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Monday, 25 November 2013

Outside Factory

Listen on SoundCloud.com

This track is a continuation of my other track posted earlier on Factory Carnival. Compared to the somewhat subdued mood at the carnival, this track would be the marching band, maybe a procession of teddy bears.

This is one of the few times, if not the first, that I am emulating the style of military band. The instruments are quite minimalistic and skeletal. Not all instruments present in a band have been used.

In addition to this, I took some artistic license and sneaked in some instruments that definitely do not belong in a marching band, such as a timpani as well as an accordion. if you listen carefully you will find them in the mix.

The addition of these instruments are for consistency with the Factory Carnival, and also to have that link of a carnival, on top of the marching band kind of feel.

I hope you like it.

Sunday, 24 November 2013

My Heart Yearns

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A quiet piece that looks inside and contained. it is the feeling that swells up inside when you long for something, but then you keep it in until the aching fades away.

Took me about 4 hours to compose, record and mix.

Saturday, 23 November 2013

Sleigh Bells from Sonokinetic





Sonokinetic has come up with an amazingly detailed sampled virtual instrument of sleigh bells, just in time for the holiday season!

This super spec-ed out instrument contains not one but six different configuration of sleigh bells, with 1, 6, 13, 17, 21 and 25-bell configurations. If that were not enough, the guys at Sonokinetic did not just record one-hit samples for the library: they recorded tempo sync-ed performance loops of each of the bells. Now it is a composer's Christmas dream come true!

The best part of the story: it is free!

So head on over to get the complimentary instrument, check out more information about this superb instrument, listen to the demos and find out how excellent sounding their other products are, if you haven't heard of them before.

Sonokinetic was on the most recent issue of ScoreCast, sharing their company's creative vision and philosophy behind their products. Check it out here.



Note, Sleigh Bells is for the full version of Kontakt 4.2.4 and Kontakt 5 only. Please check your version of Kontakt before installing.

Wednesday, 20 November 2013

On This Hill

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Here's a new track from me. This is a theme I'm proposing for one of a local filmmaker, on one of his projects about the military.

It is kind of a serious and somber sounding track, with a sound of something like an anthem to it.

Sequencing/programming this track took about 3 to 4 hours. However, I started setting up the template and began constructing a draft for this since the night before. That took about an hour.

On the second night, I deleted all the recordings and started off from scratch, keeping the main theme relatively similar, but improved on the arrangement a little bit.

I think there is room to expand on this idea, arrangement wise. Here's hoping the filmmaker likes it. :)

As with my tracks these days, mixing and sequencing is done in Sonar X3 Producer running on my i7 laptop running Windows 8.

Monday, 18 November 2013

Simple Sam Samples - Signor Paganini Solo Violin


Let me present you with a new company and their amazing product, Simple Sam Samples' Signor Paganini Solo Violin for Kontakt.

I came to know about Simple Sam Samples from a forum.


The Virtuoso Solo Violin is a virtual instrument emulating the spectacular sound of Signor Paganini's signature instrument. It consists of spiccato / staccato playing sampled from the violin.

Being small and efficient in it's memory footprint and installation size, the sound is amazingly realistic, and the presence of the original instrument is faithfully re-created.

Special pricing available right now!
At the time of writing this article, there is a special pricing for the Signor Paganini Solo Violin. With at a regular price of $44.99, this solo virtual instrument is now going for only $14.95! To me this is a no-brainer purchase. Just buy it! :)

Audio Demos. Listen to the amazing realism in these demo tracks!

Video demos for your viewing pleasure

Saturday, 16 November 2013

Letting it Out

Listen on SoundCloud.com

Here's the first ever oriental piece that has major oriental instruments. It was originally replacement for a placeholder track that is used by a mobile game. The instruments in that track was synthetic and the playing definitely was not trying to be real.

This track is my proposal to replace that place-holder track. However I wanted to challenge myself to create something that sounds more likely heard from a Chinese orchestra, in terms of the sound and the playing.

Being somewhat of a fusion track, the only instruments that did not belong to a Chinese orchestra would be the sparing use of pieces of a modern drum kit (hats, cymbals), and the electric bass.

This took me about 5 hours to write, record, and mix.

Thursday, 14 November 2013

Factory Carnival


It is the time the year where people celebrate, familhourset together, and children have lots of fun.

Here's a timely track appropriate for the season - carnival music. Reminds me of the few occasions in my younger days when my parents brought me to fairs and carnivals.

This is actually an idea for a current project. Really different from my usual musical inclinations, but it is a fun thing to do and a fresh breath of air.

This track is actually a piece done for a client running an operation similar to an amusement park. In this case the place is set up to be a teddy bear land.

I finished the project set up and musical arrangement in 4 hours. I spent another hour or two polishing up the mixing and audio engineering aspect.

Interestingly I easily broke my own perceived limitation of what i call my 2-minute barrier. I have been struggling to keep my tracks going once the piece exceeds 2 minutes of play time. This time round it did not seem too difficult. Whatever the reason, I believe I need more practice :)

I hope you like it.