I just took delivery of a Roland A-49 and decided to throw something together using only Alchemy presets. This is the result. Four sounds, four tracks, and some hurried mixing.

Every track was played live with no editing. That's kinda how I'd like to do my next album.

Enjoy!

Alchemical Sketch

I really don't know how to describe this except as a nod to heavily synthesized 80s theme songs. This isn't my normal style. I was just playing around with some softsynths and suddenly had this tune.

80s Theme

Another sketch using all Alchemy presets. At this point, I'm just playing around with ideas, trying to zero in on new songs for the next album.

I recorded this one with no grid and no metronome. I definitely have some timing problems here and there. I'm wondering if I really want the work and aggravation of producing my album that way, or if I should stick to hand-playing sections to the metronome and then looping. I wonder how many people would really care if I did it the hard way.

Alchemical Sketch No. 2

I tried to play around with a variation of the previous sketch and ended up with something very cinematic instead. I don't think this is going to turn into anything for the next album, so it's here for interest only.

Alchemical Sketch No. 2B

This was played live all in one pass with one preset in Camel Audio's Alchemy, based around some didgeridoo samples. I've had these chord progression ideas around for a while, but never really knew what to do with them until I came up with this.

New Album Sketch #3

I really needed to kick my creative juices into gear, so I decided to go back to a time when a friend of mine introduced me to the likes of Cluster, Can, and Roedelius. This isn't my usual fair, but I still quite like the end result. This was done 100% with plugins.

Maelstrom Mile

I had to re-upload this one since I had some kind of noise issue with one of the plugins. Hopefully it won't break any of the links.

This song is in a style very different from what I normally do, both in terms of the song and the production. This was done with all MIDI and softsynths. The name is in reference to Brian Cox.

Wonders of the Universe

I'm still not sure I want to call my maker-related video podcast by this title, but this is the main title music I've come up with for it. I just spent a few minutes tweaking the mix so that the parts pop a bit more. Please let me know what you think.

The Eternal Prototyper Show: Main Theme

This is a revisit of the original form of "The Flight of the Great Machine", before I popped it up and added lyrics. The original didn't have the percussion, but this time around it sounded like it needed it to me. I think I might include this on the album as a prelude to the vocal version.

I'm also going to take a few other songs on the album in a different direction. I suddenly realized that I never really wanted to do a prog rock album after all. I think I'm onto something with the spacey pop-rock stuff that everyone seems to like the most.

Darren Landrum - A Prelude to Flight

Hello! I'm Darren. I'm an electrical engineering student, interested in special-purpose hardware systems. I also like to make music as a full-time hobby.

This account is where I post pre-release mixes and occasional sketches and ideas. These definitely should not be considered the final versions of any songs. Thank you for listening!
