Twilight Mediations II Setup Day One

So, I find myself in between terms, so it seemed high time to finish this followup album thats been percolating so long.

Setup went okay today. Wrote a minute of melodies, using Omnisphere (what else would I be using for the first track :), then I tried booting up one of the PCs to offload some of the playback, cause this first track is going to be orchestration heavy.

It started up, Synergy loaded, VStack loaded, the patches loaded and I got a MIDI pulse, but no sound. I think the Audiophile 24/96 card might be fried.

I think it might be just me, but am I blowing up sound cards too much? Anyway, They(tm) finally opened a Guitar Center about 4 miles from me. Guess where I'm headed in the morning?

I'll keep you apprised as the nights continue on.

My best,

Jack

Bad Cat Music Collective – All Pumped Up

Finding Seoul is finished. Definitely feeling the sad its done, but can’t wait to see the final cut – thing. Ya know?

Next up is to get the musical geniuses I work with approved to be pumpaudio.com artists. We’re going to go under our current moniker, Bad Cat Music Collective. It started out as a drop-box working music collaboration between some pretty scary individuals. It became clear after the fifth genre of music we tackled that this group needed to be official, at least in music placement people’s eyes.

So wish me luck while I try to get the Bad Cats pump audio green lit.

Twilight Meditations 2 is back in the news as well. One more track and it’s done. Mix should go pretty quickly (I usually mix on the fly anyway). I’ll let you know as soon as I get a release date. Until then, I will start posting snippets on the Facebook page. Comments, good and bad are always appreciated.

j

Looking Over The Tracks

Hi there fellow friends and composers

I’ve checked (and re-checked) what I have so far for TM2 and realized that a little more than half the album is done. There are three tracks that I am confident will make it onto the next album, while two others which don’t match the sound. One of them was so upbeat and happy I almost didn’t recognize it was me.

Along the same vein as the working-title tracks “Open” and “Clear” are another two percolating, which have yet to be named. Still figuring out instrumentation on one and the other…well I know it will have piano, that counts right? :)

Since returning to school, I’ve found less and less energy to do this album. But I am still working on it, and I will keep you posted on how it is going.

As always thanks for reading,

j

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 7

The meditation section of the CD is complete.  The last track, Dawn Breaks...er..Daybreak.  Hmmm.   Which sounds better to you?  Anyway, it renews us with the promise of the new day, and all of the wonderful things that come with it.

The empowerment I have felt these last seven days has been truly remarkable.  It has, technical issues notwithstanding, been an effortless process.  Gone are pretty much all of the ideas in the sunrise cd folder, which was my rough ideas session to draw from, but this is the way the disc needed to come out.  I didn't fight it (much).  Heheh.

I plan to write 2 more pieces tomorrow, to sort of Sum up all of the themes that have been explored in these pieces.  I stayed away from repeating themes in each of the songs, because I really wanted time to explore as many "hooks" as possible.  Some of the pieces start very upbeat, and slowly wind to a pastoral end.  Some stay at an even keel.

I listen to these seven tracks and realize that there is nothing left to say musically.  Oh I could go on and on here, but my yammering is just verbal comments on something that must be heard.  Its kind of like the Matrix, only the real Matrix is better than anything I could ever come up with.

I hope to, in the future, work with a certain editor I know, to set some of these pieces to video.  Deep Blue and Star Trails especially could make good fodder for this creative editor who has mastered animation, stop motion, live action, etc...

Tomorrow I mix four more pieces and the CD will be complete.  Critical listening will take place Wednesday, and with any luck, it will be FTP'd to Discmakers shortly there after for replication.

I've seen some of the preliminary artwork that Jenn has done, and it is both incredible and inspiring.  Deep Blue was written because of one of her ideas she showed me.  She has some alternate covers as well, I asked for the other ones to be possible other albums.  But we shall see.

I think I may have said everything I need to with this one project.

See you tomorrow

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 6

Have you ever look up at the sky, regardless of the the darkness, and see those dark clouds? They're almost painted on the sky, the high ones, that hardly move.  I can gauge their movement in relation to their position with the moon (if there is one).  A slow beat accompanies this movement, a glacial, almost planetary movement captured, moving imperceptibly.

As the album winds down with this and another piece, I feel a full circle completing.  An emptiness inside me has been filled, and meditation will take on a new significance for me, and I hope you as well.  While not a meditation CD by even the loosest definition, I still feel it can serve multiple purposes.  The final piano line, complimented by Flute (alto), Oboe and Clarinet sums this piece up nicely.

I appreciate you few who take this journey with me.  I appreciate you just nodding your heads and smiling when I get...over metaphorical and stray into the ethers of weird.  Heh.

The final two pieces will complete tomorrow and wednesday.  The album is mixing Wednesday and Thursday.  After that, it is out of my hands and into yours.

My very best,

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 5

Sometimes, when I am up extremely early, the sky loses it's dark starry aspect and becomes the deepest blue imaginable.  The night is coming to the end, as the sun will inevitably make its way to the horizon...but not yet.

Deep Blue is set in Eb, a very expressive key that I don't often write instrumental music in.  The strings and winds especially shine in this piece, providing a warm bed for the acoustic guitar to lie in.

Toward the end of the piece, I am finally able to unveil my  secret weapon.  Gigaviolin.  Short of having a virtuoso violinist sitting in my studio with a Stradivarius and 20k in Mikes, this sample set for Gigastudio is so expressive it makes me wish I were a string player.

After speaking with Jenn a bit today,  we realized that the tempo map for this CD needed a bit of thinking through.  I originally wanted a solid hour, with a gentle rise of tempo right up until minute 59 of the disc.  Picture a Long gentle sloping U that doesn't quite get to where it started at the end.  This is when I was convinced that this would be a meditation cd.  There is a difference between meditation and meditative, and I am falling solidly into the latter category.  So, after quite a bit of thought, and some bribes to my brain of coffee and donuts (yum), I was able to ratchet this piece up at the end to almost the same tempo as I started in the CD.  We're not gonna go all the way up, because I wanted people to be a bit more relaxed since starting the listening.  It will make sense though, so you don't have to go past minute 45 to get a full Meditation in, if thats what you are using it for.  So consequently, the last track (or two) will be at original tempo, and just keep us at a nice even pace.

What happened to the original sessions I should be working with, already sketched out and good to go?  I have no idea.  I think Jenn and my 8 core conspired on some unconscious level to make those sessions disappear.  Its okay with me though, this journey is so enjoyable, I feel like it could be therapy.

Also, and I don't know why, the end reminds me of my children.  I think the hopeful, child like theme repeated by guitar, violin and oboe is theirs somehow...

Track : Deep Blue

Runtime : 7:30

Tomorrow and tomorrow...

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 4

At night, when its a clear night, I like to look up at the sky, and try to see the dimmest stars I can manage.  These stars are, generally, farther away than the brighter ones.  The light reaching me from them is old, sometimes ancient.

Its a profound experience looking into the past this way, and many emotions occur.  One that is most significant is sadness.  I am sad because I am seeing something that will never be seen at that moment, in that way again.  I am sad that I will never be able to reach those stars in my lifetime, and wish I could look upon them from distances not impeded by my earthbound self.

To me, sadness is not a bad emotion to have, at least in this sense.  This is because it is not only sadness I am feeling, but happiness, joy and humble emotions I can't put into words.  These things all remind me of my life, and those around me, and the simple beauty that can be observed up there and here and on earth.

If you can see this, you are alive, and the stars are looking down at you. Why not have a glance up at them?

Track four : Star Light

Runtime : 8:17

See ya tomorrow :)

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 3

Morning Gang :)

Night Three!  After taking two very much needed weekend evenings off, its back to work here on the album.  This evening, I found myself looking up at the metaphorical stars.  I remember as a kid looking into the night sky and see shooting stars going as far as horizon to horizon.  I remember they were some of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

I felt it fitting to name this slow piece Star Trails because it evokes a small measure of the feeling those shooting stars gave to me.

I started with some heavily edited reverse piano and bell sounds, and progressed to more traditional elements for the middle of the piece.  I've noticed that I've been following a pattern without realizing it.  I favored the artificial and synthy elements in the beginning of the piece, and then moved to the traditional elements.  This piece was no exception.  Though a really pretty voice patch picks up the second theme at the end, simplifies it, and then piano takes us out.

The most enjoyable part of this is right around a minute.  I layered this little piano pattern with a staccato piccolo, playing the same notes in the same octave.  Its a little playful and sets up the first of the stars playing across the sky, those childhood moments when you realize there are amazing things in front of you, and the golden tickle of the excitement you feel.

It clocks in at a respectable 6:33.  I was going to lengthen it by repeating the first section but with different instrumentation, but if you feel like you said something right the first time, why say it again?

Know what I mean?

See you tomorrow night, and thanks for reading.

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 2

Morning Gang

Well, its night two (well, morning two) of the final Twilight Meditation CD project.  Even as I complete the second track of this CD, I'm starting to feel a bit... apprehensive about finishing it this week.  These last two nights have been really magical.  I don't want it to end.  No one is awake, almost in the whole world, at least from where I'm sitting, and the sounds that the computers and the modules are making just make me so happy.  This Fazioli sample (Piano) is so beautiful I want to go buy the real thing.

Anyone have an extra 250k they can lend?  ;)

Anyway, no more misty, I'm a guy for God's sake.

Track two, tentatively named Vapor on the Fields, clocks in at 8 minutes.  It draws just a touch from the last theme in the first track, but it goes to different and varied places.  Some of it is very warm, especially in the middle, with adagio strings in a very low register.  Its almost pastoral.  The predominate instrument in the piece is a Classical Guitar.  I'd say I did this because it sets the harp, Fazioli Grand and Strings nicely, but I really did it for Jenn, cause she said she loves the instrument.  So do I.

The CD continues to thumb it's metaphorical nose at me at completely deviate from what I had planned to record.  I think I'm getting okay with it though.  I opened my manuscript for the first time and ACK! wrote the piece out with a pen!  Had to, too many changes and I was getting lost at some points.  Sleep deprivation and orchestration, man, any composer will tell you they go hand in hand.

Tonight finished early, which I am thankful for, because I have an evening scheduled with some good friends tonight, and I want to enjoy myself without too much fatigue.

See you Sunday :)

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 1

Morning Gang

Well, i've been working on my Meditation CD project for a while now.  Release date is quickly coming, and Jenn told me how long they need to turn around duplication.  So, its full steam ahead, in which will no doubt be an interesting week of midnight sessions.

It actually all started the night before last, with temporary additions to the studio.  I added an 88 Key controller (Yamaha S80) and some extra computer power for those really cpu intensive sections.  There are also three VERY cool mikes setup (thanks Jim!).  A Blue Woodpecker (Ribbon Mike), AKG 414XLII and a Earthworks condenser.  These are setup strategically in no particular fashion or reason, scattered about my studio, ready to capture whatever instrument or weird object,...or breath.. at a moments notice.

Since the majority of the album is written, either sketched in sessions or in my head, very little music really needs to be written.  Just orchestrated, mixed, mastered and out the door right?

Eeep!  I wish it would have been so easy.  Because as soon as I downbeated (is that even a word?) the first bar of the first track, I realized that it was going to go its own way with no consideration for what I've already done and what I wanted.  Yes, the CD has taken off of its own accord and now is laughing at me as I scramble to re-write, re-orchestrate, etc the entire Disc.

Ah, love being a composer, don't you?

Okay here's the scoreboard.  CD = 1 .   Jack = 0.

Okay, I didn't come away with nothing.  I have a rough mix of a completed first track, tentatively titled Twilight Falls, and it clocks in at 5 minutes.  I did have a different name for it, ask Jenn sometime, she'll laugh...at me...again ;)

See ya tomorrow

jack