This is the first music track I ever created... mixing is probably terrible, mastering is non-existent and the guitar parts could definitely use a few extra takes to get them right. But hey, you got to start somewhere right?

The track consists of a basic ambient sound called "Frozen Lake" (from Cubase) and is layered with a few sound effects and a beat from a Kaossilator 2 as well as two short guitar recordings. A drum part ends things off.

Frozen Lake

Cover of a track from the Commodore 64 game The Last Ninja as it appears in the The Wastelands. Originally composed by Ben Daglish. A headnod to Tamás Pető for doing a very nice guitar cover and for writing out the notes.

There are quite a few covers of this piece. Mine does not differ much from the original and was mainly created because it's an awesome tune and to get more familiar with music production in general and particularly Reaper.

The Last Ninja

A short intermezzo where a violin tremolo slowly fades out as two different soundscapes are trying to capture the sound along with a very deep bass. The track consists of only four different elements.

Metaphysical Intermezzo

The sound of rain and thunder is put into the background when a guitar starts playing a mellow tune.

This track has been a big frustration to create actually. The basic idea was there but I couldn't figure out a way to get the right sound out of everything else. This is also one of the reasons why the track is pretty short.

This track uses a few of the awesome Rain And Thunder recordings from 99sounds.org.

A Break From The Rain

A cover of the Wilderness theme from The Last Ninja. Originally composed by Ben Daglish and Anthony Lees.

Last Ninja Wilderness

The track is made up of only five elements. Two synth pads create an atmospheric ambient sound while three different guitar parts do the rest. The beginning of the track is created with natural harmonics on the guitar using a "psychedelic" setup. The middle of the track features a heavily distorted guitar with a simple riff.

Third Psych

I kind of wanted to cover the awesome Game of Thrones theme (composed by Ramin Djawadi) in a "different way". Instead, it turned out not to be so different. There's only three elements in the track: A synth pad, some strummed power chords and a bit of the main melody. Simple... and a bit boring :-)

To be honest, I got a bit tired of working on this track so I will gladly admit that the end result is not at all like I originally envisioned it in my head. I don't believe that music always has to have perfect production value though. Sharing both ups and downs of any creative endeavor is an important part of the journey... hehe, so many good excuses, eh? :-)

Game Of Thrones

So I've wanted to mix the synthy chiptune genre with a guitar-driven ambient sound for a while. This is my first attempt at combining elements from the different genres. I won't claim that it's ambient -- it just contains that kind-of-melancholic sound of a distortion guitar which is prevalent with many popular ambient and instrumental artists.

The track starts off with a synth-driven and very upbeat melody followed by a slower part that features both an SID-like arpeggio pattern and two simple guitar parts (!) that try to fit together. In the end, the synth takes over again and rounds off the track with some of the same melody elements that were featured in the beginning.

Mixing and mastering has often been my nemesis with previous tracks and while I don't claim this track is perfect, it's probably the best I've done so far. It sounds good on my poor speakers and pretty great on headphones. I actually used an automated mastering service called Landr (shh, don't tell anyone) and it won the battle against my own mastering. The sound is "crisp" but perhaps lacking a bit on the bass, but that's ok for a chiptune-like track I think.

Anyway, to conclude, I'm pretty happy with the outcome and it was great fun to work on this tune!

Yes It's New

The setup for this track is pretty minimal: Two pads, a drum and a synthesizer. The start is a bit drone-y, but soon the sampled drums kick in, giving a bit of real instrument life and feel to the track. A bit too much perhaps, haha... The synthesized melody part in the second half of the track was inspired by one of the tracks from the C64 classic International Karate.

After a year without anything new, it feels good to publish a little track. This one had been sitting around for a long time, because I wanted to add more stuff to it. Instead, I just decided to mix and publish it as-is. So it's a bit short.

The name: I wanted to call it Tip Toe because the melody kind of reminded me of tip toeing, but in the end, I thought the track to be quite generic so that became the name of the song.

Generic Tune (Tip Toe)

Hello there. I'm here to try stuff out. "Load List Run" is an homage to the Commodore 64 commands that loaded all the good old games that helped shape my interests for years to come.

The tracks are primarily inspired by guitar-driven ambient and chiptune. I love the SID sound from the Commodore 64 days, and often use this as inspiration. At the same time, I try to bring a bit of the real world into the sound with the help of a guitar.

The profile picture is the face of my dog Mila :-)

Load List Run

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