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| Modified 16 OCT 2006: |
Rat Attack, MP3 remix Scar, MP3 reloaded A Drop of Mercy, MP3 remix |
If you don't have GS equipment, just for comparison, here's 90 sec of Gladiator (about a 800K .zip) as it actually sounds on the Roland (this requires Real Audio 3 or greater, and slide the volume up toward the top).
Note: The twenty MIDIs, below, are either metal or hard rock numbers, that for the GS versions, particularly, must be turned up quite loud in order to get the desired effect, as lower volumes will produce unwanted interferences and side effects. I can't emphasize this enough. These are designed for the resonance you get with a loud volume on the GS.
Salt Shaker [GM] [WinGroove] [MP3]
Loud hard rock number, with a title referring to offshore speedboat racing. Sort of a 'surf rock' sound to it, heavy on the ZZ Top.
Metal/hard rock, a little 'nervous', a little 'scratchy', suggested a cat on the prowl, hoping to survive the night in one piece. One of the hardest rocking tunes I've done.
It's maybe country (?), rock, metal (?). Certain riffs seem to suggest SRV, perhaps. And others suggest a percussive, overdriven sort of 'new country'. I call it Country Fived simply because the song is in 5/4 time; though the lead tends to be played 4/4, allowing the 'extra' beat to sort of bridge measures.
Short, rhythm driven, syncopated 'groove' thing, with the guitar playing off both the harmony and rhythm of the organ and drum/bass.
A simple, uncomplicated little metal tune that combines the same sort of country/bluegrass and metal sound of Country Fived, but here with a much less fussier rhythm, and a much faster beat. It's a heavy, rock sound, but it seems light, in a way, too (in parts).
Another 'country/metal' sort of thing, a little bit Ghost Riders. Old country ballad, power rock and a dance beat, and that's sort what you have here - maybe. Has a sort of 'Indian' beat, as with Scar, and the idea of Buffaloes running across the American midwestern plains just came to mind. It might also suggest a sort of amped rhythm and blues, especially for the guitar phrasing.
Similar to Buffalo Storm, also suggesting an Indian beat. As many tribes wore soft soled shoes, it just seem a good name for the tune. This is very simple, in some ways almost like a studio exercise, or primer, and should convert well to equipment which is not even GS - except you'll lose out hearing the growl which Roland takes care to put in its guitar samples. It's an interesting song, somehow. And the mp3 version was one of the first, years ago, that actually sounded okay on my stereo.
In an attempt, perhaps, to waste even more bandwidth, I have here a speeded up version of this tune in Real Audio (D-ISDN), playing out the Roland at a tempo of 334 (that's right). Anyway - thought some might find it kind of funny, and sort of catchy, in a way.
Really requires GS, to get the sound effects if nothing else. It's a song about a drag racer at the track, with his 'big block' Chevy engine, in a metal/dixieland motif, I suppose. The song comes in under 2 minutes, but that would be challenge enough if anyone actually wanted to try and play it live. If you have GS, definitely turn it up - the effects sound much cleaner that way.
Similar to Rapidfire. Similar 'groove rock', but not quite as wild.
Perhaps described as amplified jazz, with
a metal rock rhythm (maybe even almost rap/R&B if played back
on a cheesy GM synth).
Suggested to me an urgency, and a power that St. Michael might be just the one
to come storming in on a mission. Seemed appropriate.
Subtitled Buffy in the Burbs, not that it sounds like the theme song for the TV show, but it just seemed appropriate somehow; with angels softly singing to start, but building up a bit later to a real metal rhythm as Buffy, we'll say, really gets to fighting all of the bad sorts out and about.
Brought to mind the same show, same kind of theme, but very different song from the above - more a high energy power chord kind of thing, with a few breaks and then back to the 'fight'; and a 'sad' melancholy ending to say perhaps the 'slayer' is not always happy with her lot in life.
Chopper Crush [GM] [28.8 RA] [MP3]
Also GM, but also with GS specific SysEx to change the sounds a bit. Named Chopper Crush because the rhythm suggests a helicopter, and crush is just the mechanical way in which their guided missles are detonated.
Meant to suggest a game guy on the target/obstacle course, creeping up, or being crept up on, and then unleashing whatever arsenal, using a power chord fanfare, perhaps even suggesting something orchestral.
From a line in an episode of BTVS, this is a techno/metal? kind of rhythm based thing - and hopefully not too repetitive. Maybe one could dance to it.
Later renamed, Did She Show Me, which seems easier to say quickly.
Kind of a familiar sounding thing; like the theme to a movie, perhaps. Incorporates a few novelty effects, as the destroyer searches and sends off a depth charge at the sub, as the guitars play it pretty safe, throughout, around one or two chords, basically.
Originally titled, Sub Hunter. But DE, Destroyer Escort, seemed missing. And destroying a sub is to kill it. So - DE Kill.
In this case, I was playing around with a drum pattern, at the start. And things just went from there. It probably sounds like that. But I think it gets into a 'groove' about a third of the way through. It might be jarring to hear it the first time. If so, maybe listen to it three, four times, to see if you like it.
Light tune, that for the sake of mercy one might
dance for joy.
It's more along
the lines of a bouncy R&B or jazz-rock number, just with
some fast guitar licks, and obvious blues phrasing. Very slight 'edge'. But it's joyful.
I also thought about calling it Happy Dance (really),
or Snoopy Dance, but it gives you some idea of the
flavor of the song.
I was thinking about lonely Indians playing the flute, then about rock, and metal, and then just started 'typing' away. Whatever it is, I also don't know if the wailing guitars are meant for Scar and his lonely little band, or for all the people they slaughtered in the story. (Scar, just to be clear, refers to the character in the John Ford epic western, The Searchers - Scar, Secatrese)
I later renamed this to, Tribe, to apply more broadly.
This was the first original rock MIDI I composed. This song has a particularly nasty sound to parts of it. But it seems appropriate, somehow. It's funny and it's nasty is maybe the sense one takes away from it.
A fusion/rock piece, kind of slow and spacey, moody and bluesy, sounding like something right from the old Miami Vice, with the synth pads and suggestion of congas. It was my entry for the DTF3 project.
The DTF Project (now defunct) set out a couple of basic tracks, and asked people to just try and come up with a complete song. Everyone started with the same thing, but what each came up with tended to be radically different in style and approach.
DTF4 (Drummer's Brew) [GM] [MP3]
Reggae/jazz/rock? Another fusion thing, based on the DTF4 starter. The starter crammed a lot of notes into its tracks. I kept most of them, and hopefully it doesn't sound too 'overdubbed' or 'busy', as a result.
Some kind of fusion/classical/game/new age, whatever.
Basic syncopated arpeggio runs with chorus swells.
Was meant for a hypothetical game interlude, or maybe
a level. But it sounds interesting just by itself, too.
There was a conscious attempt, if you will, to include some
theta wave manipulations, as well. It may help explain a
somewhat soothing 'emotion', if it isn't cranked up too loud.
Chord to Delia [GM] [FM] [MP3]
My first jazz MIDI, with lots of chords, a light kind of freeform 'Dixieland' rhythm, with a title which plays on the name, Cordelia.
Jazz/rock fusion, heavy on the rock as it gets going,
and with what some call a 'red indian' beat trying to
assert itself - just put me in mind of the lead character
of the famous tv show.
The whole thing hangs together somewhat roughly because of the effort in the
last refrain to really blend almost a hard rock exercise into a mellow jazz guitar piece.
A work in progress, as are they all.
A simple start to a work in progress. Only have the first movement, so far.
What to Do With a Drunken Sailor
Heard this traditional little aire in my head, one day, and wondered if I couldn't get the ocean f/x, pounding waves &c, what with all the different gadget effects in GS. I think it sounds passably convincing. But I'd hoped to get the effect of a camera, flying in like a bird into an open hatchway, and into the room where they were playing. But it sounds more like the song somehow rising out of the sea. Oh, well.
Very, very beautiful 15th century English Christmas motet (in Latin), in three part harmony, only about one minute long; sung for only a two line stanza. Sounds like Gregorian chant, but this postdates plainsong as plainsong did not use harmony and counterpoint.
Great Christmas song, composed by Tchiakovsky, first done not with a sequencer, but rather with Noteworthy's Composer; a notation program. Turned out alright. I used a big orchestra and choir sound, here, though it's typically rendered in a sad and melancholy fashion.
The classic tune, of course. I never used to hear a rendition that didn't bore me, until I came across a very moving, beautiful version on the radio, sung likely by a trained opera singer decades ago, and which ran about the same tempo as I used here; and then later, too, I heard Mannheim Steamroller's sort of moody version, which is also rather moving. I used three rather different arrangements for each of the three verses. And one might consider the arrangement for the third verse something of a homage to Chip Davis and his little group.
I believe it was described as an Appalachian carol by John Rutter in one of his Cambridge Singers videos (must have items, btw). I used Noteworthy's Composer to get the notes, tempo changes, and general arrangement, but then switched over to Winjammer to try and get that voice just right. Somehow, it seems to have worked, though I obv have only played it back with the Roland equip; the layered voice has to sound just right, or else.
This common prayer is not really a Christmas song, but one might argue generally it would still be appropriate. And particularly this version, which is not the typical slow melody/aire most might think of for the Tantum Ergo, but which is rather light and jaunty, some might phrase it; and which is slighly rearranged from the melody I found in an old St. Gregory hymnal. In other words, it 'sounded' Christmasy.
Carol of the Bells/Tubular Bells [FM]
Two files got me particularly enthused with MIDI. One was the
Batman movie theme, then so popular on
"the net". It sounded as
good on FM cards as on synths (quite an accomplishment). The other was
Oldfield's Tubular Bells, particularly a longer version sequenced
by Rene de Vreng. I really had played that over and over again, and
just had it stuck in my head when I tackled the traditional, Carol of
the Bells. What resulted was sort of a mix of the two.
I broke this out from the others because it's not set up to
play on a GS card or module.
This was the first MIDI I actually composed: and
it was using Noteworthy Composer and set up for my basic
OPL-3 FM card, using WSS (Windows Sound System).