"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)

The songs ‘Returning’ and ‘The Cradle’ are from George Winston’s Grammy award winning album ‘Forest’ released in 1994.  Returning has been transposed to the key of G minor as George frequently played this song as the introduction to The Cradle which is also in the key of G minor.

‘Returning’ was written by George Winston and ‘The Cradle’ is George’s arrangement of a song originally written and recorded by jazz organist Larry Young (Khalid Yasim) as a duet for organ and drums on his 1968 album Heaven on Earth.  The song is dedicated to moms everywhere.

I recorded songs on my Nord Stage 2 voicing Spectrasonics Keyscape using a custom patch based on a modified 7’ 6” Yamaha C7 Grand Piano.  This piano was fitted with Renner “Blue Point” hammers with Welckert felt - a special piano hammer felt used during the pre-Cold War “golden age of Steinway”.

Returning/The Cradle

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

Don't You Want Me - Human League

My take on the Michael Jackson classic "The Way You Make Me Feel" released in November 1987 as the third single from Michael's seventh studio album "Bad".  I have always loved the upbeat vibe of this tune driven by the relentless 8th note triplets in 12/8 time.  It was an absolute joy to dive in an unlock this songs secrets as it brought me back in time and made me feel like I was 21 all over again!

Technical Notes:
I used a Yamaha DX-7 for the synth bass and a variety of soft synths for the drums including NI's 80's Drummer and Battery 4 as well as MOTU's BPM (for the synth toms).  The slow synth string pad was voiced using NI's FM-8 and the rhythmic off-beat synth pad was a combination of the Prophet 08 and the Nord Stage 2.  The synthesizer effects right before verse one were achieved with three MOTU MX-4's each voicing a different part of the overall effect.  The brass was NI's Session Horns Pro (my absolute favorite Horn simulation)and the synth lead was created using a combination of the virtual analog on my Nord Stage 2 along with Sonic Project's OP-X Pro II and NI's Massive.  The three guitar tracks were all played in using a keyboard and three instances of Music Labs' Real LPC each run though NI's Guitar Rig Pro 5.

The Way You Make Me Feel

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.

The Way You Make Me Feel

Todd Dunst