Greetings Patrons,
As promised, here is the third installment of my Western trilogy. I didn't start off wanting to create 3 tracks but while working on the first one and I would get sidetracked with other ideas and start a new project sketch. In fact, I had all 3 basically fleshed out when I started polishing the first one. It was quite a new way of working for me and something I'm glad I...
2024-07-24 16:00:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Edit: The attached audio files were updated on July 27th with better versions (I made some silly mastering mistakes that heard when I re-listened with fresh ears!)
Greetings Patrons,
Here is the second installment of my (apparent) Western trilogy. I've never done this before, but I found that as soon as I started working on the first track (which will end up being the third...
2024-07-17 16:11:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I'm continuing to remaster these early SoundPads, and making them available as Patreon exclusive downloads.
Please don't share these files. They are for you, dear patrons, and you alone!
The website versions will most likely stay as they are for the time being, but these re-mastered audio files are of higher quality than what appears o...
2024-07-15 14:22:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
Years ago, when I was doing contracts for corporate clients I had a golden rule: 'leave the guitars on the wall'. I was brought into so many jobs where the previous composer had been a frustrated guitar player (aren't we all though?) and this gig was going to be how they showed the world their skills.
I've relaxed since those days, primarily because Tabletop Audio...
2024-07-10 16:48:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
Here's a fairly calm, peaceful track that combines a breezy summer's day with some slightly odd plant life. I toyed with calling this "Alien Flora" but I didn't want to immediately cast it as sci-fi (which it absolutely could be). "Magical Flora" seemed more genre inclusive, so I went with that one. Most of you know by now that you should never put too much stock into m...
2024-07-03 15:37:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I'm continuing to remaster these early SoundPads, and making them available as Patreon exclusive downloads.
Please don't share these files. They are for you, dear patrons, and you alone!
The website versions will most likely stay as they are for the time being, but these re-mastered audio files are of higher quality than what appears o...
2024-07-01 15:09:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
Sailors have always been a superstitious bunch. Life at sea in a confined space can do that to a person I suppose. Nothing spooks a sailor like a ghost ship though.
Technically the term "Ghost Ship" means two things: The first is phantom ship, like the legendary Flying Dutchman, doomed to sail the seas forever and never to make port. The second ...
2024-06-26 14:59:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
The music for this one felt kinetic as I was working on it. Not in an action cue way, it had more of a 'bodies in motion' vibe. It reminded me of walking around in a big city (something I'm quite familiar with!).
There's a positivity here as well. Like when you go out in a crowd and it's not terrible, and even refreshing to be around other people.
Nothing...
2024-06-19 17:13:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I had posted previously about my early experiments in surround audio but I realized that it didn't make much sense unless I could deliver them via the web. So I've mocked up a page and included a few of the test ambiences.
The page is currently unlinked in any of the menus. I am toying with the idea of making this Patreon only, but for now it's open to all.
...
2024-06-13 15:56:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
As many of you know, I'm always interested in minor locations and liminal spaces. Most of our time in games happens outside of combat. I love an epic set piece as much as the next gamer, but it's the simple locations and quieter spaces that often invite us to do the best story telling and character development. You know the barbarian fighter performs admirably when su...
2024-06-12 16:23:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I'm continuing to remaster these early SoundPads, and making them available as Patreon exclusive downloads.
Please don't share these files. They are for you, dear patrons, and you alone!
The website versions will most likely stay as they are for the time being, but these re-mastered audio files are of higher quality than what appears o...
2024-06-10 12:24:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
This track falls solidly into the action/adventure category. It's got a bit of suspense that leads into action and back again. You and your party have discovered a way through, around, or into some other place. How's that for specific? It's dark and narrow and doesn't seem all that stable. Bits of ceiling and wall keep crumbling on and around you.
Musically this i...
2024-06-05 16:54:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I was playing the excellent Hellblade video game this week (the first one) and loved how immersive they made the atmosphere. Everything seemed alive, and dead at the same time. I started by sketching out drums and the drone/guitar noise. I debated removing the guitar bit but ended up leaving it as it was so menacing, and added a pinch of Scandinavian black metal vibes. ...
2024-05-29 18:03:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I was experimenting with some extreme audio processing of organic sounds this week. I had a few recordings of me playing a ney flute (ok, playing may be an exaggeration) which I sent through some granular synth engines and then mapped a few parameters to MIDI controllers and...all this is to say that I could take the sound from raw organic into twisted gli...
2024-05-22 15:04:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
After a terrible attack, mystical calamity, storm, or quake, a town gathers for repairs. That's the idea behind this track. It's about positivity in the face of adversity. It's about a community that rolls up its sleeves and gets down to it.
The music here is quite positive. In fact, it could really be used as a standard adventuring, travel, or exposition track....
2024-05-15 17:03:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I'm continuing to remaster these early SoundPads, and making them available as Patreon exclusive downloads.
Please don't share these files. They are for you, dear patrons, and you alone!
The website versions will most likely stay as they are for the time being, but these re-mastered audio files are of higher quality than what appears o...
2024-05-12 17:11:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I've been working on this track for a few weeks. It's fairly complex so it was something that I kept going back to, making changes, tweaking things, etc. My original plan was to have it done by May 4th (Star Wars Day) but sadly, that did not come on a Wednesday. (who do I speak to about this!)
Jungle Bunker is totally not based on Endo...
2024-05-08 16:17:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I'm continuing to remaster these early SoundPads, and making them available as Patreon exclusive downloads.
Please don't share these files. They are for you, dear patrons, and you alone!
The website versions will most likely stay as they are for the time being, but these re-mastered audio files are of higher quality than what appears o...
2024-05-03 14:52:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
Here's an urban noire, surveillance, cyberpunk, underscore mashup. In my constant quest for liminal spaces and environments, I've always enjoyed a good stakeout. Stakeouts are a lot like fishing in that the activity is a pretense for the real purpose: A proper get-to-know-you hang.
Yes, the plot device is to show the audience what the bad guys are up to, but stake...
2024-05-01 14:51:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
Here is a fairly quiet, meditative track featuring a large reverberant space, populated by mages and other students of the magical arts, deep in research.
The ambience was the first thing I began with. I combined recordings of library reading rooms, room tones of empty halls, braziers for heat, and walla (sound design speak for undiscernible background speech). I ...
2024-04-24 16:46:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I'm continuing to remaster these early SoundPads, and making them available as Patreon exclusive downloads.
Please don't share these files. They are for you, dear patrons, and you alone!
The website versions will most likely stay as they are for the time being, but these re-mastered audio files are of higher quality than what appears o...
2024-04-22 16:06:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I've always loved the film Jason & The Argonauts (1963). My favorite scene was when Hercules and his companion encountered the giant statue of the titan, Talos. When the statue turned his head for the first time, well, let's say it was a pretty powerful moment for 10-year-old me.
If you need a refresher: 2024-04-17 17:24:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
Or should I say, Ahoy! This week's ambience takes us to sea in a fast, sturdy ship. This is one of those tracks where the music decided what the eventual ambience was going to be. A few days into it I began thinking it sounded vaguely militaristic, and more specifically, naval. I can't actually describe what that means musically, perhaps it was because the earliest vers...
2024-04-10 18:24:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
One of my absolute favorite ways to begin working on a track is by simply playing around with combinations of instruments. In this case, I was using several orchestral tuned percussion instruments where I might normally choose a piano. Celeste, Glockenspiel and Vibraphone have such unique tones, metallic and pure. I did end up putting a piano back, but played softly, so...
2024-04-03 17:33:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
The working title for this ambience was 'big things moving slowly'. I was going for a feeling of weight and inertia. I knew it was going to be sci-fi, but like all my favorite sci-fi music, it didn't have to be.
The ambience for this is a bunch of sounds, metallic and otherwise, stretched, pitched and reverberated to sound large.
The massive central ship is...
2024-03-27 18:31:02 +0000 UTC View PostGreetings Patrons,
As many of you know, I didn't always create bonus tracks for ambiences. That came about organically when a few people asked for small changes (no rain, no footsteps) and I thought that if I planned the projects better from the start I could offer these types of variations.
I recently had a request for a music-only track from 2014. Revisiting these old tracks is of...
2024-03-22 15:24:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
Like many of you, I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3. The problem I have with video games (aside from being quite bad at most of them) is that a) I don't have much time to play and b) I only play an hour, max, before either 1) the guilt sets in, or 2) something in the game inspires me to work on sound or music.
This track is my take on the first scene in which the ...
2024-03-20 17:21:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
I'm continuing to remaster these early SoundPads, and making them available as Patreon exclusive downloads.
Please don't share these files. They are for you, dear patrons, and you alone!
The website versions will most likely stay as they are for the time being, but these re-mastered audio files are of higher quality than what appears online...
2024-03-18 15:55:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
What's better than a cup of strong ale, and a warm fire after a hard day of pillaging villages? I suppose you could be a community of pacifist Vikings who just built a school for children, but, I wonder, would the thirst be as fierce? Alas, these are existential questions that I don't have the answers to I'm afraid.
Because I'm still enamored with my new cus...
2024-03-13 17:41:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Patrons,
Sometimes there's a reason that it is the road less traveled.
I was dreaming up this scenario where a party has a long distance to cover, and one member (we all know it was the bard) pipes up and tells everyone he knows a shortcut. This is the first part of a tale in which there's good news and bad news. The good news is that it will cut days off their journey. Th...
2024-03-06 18:23:12 +0000 UTC View Post