I’m trying out bandcamp as a way of making more of my music available for purchase. My main focus is commissioned and licensed music, but the music business is so far from the monolithic days, there’s no excuse not to participate.
Check out Most Wanted and Final Fight on bandcamp:
The new shadowater.com is finally here.
The redesigned site features a new WordPress powered blog, a revamped music section with advanced search and an overhauled resources page.
There’s also a deeper integration with several social networks, along with a ton of behind the scenes changes and improvements.
The new set up will allow me to quickly share new music across the web and makes it much easier for you to find the music you’re looking for.
Thanks to Marissa Nilson for the logo and graphic design.
Now back to the music…
I’ve set a process in motion that will hopefully result in a new and improved look for shadowater.com.
In the past, I’ve always designed and developed the site myself. While my development skills are pro level (in the right languages, anyway), I can’t say the same for my attempts at graphic design. This visual issue is currently being resolved by an *actual* graphic designer.
One of the coming things I’m excited about (which is why I did it first) is that I’ve finally gotten around to integrating Word Press into the site. I’ve always been a fan of their content manager, but never liked handing over control of the site implementation itself to the WP machine. After a little research into the online documentation, though, I was able to get what I wanted from WP without dealing with anything I didn’t, and it only took a few hours. Open Source is awesome.
Another change is one I’ve been planning for awhile. I’ve always liked the Shadowater Studios name, but it emphasizes the means, not the end, which is the music. As part of the coming relaunch, ‘Shadowater Studios’ will become ‘Shadowater Music’. This is what those in the marketing business call a brand reimagimodificiation (I assume).
The relaunch is planned for January, but some elements, like the Word Press powered Musical Musings will be functional by the time you read this post.
That’s all for now.
I just finished a new Spanish guitar track. Pretty happy with how this one turned out.
[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/shadowater-music/sundown-at-the-ok-corral[/soundcloud]
A high quality re-recording of Basil Poledouris’s complete Conan the Barbarian score? This is bound to get Crom’s attention.
Also, I hear he has a new show premiering next week on TBS. Should be interesting.
Basil Poledouris has never been happy with both the original performance and the recording in Rome. The composer has always been very disappointed that the Rome orchestra could not provide every desired instrument he wanted in the score. This is now corrected for this new complete recording featuring 96 musicians and a choir of 100 voices.
Composer Bear McCreary has a new post up on his blog.
This entry is about scoring the return episode of Caprica and goes into detail about collaborating with director and lead actor Eric Stoltz to produce the right sound for a new set/planet and how action scenes don’t always require action music.
Thus far, Caprica has been an amazing musical journey for me. I’ve written a National Anthem, a Tauron gangster rap, a drag queen burlesque, and an opera for Alessandro Juliani, just to name a few explorations. That journey continues as “Caprica” returns to SyFy, Tuesday nights at 10pm, to complete its first season.
Also, it looks like Caprica’s next season depends on its ratings over the next few months, so anyone who’s not watching but liked BSG or thinks there’s room for stories about sentient robots in their lives, should start watching. #Caprica
Who wouldn’t want a complete transcription of the music and effects from Super Mario Bros. for the NES?
Probably, no one. But there’s also very few people who would take the time to transcribe all of Koji Kondo’s* music and effects from Super Mario Bros. for the NES. Joseph Karam is one of those few, though, and he’s been kind enough to post his work online.
His site, mariopiano.com, features all the music and sound effects from Super Mario Bros transcribed for piano, including fingering guidance.
Here’s hoping Zelda is up next.
…Today, as a tribute to the man who changed the face of video game music forever, I can proudly present to you a superior, premium, deluxe sheet music transcription of Koji Kondo’s original Super Mario Bros compositions from 1985, along with the corresponding midi sound files. I hope these meet your highest standards of excellence and aesthetics, and that the optimized fingering serves as a usable and useful tutorial, helping you improve the efficiency of your learning as well as the fluidity and accuracy of your piano performance.
East West, makers of some of the best virtual instruments around, has an ongoing Q&A with composer David Newman. Definitely worth checking out.
Scoringsessions.com has posted a video of the late Michael Kamen conducting a 1991 scoring session for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
I’ve always been a fan of Kamen and Robin Hood and Band of Brothers are two of my favorite scores, so it’s pretty cool to see this footage:
