I am happy to say that I have just completed my fourth piece for "Gus."   I arranged it for a huge orchestra with an overgrown string section, ominous brass, insistent percussion, and lurking woodwinds.  I have successfully turned a 45 second keyboard demo into a three minute orchestral monstrosity.  The original was in a whole-tone scale, an old favorite of mine, so I enjoyed hammering it out in that tonality.   All along the way, my computer has fought against me tirelessly, and in so many inventive ways, but I have prevailed!  My nightmare for the past week has been clicks and pops and buzzes and all kind of other unpleasant sounds that just don't belong in orchestral music.   I think my new soundcard doesn't like Synful Orchestra nearly as well as my old one.   At least, it's not sure how much it likes a 40-piece string section.   Well, I'm not giving up on Synful, but holy moly was that ever frustrating.   Many thanks to Christina for helping me to locate all those little pops and clicks and flush them out.

As usual, "Gus" responded almost immediately with enthusiasm and encouragement.   So amazing to be working with this person.   And he has already sent another piece to work on.