Well it's that time of year, where we put Douglas Fir's inside our house and decorate them with lights and ornaments. Thats right, its christmas time, and while some of you may not celebrate it, its still one of the nicer holidays of the year. So I shall re-cap what happened since I became a fan of MLP in August.
So it all started in August, when I made the Party of One re score, surprisingly it became quite a hit, to be honest, I really wasn't prepared for it. I was expecting it to be liked, but not get over 5k views. At that point in time I had two options:
1. Call this a one shot and be done with pony music
Or
2. Continue to make orchestral music and grow in my hobby of composing
As we all know, I chose option number two and Im glad I did. However, its not all smooth sailing from there. I was cranking out 1 song per week for a while, and that was taxing, I learned a lot, but I couldn't keep that pace forever. So after my third song The Parasprite Suite I told all of my subs that I would be doing 1 per month, which I still am doing today. I like to compose music, and MLP gives me a way to express it. Now I know Iv'e said ill be keeping this blog updated weekly and I haven't, at the time I didn't realize how much dedication it would take to constantly update it. I apologize. But do remember that I still am a full time college student and school comes before ponies (sad but true).
I dont know how long I will continue to make music, as my primary strength is sound design. But I do know that Subscribers like consistency so I do my best to get one out around the end of every month. For those of you still wondering what software I use its Garage Band with Symphony Orchestra and Voices Jam Packs. Although because of Garage Bands simplicity, it's starting to become harder to get some of the sounds I want as my compositions become more technical and complex. An example would be flute trills or a harp glissando. Those two, along with other things Id like to be able to replicate would be amazing so I can continue to grow and learn.
It's certainly been a growing experience for me, I really have progressed so much in music creation, Im proud of myself for such an accomplishment. Im also thankful for all the sub's I have on youtube, everyday I keep getting emails saying someone new has subscribed to me.
Having said all that, 2011 has been a good year, it's had its up's and down's but for the most part its been pretty good. I will continue to make Orchestral compositions, they may be more spaced out (one every 1.5 months) but Ill still make them.
I want to thank you all for being so supportive of my music and giving me the motivation to continue to make songs. I do hope you have a wonderful Christmas and Happy Holidays.
-Orchestral Design
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Winter and school
TL;DR Version at the bottom.
Hey guys, just to let you know Im not dead or anything just focusing on school and studying for finals. Im glad you all liked the halloween song that I made, I think it turned out great even though it was put together kinda rushed. The thing is, is that one I do an epic song like that, its difficult to find inspiration for another song. Making a song like my halloween one took tons of research and playing with melodies not to mention the deadline of halloween. I have grown "musically" since producing all my songs, I've learned more about chord structure and harmonies since I started making Pony songs. The weird thing is, is that once I do a song all my inspiration is like drained and I have to wait a while before making another song. Also unless your really really good at composing music, no one just sits down at a piano and starts playing music and they come up with a complete score. It takes trial and error, experimentation with different keys and harmonics. So having said all that, id like to aim for 3 songs before the end of the year, however thats quite a lot in under 6 weeks. So I might just make 2 because Im sure my audience (you all) would like to hear 2 well produced and amazing soundtracks as opposed to 3 good soundtracks that sound all right. Right now Im woking on some winter themed songs as well as something else. I should hope to produce more songs once school is over and Im on winter break. But yes thats about whats happening right now.
TL;DR Version
College work is starting to pile up so Im focusing on that. Im hoping to make two songs before the end of the year but its hard to find some inspiration or a long enough melody to make it sound decent.
Hey guys, just to let you know Im not dead or anything just focusing on school and studying for finals. Im glad you all liked the halloween song that I made, I think it turned out great even though it was put together kinda rushed. The thing is, is that one I do an epic song like that, its difficult to find inspiration for another song. Making a song like my halloween one took tons of research and playing with melodies not to mention the deadline of halloween. I have grown "musically" since producing all my songs, I've learned more about chord structure and harmonies since I started making Pony songs. The weird thing is, is that once I do a song all my inspiration is like drained and I have to wait a while before making another song. Also unless your really really good at composing music, no one just sits down at a piano and starts playing music and they come up with a complete score. It takes trial and error, experimentation with different keys and harmonics. So having said all that, id like to aim for 3 songs before the end of the year, however thats quite a lot in under 6 weeks. So I might just make 2 because Im sure my audience (you all) would like to hear 2 well produced and amazing soundtracks as opposed to 3 good soundtracks that sound all right. Right now Im woking on some winter themed songs as well as something else. I should hope to produce more songs once school is over and Im on winter break. But yes thats about whats happening right now.
TL;DR Version
College work is starting to pile up so Im focusing on that. Im hoping to make two songs before the end of the year but its hard to find some inspiration or a long enough melody to make it sound decent.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Rain
Yes, its finally started to rain in Southern California. I like the rain, its nice. Not all the time of course, but when its averaging 95° outside a little cool wether is always welcome. Im writing this siting in my room sipping in some tea and listening to classical music, hearing the rain outside, its really peaceful. Anyways, College is going well, theres papers to write and stuff, but other than that its good.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
CMC Theme
Here is the Cutie Mark Crusaders theme pulled from a 5.1 mixdown. Sorry about the absolutely terrible Audio quality, Blogger does not appreciate the finer things in life.
College is well, college, Books and papers and homework and such.
Now for those of you keeping track, Im due for another release of a Re-score towards the end of this month so be on the look out for that. I cant wait for season 2 my goodness its going to be epic.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Weekly Update #1
So now that college is starting up and all, its time to do the weekly updates to keep all my fans and subscribers in the loop.
College is pretty much the same as it was last semester, classes on mon - thur and friday I have off. Im taking all the boring general education stuff so i can get that out of the way as quickly as possible. I've been talking to people about what I should remix next, my original plan was to do the "pinky spy" theme in Ep.25 Party of one. It's a fun little piece, that has some potential to become quite epic. But someone sent me the score to "vanquishing the Ursa minor" which is a beautiful pice. The thing is that I don't want to just duplicate it, that would be boring so Im trying to see what I can incorporate into it. Its a bit difficult to say the least, trying to find different harmonies and what not.
Im also considering actually re scoring half of a MLP episode with different soundtracks from other artists. Its an idea though.
Anyways Ill be posting cool audio tech every once in a while so here's some neat stuff.
1. Griffin Power Mate - This cool little knob is fully assignable to anything, literally. Use it for volume, pan, verb, compression, display brightness, zoom, anything. (Mac, PC, and Linux compatible) Price: $40
2. Ultrasone DJ1 Pro Headphones - These are phenomenal headphones! I own a pair and the sound quality is simply superb, the highs are crisp and clear, and the midrange is not muddy. It also has a surprisingly good amount of low end reproduction to them as well, but there not bass heavy. There a bit more pricey than the average headphones but you definitely get what you pay for. Price: $149
3. Klipsch Promedia 2.1 - If your looking for computer speakers and don't know which ones to get, then I suggest getting these. They have excellent bass response and sound really good across all frequencies. And if you hate wires it also comes in a wireless version. Price: $149 ($229 for wireless)
4. Griffin iMic - This handy little device adds 2 stereo inputs and outputs to your current setup. (works on a pc too!) Price: $40
5. Mackie Control Universal Pro - This is a nice thing to have if you constantly do mixing and need automation for faders and other various things. Its a control surface, meaning it doesn't pass audio through it at all. It connects to the computer by a usb port. Its expensive, like really expensive. So you might want to see if you can bag a used one off of Ebay. But if you make it rain Benjamins on a daily basis then spring for a new one, you wont be disappointed. Price: New: $999 Used: $680
Please note that Im not trying to sell you anything or endorse any company, nor do I get paid for advertising. Im just showcasing cool audio technology that makes life or editing a little easier.
College is pretty much the same as it was last semester, classes on mon - thur and friday I have off. Im taking all the boring general education stuff so i can get that out of the way as quickly as possible. I've been talking to people about what I should remix next, my original plan was to do the "pinky spy" theme in Ep.25 Party of one. It's a fun little piece, that has some potential to become quite epic. But someone sent me the score to "vanquishing the Ursa minor" which is a beautiful pice. The thing is that I don't want to just duplicate it, that would be boring so Im trying to see what I can incorporate into it. Its a bit difficult to say the least, trying to find different harmonies and what not.
Im also considering actually re scoring half of a MLP episode with different soundtracks from other artists. Its an idea though.
Anyways Ill be posting cool audio tech every once in a while so here's some neat stuff.
1. Griffin Power Mate - This cool little knob is fully assignable to anything, literally. Use it for volume, pan, verb, compression, display brightness, zoom, anything. (Mac, PC, and Linux compatible) Price: $40
2. Ultrasone DJ1 Pro Headphones - These are phenomenal headphones! I own a pair and the sound quality is simply superb, the highs are crisp and clear, and the midrange is not muddy. It also has a surprisingly good amount of low end reproduction to them as well, but there not bass heavy. There a bit more pricey than the average headphones but you definitely get what you pay for. Price: $149
3. Klipsch Promedia 2.1 - If your looking for computer speakers and don't know which ones to get, then I suggest getting these. They have excellent bass response and sound really good across all frequencies. And if you hate wires it also comes in a wireless version. Price: $149 ($229 for wireless)
4. Griffin iMic - This handy little device adds 2 stereo inputs and outputs to your current setup. (works on a pc too!) Price: $40
Please note that Im not trying to sell you anything or endorse any company, nor do I get paid for advertising. Im just showcasing cool audio technology that makes life or editing a little easier.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
I hate bees
No seriously, I do. Im allergic to bee stings and I happened to get one on sunday. I was rushed to the emergency room and was in a bed before I knew what was happening. They gave me some epinephrine (thats synthesized adrenalin) and another shot that had three different types of steroids in it to help combat with the swelling and hives that I got. Fortunately I caught it early, If i wasn't so lucky I could have stopped breathing due to my tongue swelling up. Any ways for the past 3 days ive been pretty loopy with all the drugs they gave me. That being said Im trying to work on an orchestral score, but its slow going. I have a 1:10 so far and Id like to have 2min total. Now I know that some of you have complained about my scores being a bit short, and i can understand that. So Im thinking about just doing LP versons of them instead of thinking up new things to re score. Also, school starts for me next week so I wont be able to crank out 1 a week anymore, its going to be one a month 2 if Im lucky. I should have done about 10 scores before I posted the first one so I could have a "buffer"but thats water under the bridge. Now Im hoping that i can still get some time in for scores here and there but i just don't know. So thats this weeks update. Thanks for reading and don't forget to follow.
-Michael
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Party of one Re-score
I decided to re-score or "extend" this orchestral bit because liked how it captures Pinky Pie's innocence and sadness. There was such emotion in 5 seconds. I felt like I had to extend that score.
The arrangement itself that you hear from the episode consists of 3 triads starting at Fm (F minor) then E aug (E augmented) then AbM (A flat Major). It was difficult to transition form A to E so I added a fourth triad B flat Major to complete the melody. Having the second note in the B flat Major cord land on F it was easy for me to transition back up to Fm.
After that it was jut adding different instruments to flesh out the arrangement and add some harmonization. I wanted to keep the front half of the song melancholy, while the back half is more epic so to speak. To be honest the back half of the song was created to end the whole song on a more upbeat and happy note. Because pinky pie is upbeat and happy in all of the episodes I felt it necessary to end the song on a happy note.
The whole project took me about 8 hours (not all at once) to compose, I find im most productive at night so thats when I usually start composing. Composing music is not my first strength, that would be sound design and mixing. But nevertheless I do find it fun to compose music, it just takes me a little bit longer to do than say, John Williams, Allen Menken, Thomas Newman, or Bear McCreary (whose blog is awesome by the way). The first thing I do is look for a piece of music that I like and is not over 10 seconds, if it were over 10 seconds theres not much i could do because its already fleshed out by the composer. When I do find one, I then listen to it and play by ear until I get the notes right, which doesn't take long. Then comes the hard part, adding notes and creating a melody. Its weird because I usually find this part difficult so its kind of a hit or mis thing. But inspiration usually slaps me in the face and then i hammer something out in one night. Then I take it and refine it and add some harmony to it and BAM there you have a re-scored version of a song. Im currently working on another re scoring thats pushing my limits notation wise, Pizzicato stings are fun to use however you must use them diligently or it wont sound that good. So yeah, something should be up this coming saturday. After that Im hoping to do one more before school starts and I have to extend my releases to once a moth.
Later
The arrangement itself that you hear from the episode consists of 3 triads starting at Fm (F minor) then E aug (E augmented) then AbM (A flat Major). It was difficult to transition form A to E so I added a fourth triad B flat Major to complete the melody. Having the second note in the B flat Major cord land on F it was easy for me to transition back up to Fm.
After that it was jut adding different instruments to flesh out the arrangement and add some harmonization. I wanted to keep the front half of the song melancholy, while the back half is more epic so to speak. To be honest the back half of the song was created to end the whole song on a more upbeat and happy note. Because pinky pie is upbeat and happy in all of the episodes I felt it necessary to end the song on a happy note.
The whole project took me about 8 hours (not all at once) to compose, I find im most productive at night so thats when I usually start composing. Composing music is not my first strength, that would be sound design and mixing. But nevertheless I do find it fun to compose music, it just takes me a little bit longer to do than say, John Williams, Allen Menken, Thomas Newman, or Bear McCreary (whose blog is awesome by the way). The first thing I do is look for a piece of music that I like and is not over 10 seconds, if it were over 10 seconds theres not much i could do because its already fleshed out by the composer. When I do find one, I then listen to it and play by ear until I get the notes right, which doesn't take long. Then comes the hard part, adding notes and creating a melody. Its weird because I usually find this part difficult so its kind of a hit or mis thing. But inspiration usually slaps me in the face and then i hammer something out in one night. Then I take it and refine it and add some harmony to it and BAM there you have a re-scored version of a song. Im currently working on another re scoring thats pushing my limits notation wise, Pizzicato stings are fun to use however you must use them diligently or it wont sound that good. So yeah, something should be up this coming saturday. After that Im hoping to do one more before school starts and I have to extend my releases to once a moth.
Later
Sunday, August 14, 2011
FAQ's
So here are some frequently asked questions that ill cover in this post so I don't get a ton of emails that have the same question. So here they are.
**PARTY OF ONE RESCORE DOWNLOAD HERE** (aif version)
**PARTY OF ONE RESCORE DOWNLOAD HERE** (aif version)
1. How often will you be uploading content to Youtube?
It really all depends on how busy I am with other things such as college, homework and other things. I try to keep re-scoring stuff high on my priority list. That being said Ill try to upload one every week or 2 weeks. But mostly every 2 weeks.
2. How long are your scores going to be?
About 2 min, anything longer and I would have to be uploading one a month you cant just replay the same three notes over and over and expect it to be interesting.
3. Do you take fan suggestions?
It depends on what it is and how complex the arrangement (how many instruments there are) is. Suggestions are welcome but its up to me to see if it can work or not.
4. Can we have the MIDI tracks of your re-scores?
Simple answer, no. Mainly because not all of you have the vast collection of software instruments that i have so it would not sound good anyways.
5. What format will the downloads be in?
I will be doing two formats, one in .aif 16bit/44.1kHz and the other in .mp3 16bit/44.1kHz
6. What program do you use to compose your music?
I use garage band with Symphony Orchestra and Voices Jam Packs.
7. What instrument do you play?
I play the piano/keyboard.
8. Why don't you use logic or pro tools?
Well, logic would be nice to have, but the other software instruments that are included with logic are not really necessary for what I do. Pro Tools is the industry standard for mixing and recording, however i don't see the need for it and its kinda pricy.
9. Will you be re-scoring other shows besides MLP?
We will have to see. MLP has tons of orchestral beats in it that could use a good extension for them, and I haven't found a show that has this much AWESOME in the score. So probably not.
10. Can I use your music in my video?
As long as you give credit to me I suppose thats ok. Email me soundscore64@yahoo.com first to give me a heads up of what you're planning to do with it. Just be sure to make it clear that I did it. Or I will send physco pinky pie to your house to kill you. And then I'll send evil ninja monkeys to finish the job and clean up the mess. It will look like nothing ever happened, except that your gone now :)
Greetings
Hello everyone, I will mainly be using this blog to post things about soundtracks and scores. This will also keep you updated on what Im currently working on. This first post will be a bit short because Im working on other things but not to worry, there will be plenty more on the way soon. :)
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