Some new original music recorded by myself

Talk about any music other than Pink Floyd/Solo Stuff
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The Gunner's Dream
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Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by The Gunner's Dream »

Hey all, hope everyone is doing well. Figured I'd pop in here and share some new music I've been recording. A few months ago I was hired to compose a soundtrack for a horror movie by George A. Romero's son. Romero as in "Night of the living dead, Creepshow, Dawn of the dead, etc." We discussed the
desired musical aesthetic and with me being a keyboard player he was interested in a score that evoked the old soundtracks of the 70s and 80s using analogue synthesizers. So, with that in mind I dove in head first and have recorded something that comes off kind of like a cross between the music of John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream, Mike Oldfield, with a touch of Rick Wakeman, at least to my ears. This first part turned into a bit of an epic but I'd be interested to hear what you all think

https://soundcloud.com/gus-fogle/suite- ... thesizer-1
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Re: Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

Very nice! I remember reading about a fella that bought one of the Prophet 5's used on the original Wall tour, still loaded with their presets! I wonder if they were ever able offload those or document them in some way... I have a Waldorf Blofeld that I love, along with a small network of analog Arturias.

One suggestion I'll make is guitar/bass amp modelers - even with a very clean setting, different speaker cabinet and microphone combinations can have a really big effect on the sound, and make a synth patch stand out while adding a very vintage live feel to it, plus you can choose a mic model that effectively accomplishes just about any EQ tweak to that track.

Keep up the good work!
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Re: Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by mosespa »

I can definitely hear a strong Carpenter influence in the music. Well done, man!

Let us know where to see the film when it's done, please?
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Re: Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by The Gunner's Dream »

Thanks for the suggestions and comments guys, I appreciate it. The film is in the final editing stages. I've been sending Romero a bunch of different ideas and he keeps re-cutting scenes to the new tracks I've sent him, which is awesome lol.

About 90% of that is recorded on a Prophet 5 which I bought specifically for this project, and it blows all the other synths I've ever owned out of the water. I'm still learning all its quirks and how to fully control it, but it is definitely an inspiring instrument.
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Re: Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

I'm still waiting for Gilmour to fulfill his idea from 1983:

"I haven’t got a guitar synthesizer. I’ve tried out the Roland one a couple of times but it hasn’t really particularly interested me. What I’d like most would be to get a type of six string pitch to voltage converter which I could plug into a Prophet. That would really be good. Unfortunately, no one’s made one of those yet. The synthesizer section on a Roland guitar synth is rather pathetic, and no one seems to have really made something like a Prophet or one of those keyboard synthesizers that has got a lot of stuff on it, and have that hooked up to a guitar. There’s no difficulty in doing it, really. One day I expect…"
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Re: Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by The Gunner's Dream »

Since 1983 there have been a number of midi guitars made, but the options are still lacking. One of the most notable was the SynthAxe, which worked great as a midi controller but was very temperamental and expensive, thus it was removed from the market. You could definitely run a Prophet to a midi guitar, but not being a strings player I can't attest to the quality of the midi guitars available on the market. From what I've heard they aren't great, which is probably why you don't hear a lot of guitarists using them. Probably the best option in that category is to use a regular electric guitar and run it with some of the analogue synth pedals available. Analogue Man makes some great gear.
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Re: Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

I have a Godin Session TriplePlay, which has Fishman's wireless TriplePlay pickup - I've seen tests that show its tracking is more accurate than Roland's 13-pin pickups; it works great, and you can route each string to separate midi channels for individual pitchbend, etc. I've never used a Prophet so I don't know if that sort of routing is possible, but it is on the Blofeld using its multi-timbral mode. I also have a Midi Solutions Event Processor Plus, which can be programmed to do a wide variety of things, but I use it to route each incoming note to a different midi channel (up to 6); I don't need this for the Godin, but with a keyboard, I can maintain a separate patch per note, like an old Oberheim. The Waldorf's multi-timbral mode accidentally made a lot of their synths MPE (Midi Polyphonic Expression)-compatible, even ones from late '80s, so I also use mine with a Roli Seaboard. Now I just need a midi pickup for my fretless bass!
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Re: Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by The Gunner's Dream »

Here is the 2nd part of my Suite for Keyboards and Synthesizer (link to part 1 in first post). This one includes new themes as well as variations on themes from the first Suite. As I mentioned I am composing this music for a film being produced and edited by George C. Romero. He has several hours of music that I've recorded and basically gave me a blank check on creativity- I can record what I want, and he's selecting what parts he wants to fit different scenes. I really look forward to seeing how he chooses to adapt different musical ideas and set them to film. Obviously the majority of the music submitted will not be used, as is often the case with film scores. In fact, many scores are much longer than the finished film in terms of running time. However, the creative freedom to write what I want is very liberating and refreshing. The two tracks I've shared in this thread are the more, shall we say "ambitious" of the submitted material thus far. Much of the other material recorded is more suitable as ambient and background music, so not everything I've recorded is this "in your face".

https://soundcloud.com/gus-fogle/suite- ... thesizer-2
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Re: Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by theaussiefloydian »

Lovely to see other composers here on the forum! I can't say I've ever done something as cool as film scoring (closest to that is some background scoring for a couple of student films), but I'm also a little more electronically based.
By the way very nice work! Definitely hear some Carpenter influence, as well as a bit of Paddy Kingsland (think soundtracks to Doctor Who serials like Logopolis or The Visitation)
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Re: Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by PublicImage »

Good work! I like it. The way it's panned worked well through my headphones. There is a Carpenter vibe in the music, but I detect far more of a Claudio Simonetti influence (which is, I am sure, deliberate - not just via the Romero connection, but I remember you waxing lyrical about for his work some years ago). The rhythmic passage beginning at 6:48 in the track linked in the OP is the most obvious example, as that simple drum and bass rhythm clearly inhabits a similar world to the Dawn of the Dead score. Carpenter, being a limited musician, has a far more minimal approach and rarely strays beyond simplistic melodies and rhythms, whereas you (like Simonetti) are obviously a more capable and ambitious writer and performer.

Are you able to share much information about the film? I had no idea Romero's son is a film director!
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Re: Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by The Gunner's Dream »

Hey Roger! It's nice to hear from you again after all these years, and I certainly appreciate your kind words about my music. Yes, the music of Simonetti and Goblin had a notable impact on me back when I was a teenager and just starting to fiddle around with keyboards. The section of music you referenced is a direct homage to one of the main themes in the original "Dawn of the Dead", so nicely spotted there.

The film in question is in post production and the final edit is being assembled. I've only been given a premise- a group of 20 something's end up at a barbecue festival in Texas, only to discover that they're the barbecue. Hardly original, but being a George Romero superfan, sharing my name in the credits with Romero's son is pretty cool. Even in a small way, I'm connected to the Romero universe now. This particular film is being edited and produced by Romero rather than directed, so I've given him many different themes that could be used for different scenes and be chopped up and placed wherever they're most fitting. Rather than scoring directly to the footage shot, I've just composed a variety of music with differing moods. Over the next month I will be sitting down with Romero to look at the footage and finishing up the last bits of incidental music for the (nearly) complete cut of the movie.

What's also is exciting is that Romero has gotten the green light from his producers to write/direct 2 original horror films back to back later this year, and I am in hopes of signing on for those projects under a contract. I don't even mind if the movies don't end up being that good. I'm just happy to be working and building my resume. I grew up on these types of films with classic synthesizer scores, so I'm well briefed for the position. It's really rewarding to hear my music being used to set the mood and atmosphere in a film.

Here is an example of a much more basic track I recorded for background ambiance and tension. There's hours more stuff I have done for this project:
https://soundcloud.com/gus-fogle/follow ... -the-woods
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Re: Some new original music recorded by myself

Post by The Gunner's Dream »

Here is another somewhat ambitious piece, augmented with new equipment and recording software and thus somewhat cleaner production. Also on this recording is a live bass track played by my frequent cohort Jason Miller. I'm really happy with this one:
https://soundcloud.com/gus-fogle/two-is ... -final-mix