Way of the Fist

I've been a fan of Hong Kong action movies for I don't even remember how long. This track is a tribute to them. The name of the track comes from Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist):

Way of the Fist

I originally started this track as a way of learning to do Asian drums (taikos and Chinese style). It kind of evolved from there. The backing of the track is firmly rooted on the beating of the taiko drum, which are accompanied by Indian dohl drums (for the taiko drums I used Nine Volt Audio's Stickbreakers Vol2 and for the dohls Tonehammer's Epic Dohl). To these I combined Chinese Bangu drums from the MOTU's Ethno Instrument and a modern drum kit (well, the NI Abbey Road 60's drums, but that's close enough).

After I had the drums down I thought it would be cool to combine instruments from different continents into one. So I began to go through my arsenal and see what kind of a crazy instrument mix I could get. There are plucked strings from Japan (koto and shamisen), Finland (kantele) and North America (a telecaster guitar). Strings range from western orchestra strings to a gypsy violin layered with a Chinese Erhu. Woodwinds from North America (Native American flute from Orange Tree Samples' MesaWinds) and Japan lead the solo section of the ensemble. Then everything is layered with synths and massive orchestral brass.

This is one of those tracks that I didn't build around a story, bu rather just let it unfold itself as I went along. Rarely has it been so easy to write a song not centered around pivotal story points. What drives this one is the general mood of things happening and the hero simply kicking ass. So enjoy this one.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 7
• Sony SoundForge 7
  

Samplers, instruments and effects:

• NI Kontakt4 
• East West PLAY 2
• UVI Workstation
• NI FM8
• NI Massive
• Sonar PerfectSpace
• Timeworks Equalizer
• Waves L3 Multimaximizer

Libraries and impulses:

• Nine Volt Audio Stickbreakers Vol.2: Ten Man Taiko
• Orange Tree Samples MesaWinds
• Tonehammer Epic Dohls
• NI Abbey Road 60's Drums
• NI Kontakt4 Library
• Project SAM True Strike 2
• Project SAM Brass 
• VSL Horizon series Epic Horns
• VSL Horizon series FX Percussion
• Bela D Media Sampled Landscape
• Ilio Origins
• MOTU Ethno Instrument 
• EastWest Quantum Leap Gypsy
• EastWest Quantum Leap Ministry of Rock
• EastWest Quantum Leap Voices of Passion

• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion impulses