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The Recording
My hard drive recording setup consists of a second PC equipped with a Digital Audio Labs CardD Plus sound card and an Opcode Music Quest MQX-32M card that generates the SMPTE time code. Innovative Quality Software’s SAW multitrack program provides the four stereo tracks that I need as well as the time-code support.
Throughout the recording session for The Indian Tomb, my son Bret, a high school senior and computer whiz, handled the recording and editing chores while I looked after the virtual orchestra. Recording was done at a sampling rate of 48 kHz. Once the music was finished, a few key sound effects were dropped into place. After playback in interlock with the video, only a few minor corrections were left to be made.
The final step was to record the composite soundtrack (music and sound effects) onto DAT for final delivery. As an extra courtesy to the producer, I used SAW to generate a 44.1 kHz WAV file of the composite track, which I used to burn an audio CD. I provided that CD along with the videotape to Shepard as a producer’s advance copy. By starting the CD and videotape together, Shepard could preview the soundtrack in reasonably close sync with the picture before going into the studio for the final playback. (We jokingly refer to those CDs as Vitaphone disks, after the early sound-on-disk playback system used in theaters during the late 1920s.)
With The Indian Tomb safely transferred, I had one last chore to perform: coming up with a name for the “orchestra” for the credits at the end of the film. For past projects, most of the names have been in-jokes having to do with the movie or its star. (For Robin Hood, my electronic musicians were billed as the Elton Thomas Orchestra, a reference to the pen name Douglas Fairbanks used for his film scripts.) After much serious consideration, I finally decided that The Indian Tomb orchestra would be billed as the Tiger Hof Kapelle. In the film’s original German titles, Tiger Hof was the walled enclosure in which Ayan kept his pack of murderous pet tigers.
Fade Out
With all of my Finale orchestra files backed up onto a CD, I began to think about the music for my next assignment for Shepard: a trio of films about the Civil War produced by Thomas Ince from 1913 to 1915.
My success in producing composite soundtracks for commercial video releases of silent films demonstrates that owning a room full of expensive gear is not necessary to be a viable player in the electronic-music field. Primarily through trial and error, I’ve learned how to make the most of a very basic studio setup, which has provided me access to an area that I find personally and financially rewarding.
I’m constantly working to refine my technique and to gain an even better understanding of what my modest system is capable of. Following the completion of each project, I make a point to reinvest some of the profits into system upgrades and perhaps one or two new components to increase my studio’s capabilities.
Eric Beheim leads a multifaceted career as a professional musician and informational video producer. Major symphony orchestras in the United States and Canada have performed his silent-film scores.
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Reprinted with permission from
Magazine, March, 2001© 2000, Intertec Publishing, A Primedia Company All Rights Reserved
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