This is a composition I've written to sync with an E3 trailer of a computer game called Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

Enslaved

This music was made for a mod of a PC game called Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
It's used as ambient music to create lots of tension in the game.
The mod is called "The Sins We Hide".

The Dark Descent

This is a track that my friend Spud and I wrote together that I've been arranging and orchestrating for the past couple of weeks. It's got a lighthearted feel that would suit a Hobbiton-esque village setting.

Music For The Shire - by William Helliwell and Spud Smith

Who else grew up watching the BBC version of Narnia?
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I recreated Aslan's Theme from the opening and closing credits. It was a lot of trial and error and trying to make my sample libraries do the right thing but I think I got a fairly accurate copy in the end. I learned a lot more about orchestration in the process. If anyone's interested, send me a DM if you'd like a copy of the notation or the midi file.
Geoffrey Alan Burgon was the original composer, born in Hampshire. He sadly died in 2010. Among his most recognisable works are Monty Python's Life of Brian for film, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Brideshead Revisited for television, the latter two earning Ivor Novello Awards in 1979 and 1981 respectively.
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Aslan's Theme

Finished writing a new track this morning. It’s inspired by “The Wolf” by Eddie Vedder from the Into The Wild soundtrack (an amazing movie if you haven’t seen it!).

I really wanted to get that organ sound and ended up using a layered synth in Reason with a Scream 4 Distortion added. I used Iris 2 by Izotope for that “sparkly” sound. The guitar was tuned in open D and recorded through Bias FX 2. I’ll do a breakdown video of each instrument in the near future.

Keeping everything sparse and clear was a bit of a challenge. I added some orchestral strings near the beginning but they overpowered everything and just didn’t fit with the atmosphere.

For anyone who might be interested, the chords used in order were Gm, Bm, Gm, Bm, F, Eb.

Opening

Relax to this 44 minute meditation music. The stems were written by Will Helliwell then imported into Elias Studio for rendering.

Meditation Music

This is my go at the David Wise challenge. I went for a retro style with some old synths in there but wrote it as a composer with all the modern tech at my fingertips. I hope you enjoy it.

"The challenge - a BIG one: Is to take an 8-bit theme and re-interpret it as a modern composer. 30 years ago I composed a lot of 8-bit music, completely unaware that one day people might want to make re-arrangements or music influenced by these early compositions. Battletoads is testament to Nostalgia." - David Wise

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The David Wise Challenge - A Synthwave Arrangement

This week's challenge was set by the Tomb Raider composer Nathan McCree. The challenge was to "make an in-game music tune for a Stealth Assassin Endless Runner game. The tune must loop seamlessly with no clicks or gaps."

I took inspiration from a number of different video game soundtracks including Alto's Odyssey, Alone, Fotonica, and Hitman 2. I created the loop by taking part of the intro and placing it at the end of the track so the reverb tails blend seamlessly together. I hope you enjoy it!

Nathan McCree Challenge - Stealth Assassin Endless Runner

The challenge this week was set by Music Weeklies and run by Disasterpeace. We were challenged to extend our favourite video game soundtrack by writing at least 2 tracks that sound alike. So this is my go at extending the Red Dead Redemption 2 soundtrack.

When I first wrote the track it started out sounding very medieval. I think it was partly the instrumentation and as soon as I swapped out the flutes for a horn section, it sounded a lot better. I kept the flutes in the intro though because I liked them 😁

The track really started coming together once I added the electric guitar. I used my telecaster in Open D tuning with it's crazy gauge strings to give that big, open, Western sound. The solo towards the end of the track was done on my strat because bends are easier and it differentiates it from the rhythm on the tele. Both guitars were run through BIAS FX 2 with a LOT of spring reverb added.

I hope you enjoy the piece and I hope it makes you think of Red Dead Redemption 🙂

Shootout

The Disasterpeace Challenge - Shootout

The challenge this week was set by Music Weeklies and run by Disasterpeace. We were challenged to extend our favourite video game soundtrack by writing at least 2 tracks that sound alike. This is my go at extending the Red Dead Redemption 2 soundtrack. My previous track was all about action. This second piece is about resting at the end of the day.

I wanted this track to sound as if you're really there, listening to people play their instruments, so I added in some campfire sounds for the ambience. I also wanted it to play out like a story so one person starts playing their guitar, another joins in, the banjo starts, someone starts playing on a violin, another person starts stomping their feet and then finally there's someone whistling along towards the end.

-- Track breakdown --

Guitar 1: This is the guitar that starts off the track. It's me playing my Court acoustic, capo on the 7th fret, mic'd up and going through BIAS FX 2's acoustic amps. The main sound comes from the octaver pedal which lets you mix the dry sound, the low octave and the high octave all together.

Guitar 2: Same guitar but without a capo or the octaver pedal this time. This adds the lower end to compliment guitar 1.

Banjo: My wife hates the sound of banjos won't let me get one in real life so I've had to make do with the banjo sample on EastWest's Ra library.

Violin: This compliments the banjo and follows some of the melody lines from the banjo and guitars. I recorded multiple improvisations because I wanted it to sound like somebody was joining in spontaneously. I'm using the Violins 2 Leader sample from the BBC Symphony Orchestra library with a close mic position.

Foot stomps: I found these on freesound, split them up so they were in time and lowered the pitch of them to blend in with the rest of the music.

Whistle: I wanted more whistling but boy can I not whistle in tune. Not quite as bad as my singing but it's almost there. That's really why there's only one whistle in the piece. I ran the audio through the same fx as guitar 2. I had a tuner on the screen while I was whistling so I can attempt to make myself in tune. It's still a little off but I like to think that adds to the atmosphere.

Ambience: The final track is the campfire ambience. It starts off quite loud to set the mood then I dipped the volume when the other instruments came in.

Making Camp

The Disasterpeace Challenge - Making Camp

Managed to write one last track before the end of the year and before all my time is taken up learning how to be a parent 😅

I always seem to get stuck about half way into writing a track. To help me write the second half of this one, I changed up the chords and key and that allowed me to come up with the ideas needed to finish it off. I needed that second half to sound bigger too so I also switched on some reverb just for the drums. I had a play with Ovox by Waves and added a little bit of my own voice in towards the end. Not something I normally do. I say “We are the universe experiencing itself. It’s using us to learn more about itself.” Cheesy but good fun 😁

## Instrumentation ##
- The piano sound is a combination of The Gentleman piano in Kontakt mixed with a toy piano sound in Reason using the Radical Pianos instrument.
- The drums were created all in Reason using a mix of sounds from different kits.
- The "background melody" that kicks in at the same time as the drums is a patch from the awesome Europa instrument in Reason called Eighties Movie Polly. Europa is my favourite synth for those big 80s sounds.
- The next instrument to come in is the bass. This is also done in Reason using the Monotone Bass Synthesizer instrument.
- The quick little melody sound you hear next comes from Spitfire's Olafur Arnalds Composer Toolkit instrument in Kontakt. It's the perfect instrument for those delicate sounds and pads.
- At the same time as that melody coming in, the electric guitar also comes in. I played my Fender Strat through BIAS FX 2 using a compressor, chorus, delay and reverb.
- The breakdown in the middle of the track has some bird sounds in. I added a lot of reverb to them to make them sound dreamy and distant. I got the audio from Freesound (https://freesound.org/people/baryy/sounds/409143/#)
- To build the track up some more in the second half, I put reverb on the drums using a club preset in H-verb.
- Violins and cello were added to fill out the sound some more in the second half. These were from Spitfire's BBC Symphonic Orchestra.
- Finally, I added a little bit of my own voice, run through Ovox by Waves Audio.

Will Helliwell

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