A layered soundtrack piece that reflects the end of autumn here in Upstate New York.
Something akin to the last leaf falling off the tree.

Goodnight, November

This song needs a movie. Yup. It sure does.

This is a theme I've been recording on and off for the last 25 years.
This time I fiddled around with some sounds/patches I won in a charity auction to help orphaned kids from Syria. These patches were designed (and donated) by "The Unfinished" for the software synthesizer, Omnisphere.

"The Unfinished" (aka Matt Bowdler, google him), is a soundtracky kinda fella from the UK, who designs sounds for synthesizers in between doing... movie soundtracks. Any surprises here?

P.S. HIRE ME, I WANT TO DO A SOUNDTRACK FOR YOUR MOVIE... 
that, and I enjoy the concept of quitting my day job

This Song Needs A Movie

Excerpt from the live performance, broadcast 21-June-2014 on electro-music.com/radio, for the 2014 Summer Solstice streaming event.
Played live, no sequencing used, aside from the drum pattern.

Instrumentation:
Novation SuperNova II (bass pad and master keyboard controller)
Virus TI (arp bass)
Roland TR-8 (drums)
Three patches of Omnisphere used (glock bells, synth bell, and pseudo guitar-synth) played/triggered by hand via Pulse MIDI Controller
Ableton Live 9 as the host/audio mixer, using Vahalla FX plugins:
Übermod (tape delay), Room (reverb), and Shimmer (shimmery effect).

Sea Legs Certainty (live 21 June 2014)

Dark, dark, dark.
A combination of two synths here ends up creating a truly organic lead throughout the whole piece: Omnisphere for metallic and "distant" content, plus a Virus TI patch that growls, has a filter with teeth and resonance like eyes that look back at you from the forest.
The infusion of some simple drum programming and Stylus RMX percussion rounds out the tension, like Peter Gabriel stepping in to do the soundtrack for Breaking Bad, if only for one episode.
Two synths and two drum lines full of hand-triggered patterns, adding in a little delay and reverb on the fly, and that's it. Recorded in one pass.

Robert Dorschel - The Forest Looks Back At You

A quick low-n-slow throw-together pair up of the Vermona DRM1 MKIII along with a VIrus TI producing the drone -- two fantastic German musical instruments. Added in a few effects to taste.

I've had the Vermona for less than an hour as of this recording, and I love it already.

Vermona Meets His Other German Cousin

Just noodling around with a bass/pad split patch on the Radikal Accelerator, along with an arp part played on the Virus TI.

Trying to get more familiar with the Accelerator.
It's a very deep machine.

Check out the video made for this song as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taka6MstO38

The Art of Vacancy

Check out the video: https://youtu.be/-RKfYEQBFAU

One of those simple grooves that goes nowhere, but you still can get into, with the potential to add more layers than an onion.

Virus TI, Roland JX8P (actually a plugin version called PG-8X), Pianoteq Stage 5, Valhalla DSP fx, Stylus RMX for rhythm, Live 9 as the host.

Origami Mechanic

This song was written for a benefit compilation.

More info here:
https://benefitraywilson.bandcamp.com/

Empty Nest (Eagle Claw Nebula version)

This is the hurry-up-and-settle rushed version of this song for the Asheville Electro-Music CD compilation, where the limitation was "try to keep it at around 5 minutes." 
Hoping to re-record this song in the near future for my own CD release. 
A special hat-tip to Robert Rich for the inspiration for this song.

Utilizing: Ableton Live, Linnstrument (controller), Virus TI2, Omnisphere, Novation Bass Station II (in this version), Sunrizer, and various ValhallaDSP effects, and various ambient sound elements.

Event page:
http://emavl.com/
This can be heard on this CD:
http://kunaki.com/accounting/ShowproductDetail.asp?PID=PX00MDAQO6
Which can be ordered here (scroll down to EM Asheville 2016):
http://kunaki.com/msales.asp?PublisherId=111990

Mise En Place (EM AVL 2016 CD version)

You know who this is for.

DSI OB-6, PianoTeq Stage 5, various Valhalla DSP effects.

Tuesday in Guilford

Simple contemplative ditty, a 4-note wonder, mostly.
Good to record again.

Virus kB for drone run through a Pigtronix Echolution Deluxe;
PianoTeq Stage 5 for modeled piano;
OB-6 for the obvious cutting solo analog sound;
Omnisphere for strings;
FX: Valhalla Room for global reverb & Ubermod for tape delay; EOS on the piano; a series a Ableton Live delays for the super-long delay effect; and  GrainSpace tacked on the end for garble.

I think I accidentally ventured into Steward Copeland's Rapa Nui soundtrack territory here, a little. Recording ad-lib in one pass.

The title stems from Hawaiian lore, seek out the story.

Splintered Oar

This is the only recording I have of an original draft of a piece I wrote for a live performance play of "The Giver." I wrote all original music and incidental sfx for that community theatre/college stage performance in 2016, to try something new. It was fun, I should try it again, the next time the opportunity arises.

Instrumentation:
Modartt PianoTeq Stage 5, Prophet 12, Virus TI2, Omnisphere, and Albino3 plus FX plugins by ValhallaDSP, all hosted in Albleton Live 9.
This is also the only thing I had used the P12 in before trading it out.

The Giver - opening theme 2016

Giver Opening Theme - First Draft 2016

One of my personal favorite sketches, which I later incorporated into "Dating Tips & Bowling Tricks" (song is also uploaded down lower in the playlist here, at: https://soundcloud.com/robertdorschel/dating-tips-bowling-tricks-live-em2015-spring-equinox-broadcast).

Just something about it, simple but layered, brings me back to it almost every practice session. 
I guess it's just the call of the sea.

Sweet Nothing

Revisiting the Sea One Year Later

Soundtrack from a larger Modern Noir video piece, performed live in 2016.
Featuring Joe B. Wall -- http://joebelknapwall.com/

See the video piece for this song here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqb9FKcQiGo

Doubt, Revisited (Robert Dorschel feat. Joe B. Wall)

Recorded 25 years ago, mere months before Finn was born, in a kitchenette in our Las Vegas apartment.

Uploaded for a brief time, soon to be removed, grab it if you can.

Would love to redo this someday.

if at first you succeed...

larger than life (iafys)

WATCH OUT FOR YOUR SUBS, BIG BASS ALERT
Something rediscovered from the GarageBand days, 2005.
Just factory synth patches called up, but with my midi loops (exception being that acoustic guitar). 
That huge bass drop? Created manually using AudioEase's "Make A Test Tone" app.
All in the key of E minor.

to be determined

e bridge (first draft, 2005)

This is what happens when Robert tries to sound like Peter Gabriel, back in 2006. Seriously, I was trying hard to emulate "The Last Temptation" soundtrack, but on a Mac Mini with limited tools, haha.

I forget what all the elements are, except I do recall the vocal samples are from Native Instruments' Kompakt, the "lite" precursor to Kontakt; vowel changing depending on the mod wheel position.

The drums were most likely from Spectrasonics' Stylus RMX.
I didn't have many other VSTs, so the synths must have been either stock GarageBand synths, or more likely something called up from Spectrasonics Atmosphere, if you remember that precursor to Omnisphere. (I still have the install CDRoms somewhere!). 

Anyway -- thanks for listening.

Out Of Character

Either Or (2006)

First song from my live set at EM2012
http://event.electro-music.com

This song is a combo of at least three compositions from the year previous to this show.
You can hear a Zen Tambour at about 1:20 to 2:20 here (this Zen is tuned to D-Akebono). Learn more at http://www.exoticvessels.com/zentambour/

Otherwise I'm playing several hardware and software synths via several MIDI controllers, including:
Korg MS2000R, Roland SH-201, Omnisphere, Stylus RMX, Albino 3, Arturia Analog Factory, Audio Damage Tattoo, and Audio Damage FX. All hosted via Ableton Live 8 as a virtual rack and master arp-tempo conductor.

If you need a visual to go with the song, the following video was shown simultaneously:
http://vimeo.com/38840688
(just turn down the vimeo player's volume first)

Finding Solace (live at EM2012)

Eclectic multi-Instrumentalist. I just freakin' love sound, and the tools to create and shape sound. 


Robert Dorschel

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