I’ve been doing ads for a decade now and I’ve been so used to the arrangements needed for it so it’s a refreshing thing when I’ve been asked to do something simple… to use just an acoustic guitar for the whole bed/score.
I remember a few years back, I also had to do something similar but due to the producer’s direction, I did an acoustic guitar piece using guitar samples from my collection and I just played it using a keyboard. This time, I was informed ahead of time so I was able to bring my acoustic guitar and do the music for the set of ads.
There’s always something with recorded music against my usual arrangements using Reason where I go with MIDI most of the time. I can always re-edit, change or move things around because it’s all MIDI data whereas with audio, I’d have to be as accurate as I can be since I don’t have that much liberty when it comes to editing it compared to something I programmed via MIDI. But the nice thing about it is of course, you can’t beat the real thing. We really can’t try to “program” proper guitar playing including nuances of it. Yes there may be really good guitar VSTs or sound libraries there but nothing beats the real thing. I guess it’s one thing why there’s always room for a proper guitar player and I’m just SO THANKFUL to God that I’m able to play guitar if needed and as a music arranger, that’s a definite plus as I don’t have to get a session player to do the guitar parts. It’s such a HUGE advantage to be able to do it myself. I’d imagine maybe if I didn’t know then I may have not gotten the project and they may just have looked for a really good session guitar player.
So I again, thank God for the gift of music and that I am able to enjoy playing the guitar that it also extends to getting work for it :)
Cy
