Demo Reel 2008

I've decided to do a demo reel because I first started producing music 3 years ago around this time. This place was also the first community I joined after I started making tunes. Made 'random' music on and off until a year later I got involved in a project so I started learning the production techniques a little deeper. I'm still currently in that project since undergrad and work isn't exactly doing justice, plus, music making is just a hobby. Wasn't until late last year I started going into synth-heavy and custom sample heavy tracks. The demo reel contains selected tracks only from 2008. I like to think that the most change in my music is the production style so the most recent ones are more suitable for demo.

Kaiyoti Demo Reel 2008

Enjoy...

Dude.

Awesome! My only complaint is that even if there is a lot of bombastic stuff there most of it feels a bit monotone. I feel it needs more accents, more noticeable culminations, more dynamic range in volume.

Bookmarked and saved to favorites for future references.

This is one of those pieces that I like so much that I personally save it so I can listen to it over and over again repeatively and bug you about every minute I see you, Fox and nikolas can vouch for me on that one :P

I really liked it, however I kind of found myself lost the entire time =\

Is this just songs thrown together to make one bigger piece or...?

I'm confused on that one part but other than that I like it.

@ SaXoPhoNe-AlT

It's a demo reel, selected extracts of various works from me.

@ Maxx

I only like bombastic music ;), I've always had trouble writing quiet music

Nice! epic all the way. Nothing but over the top will do. Way to go.

I've always had trouble writing quiet music

Frankly speaking, that's quite obvious when I listen to this. It's apparent that you enjoy action music, this might as well be called the "action texture demo reel" because it's mostly just a series of action textures with some thematic elements sprinkled in here or there.

The problem is that you're not challenging yourself.

The hardest music to write for games/media is ambient music--quiet music--that is musically subtle, full of atmosphere, and still just as engaging.

An audio director is going to hear, quite easily, that your music lacks variety and will infer that you, as a composer, are incapable of variety.

This can work well or against you. It can work for you if this is all you ever want to write your whole life.

It works against you, however, if you want to grow and mature as a composer.

I said I had trouble, I never said I never tried. There are a few quiet/ambient type music in the demo. There are a few more in my library, I'd just prefer not demoing them because it's not really my choice of style. Not that I find it difficult, but rather that I tend to have this itch to add more when I write quiet music. There are more thematic material in this reel than "action texture". And I'm not a composer, a musician is the more appropriate terminology because I write music for fun. That means I write what I like... and slow boring music isn't one of them.

I for one don't think that it's imperative (even for composers) to be able to write various styles. Why get yourself involved in project for music that you don't even enjoy writing? If I do that, I wouldn't be making music for fun, I'd be wasting time. I already have a daytime job, which takes up about 11 hours total include commuting, so I have little time to make music... can't be bothered to ruin my precious personal time. :P

I've been told that people enjoy my music for it's distinct thick/dense nature. Which is what I aim for. So it works out :)

Writing "slow" music does not mean writing sparse music.

Knowing how to imbue a work with ambience while being subtle is a demonstration of technical elegance.

Wielding a dynamic compositional range doesn't mean you have to write outside of your preferred genre or style, rather it means you have a complete and comprehensive understanding of that genre or style.

re: Demonstration

You are demonstrating in your reel that you avoid opportunities to challenge yourself, that you are not interested in your own creative growth, and that you're not really interested in demonstrating anything to begin with--this is all verified by your need to excuse your reel.

I'm telling you what I hear, you're telling me why, that's fine, but:

If you're not interested in getting work, then I can't comment on how your reel stands in the professional arena.

If you're not interested in growing as a composer, then I can't comment on where I think you should improve.

If you're not receptive to critique in general, then I can't go on even bothering with you.

You've closed the conversation and it stands to reason: Why did you even start the thread?

I'm sorry you felt challenged with my response, had never meant for that... :(

Feel free to critique what's there, instead of what's not. Yes, as a demo reel and people probably expected more than what I have here. "Action texture sprinkled with thematic elements here and there" doesn't really say much. It's not all action, and there are quieter/slow/dramatic tunes in there as well. And I explain that my personal interest is the rhythmic heavy type of music.

I'm not suggesting that I'm not interested in work, instead I'm saying that if I want to get involved, I want it to be relevant. So far that stands true. Picky, but I'm not desperate. If I want to become a full-time musician, I'd rather not be that person a media director can grab for any of their project. But instead, when they're in need of a certain tune that involves thick sound, they're reminded of me. I've seen a lot of people's web portfolios divided up into categories like Action, Suspense, Drama, Comedy, Electronica, etc... I can understand that gives listeners the message "Yes, I can do all this!". That's fine, if they're comfortable with it, it's beneficial to them. But I'm not .. and I'm not really up for comedy or suspense, or whichever other categories there are. I just show what I do better.

"You are demonstrating in your reel that you avoid opportunities to challenge yourself, that you are not interested in your own creative growth, and that you're not really interested in demonstrating anything to begin with--this is all verified by your need to excuse your reel."

I think this is a worthy discussion, please don't take this as a debate / war, I can probably learn something here about reels as well.

You can be right about that statement, but put yourself in the shoes of a media person who's looking for music as opposed to someone who's acknowledged in music. The reel should show "what this person can" as oppose to "what this person can't". What if I had never said "I had trouble writing quiet music". Be honest, can you really tell that I hate writing quiet music and that I'm avoiding it? Maybe I just decided to show more rhythmic music than quiet ones, or maybe it was just random, or maybe I just happen to have more action music in 2008? Pretty huge leap of an assumption wouldn't you say? You weren't exactly telling me what you heard, you were telling me what you didn't hear.

So I guess, your idea of a demo reel is to show the wide amounts of skills you can perform. Correct? My own interpretation is like a job resume. I know how to do tech support, I've done support work before, but I DON'T want to do support work. So what do I do? I leave it out. I worked as a camp guide teaching elementary kids English one summer in Asia, they nearly drove me insane, I don't want to do it again, I leave it out. The "experience" section of your resume is usually titled "Relevant Experience", not "All Experiences". I want to do R&D work, I want to join software development, I've done those before, I add it to my resume.

Maybe I'm not understanding the purpose of demo reels correctly but that's my idea of reels. I didn't post my reel here for work, I never posted demos to get work, and I'd hardly think this is a good place for that. I'll still be adding few more to the reel until end of 2008, then I'll put it up on my site for good. I guess I just posted here since it's 3 years ago around this time from this place I started this whole shebang.

I'm willing to accept any comment here, and thanks for your comments. But please note that as a critic, you should be able to accept rejections to critiques made since you're valuable suggestions may not always apply (with the exception of Simon Cowell or Gordon Ramsay, but they're technically judges). I've only tried to explain why I don't do quiet music, which pretty much agrees with "if this is all you ever want to write your whole life". I don't suppose your wrote that as a sarcastic remark? You've inferred that it's because I avoid challenges, not quite true. I explain that I'm not allergic to them, I've done them, and I don't enjoy them. If I have to, I'll do it... But given the lack of time I have, I'd rather be doing something I enjoy.

I understand.

Every mote of criticism here, however, has been met with resistance. If you don't want to take it, that's fine, but it makes offering advice distasteful for the critic.

The softest advice I can offer you, in light of your desires and self-imposed restrictions, is this:

Take a look at Nick Phoenix' and Thomas J. Bergerson's website TWO STEPS FROM HELL dot com. The two of them make a handsome living providing high-quality, high-energy licensed music tracks for motion picture advertising.

If you pay very close attention to my previous post and to the tracks these two cats create, you'll realize that when I'm talking about diversity, I'm not talking about cross generic diversity. These guys specialize heavily in action/horror/high-tension/energetic music, but within each track, you'll find them expressing a larger, more diverse compositional palette without doing something as silly or over-the-top as comedy.

You'll have a hard time, with your narrowness, finding work on soundtracks. However, advertising is meant to be monotone, and so you will hopefully find your niche there.

It's competitive, however, but it pays VERY, VERY WELL.

Yes, I can be very hardheaded, only when I'm misjudged. And in this case, you're not very receptive to my responses. I know that being resilient towards critiques can be distasteful, but so far I've only said nothing but the truth, and they weren't all negating your feedback. What would you have me say to your original review?

I don't deny that I find writing quiet music difficult and that I hate doing it. But if a chef hears from a food critic, "You don't cook burgers because you're avoiding the challenge that cooking burgers are fairly difficult", how would that make the chef feel? It comes off very insulting when it's irrelevant.

I'm sure there are people that beg to differ on the notion of the fact that writing quiet music is hardest for media. And I felt challenged toward that statement, almost as if that generalization was meant just for me. Making ambient music with the lack of sounds to use IS the reason why I find it difficult, which is why when I write, I have the urge to add more and more. But surely, that does no go for everyone. You could've said "Writing quiet music for media can be the hardest to write..." which would be true in my case.

There's a reason why I'm stubborn... It usually comes down to the fact that whether people's constructive critiques are genuinely supplied to improve others, or just comments masked as a message to say "you're not as good as you think you are". While you may be telling me that it's good to do some quiet and dynamic tracks... your choice of words on the other hand led me to believe that it was the latter type of review.

I'm a very big fan of TJB :)... and I see what you mean from TSFH.

I remember reading a quote from somewhere...

Question: How do you end up with 1 million dollars working in the music industry?

Answer: You start with 2 million...

Jokes aside (or maybe there's some truth in that.), I've seen the stats and numbers. It's very appealing, and I guess that's why there are so many trying in this business. But a steady full-time job is probably still "safer" in my opinion.

It's not an insult when I say I think you would do well taking risks, on the contrary, it's a compliment to expect you to do well with riskier material. Generally, I assume someone with your skill has been around the workshop block a few times and doesn't need sugar coated critiques--so I can't really see how I've been insulting.

The couple of 'slow' pieces in your demo reel ARE boring and I do not doubt they were boring to write--I'm telling you they don't have to be boring, they don't have to be sparse, and they don't have to lack instrumentation, not by a long-shot.

Even if your demo reel was only meant to demonstrate a compilation of what you had worked on in the last year, I would still think that you need to work on your craft and hone your skills through exercises in writing ambient but engaging music.

Why? Because when you have a better understanding about how to write subtle yet engrossing music, your high-energy work will improve through your enhanced awareness of dynamics and orchestration.

But a good artist (composer) must also master the art of learning and enjoy engaging in the challenges of their medium.

There's no listening example I can give you to make you want that and it's far outside the realm of a peer-to-peer critique, so I can't really do anything to help you.

If I'm mistaken, then tell me I am and I'll sit down and do a full, in-depth review of your demo reel.