Two months and two albums later...
I can't keep this pace up, but it has been a fun ride. Since the last day of August this year, I have released not one but three albums! Sales have been dismal, but the reviews have been good.
I signed up for a free account on Create Space and on Bandcamp. Physical CDs can be ordered from Create Space. Digital downloads can be gotten from Bandcamp. The music is all instrumental, all computer-generated, and uses the MAGIX Music Maker programs to create. It's quite a lot of fun to sit here with a blank page with which to cover in a soundscape. Some of the pieces are very simple, others are highly complex. There are not only the standard musical instrument recordings available, but also sound effects that border on radio play Foley work. I'm basically just painting with sound, as it were.
The first album is titled "Never Bank On A Learning Curve." https://www.createspace.com/2190909 is the link to the CD. This album is a selection of my solo projects from 2011 to the present day. All the songs were composed using MAGIX Music Maker, a computer program that allows me to be musically creative in a whole new way. The program uses loops and clips of recordings of various musical instruments. These can be put together like to make a complete song. There are thousands of these clips available. I put them together in a series of sequences, somewhat like composing a piece on a loop-based synth. Some pieces are simple, consisting of a mere four or five instrument voices, each with their own sequences. Others are very complex, featuring sixteen or more instrument voices, straight-up synth sequences I created from scratch, sound effects from within the program library, and even special sound effects that I created myself using other audio editing software.
The next album is titled "Second Helping." https://www.createspace.com/2196468 on Create Space. I had a few songs left over from the first album, so I got to work writing enough new ones to fill a second album. In less than a month, I was ready to go. I really burned the midnight oil to get these ready in time. As always, the mixing and editing were the hardest parts of the process. The mix of different styles is even more striking on this album. Some day I'll have to do an album in a single style, just to see if I can.
The third is titled "The Displaced Detective Suite." https://www.createspace.com/2196507 is the link to the Create Space page. Ten original instrumental songs inspired by Stephanie Osborn's first four "Displaced Detective" novels. Hearing these compositions is like listening to a film score. Each piece evokes mental imagery of the scene or scenes in the books. Stephanie and I have worked closely together on every aspect of the album from start to finish. My goal has been to create a portrait in sound of her wonderful novels. She and I agree that I have done so, and even managed to surpass her expectations. This album may just contain the most beautiful music I have yet created. Once you hear it, I think you'll agree.
There is also a bonus track included with the Bandcamp full album downloads, and as being the free preview track on the Create Space site. This isn't really part of the album. It's a unique, stand-alone piece that I wanted to do the whole time I was writing the rest of the music. I kept hearing this in my head as I put all the other music together. Finally, Stephanie and I managed to find a way to make it happen.
"Rescue At Reichenbach Falls" is an 18-minute re-edit of the instrumental track "Rescue At The Falls." It includes clips from a public domain radio play from the 1950s based on "The Final Problem" by Arthur Conan Doyle. These clips feature Sir John Gielgud as Holmes, and Orson Welles as Moriarty. And as an extra special treat, Stephanie Osborn making her voice acting debut as her character Skye Chadwick!
Only the voice acting clips are from the radio play. All the other audio SFX were assembled by myself from various online public domain sound effects libraries. Stephanie recorded her part from a script I wrote that adapts dialog from her novels.
http://danhollifield.bandcamp.com is the link to my Bandcamp page. All three of the albums can be downloaded here. Or you can listen to them for free first.
I signed up for a free account on Create Space and on Bandcamp. Physical CDs can be ordered from Create Space. Digital downloads can be gotten from Bandcamp. The music is all instrumental, all computer-generated, and uses the MAGIX Music Maker programs to create. It's quite a lot of fun to sit here with a blank page with which to cover in a soundscape. Some of the pieces are very simple, others are highly complex. There are not only the standard musical instrument recordings available, but also sound effects that border on radio play Foley work. I'm basically just painting with sound, as it were.
The first album is titled "Never Bank On A Learning Curve." https://www.createspace.com/2190909 is the link to the CD. This album is a selection of my solo projects from 2011 to the present day. All the songs were composed using MAGIX Music Maker, a computer program that allows me to be musically creative in a whole new way. The program uses loops and clips of recordings of various musical instruments. These can be put together like to make a complete song. There are thousands of these clips available. I put them together in a series of sequences, somewhat like composing a piece on a loop-based synth. Some pieces are simple, consisting of a mere four or five instrument voices, each with their own sequences. Others are very complex, featuring sixteen or more instrument voices, straight-up synth sequences I created from scratch, sound effects from within the program library, and even special sound effects that I created myself using other audio editing software.
The next album is titled "Second Helping." https://www.createspace.com/2196468 on Create Space. I had a few songs left over from the first album, so I got to work writing enough new ones to fill a second album. In less than a month, I was ready to go. I really burned the midnight oil to get these ready in time. As always, the mixing and editing were the hardest parts of the process. The mix of different styles is even more striking on this album. Some day I'll have to do an album in a single style, just to see if I can.
The third is titled "The Displaced Detective Suite." https://www.createspace.com/2196507 is the link to the Create Space page. Ten original instrumental songs inspired by Stephanie Osborn's first four "Displaced Detective" novels. Hearing these compositions is like listening to a film score. Each piece evokes mental imagery of the scene or scenes in the books. Stephanie and I have worked closely together on every aspect of the album from start to finish. My goal has been to create a portrait in sound of her wonderful novels. She and I agree that I have done so, and even managed to surpass her expectations. This album may just contain the most beautiful music I have yet created. Once you hear it, I think you'll agree.
There is also a bonus track included with the Bandcamp full album downloads, and as being the free preview track on the Create Space site. This isn't really part of the album. It's a unique, stand-alone piece that I wanted to do the whole time I was writing the rest of the music. I kept hearing this in my head as I put all the other music together. Finally, Stephanie and I managed to find a way to make it happen.
"Rescue At Reichenbach Falls" is an 18-minute re-edit of the instrumental track "Rescue At The Falls." It includes clips from a public domain radio play from the 1950s based on "The Final Problem" by Arthur Conan Doyle. These clips feature Sir John Gielgud as Holmes, and Orson Welles as Moriarty. And as an extra special treat, Stephanie Osborn making her voice acting debut as her character Skye Chadwick!
Only the voice acting clips are from the radio play. All the other audio SFX were assembled by myself from various online public domain sound effects libraries. Stephanie recorded her part from a script I wrote that adapts dialog from her novels.
http://danhollifield.bandcamp.com is the link to my Bandcamp page. All three of the albums can be downloaded here. Or you can listen to them for free first.