Where

Composed and produced media production music is published through Ugly Duck Music, owned and operated by Barry Swan from his recording facilities in Cape Town, South Africa.

What

Ugly Duck Music provides a creative musical solution for your production; be it Film or TV dramatic themes and underscores, to TV themes, logos, station IDs and stings, to corporate video and the stage. The music is composed and produced exactly to your specifications and is designed to compliment and enhance your production. Why settle for library music when the benefit of an original score would lift your production to the next level.

Specializing in 'African' soundtracks, the request is frequently for African 'sounding' music but that is comfortable on the Western ear. Barry's style is built on an acoustic sound, and authentic instrumentation is used as far as possible. Themes as diverse as Russian folk music, (balalaika, fiddle, squeezy-thang and all), to rock ballads, to scores for small orchestra, and everything in between, have been produced on demand. Specialist musicians are utilized as and when needed.

So What?...

A comprehensive resumé and samples can be found on the 'Brag Page'
It's worth spending a little time there...

Rates

Rates of course vary vastly depending on the size and complexity of your production. However, prices are market related and competitive.

Being situated in South Africa means that, for my International clients, I am subject to the most PATHETIC currency exchange rates – which of course means that I can charge you a fortune, and you end up only paying about the price of a hamburger & Coke! Works for me!  

PJ Powers delivering for the Feature Film  'Heel Against the Head'

How

Production of the music is tailored to meet the specific requirements of your project. Both acoustic recordings and computer programming are utilized, usually budget related. Synthesized music is quite acceptable, but nothing beats the sound of real musicians performing on real instruments. For the most part, the music is a hybrid of both. Listen to the samples and judge for yourself. It all comes down to your specific production requirements and budget.  

Small string section from the SA National Symphony Orchestra performing underscore

The studio also carries a comprehensive library of ambiences, FX, underscores and pads, as well as a 300+ CD reference library.

Delivery

Final delivery of recorded material can be provided on Betacam-SP (PAL) to picture, or on CD or DVD. It can also be streamed via DSL or sent by FTP to wherever you may be in the accessible Cosmos.  PAL / NTSC video conversions can be arranged.

Progress/rough mixes and even final mixes are posted to the password protected 'Client Services' page on this website as often as is required. This facilitates a high level of interactivity between myself and my clients and leads to a professional relationship of trust. In fact, far greater accessibility is attained to the work-in-progress than in the good old days of the internal combustion engine. You can check up on your production as often as you like without having to add to ozone depletion and global warming.