For those of you who just want the song links, please visit the normal version of this page.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
[the age of reason]
The bulk of these tracks have the benefit of superior audio technology (including the software suite Reason) and the use of actual midi-input for composition. They are, therefore, more dense and professional sounding than the rest of this laundry list of oddities.
[demos]
These tracks are functionally complete, but short enough, and containing enough that could be elaborated on, that they are considered “demos.” Most are ~2min in length.
hex to rgb – This is mostly an experiment to see how many things I could run off the same step sequencers instead of playing by hand. This thing is essentially played note for note by machine – I never even got out the keyboard for this. As such, it sounds rather stilted in parts, however the perfection of timing is pretty interesting to me. Aaaaanyhoo, good enough to share, not good enough to write much about.
City Spring – It’s short, and not great, but I hadn’t messed with Reason for a while, and I liked this enough to package and upload it.
Cross Country – This is what I like to call one of those “compilation of sounds that eventually became mildly pretty” songs. There’s still some pretty bad clipping, So, no producy medal on this one.
IDSPISPOPD – The first reason 3 “song” – basically just an attempt to break the built-in mastering devices, which failed. Bout goes to the Reason Designers. Excellent mixture of sound.
mist chamber – Quick Lunch-break demo, mainly just to test some effects in concert. I think the title works for it.
reach out and touch someone – This bears remarkable similarities to “a walk in the cold” that were unintentional at the time. This song was basically me figuring out this one kind of modulator device, using that information to make a short riff, and then building a song around it. Some cool drums, and distorted strings, though.
to hell with you – The second track I’ve ever used a vocal sample on. I try to avoid those, as they are quite cliche in the genre, but I find myself liking them. This is pretty simple and indicative of the times when I make music to work off emotions. Oh yeah, and it’s got a digeridoo.
diversionary jam session – This starts out evil, but I think becomes the most upbeat number I’ve ever done. This was another sort of time-killer experiment that I liked enough to release.
cosmic string theory – I got a new String sample refill, and wanted to bat it around. This came from that. Oh, and I did this crappy thing with a drum beat that never really panned out. I dunno why I burned such a cool song title on this.
that day in winter – Some really good sounding strings along with some very cool, but very quick synth bits – essentially a lunch-break attempt to do a Gapper in Reason, that somehow became a song.
someone’s at the door – The first song that I programmed all the drums on that I don’t totally hate. Lots of different intermingling bass, and even a really caustic synth sound. Whee.
after these important messages – I got a little out of hand with some plucked string guitar samples.
funeral procession – some really cool strings, a neat synth bell sound, and my first functional cello. Grab this.
ghosts in the bayou – a demo featuring a cool swamp mood, some neat bass tricks, and yes, a harmonica sample.
her reactor’s gone critical – another of the short demo series, this time with higher BPM and even more of a soundtrack theme.
contemplation of murder – a moody sort of soundtrack piece, like the last few.
the boundless joy of discovery – a short demo with an out of place sweeping synth, but one I really like anyway. notable in that all instruments used are subtractor mono synths.
the machines do all the work – very simple demo I did with some 80s bass and entirely too much screwing around with gates.
[full songs]
goodnight, maria– More info on this one available here. One of my favorites of everything I’ve done.
deus ex machina– This is a little on the fast paced side, a little on the industrial side, but it’s heads and shoulders above my usual in terms of composition and notes actually falling in some kind of meter, instead of when my fat clumsy fingers manage to hit the keys.
daybreak– This took about 2 hours, start to finish. The drums just kind of unceremoniously end, but other than that, it’s not too bad.
In an ideal world, it would have been called Silhouette.
in memory of things left unfinished – Basically an overgrown riff, but a decent background piece.
fight song – Some funky organ work, and an attempt at complex orchestration toward the end. Not bad, not great.
dungeon of my mind – Very basic atmospheric piece using some really blurry synths Free of most glaring errors, however. It’s a very lonely song.
the hopeless romantic – Another emotional piece, though for once, a happy one. This is one of my personal favorites, and is more simplistic than most of these tracks. Uses the same piano sample as “picnic on mars,” though with some different effects.
sundown on sunset dr – The last track I did while living in Athens, off Sunset Drive. I dared mess with the pitch wheel, and it may have been a bad idea. I like how this one turns out as a soundtrack-like piece. Once again, I did crappy drum programming. The string stuff gets good toward the end, I swear.
flyover: the city of industry – A sort of sequel to “the machines do all the work.” This is probably the heaviest distortion I’ve ever utilized. At one time I considered calling it “Peter Frampton Riot.” Yet another soundtracky-piece.
a walk in the cold – A soft, if repetitive little song reflecting a rather unpleasant mental state run through a rather unpleasant physical state. Has some neat delay effects.
four more years – A sarcastic and potentially libelous protest song, if you will. I was quite distraught. I got my hands on some vocal samples. This happened.
daydreaming of valhalla – I was trying for some clean sounds, and for whatever reason I decided to incorporate a chanting background. It has one really nifty bass part, and my favorite pads ever. But, also, some AWFUL drums.
into harm’s way – an attempt to make something un-equalizable, a track that has something occupying all frequencies across the board, and packing as much crap into the spectrum as possible. high BPM and generally “too much,” but, then, that was the point.
strictly a club record – the track that would not die. it has some nice vocoder effects here and there, but I kept going back to it and putting more work into it and it simply sounded more and more unfinished. Finally I just set down to finish it one night, and aside from the neat “cello” distortion, it’s pretty slapdash.
picnic on mars – created start to finish in reason, using stock patches and some creative signal routing. the stitching is sloppy, and was done in a video editing program, and the piano is all improvised live playing, so there are notable errors.
4 notes of hope – this is actually a mutated version of the (eventually coming) 2nd part of the TRON cycle, “Harps of Sark,” that has been so heavily modified and tweaked it is its own song. It is essentially an amalgam of different patch combinations and processing experiments, which is why the actual composition is so simple. It consists of mainly 4 note test patterns, hence the title. It is in dire need of some timing fixes.
TRON cycle, pt 1- Requiem for Clu – part one of a two-part (meaning one song mixed and matched with the same notation and different instuments, and masqueraded as two songs) cycle based in and inspired by the movie Tron.
thunder and lightning – mmmm, modulation. definitely an improvement over the technique present in sirens. an earsore part of the mile 329 compilation “don’t touch my car!!”
missing you (quick and dirty version) – gotta love a good sampler. this version is really just a placeholder so I could remember all the notes, and the finished version will probably sound much grander.
sirens – interesting bit of reason stuff, most notably containing the infamous whale zombie sounds
[the ejay cheese series]
All ejay cheese tracks are done with premade samples, or in some cases, vaguely creative recombination of shorter premade samples. In any case, the following three tracks are largely drag and drop crap, but somewhat catchy nonetheless.
it’s raining where she is – little more than stock samples plopped together
texas tornado – slightly more refined and honed stock samples, with some sound editing and recombination mixed in
geiger counter – almost all drum sequences are original, though made with prefab hits
[complete]
sfs – technically speaking, a work in progress, but it was begun in 1994 and is unlikely to see any kind of work done to it ever again. This is the first attempt at “music” I ever did, and it was decidedly low tech; stolen samples, basic shareware tracking software, and a lack of musical knowledge I still have today. This track has the unique distinction of being the only entire song I’ve ever done that loops. This is here for nostalgia purposes only.
Evolution of Sunrise – one of my favorites, though due to it being a live-performance dreamstation peice, with no save capability, some elements that detract from the larger song are regretably still there
Tears of the Unavenged – exstatic (extended static v2) – much longer, much more diverse front end for the original dreamstation experiment
Tears of the Unavenged – original mix – the original and arguably best dreamstation experiment – all sequences original, some prefab synth instruments, but tweaking all around
the steinberg experiment – included here only as padding to make the list look longer – nothing more than an old rebirth track (hence the name) that was done halfway live during a trb/overgod summit and then halfway in twin pit omega studio
[abandoned works in progress]
Most of these are ejay tracks thrown together while bored or attempting to kill time, though some have seen a small degree of post-production. The occasional simsynth/ntrack recording is also listed.
Marshall the Fleet – more ejay cheese, has no ending
Rally the Troops (One Man Left) – even more ejay cheese
Decaying Orbit– the cheese posesses you (possible release candidate)
Countdown to Happiness [pending] – amusing-in-its-cheesiness ejay cheese
Serpent’s March – way short, but a good beginning – ejay plus some actual work
All the President’s Men – simple ejay track, but the best drums i’ve ever done
From Clockwork To Shit (working title) – just ignore, more ejay
Shitty Congo Record (working title) – not posted
Atmospheric Bullshit (working title) – vaguely happy ejay crap
A Plague on the Miserly (working title) – refined, processed ejay cheese (possible release candidate)
Hurricane Analog (working title) – predominantly simsynth, ignore the ending, (hey, it’s a work in progress)
Total tweety rap rip off (working title) – not posted
Beyond (working title) – first ejay track
Where’s *? [Dunno] (working title) – video game music-quality ejay crap
