MUSIC SAMPLES, OLD AND NEW

SAMPLE: Ansel Autumn slide show and music. November 2007.
This is the first song I put guitar and bass on. Bass runs throughout. Clean electric guitar in the first part. Crunchy guitar in various places. Acoustic guitar parts created from various loops strung together.

SAMPLE: "Botanical Beauty" slide show and music.

SAMPLE: "Zinnamania" slide show and music.

SAMPLE: "A Tribute to the Fallen." Created music to run with slide show for special project.

SAMPLE: "Solar Flair" slide show and music.

SAMPLE: "First Day of Summer."
Used for the "Altered States" slide show July 2007. This is on cleveland.com, but I am showing the original version, before it was reduced in size for mass consumption.

SAMPLE: "Kalish Bowling Theme."
Used for a slide show on the famous Stan Kalish Picture Editing Workshop bowling night, starring Eustacio Humphrey!

The Jackson bass guitar was certainly not my first choice. I was willing to get a Fender Precision or Jazz bass, so I tried both. But the Jackson's neck won me over: wide and flat, much like the Valley Arts guitar on the previous page. And that totally black finish with the gun metal hardware ... I've never been sorry I bought it.

SAMPLE: "Pressure."
This one was written to go with a video segment on the pressure some Northeast Ohio high school seniors feel as they wrap up their final year. Note that it has traditional instrument voices, has peaks of intensity and, toward the end, employs lots of loops all playing at the same time.

NOTE: The "pressure" song is a window into the entire Logic process: Just listen to the first 15 seconds and you will get the idea how loops follow each other and how you can make a bunch of them play together to change mood and build intensity. If you listen to nothing else on this page, at least play this 2-minute song and realize it took about three hours to create.

And imagine yourself trying out 100s of loops that don't work in search of 30 or 40 that do. I have purchased all four Apple Jam Packs, so I must have at least 8,000 to choose from. When you realize you can change loop voices using the built-in software instruments — and rewrite loops in the matrix editor or create your own — the combinations, choices and possibilities are endless.

SAMPLE: "Seniors Future."
This was was written to go with a segment about how graduating seniors view their future. Used lots of synth voices used to give it a future sound. I don't think was used on cleveland.com.

SAMPLE. "Rockefeller Greenhouse."
This one was used with a flower slide show of the Rockefeller Park Greenhouse. Note that this was my first attempt at rewriting loops; I changed the French horn sections that begin and end the piece. This one does not fade out properly, but unfortunately I no longer have the raw file, so I have to live with the imperfect ending for now.

SAMPLE. "Twins."
This one was written to go with a video on twins, how they sometimes agree, and how, at other times, don't. It was an attempt to mix harmony, strife, shock, surprise, affection and annoyance ... all in one song! How do you say that with pianos? I believe the Twins video is still in the works or perhaps abandoned. I will save the music for a future project.

SAMPLE. "World Beat Drums."
This is one of the first ones I did and the only one where I actually played the music into the computer on my M-Audio Keystation 49e keyboard, which plugs right into the USB port. I also got a rig so I can play my guitar and bass right into the computer and a USB microphone called "Blue Snowball" for vocals or recording my Taylor acoustic guitar.

What you hear in this sample are many drum loops playing together over many tracks, keyboard on many tracks and in various voices (strings, for example) and some ambient sounds. Note the use of the keyboard pitch wheel for note-bending.

SAMPLE. "Fashion Show Hot Mix."
This one was created — in 4 straight hours without getting up from the computer — to go with a fashion show presentation that mixed video and stills and shifts from the makeup/wardrobe room to a photo shoot, hence the camera sounds and applause.

I checked fashion sites and found there is no typical fashion-show music and came up with this urban soundscape. The irony is that I ended up stripping off all the ambient sound and industrial noises that I had so much fun with and that's how it was used on cleveland.com.

SAMPLE. "Late Spring Blooms."
This was used on the "Late Spring Blooms" slide show on cleveland.com. It reflects an effort to mix traditional and electronic instrument voices.

THREE MORE EARLY SHOWS WITH MY AUDIO:

"Orchid Show."
"Tulip Tour."
"March Into Spring."