donaldpquan

Hey y’all - Donald Quan here - excited to talk to everybody!!👋

So excited 😆

Hey season 1 music was done on computers and some real musicians because I believe music is always better with real people playing - the REDUX score is an enhanced version of the season 1 music

It was really a lot of fun as it was like scoring a new series from scratch! So creative and fun ...

The first thing I do as a composer when I start on a series is to make myself familiar with the show creator’s vision of the show. I also try to hear music from the producer’s perspective by familiarizing myself with the producers taste in music. This allows me to be on the same page when conversing about the score.

Once I feel I understand the show, I will write some basic themes and orchestrations to come up with a “sound” for the series. I then work with the producer and show creator to make a plan for the show’s run based on time and budget. The creation of a great “theme” is very important as the theme motifs will provide musical ideas that will be used over and over throughout the 3-year (or more) run of a show.

Personally, I tend to compose very quickly and because of this, I can usually deliver a lot of music in a short amount of time. Once production starts here is usually not enough time to discuss every aspect of the score and it’s delivery on each episode. Usually we only have a couple of hours to discuss the music requirements (called “spotting”) of every episode as they are completed.

Because I am very experienced, the producers usually have very little (if any) changes once we are in the mixing room. Most composers do not have this luxury but it is earned as one progresses through the life of a show.

This is why a great relationship between a show’s producer and their composer is paramount. There is very little time for everyone to do their creative thing on a show as huge as this one is.

In the end, scoring a series like Starhunter is one of the biggest, most important things a composer can do in their career. It can mean spending years of your life living with and working on a series. - Donald