Mastering, and preparing audio for in-game use is the usually last of the most important steps to preparing a soundtrack.  Without the proper polish, even the best music can sound dull, and besides, there certainly has got to be SOME reason people get excited about “remastered” albums. When I finish putting together a track for a game (or any track, really), I’ve got a well-mixed version that I wouldn’t mind listening to, but I often have to crank up the [...]

So, there we were, staring at an empty canvas with one goal ahead of us… boss music.  Rich has an incredible knack for disturbing the neighbors with grinding power chords, soaring solos, and screeching pinch-harmonics, but his talents as a musician go beyond his guitar playing skills.  Rich also helped co-write several tracks on the GunGirl 2 soundtrack, including “Death or Destiny,” “Oblivion,” and “Sanctus Inferno.”  Beyond writing, his lead-improvisations led to many of the most memorable moments in the [...]

Well, July is almost over, and it looks like 2010 is flying by.  I like looking back and seeing what I’ve accomplished and giving thanks to the people that helped me get here, so let’s fly through this January to July retrospective. January saw my first panel appearance at MAGFest 8, where I met people who knew who I was and even asked me to sign programs!  I’m not sure I quite did anything to earn their respect to that [...]

Today we sit down with mezzo-soprano Stephanie Schönhofer, who appears on the track “Libera Me” in GunGirl 2, and as “demonic-extra” in other tracks.  Stephanie’s experience as a performer goes back a long time, and I was super happy to work with her on this soundtrack – she brought a great dynamic to the studio and was extremely flexible as a musician.  Her addition to the credits theme, and consequently, the trailer were a great asset in the success of [...]

I love musicians – those wonderful talented individuals who transform ink and shapes on a page into a brilliant beam of tangible, audible emotion.  I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to work with so many of them everyday at school, on my soundtracks, and on the Songs for the Cure fundraiser.  So, it’s only fitting that I point the spotlight at them in a fun new project I’d like to call “Get to Know,” where I’ll be asking [...]

Mixing and Mastering is tough.  And it’s annoying, too, because you sit down and write all of this really great music, but at the end of the day it can really all go to waste if it doesn’t have that “right sparkle.”  And no, I don’t mean over-compressed limit-breaking overdriven mixes are the only way to get a good sound (see what I did there?).  Still, nearly every mix can use some sort of sonic adjustment, and this holds true [...]

Let’s talk Gear, ya know? But before I do that, I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve got limited edition GunGirl 2 Soundtrack CDs on sale for $8!  I’d really mean a lot to me if you’d stop by and pick one up to support future endeavors of mine, or as a “thank you” for reading this blog.  It’s got some incredibly sexy artwork by Amanda Appiarius along with a photograph of the team taken by Lauren Walsh. But, okay, enough [...]

Working with Live Musicians (ya know, the kind that breathe – let’s see your Roland do that!) Just figuring out the best way to talk about this subject is a problem of infinite complexity, so I’ll be doing the best I can to discuss working with musicians as it applied to the GunGirl 2 soundtrack.  While my two personally favorite tracks with live performers are “Anomaly” and “Libera Me,” I’ve decided to talk about “Heartless Abyss” first for it’s pretty [...]

Score to “Libera Me” I wanted to post a “Making of” tonight but unfortunately I only got about a third of the way through the article.  To make up for this, here is the score to Libera Me. There are some obvious things that have changed between this draft-score and the final version you’ll hear, most importantly being the ending and the range of the voice in certain places.  Stephanie is an extremely gifted mezzo-soprano and there was no sense [...]

The Making of Anomaly (Violins and Guitars, OH MY!) Before I start talking about working with live performers, I thought it’d be a good idea to discuss the process behind creating one of my favorite tracks on the soundtrack.  I’ve got demos of the piece through various stages of its creation as well.  I’ll be listening the gear used and what’s added through each of the three iterations up to the final version.  I also spend a LOT of time [...]