Background music. Smartsound?

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Background music. Smartsound?

Postby arve28 » Mon Jan 31, 2011 2:08 am

Looking for music to have on the proshow. Not a popular hit i don't like after some year. What music are you recommend?

Someone tried Smartsound? http://smartsound.com/

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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby gpsmikey » Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:55 am

There is a lot of good "royalty free music" out there (search the forums here for a number of sources). Smart sound is one that quite a few people have used. I have a bunch of their stuff and like it - I like their Smartsound app that lets you change length, tempo, mood and things for a given piece. They periodically have good sales on too.

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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby debngar » Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:02 am

I like the choices they have but haven't bought anything from them yet. I could be totally wrong but I think most of their songs require use of their software to prepare the piece of music for a compatible format rather than being usable right from the download. The extra steps required don't appeal to me. But if you're ok with that, then go for it. :D
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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby gpsmikey » Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:12 am

Debbie is correct on needing to use their app to convert from their format to a standard format, but they have both a free version of their app (that works quite well) as well as the "pro" version that I have. Both versions work quite well and give you lots of options as to what format etc you want to save the music in. Check out their tutorials to see how it works - I'm not sure about the free version, but I know in the "pro" version, you can easily re-arrange the "blocks" that make up a particular piece and make a new piece out of it. Be sure and watch their tutorials to see how it all fits together - while you do need to use their app, the plus side is if you need that piece 20 seconds shorter or 15 seconds longer, it is easy to do and very tough to figure out where it even changed.

mikey
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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby debngar » Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:31 am

gpsmikey wrote:Debbie is correct on needing to use their app to convert from their format to a standard format, but they have both a free version of their app (that works quite well) as well as the "pro" version that I have. Both versions work quite well and give you lots of options as to what format etc you want to save the music in. Check out their tutorials to see how it works - I'm not sure about the free version, but I know in the "pro" version, you can easily re-arrange the "blocks" that make up a particular piece and make a new piece out of it. Be sure and watch their tutorials to see how it all fits together - while you do need to use their app, the plus side is if you need that piece 20 seconds shorter or 15 seconds longer, it is easy to do and very tough to figure out where it even changed.

mikey


My intent was not to discourage the use of Smartsound product. As Mikey says, there's a free version of the audio editing program. It's just that for now, I'm lazy and have chosen not to use that product as I get by with the collection of music I have for now without the extra time consuming steps and extra software on my computer. Maybe my music editing in Producer isn't all that great but I've been able to use it to repeat pieces of a song 6 times in one show, slicing and dicing it together so it's not that noticeable. But maybe I don't hear that well. LOL
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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby AMD » Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:01 am

The SmartSound tracks are fairly nice and can be purchased quite inexpensively if you watch for special sales. I own 14 albums and don't think I have paid full price for any. The free app is easy to install, organizes the music wonderfully, and just passively waits for one to acquire any length or mood needed. If you can go with a .wav track, you need do nothing more than export it. Actually, it is much easier, I think, than accessing some other tracks. There are a few good Digital Juice tracks if one has the old Staxx Trax, which have now been retired, I believe. However, you do have to "dig" through them to find the nicer ones. Searches on the Web periodically uncover a few decent reasonably priced tracks, too. Kevin MacLeod and Jonathan Roberts have generously made some nice CC tracks available for download.

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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby arve28 » Mon Jan 31, 2011 1:19 pm

If i got Smartsound? Which CD from Smartsound is great for vacation, summer, winter, christmas etc?

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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby gpsmikey » Mon Jan 31, 2011 2:57 pm

It's hard to say - everybody had a different "vision" of their show. Best I can suggest (and this is generally what most of us do) is have a basic vision of what you want your show to look like then go to their site (or any of the others) and preview the stuff they have. They have broken it down to a degree but just because it says "sports" doesn't mean you can't use it how you want. Listen to the previews - see what "floats your boat" as they say. Check out the others as well ( Kevin MacLeod for example has free stuff - you just have to give him credit). I have probably 15 or so albums from Smart Sound and another 25 or so from Digital Juice (and still never have the one I want :twisted: ).

mikey
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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby AMD » Mon Jan 31, 2011 5:11 pm

Mikey said it best . . . one can have SmartSound, DJ, etc., etc., and still it seems we never have the one we need or want!

It is also difficult to assess one particular album that would cover most needs. Most royalty-free vendors have a Christmas holiday album, perhaps an American spirit album, acoustical, jazz . . . the list goes on and on. You normally need several of the different genres to even begin to fit what you are needing . . . and then, the next show you create, you start searching for music again!

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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby slideshower » Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:15 pm

Hi,
Quite awhile ago, on impulse, I bought several Smartsound albums when they were on sale. But I still haven't used them because I thought I had to bring my Producer Slideshow into Smartsound and adjust the timing of the photos to the music there. But am I understanding correctly, that I can use their app to change all the music files in an album to .wav file and then save these files in a folder? Then later drag them into Producer like I would an .mp3 music file from Kevin McLeod, and adjust my photos to the timing of the music right in Producer? That would be wonderful! Thanks. Lucie

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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby gpsmikey » Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:26 pm

Yes - you can create a file however you like and export it as a wav file. From there you can bring it into Producer. I would not try to simply convert them all since one of the neat features of their app is the ability to change the length to suit your needs - you want 2:43 ? no problem - just set it for that and export as wav. That is how I do it.

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby slideshower » Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:43 pm

Thanks so much, Mikey. I can see the value of waiting until I know the length of song I need before I converting. I'm not going to leave those albums sitting idle any longer! Lucie

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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby gpsmikey » Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:48 pm

Check out their tutorials - it will make more sense when you have watched them.

http://www.smartsound.com/university/
http://www.smartsound.com/sonicfire/expresstrack.html (the free version)

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
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Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby texbrandt » Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:51 pm

You might want to check out footagefirm.com they offer collections of music that for the price $8.95, it isn't too bad even if you only use one piece out of a collection.

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Re: Background music. Smartsound?

Postby gpsmikey » Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:02 pm

Yes, footage firm has some fairly good stuff too -- I just got 3 disks of their music in the mail today actually :D
http://www.footagefirm.com/newproductionmusic.html

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

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