S+A Landforms

Gold Obelisk

Remember two days ago when I waxed poetic about Stepic, the amazing new step sequencer I got? Remember how I was fawning over those 80s Tangerine Dream soundtrack bass lines? Remember how I said that you’d likely hear more tracks with that kind of thing? Well, here we are. This is darn close (if not massively over the line) into pastiche territory. If I played this without comment for a Tangerine Dream fan, I suspect they’d be trying to figure out which album it didn’t make it on. Now, amazingly, I only used Stepic on two tracks in this piece, … Continue reading

Convocation

Rather than immediately jump into writing today’s track after finishing yesterday’s, I decided to take the night off and hang out with the neighbors, go to bed early, and get some more sleep. While Mary’s gone, I’ve been trending more and more toward doing the bulk of the work on the day it gets posted instead of doing most of it the day before with only a quick polish in the morning. Part of my reason for working ahead is that it takes some of the pressure off – I always have a little slop time at the end if … Continue reading

Apert

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. The only concrete thing I remember about this track is that I wrote the entire piano part first and in one take. I’d been noodling for a bit with the lovely Piano in Blue sample library and had come up with the general pattern you hear. While it was still fresh and enjoyable, I improvised the entire track, not really paying attention to bar numbers, but with the metronome going and an occasional glance at the elapsed time. As with … Continue reading

Mare Orientale

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. This entry to the Mare series brings back some direct, rather than implied, rythmic elements. I didn’t want to be an outright beat, but rather a soft accompaniment. It’s not compositionally complex, but I think the length of each chord keeps things moving without taking away the languid pace and space to absorb. The backing pads, noise washes, and granular effects provide ongoing variety, becoming much more involved than the primary pluck sounds. I didn’t use many of my ambient … Continue reading

Cape Disappointment

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. Since 2020, I’ve made serious investment into sample libraries. It started mostly with orchestral libraries, then started branching into hybrid orchestra or processed orchestra – the kind of stuff you’d hear in a trailer or action film. Bombastic Hans Zimmerish sounds. Speaking bluntly, I think most of this money hasn’t been a good investment. Unfortunately, few sample companies have customer-focused licensing agreements. It’s rare to get a trial period, and similarly rare to have the ability to resell the product … Continue reading