Now even when listening to the soundtrack apart from the film, I thoroughly enjoy the experience. As a matter of fact that is the perfect word to describe the soundtrack; “an experience”. That is exactly what Avatar is. It is not merely a film, but an in-depth almost interactive experience and the music is inexplicably tied to it, a lot like the alien world in the movie is connected to it’s inhabitants.

I have multiple out of copyright ebooks  in my collection from the Harvard School of Music.  Now you may be asking why is any of this is useful.  Well, think of it this way. Music is one of the few subjects in which the teaching methods have not changed much in the last 100 years.  Orchestration and Composition have made the most advancements with additional instruments being added to the modern orchestra, and orchestration techniques being augmented by digital media composition (midi, etc).  However the underlying principles of musical tonality, harmonic analysis, timbre, good counterpoint and musician technique are still very much the same. So a book on musical composition from say 1907 is actually quite useful if you can stomach the funny dialect that was often used back then. The same rule applies to sheet music.

But don’t take my word for it. Go check it out yourself be sure to check out the music books from the Harvard Library, and if anyone asks you , you can tell them that you got your musical education from Harvard.  :-)

P.S.

I was obviously joking about that last part.

~

Donnie

As a child I passed up several opportunities that would have no doubt been very beneficial to my musical development, to pursue other more “stable” or lucrative goals.  Ironically, music was not my first choice as a major in college. I very seldom considered a day spent practicing and cultivating my musical talents as a productive day.Yet somehow, the deep rooted passion for music that was placed in me long before I ever had a concern for money or stability began to override the rational. Year after year, I found myself abandoning all other pursuits and giving in to my heart’s desire. Usually accompanied by disapproving friends and family members, and a ton of guilt, my inspiration led me forward with reckless abandon. Till one day I realized that I was not the rebel everyone thought I was. I was not simply refusing to be “normal”. Nor was I avoiding the usual mundane pursuits simply because I was bored with life.  I was not fighting against the “cubicle” so to speak; I was reaching for something higher; my destiny, my passion, my life’s calling.

It was then that I slowly began to realize that just about every person on this planet who is considered enormously successful is doing what they love, and did not choose their career based upon their potential salary. Don’t get me wrong, money is great. Trying to live without money is like trying to fly without a plane. But I personally believe that if you work in an area that you love AND have skill, you will always produce an excellent product/service, and excellence brings you into tremendous opportunity. Now I am not recommending that every aspiring musician run off and leave their day jobs and their families to start a band.  PLEASE be more sensible than that.  But the next time someone asks you what it is that you do, before you tell them about your day job, you might want to consider raising your head and proudly proclaiming, “I am a musician!”  Much Love  ~ Donnie

So if you have been waiting to upgrade to the latest version of Cubase, I think now may be a good time to do it.  Since last week, Steinberg has been offering free 30 day trial of Cubase 5 for those wanting to test the waters before making the leap. I highly recommend you check it out.

http://www.steinberg.net

No Samples

First of all the shocking thing about this plugin is that it uses absolutely no samples to generate it’s magnificent sound. The technology is based entirely upon physical modeling. This makes the load time extremely fast. It also has very little memory footprint and takes up very few processor cycles. Unless of course you are still using a Pentium III Celeron processor based workstation. Hopefully no one is that behind the curve. Secondly, the physical modeling takes away the need for velocity based switching of samples, which can sometimes cause  a less fluid feeling when playing the instrument.

A True Instrument

The bottom line about this plugin is that it really has the responsiveness of an instrument. That is something that is taken for granted nowadays. Many composers and producers simply edit the heck out of there midi recordings to get a realistic sound from there performances. In this age of  multiple gigabyte sample libraries , true expression has often been made a low priority. Being a professional musician, I always look for plugins that just feel “right” when I sit down at my keyboard to play. Maybe that’s asking too much of say a horn library or something, but an electric piano emulation ought to be playable.  Anyway, that’s enough ranting for now.  Here is a short demo I created using nothing but Lounge Lizard and a little reverb.

 The Glory Sound was recorded at my personal studio in what used to be an old warehouse space near downtown Chicago. At the time it seemed like the winter would never end, even though it was technically spring. Nonetheless, the environment in Chicago proved to be the perfect backdrop for the project and helped to set the tone for the inspiration that became The Glory Sound.

This time Texas is the place where the compositions have begun to flow. It is not nearly as cold here in the winter and there is plenty of open space to roam around. We will see how much the south will impact this project. However, I don’t suspect any country music will sneak it’s way onto the project. 

 ~Donnie