Here's the newest version of the piece. The arrow at 4:18 is sounded, and musical patterns (zig-zags) are louder and structurally visible. The audio was edited with two different renders at two key points in the mixdown.

MIDI renderer: Keppy's MIDI Converter 19.0.0 (x86, SSE)
SoundFont: Steinway D-274 7.4 by Kaleidonkep99 and Frozen Snow

A Plea from Stars

This track came out of a dream I had while sleeping last October. Incidentally, I was listening to a track from a personal electronic project while asleep, and this is kind of how my brain interpreted it.

Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nsy8qd4d6nqxul9/Midnight%20Reveries.m4a?dl=0

Background image by Sindre Strøm: https://www.pexels.com/photo/silhouette-of-trees-during-night-time-958363/

Midnight Reveries

I've uploaded this again with modified SoundFonts to normalize audio levels in the piece's dynamic changes.

This piece was first improvised on November 2, 2020. It is characterized by an accented melody over a balladic groove and the atmosphere is determined by the tunnel reverb. It was largely developed over the summer and notated in 12/16 time. A video with sheet music will be available soon via YouTube.

The image is taken from the Citizen Truth website: https://citizentruth.org/top-5-fascinating-unknown-facts-about-apollo-11-moon-landing/

Fantasia in D-flat major "Landing Site"
Tempo: dotted 8th = 108
Time Signature: 12/16
SoundFonts: D.H. Baldwin baby grand piano (remastered dynamic mod) and Roland XP-50 Houz + Nice Piano (dynamic mod)
MIDI driver: OmniMIDI 14.6.13.0

Thanks for listening, and God bless you.

Landing Site

This is a revision of the beta remix with re-recorded organ, EP, guitars, and bass. I turned down the rotary drive on the organ for a drier sound and used a different bass with more gain. Other changes include editing cutoff and expression values in the clean guitars, altering the organ's melody, and specific note velocity edits.

SoundFont: Creations with Dan.sf2
Synthesizer: Yamaha MX88
MIDI driver: OmniMIDI 14.6.13

He Goes Before Us (beta mix v3)

This is the blueprint for the instrumental track. It uses instruments from a variety of SoundFonts, notably SGM v2.01 and the FluidGM sound-bank. Finalizing this MIDI took about four years; it was made in Domino as demonstrated by LFO cutoffs and expression value changes.

MIDI renderer: Keppy’s MIDI Converter 19.0.0
SoundFont: Creations with Dan.sf2

He Goes Before Us (General MIDI version)

This was completely composed out of a dream I had in November 2013 about The Weather Channel’s Local on the 8s segments. I sped up the audio for a nostalgic sound.

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/OD9EOzfSOh0

Oceanic

This piece was inspired by the tone generator of the Roland SC-88 Sound Canvas and reflects on certain video games of the past decade.

Soundfont used: Arachno (modified with Polyphone Soundfont Editor)

Created using Anvil Studio, a midi sequencer and notation editor.

Theme of Nostalgia

I re-uploaded this one due to modifications in instrument patches using Polyphone SoundFont Editor.

To restate the theme for this track, it was inspired by video games I would play when I was younger (in particular, a racing game for the Nintendo 64 called AeroGauge during my middle school years). The SoundFont used is Arachno, and the MIDI file was created using Anvil Studio.

Ground to Air Level

Aerocraft (full version)

This is a new mix for the song; the warm pad is mixed a little quieter, the piano is EQed with more treble, and twin acoustic guitars replace the "Spanish guitar" patch from DNe1. The mixdown is also a bit quieter to reduce compression from peak limiting in eFX-;imiter.

The track’s chorus came in July 2016 while I attended a viewing for a friend. Tracking, mixing, and mastering were done in ACID Music Studio.

Reflective (version 2)

Sorry for yet another re-upload, but I've made changes to expression levels and modified the solo.

I was able to merge verse B from a MIDI that I worked on three years ago. I edited note velocities in the drums to normalize the volume of repeated 16th notes and hitting the same snare drums/toms with both hands. In addition to the palm mutings in the guitar tracks, I added pitch bend effects in the guitar solos to achieve a climatic effect. Most of the sweeps are next to impossible to play at original tempo in real-time.

Aerogauge was released by Ascii Entertainment for the Nintendo 64 on December 19, 1997 in Japan, and April 30, 1998 in North America.

SoundFont(s): Arachno SoundFont, Creations with Dan
MIDI driver: Keppy's Synthesizer 4.4.1.8, Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth for the interlude, as edited in Audacity

Ground to Air Level (revision 2)

First track on the album The End May Occur at Anytime. 

I wrote this on October 31 to November 2, 2010, as (looking back) an allusion to my fascination with technology, hence the fact I played piano in the basement for about a year to that time, and in an attempt to musically celebrate Halloween, as little as I knew of it. I had to hear the humming sound of the heater on standby at 120 Hz, and after practice with a high school band, I decided to improvise this to resonate with the electric frequency. I was about two hertz sharp because I liked the reverberation of the instruments more. I wished I listened more to what I was doing when I mastered this recording because the increasing treble of the synth part kinda drowns out the second octave I played below it at the climax. I could re-record this on my newer keyboards but it wouldn't sound the same.

Key: B minor
Tempo: 143 BPM
Time signature: 3/4
Keyboard: Yamaha DGX-500
Recording and mastering: Tascam DP-008

The End May Occur at Anytime

Walking Around in my Pale Colored Nightmares

This is my Independence Day special. Not related to the event, but still relatable. This is based on the battle of Bull Run in the Civil War, which was declared on slavery to free African Americans from it, much like the nation's fight for independence from Great Britain and its tax system. Although both battles were Confederate victories, they were still steps forward.

This remaster took about two years. I initially remastered this for the Yamaha MX88's sustain pedaling, but I decided to make this versatile for computers as well. This uses seven tracks like the original impossible version from 2015.

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Battle_of_Manassas_or_Bull_Run.jpg

SoundFont: Roland XP-80 Piano (modified)
MIDI renderer: Keppy's MIDI Converter 18.2.8 (x86, SSE)
MIDI editor: Domino 1.43
Additional editing in Audacity 2.4.1

Battle at Manassas

This is the second re-upload as it is now the final version. The video (with sheet music) is available here: https://youtu.be/RV3CJIRTo3w

This piece was written impromptu in May 2010 and was inspired by the music on The Weather Channel and various childhood experiences. I recently decided to re-arrange it for five concert marimbas (and one xylophone) and added some extra bass and accompaniment parts. The sheet music was made in MuseScore and includes musical dynamic instructions. The audio was recorded from my Yamaha DGX-650 to a USB-flash drive and edited in Audacity.

The audio is a bit quieter than previous uploads because I played it in Domino 1.43. The notes play more in time per beat, This made amplification louder so that only +0.33 dB was needed. I also edited two clips together to get a satisfactory mix and make sure that overlapping notes were pleasantly audible.

Composition: One Tranquil Journey
Composition date: May 28-30, 2010, rev. Dec. 24-30, 2010, rev. Dec. 28, 2020 to Feb. 14, 2021
MIDI Synthesizer: Yamaha DGX-650
MIDI Software: Musescore 3.6.2 and Domino 1.43
Audio editing: Audacity 2.4.2; exported to 24-bit WAV @ 44.1 kHz

One Tranquil Journey

I use DAWs for most of my work after January 2013. Before then, I would record to a multitrack recorder with a Yamaha Portable Grand. I do everything for non-profit.

Feel free to browse around my profile, and if you like what you hear, you may let me know.

daniel-gregory

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