Short Film

As mentioned in a previous post, my friend Andy entered a short film halloween contest. He'd asked me to create some music for it... here is the film. It's about a guy that keeps on bleeding, but can't die. Enjoy!

Assignment 05: Nemo Style

He wrote:


She wrote:


One score Liam and I both really like is for the movie Finding Nemo. This particular assignment is in the style of Finding Nemo (score by Thomas Newton). That means: use of harp, pizzicato strings, and piano. Throughout the movie, different events happen, so the score ranges. I chose to do one with a bit more movement (ie. fish swimming around), whereas Liam chose something more sullen (ie. at the beginning of the movie when the Nemo's dad finds the Nemo egg.) For those who aren't familiar with the score, I've uploaded a small clip below:



This next bit is on temperamental music software. Music software is pretty high-maintenance. In that, any little change has a high chance of causing it to not work. These changes include: loading other software on the computer, connecting the computer to the internet, software updates, having other programs in use at the same time. For this reason, I (with a lot of other people who do music composition) have a completely separate computer for music only. It is not connected to the internet, and it has only the music software installed. I never do any security or software updates on it or load anything non-music onto it for fear of the headache that will ensue. This also circumvents the problem of getting sidetracked on things like the internet and messenger... (which I have a tendency to do frequently - easily distracted am I).

Liam, however, is not as fortunate... with only one computer, he made the mistake of installing a security update. That was a couple weeks ago. Yeahhh. Things still not working properly. Since he didn't have access to all his sounds, his instrumentation includes only piano and strings.

This time around, I think we're both not too excited about the pieces we came up with, but... I suppose that's just how the creative cookie crumbles. Can't write something excellent every time. My excuse? None really. I just procrastinated. :P

'til next time.

Halloweeny 09

My friend is entering a 48-hour film-making contest in honour of Halloween. Starting on Friday, each film-making team will be given a subgenre (zombie movie, revenge, etc.), a phrase, and a weapon they must incorporate into their short film. Each team will have 48 hours to create a short horror film. There's not really a whole lot that one can prepare, but he did ask if I could prepare some halloween-y scary-movie music for him. So I did. Nothing fancy, since it was kind of on a tight deadline (remind me SOONER! This means you, Monsieur Leblanc!) Not sure if it'll be used, but thought I'd share anyway. Enjoy!

Assignment 04: Fairy Tale Land

He wrote:

She wrote:

The theme for this exercise was "Fairy Tale," that is, in the style of Danny Elfman in Edward Scissorhands. So the guidelines given were pretty sparse - just fairy tale-like, using 2 very fairy tale sounds: glockenspiel and choir. That combo seems to make a piece sounds mystical, and magical. It's weird... there is something about fairy tale music that makes it fairy tale.

So my music buddy was saying how it's kind of sad how the comments are always at "0". I know there are only like 3 readers for this blog, but if you listened to the song, comment! Say something! So we know this is not all in vain.

My glockenspiel "ding" is cut off :( I must do better mixing. I am not a mixer. I am a writer. Boo.

Assignment 03: Chick Flick Music

He wrote: Bittersweet Time


She wrote: Maybe One Day


For this assignment, we were to write a piece for the background of a chick flick. This usually means piano as a somewhat focal instrument, with strings accompanying. Liam went in a sentimental direction, while mine was described as at first sounding like Enya, and then turning into "The Legend of Zelda" music. (Sidebar: I always thought Zelda was the dude in the boots and elf hat. Turns out, Zelda is the princess he is trying to save! Go figure... all these years...anyway, back to the music stuff).

I am easily sidetracked. For me, when writing something I flip through my sound bank and play each sound to find something I like. The danger of doing this is finding completely unrelated sounds for completely unrelated styles of music. In the midst of trying to write this Chick Flick piece, I came across a sound I thought would be perfect for carnival music. And then, the only thing going through my mind was carnival-esque music. So, I closed the file I was working on, opened up a new file, and started writing something completely unrelated. So here it is, the carnival music that incessantly played through my mind while trying to desperately write something wistful, and reflective:

Carnival Ride:

Assignment #02: Funky

He wrote: A Funky Dalliance


She wrote: Plotting a Scheme (80's style)


I will title the postings I write for the 2 week assignments with Liam (music dude - yes, Liam, that is how I have referred to you - would you like a more prestigious description? Liam (Audio Designer Dude for Next Level Games), as "Assignment #". Makes it easy to keep track of where we are in terms of what we've accomplished.

For this particular assignment, the theme was "make it funky". This means, no traditional orchestral instruments allowed (i.e., flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, french horns, trombones, cellos, violins, violas, double basses, timps, etc.) What's left is synth sounds, or sounds created through manipulating real sounds, or just more electronic sounding sounds. Check out the pieces above.

Note: You'll notice how Liam's piece is much louder than mine - this is because he properly compresses the music afterwards. I lack the know-how on this. Until I learn, his pieces will be at the proper volume. Mine will be softer.

Note 2: I've updated the last music post with Liam's rendition of the "heroic" theme. Check it out below on the last music post as well...

Assignment #01: Heroic

EDITED TO INCLUDE:
Hello! Just an update to this post. As mentioned earlier, I met up with an old highschool classmate recently; we'll be writing songs every 2 weeks, along a common theme/stated guidelines. He's given me permission to post his works here as well, so you can compare the two. This is the first week, "Heroic"... check out his, check out mine.

PS - Purely by chance, both pieces ended up being 1:28 min tracks when recorded into webstream format. Weeeeeeeeird.

He wrote: Time Marches On


She wrote: Determined


Well, it's been a looong time. For no good reason, really 'cept that I was out having fun. Activities included, but were not limited to: playing tennis, running a half marathon, visiting China, Whistler, Vegas, sporadic States trips, hiking up mountains, and just enjoying the summer.

Recently, by chance, I met up with an old highschool classmate who now works in the music industry as an audio designer. For me, when writing isn't my job, its hard to find a reason to do it. For him, when writing IS part of his job, it's hard to find a reason to do it (outside of work). So now, both of us will be writing regularly, 1 - 2 minute clips every couple weeks. I will post my clips here.

The first clip is called Determined. The theme of the week is "heroic". That means horns, and open fifths, thirds, and sixths. Enjoy, and I'll be back soon. (For reals.)

While It's Made

One of the shows I used to watch a lot (back in the days when I had a TV) was How It's Made, from the Discovery Channel. They'd always explain how something was made (hence the name) - ice skates, transit buses, boxing gloves, TV's, solar panels, baseballs, plastic utensils - just random items. There are some sample clips at the link above (but you have to watch a 30 second commercial on some new texting feature for some bank first...).

The music in the background of these shows was usually something funky. As they showed the thousands of plastic utensils coming off the mold in the factory, there'd be some upbeat funky music in the background. This piece reminded me of that - thus the title, While It's Made. (How It's Made was already taken... and this seemed to better reflect the fact the music is the soundtrack to the factory items being made.)

Not typical of my style. Not sure what that is yet anyway, but 'twas a fun piece to create nonetheless. No traditional orchestral sounds used. Sometimes you just need a break from all that. So instead of a KitKat bar, I did this. It was a one-dayer - about 5 hours I'm guessing. (No clocks allowed near where I write. You're done when you're done.) A dinnerless day that was, but sometimes food is not important.

Daily Tango

I always fear that I will write the same thing twice. This piece was painstakingly slow, and I kept thinking I wrote that bit already into something else. Nevertheless, it has been completed, so I can now move on. Hopefully, onto something more inspiring. Not particularly fond of this one. Ah well, them's the breaks.

UPDATE: The more I listen to this, the more I dislike it. I may have to take it down. It might just be that bad... we'll see.

Retro Video Game Music, Part 2

Following my Retro Video Game Music post, I had a request to write something more intense. You know, not just like the game's starting out and everything's cool. But maybe fighting the boss of a level or something. So here it is. Ah, cheezy music, what's not to love? This one's for you Marco ;)

And in other news, truly hating the white walls of the little room in which I write. So imagonna paint it :) Sidebar: about places where music is created. They're usually very masculine - greys, blacks, darker colors, leather couch - think Barney Stinson's apartment (for those in the HIMYM know). Why masculine? Commercial music composition is a severely masculine field (haven't figured that one out yet...). Also, white walls are kinda... boring. Plus, all the keyboards/music gear is usually black or grey/silver in color so white looks kinda ugg with that. Just need to figure out the right color... stay tuned. *excited*

City Mouse

The instrumentation (instruments used) of this piece is simple. Just strings and the odd percussion for accent, mainly chimes and bells. I must say the string sound used is one of my favourite string sounds on the Kurzweil when used for the right application. (Kurzweil sound module - um. outboard gear. um. the hardware that allows me to have different orchestral sounds...um. that black box with the blinking lights).

Sidebar: A bit about how the electronic form of music works. Everything is written in midi format, which stores the note played, the duration of the note, and the strength at which the note is pressed. It also stores pedal information - when it goes down, and for how long. Once you have the midi information down, you can assign whatever sounds you want to it. So, if I decided to make this whole piece done on the piano, or xylophone instead, it'd be relatively easy to change with just the click of a few buttons.

So the title City Mouse. It's about a little mouse in the city zooming around on a moped through different scenes in the city. The mouse is the animated kind, wearing aviator glasses and a vest, like Stuart Little (incidentally, one of my fav soundtracks by Alan Silvestri).

I know I said I'd log the time it takes to write something. This was one of those pieces where I wrote 90% of it in a day. And then the last 10% took a few days. It was an easy one to spin off. Usually the fast writing happens with inspiring instrumental sounds. Enjoy!

Yellow Ranger Love Theme

Back from vacation, and missing Hawaii dearly. Back to dreary weather and rainy puddles. As my sis-in-law once put it... it's slipping back into your normal routine like "putting on an old sock."

I had actually meant to post this before I left, but I wasn't sure about it. In that, in order to write stuff that's good, you have to also write stuff that's no-so-good. All that no-so-good stuff has to get out as well. This is one of those "not-so-goods." But nonetheless, 'tis all a part of that creative process so, here is the posting. Substandard work by yours truly :)

A bit of background, as always. There is a counterpart to this song, called Yellow Ranger. It's on paper at the moment, but not orchestrated yet. It's a bit of a fun tune about a teenage boy in love with the Yellow Power Ranger. It's on the list of to-dos so I hope to get around to it. Anyway, this piece was created as the Love Theme for said boy and ranger. Imagine the two running in an open field of daisies in slow-mo. You get it. Enjoy.

The Aftermath

This piece is entitled The Aftermath. It is a bit of a dramatic piece with heroic horns. In fact, the horn sound used is Williams Brass. If that does not mean anything to you, please consult your nearest soundtrack buff for further explanation. 

It took 9 days to complete, start to finish, though I did not log the hours. It was basically a few hours after work here and there. I shall try to log hours next time to see what the rate of creation is. 

Oh, I should mention this other semi-interesting fact: in downloading the previous Tyro 2 piece off my Technics digital piano several weeks ago, I also ran into some (very old) sketches. Like, circa 2003 maybe. Well, at the time floppy disks were still widely used and were an integral part of computers, so that gives you an idea of oldness. Anyway, one of the old sketches was the basis of the beginning of The Aftermath. Just goes to show how you should always save any ideas, no matter how unfitting they seem in the moment. There can always be a later purpose where it fits perfectly. In the music world anyway.

Note: the sounds are a bit 'muddy' - especially when there are a lot of instruments going on. All pieces I have uploaded are done in raw format, no mastering yet. (Sidebar: Mastering is when you virtually put the instruments in their place. For instance, when facing an orchestra, first and second violin sounds come from the left side. Percussion sounds come from left back. Cellos and double bass sounds come from front right, etc. Also, reverb and ambience and the like are added at this time.) I will get them mastered at a studio in the near future. My job is to write the notes. It's someone else's job to make it sound good ;)

Tyro 2

This past long weekend I extracted some pieces from my Technics Digital Piano, so they can be posted to the web. Sound quality is not stellar, as it was recorded through the air, but... that seems to be the best I can do for now, though I am working on a re-jig of the whole piece so it can ultimately be recorded properly.

Some years back, I studied with a commercial music composer in Yaletown for about a year or so. During that time, my assignments included creating some one-minute pieces. The constraints were that the piece had to be exactly one minute (because often you will have to compose something that is exactly X min/seconds long, so you have to be able to do that) and use only repeating patterns of music. Tyro 2 is one of those pieces. Yes, I know, I have to work on my naming of pieces... but hey, if anyone wants to throw out some ideas, I'd entertain them.

At the time I wrote Tyro 2, I was also studying music theory at UBC, and one of the topics we had to learn was advanced polyrhythms, specifically from Indian descent. Imagine an entire class of students simultaneously reciting complex rhythms in syllables like ta-ki-ta-ta-ki-ta stressing a different syllable each time depending on the polyrhythm at hand. It was quite a sight to see. (Sidebar: A bit more on advanced polyrhythms and what that entails. Try tapping 3 times on your right hand and 2 on your left hand... not too bad, right? Now try tapping 5 on your right hand and 3 on your left... How 'bout 4 on the right hand and 7 on the left? It goes on and on). Anyway, this piece has some of that influence. Hope you enjoy.

Sanguinity

Here is a piece I just finished. Hot off the press. You'll notice that this piece doesn't use much in the way of traditional orchestral sounds. Though there are elements of the traditional orchestra included (strings, for instance, and the odd percussion now and again), it uses mostly other more... 'wacky' sounds. Yes. Wacky sounds. They are from Korg's NS5R synth.

No real story attached to this. It's just instrumental. But seemed to have a "sanguine" nature to it after all was said and done, so that's what it ended up being called. I am poor with titles. Maybe I should just do the "Prelude No. 1, Prelude No. 2, Prelude No. 3..." etc. like those old school composer dudes. It would certainly be a lot easier... Then again, I suppose it would be difficult to remember after a while which piece was which.

"Sidebar" (HIMYM reference - love it!): I had meant to start on papercrafts yesterday, but got sucked in to finish this piece. Maybe papercrafting later. When the goin's good with this music writing stuff, you drop everything and take it.

Impromissm

This piece is also from the archives, circa 2005. It's one of the first things I put together using 'real' studio gear. It uses software sounds from Garriten's Personal Orchestra, the first orchestral sounds I ever owned. I had to do some re-working of the song, as it was created using the old set-up, and after an evening of work, I think I have it the way it's supposed to sound. Or as close as I can get to it.

Now, the quality of these orchestral sounds are amazing. Though the mp3 format probably doesn't do it justice, they sound exactly like the instrument as if it were right there in front of you. They had actually gotten a violin, or whatever instrument, to play each note and recorded what it sounded like... it's crazy. The Steinway Grand sound is particularly impressive, listen for its solo. Cello ensemble sound is also very real sounding, as is solo violin (the single note that happens after a break in the music) --- actually, ALL the sounds are excellent!

Unfortunately, the problem with this sampling technique to get high quality sounds is that it takes up a lot of computer processing power. In fact, people buy entire Mac computers just to run this one software specifically. I however, did not have that luxury so, the software is being stored right now. Maybe for another day. Hope you all enjoy.  

Park Days

This piece is one from the archives. Since I moved, the setup of everything had to be changed, and some pieces were “broken”. I just re-jigged this piece tonight, and it now works fine.

Background: the music is about a day at the park (uh, from the title...) It’s a happy park, with vividly green grass (no yellow dry patches), and jugglers, ice-cream stands, and those entertainer people on unicycles. The flutes in the opening melody are reminiscent of happy birdies flying around. Wow. I sound like those music commentaries from those dreaded music history textbooks...

In the middle of the piece, there is a boy who asks his mother for an ice-cream cone. She is hesitant, but then he pleads, giving her the “big sad eyes” (harp plucks) and finally, she gives in and says “Well, OK” (french horn). There is then a ‘wobbly’ sounding part that follows - that would be one of the balancing acts of the entertainers. Is he going to fall? That is one tall unicycle... it’s those crazy ones. I am not entirely satisfied with the marimba used in the piece, but I couldn’t find the good orchestral marimba sound. Perhaps a little more digging and rejigging is in order...

The day ends with a happy theme - a joyous hurrah for a day well spent at the park.

First Blog Ever! - A Dramatic Sketch

Well, here ‘tis, the first entry in my blog. Allison (sis-in-law) inspired me to make one so... ta-da! We’ll see how it goes. It is, as the title indicates, a place to store creative meanderings. Made of paper, or music notes. I’m not usually that creative with anything else - words, paint, photos... no good. I’ll stick with what I know.

 

So, for those who have been to my place, you will have noticed the tiny den with a gigantic keyboard, and a lot of things with buttons, knobs and blinky lights. No one really knows what I do with that stuff. And no one’s ever seen me actively using that stuff. So now, here it is. What I do with that stuff.

 

For my first entry... it is a dramatic bit that popped into my head randomly. It didn’t turn out exactly as planned, and I’m not entirely satisfied with it, but it was late... and I was done for the night. Perhaps some revisions to come later. Check it out, if you so feel inclined.