This is an unfinished song from around 2011. Just a render straight out of Renoise to mp3.

I was messing around with Renoise and wanted to write something that made a lot of use of the higher frequencies. I also wanted to stop worrying so much about drum tracks.

Snippet001

Another snippet from 2011.

I really like ostinato. Right around then I was noticing that the electronic stuff I was doing had no dynamics and didn't change enough. That's where this came from.

Snippet002

Written around 2000 in Impulse Tracker. No mixing, no engineering, and with kinda bad samples... but I love these songs. I'm putting this here so I don't forget about it again.

This song always felt like a declaration, but I also hated naming my songs... but they needed filenames, at the very least. This one stayed as "magic2.it" for a long time before I said, "Fuck it," and named it "I Believe In Magic". I like the title now. This song felt like a new plateau for me, at the time. It had nice sonic textures, my first "I-don't-think-they-totally-suck" drums.

I Believe In Magic

Written around 2000 in Impulse Tracker. No mixing, no engineering, and with kinda bad samples... but I love these songs. I'm putting this here so I don't forget about it again.

This one was, like, the fourth or fifth iteration of the drum and bass lines. I couldn't figure out what it was missing until I added the delayed lyrical line and harmonies on top. This song (like a lot of these) is proof that I need(ed) an editor to tell me when to stop and just let the song breathe a bit instead of shoving more stuff in it. This track stands out as the first time I *really* liked a drum track that I wrote myself.

Mist

Written around 2000 - 2001 in Impulse Tracker. No mixing, no engineering, and with kinda bad samples... but I love these songs. I'm putting this here so I don't forget about it again.

So, around 1997 or so I joined an online cult in AOL chatrooms. We called ourselves the Graphites because the holy book was written in pencil. And we worshipped Squishybear, the stuffed bear of one of the prolific chatters. Mostly, we trolled Born Again Christian chatrooms. I'm not super proud of that last part, but I made real friends during a difficult time of my life when I thought I'd lost a lot of what made me, me.

I wrote the theme song for the Graphites. This is not that song. This started out as a sort of pastiche of that song and, like, every song by Messiah I could find -- lots of samples, danceable, repetitive. Then I thought maybe it should have lyrics, or be about a failed relationship... but, nah, this is my history to revise so I'll just leave all that stuff out. There's way too much vocoder in that other version anyway.

This song hit its mark for me. It had a nice hook, little interesting bits and textures here and there, evolved nicely throughout its length... and then ended before it got too unbearable.

Tidal

Written around 1999 in Impulse Tracker. No mixing, no engineering, and with kinda bad samples... but I love these songs. I'm putting this here so I don't forget about it again.

System Shock 2 is my favorite video game that I've never finished. And I've always been in love with its soundtrack. A definitive work among video game soundtracks, for sure. So I thought I'd do a remix of the Medical Science theme.

Most important to me is that the only original sample from the System Shock 2 original is the opening lick. Even the resonant interval thing that characterizes the bass line of the original was pieced together by me in Impulse Tracker using its filters.

I wanted this one to start firmly anchored in the original and then turn left towards something else. Maybe I got there, around 0:58 or so? I dunno. I never finished this one, didn't know where it should end up.

drhayes

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