| # |
Name (Length)
Size |
Download Links |
Comments |
| |
 |
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| 88 |
 Good Morning (7:21)
142K |
 |
A piece of undiluted pop
free of all deep and hidden meaning -
it's just a good, rousing tune. The
melody is somewhat buried by the SB Live
early on, the synth is too dominant and a
bit piercing, and the drums need a minor
tweak, but if you bear with it, this
works pretty well with both soundcards.
Also lacking a little bass punch in the
verses, perhaps, because of the piano
patch in the SB-Live. This is notable for
the stereo seperation trick later in the
piece, the first time I had come up with
this technique. |
| 89 |
 Kosmopolitan (3:39)
80K |
|
How do you tell somebody
that thinks they are sophisticated that
they're only pretending to be cultured
without really understanding what's
involved? This uptempo piece isnpired
"by My Fair Lady" looks at the
question from the perspective of politics
(you can't tell that there was an
election going on while I was working on
these, can you?) The drums are a little
dominant with the SB-Live, but otherwise
this shouldn't take too much effort to
remix. |
| 90 |
The Deed Is Done
(7:49) 118K |
 |
When a friend of mine, who
goes by the handle Torquemada, challenged
me to try the hard rock/heavy metal genre
as something that was notably absent from
my repetoir, it took a number of attempts
to meet the challenge. This was the first
one. The problem is that most midi banks
just don't have the right instrumentation
for doing that sort of thing properly.
Astonishingly, but statistically
inevitable on at least one song, this
sounds better on the SB Live
than it did on the Awe-32 (no remix
necessary). That's because there's
nothing inherantly wrong with
the SB-Live - just different. Most of the
patches are more realistic than the Awe-32
ones were - but a lot of the tricks that
I used to go beyond the limitations of
the older soundcard are counter-productive
when the better patches prevent the
instrument blends from working. |
| 91 |
Rythm Junkie
(9:59) 162K |
|
Amongst the compliments
I've received over the years, one thing
that I've recieved favourable comment for
was my sense of rythm. Since the only
intruments I've ever even really tried to
play were drums and guitar, this
shouldn't necessarily be a surprise. This
piece is about juxtaposing rythms that
are technically incongruous and trying to
get them to link together satisfactorally
to explore what they have in common - and
what the differences are. One after
another, either the drum track or the
dominant bass riff are varied, until all
the combinations are explored. This needs
a slight remix to work on the SB-Live,
but it's still reasonably ear-friendly
without it.. |
| 92 |
According To
Sunsets (7:09) 137K |
|
One of the minor amusements
I indulge in my song titles is a penchant
for double or even triple meanings. And
if there can be a little humour involved,
so much the better. This is a fairly
straightforward uptempo piece of pop,
with just such an ambigious title. Which
meaning is the legitimate target? I'm not
saying..... :) The instrment mix of this
piece is not quite right on the SB-Live,
but individual instruments actually seem
to work better, so this is will definitly
be a winner when remixed. Still tolerable
in the meantime. |
| 93 |
Hunting Wabbits (6:25)
121K |
|
"Be vewy vewy qwiet...
I hunting wabbits, heh heh heh."
The irreverant lightheartedness of this
piece ensured a title reminiscent of the
Warner Brothers greats. The
suggestiveness of the stalking of prey
simplified the choice no end. It's the
Elmer & Bugs show.... The mix is
almost spot on for the SB-Live, with only
a little tweak needed. Very satisfactory
as it stands, in the meantime. |
| 94 |
Butterfly Rex (3:48)
48K |
|
The melody is so submerged
on the SB-Live that you can't really tell
what this piece is about. It
swirls, floating up and down almost
organically. This is another peice that I
have to keep asking why it's not amongst
the favorites - it has such dynamic
variations in it. Anyone who wants to get
some idea of those variations who is
using the SB-Live soundcard should play
the Awe-32 version - with everything else
submerged, they become much clearer. In
fact, a couple of people have asked me
what time this piece is in, because they
couldn't make up their minds.... |
| 95 |
Last Man Standing (3:46)
45K |
|
I suppose it was inevitable
that it would happen on one of
these tunes - I can no longer remember
anything about the inspiration of this
tune. I can state that it has a big-cinema
sort of flavour to it, conjuring images
of the last gunfighter standing after a
shootout, but at the same time there's a
bit of a modern flavour - almost "die
hard" in context. I dunno. It sounds
weird on the SB-Live but not bad at all -
no remix required. |
| 96 |
 Boot Hill Serenade (4:18)
38K |
|
"Mayor Mick" runs
a small online community known as
Chumpville (www.chumpville.com), oftentimes home
of Stump The Chump and other such fun. I
had been knocking around with these
amiable loonies for a while when Mick
asked me to compose some theme music for
Chumpville. To me, I had always pictured
the place as one of those small
midwestern communities where everyone
knows each other, and you never have to
lock your doors. Combining that with the
"shootout" analogy of the Stump
The Chump competition made an old-style
C&W tune seem the perfect theme. It
caught Mick completely by surprise - but
has since entered into the canons of what
and where the Spirit of Chumpville is
located. This piece needs only a slight
remix (to raise the guitar half of the
melody in prominance equal to the piano
half ) and it's ready for the SB-Live.
While not a fan of country music,
especially Australian country, I have to
admit that this grows on me every time I
hear it. It should be on the favorites
list..... |
