Become A Pro Composer: My First Year | From Medical Doctor to Media Composer

i want to become a pro composer and i'm sharing my journey with you my name is kevin and i'm a german in my late 20s i'm a medical doctor gamer and music nerd

i'm exploring the exciting world of music and i want you to be a part of my journey i finished my first year of trying to become a professional orchestral media composer let's have a look at the achievements

and setbacks of the last year by the end of 2019 i traveled from germany to korea in order to live there i'd also sent my custom-built self-assembled tempered glass rgb gaming

pc there i was committed i got myself a monitor peripherals and a midi keyboard the arturia keylab essential essentially hoping that it would stop

making my music sound i played around with reaper a great piece of software that i just didn't really understand at that point in time i required my knowledge that i got from

this legendary and handsome man wait that guy no this guy his name is alex mukhala and he had a video about starting as an orchestra music composer and which mistakes to avoid

i was doing pretty much all of them i then bought etho studio 20 enrolled in a course on cinematic composing and finally felt ready to start with my composer journey i needed sample libraries and luckily it

was around black friday at that time first i got full contact 6 as backbone for my collection and i paired it with a piano bst as i'm a pianist and love doodling around

next up i was looking for an all-in-one orchestra library giving me control over the different sections of the orchestra i chose audio imperia's nucleus which had just come out at that time it offers strings brass and woodwind

sections percussion solo instruments and even some sound design options a great package to get started with writing orchestral music on top of that i wanted a dedicated strings library

after comparing some products i chose cinematic studio strings for the lush sound dynamic consistency and gorgeous legato wait why is the icon getting smaller oh

right because you don't just buy one strings library let's get that one too next stop percussion boy i had no idea about percussion i got this big guy because he looks cool

when you first open up the library it kinda looks like this because the illustration takes up like 1 3 of your screen space but many people don't realize that you can minimize it

i knew i was going to try hybrid orchestral trailer music as well so i wanted more i wanted something new something epic i picked some drums that basically had

those words in their names so here we have it nine companions so be it you shall be the fellowship

of the ring right where are we going two more upgrades before i was ready to go out and fight evil with my virtual instruments ssd storage and smylasic surgery for my

eyesight to get rid of my glasses for the next 15 years time for my first real project i tried to recreate khcarba's fantastic song

grandma destruction from the video game near automata [Music] it was quite bad but i was filled with determination and i did not give up

one month and about 200 later it actually started to sound decent to me i felt like i had come a long way with

only one song at the beginning of the year i exchanged fl studio stock reverb with valhalla room went through a course for quick

orchestral sketching purchased a mixing book that was too advanced for me and upgraded my computer's ram to 32 gigabytes the end of january sounded like this for me

[Music] i took part in the event composer challenge you only had five notes three days and the task to come up with a theme no matter which style

orchestration [Music] i felt proud and excited to have my entry awarded honorable mentions by the jury

it was the first time i've ever submitted something in february my cinematic studio strings and studio solo strings got a little baby brother as i expanded my brass palette

my biggest event in february by far was me participating in the scoring contest score the world you had to create the soundtrack for a trailer of a nature documentary about the amazon forest

i spent the entire month on it and when i got the feedback i was blown away they called my orchestration sophisticated delicate

i felt as if i had just graduated from the white halls of berkeley oh yeah and then there was the rest of the feedback it was just an average result achieved with a very over average amount

of effort i still got much to learn in march i bought fluffy audios my piano in order to support their covet relief fund well because i like doodling around with the piano and i learned about the power of the four percent rule for

productivity i opened my youtube account where i started to post original compositions and covers for video games and movies the month of april made me buy stress of

sampling's amazing jade ethnic orchestra i had to upgrade my storage again

then this happened [Music] is that a standard issue no

it's not okay let me explain what that was all about spitfire audio teamed up with hbo to create the westworld scoring contest a huge prize and eternal fame to be collected it was my most ambitious project so far and it took me well over

a month i had tons of fun combining synthesizers a symphonic orchestra mongolian throat singers and 8-bit elements i didn't win but the style wasn't too far off i loved quite a lot when i saw

the winner entry also having an 8-bit part doom brought a bit of misfortune into my life due to covet 19 i couldn't get my visa extended and had to fly back to germany i was still paying rent for my apartment

in seoul but couldn't live there i couldn't see my girlfriend for months and of course i lost access to my studio it really sucked but i focused on what i can do and not what i cannot i still had an 8 gigabyte

dual core cpu laptop it's not ideal but it had to do for now after all the borders would open quickly again right i saw this time period as an opportunity to get started with video production i bought a proper microphone and some

stuff for it i wanted to try soundtrack analysis videos so i wrote a script for one but it wasn't for another four months until i actually published it i spent july during holidays in europe

at least kinda while chilling on the beach in greece native instruments and audio imperia hit me hard an epic bundle of jaeger talos cerberus

trailer guitars 2 and legacy a supernova of composing goodness at your fingertips press keys

turn knobs adjust curves lean back and enjoy success it was an amazing value bundle it gave me access to a hybrid trailer orchestra song design options and the amazing solo

vocals of two steps from hellsinger mireta saltwett in september i moved to a new home a new home daw i downloaded the free version of studio one five loved it and haven't looked

back september was also the month where i finally left my purest days behind by getting my first performance samples libraries an emotional and almost cheesy solo

violin and the new and epic choir oceania 2.

i am not done yet compensating for the frustration of being stuck in germany on an 8 gigabyte ram laptop i bought a thera gold 2.5 a cinematic all-star we appreciate for soundscapes like this

but love for gems like this [Laughter] seriously it's awesome has huge amount of content and is generously priced i

used the cyber world expansion to write my song robo patrol [Music] in october i flew to poland i thought to myself i'll just wait here for a bit until corona gets better and south korea

reopens the border again as of now i'm still here i bought the nectar impact lx 25 plus as a portable midi solution as you should know by now no new instrument months are bad months

i was therefore exhilarated when my best friend gifted me some villain pipes ah ellen pipes alien pipes italian pipes illinois pipes island pipes

remember that i wanted to do a soundtrack analysis and i wrote a script for it i finally managed to finish the video this concerning hobbits analysis video was a major milestone for me as it basically taught me video editing and

voice narration in the video i took apart one of the lord of the rings most beautiful soundtracks explained its musical concepts and also talked about the philosophy behind the series

and another milestone i challenged myself to upload one video every week to kickstart my youtube channel and give it some consistency on halloween i joined evidence challenge to create a spooky song

i created a funny little cue that also included a little bit of voice acting for my side and again i was awarded honorable mentions with it november starts with a bang i started a

mentorship with alex pfeffer who many of you will know as an established professional in the industry he has just released his album chaos theory for the legendary two steps from hell seriously go check it out another black

friday was around the corner this year i tried to keep it civil i bought the heavily discounted thematic strings library of latest that i had been on the lookout for months and i got myself the percussion giant

damage 2 for my birthday obviously stress-off made me upgrade my storage again that was all for black friday almost some more strings and some epic battle horns because you never know when you need them right

i'm proud to say that i kept up with my weekly upload schedule for november in order to make my black friday shopping extravaganza look a little bit more normal i pushed some of the purchases into

early december very early december i bought pretty shiny things with lots of buttons that helped me improve my sound quality a bit and the music box everyone loves these my last purchase of the year were philip

johnston's orchestration recipes these digestible modules help you reach different sounds of the orchestra and make the most of your sample instruments i'm excited to try them out in the new year and i'll make sure to keep you guys

updated on my experiences as for my youtube channel again i managed to fulfill my weekly upload goal i had now created and uploaded songs for 11 consecutive weeks consistency is a very important factor

for the youtube algorithm and i could see that very clearly one of my goals for 2021 is to maintain a regular schedule speaking of which let's jump into a lookout for the next year

success usually does not come overnight it's a journey that i'm willing to take and i would absolutely and wholeheartedly appreciate if you would be part of it i want to maintain a healthy and positive mindset protecting me from the

inevitable setbacks on my further path at the same time i will work with focus and purpose to achieve consistent improvement and avoid stagnation using these two principles the first

thing that i want to improve in 2021 is my craft my music on the one hand this includes the technical aspects my workflow inside the diw mixing and mastering understanding and

properly using compression eq limiters and improving the overall sound quality of my songs on the other hand there is enhancing my musicality becoming a musical extrovert getting a deeper understanding of the

orchestra learning about orchestration and instrumentation and making my writing and arrangements better secondly in the next year i want to get to know more people from the industry i want to make myself relevant through

great music and helpful content i want to become a part of the game this involves finding my own identity within the community getting my computer back for a better hardware situation and creating useful

and entertaining content stepping into this community i want to network and build bridges i want to be helpful to others and ask for help if i run into obstacles

i want to stay active and up to date if i succeed in these points i might be able to slowly start generating my first music related earnings we will see for now i will continue this

journey and hope that you will follow me on the way please consider subscribing to my channel if you found this video useful there will be more to come thank you for

watching and i wish you all a healthy

and happy new year 2021 [Music] you