Terry Michael Huud

http://www.Music4TheMovies.com

Terry Michael Huud operates his own recording studio in Hollywood California where he composes and experiments in a variety of musical styles and techniques. His work covers feature films for Miramax/Dimension Films and others, television series', television specials, many documentaries, commercials, art exhibits and multi-media events. His work is a permanent addition to the Smithsonian Institutes music archives listed under "The Art of Illusion". His work can be heard on Discovery channels "Movie Magic" as well as Discovery International's on going television series, Jean-Michelle Cousteau's "Stories of the Sea"

Hello. Thanks very much for taking the time out to have a chat with Camel Audio. Could you introduce yourself?

I'm Terry Huud (rhymes with bud). I've been writing music for television shows and movies for about 20 years now. I got into writing music for myself in Pittsburgh, PA in the 80's when I discovered the Casio CZ 101. (That’s right-- don't laugh -- I'm talking about the pea-sized version of the CZ 1000 with the mini- keyboard) I eventually graduated to the Casio CZ5000 - what a monster! I started scoring my own films when I was in high school and then onto college, thinking I was going to be a filmmaker at that time. But I discovered that writing music and performing on my Casio’s and Linn Drum machine was more fun then directing. I decided to leave the land of George Romero (Pittsburgh) and hike it on out to Hollywood, CA where I've been ever since.

How did you get into writing music and creating movie and documentary scores?

A friend approached me and a buddy with a television concept he created and a pilot called "Movie Magic" for the Discovery channel and asked us to score it. So we did and one thing rolled into the next. After Movie Magic I did a few other documentaries before I was approached to do a feature score.

How is working on music for documentaries (such as Jean-Michelle Cousteau's "Stories of the Sea) compare to your movie work? Is it a different process or a different way of working?

Television is usually “rush rush like a madman” and with movies you have a little more time. But both are very similar in terms of process. You still have a spotting session with the creative part of production where everyone sits down and discusses what kind of music they would like and where. With movies, if I'm brought on early to the project I always have more fun because I can sit and really digest the script and get some good solid sound ideas flowing. It's also great to have that time because it means jumping into synths and software like Cameleon 5000 and programming some of my own sounds whereas with television, I usually reach for the already created preset and inspired sounds that come with the module.

What projects have you used Camel Audio software on?

A lot. One project in particular I've used it on was this great movie starring Jeremy Sisto, Udo Kier and Lance Henrikson called "One Point O". It's a science fiction dystopian film that really makes you think. It ended up at Sundance 2004 where it was nominated the Grand Jury Prize for best dramatics. That film was just aching for Cameleon 5000! Science fiction just begs for the likes of that beast. Sci-fi is so much fun to score because the skies the limit and great additive synths like the Cameleon just bust open the clouds and push the music into the upper atmosphere. It's so inspiring I couldn't imagine being without it.

What do you think of the Biolabs Absynth sound sets?

They're great and so inspiring. Usually I get a sound set and I go through the entire banks and play the pads slow and mark which ones I like for an upcoming project. Then I go through each category like percussion, rhythmics or synth and make written comments as to what scenes I think they can work in on a film. But with the Biolabs Absynth sounds I had to stop at every other sound and immediately start recording and create a short song and so my notes didn't just show that I had a particular sound that exhibited a particular emotion I liked, my notes instead had all these song references attached to them! There were so many sounds that were so usable that eventually in order to keep some sort of cohesiveness in the film I had to stop auditioning or I would have had too many sounds and that in essence would interrupt the flow of continuity in the film. I like to create a palette of a limited set of colors or a limited set of sounds for one film or one project. This helps give the film a sense of cohesiveness if you keep referring back to a particular sound. It helps form a sense of identity and continuity as well. I think I grabbed like 40 plus sounds in the Vol. 4-6 just under SFX and Atmospheres alone and had to draw the line somewhere! The preset ‘ATM Radioactive’ is great! It's so evil. I love the crunchiness; something the Cameleon does so well. The preset ‘ATM High Exposure Risk’ is totally awesome. It goes on forever. The fact that there are so many great sounds here just means that there will that much more left over for the next project.

What do you like most about Cameleon 5000?

That it is the best of all additive re-synthesis soft synths. Hands down. I truly believe the Cameleon 5000 is that unique. There’s just nothing else exactly like it out there. I don't care if you are a sound designer, a dance mix guru, a multi media producer, or what your musical style; this synth has something in it for you. You have so much flexibility with Cameleon. You can use it ‘as is’ or get crazy and start diving into it yourself. For example; by starting to create your very own morph presets. I really recommend everyone to get in there, go under the hood and start tweaking yourself. The results can be quite phenomenal. However, if time is a factor there's just so much material already here that you'd have to be crazy not to be inspired by the great sounds and presets that come with it 'as is'.

Do you have any technical tricks on how you use the Cameleon 5000?

Well, lately my systems just been totally overhauled and I now have several PC's all networked to my Mac computer. But before that it was just Mac and me, so we were a bit processor challenged. So my all time favorite thing to do with the Cameleon 5000 in those processor shorted times was to setup as many instances as my Mac could handle with some really cool sequenced/rhythmic voices (sometimes synched to tempo and sometimes not) and layer them all together and create some really complex rhythmic beds that could be recorded as audio files and thus save on CPU. Those audio files would later be introduced back into my sequencer program and tweaked with plugins.

Now I'm in Camel heaven with my 'PC farm' so I can run lots of Cameleons, chasing those lizard sine wave tails all over the place and mix and match and not worry about going immediately to audio.

As far as programming what is really cool is loading your own sounds in so I can take like this 'whacked and warped cello' sound and toss in a little 'nuclear residue shock wave' bit and a couple of odd vocal samples I'll record into it, mix the partials and noise portions to your like, set them to loop mode, dial in your own unique morph curve, and add some effects on top of it. What comes out is so darn musical it's amazing. There's definitely something about the way it continues to morph the partials that's so unique and unlike anything I've ever worked with.

I gather you just got CamelSpace and CamelPhat - I find them useful for transforming everyday sounds into 'not so everyday'.

Damn- no freaking kidding! I loaded up a logic song I worked all night on and started playing with CamelPhat and CamelSpace and wow! I just took some audio bytes and started treating them with some phat filters and space mods and I can tell this is going to be a lot of fun. So many presets! You guys went all out. I can see some serious potential here.

What are your plans for the next year?
Well, I'm doing a 'zombies in space' film called "Plaquers" and yes, the Camel products are all getting into that one big time! I'm also scoring an animated picture called "Dis_Konnected" and while it's mostly going to be a very big orchestral score, I see no way Camel Audio magic isn’t going to weave its way into the score and share its rightful place right next to the violins, bad ass brass and dragon drums!