Okay, I’m sitting at my computer at 2am, trying to design the new site after plotting various designs with pencil and paper. Nothing is sticking, so I move over to the Evolution, jack in my Sennheiser headphones and play around with some music. Trust me, if you need a break from designing and all your housemates are sound asleep, music is the key. I usually design with music constantly playing in the background anyway and if I’m on a roll, out comes some trance tracks to keep me going, pushing me through any slumps I inevitably get into.

Naz recently posted a good article on the design process recently and how frustrating it can be when nothing is coming out, what methodology designers take, etc’85 It’s a great read and a must for anyone out there designing. Jason Santa Maria also posted a ‘must-read’ article on the use of Illustrator and what he calls the ‘grey box method’ for designing a site. It seems from both of these articles that pencil and paper is the best way to start, and when you finish, either move to Illustrator or Photoshop. Some of the comments on these articles are worth reading too, making you think twice about going straight into Photoshop from the get-go (note: not a good idea from experience!).

Anyway, back to the music. I’ve been throwing around scoring cues all over the place recently, using different effects and features within the monster that is Reason. Most of the time though, I strip everything back because I almost always use it for film scoring, which in my case, only consists of a few instruments at once. Drawing inspiration from music has always been in my veins, ever since I was really young and so sometimes I’ll even come up with a short or feature film concept, just from a single piece of music.

I recently saw Million Dollar Baby (an excellent film) and when asking others, “Did you like the score?” most agreed it was fairly non-existent or memorable. Hell you can’t even buy a soundtrack since there isn’t one yet (although a cue can be heard at the beginning of the trailer and possibly at the Oscars soon, although the music wasn’t nominated) But Clint Eastwood’s scores generally consist of very simple themes that repeat throughout the film, so that they stick with you long after the credits roll (albeit slightly subconsciously in Clint’s case, at lease for me). I prefer these types of scores more often than not because they support the other elements within the film frame such as the cinematography and performances, as opposed to blocking them out.

So what is ‘Nebula Love’? No it’s not a movie, or a short film idea (although it may be brought back in one form or another for future projects) but a complete 4:40min track I just finished on the fly. There are no drums, there are no vocals, there’s just ambiance. Visually, I see two bodies wrapped in the sky, making love and this is what they’re hearing. Close your eyes and:

Listen for yourselves (5 meg, .mp3)

But in another context, I can see it working as well. For example, play the track backwards in Quicktime (select ‘Loop Back and Forth’) and you get another variant on the theme, giving it pace (which is a fortunate accident). I deliberately used a very simple approach because I wanted it to support the visuals I was creating in my head. Who knows? Maybe this will be the start of my next film venture. Time to pick up that notebook again and start writing!

Here I am
And beyond the reach of my hands
She sound asleep and she’s sweeter now
Than the wildest dreams
Could have seen her
And I watched her slipping away
And I know I’ll be hunting high and low

High
There’s no end to the lengths I’ll go to
High and low
High
There’s no end to the lengths I’ll go to

Find her again
Upon this my dreams are depending
Through the dark
I can hear the pounding of her heart
Next to mine
She’s the sweetest love I could find
So I know I’ll be hunting high and low

High
There’s no end to the lengths I’ll go to
High and Low
High
Do you know how it feels to love you?
Do you know how it feels to love you?
High and low

Coldplay cover of the classic Aha track. Download this rarity right here.

And don’t forget some original work dude!:

- Oh yeah. Here’s a sample of some musical scoring I’m working on for a personal project. It’s basically background score for some nostalgic childhood footage I managed to dust off a while ago. Okay or a piece of crap? Feel free to comment.

This past weekend has been nothing but musical (well in between work and Uni commitments). Films didn’t even enter my consciousness. Yes I know. Bizarre. To set the scene, it was Saturday morning and the weather was perfect. I was strolling along Chapel St soaking up the sun and noticing all the beautiful people walk on by when I caught a bright glimmer in the corner of my eye. At first I thought it was Elisha Cuthbert sending a smile my way but it was actually the yellow Stratocaster in Manny’s music store shop window beaming to me, whispering “come in James. Come in and play me!”. So I had to oblige obviously but as I walked through the entrance, I got distracted. The keyboards were singing to me, begging for a few notes. As I was playing one of the $4000 Rolands, I looked around and saw the much less expensive MIDI keyboard range. I knew I wanted the Edirol setup but I noticed the Evolution MK449C in the far corner. I had been eyeing the Evolution for about 6 months now and was my original choice back when I only had a passing interest in getting a keyboard. It was also a lot cheaper than the Edirol and so I asked the guys in there which one was better. They all agreed that there wasn’t a great deal of difference but I wanted to play each for myself. They had the Reason software set up so I played for a while and really couldn’t tell the difference (although I know pretty much nothing about these instruments so my guess was as good as the next persons). In the end, I went with the Evolution and this enabled me to have enough cash left over to buy this mic. It’s pretty basic but good enough for what I need it for.

I’ve only scratched the surface of what all this is capable of doing but everything has exceeded my expectations so far. It’s money well spent. Reason is just an amazing piece of software and with so many samples to play with, the possibilities are endless. It’s going to take a while to get my head around it but it’s fun doing so. A nice touch is the ability to see all the virtual devices back ports and cords and move them around like you would with a real system. So in other words, you can plug a reverb device through a synthesiser and make some extremely trippy sounds.

I had a few problems with what I thought was the keyboard itself initially, since there was quite a delay when hitting the keys. But that was a computer issue and was solved relatively quickly. A better soundcard will probably improve performance too but I have no cash left so that’s just going to have to wait.

Okay so what does it all sound like? Well I just did something on the fly as I was writing this post since I thought I better provide you guys with something to show. It’s about a minute long, took me exactly 9 minutes to produce and just uses strings and the piano. Basically just an example of what the samples sound like. I admit it’s very, very basic but hey – it’s better than nothing at all right?

You can download the mp3 812K file right here.

Feel free to distribute it, manipulate it, use it for your own projects, or chuck it on your iPod. Expect a few more samples of different styles to pop up on the site when I fully get the hang of the software as well. I haven’t really explored the drum machine yet. Ohhhhh yeahhhhhhh!