We’ll start off with this one!  Enjoy.

With that in mind, I began to just…”tinker” is the technical term, I think…and began to do a “backdoor” remix.  You might say I arranged the ending slightly for a reprise, bringing out the strings and the solos (both vocal and woodwind).

So, without further ado, here’s a shorter reprise of the main piece.  Enjoy!

I now work second shift, which means I drive home around two in the morning.  I actually love it, since I’m a night owl, but the empty highways and mercury vapor lights have started to influence my mood when I do composition.  Here is one that is directly inspired from that tone.  Enjoy!

You might say it’s almost procedural.  Enjoy!

B Duduk (Center)

I’ve come to learn that Eastern instruments tend to occupy the same sonic range, so when you begin to mix and match them, the mix and master can become total “mush”.  So, it wasn’t until tonight that I had patience in a mastering role to clean up some of the mess.

As with previous posts, a lot of this is inspired on the images, stories, and videos I got from friends in Iraq.  The solo instrument that you may not recognize is the Duduk.  It’s an Armenian instrument, and I employ it in music frequently.  However, unlike all my other tracks, this is a B Duduk, with a slightly more harsh and breathy sound.  I thought it could go head-to-head with the violin solo better.

The percussion consists of many layers, but the one that will likely stick out the most is the tabla ensemble, which has been run through…I can’t even remember what stack of filters…to give it that sharp, electronic sound.  Likewise, all the guitars have been run through many, many iterations of Guitar Rig to get that “distressed” sound that seems to fit in well with the overall vibe of Eastern music.

Enjoy.

I figured I couldn’t rightly post something so beautiful without music, so I just whipped something up in 10 minutes.

Apparently you guys like it, and people have been asking me to post it separately. So, I am. Enjoy!

The vibe reminds me of the mercury vapor glow of cities at night.

I thought it wouldn’t kill me to post a second piece of music tonight.

This one was actually originally composed in late November of 2007, and it was included in the yearly “Christmas Masters” for 2007, though it wasn’t shopped around to agencies or really posted anywhere.  I just wasn’t ever happy with the flow and fullness of the instruments.

Fast forward to May of 2009 and a spur-of-the-moment re-master.   Now it’s a final product.  It’s weird how things sometimes just come together months of years later when an idea just pops into your mind out of nowhere.

Enjoy!

A lot of work went into this one.  Specifically, making sure the saxophone, guitars, and other instruments have a perfectly-crafted vintage sound.  There is also convolution reverb in play to model a jazz club.  A lot under the hood, and a new vocalist to boot!

I mastered in Adobe Audition 3 as usual, and used the Waves plug-ins to craft my vintage sounds.  The final master is the ever-reliable L2.

Mellow out, and enjoy.  It was a pleasure to deviate and produce some downtempo jazz.

The album is tentatively titled “Tears For Andromeda”.  I don’t know where this track will fall in the overall order of things.

The first track to be actually marked as “complete” is this one…”Goodbye From Colombo”.  It features the final words of Arthur C. Clarke from late last year, along with the result of hours of sound design and sequencing.  As usual, I’ve mastered with Adobe Audition 3.0.1 using the Waves plug-ins.  The soft-synths used in the track include Omnisphere, Colossus, and Atmosphere.

You can listen to or download the 320Kbps MP3 below.  You’re also welcome to download the FLAC version (~25 megabytes).  It’s Creative Commons, so see the footer of this page for details on how you can use the audio, but you’re free to download a copy and share it with your friends, obviously.

There’s more to come.  Enjoy!