blair's blógado gigante » raging guitar

Preview: “Mere Exposure”

blairblends — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:14:57 +0000

Oh, hi! It’s been a terribly long time since I shared any music. This is a new piece I’m working on that takes on the usual ominous/industrial/haunting vocals sound. I didn’t want’t to post the preview until I had a chance to properly master it on good studio monitors. (I had previously been working with headphones, and honestly I did pretty well considering how hard it normally is to work on music with headphones for long periods of time.)

The track, bus, and pre-dub counts are starting to add up, but using Audition 3.0.1 on a quad core with 24 GB of RAM doesn’t slow it down, even with heavy use of effects and VST/DirectX plug-ins.

The next pass will be strings…that is to say, I will be adding some incidental strings along with a solo. I will probably go with the baritone violin, since I need something edgy and harsh to punch through. The fog of war (“density”) of this track is already starting to get into the 90th percentile.

Let me know what you think.

Once this track is finished, I will post it in its entirety, along with a podcast of me walking you through how it came to be, and “breaking down” what individual elements have gone into making the final product.

Music: “Just Get It Done”

blairblends — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:19:46 +0000

A standard cue here, fresh from mastering. Pretty simple; a garden variety “stuff is happening” type number.

You might say it’s almost procedural. Enjoy!

Music: “Let’s Kick Some Ass”

blairblends — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:11:46 +0000

I'm not even 5% this cool or badass.

A few years ago, I had the distinct privilege of making friends with some Marine bloggers and public relations personnel from Regimental Combat Team 6 at Camp Ramadi in Iraq. However, in the blog world, we call them the Fightin’ 6th Marines.

In interacting with the bloggers, in particular Staff Sergeant DeBoard, I was able to get a very interesting perspective into our presence in Iraq. I’ve seen some incredible photos from their blog (second link above), read some stories that make feel like I don’t necessarily deserve to be alive in a sense, and all-in-all come closer to the Middle East than I ever imagined.

This overlapped with the biggest “leap” so far in my musical journey. With the picture, videos, stories, and suggestions from RCT-6 and Staff Sergeant DeBoard’s input and advice, I was able to craft many original tunes. At first, they had a somewhat ethereal, Eastern feel to them. However, the more I got to know the Fightin’ 6th Marines and became more familiar with their day-to-day lives, the more the music turned into fierce, raging guitar-driven anthems.

The high point for me was having RCT-6 use some of my original music [that they inspired] in one of their fascinating videos. So now…I’m giving one back.

This one’s for you, guys. Whether you’re back state-side or still in the sand, let’s kick some ass.