Clay Duncan Transforms with Cubase 4
One of the most in demand programmers and composers, Clay Duncan has recently contributed his signature sound to crafting edge of your seat moments in such movies such as Déjà vu and The Number 23. But make no mistake, the biggest movie of the summer and possibly the year is finally here, and while Transformers is an amazing visual experience, the music and sound design is just as impressive.
So Clay, can we get a little history on your career?
Well I didn’t really get into this business till much later than most. I grew up playing in bands and went to college, and eventually found myself out here in LA doing odd jobs and some occasional live sound. Then one day I saw an ad in the paper for “assistant/driver for composer”. I never imagined it would be Hans Zimmer. During graduate school for non-music related degrees, I made some short films that I ended up composing music for them so I figured why not? You can’t really ask for any better training that working in the same room and looking over the shoulder of one of the great modern composers.
How was it like working for Hans Zimmer as your first high level job in the post production world?
It was both amazing and stressful at the same time. With Hans Zimmer, you better make sure your question have been thoroughly exhausted from other sources. I wasn’t the only assistant and I definitely didn’t want to just get replaced so I would try and learn as much as I could from observing his workflow and also by trying to learn from mistakes that were made by other assistants. Sometimes it’s more valuable to learn what not to do on top of what’s correct. I remember the very first day, they weren’t sure what to make me do so I was given a stack of manuals and told to learn the gear.
Wow that’s an amazing series of events! Having come so far, I’m sure your studio has gone through many changes. What is the current setup looking like these days?
My current setup revolves around a Cubase rig running on a custom-built rack mounted computer system. This machine was possible thanks to my friend Ryan Ochida who worked with me over the course of 3 years trying out various motherboard, CPU, and hardware combinations and finally settling on a system that met my workflow and was stable for me to use in the studio. My interface is a Sydec Mixpander (iBox 64 MADI TA) for a total of 128 inputs (64 hardware, 64 software). The Sydec interface also comes with it’s own software digital mixer application which I use all the time to route various outboard and software applications as well. Generally speaking, Audio is captured into Cubase, then goes out via MADI, converted to ADAT, and then into whatever is the preferred delivery format.
What about in terms of instruments? Obviously you have a lot of outboard gear but I assume you meld both software and hardware?
I tend to use whatever the situation calls for and in certain cases will work in a particular format simply because the circumstances only allow for one option. Obviously, I have things like the modular analog synths, the multitude of guitars and pedals, the drum kit, drum machines, all of which I absolutely love to use and interact with. However, the farther out of the box you go, the more time things tend to take. Add to that the difficulty to recall something like a modular synth versus a complicated software patch, and you begin to see where certain circumstances like really immediate deadlines will dictate how I choose to write. Sometimes I am asked to come up with bass tones over the course of a day or two. Other times, I am asked to finish a cue in the same amount of time and in that situation, I stay in the box due to the immediate natures of the deadlines.
Is Hans the main the reason you stuck with using Cubase?
For the most part, yes. Obviously I learned it out of necessary when I first began working with him. As I began freelancing and working with other composers like Harry Gregson Williams and Steve Jablonsky, it seemed that it was definitely the right choice to make.
What are some of your favorite things about Cubase 4? Are there any tips or tricks that you can give to our readers?
Key commands. Cubase is so customizable that you don’t have to necessarily adapt to it, which is often the case with other DAWs. You can actually make it adapt to you, which I feel is the mark of good software. I have created my own custom set of key commands that let me move around the software much quicker than just using a mouse and the default key commands. I have a product called XKeys with a bunch of buttons assigned to even more key commands such as opening certain plug ins that I use a lot. Obviously, the rule here is that the less you use the mouse the better. That’s something I definitely picked up from working with Hans Zimmer, and I have to say it’s been one of the most important aspects of my workflow.
Can you tell me more about the Transformers sessions? There definitely was a lot of lowend material going on, did you help design some of those sounds?
I spent a 2 to 3 days just doing bass tones for Steve Jablonsky who was the composer for the film. He is an absolutely amazing composer, and he’s very particular about what sounds he wants to define thematic elements in the movie, often asking for a “signature sound.” In the case of Transformers, those sounds tended to be in the lower frequencies and thus bass tones are used heavily throughout the entire film. Steve is always trying to create these signature sounds for his themes so that consciously or subconsciously the viewer associates those single sounds with the themes that they are associated with. I’ll give you a little insider information: the main bass tone that is used for the Decepticon’s theme is actually a patch on the modular run through the Shadow Hills Mono Gama microphone preamp, into an Avedis E27 parametric EQ, then to an API 560 Graphic EQ and finally a Drawmer 1968 compressor.
Wow! That’s a pretty impressive chain for a single element! But I guess when it’s what defines the cue, every little bit matters right?
Exactly! It’s actually fun when you go through all that routing and you finally find what you were hearing in your head, it’s a great feeling.
Any final comments?
I would like to thank Steinberg for such a great tool for me to use on a daily basis. I also want to say thanks to Steve Jablonsky who was the main composer for the Transformers, who just so happens to also be a Cubase user!
Well thank you so much for your time Clay, and I look forward to hearing more of your awesome work the next time I sit down for a movie!
