In his latest Studio Time masterclass, Junkie XL (Tom Holkenborg) deconstructs some of his music from Batman v Superman.
Along the way, Holkenborg discusses his approach to scoring, sound design and creating electronic sounds with modular synthesizers.
im really getting hooked to studio time by junkie XL 😀
Junkie XL has too much stuff
And far too much attention.
To each his own, so no disrespect to JunkieXL, just my own $0.02 … I used to have mega gear, like 18 synths, over 20 modules, etc., etc
But for me JMO of course, the more stuff I accumulated the less productive I became. I still have gear that I don’t even use 50% of its capability. A few years back I got out all the manuals and started to woodshed the stuff I had kept after a major purge and started to relearn every feature I could of the still large cache of gear I had kept, but there are only so many hours in a day lol. TBH, I’d get nothing done with JunkieXL’s stash of gear except have major fun and well never see my family lol. $0.02
Your opinion is your opinion but this man is scoring major motion pictures, etc. what is on your resume? I think this man is entitled to whatever gear he wants/needs.
lol my first line included “no disrespect to JunkieXL,” and I actually have watched quite a few of his videos and love all his gear stash, also I am not jealous or angry or whatever about what any gear JunkieXL or anyone else uses to do whatever, and I am well aware of his film accomplishments.
I couldn’t agree more. You don’t need any of this stuff. A mic, good ideas, some good soft synths and the appropriate sample instruments… The gear is ego. It might help impress clients, but thats about it. Don’t need, and I’ve done plenty of high budget work. Not necessary.
Another synthtopia post about JXL, more jealousy… How about you guys start making videos about the amazing projects you’ve worked on, instead of complaining he has too much stuff. stay classy.
Junkie I wanna be hooked on the melody.
Gimme me memorable melody I am hooked on.
(Hans’ Rain Man melody I remember memorably).
I agree. Not hating on Tom, but the last twenty years or so, all these big production movie scores have just been a collage of clichés. The stabs, the big drums, the choirs…. And none of it is memorable. Seems like the musical movie theme has been replaced by financially safe standards.
Thats the direction of modern cinema and a directors choice, not JXL’s choice.
The guitar that shoots flames in mad max had a memorable melody. And it shot flames. So there’s that.
the internet can be so toxic. before you have to read puny articles in expensive magazines, and if you live in the states like I do the European magazine were so much more extensive but 1 magazine would cost more than 3 new CDs.
Now we have experienced guys just giving away concept and method that’s just a click away and of course, the ‘oh I’m not jealous and I’m not a troll’ types come out to complain as if they just scored christophers nolan’s latest flick on Reason. So typical.
Thanks for this series. It’s inspiring.
@drno
Totally agree. What a shame that Internet is now used as “trolling” media.
Love the video (and all previous ones), it did help me a lot in my humble music scoring projects.
Looking forward for more 🙂
I might come across as one of those guys now, but if there’s supposed to be artist coverages here it would be nice with some variation.
Very educational. Thank you JKL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx1_6F-nCaw hehehe jealous? bwahahaha
remember – nobody is allowed to be critical of anyone else – unless you are being critical about people being critical
yeah I mean it’s totally meta brah. It totally couldn’t be jealousy, cause, like, every criticism anyone makes is always valid, right?
I wonder how some of you breathe with such hatred all the time
There’s a difference between criticism and cynicism. Most the critics here tend to focus on the amount of gear he has rather than what he produces with it or the information he offers. What he owns is irrelevant if he is producing quality material.
All the gear is simply tools in his toolbox. People who do a lot of commercial work tend to want to have as many things as possible to pull from in order to create what their client is looking for in a short a period of time.
So yes, I’ll be critical of people being critical if I believe their criticism has little merit.
Remember boys n girls this stuff pays the bills n some more.
You wanna make it in film music …. snort everything Junkie lining up for ya.
Ensure expressing our own voice in niche side projects this stuff pays for.
Else it’s a deep rabbit hole if all we score is Ggg-generic film music.
One of the few that use 50% of Cubase potential. 😉 Most here do not exceed 5% but criticize anyone for anything. 100% respect to Tom. Memorable music sucks sometimes. I saw Indiana Jones 2 a few weeks ago and they were repeating the theme continually. I could not watch further than 15 Minutes, because i got so brainwashed. I LOVE Music that serves a film and not the musician and his reputation. HZ can do both, if he likes, but he he’s got a big production crew to do the job.
Nice work. Hopefully DC/WB doesn’t screw it up so he can get a chance to continue developing and mutateing the themes. If there is one thing the DCCU gets right, it’s the music.
The hobbyists here seam to not understand how unpractical all that gear is if you have to sync to Timecode and they keep recutting the movie and you need to adjust things.
Btw Nobody said I liked the music. lol
Very inspirational to watch his work.
As for all the equipment in the room – if I had the space, the money, the brains, and the talent I would do the same.
Realistically the NI “Cinematic” sound packs would be a good start for this style.
His DAW is cubase artist or what?
People, this is free content. He’s giving of his time and knowledge at his own expense out of his love of sharing knowledge.
As far as melody in cinema, he actually addresses that in one of these episodes. It’s a good watch.
I’m grateful for his videos. Whether you agree with everything he says or not, it’s all good – it’s his opinion and it’s nice that someone who is enjoying considerable success at the moment is willing to share it with us. Don’t like it? Cool… don’t watch it. No one is forcing you.
So many sick puppies here:( Tom is giving up a lot of time to make these videos so that we can take a peek into a creative endeavor that most people never get to see/hear or learn about.
Being accused of being generic is really disingenuous as it’s the composer creating the directors vision and if that’s what the director envisions – sound wise – then that’s where the composer goes. Also, in a fight scene we are talking about violence and excitement bangs and crashed and not about melody. Tom has written some very nice melodies but he is well known for his big sound palettes and his electronic sound design talent and that’s what people come to him for. Nobodies asking Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross for music in the style of John Williams.
As for gear… he’s been doing electronic dance music for many, many years and has obviously accumulated tons of gear to in that time and it’s a very subjective situation with regards to people getting confused/lost if they have too much equipment.
So! Thanks a million Tom.