Hey, a guy here. Absolutely no money to spend on cool samples like east/west, so I use what free samples I can (just a jobless kid). I got FL Studio for a gift many years back, so that’s all I got to work with. I’ve been composing as much as I can for about 5 years, yet when I put my heart and soul into an orchestral song for an entire week of writing it, you could tell that having it rejected was a pretty big hit to me. Do I stand any chance against people who purchase better music programs/sample libraries? I mean, if 5 years of composing isn’t enough to meet AJ’s standards, should I just give up hope here?
This is perhaps an odd story to bring up, but it’s something that influences me nonetheless. The Nazi party literally started out as 5 guys in the back of a bar. Adolf Hitler, who one day would become on of the most ruthless yet influential individuals of the 20th century and possibly all of modern history started his political movement with four other individuals in the back of a bar. It’s hard to get any humbler beginnings than that.
Not into Nazi history? Chris Pratt, one of the largest, most influential stars of the day spent a number of years homeless living out of a van in Hawaii. He’s now staring in blockbuster films making millions of dollars.
I could go on forever, but the point is that many of the people who are the movers and shakers in our world today had very humble beginnings. Sure, there are those who found their success through their parents because of old money and such, but many others found their way through perseverance and dedication.
I’ve been around making music for some time - yea, the better samples are going to make making good sounding music easier, but there are loads and loads of free instruments, VSTs, sample libraries, plugins and other such items out there on the internet that one could use to make great music. One rejection is nothing to be honest. Is it a blow to your pride? Perhaps. But that’s probably a good thing. You’re not as good as you think you are or you want to be. Use that as motivation to learn and become better. If you’re ready to call it quits after one failure, then you’ll not make it far in music and it’ll be difficult for you to do well elsewhere. Time means nothing with music. I’ve seen people who claim to have played the guitar for 10 years who sound awful and people who have been playing for less than 1 that sound great. Don’t think because you’ve put in some time that you are entitled to success. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. You’ll see success when you become good. Strive for that. Take pride in your effort and the work that you put in.
I apologize if some of this sounded harsh at all, but I’m only looking to help and inspire. I wish you the very best of luck with your endeavors. Perhaps posting your song on these forums or others will help you find some helpful feedback.
Good luck!
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Unfortunately production trumps composition by about 1000% here (and everywhere else these days), everything needs to sound fantastic. That being said, there are plenty of decent sounds to be had for free, check out this old thread.
But yes, with orchestral music especially you will likely have to purchase some expensive sample libraries. If you are really serious though, you might consider trying something like East/West composer cloud, $29.99 a month and you get access to the gold level of all their libraries.
http://www.soundsonline.com/composercloud
But even with something like that you’d still need 4 sales a month just to break even, and you really need a good computer these days with lots of ram to make orchestral mock-ups that sound great, because most of these libraries are ram and cpu hogs.
Otherwise maybe think about getting a part time job, music often requires a large financial investment and many times you don’t get it back. Or, maybe focus on making electronic music, lot’s of synthesizers that can be had out there for free or cheap, free 808 samples, ect, and with a little bit of synthesizer/production knowledge, this stuff can be made to sound great.
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Hey Phil, if you’re struggling with a particular sound or resource, please hit me up. I feel your pain and,over the years of being a starving artist, have accumulated lots of good ways to legitimately get some rather pro sounding material without spending a fortune (or anything in many cases). For most commercial resources there’s most often a free, legal alternative- and there are a ton of plugins/techniques you can use to get more out of what you’re doing if you’re struggling with production quality. I’ll be happy to chip in some info. Msg me, and best wishes.