VSL Studio Chat with Blake Neely

Many users of Vienna Symphonic Library products enjoy a successful careers as film composers, orchestrators, and conductors. In our Studio Chats interview series, we present extraordinary artists sharing their individual approaches to writing and orchestrating music for film and television. Blake Neely works as a composer, conductor, orchestrator and pianist. Credits: Brothers and Sisters (TV series, 2006--2011), Life As We Know It, The Mentalist (TV series, since 2008), Pirates of the Caribbean -- At World's End, and Pirates of the Caribbean -- Dead Man's Chest.

0:00 Introduction
0:15 How did you come to be a composer?
1:51 Which TV shows are you working on?
2:23 Could you please describe your setup?
4:26 What is your workflow?
5:06 How did your workflow change with Vienna Instruments?
6:43 Could you please give us an example?
9:18 Did you use VSL before Vienna Instruments came out?


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Vienna Symphonic Library is one of the leading developers of orchestral sample libraries and award-winning music production software for all genres. For over 20 years, we've been recording high-quality samples of almost every instrument of the symphonic orchestra in the city of music, Vienna. Driven by our passion, we've built by far the largest sample database ever created by a single company. For our users worldwide, we continue to innovate and develop the most advanced virtual instruments. Our goal is to inspire artists and excite them to turn their musical ideas into reality.

[MrDCWood]

Blake Neely is such a genius. His work on Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow...he understands each of the characters intimately and knows how to capture the essence of all the Arrowverse's heroes and villains. What a talent!

[TnMusic]

love his composing in The Flash, especially The Flash & Reverse Flash theme

[RileyTheCharmedOnes]

I love his work, mostly from Arrow. His score/music is so touching!

[alethephobe]

He is such a genious, amazing video, thank you

[JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

I watched his direction of Honor from The Pacific, live, it was amazing. I played French horn in JR High and High school. Maybe I should say I was very average. He reminds me of my favorite Director in school, John Acosta. I played my heart out for him. His style of direction is incredible.

[curtpiazza]

Blake...I' m really enjoying your book...How to Play from a Fake Book (Keyboard Edition) Very informative and entertaining!

[michaelcaplin]

Blake was one of my main inspirations when I started out composing. The music for "Painting with words" was THE SHIT back then and still is, and I spent many hours finding photos from the recording session and reading up on the musicians. That will always be one of my favorite scores and will always be close to my heart.

[nsls]

The right decision and ready to save the world are my favorite instrumentals by Blake Neely.

[mat.eliades]

Flash's and Arrow's music is firee

[Rhythmwatch]

Impressing
I wonder who plays the drums on
" Arrow - Setting up the Lair " ???
That would be great to know 🙏

[nishant]

I use ableton live in my high school and was quite surprised when he said he uses it too

[cesmcmyth]

whose studio was this? all three interviews with different composers I have seen are in the same room

[aghiles]

theme music revers flash is sensational

[Spidouz]

I wonder the VSL Server computer specs to be able to load everything without any memory issues. Back in the days, we tried with a producer friend of mine at the studio to setup VEP, but we had some trouble to be able to change the setup on the fly (for instance, change the VST plugin on a track without the need to rebuild the whole channel strip with audio & midi setting, etc...). So I've been running everything from a single computer, but it's quite heavy on ressources :(

[fyos]

What is the small keyboard that Blake uses solely for key-switching. Is it a Korg Nano? Seems like a good idea for key-switching so need to get one and incorporate it into my rig.

[nogoogleplus]

Awesome vid, thanks for sharing. Can anyone tell what 88 keyboard controller/ desk that is? I've seen a lot of the big name guys have it. Thanks in advance!

[djspecialpaul]

nice videos - can you make a video about Karim Sebastain Elias ..??..

[starerik]

There's something that bugs me... Michael Kamen died back in 2003, but he didn't refer to him as the late Michael Kamen, and he also said "who's a film composer" like he was still alive.

[victoza]

Blake looks like Anthony Michael Hall.