I'm Blair. I love music. I'm a composer, for film and TV, but even when I do that all day I have excess love for music. This channel is for the overflow. Covers of some of my musical crushes, weird genre bending experiments, probably some originals and whatever else strikes my fancy.
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bro... how are you not famous yet?
idk, hopefully soon. lol
oh my fucking god, cant describe the feeling but im feeling some sorta way right now. 10/10 bro.
Haha, thank you so much!! So glad you’ve enjoyed it!
@@goodbear_goodblair ryan defo needs you if he does more series like this. id love to see you on there
underated
Holy shit i love this. Keep up the good work man, will you ever be on spotify? I would love to listen to that more there!
Yes!! The entire album will be coming to Spotify super soon. The link will be in the description of the video as soon as it’s up!
The Spotify link is in the description now! Enjoy!!
@@goodbear_goodblair thank you so much for the info! Going to listen to it now!
i love your music wow most underrated ever.
Thanks Mady! 😊
How did you make this?
I wrote it and recorded it in Logic Pro, and then we recorded with a live orchestra in Budapest - the same one that recorded Jordan Peele’s “Get Out”
Ur already one step ahead of being famous
Hey Everyone! Thanks for stopping by. Check out the video description for Spotify and Apple Music links to listen to the full album!
Hey all! Thanks for stopping by and taking a listen. Spotify and Apple Music links to the full album are in the description!
ryan used this in his penny series movie
It was written specifically for it!
@@goodbear_goodblair nice
so nostalgic this is awesome
i love this
Thanks! 🙏
This is dope Blair nice work!!
Thank you!!
Great balanced review 👍 Keep it up.
Thanks for the non biased review!! Really appreciate it! On another note, which string library would you recommend to adding strings to pop music and also rock music?
Paul Thompson said there's an update coming in early 2024. It's a great sounding library and I'm looking forward to the update.
Very glad to hear it!
Where did he say that? I want to know more about the update
Beautiful man
Thanks!
My issue with AR2IC is that the demos make it sound like gorgeous strings with clouds of roisin perfect for a quartet. Then I noticed EVERY demo was LOUD ONLY. I thought maybe just trying to sell it as rock strings or wev. BUT then I watched a couple reviews…. PS I get dynamics and expression confused because EXPRESSION IS HOW THE PERFORMED EXPRESSES ON THE INSTRUMENT EG “PERFORMED LOUDNESS” and “dynamics” is literally a measure of HEARD VOLUME. Or that’s what I was taught in my masters of music composition… So I’ll call the rightmost CC Dynamics regardless of the spitfire or English way. Ok so ADORE the timbre but worried it is only loud. Watched reviews and yep. The people would play while pulling the dynamics slider from top/100% to bottom/1%. Can you guess what I would expect the dynamic change to be? Closer to 100% to ~10%. Nope. The difference from slider from top to bottom was a HEARD LOUDNESS CHANGE of 10-15%. The only quiet (ish) option is flautando and personally I don’t have the patience to wait 10 seconds for an instrument to be full. I haven’t watched your video yet but I’m hoping you’ll address it. Idk why people are pretending to not notice a GLARING issue. Also, Spitfire WTF? You’re better than that! I’m getting offers to receive betas and if I do it and do a KZread I will be honest no matter the allegiance to the product
Perfeito!!! 💪🏻
🙌 🙌 thanks!!
This is absolutely marvelous, Blair! Congratulations on such a wonderful arrangement and programming.
Thanks so much Rolf, it was a joy to do 😊
Guys.... Been needing this score. I need this full track. Where can I find it?
Unfortunately it can't be found anywhere! Sorry. Me and a few buddies have looked, but have not been able to find a score anywhere, really!
Sounds beautiful! Would love to see you talk about your workflow, template, samples and all that good stuff! Thankssssss
Thanks so much! I’m definitely planning on going into it at some point!
Fantastic work! Beautiful sound quality!
Thank you, Alexander!
This is amazing! It actually did feel like a quick recap story of Endgame and probably one of my favorite medleys so far. However, if I could nitpick, I personally think the transition of "The Real Hero" into "Main on End" between 6:15-6:35 felt really sudden and awkward. Maybe "The Real Hero" needed to play out a little more, but I don't know. Either ways, that was fantastic. Subscribed!
Hey Insomnia! Gosh, thanks so much for the kind compliment. Now that you say it, yeah! I could see maybe needing a slightly better crescendo into main on end. I don’t know if you noticed, but real hero goes back into portals first, and then the harmonic/percussive support on main on end is changed to do the Portals “bomp, bomp-bomp” thing. I thought going back into portals might be a good enough emotional cue to signal change, but it seems like the change was maybe a little sudden. I super appreciate the feedback! I’ll think over what to do next time to nail that just perfectly!
@@goodbear_goodblair Ahh yeah I noticed the Portals, and it's actually pretty smart since I think the notes matched. I initially thought the build-up to that was your variation of a "grander" moment in The Real Hero (specifically at 6:17-6:22) and it was gonna continue that tune a little more and lead into Main on End. I apologize for the vague-ish explanation btw as I have little to no knowledge of music arrangement and terms hahaha. I look forward to your future stuff!!
Oh gosh, no apology necessary! It’s actually so good to get feedback from non-composer/musicians. They tend to just listen to how they feel, and I think that has even more merit than all the technical stuff… it’s what really ends up mattering! Thanks for sharing. I think the idea was cool, but maybe in the next arrangement I do, I can think of some good ways to string ideas together a bit more fluidly! 😊
Wow, really this is very good, good job. One of the best covers I've ever listened. I hope you can make a more extended version in the future.
Wow, thanks so much. Incredibly kind. I’d love to expand it in some way! Maybe a full avengers suite, with all the best themes from every avengers film 😍😍😍
Fantastic stuff dude!
Thanks so much, Rick!
My guy this is phenomenal work!
Thank you so much, Eddie! :D
So Pretty and very fun!
Thank you very much!
@Blair Loves Music hey, do you own Spitfire Soccanti Quartet ?
@@WinItReigns I don't. But from everything I've heard and tried, I always suggest for folks to try out Cinematic Solo Strings. That's currently the best out there!
I've purchased the library only a few days ago, first thing I noticed is the loading issue, but I think I will get around it. I have a bunch pretty dramatic scenes to score and I'm curious to try this library and see the results. Thanks!
Yeah, it’s certainly a nice sounding library! I will say, if you decide you’re gonna use the library; bounce your individual tracks to audio as you finish mocking up individual sections of your piece. That way, as you finish your piece it loads up really quickly because it’s just audio. This will keep you from having to wait 20 minutes to open a session if you just need to get into it to make a quick revision. Hope the project goes well!
@@goodbear_goodblair I will definitely do that. Thanks so much! 😊
Sounds great!
Thank you so much! :D
So sweet and lively! Congrats, my friend!
Thanks so much! :D
Hey all! It seems like a lot of folks are continually checking in to see if this is a good library. Here's a small update - - Spitfire has NOT fixed the loading issues, and I am not the only one to experience it. It is a widespread problem and it is NOT BEING ADDRESSED! Stay away from the library for now.
Only reading this now that I've purchased the library 😅. I can only confirm
@@Dariocomposer yikes. Sorry dude! That sucks. It is a really nice sounding library though!
Alright, revisiting this piece and walkthrough nearly 2 years later, I've grown a ton. HERE'S WHAT CAN BE BETTER ABOUT THIS PIECE . 1) the mix sucks. I've since bought the Dennis Sands mixing class, as well as paid a TON more attention to great mixing engineers online, and that I've been fortunate enough to meet in person. This mix sounds like it's coming from a radio. Very few highs and very few lows, with a pretty massive buildup in the 300-500hz range. 2) The reverb and panning is too intense and just a little weird. That actually works to my advantage in covering up some of the less pleasing aspects about the mockup. At the time I was using Hollywood Strings Gold, as that was my only library, and they ONLY option for mic positions is "Mid" and that's ludicrous. If you're getting composer cloud, get the diamond version which lets you use the main mics, or the "mic tree". Almost the entire thing that I'm talking about with the panning and reverbing your orchestra is nonsense BECAUSE I did not realize at the time that it was specific to that library I was using. The mid mics on Hollywood strings are not pre panned, and/or do not have a good stereo image out of the box. It has to be added. Ultimately, this just means that they aren't a great fit for this type of music. Now this doesn't mean you shouldn't pan your instruments ever - Dennis Sands (who's mixed Avengers, Men in Black, Harry Potter) will often make *SMALL ADJUSTMENTS* to sampled instruments in order to widen the stereo field and give the orchestra the space he's looking to achieve. This works well. Almost all of your orchestral libraries are going to come pre-panned, and while a little tweaking is wonderful, huge adjustments are going to completely ruin your "orchestra in a room" type feel. 3) The quality of my sounds is bad. People will not love hearing this, but the quality of your sounds is 49% of the battle here (51% is your arranging skills). If you are planning on doing this for a living, INVEST, INVEST, INVEST in good sounds! Performance Samples, Orchestral Tools, Spitfire, Cinematic Studio Series. An excellently sampled orchestra in a beautiful sounding room will get you very far, assuming you're working on your arranging and orchestrating skills. HERE'S WHAT'S STILL GOOD. 1) I used the downtime in 2020-2022 as an excuse to get as good as I possibly could at my craft. I think this will forever go down as one of the best decisions I've made, and it's set the tone for the rest of my career - keep moving forward, always get better! 2) The layering I used on this is gangbusters. It just works really well. I've used it again, and I will use it in the future. Love how it turned out. 3) I still use Dynamics and favor CC1 heavily over Expression/CC11. It really just makes for a better mockup. Orchestral instruments don't go up and down in VOLUME, they go up and down in intensity. I will use expression to achieve a (realistically possible/playable) sound from an instrument at a desired different volume. I will also use it to help an orchestral sample play ppp, or fade to niente (nothing).
The part with layering the violins is brilliant! This part is almost unplayable. Very creative! For my taste a bit too much reverb, thats all :-)
Totally fair! I made this almost two years ago now, and it's AMAZING how much better I've gotten and how much I've learned. Keep an eye out... I'm gonna pin a comment up top real quick saying what I did wrong here.
This video rocks!
Thanks Nolan!
This is so good!! It sounds like a real orchestra lol. Also I love the cadences in this song. So lovely
This is really pretty!
Well done
Thanks so much!
Two questions: 1) Whoa... 15 to 20 MINUTES to load up a Spitfire library on your M1 Mac Mini? That's what I have, and now I'm frankly freaked out about forking out a lot of money for this library and then have to deal with such a crazy wait time each time a piece with this in Logic :o 2) So this is your Honest review. But I was puzzled that I didn't see your corresponding Dishonest review! Okay, sorry, that's more snark about my dislike for "an honest [review / post / etc.]", sorry :D Snark on #2 aside, thank you for this detailed, helpful review! (and particularly the cool info about mapping articulations to cc ranges)
Hey! Thanks for your comment. 1 - Yeah, it’s not great. I like the sound of the library, and I LOVE the “brushed” articulation. No one else does that, and I feel like it’s such a unique thing that I just can’t get anywhere else. Wish more libraries did them! But, I really haven’t used this library, period, since I did this demo. Can’t get it to load in a reasonable amount of time. I also have figured out that Cinematic Studio Solo Strings can achieve a very good and similar(ish) sound if I just turn off everything but the close mics. It’s a wonderful library. There’s a huge thread at VI - Control talking about the bugs in this library, and the bugs everyone’s facing. Just this week it seems like there have been some talk of updates from Spitfire, but they sure have taken their time. I don’t know if I’d suggest this library… It can be beautiful but the aforementioned CSSS is consistent, beautiful, and I’ve literally had directors ask me “are those real strings??” - I’d go with CSSS. 2 - lol, I see your point, but I think the “honest” review thing works because sometimes channels review this stuff and they’re big fans of the library, maybe hoping to work for them one day, and do a demo with kid gloves on. The “honest” in the title lets folks know that my intentions are just to make clear what I find good and bad. - That’s probably why these types of videos are fairly popular, people are just looking for answers. Would “unbiased review” be a better title? Maybe, but I’m not gonna lose sleep thinking about the difference. Really glad you liked the review, and the mapping articulations part! I honestly love doing it that way. So glad it could be of help!
Not sure if this is helpful but I have an M2 MacBook Pro with 64GB of RAM and it loads in like 10 seconds. This library is just what I was looking for personally - dry and versatile but authentic and full of character
@@auberginedreams00 Yeah, that's one of the big shames about this library! The sound quality is awesome. Yeah, so far it seems to be pretty indiscriminate as far as who's having the load issues and who isn't. It doesn't seem to be related to computing power. I just re-tried opening it on my mac studio with 128gb of ram, and it's still taking eons to open. People can, and maybe should, totally buy it! But it's absolutely a throw of the dice.
@@goodbear_goodblair Heya, Blair... heh, wow, a very belated thanks for your detailed reply! :) Based on the note from you and others, I decided not to get this library. The fact that Spitfire has dragged their feet on a great many bugs (especially with NKS / Komplete Kontrol) for *years* has also not endeared me to them, so I've largely decided to stop buying their libraries. Oh, and the fact that they offer no downloadable demos, have no return policy, prohibit resales, etc. I've gone from being a bit Spitfire fan originally to frankly really disappointed with what I perceive to be their customer-hostile approach. But I digress :D On the "honest" bit... heh, maybe I'm an outlier. I just assume that -- in too many cases -- when people explicitly insist on their honesty or unbiasedness, I am skeptical ;). Rather, I've just come to trust folks by their output / content / actions over time. I just assume most creators online are decent, honest folks unless they demonstrate otherwise :)
Excellent
Thank you!
great review and lovely tune thanks
Thanks so much!
Beautiful composition Blair - thanks for sharing. And appreciate your comments on AR2 Iconic Core - tho' disappointed too. Quite mean of them I thought to exclude Portamento on the Core version. I remain undecided.
Thanks so much, and I don’t disagree at all! I hate that throttling type mindset!
Lovely piece!
Thank you!
The Orville score!! Great work here, Blair.
Duuude, the Orville is amazing! And thank you so much!
didn't even watch the review part yet, but you already get my like, because your musical excerpt is beautiful already!
Thank you so much!!
@@goodbear_goodblair great review too! Can I ask what Sample Libraries you generally use most personally? I'm just getting into sort of film scoring for fun, but I am overwhelmed with all the options, from Spitfire, to Native Instruments or EastWest
@@NickJacobsMusic great question. My go to orchestral libraries right now are: Strings - cinematic studio strings, and I’m pretty sure that the upcoming pacific strings (by performance samples) will be one of my main libraries. Then brass - I’m really working through my brass sound. It’s actually the weakest part of my mock-up game at the moment. But I like caspian brass and angry brass (performance samples) sample modeling, Hollywood brass, and abbey road orchestra’s brass (as well as cinebrass) I’m also gonna try out cinematic studio brass here really soon. Winds - cinematic studio woodwinds, as well as Hollywood winds, and spitfire symphonic woodwinds! For percussion, I really like abbey road one. It’s simple, and won’t have everything, but it sounds amazing.
@@goodbear_goodblair thanks a lot for the detailed answer! Gonna have a look at all different options 😄
@@NickJacobsMusic please do! They’re great libraries. Also, feel free to reach out/follow up on my Instagram @blairlovesmusic
Thanks for the reveiw
Thank you! Hope it was helpful.
Thanks for good review
Glad you liked it!
This is the best review of this product that I've been able to find. Thank you. I was really excited for this library until I saw the price tag, and it made my heart a little sad. I thought it would give me a James Newton Howard "The Village" kind of sound, and was set that this is THE library for me. Your honesty has relieved me of the stress over the cost and given me piece of mind that there are other options out there for my needs. There's no 100% perfect library, unfortunately. This is a very lovely ensemble sound, but it might not be right for me at this point in my career. I look forward to more reviews of yours. Lovely composition, by the way. While I'm at it... Would you happen to know of any library that would give me that "The village; Silk Road" kind of sound? I have a love/hate relationship with Spitfire, and there are so many other companies out there... Any thoughts?
Hey! Thanks so much for the lovely comment. As far as getting that "The Village" type sound, I'm curious if you're more leaning toward the Hilary Hahn solo violin sound, or the larger (but still intimate) ensemble sounds? I'm curious what exactly you're going for, but as I listen to the soundtrack, a couple things stand out to me: 1) the solo violin sound is virtuosic. The tone and timbre is lovely, but it has to be able to achieve that accuracy and real light quickness. The only solo violin library I know that can do that right now is Josh Bell. Performance samples - solos of the sea can also get you darn close. Both will be real work to get useable, and not be embarrassing in your mix. If you're on a smaller project where you don't need to record an hour or two of music, I'd find the best violinist in your area and ask them to record for 100-200 dollars and a really nice dinner. lol. If they're decent, they'll sound better than programming 95% of the time. 2) The ensemble sounds from the village are not massive - they seem to be a much smaller chamber ensemble. They also seem to be without vibrato most of the time... leaning into that dry, slightly emotionless sound... milking that sort of creepiness. I'd go with either spitfire chamber strings (they'd absolutely work well for that) or cinematic studio strings, with the close mics turned up about halfway. You need that presence to really get the whisper quality that the score has. FWIW, I would layer these two libraries for that sound, 100% I hope that's helpful, Eicho! Again, thanks for the kind words!
this is so beautiful
Thank you so much!