Chakra Meditation

Evening

So, about a year or so ago, an editor friend of mine and I (his name is Anthony Rhoads) started another project for John Edward. It was called Infinite Quest and it was a pretty cool idea, a social networking site and educational tool for people interested in cultivating their non-corporeal skills.

Anyway, Anthony and I were working together on a way to incorporate video and music/soundscapes together to make a mediation piece for the site. It had been about a year since we had worked together on the last season of Cross Country so we were pretty excited.

So I found out that you can watch and listen to the first Mediation (Red) without being a member of Infinite Quest. Here's the link:

http://www.infinitequest.com/tools/chakra-meditation-player

And here's the link to Anthony Rhoads' website:

http://www.rhopro.com

Now you might be wondering if these are shameless plugs for my friends.

You'd be right :)

j

World Instrumentation

Morning,

So, ever hear of a Berimbau? Perhaps an Erhu? How bout a Pipa (no not Kate's sister)?

The commonality for all of these instruments, at least to me is that I hadn't heard of them 6 months ago. Alright, maybe the Erhu, but a Berimbau?

One of the joys of being a composer is that you occasionally get to work with instrumentation you've never heard of before. Personally I had no business picking up a Pipa, but after I included that in the full orchestration piece of music the texture changed imperceptibly... but it did change nonetheless.

I can't remember where I read it, I think it may have been Eric Persing giving an interview, maybe Nick Phoenix; in any case it's an interesting idea.

In western music orchestration, we are used to the regular standbys. Full orchestra composed of strings, winds, percussion, and sometimes choir. Oh and don't forget the piano player.

The suggestion was this though: try replacing some of your instruments with some exotic counterparts. Instead of a baritone or French horn, Try the German Alpenhorn. Replace a commonly used bass drum with an African floor drum. The point being while these instruments sound a little bit like their Western counterparts, they aren't an exact match. By introducing new textures, some of them of which are perceptible, some not, you can see if there are certain world instruments that were give you a different timbre to your orchestrations.

If you do try this, I'd be interested to hear what you replaced and how it sounded and sat in the mix.

Till next time,

Jack

Album Sessions

Heya

In NY this week working on producing Jim Caputo's vocals for his new release due sometime the end of next year.

Yesterday was a lot of editing and clean up, and today will be as well. We'll do some vocals later today, and sending a lot of stems over to Scottie Kohlmorgen for drums. If he can turn them around fast enough, all the basic tracks should be done, with the exception of the odd instrument that Jim wants and I just can't play.

Here's to a long productive day in the studio :)

j