"Graduation" was written by George Winston and was first released in 1999 on his 8th solo piano record entitled "Plains".  This song has a stately grandeur about it that evokes a sense of accomplishment and pride.  Listening to this piece inspires me to look back and reflect on the amazing accomplishments of my two beautiful daughters and the many graduations that have already happened, and those even more important ones yet to come.  

I recorded this piece on my Nord Stage 2, voiced it with my Steinway Model D patch with a good amount of sympathetic resonance and ambient mechanical sounds.  I recorded it with Ableton Live 11, mastered with Ozone 8 and used EQ, reverb, compression, limiting and imaging.

Graduation

An absolutely beautiful solo piano piece by Ludovico Einaudi from his 2009 album entitled 'Nightbook'.  This song really moved me emotionally, and I really tried to capture that feeling though my interpretation of this piece.  

The piano is a Steinway Model D voiced using the UVI Model D library.  This piece also features a cello solo which I played on a Roli Seaboard controlling SWAM Cello by Audio Modeling and recorded (for the first time) using MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression).  The are additional subtle orchestrations thought the piece which I arranged using a combination of Omnisphere and Session String Pro 2 (Native Instruments) and a beautiful Equator 2 (Roli) patch called Solo Strings which I also recorded using MPE.

Indaco

The Aisle

Japanese Music Box(Itsuki No Komoriuta)is a traditional Japanese Lullaby.  The title means Lullaby of Itsuki, a region of southern Japan near the city of Komumoto.  This arrangement is from George Winston's album Forest.  The melody is haunting, melancholy and both exquisitely beautiful and simple all at the same time.

I recorded this piece on my Nord Stage 2 controlling the PianoTeq 7 virtual piano loaded with a Steinway Model D simulation.  I used Ableton Live 11 to manage the MIDI recording which I made in a single pass with no editing.  All effects (EQ, compression and reverb came from PianoTeq.

Japanese Music Box (Itsuki No Komoriuta)

From the new CD "I Remember Michael - A Michael Jackson Solo Guitar Tribute" by guitarist Adam Rafferty.

The Way You Make Me Feel- (Michael Jackson) Solo Fingerstyle Guitar

One of my favorite synth-pop songs of the 1980's. :-)

Don't You Want Me - Human League

Not much of a track. Just a simple 12-bar blues with a little bit of a guitar riffing over it.

Blue Thursday

RM-Lockdown Sessions-Foreigner

My version of George Winston's 'Night' from the album 'December'.  Night is a haunting piece which always makes me recall those long, cold, star-filled nights during winters in Wisconsin.  It is divided into three sections:

— Part One: Snow 
— Part Two: Midnight 
— Part Three: Minstrels

Minstrels was inspired by St. Basil’s Hymn, a traditional Greek Children’s New Years’s Carol based upon a rendition by Malcolm Dalglish.

I recorded this with PianoTEQ v7 using the NY Steinway D Prelude patch.  Part Two (Midnight) was voiced using Native Instruments 'Giant' piano instrument.

Japanese Music Box (Itsuki No Komoriuta)

Todd Dunst

Related tracks