Narrowing your Search - sound and music libraries

Post, March, 2003 by Edmond M. Rosenthal

Sound Library companies are offering easier ways for users to find that perfect music or sound via the Web.

Some clients with large in-house libraries are provided with Sonomic's Total Library Server. The standalone server allows the client to search its own library and make a one-button click onto Digidesign Pro Tools, on the track and timecode specified by the user. "This is a great time-saver," Price comments, because otherwise they would have to find the sound, edit it, import it and then drag it to the track."

At its NAB exhibit, Sonomic will emphasize this sound library management system but will also show a lower-priced version aimed more at freelance post production and broadcast engineers. Although Sonomic is effects-oriented, its support systems handle music as well.

FIRSTCOM: DOWNLOADING CONTINUES TO GROW

With more than 1,500 CDs and 28,000 compositions, FirstCom Music (www.first-com.com) in Dallas has an extensive Web site with its own search package called Musiquick Online. It allows search through keyword and nearly 50 applications, such as corporate and orchestral. These can be combined in a single search with any of 11 indexes, including style, composer, instrumentation, tempo and title.

"All clients who have Internet access use Musiquick for at least part of their search," says VP/executive producer Ken Nelson.

Music can be downloaded in AIF files or 256K MP3. He estimates about 20 percent of customers are now downloading music for use, and this practice continues to grow.

Meanwhile, clients continue to seek help from the company's three music directors, in LA, Dallas and New York Nelson reports at least half of its users call these people to recommend specific discs or tracks. This is more like 90 percent for TV and film producers because either they don't house large libraries or their music needs are very specific. He notes their needs are quite different from those of a corporate production operation, which tends to maintain a library with a very specific style.

An exhibit at NAB will focus on improvements made to Musiquick, including the "virtual preview." Nelson explains, "Instead of exchanging discs back and forth, customers can go to a place we set up on our Web site containing the discs they need to audition, including full tracks in all versions."

FirstCom offers a project management system that allows users to save tracks into projects and share them via e-mail. It also has a disc inventory updating system, allowing users to update their "virtual library" of discs to match their in-house inventory.

LA POST MUSIC: WEB SEARCHES VIA CUE QUEST

Cue Quest is the name for the online search capability of LA Post Music (www.lapostmusic.com) in Sherman Oaks, CA. Music licensing administrator Antonio Moncada says customers can choose a genre, put in a keyword or search by cue number from the back of the CD to get information on the composer or publisher. Each choice has a three-second sample for auditioning.

Not yet offering broadcast-quality downloading, he notes, "We'll do so when we can perfect our security system. In the future, if it's the best way to go, we may put the whole library in a hard drive. This will provide a centralized box with all of the music so that the customer won't have to inventory the CDs.

"The biggest change," Moncada asserts, "is that libraries are popping up everywhere. Our edge is having a higher quality sound." The use of the company's music ranges from on-hold telephone music to such TV series as The Sopranos, The Simpsons, Sex and the City and Ed. New music offerings include a Christmas jazz CD, "Americana Piano," "Traditional Brazilian," "Mysterious Intrigue" and "Americana Guitar."

VIDEOHELPER EMPLOYS FRESH GROUND

New York-based VideoHelper (www.videohelper.com) uses the Music Source program from LA's Fresh Ground for online searches. There's also a desktop version for producers who don't have online access in edit rooms. The music library is a member of Library-Tracks.com, an online search engine and project-management operation.

The Music Source program allows search by genre, style, emotions, or featured instruments, including such specifications as authentic Greek or Cuban instruments. President Joe Saba says keyword search can emphasize qualities. "If you want things intentionally crappy," he says, "we get nine results for 'crappy."'

The music can be downloaded in noncompressed CD quality -- 16-bit, 44.1 kHz. While nearly all customers use the search engine, fewer than half use the download capability.

Saba explains, "For some people, CDs are a lot easier, and many of our clients are too time-starved to wait for a download. Not all of our clients have broadband connections and others that do also have firewalls, which don't allow much downloading of large amounts of data from non-company sources.

VideoHelper's NAB exhibit will emphasize new releases and the streamlining of its search engine with easier keywords and more specific categorization to search among the company's approximately 1,700 titles.