Joy of Synths #40 Free Films

For the past several years my August & September are focused on assembling the official Melrose Film Festival selections into programs like AI Films, Micro Short Films, Documentaries and Animated Short Films. There is an in-person screening event and this year there is an online festival running on public YouTube through October 6, 2025. All online programs of short films are available at ocls.org/melrose-film-festival or this YouTube playlist. Alternately search “Melrose Film Festival” in YouTube search and programs should pop up.

The opening title card and end cards to each film festival program are soundtracked by an analog synthesizer. As written about in an earlier newsletter, you can use semi-modular synths in a modular fashion by sending signal from one synth to another synth’s section and back again. In this case the audio from one analog synth was sent to the phaser input of a Solina String Ensemble. Just using that phaser section of the Solina String Ensemble gives movement to the sound.

A lot of opportunities in life are based on availability and doing what others would rather not do. In this situation no one asked me to score the openers just like no one else insisted on assembling the programs. Since I was assembling the programs and needed a “pilot” sound to set the live event sound levels for each program, well, those short bits of synth allow for that.

Rather than search through an online sound library I used my own recordings. The practical advantage is that my recordings are free and not registered so the film festival programs won’t get flagged when posted to publicYouTube. Opening title music can take all the money if you’re hoping for monetization. This is where “free” sounds are not really free, and why Royalty-Free sounds require an upfront payment.

“In-perpetuity” means forever and those terms are generally harder to get without pleading and negotiation. As a result, more popular tracks may require a short term license. Ten years goes by fast and then the licenses need to be renewed for perhaps a higher rate. Companies have emerged that buy artist’s catalogs for this reason- they feel that licensing will be profitable. Good for them, bad for producers.

This explains why some independent films and documentaries that run the festival circuit are harder to find in streaming, blu-ray or 4K UHD: they don’t have the budget. Money is needed to pay for the music licenses upfront and there isn’t enough money coming from streams or sales to offset that cost and handle all the film transfer and sound and picture restoration fees. Alternately, digital projects require a lot of post production work in professional studios, potentially. But licenses are licenses. Electronic music artist Moby offers “free” licensing but once the project goes commercial then the real fees come up.

The problem is that editing to “temp” pre-recorded music makes that track really hard to replace. This which is why composers HATE “TEMP” STOCK MUSIC. At best, they are asked to create a sound-a-like. At worse the filmmakers decide to go with the “Temp” Music and the composer loses that scene.

This affiliate link nets you a free month of A24 films membership. Once you sign up, install and launch the A24 app for iOS (or web browser page) and click “Free member ticket” link. Go through the steps to lock down a ticket and reserve seating for “The Smashing Machine” at a Regal or AMC theater. This free ticket is only good for opening weekend of October 3-5, 2025. It covers those criminal on-line ticketing fees. In total you pay $0 during this free trial.

If you continue past the initial free trial then you’ll be charged $10/mo and at that point I’ll receive a free month of A24 films membership. If you have an interest in The Smashing Machine then sign up now and go this weekend of October 3-5, 2025. Otherwise, check A24films.com for its upcoming release schedule and sign up for the free trial closer to that release weekend.

Eddington is a film I saw in Theaters that left too soon. I decided to see if and when it would be released in 4K UHD disc. This led me to A24films.com. They were taking pre-orders for 4K as it was to be an A24films.com only release (in 4K UHD). I explored the site more and read up on the AAA24 Films membership. Free movie ticket? Ends today? I signed up in August 2025 for $10 to attend a screening of Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest that would’ve cost me $15. The next weekend I saw Ne Zha II dubbed in English in IMAX Laser 3D for free, a $25 value. Then it was my birthday, to which A24 offered an array of free gift options with a value of $30-$48 with free shipping.

September had no new A24 theatrical releases so there were no free tickets.

On your second paid month they issue a $5 credit which basically offsets the $5 shipping if you order 4K UHD discs from A24Films.com. There’s also a 10% discount and a quarterly print zine that’s mailed to you.

Their app or website has bonus feature content. They don’t have an A24 app for Roku, Samsung, or other platforms. It’s just the iOS app or website, so while you could screencast or hook up an HDMI to a TV, renting a movie through the app doesn’t make much sense as a number of streaming platforms have A24 films. In the case of pre-ordering Eddington, they gave access to streaming immediately through their app.

There are a lot of schemes for movie screenings but they require a bit of effort to attend enough movies to break even. A common hassle is no online advance seat registration, or if possible to reserve in advance, you are charged a fee. So try the free A24 films trial with this affiliate link. If you don’t like it, cancel before actual billing.

Blackmagic Design offered free Zoom training for DaVinci Resolve 20 in July, August, and September. The upside is that all the training materials like the book PDFs and files for DaVinci Resolve 20 are now available for free download on their site. The videos are still for DaVinci Resolve 18 but those features have not changed.

Be aware that DaVinci Resolve is a work in progress, such that new features continue to be released. As such, the training books are for version 20 and/or 20.1 and again, the current release as of publication on 10/2/25 is 20.2.1. If you go to the Blackmagicdesign.com/Support page and click on the DaVinci Resolve and Fusion Software Product Family link, you’ll find “New Features” documents and current and past installers for the free version and paid Studio Version.

While Resolve has a free version capable of great things, the free version does not have any AI features. The best AI feature is the transcription tool and Text to Video Editing. Resolve Studio also has a revoicing AI feature, and it will train a voice in AI for repurposing as text to speech with the voice holder’s permission. This is a local only AI model so it’s not getting sucked up into larger model stored in the cloud that others could exploit.

For AI features you need to buy the $299 DaVinci Resolve Studio license directly from Blackmagic Design. Strangely, resellers like B&H and Sweetwater charge $325. For $439 you can buy a Mac dongle which has the advantage of “unlocking” a Mac or PC and doesn’t require an internet connection to validate the license. The only issue is that the dongle needs to be connected to the computer for DaVinci Resolve Studio to launch. If you decide to get a dongle then attach an Apple AirTag to it for easier tracking.

For the past 13 years a DaVinci Resolve 9 dongle license has unlocked all new upgrades from version 10 to 20.2.1. However, this has been a lucky run. DaVinci Resolve Studio is not a lifetime license so expect to pay for upgrades in future versions. Read the release notes before downloading, and set aside money for eventual upgrade fees.

Alternately you can opt to not upgrade when fees become required. Studio shouldn’t lock up- you’d just stay at your current version. This is a huge hassle with Adobe subscriptions- they cost more money over time and once you stop you have no access to open your project files.

The odds are slim that DaVinci Resolve Studio will move to a subscription model. However, the cloud service does have a subscription/recurring fees. Additionally, Generative AI will require some type of credits that will have to be purchased but that hasn’t been announced.

Next newsletter will be about 3D printed Eurorack modular analog synthesizer cases and powering Eurorack modules. It’s still a more costly endeavor than buying semi-modular synths, or even complete synthesizers with keyboard and no patch points. A suggestion is to buy 1 or 2 semi-modular synths, patch between them, and then consider Eurorack and modules to build a custom complete voice, modulation sources, or filters/effects.

This is the 40th Joy of Synths newsletter! Wow! This Joy of Synths newsletter will return to twice a month schedule this month of October 2025. There’s plenty that I wrote over June-September 2025 but the resolution to those articles didn’t come until recently. In all cases the research took longer to sort out and come to a conclusion/decision/abandonment. I’m going through these struggles so you don’t have to!

All Content Copyright 2025 Anthony Torres, All Rights Reserved.