MEET THE DEMO
TRACK COMPOSER.

Name: Mark Willott
Location: UK

Meet Mark Willott, Emmy Award-winning composer, avid Superior Drummer 3 and EZkeys user as well as the mastermind behind the audio demos for the Epic Themes EZkeys MIDI pack.

For these pieces, you wrote the tonal compositions using the Epic Themes EZkeys MIDI pack. Tell us what the process normally is like for something like this!
First I listen to the combined patches, to get a sense of the piece. I will work from the centre out, so main melodic section first, intro and outro second. As there are variations in the melodic MIDI, it’s great to experiment with accompanying melodic lines. Next up is the arrangement, which I will do completely within EZkeys. This is the layout – the story – of the piece. Then it’s orchestration, choosing which instruments play what lines. Then there is a lot of editing, as a lot of orchestral VSTs have a lot of delays associated with their various legato types. Finally, I’ll draw in all the automation, before starting on the mix.

Your production also features other Toontrack products, most notably the Orchestral Percussion SDX. Now that it has been available for some time and that you’ve had the chance to utilize it in your day-to-day work, how has your workflow changed and how has it helped you?
It’s great to have so much instrumentation and variety inside just the one plugin, which can then be output on as many channels as you like. It really helps to keep the track count down in bigger projects.

We know you’re a big fan of our EZkeys MIDI packs. How do you generally use them in your work?
I use them when I’m stuck for an idea or as inspiration, but I also use them to flesh out orchestral parts. I am working on a film at the moment, where I have used EZkeys MIDI to flesh out the strings backing in a song, as well as the Big Band MIDI, as this was a great way to get a track off the ground in a style I am not used to composing in.

When you get called up to do a music piece, what does a brief generally look like? Do you get musical pointers and reference tracks or is it more loose and up to interpretation?
Both. When directors or producers know the what they are after, that makes my job much easier. While it’s always nice to have a lot of creative freedom, it is sometimes very difficult to give clients what they want when they don’t know what that is!

Do you always get to see the visual aspect of a production before you write or do you sometimes base your idea on a written script or treatment?
With film, I will always score to picture. In pretty much every other form of media I am creating the music at the same time as filming, so the core of the writing has to be done before I see anything and the director will guide me. I will then add the details and the final production elements to the final picture.