Interview with Music Supervisor Greg Debonne

Arron, the owner at PlayItLoudMusic.com has kindly given me permission reprint his interview with Music Supervisor Greg Debonne here in its entirety.

Interview with Gregory Debonne

Greg’s credentials can be found on numerous reality shows with networks including MTV, VH1, The Discovery Channel, SPIKE, A&E, Lifetime, BRAVO, to a name a few. As a music supervisor with experience as a composer/arranger in conjunction with session work on production music cues, Debonne also is a well integrated member of the Los Angeles music community. To top it off he has perfect pitch!

We want to thank Greg again for taking the time to answer our questions on a Sunday night.

There is a lot of great insight here!

What got you into Music Supervision?

I’ve been involved in music all my life. Prior to music supervision, I was an associate producer of reality television shows. An AP job on reality television shows has morphed, but back in the day -in the early 2000s- you actually had some reality shows on MTV and VH1 that were music oriented whereby as the AP, I was also kind of the music coordinator as well. I had to handle all of the clearance for that as well, the liaison between the production

and clearance. On shows where there was a music super, I would assist that music super because I knew the MTV and VH1 systems of doing things so well. It was a natural segway for me to go into music supervision.

How has it changed the way you listen to music?

I’ve always listened to music from an arrangemental and orchestral standpoint, but now I listen to music relative to what’s going to work well to picture in that regard as well. I’m listening to the phrasing of every instrumental element individually, as well as combined, assessing just how easy it is for a music editor to cut that piece of music to picture underneath dialogue, assessing its compositional value and the dynamic ebb and flow in that regard, as well as other aesthetic nuances.

How can artists find out about new projects and their related music supervisors?

Different artists have different ways of going about it. But I know people who literally get online and find out who is the music supervisor of what shows. People look up shows that I’ve done. “Oh, who’s the music supervisor on that? Oh, Greg Debonne. Well then, I’m going to google Greg Debonne.” So, there’s that approach.

There’s also the approach of where you simply know of the music super’s name and you contact them and say “Hi, are you’re looking for music?” That music supervisor will get back to you and either say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ It always helps for an artist to know what that music supervisor is looking for stylistically. Now, there are some music supervisors who only want what they’re looking for at the time, pertinent to whatever project they’re working. Me, I won’t turn anyone away if it’s good and potentially viable for future use. However, if it’s not applicable to whatever project I’m working at the time, I may not get to it right away.

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New Free Royalty Free Music Clips Collection

28 new full length tracks have been added to our Free Royalty Free Music page on the Partners In Rhyme site here:
Free Royalty Free Music
These free files come with same license as if you had purchased these files from us.
You can use them in your videos, DVDs, films, websites, almost any type of project.
You cannot redistribute/resell them on their own (you have to use them in the background of something).
You can preview the tracks by hitting the more link and download them via the link above.
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Embedding Audio Files

How do I put background music on my web page?

It’s fairly simple to add background music to your web page but first you have to consider your visitors. Never put a sound that plays automatically in the background with no option for the user to turn it off. In fact, it would probably be best to give your visitors the choice of turning on the music only if they want to hear it.

 The <EMBED> tag is the most common way of adding sound to a Web page. Its advantage over the <BGSOUND> tag is that it is supported by both browsers, and more consistently across the PC and Mac platforms. The <EMBED> tag introduces many features that aren’t supported by <BGSOUND>. Furthermore, while the <BGSOUND> tag only supports background sounds, the <EMBED> tag also features an interactive interface (including various buttons to play, stop, and handle the sound). Let’s take a look at the <EMBED> tag in action
(requires a sound-enabled browser)

The HTML code that generates a control panel is very simple:

This code:
<EMBED height="20" SRC="http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/indexmidis/BLUES.MID" VOLUME="50" loop="true" controls="console" AUTOSTART="FALSE" width="128">

Will produce this console:

This version uses a WAV file instead of a midi:
<EMBED height="20" SRC="http://www.sound-effect.com/sounds/loops2/SweetDreams.WAV" VOLUME="50" loop="true" controls="console" AUTOSTART="FALSE" width="128">

If you find a sound you like somewhere on the web and decide you want to use it on your web page make sure you download the file to your hard drive then upload it to your own server. Do not under any circumstances link directly to the server you found the file on. Hot linking to someone else’s server is considered bandwidth theft and is against the law.

The attribute, "autostart=true," specifies whether the file should start playing automatically after it loads. If autostart is set to "false," then the file will load into the sound player utility but the user will have to click on the "play" button of the sound player utility in order to start the playing of the sound file.

The LOOP attribute tells the browser how many times you want the the sound to repeat. If you added LOOP="10" to the <BGSOUND> tag, the sound would play 10 times and then stop LOOP="TRUE" will play the loop until the user stops it.

If you need more music loops you can always download free royalty-free music loops here.

 

If you find a sound you like somewhere on the web and decide you want to use it on your web page make sure you download the file to your hard drive then upload it to your own server. Do not under any circumstances link directly to the server you found the file on. Hot linking to someone else’s server is considered bandwidth theft and is against the law.

The attribute, “autostart=true,” specifies whether the file should start playing automatically after it loads. If autostart is set to “false,” then the file will load into the sound player utility but the user will have to click on the “play” button of the sound player utility in order to start the playing of the sound file.

The LOOP attribute tells the browser how many times you want the the sound to repeat. If you added LOOP=”10″ to the tag, the sound would play 10 times and then stop LOOP=”TRUE” will play the loop until the user stops it.

If you need more music loops you can always download free royalty-free music loops here.

Download Sound Effects w/ VIP Shopping on Sound-Effect.com

We’ve responded to a flood of customer requests for discounted packages of royalty free sound effects on Sound-Effect.com.

We’ve gone even further and built a new VIP Shopping feature where you can buy lots of high quality sounds effects for one low price and keep them organized in your own download area.

With a VIP Shopping account on Sound-effect.com you can:
1. Buy blocks of sound effects for one low price
2. Create and save lists for possible sounds for different projects & clients
3. Download and re-download your sounds whenever you want
4. Top up whenever you need more sounds with the appropriate package

Check out VIP Shopping on Sound-Effect.com today

Partners In Rhyme Interview, in Spanish!

Partners In Rhyme has done many interviews over the years but this is a milestone.
It was completely done in Spanish! More of a milestone for me than my partner/wife Monalia.
I just started learning Spanish when we arrived in Barcelona almost 4 years ago and now I am talking philosophy and politics and doing interviews in Spanish!
I still have a way to go to being completely fluent but “todo llega” as they say here (everything arrives).

Partners In Rhyme First Spanish Interview