Client: “Oh, and we need a music bed for this presentation by tomorrow morning.”
Me: “….”.
Client: “Since its for a tradeshow, and will be looping the entire time, something simple and non-intrusive would be best.”
So I whipped this together and went straight to bed (I’d already been up 24 hours). It’s extremely simple. Stylus RMX + Omnisphere + EXS24 = percolating noises. Apparently I’ll get the chance to expand on this soundtrack once the presentation is converted into a stand-alone piece, complete with audio narrator, at some point in the future. At that point maybe I will post the whole presentation with the actual soundtrack, etc. Until then, this was a “fire and forget” project.
Working with Dan Milican at S-Films, and Paul Cavazos at Olah, I composed and performed this music for the Two Days in Texas soundtrack. There is an internet-edit in my portfolio, but I’ve posted the long version here.
Here is a track that will appear in a film project I will posting in the portfolio soon. It’s a bluesy piece with traditional orchestration backing it up (strings, woodwinds) and some acoustic guitar.
The acoustic guitar was recorded with a RODE NT-1A condenser mic, mixed with a little bit of the acoustic’s built in pickup. Most of the other instruments are software instruments, except for the electric guitar. The orchestral stuff was from the Miroslav Philharmonik plugin. I was tempted to use the lush East West QL libraries, but they ended up being too dense / heavy in the mix.
This project was heaps of fun - big shoutout to Paul C on this one.
This is something silly I whipped up after I somehow wound up with a recording of my better half doing her sarcastic rendition of “Baby Got Back”. Sir Mixalot would be…proud?
After fooling with this, I decided to make it available as a ringtone for the iPhone. You can download the ringtone here:
Here is a little ditty I worked up a while back and then forgot all about. I rediscovered it while digging through some files on my machine. Actually I rediscovered a lot of half-finished ideas and songs, which I really should get to some sort of completed state, just so I can post them here.
You might ask why I post unfinished ideas at all. I like to archive my ideas on this site so that when I am working on new projects, I can use it as a reference library of sounds, phrases, mixes, and ideas. Its much easier to browse things here than on my hard drive, inside a maze of folders, etc.
Hence the “journal” title of this website. I am working on a portfolio of work though, which I should be able to launch later this month - stay tuned!
Back to this track: I am not really sure what this would sync well with. The bongos are reminiscent of a tiki-torch party on the beach, but the guitar is more like something you would hear in a dark smokey jazz club. Then there is the mysterious and ethereal song structure…which is out of place in both of those settings. But the end result of these combinations is something else entirely. If I had to pick, I would say it would fit with some sort of Vegas casino theme. Maybe a fashion scene in a heist movie…
This is a sketch that was one of several options presented to a client. I think this track would work great behind underwater footage, like an ocean documentary or some sort of travel-channel scubafest.
Speaking of underwater - why don’t they rerun more of the old Jacques Cousteau specials on TV these days? Especially considering the popularity of movies like The Life Aquatic, which are obviously riffing on the JQ legend. Sidenote: can you believe that movie came out in 2004 - 5 years ago? How time flies…
Tools used on this track: Logic, EXS24, Spectrasonics Omnisphere & Stylus RMX.
Haven’t posted in a while - here is a recent track I was commissioned to make for an animated presentation - complete with some “whoosing” when stuff flies on and offscreen. If this video goes online I will post a link to it here later on…
Tools: Logic, Superior Drummer, various compressor plugins. All performed, except for 1 blippy sample which is so low in the mix you probably won’t hear it.
Lots of things in the works, new music, site redesign, and more. Its all going to have to wait until I can make some time to do it the right way, but Fall 2009 looks like an achievable deadline. Stay tuned…
Gabriel Jeffrey is a very talented man, so I was pleased as punch when I got the chance to collaborate with him on a video short. This work was commissioned by Lisa Kirk, a New York City artist, to be shown at her gallery exhibition. The show opens on the 20th at Invisible Exports in NYC.
This is a proof-of-concept / idea I submitted a while back, to a friend who is working on a very exciting video project. Since the piece I am posting here was recorded, we have improved on it, but I wanted to keep the original version around for posterity.
Bonus points to anyone who can guess what late 70’s TV show inspired parts of this music and melody.
When the project is finished, I will embed it on this site, along with all the info, credits, etc.
Here is another sketch for the same project I mentioned in the previous post (The Wild Frontier). It is a 30 second logo spot / bumper. The client wanted something less orchestral and a bit more alternative, so I used rock instrumentation and fleshed it out with some blippy excitement.
The feeling with this track is “standard” enough, it could go lots of directions. Mainly “parent company” logo animations, with the beginning have a montage of people - as the music builds it speeds up and resolves into the logo at the end.
The ending is a little abrupt, but it’s just sketch, so I try not to spend too much time fussing until I know the client likes the style we are using.
This is a short 30 second bit that started as a sketch for a work project. Its the kind of thing that would be the opener / title sequence for a show on the Discovery Channel or the National Geographic Channel. It has traditional western orchestration with some world instruments, and an exciting driving beat.
I have been getting some serious mileage out of the Miroslav Philharmonik plugin recently - the samples are very high-quality, and, despite some initial confusion I experienced, the interface is pretty friendly. Now that I have a larger keyboard (thanks Tom!) I need to start to use some of the performance-controlling capabilities (controlling the bowing of violins and stuff like that).
Recently he posted a video to Vimeo that he made using the new Canon 5SD MkII camera - a new camera that can shoot high-definition video as well as still photography. Since it was released under a Creative Commons Attribution license, I took the liberty of creating a score for the sequence. Read the rest of this entry »
This is somewhere between a soundtrack and a soundscape, with little percussion / beats, and a sort of wandering structure that unfurls towards the end. I am no Brian Eno (although I am a fan of his), but I do like the ambient genre now and then. There is something psychologically liberating about working on a track once I’ve decided that it is evolving into an ambient thing, like at that point I can basically do anything I can think of.
In this case, that included appropriating a bit of Carl Sagan. The end result is something you might be able to listen to as you fall asleep.
Here is another soundtrack for a corporate-related video. This is a more worldly company, as you can tell from the slightly “world” rhythm track. Again, some breakdowns and build-ups that are based around interview segments and news clips.
This was my first time experimenting with Stylus RMX from Spectrasonics. It was very useful - I was able to quickly establish the basic rhythms I wanted, and get to the arrangements earlier than usual. If I can find a way to smoothly trigger Stylus RMX with my MIDI drums, it would be pretty hawt. But the Stylus RMX interface is not really geared for this, so we will see if I can work it out.
This is a quick test of the iPhone Wordpress app. I hope to be able to post sketches and thoughts from the road very soon, and also to review various iPhone sound apps.
This is an experimental track I made while fooling around with some of the new plugins I was discussing in the previous post. It has an authentic “breakdown” - sort of an experiment in controlled chaos. I also played with some vocal transformations, which was amusing for a while. Now my ears are tired and I need to think about something else.
Please forgive the meandering ending segment, I barely escaped with my sanity. Don’t ask me to go back there again.
Posting soundtracks without the video is a drag, but I’d rather log my work here than wait for the video permission, etc. So here is yet another tune I did for a corporate client who shall not be named. Imagine lots of bright stage lights, some talking heads, footage of live performances, etc. Anytime there is a slow segment, chances are that is a person speaking over the track.
In this mix I am experimenting with some of the PSP Audioware plugins - they make some compressors and EQs that are quite nice, and really bring some excitement into the mix. The audio instrument / plugin field is bursting with options these days, and I am in the process of trying to find out what I need, what is useful, and what sounds like crap.
This is a piece I created for a video that was to be shown at an executive annual meeting for a company who shall remain nameless (but whose products you almost certainly own). I wish I could post the video here - but I think it was for “internal use only”. I will find out for sure and post it if I can.
UPDATE: You might want to turn down your volume down a bit, because this track is a bit louder than the others for various reasons.
So I am excited to announce that I have a new full-time job which allows me to split my time between soundtracks / sound design and graphic / web design. This means I should be posting more updates here on this space, as well as investing in some new gear to take my work in this area to the next level. Please check back over the next few weeks as I post some new tracks and experiments…
Arthur C. Clarke died last month. He was a visionary - and his brilliant mind, with Stanley Kubrick’s genius, is responsible for one of my favorite movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey.
One of the memorable traits of that film is the use of classical music to frame sequences of vehicles delicately dancing through the void. As much as I love these moments in the film, I have always agreed with Sun Ra and his Astro Intergalactic Infinity Arkestra’s contention that “Space is the Place”.
There is something about laser beams, black holes, and big rockets that says “funk” to me. With that in mind, here is a space-funk riff for the next time you venture into the abyss.
