“I wanted to give a sense both of the fragility and tenacity of life,” Toussaint explains, “so I used the piano, a glass harmonica from the Vienna Symphony Library and a layer of electronic sound from Sculpture in Logic.

“The series called for many styles of music, and it was great to be able to move quickly from one style of music to another on my Mac.”

“It was so great to play the keyboard while watching the picture. The Mac would record everything, and I could cut and paste; it was like a word processor for music.”

Smooth-flowing Creativity

With only two months to complete the score for five hours of film, Toussaint also needed an efficient means of composing.

“It would have been impossible to do this any other way,” says Toussaint. “With the Mac, you experience the music as you’re composing it rather than hearing it in your mind and playing it later — or waiting to assemble an orchestra.

“In Logic, all my plug-ins work together so my creative process flows smoothly. I can load the G5 with everything I need and still use less than half the power of the processor.

“I have all the other competitive software,” Toussaint points out, “but nothing is as powerful as Logic for composing or Pro Tools for straight sound editing and final mixing.”

Rock and Roll

One reason Toussaint prefers Logic and Pro Tools, he says, is that “everything is right at hand. And when you know shortcuts and you have a controller like the Contour ShuttlePro in your left hand and your two-button mouse in your right hand, you rock and roll.

“I am able to experiment more and more, explore different options. It’s totally different from sitting alone with a paper and pen. It’s a gift, really.”

Experimenting in Double Time

Still, given his time constraints, Toussaint had to experiment in double time.

“It was so great to play the keyboard while watching the picture. The Mac would record everything, and I could cut and paste; it was like a word processor for music.

“I had no time to sit and write and then play. I was playing on the fly — okay an asteroid is coming, let’s find a sound of a rumble. And it comes. Of course I knew the film, and I had done the research. I also had my libraries, so I was prepared. But you still freak out. I’d say to myself, ‘Okay, do something! Take a sound and start!’ And the flow comes back again.”

Mixing Gear

For track management, Toussaint mixed in Stem on 12 tracks, grouped by percussion, orchestral, electronic, solo instrument music and special musical sound design.

After Toussaint exported the 62 final tracks to Pro Tools — these included the ambient sounds, dialog and narration prepared by two assistant editors — he mixed the show on 5.1 on the Icon system at the National Film Board headquarters.

“It’s actually a big Pro Tools system with a huge control mixing surface — the best mixing gear for me,” he says.

Music and Arts

Toussaint says it might be romantic to think of a composer of another era sitting down alone, penning the notes of a symphony on vellum. “Today,” he says, “a composer must interact with the other arts. Today, a composer must write music for a dance company, theater, movies, television series, commercials, websites. I make everything. And it ends up with ‘Miracle Planet.’

“Someday, when I am old,” Toussaint muses, “I might sit down alone and write a symphony or an opera like Philip Glass. But now, I like the interaction. It’s fun.”