Thursday, August 21, 2014

Summer Goal checked off

Good news...I now officially have 176 items up for sale on Audio Jungle. The goal for the summer was getting to 175, and I started somewhere around the neighborhood of 148.

Looking back over this summer compared to last, the reviewers seemed much tougher this time around. Last summer I got 24 accepted, but I only had to submit 29 songs to do it. About an 83% acceptance rate. This summer I have in 26/40 so far, which is only 65%. I honestly don't think it's because last summer's music was better than my newest offerings - I think it's because they are being more choosy about what they accept.

One reason why I believe that is because I had only been working with Logic Pro (the recording software I use) for 6 months at the beginning of last summer. I was still learning how to use it. I'm much more confident with it now. I certainly don't think I am a worse musician than last year. I just think the competition is more fierce and the standards are higher all around. I'm gonna have to keep the axe sharp if I'm going to keep up.

Week 9 Scorecard

My submissions have made it through the queue this week, and I got 4/5 accepted. Pizzi Intro, Simple Winds Loops 1, 2, & 3 all made it in, the Blue Jazz Loop didn't. The summer total is now 26/40. A much better showing than last week.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Upbeat Piano Intro

This 20 second lead-in features piano, bass, percussion and light synth to create an up-beat, grandiose introduction. It's my 1st submission of week 10. I should have results from last weeks submissions soon.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Blue Jazz Loop

This is the last submission (#5) of week number 9, The Blue Jazz Loop. A pretty simple, standard blues progression loop featuring upright bass, drums and jazz guitar.

Simple Winds Loop 3

This loop is the third in a series featuring piccolo, clarinet, and bassoon in a simple, playful and cheerful little melody. The last one, I think - I could do these forever, but no point.

This one is my 4th submission for week 9.

Simple Winds Loop 2

I've gotten a little behind on posts. I've been a busy guy helping some old friends with recording a new album.

Simple Winds Loop 2 is the second in a series. It features the same simple instruments I used in tool 1 (piccolo, clarinet and bassoon), is the same tempo and length, and keeps the same happy-go-lucky, playful mood of loop one. I figure I'll do a series of three of these. Submission number 3 for week 9.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Pizzi Intro

This is a short & sweet introduction for podcast, broadcast, production, or branding purposes. Clean, simple, warm, and cheerful. It features pizzicato strings, piano, warm pad, and a glockenspiel stinger.

This is song #2 submitted during week #9. I'm trying to transition into more short submissions. During the school year, 30 second audio clips is all I have time for, and that's often a stretch.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Simple Winds Loop

This simple, child-like loop features bassoon, clarinet, and piccolo only for a clean, relaxing, happy loop.

This is submission 1 for week 9.

Week 8 Scorecard - Painful post

I've never had to make a post like this. I only managed to submit three songs last week because I was busy with other projects, and all three were rejected. Ouch.

So I am not a single item closer to my goal of 175 by the end of summer. That brings my summer total up to an abysmal 22/35.

With this many rejects racking up, it may be time to create a "reject page". Honest truth? Some of them deserved it. Not all of them deserved it. I'm actually pretty happy with some of the stuff they are rejecting. It may be time to shop around for other alternatives for some of the tracks Audio Jungle turned up it's nose at. If I can find an alternative sales platform, and those tracks start selling on that platform, I'll feel a little better about myself, and will face Australia and blow a raspberry at whatever overly-picky reviewers are canning some of those tracks. Research time.

I'm still going to make that goal. Just you watch.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Amazon Loop

This rhythmic loop uses mallet and mixed percussion to provide a musical background for the amazon, rain forests, or jungles in general. It has a real tribal feel. No sound effects, just a musical backdrop for you to add your own.

This is submission #3 for week #8.

Hammered Electronic Loop

This gritty loop features a dirty, distorted electric piano backed by a processed hammered dulcimer, synth bass and acoustic percussion. It has a nice drive to it, but feels mid-tempo in spite of the quick metronome marking of 160.

I was looking for a nice combination of distorted and clean to give this loop a dirty sort of drive without being overly muddy. This song is submission #2 of week 8.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Scattered Electronic Loop

This is an electronic loop that uses a gated, scattered electronic sequence background with a interesting, quacky sort of synth lead. The background percussion is acoustic and uses a latin rhythm pattern, although it doesn't feel very latin in the context of the arrangement.

The overall mood is tense and precise. I envision it as background music for a game that requires intense concentration. At 96 BPM, the tempo isn't rushed, but it feels strained and stressed anyway.

The song makes a perfect loop at 30 seconds. This is song #1 for week #8.

Monday, August 4, 2014

Week 7 Scorecard

Got 3/5 approved this week, bringing the summer total up to 22/32.

The ones making it in were the Jazz Combo Loop, the Light Broadcast Intro, and the Rough Edge Loop - that's right, the one I was pretty sure wasn't going to make the cut because it didn't seem very "commercial". The ones that made the cut were the two that I actually thought were the most promising of the lot, the Happy Pop loop and my Mellow Jazz song. The mellow jazz one kind of hurt. I liked that one. I guess the reviewer didn't.

No matter, I'm working on a fresh batch for week #7, and I'm on track to have 175 by September. I already have 170 in, so let's hope I can keep getting 3/5 approved a week.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Caving

Just for the record, I'm making my "Rough Edge Loop" my 5th submission for week 7. It's been rainy and miserable for several days and I'm afraid my arthritis is really letting me know it. My joints are screaming, and I the usual half-dozen ideas I usually have started by now just aren't there this time around. I will be starting monday morning with nothing in the works.

I'm not sure they'll see commercial value in it, but I'm tossing it in anyway to make my quota. Sometimes they reject things I think would do very well, so maybe this week they'll take one that I'm uncertain of. Either way, it prevents me from hustling and rushing something in order to make my self-imposed quota. I'd rather get a clean start tomorrow morning with a new set of 5 for week #8.

Every "back-to-school" flier that shows up on our doorstep is reminding me that I'm fast running out of weeks. The good news is that I'm up to 170 items up for sale on Audio Jungle, and only five from my summer goal. It's looking more and more like I'm gonna get there.

Mellow Jazz

This relaxing mellow jazz tune features electric piano, upright bass, acoustic guitar and drums. It's down tempo, smooth, and soothing. I was looking for something to gently slow people down and relieve them of stress. Song number 4 of week 7.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Happy Pop Loop

The name says it all. This one is a 30 second loop featuring acoustic guitar and pizzicato strings. It's bright, cheerful, upbeat, and just the sort of background music someone out there needs to provide a little frame for a discussion of the next product we all desperately need, without even knowing it yet.

This one is my 3rd submission for week #7.

Light Broadcast Intro

This is a short theme song (15 seconds) that I wrote for podcast/broadcast audio projects. Light, cheerful and positive, I had sincere, but less weighty projects in mind when I did this one. This one is my second submission for week #7.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Jazz Combo Groove Loop

This is a 44 second grooving little jazz loop using a traditional small jazz combo. Electric Piano, Bass, Vibes and Drums. This one makes a nice smooth loop at 44 seconds. A little background music for broadcast purposes - fade out at your leisure.

Jazz Combo Groove Loop

This is a 44 second grooving little jazz loop using a traditional small jazz combo. Electric Piano, Bass, Vibes and Drums. This one makes a nice smooth loop at 44 seconds. A little background music for broadcast purposes - fade out at your leisure.


First Ableton & Push attempt

This is my first attempt at a complete song recorded start to finish in Ableton Live using Push. I was just looking to do a simple 30 second Uke and Whistle loop, but it didn't turn out that way.



This marks my attempted usable track made with Ableton Live and Push. It's pretty horrible. There are so many things wrong with it that I don't even want to think about it. But I did it completely with Live & Push, so there's that. The next trick is to do something that's actually good. Sometimes that learning curve just looks like a 90 degree angle from where I stand.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Classic Jazz Combo Loop

This is a short, classic jazz loop that uses a traditional small jazz combo - bass, drums and vibraphone. Simple, short, and jazzy. It makes a perfect loop at 44 seconds.

Jazz has been doing pretty well for me lately, so I might as well knock some more of it. I suspect that these get used for promotions for jazz festivals that happen over the summer. Probably too late to actually do much for the rest of this summer, but there's always next year. It's not as iff jazz ever goes out of style.

This is song #2 for the week. Or maybe only #1, depending on whether I cave in and submit the Rough Edge loop.

Rough Edge Loop

This is a down-tempo electronic loop that uses distorted bass, synths, drums and harp. Gritty, in a minor key, and mysterious. It makes a perfect loop at 44 seconds. It's my first song of the week, and I may or may not submit it. This is one of those ones that just comes out, but I can't help but wonder if it will make it past the reviewers. Not that it's horrible, it's just hard to see a commercial application for it.

I'll probably just leave it on the hard drive unless I can't make my 5 song quota for the week. I'm hoping that the next things that come out will have a little more curb appeal to them.

Week 6 Scorecard

All 5 of last weeks submissions have worked their way thru the queue over the weekend, and it was a mixed bag. 3/5 made the cut - not a stellar week, but I'll take it.

The Pizzicato String Loop, Oriental Journey, and Ukulele and Marimba Theme made the cut, The Metro Strut and Free Range Organ didn't. That brings the summer total up to 19/27. I'm not setting the world on fire here, but still on track to get to 175 items for sale by the end of the summer. If it takes 5 submissions to get 3 in, I need about 13 submissions to get there. With a little extra effort, maybe I can get there by mid-August.

Ukulele and Marimba Theme


I took a few days off for an extended weekend trip to see the video games live concert in Baltimore, but I'm back in the saddle. I can see that I forgot to post my last submission before heading out, so here it is.

This is a short, mellow children's theme song. It includes a 2 second audio tale, but if you truncate it to 32 seconds it loops well. I'm calling it the Ukulele and Marimba Theme and categorizing it under "children's music." 'Cause that's what it sounds like.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Free Range Organ

My wife tries very hard to keep the family eating healthy - non GMO, organic, free-range, you name it. I sometimes thwart her efforts and annoy her in my charming fashion - "Now waiter, is the salad made with free range lettuce?" - but I do appreciate her going to such lengths to keep her family healthy.

"Free Range Organ" is a sad attempt at a pun. Somewhere out there, there is someone in a situation not unlike my own that may snicker. Or not. Yet I insist on my little puns, even if I am the only one who ever laughs at them.

Oh, right. Here's the song. It's my 4th submission for week #6.

A good week for milestones!

I reached another one today, my first $150 month. I love how it happened, too - someone bought an extended license for a 10 second audio clip. It was this one.



Someone decided it worked well enough for a project to spend $27 on that 10 sec. audio clip. It's nice when that happens.

I'm not sure where to set my next milestone. $175 makes sense, or I could just set the bar at wherever sales end this month. I'll decide next week. Time for another trip for ice cream. Maybe I should consider that continued success on these milestones may affect some other personal health goals. But I figure even people trying to lose a little weight can eat ice cream occasionally, right?

Oriental Journey

I composed this one with a slow and peaceful journey through the orient in mine. It's calming, relaxing, and meandering. It's the sort of music I would like to hear playing in the background if I should ever walk through a zen garden over the little bridge that crosses the koi pond.

I did this one because I have never actually tried anything like it before. I don't imagine it's the most authentic sounding oriental piece out there, but it's how a middle age white american THINKS oriental music sounds, and sometimes that's exactly what you want. Who needs the confusion of authenticity when you can just crank out a sensible cliche'?

This is song submission #3 for week #6. #4 is already "in the can," but I'm saving it for submission tomorrow to spread things out. The longer and more often my studio icon sits on the main page of AJ, the better.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

A couple small milestones

I checked a few small goals off of my list this week. This week I managed to knock these off...

-25 sales in one month
-At least one sale every day in one week
-A single item getting 20 sales

Celebrating the small victories takes the sting out of the rejections. I'm also approaching another milestone goal I set - $150 in sales in one month. I'm not there yet, but I've got a week left, and am getting very close.

A lot of these goals don't have much to do with action on my part, but I have them anyway. Kind of like the achievements in video games, they give me things to be encouraged about. Some goals I set for the summer that it's time to get working on....

A 100% ESX24 sampler song - My second submission of all times was a song I knocked off to experiment with a new Korg sampler. I did a whole song with nothing but a water bottle and the stuff inside it. It has actually become one of my best sellers over the years. The ESX24 is a software sampler built in to Logic. It's actually much easier to use than my Korg, and is pretty fun to mess with. I'll start working on something similar with this soon.

A song with vocals - I tried one, but it was rejected. There is a lot of irony in the fact that the guy who spends the majority of his life working with choirs has so rarely ever submitted songs with voice in them. My house is often just too noisy to record in - that's the excuse I use. I haven't given up yet. I gotta get this one checked off to maintain some self-respect.

A song made with drum loops created on Ableton Live using Push - I've learned enough about this program and the controller to get stuff done at this point. I'm just being lazy. It's so much easier just to knock stuff out on the software that I already know so well. It will take longer, but it will be good for me. The whole point is that it makes you think about how you write music differently. I need to shove myself out of my own comfort zone to prevent myself from being an old dog who can't learn any new tricks.

Those three are enough for now. I actually have others, but it's time to just pick one and get my butt in gear. I'll post results on ONE of them next week.

Week 5 Scorecard

Results are in from week #5 submissions. I got 3/5 this time around. The "Accordion Duet," "Whistle & Ukulele Loop," and "Harp Boys & Chime" all made it in. "Clav Dance" and "Spy Vibe" were both politely rejected with a form letter. Se La Vi.

My running count for the summer is now 16/22. The more times you're at bat, the more often you're likely to get a hit.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

An experiment was carried out....

As a possible solution to the "September thru May" issue of music storage, it occurs to me that I actually have a good bit of storage space for this website that I don't really use. So what if I try hosting some of my OWN songs for a change, rather than farming everything out to Soundcloud? What if....

So here is a short loop that I just knocked off to experiment with. It's actually submission #2 for week #6, although I haven't uploaded it into the queue of AJ just yet. I'm going to upload a batch of three tomorrow. It's uncreatively named the "Staccato Strings Loop." I'll bet you can guess why without even listening, but please do anyway.


Staccato Strings Demo

It's not as dance or pretty as Soundclouds player, but it does the job, right?

Soundcloud....full?!

I never thought that it could happen, but I guess it has - my free Soundcloud account is finally full. I have uploaded two hour's worth of music to that account.

What do I do now? I hate to shell out the cash for an upgrade. It's $6/mo or $55/year, and would take me up to 4 hours. My profile says that I have 49 people following me and have had 43 plays in the last week. Hmmmm.

Cost/Benefit analysis: Not exactly setting the world on fire with followers and there are hardly any comments. The 43 plays in a week statistic is actually pretty surprising. I have absolutely no way of knowing if anything I post on Soundcloud ever leads to an actual sale.

A recurring $6/mo fee seems steep considering the way I use the platform - it's just a storehouse for my files so I can generate links to my website. This website is more of a journal than anything else. I haven't made any honest efforts to ask anyone to read it. It turns out that I kind of stink at social media.

Solution - pay for August and quit. HolyHammer Audio is basically a June-August project. I'm way too busy dying the school year to crank out 5 songs a week. I can't even manage the tiny branding clips on a regular basis. After I try it out for 1 month, it will freeze out future uploads (unlikely to matter until next summer), and I'll lose access to my oldest songs (and I don't care.)

Next summer I can either clean out old material to make room for the new stuff, or buy 3 months instead of the whole year and see how they handle that. Sounds like a plan. I'm glad we worked this out.

Metro Strut

I'm calling this one the "Metro Strut" because I spend so much time strutting around metropolitan areas. OK, maybe not.

It seems kind of cocky and funky to me - I can just picture a guy dressed up like a tacky pimp strutting his stuff down the boulevard under the neon lights to this music. I have to call it something. This one is song #1 for week 6. I should have final results from last week sometime tomorrow - my last two songs are near the front of the queue.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Spy Vibe

I had technological thrillers on the mind when I wrote this one. Sometimes I read a book that hasn't been turned in to a movie yet and imagine what the soundtrack would be like if it were. This is one of those songs.

This is the night in the book (and perhaps future movie) when the sneaky hero breaks into the lair of the villain using nothing but moxy and a half million dollars worth of technological toys. It sounds just like this.

Harp Boys & Chime

This is my version of audio for an angel getting its wings. Wings, a halo, and a harp appear, and the new angel ascends to come to rest on a puffy cloud. We've seen in in 100 cartoons.

This version uses harp (of course), pads, strings, boys choir, and chimes. It's only 10 seconds long, 'cause I figure that's how long an unhurried trip to the nearest cloud would take.

I was thinking of the audio I would want for a "game over" sequence if I needed one. This is it.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Milestone reached!

I finally bumped up to the next sales rate level on Audio Jungle! Forgive the exclamation mark, but it took a really long time.

All it really means is that I now make 51% percent profit on the music that I sell for the first time. Until now, Audio Jungle has always taken half. The more sales you make, the higher your commission rate, so it's nice to finally turn the corner. I know, it's just one percent more, but it goes down as a symbolic event anyway.

I tend to celebrate such milestones with ice cream. Probably Perry's Parkerhouse Cherry. I know it's pink, but I like it anyway. Don't judge - it's just ice cream for heaven's sake.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Whistle and Ukulele Loop

This short loop features ukulele, whistling, bass, and light percussion. Cheerful, and relaxed, it loops perfectly at 30 seconds. This would be song #3 for week 5.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Clav Dance

It's tough to describe this one. I almost called it "Funky Space Cowboys," because that's seriously the first thing that sprang into my mind when I gave it the final listen and pronounced it 'done.' That clavichord patch sounds western to me for some reason. The right side of my brain overruled the left, and I just called it "Clav Dance" to keep things simple.

This is song #2 for week 5. Song #1 was the last post, "Accordion Duet".

Week 4 Scorecard

A much better showing this time around - I actually got in my quota of 5. Four out of the five got accepted (Pizzicato Theme, Dance Mod, Walking Jazz Combo, and Swamp Loop). The one that didn't make the cut was my "Dit Doo Dah loop", so my first attempt at vocal audio flopped. I get knocked down, but I get up again.

That brings the summer scorecard up to 13/17 for the summer at the end of week 4. I now have 162 songs up for sale on Audio Jungle. I'm thinking that 175 would be a good target for the summer. We'll see.

Accordion Duet

It's actually a trio if you count the bass player, who insists on it. This is an easygoing waltz of indeterminate european ethnic origin. Clearly "old country", I'm just not sure which one.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Dit Doo Dah Loop

This one marks a first attempt for me. I spent hours sampling & tweaking audio of my own voice singing 'Dits' Doo's" and Dah's", dumped them into a sampler, and banged around for awhile to see what would come out. This is what came out.

I have never actually submitted a song with vocals on Audio Jungle until now. Not exactly 'legit' singing, but that's the next step. That's one of the goals for the summer.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Funky Swamp Loop

This 30 second loop mixes reggae and funk with a little swamp guitar to create an upbeat, but minor groove. If you want a little background music for a party in a spooky swamp, this loop will do the job.

When I was a kid, Scooby Doo was the after school cartoon of choice. Not that we had much of a choice back in 70s - we only had a handful of stations to pick from, and only one or two played cartoons after school. Anyway, the Mystery Machine always seemed to break down near spooky old mansions in swamps, but there never seems to be a party going on. Maybe if they had some appropriately funky music, they would all have a reason to throw one. So here it is.

Maybe the next one will be zydeco. It's probably the world's best swamp music. The only problem is that no one ever searches for that term because they've never even heard of it, except for the exceptionally cool folk from New Orleans.

Week 3 Scorecard

Results are in from last week's submissions, and I went 3/3. That brings me up to 9/12 for the summer so far.

I have already submitted three for this week. I've got enough in process that I should be able to get my quota of 5 this time around. I hope.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Walking Jazz Combo

A smokey jazz loop from a bygone era. This short loop (36 seconds) features a combo with a walking bass line, brushes on a drum set, and a vibraphone. Laid back, relaxed, and cool.

This is the third submission for week #4. "Jazz Cat", the one that I recorded back on June 19, has actually sold twice in the short time it's been for sale. Hey, people want jazz? I'll do some jazz.

Dance Mod

'Mod' as in 'Modification.' My son is currently excited about modifying software to make the characters in games do things they can't normally do - such as dance. This little electronic dance loop was inspired by his enthusiasm.

It's electronic, fast, exciting, and funky. I used acoustic drums for the basic beat, but the rest is full of busy sequenced synthesizers and electro-pop sounds. This little tune makes a perfect loop at 52 seconds for fade out at your convenience. Just the thing to show off your video game hero's new moves.

This is submission #2 for week #4. The last submission of week #3 is near the front of the queue, so results from last weeks (sad) 3 submissions soon.

Pizzicato Theme Song

This is my first offering of the week, a short theme song (35 sec) that I did for podcast or broadcast productions. Clean, happy, and catchy, with a very thin texture. Upbeat and plucky.

I have been pretty miserable at making my quota so far this summer. Last week I only got in 3, and I'm still waiting to hear if they all make the cut or not. I'm not punishing myself too much because the last two that I submitted were both cut, probably because they were rush jobs in order to get 5 in.

I'm being a lot more picky this time and spending more time refining. I figure I'd rather take my time and submit fewer songs, but ones that hopefully have a little better time making the cut.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Latin Twilight

This is a little cheerful background music with an easygoing, Latin feel. Relaxed, carefree, and casual, with a little sophistication.

This is the music I want the house band to play if I ever find myself somewhere watching the sunset over the ocean on the balcony of a laid-back night club with a few sophisticated friends. If I should ever make any sophisticated friends.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Week 2 Scorecard

My final submissions have worked there way through Audio Jungle's review process. I got 3/5 for week 2 submissions, bringing the total up to 6/9. "Warm Fuzzies," "Harp and Pads Ident," and "Island Bounce Loop" all made the cut. "Free Electron" and the "Tremolo Strings & Piano Ident." weren't accepted. You win some, you lose some.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Pizzi and Glock Loop

This is a short loop I made for commercial background audio. It uses pizzicato strings, glockenspiel, bass, and percussion. It's light, clean, upbeat, positive, and bright. It makes a perfect loop at 1:04.

This one marks my second submission for week #3. No report yet on week #2 submissions -they're still working their way through the queue.

Monday, June 30, 2014

BrightWarmBusy Theme

The name says it all. This is a 20 second theme song that is bright, warm, and busy. It strikes a nice balance between happy and sincere. I used a piano, orchestral bass, percussion, and dulcimer with a tape delay effect. This song is the first submission of week #3.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Free Electron

Free Electron is a little song I wrote with game audio in mind, although it could work for other production projects too. Anything that needs a little "electronic" sounding mid-tempo groove to set the scene. This is the last submission for the week, and I got it my quota of five for week #2.

I'll post the results of my week two submissions when they are all reviewed, but it may take awhile. The last two didn't get in until the 11th hour.

Tremolo Strings & Piano Ident.

This is a 5 second long branding audio clip I made to accompany studio animations for credits. Can be used anywhere a little short background audio is needed for branding or identification purposes. Nothing fancy.


Thursday, June 26, 2014

Week One Score Card

The results are in from last week's submissions. "Wobble Bass," "Victor's Circle," and "Jazz Cat," have all been accepted. "Tech Ident" was rejected. I like to try submit 5 a week, but was one short for the first week. Slow start.

That makes the first summer score card 3/4. I'm tempted to add my early bird submissions to improve my percentage and make my quota, but it would feel dishonest. I couldn't do that to the faithful thousands who read my blog every day. (OK. Maybe I would just be lying to myself. What's the point?)

I have three more working their way through the queue this week. Two to go to recapture my self-respect.

Island Bounce Loop

A little background audio for an island party. It makes a perfect loop at 58 seconds. With a little judicious cutting and pasting, the first four measures can be looped at the beginning or end for more flexibility.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Harp and Pads Ident

This is a short clip I made using harp, pads, and light tympani for audio branding. Minor, gloomy, and a little other-worldly sounding.

Warm Fuzzies

"Warm Fuzzies" were these little necklaces we made at camp when I was a kid. They were little balls of yarn, and the idea was to give someone a hug, then pull a single strand of yarn out of your ball and tie it to your partner's necklace. Just a little physical metaphor for a nice feeling.

I wrote this little one to try to capture a little of the "warm fuzzy" feelings of my childhood. I just happened to limit those feelings to one minute because that happily coincides with the amount of time that radio spots in need of audio run. What a coincidence.

This is the number one submission for this week, and it's actually bigger than it looks. I included both the straight-through version you hear below, and a looped version to give people flexibility for projects longer than 60 seconds.

Last week I submitted all of the songs for the week in one massed lump. Probably not the best way to do things. This week I'll submit them as I finish them. When I do that, my icon shows up on the main page of Audio Jungle spread out a bit longer. I may get a few more listens by submitting one a day, rather than a clump all at once. Not sure how much difference it makes in the end.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Tech Ident

This is a 4 second long ident I did for branding. Short, quirky, melodic, rhythmic, and technical sounding. A surprising amount of tweaking goes into these little things. They're used for studio credits in video, broadcast, or game credits. They're teeny and cheap to buy, but if a studio latches on to one, they buy it over & over for every project they release.

Victor's Circle

This is a one minute (OK, 1:02 with the audio tail) instrumental underscore for the winner's circle. I mean for it to be a little happy music to be played in the background for someone being given the trophy, getting the laurels placed on their head, or having Champagne uncorked and squirted on them. That sort of thing.
Not so much for having the Gatorade cooler emptied over your head. Maybe I'll do that one sometime too, but it wouldn't sound like this. I'm not sure what it would sound like, but I think it would have to have a harder edge than this song.

"Wobble Bass" is in

For convenience sake, I'm calling the "Wobble Bass Talkover" my first official submission of the summer. I'll just call the two before that 'warm up freebies'.

Why? Because that way I start the summer submission season with 150 items for sale on Audio Jungle, which is easier to keep track of than 148. Pathetic, I know. It's just the way my mind works.

In any case, "Wobble Bass" was accepted by AJ, and is already up for sale on the site. Jazz Cat is #2, and #3 has already been submitted, and will be my next post. So that makes me 1/1 for the summer so far. Well, it's a start.

Jazz Cat

This one is just a short, 30 second loop. For any broadcast, audio, or video project in need of a little cool.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Wobble Bass Talkover Loop

Lately I've been experimenting with the ESX24 Sampler, a software instrument in Logic. It has lots of really awesome built in patches, but why limit yourself?

I built this one minute loop around the patch I made for the wobbling bass. I kept it simple and tossed in a drum kit and distorted guitar using a simple AB pattern with an 8 bar intro of just the bass and drums. It's a little bit more "electronic" sounding than most of my stuff, but it's fun to experiment. It's one minute long and infinitely loops for a fade out.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Approaching Milestones

Renaissance Faire was just approved for sale on Audio Jungle, which makes my 149th item. I consider 150 a milestone worthy of celebration. Probably ice cream. Parkerhouse, if you must know. Yeah, I know it's not very manly, being pink and full of cherries. I just like it. Get over it. Seriously. It's just ice cream.

Another big milestone approaching is the next funding level for my AJ account. With less than $200 to go in sales I will bump up to the next level, and finally get a larger cut of sales than Audio Jungle does. That 51% has been a long time coming.

I'll soon be making (and posting) goals for the summer. Not sure which direction to go here. I'd love to short for 50 additional songs over the summer, but that's kind of a stretch. I don't want to put myself in the position of cranking out stuff I'm less happy with in order to make a self-imposed quota. Sometimes I think I might be better served pouring a lot of energy in to fewer songs. The only problem with that theory is that I have a handful already listed that I worked my butt off on that have never been purchased, and others that I cranked out in a half hour that have turned out to be some of my best sellers. Go figure.

I think I'll just stick with writing & recording whatever pops into my brain and let the cards fall where they may. I really should try something with vocals in it this summer though. You would think a choir director might actually sing on a track at some point. Heck, if I'm nervous about students judging me, I'm good enough with Autotune to make myself flawless. Mwah ha ha.....

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Small Celebration

I just had a really big sale on AJ, and so am pausing to celebrate and pat myself on the back.

What people actually buy on Audio Jungle (aside from the music files themselves) is a license to use the music for commercial projects. So the songs are more expensive that they would be on a site like iTunes or Amazon MP3. A standard license for my "Bottle Jam" song costs $17. Not too shabby.

An extended license for that song lets people use it in larger commercial project that can then be resold to other end users. Like the kind of project someone does for a larger advertising campaign. THAT costs $85, and is a much bigger deal. I just sold one of those.

I'd love to be cool enough to brush it off and say "Oh, yeah...I sell those extended licenses all the time. No biggie." The truth is that extended licenses are still pleasant surprises to me.

The extra cash is nice of course, but the nice thing is to know that someone thinks highly enough of something I've written & recorded that it's worth dropping that kind of cash on. I wouldn't mind getting to the point where it isn't a big deal. For now, it's still cause for a mini-celebration.

This one isn't posted to Soundcloud, so if you would like to hear it, you can use this link... http://audiojungle.net/item/bottle-jam/48638

Friday, May 30, 2014

A little Renaissance Music

I'm calling this one "Renaissance Faire". I was in the mood to do something medieval/renaissance/celtic sounding, and this is what came out. There's a mini Renaissance faire out past Sugar Grove every year that we sometimes visit. I needed to buy an ox-horn last time so I could call the kids to dinner even while they're wearing headphones. I thought it was an excellent, if ancient, solution to a modern problem. They love it. (OK. I love it.)

There is a big Renaissance faire held every summer between Franklin and Barkeyville at a huge campground. I've never been there, but would like to try it sometime. I'll bet I could buy something that would annoy my children even more! (In my defense, turnabout, is fair play.) Anyway, grab a tankard of mead and have a listen.

Monday, May 12, 2014

A Good Start

Just a quick post to say that my first two submissions were both accepted and are available on Audio Jungle.

Also worthy of note is the fact that I'm only $365 away from bumping up to the next sales level on the site. It would mean I would get a whole single percentage more from each sale than I currently do. It might mean an extra trip to a fast food restaurant each year. If I'm lucky. We'll see.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

First 2014 Submissions

I just finished submitting my first two audio clips for this season, "Quick Pizzi" & "Floating Down."

Neither are anything earth shattering. The first is an 8 second branding clip, and the second is a 20 second clip to accompany descending stuff. You know; elevators, floating feathers, that kind of stuff.

I haven't submitted anything since last summer, so I started small to see how long the approval (hopefully) process takes, and if my audio quality is up to snuff.

Back in the saddle again.



Monday, March 10, 2014