'Symphonic Series: Classic Cartoons 1 (10th Anniversary Edition)' delivers the sounds of Classic Cartoons into your tracks with new and improved sound quality. These classic yet original compositional construction kits bring you the flavour of the humoristic cartoon music you grew up with. The pack includes individual audio and MIDI loops as well as full arrangements in both MIDI and OMF formats.

Ten years ago, we commissioned soundtrack composer, Gregor Theelen, to compose and orchestrate five original construction kits containing the sound of Classic Cartoon music and this exciting new product was born. Ten years on, we've revised the product to bring you a complete update with great improvements to the sound fidelity.

Featuring audio loops in various formats, individual MIDI files (containing single melody loops), and a full MIDI file and OMF file for your sequencer containing the full mixes.

About the Symphonic Series:

Our Symphonic Series paves the way for producers and composers of all standards to incorporate highly innovative and natural-sounding orchestral loops into their work. This series will cover a multitude of different orchestral styles. One of the many great things about this series is that we will be including OMF (Open Media Format) files with each product which allow you to load full arrangements into your sequencer in audio format, and re-mix the kits to create stunning new ideas. You can also learn (by example) how to put symphonic music together. Watch this space as we have many more exciting titles coming soon...

Who is this product for?

This product is not just an immensely useful and inspirational tool for soundtrack and film composers, it goes far beyond this, and is useful for producers of all styles. For example, anyone who wants to add some classical cartoon motifs to their music will find great ideas here. Hip hop producers and house producers can also use the samples and OMF files to chop up and re-work for exciting new beats. Ambient artists may want to loop a woodwind section, pitch it down at least 2 octaves, and start mixing this with time-stretched double bass notes. The possibilities are limited only by your own imagination.

Want to use the exact notes of a phrase while adding some patches from your favourite synth? No problem. Thanks to our clear file naming system you won't need more than a couple of seconds to locate and import the MIDI file representing the notes of your favourite phrase. Output the MIDI loop through your own synth, and come up with some incredible new phrases.

Timing:

Typical cartoon music has irregular timing, so you won't just find the typical 2-bar, 4-bar, and 8-bar loops in this product. A cat that attacks a mouse might need 3 or 7 bars to conquer its victim. How to deal with these challenges is up to your imagination and creativity. For dance producers, it's easy since an added beat will immediately start to dictate and take over the pace and rhythm of a phrase. Even something that's originally composed as a Viennese Waltz may instantly sound like a regular four to the floor groove once a beat is added. All loops included in this product contain the bar numbers in the file name, so you will always know how long each loop is.

About using the OMF files:

OMF format (Open Media Format) allows you to import a complete arrangement of audio loops into virtually any sequencer. Once loaded, you will see all parts on screen exactly as originally seen when exported, with chunks of audio data on separate tracks, all named by instrument. This format will allow you to re-arrange the compositions as you wish.

Dry loops were used when building the OMF files to bring back the old, dusty, high energy atmosphere of technicolour cartoons from the fifties. Feel free to add your own reverb and/or favourite FX to a phrase or a loop. All clips (phrases & loops) carry the same name as the dry and wet loops as well as the MIDI loops which you will find in the folder structure.

By muting or soloing tracks while looping a specific section you will soon find the exact combination of instruments you want to use for your project. Keep in mind that it might be best to use the same file naming system when exporting your favourite sections as you may want to add or change things at a later point in your creative process.

Please note: the OMF files sum up all volumes of the individual tracks while all faders are set to 0 dB. Therefore, please set the master fader to around -7 dB to avoid clipping and take it from there.

About Cartoon Scoring:

Cartoon scoring has a great historical tradition and is now a fully-established and well-recognised classical genre - strongly related to other twentieth-century classical music styles. Recording artists like Frank Zappa and Todd Rundgren embraced the cartoon genre each in their own way. Zappa's album named Studio Tan (1978) is a great example of how cartoon music found its place in the rock music scene. Another style that has influenced Cartoon music is jazz (big band) - think of Henry Mancini's score for the Pink Panther.

Challenges:

Composing in this particular style can be challenging without prior knowledge in this field. Some experience synchronising sound to visuals may be useful. Luckily, we have provided an example video in this package showing a mini-cartoon clip synchronised to one of these construction kits. A lot of cartoon scores tend to sound very chaotic, but the real trick for the composer is to let their composition tell a story. Even when you are not watching the visuals, you understand the narrative at play.

Octatonic Scale:

The first and fourth kits are composed in the octatonic scale, also referred to as the 'diminished scale', originally stemming from Persian music in the seventh century AD. The scale is formed with whole and half steps following each other in alternating order. For example C, D, E flat, F, G flat, A flat, A, B (whole step, half step, whole step, half step, etc).

When hearing octatonic music, one still hears Persian influences, but one also immediately recognises the scale as widely used in contemporary film scores, 20th-century classical music, as well as in many cartoon musical compositions. The convenient thing about composing in this scale is that everything goes with everything. One never makes mistakes harmonically or melodically as long as you strictly use the notes that belong to the scale. This makes the scale extremely useful for orchestral loops for cartoons; cut everything into small pieces, rearrange it in whatever way, and the resulting sound is consistently musically correct.

An Example:

So, if we look at the first kit named Cat and Mouse we see that we have 68 different loops all containing small musical phrases. All loops are mixed together to represent this track named Cat and Mouse. We have not only included a stereo mix of the track but also an OMF file and a Cubase 6 file of the entire production of this track, along with the individual loops in various formats. Furthermore, we also included all MIDI data belonging to these phrases. You can mix, chop and re-arrange everything as you desire.

Thanks to time-stretching and perfect audio re-tuning functionality, most sequencers these days offer absolutely countless possibilities. Our aim was to offer you the best possible material to start something great with and make sure that every single file would be perfectly looped, edited, and organized.

Specifications:

• 5 kits containing audio loops and MIDI loops representing musical phrases in the classical cartoons genre.
• All audio loops are dry (no FX) and the same loops are also available with reverb. All in 24-Bit, 44.1 kHz sample rate.
• Includes five Cubase 6 files containing the exact arrangements of the tracks as you hear in our demo. Learn by example... The demos are mastered within Cubase and only original Cubase plugins were used for EQ, compression, and reverb.
• 5 OMF files containing the exact arrangements of the tracks are provided, so you can import the full arrangements into all sequencers which support this format. These files are great to be used as reference files and to export small sections you pick out yourself while having the opportunity to make your own mix before you start exporting. This format is also great for DJ's and sound designers.
• All loops are royalty-free to those who have purchased the product. Commercial use of the 5 original compositions exactly as they are in the demos.