Here's the first new track for 2009, which is actually the last track recorded in 2008.  For those that said they wanted more tracks like the last one...  well, sorry!   This one is quite different.   Virtually no "real" instruments were harmed making this recording; it's nearly all synthesized, except for a little guitar. 

Download Track Fifteen: Precarious

This recording takes advantage of many of the new toys and tools I've acquired during the past year.  The basis and the inspiration for the track was the Handsonic drum.   The drum track that runs throughout is just a bit of a very long recording I made of myself just playing and playing in 3 time.   I thought it was a pretty decent simulation of a drum kit sound, which I hadn't actually tried to do before with the Handsonic.    I used a keyboard sustain pedal as the kick drum pedal.  I can keep myself entertained for hours playing this kind of stuff.  

Anyway, I made this long drum recording just hear what it sounded like.  I didn't really plan to use it for anything.  Just for fun, I added the big fat synth sound on top, and I loved how chaotic it sounded, yet it managed to hold together. 

The piano is the "TruePiano Amber" module that was bundled with the new version of Sonar.   I was so excited about all the new sounds that I got, that I had to get a new keyboard to play them!   Christina helped me find a full-sized midi keyboard at Goodwill to take advantage of all this stuff.  Yes, Goodwill.  I actually haven't had a proper keyboard since moving from Arizona.  It does the trick.  So I actually played the piano, rather than programming it!  To be fair, I recorded the left and right hand parts separately, because I'm still a lousy keyboardist. 

The Cello is from Dimension Pro, another new toy for me.  It's nice to have some decent string sounds that aren't exactly the same as what I've been using.  The french horn is a new Synful sound that I couldn't resist using.   These are great sounds that probably don't belong together with all the other stuff, but here they are. 

As usual, I played around with adding more and more parts to this, but I removed most of them in the end.   There was a frenzied guitar solo, but it's gone.  I think it works as is.

I'm back to submitting my work for movie jobs, and I'm now a member of ASCAP.  Wish me luck!