Until The Sun Rises

Strezov Sampling are a maker of excellent sounding libraries. One day I noticed that they we're holding a composing contest in which they tasked you to compose music to the picture on the left there. I liked the idea and decided to participate. My contribution to the contest is titled:

Until The Sun Rises

I downloaded the picture and started to look at it. I was drawn to the shooting little lights that clearly are going back to the tree as the sun rises over the horizon. To me they seemed to be going for shelter. What were they? Pixies, fairies, spirits of the tree? Is it possible they can't survive in the light and need the dark? What do they do? Are they playing, hunting, gathering? These questions came to mind and from here I began to work.

Flute. The first thing I dug up was the flute. And not one of the ethnic flutes I love so much, but your plain old ordinary flute. For me this required flute. It needed air, it needed to be light. Once I had the flute in it became clear that the creatures were playing. They were spirits of the night and their only worry was being caught by the sun.

And that basically the story I wanted to tell with this track. It spans the night from dusk till dawn. I has the creatures waking up and coming out, then they play. Finally the sun begins to rise and they hurry back to their safe home among the foliage before the sun kills them.

And the sun gets pretty close to it too. I wanted to end this in tension. And it does. The orchestra rises to a crescendo of chaos as the sun rises higher and it is doubtful if all the creatures make it back.

For me this was a nice departure from the epic landscapes of Epic North Music. It was really fun to just create something as airy as this. And hopefully this gives me renewed energy to tackle more of those heart stopping, epic action tracks again... Hint hint.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar X1

Samplers and instruments:

• NI Kontakt 4
• NI Absynth5
• NI Massive
• Vienna Instrument Special Edition
• Spitfire Audio Albion
• Spitfire Audio Loegria
• Spitfire Audio Solo Strings
• Spitfire Audio Dulcimer
• Strezov Sampling Storm Choir
• Cinematique Instruments Upright Piano
• Cinematique Instruments Complex Environs Gecko Free
• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion
• Sonokinetic Delphi
• MOTU Etno Instrument 2
• Soniccouture Pan Drum

Effects:

• Vienna Suite
• Minimal System Instruments Master Compressor
• Minimal System Instruments Master Limiter
• Variety of Sound Ferric TDS
• Sonar LP-64 Multiband

Too much hypnosis

A while back the guys behind Kaiti Kink Ensemble asked us to remix tracks from their album "Under the Iron Sky". It took me a while to get my hands on this but I finally got other things out of the way. From the album I chose a track called "Too Much Energy" which is a pretty much an in your face electronic piece. You might want to give the original track a listen as well. Kaiti Kink Ensemble "Too much energy"

I decided to go in a totally different direction. Mysterious instead of blasting it at you. Ethnic instead of electronic. Laid back instead of pumping and raw.

I chose to base the remix on the hypnotic beating of a witch drum doubled by a normal frame drum. They beat a constant beat that makes up this tracks back bone.On top of them I layered a chilled jazz beat and and effected version of the original drum track. These loop on and on as I was going for a structure that is supposed to hypnotize you. So repetition, repetition and repetition.

I did the same thing with the lyrics. I chose a few passages that would repeat and repeat creating a sort of a chant with the various repetition coming in with different kinds of effect layers. An added vocal was a Tibetan monk singing. It gives the whole track a more mysterious quality.

For the actual instruments I chose an ivory flute and solo strings. They form the melodic core of the track. Solo cello leads the instrument section and the rest back it up with staccato lines. Though in the middle there's a bit where the flute and cello go on an acid trip and just swing away.

I am quite happy with the way this remix turned out. So give it a listen, or two:

Too Much Hypnosis (Kaiti Kink Ensemble - Too Much Energy Remix)

Don't forget me

I recently released a single track called:

Don't forget me.

Remembering things seems to be a little difficult sometimes? You tend to forget the little things, but we usually remember the big things, the important things. Important people. But what if we didn't? What if your spouse simply couldn't remember you? What if they really forgot who you are when you've left their side?

That is the feeling I tried to channel in this track. No loud parts, no epic percussions or brass here. This one's about the emotion.

This track is basically an evolving loop since the main melody the piano plays repeats itself through out the progression of the song. I chose this form because most of our days pretty much go along the same routines as the others. We don't usually even notice it and most of it is good for us. Routines aren't that bad.

I wanted to keep the feel of this track a little hopeful. Because maybe, just maybe, she or he will remember you when come home. That would be something to look forward to.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar X1

Samplers and instruments:

• NI Kontakt 4
  
• NI KorePlayer
  
• NI Massive
  
• NI FM8
  
• Vienna Instrument Special Edition
  
• Sample Logic Cinematic Guitars
  
• NI Kontakt 4 Library
  
• Cinematique Instruments Bowed Guitars
  
• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion
• Project SAM Brass
  

Effects:

• Vienna Suite
  

Chase

The elevator doors slide open. The first thing you see is that they're carrying guns. You don't wait to see more but turn and bolt back inside the room and towards the window...

Chase.

This one's set into the same story line as "Sunburn". This delivers even more of an adrenaline punch than the previous installation as I've upped the tempo and intensity quite a bit.

...The balcony. A quick look around. You turn and jump just as the door of the room is kicked in. The railing of another balcony, swing up, break the window, dive in. Bullets behind you...

I wanted this track to be more relentless in pace and sound. The beat drives on with force and only breaks for short periods before the release at the end. There's no time to breathe, no quiet moments of peace here. The beat makes sure your feet won't stop. Because if they do, you're dead.

...Yank the door open. Quick look around the hallway. Staircase to the right. You dash to it. Sounds from above, men rushing downward. Jump the first railing, a few steps along the wall, then another jump...

I also made the overall sound a lot harder. The sounds are sharper and more broken. I didn't want this to be as ambient as Sunburn, but rather be an in your face kind of track. The sounds will assault you and probably mangle your ears and nose a bit, but they're there for that reason. Because they are harsh. Because they will kick you. Because if they don't, you are going to die.

...You land and roll to an open door. A window there, the roof of a building visible there. It's far. But hopefully not too far. Your feet move, you gather speed. Jump. The window breaks. An eternity. Then the roof. You roll, and sprint for cover. Shooting behind you, bullets miss. A door. You open it, duck inside.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar X1

Samplers and instruments:

• NI Kontakt 4
• FutureAudioWorkshop Circle
• Cakewalk RXP
• Synapse Audio Junglist
• u-he Tyrell Nexus 6
• HG Fortune Serenity
• HG Fortune Altair 4
• NI Massive
• Sample Logic Cinematic Guitars
• FM Future Loops

Effects:

• Vienna Suite
• Illformed Glitch 1.3
• Kjaerhus Classic Master Limiter
• Kjaerhus Classic Delay
• u-he Zebrify
• Variety of Sound Ferric TDS

Burning Jetfuel

I've been a wee bit delayed in writing this but here's my rant about:

Burning Jetfuel.

I started this for a competition on Audiodraft. The competition was for a World War II era aerial battle game and the makers wanted to have that style in the music. Well, this track isn't exactly what you might expect for that era. When I laid down the first pieces I noticed that this track got out of hand. And frankly I didn't mind.

I didn't mind because I started to have too much fun writing this. Everything just sort of fell in place as I went along. I didn't think about grand aerial battles, but my thoughts were more focused on the feeling of rushing through the clouds and smoke. So this is more about the adrenaline of survival than the violence of combat.

This track though orchestral in color is really more of a rock song. It's driven forward by a heavy bass and drums and the melodies are saturated with electric guitars. Don't worry it's still layered full with lush strings and big brasses.

And that's about all I've got to say about this one.

Sunburn

The sun shines brightly. The pavement feels rough under your running feet. Jump. Grab a drain pipe. Start climbing. Gravel on the roof splatters around as you jump on it. You move again, running...

Sunburn

Sunburn is a track started out as something else than a track. I originally needed a loop to fill out the background of a radiospot. For this I used about an hour but then the loop started to sound pretty damn good on it's own.

In the original loop I only had some atmospherics and the beat, which clearly were not enough for a ful fledged song. The biggest thing about the original loop was the lack of  a melody since it was not meant to have one. And that was the first thing I started to work upon. For the melody I drew inspiration from the soundtrack of Bladerunner. I kept it fairly simple so I wouldn't loose the atmospheric nature of the song.

...The sun light reflects of the glass and steel around you. Foot steps on the gravel behind you. They're chasing you. The roof ends. You jump...

After I got the melody down I started to work on the structure. I wanted to have this track rolling and not change too much, but still wanted clearly different sections as I imagined this to be the soundtrack of  a Mirror's Edge like video game level. I wanted to have some calming moments, some dramatic moments and some parts that rolled forward. And all the time I wanted to keep a good pace. So I imagined different kinds of situations you could get into and began to mold the section according to them.

...A railing. You grab it mid air. Fling yourself over it. A fire escape. Kick the ladder down. Slide...

After I had finished the structure and mixed the track I still wanted to mess with it a bit. I popped the beats and the melodies on different tracks in Sonar and started to mangle them with Illformed's Glitch plugin. I used it to create new drum fills and section changes. I used it to stop the beat, reverse it, retrigger it and just generally abuse the hell out of those drums. And then I did the same to the melodies. To top it of I intentionally forgot about making clean and smooth cuts between the effected parts and the clean ones.

...Head down the alley and back into the sunlight. A plaza, people there. Blend in.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 8.5

Samplers and instruments:

• u-he Tyrell Nexus 6
• Synapse Audio Junglist
• HG Fortune Serenity Free
• HG Fortune UltraSwamp Free
• HG Fortune Altair 4 Beta
• Cakewalk RXP
• NI KorePlayer
• Novakill Neokiller III
• Ummet Ozcan Genesis

Effects:

• Cakewalk z3ta+ FX
• Variety of Sound Ferric TDS
• Illformed Glitch 1.3
• MeldaProductions MEqualizer
• Kjaerhus Classic Master Limiter

The New Dawn

A little while back I spotted an interesting contest on Audiodraft. It was hosted by Nelonen Media. They were looking for a new sound for their brand. My suggestion did not win, but I got a chance to flex out Sample Logic's Cinematic Guitars.

The sound I went after was uplifting. I began with pads and guitar harmonics. I got some really nice and airy atmospheres created with the new guitars. But they alone would not be enough to carry the track.

So I dug out a crushed and glitched drum kit to create a driving rhythm to give the song a good momentum. I didn't want to create too elaborate of a beat so I kept it simple with just the bass drum and a fast paced glitch ticking. On top the beat I wrote passages with a massive tom ensemble.

Once these were done I turned to the orchestral elements. I used lush strings to create a melody which I doubled with french horns.

The track was kept short due to the lenght requirements in the contest, but I'm quite happy how it turned out.

The New Dawn 

The Frontier

Every now and then I start up a track just for the heck of doing something. Anything. With out any real purpose to begin with. This is a journal of one such track:

The Frontier

Like I said this started out as something to do on an idle day. I layed out the beginning pads and bleeps one day and then nothing. The track sat on my hard drive for quite a while just waiting. Eventually I just forgot about this.

Then another idle day came and I browsed through my projects folder to find this one. I gave it a listen felt I could build on the simple beginning I had in my hands. I began laying drums and strings on, but the strings began to have a little too much of an ethnic vibe, which I for some reason did not want for this track. So I dumped most of the strings and pulled out the brass. They began with a simple idea that grew.

The more I wrote for the horns to play the more I felt the melody push you towards an entrance to some unfamiliar (yet all too familiar) place. So that became the theme to carry this track. The brass melody became grand and everything felt like it was going to plan. Then I hit a wall. What next? What happens when you get to the gate?

For a second time this track was left to wait.

For a while I had no answer. I made several different versions in my head but all of them sounded wrong. I actually spent a few weeks thinking about how to go with the second half. Then yesterday I fired up Sonar and began to write without much thinking of it. And the second half kinda just wrote itself.

In the end it was fitting that writing a track to portray the transportation between two worlds was so hard yet so easy to write.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar X1
• Sony SoundForge 7
  

Samplers, instruments and effects:

• NI Kontakt4
• NI Battery 3
• NI Massive
• NI Absynth 5
• Z3ta+ FX
• Vienna Suite

Libraries and impulses:

• MOTU Ethno Instrument 2
• Zero G Animato
• Sonic Couture Konkrete 2
• Nine Volt Audio Stickbreakers 2: Ten Man Taiko
• Kirk Hunter Symphony Orchestra Diamond
• Cinematic Strings Monster Staccatos
• VSL Horizon series Epic Horns
• NI Kontakt 4 Library

One Dollar Trilogy: A stranger in these parts

And this is the third piece from the "One Dollar Trilogy".

A stranger in these parts.

This is again built with the same instrument set as the two other tracks. I saw no need to change the sound too much since all the parts of this trilogy are short (hence the cheap sounding name).

I imagined this as a sort of farewell for the nameless (these dudes never have names, their parents must have hated them) hero as he limps into the sunset boding ill omens for the next town he stumbles into.

Although this trilogy was a rush job it was great fun to write these and I think I will return to these on a later date to create more pages for this story.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 8.5

Samplers, instruments and effects:

• NI Kontakt 3
• Independence Free
• Kjaerhus Classic Master Limiter
• Melda Equalizer
• Sonar PerfectSpace

Libraries and impulses:

• Project SAM Brass
• VSL Horizon series Chamber Strings
• VSL Horizon series Overdrive
• VSL Horizon series Concert Guitar
• NI Kontakt 3 Library
• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion
• Ilio Origins
• Independence Free Library
• Gnomehammer Sleigh Bells

• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion impulses

One Dollar Trilogy: Bullets, bloody bullets

So, today I finished the two other parts of my "One Dollar Trilogy". The second track is titled:

Bullets, bloody bullets.

I built this one around the same palette as the first one. It's actually in the same frigging project file. This one needed to be a battle music, but I didn't want to go the normal way and raise the tempo to make it more faster paced. I kept the tempo same but used the snares to bring a military march type feel to the track. I also gave more room for the trumpet to play to give that Texas/Mexico feel so essential to Westerns.

This is clearly a tighter sounding song and it's a track I might want to extend once I have more time to do it. But for now (and for the theme of this trilogy) it is as it is.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 8.5

Samplers, instruments and effects:

• NI Kontakt 3
• Independence Free
• Kjaerhus Classic Master Limiter
• Melda Equalizer
• Sonar PerfectSpace

Libraries and impulses:

• Project SAM Brass
• VSL Horizon series Chamber Strings
• VSL Horizon series Overdrive
• VSL Horizon series Concert Guitar
• NI Kontakt 3 Library
• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion
• Ilio Origins
• Independence Free Library
• Gnomehammer Sleigh Bells

• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion impulses

One Dollar Trilogy: Red Creek

I received a project at work which required me to write three short western themed music bits for an awards gala. It was a rush job since I only had a few days to do everything. And to top that I didn't get the video clips the music was meant for since it was in edit at the same time. Here's the first of these tracks. I titled it:

Red Creek.

Since time was sparse I didn't even begin to create something inspired and new but started with a basic western palette of sounds: lonely primitive drums, the Mexican trumpet, the acoustic guitar. Around these I wrote a simple progression to create a foreboding mood; a waiting but driven atmosphere. The track grows as it goes along. I used a lot of other familiar elements on this one as well. The always ominous church bell is present as is the massive french horn section and the gritty distorted electric guitar.

This is not a very difficult track as it is simple in structure and melody. But I like it all the same.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 8.5

Samplers, instruments and effects:

• NI Kontakt 3
• Independence Free
• Kjaerhus Classic Master Limiter
• Melda Equalizer
• Sonar PerfectSpace

Libraries and impulses:

• Project SAM Brass
• VSL Horizon series Chamber Strings
• VSL Horizon series Overdrive
• VSL Horizon series Concert Guitar
• NI Kontakt 3 Library
• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion
• Ilio Origins
• Independence Free Library
• Gnomehammer Sleigh Bells

• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion impulses

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

Sippo and the funk - rehash

Yesterday I started to work on rearranging, reinstrumenting and generally pimping up the track "Sippo and the funk". Going add many new layers and changing the instruments to make the sound more cinematic and retro. Also going to make it really into a theme song from the current background loop style. Hopefully will get it done soon.

The story behind "Suosikkijuontaja"

I had an interesting project at YleX radio station. It involved the station morning show team and their mystery trash journalist Trash King.

The whole thing started when the morning show got a make over; they received a completely new soundscape with new jingles and background tracks. Well their main background track (which is a driving rock electronic mix) was used for the shows TV commercial and the music gained some questions about what song was used there. This happened also when the new soundscape went on air. So I suggested that we actually make a song out of it.

The idea was thrown around a bit before it was agreed that the song had to be made. I started out by doing some rearranging on the material. The original background track consisted of an easily loopable elements which I divided into verses and a chorus. This way I built the basis for the track.

But lets have a look at the music of the song before going deeper into the actual making of the song. The strongest element of the song is the beat, which is forward driving and massive in sound. It is layered from four different drum layers (read kits) ranging from a punchy rock kit to an electronic drum'n'bass kit. There are no breaks from the beat during the song. When I had started to make the original background track a few of the descriptions I got were ballsy, in-your-face, large. The beat is all of these.

On top of the beat there's a slap bass. I originally selected the cheapest sounding synthetic slap bass I could find to give it the feel of, well, adult movies. It worked well with the background track and I saw no reason to change it. What I did with the song is that I added a distorted electric guitar on top of the bass to give it more power and even more rhythm.

The acoustic piano playing long, sharp notes and chords from the original track stayed the same as did the electronic beeping sound I used to create a lead melody with. For the song I gave them a backing with ambientesque pads to have a more airy feel in the music. I also wrote an ever growing brass section for the song. From the first chorus to the last the sound of the song grows larger and larger.

When I had rearranged the song I had a few meetings with the morning show team so that they could have their say on the lyrics.It was decided that the track should revolve around Trash King and his Trash Kingdom (I won't reveal who he is, for his vengeance would be far too gruesome). With this decision it became clear that the lyrics would revolve around trash journalism.

The lyrics evolved to form the imaginary weekend of a star persona "Suosikkijuontaja" (that's Finnish for star host). The lead vocalist would be Trash King who belts out one outragious scoop after another and the morning show team responds to the scoops with your somewhat standart celebrity answers that end getting them deeper and deeper into dire straits. That's the basic idea of the lyrics.

Then the date was set when we'd record the lyrics. The day started with some choir singing as I had the guys and their producer chant out the chorus. I have to admit, it sounded just as horrible as I had imagined and then Tom led out a few choruses with some freakishly high notes in there. It was really disturbing. But I knew I had recorded the perfect chorus for the song. Luckily Trash King wasn't in the house yet so Tom was spared being ridiculed for his "masculine" performance.

After the choir session I remained in the studio with Tom, who had a tighter schedule than the rest of the guys. I got a few really good reactions from him, but the coup de grace of the day was joining of a vision I had had and an instrument Tom owns. The vision I had was a fusion jazzish instrument solo over just the beat, bass and guitar. And the instrument: a bagpipe. That's right: a jazz bagpipe over a slapbass and distorted guitar. I don't really know which of us is the sicker man, me for dreaming it or Tom for going along with it. Well, it's still probably me since I had Tom play various length licks from which I edited the final solo performance. It's probably one of the most absurd and disturbed musical things I've done. Seriously. No really. Listen to the track and you'll know what I mean. Moving on.

The rest of the recording session went as planned. I got really good stuff out of Juuso and Matti, whose performance dropped me to the floor a few times. Then came the dreaded moment of recording Trash King. I have never heard such things in my life. It still gives me the shivers. He truly is the king of trash.

The recording and vocal editing day ended up being 11 hours long. It was a long session, but I'm glad I did it since the next day I could just start finishing the song. First I put all the vocals in place then divided them into three sections divided by choruses. Between the last two sets of choruses I placed the bagpipe solo. The final thing I did was to create and intro and outro for the track containing rantings from Trash King. Then the mixing and the song would be ready for listening.

I was really nervous about what the morning team would say when they heard the final result. I was relieved when the guys started laughing out loud. Then I knew they liked it. And with that the song was finished.

Trash King fist. YleX AAMU - Suosikkijuontaja

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 8.5
• Steinberg Nuendo 4
  

Samplers, instruments and effects:

• NI Kontakt 3
  
• NI Battery 3
• NI Guitar Rig 3
• NI FM8
• Cakewalk Dimension Pro
• Kjaerhus Master Limiter
  
• Melda Equalizer
• PerfectSpace

Libraries:

• Vienna Horizon Series Overdrive
  
• Project SAM Brass
• NI Battery 3 Library

Sippo and the Funk

This one is about the theme song for the online person of YleX radio station, Sippo.

Sippo and the funk.

What was wanted from the music that it would give you the feel of a lot of hassle and stuff going on. Also a bit of that undercover cop feeling wouldn't hurt. So my mind pops up with the feel of the 70's, of funk music and Starsky & Hutch.

I pondered on the elements for a while before one day I was going to lunch and a clavinet melody started playing in my head. It was just the thing I needed to get things rolling. So there I was trying to eat lunch as fast I could, humming the melody in my head all the while. Then a rush back to the studio and some quick writing to get it down. It ended up forming the backbone of the song.

Next up was the beat and bass. I didn't want the beat to be too grrovy, but rather be a forward moving force that drives the track onwards. I stacked three different sounding drum kits on top of each other to get a good layering into the drums. I selected some of the most dry and dirty kits I had at my disposal at the time. For the bass line I selected to do a slightly slapped bass to get some of that funky feeling. But not too much since I wanted the bass to be low.

From the actual lead theme I wrote an ascending and descending brass theme for saxes, trumpets and trombones. It's a simple enough melody, which starts out from the same note each time go either up or down. I wanted the brass to sound dirty and used quite a bit of gracing elements on the trumpets. There are stabs and falls all through the melody.

The sound is rounded out by a rhythmic organ and wah guitar.

I'm still pondering whether to do a more song like version of this with added string elements. Now the structure of the this song is more of a loop than an actual theme song.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 8.5
  

Samplers, instruments and effects:

• NI Kontakt 3
  
• NI KorePlayer
  
• NI Battery 3
• NI Guitar Rig 3
• Kjaerhus Master Limiter
  
• Melda Equalizer
• PerfectSpace
• Audio Damage Roughrider
• Bootsy Ferric TDS
• Smartelectronix SupaPhaser
  

Libraries:

• Vienna Horizon Series Overdrive
  
• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion
  
• Project SAM Brass
• NI Battery 3 Library
• NI Kontant 3 Library

A perfect moment of freedom

Do you know that feeling of total independence of the world when you're pushing yourself to the extremes of your performance ability? That moment when the world around you just fades away, all the stress of daily life disappears, your mind is freed from all arbitrary things and the only thing left is you, your body and the movement?

A perfect moment of freedom.

This is my first track of the year 2010. For quite a while now I've wanted to do a track about movement. The idea came out of watching pictures of parkour and free running. Both sports break the norms of moving in the urban environment by finding alternative routes going about. They both contain a certain search for freedom. Then again one can experience freedom from the world in basically any sports you really concentrate on. For me this happens every time I walk into a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym. What's outside the walls doesn't matter, it simply doesn't exist. The only thing that matters is the movement you're doing right then and there.

I actually had less trouble figuring out where to start than with most tracks. Somehow this track seemed so clear from the start. I wanted to use a lot of airy instruments in this one. For that I fired up several NI Absynths and a few NI Reaktors, since they provide some of the best soundscaping possibilities. Also on the top of my list was Soniccouture's Pan drum, a sampled hang drum. It has an amazing out of this world sound, which was just perfect for this song. They created the backbone of this track. On top of them I layered lush strings, ethnic percussions, massive french horns, a Chinese Gu Zheng zither, the legendary Japanese Shakuhachi flute and a Boesendorfer grand piano.

As I said this track is more about the feeling than head on action. That's why I didn't write hectic drum lines, even though there is a strong beat in the song. Hectic just wasn't what was needed. Tranquility is more like it. A slight meditative state of mind, without actually being meditative music. This thought I carried with me to the melodies. They're ambient in nature, but there are parts you can grab a hold of. The different instruments play with each other, one taking the lead after another. I'm thrilled that the mesh of different sounds came out so well. For me the sounds of this track breathe positive energy out of the speakers.

This is also one of those tracks I'm completely satisfied with. I wouldn't change one note or sound from it. Creating this track has been a real pleasure.

Gear I used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 7
  
• Sony SoundForge 7
  

Samplers, instruments and effects:

• NI Kontakt 4
  
• NI Absynth 5
  
• NI FM8
• NI Battery 3
• NI Massive
• NI Reaktor 5
• Vienna Instrument
• EastWest Quantum Leap PLAY
• UWI Workstation
  
• Noizware TriDirt
• Cakewalk Perfect Space
• Sonic Timeworks Equalizer
  
• Kjaerhus Classic Master Limiter

Libraries:

• Analogue Drums Big Mono
  
• Fixed Noise OTTO
  
• Soniccouture Gu Zheng
  
• Soniccouture Konkrete
  
• Soniccouture Konkrete 2
  
• Soniccouture Pan Drum
  
• Vienna Horizon Series Epic Horns
• Vienna Special Edition
  
• Tonehammer Epic Dohl
• EastWest Quantum Leap Ministry of Rock
• MOTU Ethno Instrument
  

Latest experiences

I wrote about ordering Native Instruments Komplete 6. Well I finally got around to actually using the new tools in productions and I have to say I'm impressed. Especially Kontakt has been tweaked really well from the previous versions. I always ran in to trouble with the Direct-from-disc loading with the older versions, but with version 4 this works like a charm and found myself just loading more and more instruments while working. It was just a joy to work with the new Kontakt 4.

Absynth 5 seems to be even better than the previous versions and the rest of the classic soft synths in the Komplete packet are killers. Sorry for the shameless product pluck but working with them is just sheer pleasure.

Also I've been waiting to really use Tonehammer's Propanium and Epic Dohl libraries. They are absurdly excellent. The propanium has such an off worldly sound that you just get inspired by that alone. Also the Epic Dohls are massively usable. You can hear the ensemble in the individual sounds.

Finally have to mention Bela D Media's The Giovani Edition is a brilliant choir library. I've had it lying on my hard drive for quite a while now but this is about the first time I actually use it. The library has a really aetherical sound which is perfect for haunting choral passages. Can't wait for Bela D Media to finish of their choir library with a male and female choir... At least the boy and girl choirs rock.

I'll chug the tracks I worked on here so you can hear what I'm talking about. They're just a collection of ideas and as such are rough and unfinished. They're for a short scifi film.

Landing
The ship descents
Killing time

Gear I used for these tracks:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 7
  
• Sony SoundForge 7
  

Samplers and instruments:

• NI Kontakt 4
  
• NI Absynth 5
  
• NI FM8
  
• NI Massive
• NI Koreplayer
• u-He Zebra CM
• NI Guitar Rig 4 Pro
  

Libraries:

• Tonehammer Propanium
  
• Tonehammer Epic Dohl
  
• Bela D Media The Giovani Edition
  
• Project SAM True Strike 2
• Vienna Symphonic Library Horizon series Epic Horns
• NI Acoustic Refractions
  
• NI Kontakt 4 Library
• Samplelogic AIR
  

Isolation

This is about a track called:

Isolation

I started working on this track at my day job when I needed to test out my new computer and the software I installed on it. So it's basically a test track.

Inspiration for this one came from the brilliant movie "District 9". I loved it's realistic approach to scifi, the themes it touched and well just about everything about it. I wanted to create something on a similar basis.

As the basic ideas and inspiration behind this track were quite opressive I wanted to create a gritty sound. This in turn gave me a good chance to get familiar with NI Guitar Rig 3, which I hadn't used before. Also getting my hands on FM8 was something I had waited for a while. I used quite a lot of distortion and compressing on a lot of the instruments to get that dirty sound. I found that Audio Damage's RoughRider gives out a quite nice crushed sound so I used that quite a lot on different tracks.

The biggest new technical thing on this track was mixing it in surround sound. It's a whole new world for me and experimenting doing a surround mix took some time. The first four or five mixes were totally and utterly incomprehensible. But after a few mistakes I found the right kind of balance for everything so that the track sounds good in normal stereo and surround. Listening to in surround gives a few more little things to the listener, but it's not necessary.

With a lot emphasis on the grittiness and harshness of sound I wanted to bring a "human" element into the track. I chose a set of natural sounds from an up close and personal violin to warm ethnic percussions and Arabian Oud lute. I used them to round out the overall sound and to get a more vibrant air. The middle between the earthy natural instruments and the gritty synthetic side I filled with orchestral strings and brass.

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the results and will definately continue exploring along these lines.

Gear used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 8
• Sony SoundForge 7
  

Samplers and instruments:

• NI Kontakt 3
  
• NI FM8
  
• u-He Zebra
  
• NI Battery 3
  
• NI Massive
  
• Cakewalk TTS-1
• NI Guitar Rig 3
  

Libraries:

• NI Kontakt 3 Library
  
• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion
  
• Cakewalk TTS-1 Library
  
• NI Battery 3 Library
  

The Deep Blue

I'll start this diary off by following the production of a single track:

The Deep Blue.

I've always loved water as an element and doing stories that happen in and around water have a certain appeal to me. For this track I had no particular story in mind, only images of a single diver, free diving in the ocean. The ever darkening shade of blue, the isolation, receding light.

Production for this started over a year and a half ago. It started out as a test for my newly acquired soft synth Massive, which I had had lying on my computer for a while. Well, it grew into something more, umm, massive.

I wanted the sound to be deep and grand, but still retain a certain up close and personal feel. I used a lot of echoing and low synths and big, soft brasses to give it a bottom sound to give the music the same vastness and depth as the Earth's oceans. Then again I used a clean acoustic guitar to give the song a personal feel as it plays bright and clear over the wall of sound that creates the rest of the track. An essential element was the use of a large choir, singing almost constantly through out the track.

This song went through several different stages and forms of development until I found the current form for it. At one stage there were acoustic percussion along the track, but in the end they just sounded wrong. The instruments used changed a few times before they settled in: at times there were more synthetic elements and at others more acoustic. The only element that was there all along was the choir.

The ending proved more challenging than the rest of the track and the whole song laid dormant on my computer for almost a year before I bought NI Acoustic Refractions for Kore Player which gave me the final tools that the ending needed. From there I found the high, dreamy sounds that I felt necessary to contrast the low sounds with which the track fades out.

Gear used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 7
• Sony SoundForge 7
  

Samplers and instruments:

• NI Kontakt 2
• NI Massive
• NI Kore Player
• Vienna Instruments Special Edition
• Yellow Tools Independence Free
• ComputerMusic CM303
  

Libraries:

• NI Acoustic Refractions
• Ilio Origins
• Vienna Horizon Series Overdrive
• Spectrasonics Symphony of Voices
• FutureMusic FutureLoops Vol. 2