An independent musician offering explorations through multiple music platforms — neoclassical, ambient and instrumental pieces made on hardware and software synthesizers.
Welcome to my music blog.
I am a musician and producer based in Wellington, New Zealand. I enjoy creating music on a combination of hardware synthesizers and computer software, which has evolved out of my love for classical and electronic music.
MoreI wanted to make a piece in memory of one of the greatest electronic musicians who passed away last year: Vangelis. Particularly the initial pad, made with the FM-X engine of the Yamaha MODX6, is reminiscent of his sounds even though his pads were known for subtractive (e.g. CS-80) rather than Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesis.
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My studio is very small; just 4.2sq.m or 45sq.ft.
As the pieces of equipment increase, there needs to be some rearrangement. Therefore, I tried my hand into carpentry and built a couple of desks and a stand. The result is shown in the photo.
MoreI have been in love with Pachelbel's Canon in D since I remember myself. This is an attempt to recreate it with electronic music.
Perhaps this is on the foot of Wendy Carlos' Switched on Bach. That piece had a big impact on the perception of electronic music, establishing the synthesizer as a musical instrument rather than a soulless technological experiment.
MoreThis post is not about inspiration, which is the most important aspect of music creation. It is about the equipment and tools that I use in order to create and finish a piece of music. The technical part of our creative process is integral to the inspiration we have when making music. As I read once on a wall:
As an artist I aspire to become a craftsman. As a craftsman I aspire to become an artist.More
This piece comprises a guitar and a violin. As it grows, a small orchestra of cellos, violas, a flute and French horns silently grows in the background but it is always the Two friends playing the guitar and violin that make this melodic discussion grow. The guitar and the violin have been "performed" with a Yamaha MODX6 and the background orchestral sounds are from Miroslav Philharmonic.
MoreThe melody for this piece felt like it "wrote itself". I was playing the piano on my MODX and I just recorded the midi notes and then transferred everything to my DAW.
MoreLike most of my music, this piece was named after it was completed. The serenity of the melody reminded me of a beautiful beach on my favorite island. A place where a beautiful grove of pines is separated from the deep blue Ionian Sea by two stripes of sand and colorful pebbles.
MoreSimilar to my previous release, this is a piece of music that I came up with on the piano many years ago but never got to record it and share it. I didn't have the appropriate equipment to record my acoustic piano back then.
MoreThe melody and the sound seem to be otherworldly to me. Like it's coming from another, beautiful world. A quarter of Eden.
The actual inspiration for the name of this piece is much less inspiring. When I finished it in my DAW, I happened to see on my distributor's website that the first two releases had reached a revenue of $0.25, i.e. a quarter of a dollar.
MoreThis is a melody that I played on a piano that my family owned many years ago. After the introduction of synthesizers and electronic means to my workflow, I thought that it would be interesting to combine the two. I don't have a piano any more but use the CFX patches of the Yamaha MODX instead.
MoreIn 1725, i.e. 300 years ago, Johann Joseph Fux released his magnum opus. It was not an oratorio, a requiem or any kind of composition but a treatise on composition itself and specifically the defining aspect of the Baroque Era; the counterpoint.
MoreThe flute is a beautiful instrument. The sound we hear is the air that passes through the empty vacuum inside it. The form of the vacuum and the passing air create all these feelings.
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Instead of workstation, I like to call MODX6 my workhorse synth. There are two reasons for this: (a) it is mediocre as a workstation and definitely cannot be a replacement for a DAW, and (b) it is a fantastic instrument that can perform in all situations I could ever imagine and even more. I couldn't be happier with it.
MorePlato in his dialogue 'Republic' introduced, with Socrates' words, the concept of the illusion caused by the perception of reality through the limitations of the senses.
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