This demo track was written to suit a kind of psychedelic shooter 8-bit game with a very neon colour palette. It gave me Bladerunner and Tron vibes.
I gave it a neo-western feel, grounding the 8-bit"ness" with a synth bass.

This was really fun to mock up, and slightly outside my orchestral comfort zone, but I feel it turned out really well!

I used the Spitfire LABS dulcimer patch, along with Analog Dreams and Hybrid Keys from Native Instruments, with a synth bass from Arturia's Analog lab.

Psychedelic Neon 8-bit Shooter - Videogame demo

My brief for this track was dark fantasy action music.
I wrote the piece in a harmonically low register, and started out with a driving percussion line with just a simple celli ostinato to create that darkness.
In order to give it a real fantasy feel I added in the men's choir - "Voices of War" by Cinesamples.

I also wanted to put my own mark on it, drawing from my Irish traditional music roots. So I used the Uilleann Pipes (the Irish brother of the Scottish bagpipes) for the main melody.

The main section of this track can also be looped seamlessly - in order for a games developer to use in their game.

Dark Fantasy Action - Videogame demo (loopable)

Templar Castle Bulider Game - Official Trailer

I made this as a demo for a virtual choir instrument that I made.  My new house had a lot of natural reverb.  So I recorded myself multiple times from different rooms with microphones on the opposite side of the house.  Then I mixed together each recording into a choir and brought all the samples into the Decent Sampler application.

For this piece, I played a chord pattern using the choir and added other instruments that complimented the chords.

New House Choir

An orchestral based track, focusing on the feeling of uncertainty and cautiousness while exploring the wilds.

Featuring an uncommon time signature, I had a lot of fun playing around with alternate timings and instrumentation from various parts of the world, giving the piece a feeling of not quite belonging to any location we know.

I hope you like it!

Was It Worth It?

This is a fantasy Irish inspired orchestral piece.
Around a simple harp melody, I layer different Irish instrumentation such as low whistle and uilleann pipes, as well as a full orchestra to create this soundtrack.

I took inspiration from lots of my favourite fantasy media, such as The Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, Mistborne among others.

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Whispers of a forgotten secret

This was a demo I wrote for the ADAM Audio #soundtrackcompetition2024.

Up until this point I had mainly focused on full orchestral tracks, and wanted to dive into some more hybrid orchestral stuff. I thought this was a great opportunity to get to know EastWest's Forbidden Planet synth library, which I had downloaded for a while with a composer cloud subscription, but hadn't had the chance to dive into it.

I found balancing the elements tricky enough, but feel I got somewhere I was happy in the end!

I'd love to hear some feedback from other composers who compose in this genre a little more!

Hybrid Orchestral Demo

This is a commission I worked on for the dungeons and dragons liveplay podcast 'Dungeons and Randomness', for an animated trailer to promote an event before their new arc commenced.
I used strings, percussion and brass from Spitfire Audio's Albion One, Soft piano from LABS, grand piano from Ableton and Norse male choir from Cinesamples Voices of War.

The original trailer can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeVKK_TujT4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0Z24u_vNfxTqf_5YbW_e6fmJVVTLqdWnBqezAQ4tQ3IBTQItH0FttJYgk

Fallen

This is a short track I wrote for my wife. I pictured a couple walking alone through Central Park with the soft glow of the street lamps lighting their way, talking about life and happiness.

I composed in Ableton, using exclusively Spitfire Audio libraries: 
LABS Soft piano
Originals; Intimate Strings

If this is the feel you're looking for with your own film/TV project, feel free to get in touch to discuss us working together.

I hope you enjoy!

Lover's Walk By Starry Night

As a violin maker inspired by the Cremona instruments this sample library was created with, I wrote this piece of music imagining what it was like for those master craftsmen to first develop their instruments for the first time. 
The initial uncertainty of whether the design choices will pay off - when you're sitting at your bench with a lump of raw wood, the potential existing only within your mind. 
The buildup of excitement as the instrument comes into shape, knowing that you're proud of your craft and quality. 
Elation as you first play the instrument and it sings with joy, projecting out for all the world to hear. 
Finally as you set the instrument down, the quiet contemplation. 
The realisation that you may have just changed the landscape for string playing forever...

In this track I used the Violin 1 and Cello patches from e-instruments Cremona Quartet provided in the Cremona Quartet Remix competition. Without listening to the reference track I set about putting chords to the melody outlined in the violin. I then wrote an atmospheric introduction using flautando strings, soft piano and a handbell patch. I built up the orchestration using full strings, a spiccatto ostinato in the high strings, booming percussion with a driving snare/stick rhythm along with a French horn counter melody, all letting that solo violin and solo cello sing out over the top. I finished off with a return of the soft piano and an arctic swell pad to close things off. Libraries used were: Spitfire Albion One Spitfire Intimate Strings Spitfire LABS.

Was It Worth It?

McIlroy Music

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Dermot Dee McIlroy

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