I’ve been busy working on a new audio production project for an upcoming episode of the Drabblecast. I’m working on the narration, voice acting, sound design, and original music on a story that’s bound to gross-out most listeners.
Other than that, I’ve polished and submitted one short story, started a second one, and have resumed revisions on my other novel Casey Stripe: Discount Necromancer.
Here’s part of a retro-inspired tune I’ve been working on, possibly for NMRIH.
Even though I had tried for some classic FM and modular synth tones, ThoughT had commented that the production sounded too clean and modern-sounding. Enter the tape recorder.
I had this bad boy back in 2000 when I started college at UM. I had replaced it with a Minidisc player shortly after the semester started and the recorder ended up in storage for almost fifteen years. Discussing ways to give my song an older grunge reminded me of its existence.
This first attempt was done by re-recording the output of the cassette player into my Zoom. The higher synth notes would vibrate the sides of the speaker and distort, not to mention the added noise from the tape player mechanism. Not ideal, but worth trying.
I tracked down the right cable to go out from the headphone jack and into the line-in on the H2 for this next version. I recorded the parts to tape separately, did a touch of noise reduction to keep the hiss from getting out of control, and mixed them down into this.
Before tape:
After tape:
I started to notice a bit of a timing drift on the percussion tracks by the end of the track, which means I may need to treat smaller portions and edit them back into the grid. I doubt I’d use this technique on everything, but it can help add a lot of sonic character, especially when you’re going for an older feel.
Here is my latest music demo, featuring game soundtrack material from No More Room In Hell and some finished tunes from the alpha of the defunct retro 2d shootformer Facewound.
Some experiments with the gate and vocoder plugins from Reaper turned into this soundscape. This evolved from recordings of ocean sounds, wood impacts, and some stressed ceramic tiles.
I’m proud as hell to say that Gamefront.com has included No More Room In Hell among the games with the best soundtracks of 2014. Check it out. We’re in the same company as Far Cry 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition!
On a related note, Garret Lindquist‘s first album of OST tunes is available for a few bucks off during the Steam sale, so now’s a great time to pick it up. No More Room in Hell – Original Soundtrack Volume 1
Here’s a new Caustic Reverie track for the holidays. It’s a remix of the Miles Davis/Sonny Rollins song Doxy from the 1954 Bags’ Groove album. Give it a listen and a vote on Indaba Music.
My band Identity Collapse has a new batch of shirts available to preorder on Teespring through December 10th. There are multiple styles available, and the men’s and women’s tees come in two colors.
I’ve remixed Son Little’s song The River for a contest on Indabamusic.com. Check it out and vote!
I’ve recently discovered a site called Indabamusic.com that has mixing, remix, and song competitions. Here is my entry for the Turkuaz song “Tip Toe Through The Crypto”.