This is a piece I composed for a game based on the browser game Pardus. The working title is "the Threat Within." It has not yet been released. This will be the intro music for the game.
The game developer wanted something that was upbeat, but other than that, I got no real instructions. Left to myself with no direction, I thought about what kind of music would be associated with Pardus. Music in space? Ambient noise was my first instinct. However, I thought back to when I used to host an amatuer internet radio show for Pardus, and one genre that was more or less universally loved was surf guitar. I guess flying space ships is a lot like surfing.
I knew almost nothing about surf guitar music when I began this project, so my first few days were spent listening to as much of it as I could find and reading forums. My favorite group was the Chantays, although I don't know if much of their sound is in my piece.
I once saw Andrew York perform at the Fret House in Covina. He remarked that there were not enough guitar pieces in the key of b minor (right before playing a piece in b minor). This was years ago, but I have made it a long term goal to compose something for guitar in that oft neglected key. My piece is not in the classical guitar style, but at least its a start.
I wrote an original melody that reminded me of a Javanese kroncong song. However, that one turned out to be too square sounding. I rewrote it a few times and finally got something that I was happy with. The melody is repeated in the second section, but altered for the muted guitar. I made the supporting instruments fairly generic, and in the end I think I got a pretty good surf guitar type sound.
I used samples from Kontakt and Battery for this piece, and sequenced it in Cubase as usual (oh how I long for a 64 bit version of pro tools!). However, for some reason Kontakt does not come with a clean guitar sound, so I had to hunt for one of those. My budget was -0- so I ended up using the best samples I could find for free. They were not the best sounds I have ever heard, but they worked out. The reverb and most of the effects are from Guitar rig. I felt that the reverb could be a bit drippier, but I only really had one choice so I went with it.
I learned quite a bit trying to mix and master this piece. It is really quite difficult to do. I am not 100% satisfied with my results, but I am definitely getting better. I need to review the book on mixing that I have, and perhaps buy a few more from amazon.
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_buk0Kb5IJM
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