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February 2009 Archives

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February 27, 2009 - Political Weasel

My friend Ivan found this one for me.
Nancy Pelosi used my track "scheming weasel" in a production of "Capitol Cat Cam", which is actually a leader to a rickroll.

I realize that piece is now a parody of itself, but seriously, Pelosi - how about a credit?

On the plus side, the video with my music in it is the most viewed video that Pelosi posted by a long shot. So, points to me for that one!

February 17, 2009 - Email Issues?

For some reason, I've not been getting all of my emails for the last month or so - the bad part is I just learned about it today.

If you've sent me email and have not gotten a response on something, feel free to call me at 920.680.1125.

If the email was from the last 2 days, I probably have it, and will reply sometime later today.

February 14, 2009 - FreePD

There's a bit more over in the Public Domain...

First - My Ringtone.
And then a submission from David Hewitson.

Remember; Music on that site is all dedicated to the Public Domain, which is a little rare right now... but hopefully it'll take off soon.

February 09, 2009 - Danse Macabre

Danse Macabre from Saint Saens. Opus 40.

Here's some awful facts about this recording...
Originally written in 1874.
52 page score.
478 measures long.
13 sections. (spooky)
13,950 notes were entered for this piece*.
48 virtual instruments were used.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 hours to assemble this over the course of 9 days.

I think this is the last crazy project like this I'll be doing for a while.
Let me know if you like it... I could seriously use some encouragement after that beast.

(and yes, I know exactly all of the places that don't sound quite right, thanks. :-)

* There are fewer than 13,000 notes in the printed score, but you end up with more because of tremolos, trills, and part doubling.

February 03, 2009 - Tears of Joyent!

Holy man. Incompetech has a new server - and it is good. Like, very very good.

I actually have a hard time believing it is so good.

The thing is lightning fast, has well enough bandwidth, and runs the awesome Solaris.

I'm almost crying it is so nice. Thank you Joyent!
For having the first web hosting service that just Worked, and doesn't seem to have any capacity issues, I'm going to recommend these guys 98%* for all of your highish-end web hosting needs.

Joyent.com

* check back in a month for the other 2%.

February 02, 2009 - Episode 6

A few more hours in, and there's a nice trumpet line, and I love how the trill with the ornament turned out in the violas.

I'm getting the solo violin playing better, but the pulse of the piece isn't here yet.

February 01, 2009 - The Danse

I've decided to start sharing a project in progress, and a rather nasty one at that.
For some reason, I've wanted to record Danse Macabre from Saint-Saens.

Here's what it sounded like after about 4 hours...

I started with pizzicato violin... and a lot of other pizz from the string sections...
Then I figured my working method was impossible - and started entering notes from the score, instead of from that I was listening to.

I know, in retrospect - the other way is crazy. Turns out the opening was indeed a harp!
I couldn't get the turns to work with my flute sample, so I didn't even put them in.

Dun DUN!
I still don't know if I'll be able to get the resonance on the violin open double stops.
Am I speaking English?

And... just a few hours ago - to measure 101 or thereabouts.
I replaced the flute, and but back in the ornaments. It is better, but still bad... and I think I have to double check my notes in the pizzicato section around 45 seconds in... something feels wrong there.

Onward to Measure 502! Estimated arrival time... end of the month.

I'm such an optimist.

This document is part of Incompetech.com. kevin@incompetech.com. Also please visit my friends at: Kelly Howlett Illustrations, Craig Abrams, and TubaPants! Big chuncks of programming and a pile of behind-the-scenes things you can't see were done by The ninjas at Seppuku.net
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