Staying Composed: Nuage Helps Gerd Schuller To Deliver Music Faster

Audio technology offers many advantages to modern composers. However, the most important thing is that it must not get in the way of the creative process. This is why leading Austrian television and film composer Gerd Schuller has chosen to upgrade his studio with a Yamaha Nuage system.

After studying jazz piano at the University of Graz (where he now lectures), Gerd played with a number of Austrian bands before moved into composing for television advertising. This led to further television and film work, including the comedy-drama Kommissar Rex (Inspector Rex), one of the most successful Austrian television productions, which has been screened in 53 countries around the world.

In high demand by television and film producers, Gerd’s writing and production studio is full of inspirational vintage analogue equipment. Installing the Nuage system has delivered a cutting edge composing and recording tool, but which is so seamless that he can write and play without thinking about the technology.

Installed by Toni Kindler and Peter Moritz of Yamaha Nuage Partner KS Music, with Robert Aichhorn of Graz-based Musik Hammer, the system comprises an Ncs500-CT Master unit and Ncs500-FD Fader unit, plus five Nuage I/O units.

Gerd starts composing on the very organic medium of a Bösendorfer grand piano, before arranging, recording and producing them with the benefit of the cutting-edge Nuage system.

“Investing in Nuage was all about choosing a system that doesn´t distract from being creative,” he says. “It is a great system, the integration of software and hardware is amazing and I love the ease of use. The system is so intuitive, it feels like it was made by people who have worked in studios for years.”

A major challenge faced by all film and television composers is that budgets and timescales are continually getting lower, meaning that music has to be composed and delivered more quickly then ever before.

“Probably the biggest advantage of Nuage is that I can do things much more quickly,” says Gerd. “Everything needs to happen super quick and it saves me a lot of time, which is crucial. Now I don´t have to think about the technology, I just play music with it.”

Austria