blainelocklair Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 The day is finally here! I have an exciting announcement to share with you. I have released a new music album that is very unique to today's musicscape. It uses classic video game instrumentation intertwined with five different generations of music: 70s Disco, 80s Synths, 90s Rock, 00s Electronica, and 10s Text-to-Speech Vocals. The album has three different video game elements in the songs. The album is called Stargate and there are nine all-original songs: 1. Get Groovin'! 2. Analog Man 3. Choralis Quo 4. Stargate 5. Electric Heartbeat 6. Dancin' + Romacin' 7. Arrangement Of Derangement 8. Magnetic Ride 9. Rock It Tonight Here's the list of classic synths (represented by Logic Pro X plugins) and video game sounds: 1. Get Groovin’! * Nintendo Square Wave Magical 8bit * Alter Ego 2. Analog Man * Nintendo Square Wave Magical 8bit * Waves Morphoder 3. Choralis Quo * Nintendo Square Wave Magical 8bit * Alter Ego 4. Stargate * Nintendo Square Wave Magical 8bit * Atari Distortion * Oberheim OB-X 5. Electric Heartbeat * Nintendo Square Wave Magical 8bit * Oberheim OB-X 6. Dancin’ + Romancin’ * Nintendo Square Wave Magical 8bit * Alter Ego * Oberheim OB-X 7. Arrangement of Derangement * Intellivision II 8. Magnetic Ride * Nintendo Square Wave Magical 8bit * OB-X * Alter Ego 9. Rock It Tonight * Nintendo Square Wave Magical 8bit * Vox Synth * Waves Morphoder * Alter Ego * Yamaha DX7 So, how do you get the album? Here are the links for streaming and purchase: Apple iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, and Tidal: https://artist.landr...ic/628810290253 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QCDV8LG/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_EYjUCbGS52Q3C If you're an Apple Music subscriber, you can also tell Siri, "Hey Siri, play the album Stargate by Blaine Locklair". If you're on Amazon Music, you can say, "Alexa, play the album Stargate". Very cool. I hope you enjoy the music. A lot of love for the classic gaming scene went into creating sounds for it. I hope it gives you as much joy listening to it as it gave me to compose and perform it. Please feel free to share any feedback you have about the album. It will be greatly beneficial for this and future projects. If you like the album, I hope you can also take a moment to rate it on your music service of choice. It goes a long way to helping out a fellow classic gamer. I'll add new info about the album and the process here over the upcoming days. I think the shares will be interesting to all. Last, but not least, special thanks to AA member Jesse Hardesty for his contributions to the title track. He provided me with some valuable insights throughout the creation process. Thanks! Blaine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Just bought my digital copy from Amazon! Good stuff Blaine! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blainelocklair Posted April 30, 2019 Author Share Posted April 30, 2019 Here's the first single from Stargate, Get Groovin'! As listed in the original post, it features the square wave sounds reminiscent of the NES. You can play the entire album in playlist form on YouTube Music here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIuJ39KHFuVexJhnqjUL9Rg Enjoy! Blaine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonGrafx-16 Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Wait you used Landr for the mastering... I dunno if I would trust that with my music. I master my own music using T-Racks and Ozone Elements (for the level matching between tracks and it works really well for that). Though what you've embedded here sounds good. Any plans for a vinyl release... I know it's my dream to at least put out a record. I really should make a thread about my stuff or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blainelocklair Posted April 30, 2019 Author Share Posted April 30, 2019 Hi DragonGrafx-16! Thanks for listening and for your feedback. I really appreciate it! I did the real mixing for the album in Logic Pro X on a MacBook Pro 15". I was originally using GarageBand until I learned that I couldn't side chain in it, which was a requirement to use digital vocoding. Once I learned how much mixing power Logic has, I took an online course to learn Logic to its potential. It really added a tremendous amount of value to my workflow and creativity. I'm so glad I took the leap! I signed up with LANDR not so much for the mixing as for the aggregation and distribution of music to the major services. It's funny; they push the mixing as the big draw, which I only used at the lightest settings to add loudness and very gentle compression. It's also the most expensive aspect of LANDR. I really just wanted the ease of distribution, which fo $6/mo. was and my keeping all royalties was the true gem there. It would have been a huge amount of work and inconvenience distributing the album to each of the sites and services. LANDR has a one-button press to get them out to all of them. Huge convenience and time saver. I will most certainly be doing the real mix work in Logic, and I put the mix low enough to get plenty of headroom for LANDR. I think the real value I learned from all of the mixing, whether in LANDR or Logic, is that whatever sounds great with a pair of cans on will sound completely different in the real world. I remember the first time I played one of the songs on my iPhone in my wife's 2017 Honda CR-V, which has a "premium" 330w factory system with sub and CarPlay. My heart sunk into my chest when I heard what I thought was very well mixed. It took only 10 m.p.h. riding in the car in our neighborhood for the road noice to obliterate the low bass. Ten m.p.h.! You can imagine what I heard and didn't hear when we got on the interstate. It taught me to mix music for the real world. I started listening to the songs on AirPods, Beats, our car stereos, small Bluetooth speakers, soundbars, tablet speakers, smartphone speakers, $6 earbuds, and other devices, good and bad. It made me rethink how people consume music. Music is rarely consumed under ideal circumstances. All of the stereo mixing is lost as soon as the song is played through a speaker or speakers that are right next to each other. The album is indeed in stereo since there are plenty of devices that can reproduce it. I just came to the realization that it could all be lost once reproduced in the real world. That's ok too; I'd much rather have the music played on less-than-ideal devices than not played at all! If you ever want to talk shop sometime, feel free to hit me up. I'm sure there is much we can add to one another by sharing our knowledge and common experiences. Thanks! Blaine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blainelocklair Posted May 13, 2019 Author Share Posted May 13, 2019 Here's the second song from Stargate: "Analog Man" I wrote this song as sort of an homage to TRON. It's about a journey of a man that is digitized into the circuitry of a computer. He has no idea about why he is there or where he is initially headed. He enjoys the view along the way, the reds, blues, and greens (RGB) of the new world he has entered. As he travels along his conductive journey, his purpose, and his fate, are revealed to him. The song features the vocal talents of Eric Castiglia of Saraina, Italy. Check out "Analog Man" here (lyrics are below). Thanks! Blaine Lyrics: Analog Man Power on to a different place Entry into computer space Digital road to a brand new scene Pixels made of red, blue, and green Electric highway to paradise Make my way through this device Circuits free, pathway chose Everything that I see glows Analog Man Analog Man Transistor shifts, I go right As I make my conductive flight Way past the point of no return Something ahead that I can’t discern Then I arrive and I can see The fate that now awaits for me I travel down the path that’s paved And I transform into a sound wave Analog Man Analog Man Conversion done, standing by To take my turn back in Earthly sky Making sound now and forevermore So all of man can hear me soar Analog Man Analog Man Analog Man Analog Man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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