There's a few of these artist update threads kicking around. Starting a new one for my stuff. Here's the backlog:
This is the end credit sequence for Kevil the Japanese Devil by @Stradomyre. Check out the actual pilot episode. It's awesome!
Big band action jazz! I kind of imagine the rocketeer punching out a bunch of nazis in a dance hall.
New cover track with animated video! This took me ages to work on. Despite clearing the rights for other means of distribution, I don't think I can actually upload this one to newgrounds due to restrictions.
Slow 80's prom song. I'm experimenting with retrowave sound design. If this is your wheelhouse, please feel free to send some tips my way.
Bar Brawl. Some folk music inspired by a fight scene in the animated series Disenchantment.
Feeling pangs of melancholic nostalgia recently. This simple tune was written in a moment of weakness.
This is my first time trying to produce anything in the "disco" vein. I'll have to do a lot more deep listening to figure out how to capture the right sound/vibe.
Experiment in Motown production. I wish I could have interned at a studio back then and learned all of the secrets.
At 6/4/20 06:51 PM, sleepFacingWest wrote:Experiment in Motown production. I wish I could have interned at a studio back then and learned all of the secrets.
https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/939454
Track removed for now. I started getting paranoid that publishing a motown-inspired track during this time might somehow be misconstrued as antagonistic to the BLM movement. (I'm not really sure how, exactly, but I didn't want it to seem exploitative or opportunistic. ) I will republish when it feels like the time is right.
I wrote this short orchestral piece to exercise writing for woodwinds. I feel like I'm never sure how to use them to the best of their capabilities. I still need to do more work, but this piece got me excited about them. This is a song about someone discovering they can fly for the first time.
Experiment in Motown production. I wish I could have interned at a studio back then and learned all of the secrets.
(Republish)
Just a lil' slice of life. A morning like every other morning. A routine just like every other routine. Say hello to the people you see every day, get the same coffee/bagel, ride your bicycle through the same small town streets.
An R&B ditty. I need some work with this retro style production. I'm still trying to focus on working quickly and learning to embrace "good enough".
A little funk. This is a continuation of my attempts to capture more of a vintage sound. I've got a long ways to go.
50's-60's era exotica. I imagined travelers marooned on Neptune meeting the matriarchal ruler for the first time in her ostentatiously ornate palace. I love the retro depictions of space as the music tends to be more earthly than the hybrid orchestral stuff saturating hollywood today. While that stuff is awesome as well, there's something that resonates with me in those old retro-futuristic scores.
An experiment in Spaghetti Western scoring.
I stole some moves from both Ennio Morricone as well as Gheorghe Zamfir for this. Emulation is the best way to learn.
A little surf rock quicky. This track seems pretty boilerplate on the outside, but it was a significant step towards reclaiming music as a thing I do for me. A slightly more in depth explanation of the sad sack story is in the track description.
Trip Up North. I've been rearranging my studio so real instruments are more readily accessible. Recording live instruments almost always sounds better than using virtual instruments, but when everything is stashed away in a case and you have to pull out a bunch of cables and other gear sometimes the laziness can take over. I got a cheap guitar rack off of amazon so I can keep a number of my guitars out, and prewired my outboard hardware using a rack and patch bay. There's a lot I need to work on (especially mic placement technique) but I'm happy with this workflow and looking forward to experimenting more.
A quick jazz-funk ditty. This started off as an exercise as I started getting back into practicing playing guitar regularly again. It was supposed to be easy, but it turns out I'm more rusty than I'd thought and it ended up taking longer than I'd like to admit to get even a halfway decent take. C'est le vie. Real growth never comes from ignoring ugly truths. The truth is I'm not very good because I haven't been practicing. Time to fix it!
Mysterious droney tension music for true crime investigation.
Battle Ready. I finally binged the first season of The Mandalorian and now I can see what all the fuss is about. I haven't been super interested in the soullessly transparent money-grab that most of the Star Wars franchise has devolved into, but The Mandalorian is a welcome exception. I love the bold choice to move away from John William's score and embrace what seems to be more of an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western vibe.
I haven't done a ton of work with hybrid orchestral scoring, so this was a first attempt at digging into that world. I spent more time on the synth and percussion sound design than I did the acoustic instrument parts and I think it shows. In future trials I'll focus more on overall mix.
I'm still on my Mandalorian kick. One of my favorite things Ludwig Göransson does in his action sequences is use a popcorn snare sample that he triggers monophonically so the decay gets cut off when another snare is triggered. It's an old trick, but it's really interesting to hear in a cinematic context. It almost elicits the imagery of soldiers marching, but the subtle use of the sequenced sample is a masterful way to bring the sound into a sci-fi world. I played around with that idea here and also stole the (what sounds to me like) cymbal on snare drum trick J.G. Thirlwell uses in his intro theme to The Venture Bros.
I still need to figure out how to get my mixes to sound more spatially large in that epic cinematic sort of way.
At 11/17/20 01:11 PM, sleepFacingWest wrote:I still need to figure out how to get my mixes to sound more spatially large in that epic cinematic sort of way.
meanwhile I'm like abuse the stereo widener lelelel
At 11/17/20 01:24 PM, Troisnyx wrote:meanwhile I'm like abuse the stereo widener lelelel
Honestly, that's probably a huge part of it. That and some more careful eq to notch out space.
This is loosely inspired by an animatic I saw recently. Did a quick sketch today which won't be used. Felt cute, might delete later. Hoping to work on more animated projects.
Soft drones for moments of vulnerability.
