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Robin Hoffmann

Robin Hoffmann

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Robin Hoffmann posts

Hero - Short Film Score - Walkthrough Pt.20 - M6 (Part 5)

We're approaching the end of the cue and the score. In this part, we will look at the End Credits music of Hero which was specifically composed for them and not compiled from earlier cues.

Th...

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Media Music Can NOT Be Unpolitical

Music has always been political. From Shostakovich with his hidden regime critizism, to propaganda march music or political songs, it has been a vehicle for political standpoints over centuries. View Post

Reharmonisation Part 7: Avoiding Standard Cadences 1

When learning the first classical pieces, no matter on which instrument, we also learn a few standard harmonic paths that get quite deeply engrained into our musical understanding. For instance the...

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Opening the Portal - Score Sheet Video

Here's the score sheet video for OPENING THE PORTAL! It's quite hard to read but you get the idea. A proper PDF and Audio Stems will be made available for download soon as well as more parts of the...

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Composition Screencast - Returning Home - Part 9

In this part, we're nearing the end of doing the mockup for this piece and I talk a little about the mixing approach that I'm taking including the microphone balancing.

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Performances and Instruments with "Character"

Fortunately, we now live in times where the strict separation between "entertainment music" and "art music" is slowly but surely dissolving. 

For me, it is fascinating to observe how tha...

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Opening the Portal (Mystery Track from Composition Screencasts)

Here's the Patreon exclusive early access download premiere for my piece OPENING THE PORTAL. It is the piece that I have written to cover the entire process from inception to finished mockup in the...

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Opening the Portal - Composition Screencast Part 2

In this part, we're talking a bit more about concept and approach and start to lay out the first few bars.

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April 2021 Wrap-Up

I'm optimistic. Life seems to be slowly coming back and it seems like we're all slowly waking up again from more than a year of sleep. I'm particularly happy about the fact that there are live even...

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Vocalizing Articulation Options

One of the things that all the teachers that I ever had in Jazz Arrangement were telling me is to sing the phrases that I was currently writing with different articulation approaches (changing whic...

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Innovation in (Media) Music

For centuries, the subject of innovation has been a central element of every art form. Artists from all disciplines tried to find new ways of expression and thought provoking concepts to explore an...

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Rite of Spring - Dorico Files for Download

Just as a little service post for all of you who are working with Dorico. In case you haven't noticed, someone took on the mammoth challenge of inputting the enitre Rite of Spring in Dorico and mak...

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Hero - Short Film Score - Walkthrough Pt.19 - M6 (Part 4)

In today's post we have a look at the climax of that cue which at the same time is the climax of the movie. In a way, this sequence is the conclusion that the entire movie has been working towards....

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The Sample Spiccato Conundrum

I've talked on this platform quite extensively in several posts already about the fact how technology shapes media music. This goes even as far as changing the expectations about what an ensemble c...

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Composition Screencast - Returning Home - Part 8

Here's the next part of the composition screencast for my piece RETURNING HOME. In this part, we continue with the mockup covering Brass, Percussion and some Strings.

The score sheet to follo...

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100(+1)!

I'm absolutely overwhelmed! Last night, we welcomed two new patrons pushing this site over the 100! I would have never thought that this would be so well received when I started this little idea a ...

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Returning Home - Score Sheet and MIDI

Finally, here is the score sheet and Midi file for RETURNING HOME, the piece from the composition screencast.

All the parts from inception to mockup can be watched 2021-04-19 08:02:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Unpleasant Work Keeps Coming Back

One of the painful truths in the media composer world that I needed to learn over the years is that once you accept a job that you don't enjoy and only do for the money, chances that you will get a...

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Reharmonisation Part 6: "Butter Notes"

One strategy of reharmonisation is to place key moments of the melody into a "special" harmonic context and take this as a starting point for the rest of the reharmonisation.

What do I mean b...

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The Marvel Symphonic Universe

With all my recent posts about the development of film music and m...

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Opening the Portal - Composition Screencast Part 1 - Concept, Theme & General Approach

Welcome to the start of a brand new piece! I haven't written a "mysterious" track in a while and wanted to give it a go. For this piece, I recorded the entire process from inception to fully fleshe...

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Intonation Struggles

For practically every orchestral instrument, intonation is a huge deal. People who come from a piano background or work mainly with samples are usually not aware of the relevance of this topic and ...

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The Percussion Section in Modern Scoring

I have talked in several posts already about the changes in film and media music that are caused or at least favored by the technical developments. There are implications from the movies themselves...

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The Recent Evolution of Film Music - Part 3

It has been a while since I last wrote about that topic but nevertheless there is one essential part missing in our di...

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March 2021 - Wrap Up

We have a Table of Contents! If you remember, last month or so, I was complaining about Patreon making...

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Legato on Strings

There is a very common misunderstanding and misconception about how legato on string instruments work and it is sometimes even seen in the works of seasoned orchestrators. This whole issue is somet...

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Hero - Short Film Score - Walkthrough Pt.18 - M6 (Part 3)

In this part, we will have a closer look at the buildup towards the big climactic conclusion of the theme (and the movie) which starts at around 2021-03-29 08:42:37 +0000 UTC View Post

Avoiding the Organ Effect

One of the most fearead phenomenon by learning orchestrators is the so called "organ effect".

Basically, it means that the orchestra loses its instrumental definition and transparency and har...

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Reharmonisation Part 5: Sustaining Harmony I

This post is part of a multi-part tutorial series about Reharmonisation. The previous posts can be accessed View Post

Composition Screencast - Returning Home - Part 7

In today's screencast, we switch from working in Dorico to the DAW (Studio One) and start with the mockup process. Unfortunately, I had a small audio driver issue during recording which compromised...

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