The internet is a wild and wonderful place. It can also be extremely disgusting - for example, if you accidentally type “roids” instead of “droids” into Google Images - but I digress. Today we’re discussing pleasant things. And would could be more pleasant than a Super Nintendo game known as Spanky’s Quest?
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…
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.
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.
I think this funky / rockin track would go well with a movie or video game about bank robbery, or a casino heist (a la Ocean’s 11/12/13). I think it could also work with a sports game. I can visualize it to the intro cut sequence of the players walking onto the field, and then clashing together in the game as the music starts rocking.
I organized it into the following sections: Intro: Men in Suits Walking in Step / Big Time Player Theme / Neon Breakdown / Big Time Player Theme End.
With the exception of one drum loop in the background, all of these tracks were played by me, mostly using MIDI devices, but the guitars and bass are “real”. The drums aren’t programmed, I played them on my Roland MIDI kit. I mastered and re-mastered this track quite a lot, trying to make it “hot”, and the end result turned out pretty well I think.
This is a track from the first demo EP I was ever involved with. My friends (Jordan, drums/background vocals; Micah, bass) and I recorded three songs at Bismeaux studios in Austin, TX. Our band name was “Any Volunteers”, which I still think is a pretty damn good name. I think this was in either 1996 or 1997, but I am not sure.This song is called “Cast Out” and the lyrics are inspired by a dream I had. Something about a Death Clock, and a conversation with an old man (who was maybe me?)…I can’t really remember.