Orchestral scores for Film/TV and games
I'm Tim, I've been scoring for 17+ years and I live and breath music. Scoring to picture or for games is my passion. What you get from me is someone who not only wants to write the best music he can but, someone who wants to write the best music for the project.
For you, that means getting a composer that seriously considers the narrative and what the music is saying, not just filling in the background or over-scoring to show off.
The most important thing to me is that the music belongs in the project. Like it was born out of it and not just slathered on top like Sweet Baby Ray's.
Give me a holler, lets talk about what you need.
Tell me about your project and how I can help, through the 'Contact' button above.
Credits
Interview with Timothy Cox
Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: The Narrow Road, it was my first feature length score and I got to hire my dad to record classical guitar for two cues. I just wish the film would come out already!
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: Currently have an ongoing contract for a video game soundtrack
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Digital because I don't have the space or budget for analog gear
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: The music will sound like your project
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: Creative energy, helping collaboratively tell a story.
Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A: Do you want the temp? The answer is yes.
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: That composers are all geeks holed up in their studio bent over a piano, obsessing for hours over finding the right drum sound and never see the sun. Sometimes we go outside.
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: What is this film/game ABOUT? What is the goal? How much score do you want? How much sound design will there be? Are you open to me making creative choices about a scene, specifically whether or not to leave music out?
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: Be open to the composer's thoughts and don't try and relay your ideas in a technical way, 90% of the time we're much more interested in the emotional and metaphorical DNA of the film
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: An acoustic piano, an acoustic guitar, and three giant notebooks of staff paper
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: I want someday to be a film/game composer full time, my whole life is music. I've been at this for 17+ years
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: Melodic
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: Spielberg, haha, but really I want to work with anyone who really cares about the work they're doing
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Don't send stems with baked in reverb to a score mixer unless its used as an effect (i.e. a gated snare drum)
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: For the most part orchestral music but I have a background as a rock guitarist as well
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: Flexibility
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: I bring speed, efficiency, and quality
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: Depending on the project: Film: Watch the film and take notes, watch again and spot the film with timecoded cue estimates, pick out themes to develop and pepper throughout, score major moments, finish and deliver stems to the score mixer. Video games: Talk with developer about the tone of the project, get some sort of video/screenshots/concept art to get inspiration from, get a story from the developer, make a master list with the dev of needed music (combats, encounters, cutscenes, places, etc.)
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: I run a big ol' beefy PC with three monitors, an 88key controller, and way too many sample libraries all on a desk I built myself
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: Pretty much anything that has hard work put into it is inspiring.
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: Generally I am hired to do full orchestral music. I've studied orchestration and composition extensively and getting the sound I'm looking for is second nature for me.
- Composer OrchestralAverage price - $400 per song
- Film ComposerAverage price - $700 per minute
- John Williams
- Thomas Newman
- Michael Giacchino
