, but I finally convinced him that what he had was the basis of a contemporary opera.
I've never written for musical theatre, so the uphill view for me is as daunting as our prospects of raising any capital for a production, even a backers' audition. However, we have looked at a few non-traditional avenues as ways to garner funding.
One of those avenues includes staging a 30-minute production at Depaul, through our contacts there. That production would be videotaped and edited into a slick marketing package for both internet and carefully targeted direct-mail.
But, alas, the project has stalled -- with a nearly-complete outline, some libretto and a handful of tunes at various stages of writing. We all have to make a living, which all too often gets in the way of serious creativity. My friend, in order to make his ends meet, recently accepted a teaching job in Korea. We hope to resume the collaboration later this year.
I've had seen this happen seven years ago, when I completed an animation score for a children's video. I pinned my hopes on the director's ability to land larger projects from some of the majors, such as Disney and Pixar. That was 2001, venture funding was drying up, and even the major studios were laying off staff that year. He ended up closing his own studio and laying off staff.
One of the game designers I work with has written plays and came up with a treatment for a children's musical idea I floated by. I worked with this guy on a
handful of coin-up games for DisneyQuest about 10 years ago (Disney is very difficult to work for). He does beautiful cabinet design and art, which is why
I'd love to have him create sets for live kids' productions. Again, it all comes down to paying the bills. The grand stage in our minds has had to take a back seat.
Dawn, for a lot of us, I think it's going to take some out-of-the-box thinking, a lot of networking (may the internet be your guide) and some non-traditional approaches to pitching the material and raising seed money.
Sorry if I don't have a lot of specifics at this juncture. My collaborators are better at the money-raising details than I. They're all pretty good at what they
do. But, the current state of the economy has forced us to become hampsters on our separate little wheels, running at warp speed!
Thanks for asking...hope to share more information of the summer.
Jeff