Where can I get background music?

[Joshuanimation]

Hey there! So I am currently making an cartoon episode but I am having a hard time finding background music to fit the scenes. I've looked around the net but can seem to find any that work for cartoons . Where do you get your background music? I would appreciate it, thanks!

[Greenlaw]

If you want free royalty free music, Google/YouTube has a downloadable music library.

https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary

There are actually a lot of websites that offer free royalty free music--just to a search under those terms. You can narrow it down by adding the type of music your looking for. I've used a few sources like this for small non-commercial 'web video' projects. If I have time tonight, I'll see if I can track down the ones I liked.

If you don't mind paying for your music, there are many sites that sell music licenses for a reasonable price. We purchased a license for the music in 'Scareplane' through AudioJungle and used it to cut our animatic before we started animating the short. I loved the track so much, I got in touch with the composer Gae Malaponti, who is a nice gentleman and very talented musician. I'm hoping to collaborate directly with him on a future production. A while back I purchased a music license through Magnatune for a future animation project. Their licensing options are very flexible.

Anyway, there's lots of good stuff out there, both free and very affordable. You just need to take the time to search for it. It took me a couple of days to fine the right music for 'Scareplane' but it was worth it.

G.

[wizaerd]

While perhaps a bit costly, I purchased SonicFire Pro (http://www.smartsound.com/) and a whole slew of their albums/libraries. The thing I like about SonicFire is I can set a length of time, choose my clips and the program will alter it for the requested time. I can also edit the clips, by adding new stings to it, or choosing different moods for each clip. I enjoy using it, and it works well for me, but I also have a very bad habit of just buying stuff, so it may be cost prohibitive.

[InfoCentral]

Do it yourself music with Sony Acid. You can get a free version at acidplanet.com

[slowtiger]

Have a look:
https://creativecommons.org/legalmusicforvideos

[Danimal]

Yet another option, lots of music, all categorized:

http://incompetech.com/music/

[wizaerd]

Do it yourself music with Sony Acid. You can get a free version at acidplanet.com

I had Acid Pro Pro for a long time, and never could make anything worthwhile. Spend a ton of money on loops, and try to piece together compositions. Unless you're a musician, or have a deep knowledge of music, I wouldn't recommend this approach at all. There's a huge difference between music composition and throwing together some pre-made loops and hope it all sounds good together.

[jezjones29]

I have listed a few good sites here: http://www.animestudiotutor.com/animati ... free_music

Have you seen http://www.mobygratis.com/film-music.html

[Greenlaw]

I had Acid Pro Pro for a long time, and never could make anything worthwhile.

Acid Pro is actually quite good--it's very simple to use, but like many things, it takes time and practice to get good at using it.

My wife and I used it to edit the music in our short film 'Pooper', currently in production. You can hear a little bit of it in this excerpt from the film:

Excerpt from 'Pooper'

(We had been calling this production 'Brudders 2' but I guess it's really 'Brudders 3' now since we finished 'Scareplane' (the actual 'B2') a couple of weeks ago.)

The original tracks were arranged by Brett 'Tooch' Santucci, and performed by Tooch and my wife/partner Alisa Loren Klein. The vocals were performed by the kids who live next door, Austin and Claire, and my daughter Sienna. We recorded the tracks mostly in our living room using an old Zoom H4 recorder. Alisa broke down the recordings into individual .wav files, cleaned them up, and then beatmapped, assembled and mixed them in Acid Pro. The really cool thing is that Acid synchronized the beats on all the track, which is a huge, HUGE deal because we had literally dozens upon dozens of bits of audio that were performed at different times over several weeks, which put together had to sound like a single live performance. For example, because of my tight work schedule, I had to record myself playing the harmonica parts in my garage, living room, and car, whenever and wherever I could manage it, so I was never in the same room when Tooch and Alisa played their instruments.

Acid Pro helped make all these bits and pieces come together. In spite of all the craziness in recording and putting the tracks together, we'll be using this workflow again on a future project. (Hopefully a little better organized and with a little less crazy next time.)

G.

[InfoCentral]

I had Acid Pro Pro for a long time, and never could make anything worthwhile. Spend a ton of money on loops, and try to piece together compositions. Unless you're a musician, or have a deep knowledge of music, I wouldn't recommend this approach at all. There's a huge difference between music composition and throwing together some pre-made loops and hope it all sounds good together.

That is why they have Acid Planet and why they have their weekly 8packs. So you can see how they put together a song and try it out yourself. Plus its all FREE the loops included. If your having problems putting together something that sounds decent then I would highly recommend taking the time to learn the weekly 8packs. They usually throw special discounts on the loop packs used. This week you buy one loop pack and they are giving away 3 more packs FREE. Incredible deal!

[Greenlaw]

Just realized that what I wrote might have sounded a bit intimidating for beginners but, except for the live performance recording part, using Acid Pro really is easy, and you certainly don't have to record your own audio tracks. You can purchase pre-recorded sample tracks and music construction kits that are compatible with Acid, and it's actually very easy to lay the tracks down and experiment with how they sound together. There are samples and kits organized for almost any type of music you can imagine, very reasonably priced and royalty free. It's a alternative to finding a skilled musician to perform and record something for you, and it's fun to do if you have the time and you're feeling musically creative .

There is a entry level version of the program called Acid Music Studio, which has many of the features found in the pro version and it's much cheaper than the Pro. It's what I started out with and I recommend it to any hobbyists who are curious about the process.

G.

[Greenlaw]

I totally forgot about Acid Planet--thanks for the reminder!

Yes, definitely check out the free 8-Packs. I looked forward to it every week back when I was starting out. Might have to start visiting the site again.

G.

[wizaerd]

Hmmm, you make it sound good. Perhaps I'll dig out my Acid Pro (I have the version 7 boxed version) and give it another whirl.

[Joshuanimation]

Thanks everyone for the the suggestions! I really appreciate it!

[lwaxana]

newgrounds is another place to check out, especially for non-commercial work.