Wow, what a year. One of the stranger years for sure, but luckily not all of it has been bad, hopefully there has been some good in it for you as well. There have been quite a few good things in 2020 for me personally, I’ll name a few in this short year recap. 

#1: Usage of my music in TV productions. In the first half of 2020, the amount of usage of my music in various TV shows and other productions has grown exponentially since 2019. I really only started seriously writing for film and TV at the start of 2019, so I was hoping that this would happen. Many of you know this is a long term process, and I’ve seen it now first hand as well. In the second half of 2020, the amount of placements has more than doubled compared to the first half, according to TuneSat. Actual numbers will be revealed in 2021, but it’s a good approximation of where things are. I have also received my first royalty checks from my PRO’s, which was a nice breaking point as well. Needless to say I’m very happy with the results and am very much looking forward to 2021 and to see what it holds.

#2: 60 new full tracks written and out in the media industry. Compared to 55 in 2019 this has also been a bit of a growth that I’m happy with. Percentage of acceptance has been again pretty much 100%, meaning not a single track was denied, at most there was one revision on a track here or there, but that’s pretty much it. I’m extremely grateful to have Timothy as my partner in everything I do in music, and I could not achieve these results without him. I’m also very thankful to be working with such amazing publishers that work hard to get the music used in various productions.

#3: New relationships. In both personal and professional life, I have been very lucky to meet new people that have added happiness and support in pretty much everything I do. In 2020, one of my goals is to actively surround myself (hopefully in person) with more amazing people that will push my limits even further and help me grow as a composer and as a person. Because as they say, you get like the people you’re with.

#4: New habits. I’ve started a few new habits this year such as listening to audiobooks every day, learning more about investing or even just adding more greens to my nutrition. I know that in the long term, these habits will pay off. 

I think I’ve rambled on for long enough. I really appreciate you taking the time to read this year recap. I you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me via the contact form or social media, and let’s talk. I sincerely hope that 2020 has not been too hard for you and that it provided you with many great moments, and I know for sure that we are all very much looking forward to 2021.

A very happy new year!
-Jure

​After getting a few requests, I've decided to record my complete process of composing a track, from start to finish. In this five hour long video, you can see my thought process, musical devices and the tools I use to make a light tension underscore track. Hope you enjoy it, and if you do, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos like it:

I felt it was necessary to sit down and write something about one of the most significant experiences of my life. Growing up in the late 1980’s and 90’s, John Williams’ music was one of the first pieces of film music I have ever heard, especially films like Jurassic Park, Home Alone and many more have been a big part of my youth and have stayed with me for my whole life. It wasn’t until a few years ago when I started composing music that I realised how much of an impact his music’s had on me. Since then, importance of his contributions to the popular culture and musical quality added to the significance of my personal musical growth and efforts to better myself as a composer. As he is currently already 87 years old, I have never thought I would get the opportunity to see him in person. When the original opportunity to see him conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 2018 came along, I immediately became a member of the Musikverein in Vienna, and got a third row ticket to see him. Unfortunately, he fell ill upon his arrival in London, where he was also scheduled to perform with his lifelong collaborators, the London Symphony Orchestra; so the Vienna concerts were cancelled. I took the trip to Vienna nevertheless and the words of him being brought back later were already spreading across the Musikverein.

It was now, in the beginning of 2020, that we received the once in a lifetime opportunity to see him conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which would be his first continental European performance ever. I have never heard his music performed by an orchestra in person before, so I had flown over to Vienna with open mind and curiosity regarding the sound at the Musikverein - I simply didn’t know what to expect. After all, my seat was about 6 meters away from John, sixth row in the front.
What happened was that my understanding of music, its sound, orchestras, conducting and emotional impact that music can have have completely changed. I have been a musician for almost 20 years at the time of the concert but I have never heard a sound and an emotional impact of music like this in my life. The orchestra played without amplification (as it’s common at Musikverein’s Golden Hall), and as a result the music, played by the musicians, went straight to the listener. The range of dynamics, emotional impact and the raw force of percussion and brass that can push you into your seat was unprecedented and something I’ve never experienced before. John’s music is incredibly dynamic and having him conduct one of the best orchestras in the world, delivered a truly one of a kind concert.
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The only way to describe it all would be life changing - as a composer, as well as fan of his music. The whole weekend still feels like a dream, and at this point I still cannot listen to any music, and it will take a few days to snap back out of it and start writing again.

Thank you John, for the effort of travelling to Vienna to conduct at the Musikverein, and it would be amazing to get a chance to see you again some time in the future.

Where do I even begin? This year has offered me so much, from new opportunities to memories that I will cherish for many years to come. But let’s start at the beginning - 2019 started with letting go of a bad professional relationship with a publisher that went back on their word and didn’t respect the deal we’ve set. As a result, there is still a lot of music I have with them that is still up in the air regarding licensing rights and artist shares. Lesson learned, so never, ever go into a deal without written agreement or terms agreed in writing beforehand.

The trailer music releases continued as per usual schedule in January with the release of the “Clockers” album, to which I contributed a few tracks, released by Frontier Trailer Music and distributed by 5Alarm.

In early February, I have signed with a new label from Germany, which I’m now writing quite a lot of music for, as they work with the regional customers in Germany a lot, and are a fantastic partner to work with. So happy to be with a publisher where everything is super clear, workflows are established and return on investment is great! Looking very much forward to more work with them in the future.

After a few months of work on various albums for this new publisher and a few smaller projects for other labels, I’ve received confirmation of my music being used in a web series for the first time, via one of my US publishers, Score a Score. Thank you so much for pitching my music! Looking forward to giving them more music in the future.

As the summer came closer, it was almost time to leave for my first ever trip to the US. But before that happened, I was lucky enough to be recommended by one of my composer friends to a very respectable publisher in Los Angeles, Ghostwriter Music. We’ve decided to work on a holiday release together under their label Astral Music Publishing, so that happened after I got back from my summer holidays.
The highlight of 2019 was my friend and I’s trip the US, visiting Los Angeles, but also going out to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon for a week. During this time in LA, I was able to meet many friends, many of which I’ve only known online beforehand, but the highlights of the trips were a visit to the 20th Century Fox studio lot, where I sat next to the orchestra as they recorded orchestral sections of the new The Who album, “WHO”, at the legendary Newman Scoring Stage. It was a real privilege and a once in a lifetime experience to be part of such a legendary band’s project. The very next day I also got to visit the Universal Studios studio lot and meet some great people there as well, and see where the magic happens - what a place! Here’s to all my friend in the US and I’m hoping to be back soon!

After the return, it was time to start working on the holiday orchestral album. With the deadline set in mid October, there was enough time to get it out in a few months, so while I worked intensely on that album, I also had to write a number of tracks for other publishers and some smaller pitches and helping out some friends with their projects. Once the album was finished, I was asked to do a few trailer versions for a few tracks as well, so we delivered those as well, to give Ghostwriter a chance to pitch those as well. It was a bit late to pitch for industry as most projects had already been cut for the season at that time (November), but the album was still released for the industry, as well as for the general public, but with 3 tracks being trailer versions rather than the orchestral ones on the public release. I very much enjoy writing this kind of music and every second of working on this album was a pleasure and an opportunity to push myself a bit further. After this release, called “The Night Before”, was finished, I also did a few orchestral documentary pieces for a winter release for my German publisher. In total, I have written 55 tracks for the industry in 2019, which lines up perfectly with my yearly goal of approximately 1 track a week (as I don’t compose full time), so very happy with the amount and quality of tracks that were done this year. Very high acceptance rate (almost 100%) confirms that the publishers seem to value this music suits the needs of the industry as well. My sole goal of writing remains the same - that every track I write, to be my best work to date.

Right after these were finished, I received an email to join and contribute to another trailer music publisher, Jolt Trailer Music. So I wrote and contributed my track “Hypervortex” to their hybrid orchestral album “Ruination”, which is now available to the industry via BMG Production Music.

It was at this time in late November and early December that I started noticing that there were some terrestrial TV placements that started showing up in my TuneSat account. Needless to say that it was (and still is) a very exciting moment to see that after year and a half of writing for the industry, the placements had started coming in! I take this as a confirmation that my music has value not to just listeners, but also to the clients, and I am happy to be seeing results and am very much looking forward to what the new year brings.

​Thank you for being amazing 2019, and here’s to a very happy new year 2020!

As much as a visit and the trip of the western US was a natural thing to happen, the whole thing started in the fall of 2018, when of my best friends Aljaž and I started to entertain the idea of flying over the Atlantic to visit new friends I’ve made over the last two years of so since starting to write production and trailer music.
The plan was to split the two week trip into 4 parts: a few days in Los Angeles, then off to Las Vegas for a few days, then seeing Grand Canyon, and then back to Los Angeles for a few more days before heading back. As all of these places have much to offer, we had a basic list of things to see, many of which were of course well known landmarks and sights (as one would expect from the first trip to the US). But, as we’re both musicians, we had great interest in getting in as much musical experience as possible as well.

To cut the long story short, we met with friends at Bleeding Fingers; had a lot of fun hanging out there and all over Santa Monica, which is now my favorite part of LA.

One of the highlights of the visit to LA was going to the 20th Century Fox studios lot, and sitting in on an orchestral tracking session for a super special project - once the music is out, I’ll be able to share what the project being recorded was. Thanks to my friend Damon at Fox Studios for setting us up - we sat right next to the first violins as the music was being recorded. Nothing quite like sitting next to world-class musicians (many of which are on the top of the call sheet in town and I have recognised as they played on many legendary scores such as Star Wars, etc.). For the second part of the session, we sat down in the control room of the Newman Scoring Stage, where a brand new Meyer Sound Bluehorn monitoring system was installed just a week prior to this session. I have heard higher end systems before, but nothing like this. These speakers, with their almost perfect flat response, in a room like that, played that music in a way that cannot really be described by words - you have to hear it to believe it. I’ve never heard music sound like that in my life. I mean, what can you expect from world class musicians, running through 96 channel Rupert Neve console, and playback through Bluehorns?

We strolled around the Fox Studios lot a bit afterwards, as it was around 7 PM everyone pretty much left for the day, so we got to take a couple of photos.

Next day (on our final day in LA), a friend of mine that works as a sound editor for Universal, got us into Universal Studios. As this was much earlier in the day, it was a much busier place than Fox the day before. He rolled up in a golf cart and took us around the Universal lot, showing us some guided tour spots that tourists get to see, but mostly the work and behind the scenes areas in the studios lot, which is located in the valley behind the entertainment park.

Here’s also some photos from Las Vegas and Grand Canyon (the moment of seeing it for the first time I will never forget), because why not.

To sum it up, the best trip of my life, made great new friends and contacts and I can’t wait to be back in LA soon!

I started writing production & trailer music semi-professionally about a year ago, so I thought it might be a good idea to wrap up the first year with an overview what has happened and what’s going on.

At the start of the year, a few of my tracks were released on Velvet Green Music’s albums “Secret Identity” and “Love Is In The Air”. These were my first individual music releases ever.

After joining forces with Timothy William and working on our trailer music for a few months, we got accepted into Frontier Trailer Music and have released four of our tracks on three albums, “Seismic Shift”, “Cyclone” and “Assault”.

We also established our own brand, ATA Music Production, which has since grown and more people have joined us and we have taken on new and very exciting projects. More news on this soon.

I have also signed with several other new publishers and contributed music to their catalogs and custom projects; Move Music, Score a Score and Music Factory, and more coming very soon. I am super excited to be working with all of these music labels. There will be more news on these, as well as other new ventures, as go into 2019.

In total, I have written 55 tracks this year for the industry, and they were put either into catalogs or used for custom pitches by the publishers.

Last but not least, I have moved and built a new home studio, upgraded my setup and added new equipment to it.

All in all, this year was the biggest year for me in terms of my music, and I cannot wait to see what 2019 has in store.

Happy New Year!
-Jure

I have finished building my new studio space, and a big part of that was building my own acoustic treatment. I decided to do everything myself due to lower cost, as well as having more control of what I wanted, and also having a lot of fun during the whole process. This article will be split into two sections, first one covering building of the acoustic panels, and the second of the bass traps.
I have done some research prior to purchasing the materials, so I measured my room, found the spots I wanted to treat using pink noise, and then planned what I want to treat them with. The end result was to build and install 8 acoustic absorbers and 4 bass traps. I must thank my friend Max-Antoine and his dad for helping me out during this process, it made for the whole process more fun and a much easier task. For anyone in the US, this video is also fantastic and also gives you the materials that are available for purchase there, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBHYiWIJhUA

The total cost of the acoustic treatment was just over 300 €, so very cheap for the end result, if you compare it to commercially available solutions.
But let’s start at the beginning.

Part 1 - Acoustic Panels (8 pcs)
After watching a few tutorial videos on building one’s own acoustic panels, I put together a list of items I needed:

• Wooden laths (for panels and bass absorbers) and boards (for bass absorbers)
• Rockwool (fiberglass wool)
• Fabric (black fabric called Deko-Molton in Germany, often used for stage purposes)
  
  

To plan the dimensions, I used Photoshop and took the dimensions of a single Rockwool panel (62,5 cm x 100 cm) as the basis. I wanted to have the panels 62,5 cm x 120 cm, and the bass traps (sofit style) 40 cm x 120 cm, with 40 cm of thickness to absorb low frequencies. I found 40 cm to be enough to cover a lot of lower end in my room, while still not taking too much space in the corners. Due to my room, I could only position the bass traps into the front left and right corners, so I decided to stack them on top of each other, so they go from floor to almost to the ceiling.
First thing I bought was wooden laths for the acoustic panels, as I made the panels first, and the bass traps only later. The local hardware store, OBI, offers free cutting when you purchase wood from them, so I took that advantage and got all the wood precut to spec and ready to go. I ordered enough wood for 8 panels (all 1,8 cm thickness and 7cm depth), which, per panel, came to:

• 2 pcs of 120 cm
• 2 pcs of 65 cm
• 2 pcs of 62 cm (for stronger internal frame support)
  
  

Once I had the wood at home, I screwed it together, predrilling the holes first and then screwing the frames together. Here is the picture of this first step:

It worked really well and the frames ended up being very sturdy.
Then, I ordered the fabric and Rockwool here:

Fabric (Deko-Molton) from the company ge-gra Munster GmbH (highly recommended, super friendly and super fast delivery):
https://shop.textil-muster.de/produkte-naeherei/stoffe/deko-molton-b1-zertifiziert-165gr-lfm-meterware.html
Price: 6,99 € for 1m x 3m, around 65 € in total

Rockwool from OBI:
https://www.obi.de/baustoffhalle/mineralfaser-daemmstoffe/rockwool-sonorock-akustik-trennwandplatte-wlg-040-70-mm/p/8678203
Price: 17,95 € per package, I needed two, so 35,9 €

I also purchased a special knife for cutting fiberglass wool at OBI for 8 €. If you decide to do this, I highly recommend purchasing it, it will make the whole process much easier. Also buy some working gloves and a face mask, as you don’t want to touch (it will itch if you do) or breathe in those fibers when cutting the wool.

Once I had the frames put together and the fabric and Rockwool arrived (it took about a week), I could put it all together. I pre-cut the fabric to the right dimensions, leaving about 10 cm on either side to allow for a bit of wiggle room when tightening the fabric onto the frame. It turned out to be more than enough, although do not forget to calculate the depth of the frame, which also needs to be covered (7 cm in my case, plus 1,8 plus 1,8 cm for the thickness of the wooden laths).

So first, I installed the fabric on the back side of the panel, using an electric stapler to fix it, and making sure it’s stretched tightly.

After that, I cut Rockwool so that one acoustic frame fit 1 whole Rockwool panel and a bit more (20 cm), so I cut apart one Rockwool panel and made 5 times 20 cm pieces out of it.

I then put the wool into the frame:

I made sure it was flat, and since the calculations were correct, it fit perfectly.
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Then it was time for the most crucial part of the process, installing the front side of the fabric. So I put the pre-cut piece for the front on the panel, then turned it around, and started stapling on one side. Then, I tightened up the fabric and stapled the opposite side, and then the other two, but really tightening the last one, to make it really flat.

Here was the result after that:

As the panels would be mounted on the wall on some screws, I wanted to have some distance between the panels and the walls themselves (this also increases sound absorption, as that empty space functions almost as an absorber), I got more wooden pieces, cut them and then screwed onto the back side of the frame, with the longer piece on top (where it would hang onto the screws in the wall), and a short distancing wood piece on the bottom.
Here is the final panel, fully assembled and ready for mounting:

​Two panels were installed right above the mix position, and I used some hooks and small chains to hang them from the ceiling. Here is the photo of the acoustic panels mounted on the walls behind the speakers and left and right (point of first reflection) and on the ceiling:

​Part 2 - Bass Traps (4 pcs)

As at this point I already had experience building the panels, I knew what I had to buy and how to approach the whole process. The main difference between acoustic panels and bass traps would be the amount of Rockwool required, as I planned to build 4 bass traps (2 in each corner, left and right), with dimensions 40 cm x 40 cm x 120 cm. I ended up purchasing:

- 16 pcs of wooden laths from OBI (120 cm, 5 cm depth, 2,5 cm thickness), cutting was free, total price around 40 €
- 8 pcs of 40x40 cm wooden boards from OBI for the top and the bottom (they were cut from 4 pcs of larger boards, cutting was free), total price around 15 €
- 3 packages of Rockwool (10 cm version this time):
https://www.obi.de/baustoffhalle/mineralfaser-daemmstoffe/rockwool-sonorock-trennwandplatte-wlg-040-100-mm/p/5763867, total price 46,05 €
- 4 meters of Deko-Molton from ge-gra Munster GmbH, total price around 35 €

This time, I didn’t pre-build all the frames beforehand, but built them as each bass trap was being built.
Here is how they were put together in a frame:

I also covered the top and bottom boards with the fabric before screwing the frame together, as that made it easier for the installation of Rockwool.
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Then, I had to cut all the Rockwool, cutting out some wool for the wooden laths to have space (2,5 cm thickness), and then placed it inside the frame, and it fit perfectly. I used 8 panels of 10 cm Rockwool for each bass trap, 4 stacked on top of another, totalling to 40 cm of thickness.

Once I had the frame and the Rockwool inside it, I only had to take the fabric (which I have pre-cut to 180 cm x 150 cm), and wrap it around the bass trap, stapling it to one side first, then slowly rotating the bass trap, tightening the fabric all the time, and then stapling it at the end.

In the end, I cut off the excess fabric and staple anything else that needed stapling.