Different parts of your project need different music. But sometimes it’s best to keep it similar. With stock music from Smartsound, it’s easy. Find out how!
Sometimes you’ve got a project and need the music to follow a theme—whether for b-rolls, transitions, dialogue scenes, or what have you. You don’t want all the exact same music, but you also don’t want it being too different either. Using motifs—themes in music—throughout your project can be a great way to build cohesion, and signal to the viewer that it’s all part of the same work. Using just an element here or there from the main title track can often do the trick. Luckily, with Smartsound Cloud, this is super easy to do.
To go through these instructions, I used a track from our lofi lounge Well Told stock music album. I find that you can really tell the differences best in jazzier music, but that’s just me. Pull up any album you’d like to walk through this.
Getting to the Customize screen
To look at this, I first chose the song, “Monarchs”. It’s got a really smooth organ solo and some nice deep bass, so you can really highlight the differences.
If you’re a little bit lost after selecting your stock music track, it’s no big deal. Just to the top right of the search screen is a big “X” in a circle. Click on that and it will take you to the Customize Track screen, where you can get to the down and dirty of editing your track and making all these cool variations I’m talking about.
Select Variation
Most of our tracks have been made with several musical variations. Sometimes they’re in different styles but with the same motifs. More often they’re the same track but structured and layered differently. Sometimes they include key differences—like a solo on a different instrument, perhaps a different set of instruments playing the same track.
They’re close, but different, and can be used quite well for the purpose I laid out above. Use one for the b-roll, use another for the credits.
Monarch Variations
If you’re using the “Monarchs” track like I am, you’ll see that there’s a total of 6 variations for the track. The standard variation is called “Inheritance”. “Proclaimed” is very similar, but starts off with a key hit and adds in some pads. “Birth Right” starts with a key noodle, then the beat immediately sets in. You get the picture. Some tracks start differently, other tracks the energy level flows differently, and so on.
Select Mix
If you didn’t already select the stock music track’s length (which we went over how to do in this tutorial), then go ahead and click and drag the track to your desired length. Now we’re ready to play with the mix.
This is one of my favorite features of Smartsound Cloud and where you can really let your project’s soundtrack shine. Each track is recorded in a multi-layer format, which means you can control the final mix of instruments. With the “Select Mix” drop down, you can choose between our presets that have been meticulously prepared for you.
Want to use the track but have it good for sitting behind a dialogue? Choose “dialog” and it’ll drop the volumes and remove any distracting elements. How about just the drum & bass? Potentially great for a b-roll or short transition—find our preset. We’ve got a variety of different presets for different occasions, just check them out.
Monarch Mixes
Back to our “Monarch” track. You’ll see we have 13 mix presets already set up for you. Select each one and you’ll see how it affects the mixer immediately, in the ways I discussed above.
TIP: Don’t ever feel you’re limited to using presets. Presets make for great jumping off points, where you can further tweak it to your exact preferences. Or you can use them to find inspiration in new directions.
Do It Yourself
If our presets aren’t enough for you and really want to let your creativity out of the box, no problem. You can make your stock music track even more personalized. Underneath the “Select Mix” and “Select Variations” drop downs, we have the mix for all the layers that were recorded on the track. This usually covers all the different instruments or groups of instruments.
Is that guitar solo too distracting? Lower it or cut it out. Do you like that really jazzy bass line and you want kind of a Seinfeld transition? Drop everything but the bass. Do you want only some really atmospheric sounds? Drop everything but the keys and the pads.
Experiment!
Just play around with it until you really get a feel for how the different mixes can fit your project. There are so many options—with the ability to do the mix yourself they’re really almost limitless.
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