Composition Collaboration.

To further my abilities as a composer, there was a amalgamation between J.A Productions and Sineshard Records.

Above is a video showing our work together on making a track. 

This was recorded, demonstrating the new partnership, and regular collaboration sessions. We arrived on time, and the scheduled session was a success. Below are some photo's of the work, in chronological order of how the session happened.

Figure 1: Composing the song in the video.

First the basic composition of the song, played on the piano using the chords (A Minor, E Minor, F Major)

This is where we began the basic work with each-other, and this is how we formed an official collaboration together. While there was un-official collaboration sessions, this was the one where we decided to make it a regular thing, to test our skills from one-another. During these sessions we would talk and critically comment on each-others work, forming bonds.

This lead to us becoming more experienced as composers together, and from this we have composed, songs for a collaboration album, and began a music project with a Music Practise Singer named Kayleigh - This is our first recorded attempt of vocals as a group. https://soundcloud.com/sineshardrecords/kayleigh-hindmarsh-outsiders-snippet


Here is a second video highlighting the production of one of the many collaborations that we have worked on together as a group. This one is slightly more in-depth showing the positive contribution to ideas while working as a group.

Justification.

Over the course of this year I have participated in new and exciting opportunities, which I wouldn't of during earlier parts in my life. I have begun working on an exciting collaboration group, with the great friends I have met. My Creative Development has shown me critically comment and evaluate my own ability to work, and become a new composer for my own company and my friends record label.

My, new work has shown me, develop in the most creative and exciting musical pieces I have ever created, from developing my composing skills, to working and transitioning to new software.

My portfolio, shows my ability growing throughout the weeks, from small scale gaming projects, to large scale animation projects. The work on there is improving as I upload and create. This marks a change in my professional and creative attitudes to working within new and changing job requirements. From my early pieces to my final pieces.

I am happy to have worked and formed strong bonds with potential business clients and created new partnerships and job opportunities. My work may have flaws, such as production errors and/or inexperience, however I believe I have developed my work to a standard, that I wasn't working at before.

-James.

Ballad of the Wind Fish - 12/05/14 - 15:47. (FMP)

Recently I began working on music, that was inspired from the actual Original Sound Track's of Zelda Games. Such as A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Link's Awakening, and Majora's Mask. Over the course of study, I have learned much more about how the Gaming Music Industry has inspired my work over the last few years.

Firstly I began writing pieces based on ideas, from various sources in games, e.g. Fallout and Silent Hill which I spoke about in my last two blog posts.

This lead to me writing and thinking about Music in a different way, growing up listening to my gaming Idol Koji Kondo.

Last Night (1l/05/14) - I began working on a Piece inspired by a song called Ballad of the Wind Fish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPWEJMGxTBs)

This piece was written in the key of D Major. Which followed a simple set of arpeggio's and inverted strings (Which where changed to Synthesized Pads's in the Ableton Demo.) which heavy focus on Choirs and Piano's to retain a similar feel to the original I based it off.

   Figure 1: Link's Awakening.

https://soundcloud.com/jamesandrewharrisgrant/zelda-demo-1-ballad-of-the-wind-fish - A piece Based on Ballad of the Wind Fish from Link's Awakening. Made in Ableton Live 8.

(www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPWEJMGxTBs (remade by Fox Amoore.) This was the version I decided to base my original interpretation from.

This piece was developed in consideration with my musical performance. This was inspired by Koji Kondo's piece of music called Ballad of the Wind Fish from a Legend of Zelda game. This work is a piece that I wrote as a basic string demo in D Major.

This arrangement is created to have that video game feel, and will be adapted using soundfonts from Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past. This was also created using chord inversions, and seventh chords. This is to provide a more original and authentic sound, that is desired by the modding community overall.

The song, is 2 minutes and 20 seconds long, featuring heavy focus on choirs and pianos.

 I deem this song suitable for performance, as it can be easily adapted to be made longer, to fit the timings of the Ableton Live performance.

This song is a piece that I like, in terms of sound quality and mood, it delivers and carries the tone and mood how I intended when I created it originally, however I feel there is greater improvements required, as I need to provide more instruments and continuity within the song.

 I want to add more instruments to provide more depth to the song as there is a lot of vague/empty sound area's as the song transitions, I am also wanting add a greater sense of continuity so I can make it sound more straight forward for indie game development. Though I am planning on fully developing this for use within the Zelda modding community.

This song was wrote in a recording session in which I had planned to film myself coming up with the idea, and playing it on a piano. The session was planned for 10:30 AM and I had to bring a note book, a Video Camera. 

The session went ahead as planned, and I wrote this piece in under 50 minutes, then began work on digitizing it, through Cubase 5.

-James. 

Video Game Work 2014 - Part 2 - 02/05/2014 (FMP and CD)

This is the second page detailing my work so far into 2014. On the first part I wrote about game music that I worked on driven by inspiration, on this page I am going to talk about the pieces of music I have written, so they can implemented on video game modding work.
 




The first piece is a musical piece that was written using Sustained Chords and featured various horror elements, such as high pitched strings and a deep lead instrument (bass guitar) with a string section playing D#, G, A (first chord) D, G, A (second chord) and finally C, F, G (final chord.) This was the night time version of the Iconic Lost Woods theme prolific throughout the Zelda series, to which I have also added my own version for a modification called Shattered Fate.






The second piece is my version of the Lost Woods, unlike the horror elements of the night-time counter part this one opts for mystery using the original two chorded progression A minor (A, C, E) and F major (F, A, C.)  Using string sections, choirs, and bells as the main instrument. this piece features a more orchestral element, due to the nature of the piece I decided to use this as the main focus, while having an Alice-in-Wonderland type feel to the song. Recently I remixed this piece to give it a more melodic yet aggressive sound - https://soundcloud.com/jamesandrewharrisgrant/forest-ableton-live-9-demo-full

                                                          

Figure 1: Lost Woods

         
The third piece is a rendition of the Gerudo Desert theme from Twilight Princess, this was made using a non-diatonic chord progression (like most of my video-game pieces) that goes up in semi-tones. This chord progression provides an intense Middle-Eastern/Arabic theme, this was something I thought of during the initial stages of composition e.g. I sat down and wrote the piece based on an Arabic scale of G, G#, and A# with an added C and D# focused lead. The main instrumentation was based around guitars, wood instruments and wind instruments, with a sampled vocal providing power to the later sections of the song.

                             

Figure 2: Gerudo Sunset

The fourth piece was for the Ice-Temple, this one unlike the other three was an original piece, that didn't come from material already there. This piece featured ambient qualities that relied heavily around a reverberated synthesized lead, this song was made around seventh chords, starting with G# (G#, C, G. C) then F (F, G#, C, G.) then C (C, D#, F, G#) and D# (D#, F, G#, C.) While this started out as an ambient piece I later decided to add drums to the song to make it sound less empty. This song also featured a chord change, this was from a Three chorded progression in the beginning sections and then a Four chorded progression.

Figure 3: Snowpeak Ruins

This piece describes the writing qualities and the outright methods I used to create the music for the listed soundtracks in the introductory post. This also helped me boost my skills writing about them professionally.

Video Game Work 2014 - Part 1 - 02/05/2014 (FMP)

After a brief period, I decided to start making video game music again, on the regular forum. This time I decided to add more cinematic elements to this years portfolio work. Starting with...

Figure 1: Fallout 1

The first piece was - https://soundcloud.com/jamesandrewharrisgrant/videogameportfolio_tribal
inspired by Mark Morgan's work on the Fallout series. The theme I took inspiration from was the theme from Fallout 1 called A Trader's Life - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OTqEfRk0lI
To which I based a tribal themed piece on. (linked above)

Figure 2: Silent Hill 1

The Second Piece was - https://soundcloud.com/jamesandrewharrisgrant/creepy-ambience based from various sound works by Akira Yamaoka, especially from the first and second Silent Hill games pictured above - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzs9T1188wA


As I had mentioned in my introductory blog, I wanted to attribute some form of my work into the creation of pieces influenced by the people who had inspired me to become a composer. So I followed by creating two pieces in the style of Mark Morgan and Akira Yamaoka.

This helped me understand somethings I had not yet discovered, by studying the MIDI files of the most influential people in my professional aptitude.

I felt this topic was a very large area for me to speak about so I separated it into two parts. One speaking about the efforts, in which I developed my skills from studying pieces of music and the MIDI files from the people who influenced me.

And the second which documents my own work on Soundtrack Production.

Nibiru. - 20/01/2014 (FMP and CD)

In September of 2013 I began working on a Teesside University project called Nibiru. This project entailed work on an animation by Spirit Animations Studios. A link to their Word-press page - http://spiritanimations.wordpress.com/

This project was developed in separate parts, one part Final Major Project. The other Creative development. I used this specific sound track creation project as evidence for both, specifically be cause of the wide range of development the project followed.

When this project concluded, I had learned something about composition for small-scale animation projects, which was a completely new experience for myself, as I had developed a more business/professional mindset to my craft.

I began work using Cubase 5 and Ableton Live to make the third Demo.

below there is a link to the video and the music:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLiT2qhlCr4#t=18

The third demo was wrote as an electric/ambient track with retro-futuristic drum and string elements.


12/05/14 - as of now, this project is completed and ready to be submitted into a festival. https://www.dropbox.com/s/vxxp65hmv6m8qk7/final_test2.mov

Above is a link to the Final test.

Figure 1: Nibiru Image

Throughout the year, one of my major goals during the FMP was to complete an animation job for a company called Spirit Animations, and their work on an animation called Nibiru. This project was to go to a festival at the end of the production cycle.

During the making of the music, I had several ideas in mind about, how I was going to pursue this.

The First Track, was created using Ableton Live, and was composed utilizing the drum pads of the software, which allowed for individual effects placement and panning placement. This created a very sophisticated and sci-fi feel to the track. The second most important element was, the pads and the synthesized sounds that where included within the piece, these where ultimately inverted, to increase the potential of the sound, in my personal opinion, while I liked the drums and all of the musical elements, I did not like the fact, I over-produced the piece, and made it too long, critically, the song fit the brief, but needed to be shortened down, to a minute.

The Second track was decreased in length, and was composed, using Cubase 5, following the brief, however the overall producer/manager of the animation did not like this version; because it had a very Darth Vader feel to it. This version of the song introduced the core melody played by a synthesizer, which followed on the remaining two pieces, originally this piece had a vocal overlay, which described the full story of the animation, however a decision was made to remove that and focus on a non-narrated piece. Critically, the song had great points, e.g. the new drum sounds and introduction of the major themes, but, there was mistakes made, due to the melody being completely drowned out, by a lack of mixing. 

The Third track followed a cinematic overhaul, cut down to the correct time, again using Cubase 5. This version featured more presence on the overall lead, and creative sessions which I re-planed the genre from Sci-Fi, to Retro-Futuristic sci-fi (which suited the piece a whole lot better in my honest opinion.) Again, there was another change made, the drum beat was changed to sound a lot more aggressive, using various audio effects such as distortion and compression, the composition while featuring aggressive parts. Also featured soft sounding instruments such as an Analog Orkestra from a set called Prologue. A positive point about this piece is that the mixing is far better than the last version, although this caused problems with the drums and made them sound un-balanced.

The Fourth Demo featured a new arrangement that focused on the more sci-fi side of the genre I was working in at the time. As with this version a few major changes were made, another drum pattern was used this time, based around Rock music; this benefited the track well, providing a new back-bone to a weak track, using ambient music and sci-fi music as inspiration. After this version, the producer of the animation asked for it to be cut down to 40 seconds. As with the new arrangement, I added new instruments and sound effects, such as radio static playing during the opening planet sequence and another sub bass part, these where pretty much the only changes made. While I feel this could of been the final piece used, I decided to go back to the studio and start working on the final 40 second version.

The Final Piece, this is a piece that was cut to 40 seconds, while I had limited creative space to work on what-ever I wanted, I kept it down to a minimum, while using ideas that I had focused on early in development or I never used. One of these was a Bass drop, connecting the lead-up to the main focus of the track. The scope of this piece was very limited, however I imported drum sound effects to give the piece a new feel. However there was an issue with the syncing, in which this idea had to be scrapped, and a merger took place to create the final piece. I was disappointed, as I suffered an illness during the final days of production.

The Nibiru project was an addition to my FMP task list, this is something I am glad I did add as I felt this progressed my composition and professional skills to a new height.  

J.A Productions. (FMP)

In early May 2013 I started working on creating a music production company, but it was left unfinished, J.A Productions. As of October I re-developed the idea, as a subsidiary project for my FMP work, so I could develop songs and keep contracts for work well documented and organized, while working with a professional team that features 2 co-producers, 1 recording engineer, 1 mixer 1 mastering engineer, a lyricist and a singer, with me as the head of the company.

The company is going to be used as a secondary focus in my FMP, allowing fully productive work, and the collection of proof behind the music and work I do with the company.

https://soundcloud.com/j-a-productions


This company is created to coincide with and build professional connections. This company is also created to professionalize my work as an independent composer.

This network also allows me to gauge a better understanding of the industry.

As mentioned in the introductory post, I am taking this advantage to research the people and the music of my craft.

This is being ran on a separate SoundCloud account to de-clutter the FMP SoundCloud.