[Music] Where you were
This track is a melange of orchestral, trance, dance, and chip. It’s also probably my “loudest” track to date — whilst I haven’t yet managed to put a compressor on the whole thing (or use sidechain compression), I have compressed Kontakt (for the orchestral parts) and the two basses, producing a much “tighter” mix than is normal for my music.
You can grab and listen to it on Soundcloud, or use the embedded player and download links below — whichever ensures your aquatic vehicle remains buoyant.
Where you were by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
[Music] Unforgot
It’s been far too long since I published a piece of music. Part of the reason for that is that I was, for a while, without a sound-card in my computer — a problem which has since been remedied by a new Komplete Audio 6 interface. Another reason for the lack of music is that I’ve just been really busy at work — which makes it hard to come home and write music. 🙁
But enough with the explanations. Unforgot is a melange of dub, chillout, and orchestral styles. I actually wrote this nearly a month ago, but made a few changes at the suggestion of a friend from work. One of the changes was to make the bass much less “wobbly” — in the first version, it oscillated between the left and right channels, which sounded a bit off.
I’ve been told that all the cool kids put their music on SoundCloud now, so I’ve played the role of the compliant sheep and followed suit. To that end, you can listen to this track directly on SoundCloud. Of course, you can still grab it from here. 🙂
Unforgot by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
[Music] Want to be
Want to be was a fun track to write. In the “chorus”, the melody sweeps across the the track in an almost operatic, Andrew Lloyd Webber-esque fashion. The “verse” sections contrast quite starkly: they’re much thinner, with a more subdued melody. I have to admit, I find the main melody quite catchy — hopefully, it’ll get into your brain, too. 😀
Want to be by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
Book review: Instant Geany IDE
Due, I think, to the popularity of my dark Tango colour scheme for Geany, I was recently approached by Packt publishing to review Instant Geany IDE, by Nguyễn Hồng Quân. Although I no longer use Geany on a day-to-day basis, I still use it regularly for miscellaneous tasks.
Instant Geany IDE provides a quick guide to getting up and running with Geany, a light-weight editor and IDE. The book includes a guide to installation, an overview of the interface, details on some of the more advanced features, and suggested further reading. The written style is clear and conversational, and the explanations of Geany’s functionality work well as jumping-off points for further exploration and investigation. This book would be of most use for someone new to software development.
[Music] Evermore
This track is somewhat experimental in its textures and timbres: it combines instruments such as traditional Indian percussion with pipe organ and pitched-down, vibrato-ed cor anglais. For all that, it’s a simple, emotive track that (hopefully) doesn’t really try to do too much.
Evermore by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
[Music] Desperate
Desperate flits between trance and almost-but-certainly-not-dub. There’s a mixture of various synths, the apparently almost-obligatory strings, and a cor anglais which has been twisted in on itself.
This is a somewhat experimental piece (albeit not too experimental!), inasmuch as it involves automating Kontakt a fair bit. This lead to the rather displeasing discovery that you can’t automate effects in the outputs, which quite frustratingly meant that I had to add the same effect to a whole lot of instruments, then tie them all to the same automation controllers. Ah well.
Desperate by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
[Music] Autumn
This piece was a lot of fun to write. It’s in 7/8, with the bar broken into 2/3/2 rather than the more traditional 3/2/2. There’s a severely tortured Irish flute in the mix, sounding somewhat foghorn-like (from around 0’55), as well as washing machines being bashed and kitchen sink strainers being bowed. All this adds up to a very cinematic sound.
Autumn by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
[Music] Fundament
I wrote this track back around July 2012 for inclusion in the 2012 Songs for the Cure album, but as it looks as though that’s not going to happen (no word on it from Josh Whelchel since April), I’m putting it up here for your aural pleasure. If you like it, donate some money to your local cancer council!
This is a retro video-game inspired piece; chiptune sounds and brass collide to provide an epic (but still playful) feel.
Fundament by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
[Music] Starlit
I’ve been listening to Armin van Buuren a lot recently, and the result is this track: arguably my first “straight” trance track. There are, however, strong orchestral and rock influences in it, plus a few chiptune elements thrown in for good measure.
This was the first track I wrote with my new headphones (courtesy of my lovely wife) — Sennheiser HD 598s.
Listening to this track does make me realise that I’ll need to spend some time (when I get the chance!) learning how to master my tracks properly. The overall volume on this track is way too low (it’s been amped to the point of not-quite-clipping), but I’m loathe to compress it until I’m confident that I can do so without producing sausage music. So if anyone has any tips on audio compression, I’m all ears! 🙂
Starlit by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
[Music] When you’re asleep
This track is a fusion of orchestral and electronic sounds — a technique which seems to become more and more a part of my idiom. A slowish lead-up to a strong middle section, which then moves through to a floating solo viola line (I love the slightly “rougher”, less refined sound of violas as compared to violins), then back to the fuller electronic/orchestral sound — a straightforward ternary form, which so often works well.
Note: play this one loudly. 🙂
When you’re asleep by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
If you’re interested in using any of my music in your games, videos, or other multimedia productions, let me know!
Reading list 2013-02-16
Opera’s move from Presto to WebKit
- And then there were three – Robert O’Callahan, Mozilla.
- Strange day for the open web – Daniel Glazman, W3C CSS working group co-chair, Gecko embedder.
- I will miss the Douglas Crockford of browsers – Christian Heilmann, Mozilla.
- Opera switching to WebKit: thoughts and guesses – PPK
- Opera and WebKit: a personal perspective – Bruce Lawson, Opera.
- Another chapter of a long goodbye – Charles McCathieNevile, Yandex (formerly Opera)
Web technologies
- The future is unevenly superdistributed – how and why content goes beyond its URL.
- Using WebAPIs to make the web layer more capable – an overview of some of the awesome APIs being pioneered by FirefoxOS.
- The real conflict behind <picture> and @srcset – why responsive images are effectively at odds with a quick browser.
- Balancing text for better readability – an Adobe CSS proposal that I’m hoping will become a standard.
- Report on the activity of companies in the WebKit project – interesting to see who’s been involved over time, and how that’s changed.
- Making an accessible dialog box – including setting and trapping focus, and ARIA roles.
Miscellaneous
- Keeping passwords in source control – a neat way to keep passwords stored securely in a VCS.
- Apple Core Rot – if you look beyond the “this is annoying me in OSX”, a caution on software development generally.
- This guy’s car got stuck at 125mph for an hour
- The ghost who codes: how anonymity is killing your programming career