Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Another Branding Clip



This is a short clip for branding purposes that features an acoustic guitar, light synth pad, piano, and pizzicato strings. Smooth, mellow, and relaxing.

Two short offerings

I've turned my focus to short recordings right now, either because my output has been so low over the summer, or because there is very little of it left. I still have a few longer recordings in progress, but don't want to rush them.



This is a short, simple and comical recording for branding purposes. I had projects for children in mind. It's actually about 5 seconds with two seconds for the audio tail, and features bassoon, clarinet, xylophone , tuba, and glockenspiel. A lot of instruments in 5 seconds, but it's still simple. Call it a 5 second lesson in tone quality.



This is another short recording for branding purposes. Six seconds of relaxing strings and piano with a cymbal swell for a little understated drama. It's relaxing and settling, like coming back home at the end of a trip. A period for the end of your sentence.

Monday, August 24, 2015

August Week 3 Scorecard

Struck out on both counts. They rejected both "Small Island" and "On Target", leaving me with a summer score of 9/16. Last summer I got in 26/40. Huge drop in the number of submissions, but I could point out that the bulk of this summer's songs were much longer. I'm still going to end the summer with half the submissions of the year before. They'll sell for a lot more money, but only time will tell if it's the right approach.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Small Island



A 40 second audio clip meant to bring to mind walking on a beach in the Caribbean. Personally, I liked St. John. It was a lot less commercial and more unspoiled.

On Target



This is a short track for a corporate motivation video. Just over a minute long including the fade out. Ukulele, bells, bass, claps, and strings.

August Week 2 Scorecard

Short and sweet. Only one submission last week due to a trip to Pgh. "Simple Children's Theme" was rejected, and the scorecard now stands at 9/14.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Simple Children's Theme

This is a short, simple children's theme. Not that the children are simple - the children are brilliant, and have great taste in music.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

End of July Scorecard

Last weeks submissions have all cleared the queue, and I got 2 out of 3 accepted. The current scorecard is 9/13. For the record, AudioJungle accepted "Medieval Nocturne" and "How It's Done," but rejected "Mallet Folk Loop."

Monday, July 27, 2015

Mallet Folk Loop

A generic renaissance/medieval folk loop from an old world country that doesn't exist. It uses a marimba/kalimba, celtic hammered dulcimer, cello, hand drum, and cymbals. It's lilting, merry, and has a contrasting B section in a minor key. All this in a short file that loops perfectly at 36 seconds, with a cymbal swell to masque the transition.



Sunday, July 26, 2015

Medieval Nocturn

A simple medieval/renaissance lute melody written as a nocturn. Great background music for that moonlight walk around the parapets with your lord of lady.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

How It's Done

A little background music for corporate demonstration videos. An indeterminate genre, but a spunky and cheerful little tune.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Last Week's Scorecard

Songs that made the cut were "There is a Fountain" and "Comic Tedium." "Spaghetti Western" and "Hybrid Funk" were both cut. The summer scorecard now stands at 7/10.

The frustrating thing is that I worked on "Hybrid Funk" for hours, but tossed together "Comic Tedium" in about 30 minutes. Just goes to show that you never know what they are going to think is "marketable." I worked for hours on the Middle Eastern song, too. I guess that only time will tell which ones people think are worth buying. Who knows what next year's top 3 will be.

Friday, July 17, 2015

To review....

This week's submissions include:

  • There is a Fountain
  • Hybrid Funk
  • Comic Tedium
  • Modern Spaghetti Western

The last two weren't submitted until Friday, so it will be awhile before they work their way through the queue.


Modern Spaghetti Western

This one sounds like an old western without the ultra-cheesy elements that usually go with old western soundtracks. These include the "vibraslap rattlesnake" sound and men grunting nonsense syllables. The background rhythms are a little more modern too. I figure the electric hollow body guitar and minor key are enough.



Not one of my favorites, but it was something off the beaten path. If I always do the same styles and genres, I feel like I'm getting stuck in a rut.

Comic Tedium

A one minute soundtrack as a little background music for a comic montage of someone doing silly things to avoid boredom to pass the time. Sparse instruments and a latin beat. Includes a fadeout at the end.

This one came to me in the world's most boring dream. I don't even remember what the dream was about, but I remembered the music. I rolled out of bed early and recorded it before I hit the shower so I wouldn't forget it.



Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Hybrid Funk

I always liked the attitude of funk. This is a recording of my own little funky tune, except I spiced it up with more modern instruments and effects chains. I know they did just fine with Hammond organs, but I just wanted to hear what it would sound like with a wave-table synth and mile-long effects chains. There's still plenty of analog fatness in there, too. I'd like to think it's the best of both worlds.



There is a Fountain

This is an old hymn whose tune I always loved, but no one ever sings anymore. I suppose it's not surprising - the first line is "There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanual's veins." Catchy tune, but the lyrics are a little....creepy."

I always loved the tune, though, and it's in the public domain. Why not? It's short and sweet - just 1 minute of appalacian acoustic folk.



Second Submissions Scorecard

Last week I submitted "Middle East," "Folk Tune," and "Happy Uke Tune." The good news is that all 3 were accepted, bringing the summer total up to 5/6.

I have two in the cue for the current week now, and probably about a dozen in different stages of development. Guess I better post some updates.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Happy Uke Tune

One minute and two seconds with the tail, this is a cheerful little ukulele tune for motivating people in corporations. Doesn't it just make you want to smile and earn money?




Thursday, July 9, 2015

First Submissions Scorecard

My first submissions where "In Motion" (I listed it here as EDM Jam and submitted it anyway), "Sarasponda", and "Short Theme". They took "In Motion" and "Sarasponda", but rejected "Short Theme". The summer is off to a very slow start, and the score is 2/3.

Week 2 was also slow. I spent it driving to Pgh. and Buffalo to check out pianos. We didn't fall in love with one, so I just spent three days under the hood of the one I have replacing all of the dampers. While I'm waiting for more parts to arrive in the mail, I'll see how much catching up I can do. I would like to get the online portfolio up to 200 recording by the end of the summer - right now I have 180. With summer almost half over, I better get moving.

Folk Tune

Don't bother to ask what country it's a folk tune from - I pretty much just made up the tune from scratch. It's just one of those indeterminate "old country" sort of songs you hear when someone on a travel show is romping around some European province on a Vespa. That's what I was going for anyway.

Middle Eastern Thing

Since "Oriental Journey" was one of my best seller's last year, I thought I'd try another culture or two. So here's something Middle Eastern sounding…



It uses some of the traditional instruments, but the tune is my own invention. I was too lazy to bother figuring out which specific scales they favor, so I just went with what sounded right to me. We'll see if the AJ staff thinks it's viable or not.

Monday, June 29, 2015

Last Summer's Top 3

It's sometimes useful to look backwards to inform future direction, so I looked up which songs I recorded last summer sold the best over one year. These are the three most successful selling songs that I did last year.

3. Oriental Journey


Kind of a surprise - It's not the most authentic piece you'll ever hear. I guess it's what the average American musician thinks traditional oriental music sounds like. It will work just fine in your ninja movie trailer.

2. Island Bounce


I always loved the song "White Sky" by Vampire weekend, and that sort of bouncy and busy vibe that similar songs have. Another example is "Proof" from Paul Simon's "Rhythm of the Saints" album. The sweet sound of music from Camaroon, Carribbean islands, or many latin countries. It inspired me to do one of my own, and this was it.


1. Accordion Duet


Lovingly referred to by my kids as the "drunken frenchmen song." I get why they associate accordions with France, but I'm not sure about the drunken part. Who cares? It was the best selling song of last summer.

So what is the lesson for future recordings? I guess find some interesting style of world music, and zone in on making an instrumental only composition in that style as authentic as possible.

Sounds like a fun plan.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Short Theme

This is the number 2 submission of the summer. I actually have bigger projects in the works, but knock off some of these short ones to give myself a break. I seem to do better when I have 3 or 4 songs to work on at the same time. It's better if I can switch to something else for a while and come back to it later with "fresh" ears.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Sarasponda

Sarasponda is my first official submission of the summer. It's a dutch spinning song, but my version has a definite appalacian folk feel. What can I say - I've never been to Holland.

I picked this one because It's one of the songs I like to play on the mandolin I got for my birthday. After 3 months of practice, I'm certainly proficient enough to produce a commercially viable recording on the instrument, right? We'll see.

First Recording of the Summer

The first offering of the summer is a quick little EDM song I cranked out more to familiarize myself with new equipment than to produce anything usable from a commercial standpoint. Still kind of catchy.