• The warrior grabs Zams blaster gun and goes out, blasts the piratse and types in the code and they get away. They throw the orange and get away
  
  
• On Dagohbah, Luke Skywalker senses something and gets in his X-wing and blows up the pirates, forces the debris away, tests the microwave on the orange (it exploded) and fixed the microwave.
• ZAM: Boom Boom Boom Booom Boom
• Captin: Get us out of Lockdown!!!
• (Captin doesn’t help)
• Ensin: Let’s go back and get a new micorave.
• Warrior: Let me go with you captin to put the codes in.
• Captin: I’m not coming. I wan’t to Gard the ship.
• Robot: Take My chips.
• Captin: Thanks
• From then on Everything is all right
  
• Everyone dies or the Worier takes Zan’s blaster, gets a spacesuit and goes outside, then kills the spacepiretse. Then the charecters from starwars come out of the past in there ship. Aniken gives them a chip. Honsoleo fixes the life suport. (He aslo fixed the microuwave). Gru also came out of the time hole and disinetgreted the shock wave.
• 1. Cut down the android and get the chips and put them in the computer.
• 2. They don’t do anything
• Lockdown Solution
1. Ensign gets blown up, the microwave explodedes in his face
2. Sula dies from zem, the spirits annoy her to much, Zem shoots her head
3. Android gets so angry he explods
4. They put the chips in and the weapons work and Warrior kills the pirates
5. they shoot all the bits of earth with the laser gun
6. They speed back to earth
7. exept for zem he goes into space and drinks gin and he dies

• (no text on this one, except for “Bump”)
  
  
• Captain: I’m to dumb can’t think of anything
• Zam: I know! Blast blast!
• Everyone died and well Zam waited until the air ran out but instead she became evil to survive with the evil people.
• The End
• The alian thowes the oreng and it hit the putuns in the right numbers.
  
• They will take Zam’s blaster and blow up the pirate ships. And steal the pirates’ gold, buy a new microwave, the beep of the microwave scares the spirits away. Then the spirits make a group and they block the shockwave. The pirates are gone captain goes out types in code, they get ot of lockdown. After they get out of lockdown they take the gold and buy new air.
• Ensine breaks the food suply and eats an orange and drops juice and that get them out of lockdown. Then the air conditionar turns on and gives them air.
  
• A piece of debris smashed a panel off the ship and ins ide was the codes.
  
• Insign: The micowave manul has codes to the micowave but…the codes are the code to get out of lockdown!
  
• Star Wars
• Luke, Leia, C3PO, R2-D2 and the ghosts Obewan, Anakin and Yoda come with Hon Solo to save them and they go to the Galaxy of Star Wars.
  
• Zam shoots herself. Enseign runs away and dies (This one was crossed out but I liked it enough to include it anyway.)
  
• ZAM: Blast Blast Blast Blast Blast Blast Blast
  
• They got out of lock down by killing all the people on the ship and the android found a button on the captain an pushed it and got out of lockdown
• Harry Potter comes thrue the time hole and fixes exerytning and everybody dies after harry fixes the stuff and they disinagrate in the atmosphere.
• The time portal sucks them in and they stop their past selves from shooting the death ray.
  
• They found another microwave and heated the orange Then the orange turned into a super orange and kills everybody trying to get them (including the shockwave and fixes the air control.)
• Zem takes his zapray gun and shoots the code thingy
  
  
  
  
• The warrior destroyed the pirates whith zam’s blaster and they took there ship home.
  
• The warrior finaly disides to take Zam’s blaster, puts on a space suit, kills the aliens, and wile he is killing them he puts in the code.
  
• Put the chip in the microwave.
  
• Zam destroy the thing that put them in lock down
  
  
• They don’t get out of lockdown. Theseall happen at once.
1. The aileans shoot them.
2. The microwave won’t work.
3. The shock wave gets there
4. the spirits suddenly kill them
5. They sufficate
   

And that is all!

I recently posted all of the ABC Monsters tunes on Youtube. These are still the demo versions, as the final ones won’t be released for free! (Or for a while!) In any case, enjoy!

Youtube playlist

Hey! This is the same song as in the last post, only now it’s got a video to go with it! Please spread this around for promotional purposes. Dis one’s gonna be a fun show, I guarohntee!

Here’s a sneak peek at a song from the upcoming Poison Ivy Mysteries show Justice at the Gold Dust entitled “The Ballad of Silvercrest”. The show itself is a western, and this song serves as a sort of prologue to the events of the night. It may not actually end up in the show itself and instead be used as part of a promotional video, but that still remains to be seen. In any case, this version still needs a few live instruments to be recorded (chiefly the fiddle, and probably the guitar too), and I may redo the vocals, but it’s still in good enough of a state to share with you. As I’ve noted before, I watched through Firefly again to listen to the music, and I think that influence definitely shows in this track.

Enjoy!

I’ve been working on more of those Clyde’s Revenge remixes (like I posted about in these three posts) and have been putting them on Youtube in a playlist. Sadly, WordPress won’t let me embed playlists into blog posts, so you’ll have to click on the link below to hear ‘em. Even though they’re from an obscure game that nobody’s ever heard of, I still like ‘em. They’re in a few different styles, from techno to jazz to funk to orchestral and back. I’ve got seven posted at the moment (shortly to be eight), with more coming whenever I have the time and the inclination.

Take a listen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZU0xa-RId0&feature=BFa&list=PLE5D9A79465817B41&index=1

It’s come to my attention that my current host for my MP3′s, FileDen, apparently likes installing spyware. While this applies to users actually uploading files (myself), not users downloading from it (anyone who clicks links on this blog, for instance), I’m still looking for a good place to host MP3′s and transfer my stuff over. Problem is, I want to find a place where I can use direct links, so you can play it directly from the blog instead of using some embedded player provided by the host. I found a suggestion for Tindeck, but they’ve got the embedded player, which WordPress doesn’t like to do. So the question becomes, is that a big deal? Can I expect people to click on a link, or would people be more inclined to listen to an MP3 on this page if they don’t have to navigate away from it to open the player, like how it stands now (for the most part; older posts are still simply links)?

Does this work for another Clyde’s Revenge remix? Do people click on that link, or do they think, “Eh, it’s not worth the effort?” Would said people be more inclined to use a player such as the ones in my most recent posts on this blog? These are little things, but I’d prefer to get at least a little feedback before I move every MP3 I’ve uploaded so far onto a new server.

Also, comments on that remix would be appreciated!

So the next Poison Ivy Mysteries show is going to be a Western, so in order to prep myself for the songwriting, I’ve had to start listening to country music. Now, normally I’d rather get a root canal than listen to mainstream country, so I’ve tried to ease into it by watching Firefly and Serenity, a show and movie that are sci-fi westerns with music to match. But while I was listening to the score of Serenity, I came across an oddly familiar guitar riff:

Recognize it? Well, now listen to this clip from Poison Ivy Mysteries’ first show, Called to Murder:

It’s the exact same riff! Not just the same chord progression, but the exact same loop! Obviously it’s mixed better in the Serenity score, and slightly slower, but still! That suggests to me two things:

1) David Newman (the guy who wrote the Serenity score) uses the same program I do (Logic Studio)

2) I really don’t need that much more equipment than I have now (or at least that I will have after I rebuild; use the Paypal link to help!) to be competitive in the movie music industry, should I choose to go that way. It’s somewhat of a confidence booster to realize that the people working in Hollywood are using the same tools and techniques that I have been.

Or, you know, at least the same cheap shortcuts.

My new site for music has now been inaugurated! This way I can post music on a professional site instead of as an offshoot of my personal blog. It’s still a work in progress, so any comments on how I can improve it would be welcome. For now I imported a lot of the music-related posts from my personal blog over to this one, and will post more music here as I write it and want to post it, so check back often for more music!

Since I’m still trying to get my equipment replaced before I can redo my more serious projects, such as the ABC Monsters album or commercial music, I did another remix from Clyde’s Revenge and wanted to share it with people. It’s based on this MIDI file:

I went more rock than synth this time. Take note: the strings would sound better if I had the sound library I’d been using this past year, but for what it is I think it’s fun. The title is based on the background of the level in the game. It repeats once and then fades out.

I’ve got no philosophical discussion or newsworthy happenings this post. Enjoy this remix anyway!

If you’re really bored, you can see what level this remix is from:

Or perhaps the level that the previous remix is from:

Though I’d just download the game if I were you. (Run it in DOSBox!)

One of the most common comments I’ve had on music I’ve written in the past has been “Wow, that sounds like it’s right out of a video game!” or “It makes me think of Sonic the Hedgehog for some reason” or some variant thereof. This criticism has been one that I’ve actively tried to avoid (as most people tend to not take video game music seriously or hold it in high esteem), yet since I work in an electronic medium and have little access to real live instruments, it’s something that I’m basically going to have to live with until I can afford high-end sound libraries (I was using some of Nate Drew’s recently, but they all got stolen, so it’s going to be awhile).

In the meantime, I’ve resolved that, if I’m limited by funds and libraries and therefore can only write video game music, I might as well try to make it the best video game music it can be (for purposes of this post, when I refer to video game music I don’t mean the full orchestral scores you get out of Halo or whatever, but the more electronic sounds associated with games like, well, Sonic the Hedgehog). And even in that medium there is much that can be done to elevate music above the mediocre or utilitarian. Consider the following: back in the mid-90′s, there was a DOS game released called Clyde’s Revenge. It was a typical sidescroller of the time and the game itself, while fairly fun, was nothing particularly exciting or groundbreaking. The music was a general MIDI soundtrack done by a guy named Garret Thomson, and a typical track would sound like this:

It’s kind of funky, but nothing really to write home about. Now compare it to a remix I did in 30 minutes, using the same MIDI file:

Still video game music, still using virtually the same notes even, but the latter is something I’d put on a playlist and listen to on its own, while the former is fairly blah. And it’s that skill I can work on and even market: writing music that can both enhance a game and stand on its own.

In conclusion, I don’t really have a though-provoking or controversial point regarding the state of video game music or my skills as a composer. I just did this remix and liked it, so I wanted to share it. That is all. Enjoy the Magnets!