Sony Cinescore

Sony Cinescore. No Promises!

Posted Jul 6, 2006 - Sony. The giant Media Production Software Company looks like has come up with a product (Cinescore) which does something which is not "Utmost Necessary" or impossitoday. Cinescore boasts of being able to generate Music for any given visual for a given time length. It also has features where we can mark in with the mood change, intensity change, instrumentation change etc. We also have Tempo change which can be varied interms of percentage and not in BPM values. Percentage variation is also limited to 10% viz from original 100% we can either reduce tempo 96% or increase it to 107%. Moreover, a theme change or any other change happens as per the Time signature (Usually 4/4)and according to tempo. so if we have a sudden visual effect which demands a drastic change in music at a point of time where there is no exact beat, we will have lagging or late music change. The Magic of matching the start and the end of music generated is done by a radio button which says "Fit to length". When we press that, our preferred tempo is lost as cinescore changes tempo according to the video length which we enter in an other time box. we have hints (Hit points or markers sort of) that can be inserted in the timeline through which we guide cinescore to change the song structure, example Intro, Chorus verse etc, and also all the changes that can be made like tempo, intensity, arrangment....etc. But again, this has to be done in a small window which cannot be maximised, can only be stretched horizontally making it a very congested area to work with. After spending hours of time deciding on the right song structure, when we sit to view the Audio Visual, we realize that we could have done a similar or a better job by sticking to the usual stock tracks or, Software based Music Production perhaps! Well, Thats about it. Cinescore can only do this much. I personally feel that this software cannot and shouldnot be used with the intention to make great Background score for films (As per the name). But i think it can save valuable time for small time Audio and Vidio Products such as TV commercials, Doccumentaries, Short films etc. Cinescore generated music goes well as a background for any Voice over material. May be we can make jingles succesfully but limited in number (Directly related to limited source sound samples and themes in Cinescore). But thats aboutit. Nothing more, No more Promises!

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