Shawn's Music News

Shawn's Music News - Issue #14

Published: Sat, 05/11/19

Motivational quote

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you." --Walt Whitman

Click here to play Witch Hunt

Welcome

Graphics:

First off I have to share my discovery of a graphic design site: deepdreamgenerator.com. The above cover art for "Witch Hunt" was (re)produced with it. It basically allows you to combine multiple images, using artificial intelligence algorithms. The primary image is recreated using the elements of the other (control) image, with absolutely incredible results! The above image was created by taking multiple deepdreamgenerator.com renderings using different control images, and then layering them with varying transparency settings in paint.net. I'll include a few of the renderings here for you to "connect the dots!" The first image below (primary), for example was blended with the second (control) image below to produce the third image below...

For a working title, let's call the image above, "Witch Hunt (Flames)." It turned out a little too blurry, so that's what made me think of layering it with other versions of the orignal (primary) image. The following images were produced by combining the original (primary image) with various other styles, hoping for clarity and added texture...

"Witch Hunt (Celtic)" is shown above. The one below is the one above layered with "Witch Hunt (Flames)" to bring out the red highlights and darken it up a bit (stronger contrast).

This last one is the original rendered with an abstract neon glowing flower-like image. I really liked the hint of glowing color it added when layered with the others, especially enhancing the blue of the eye...I think it added some overall wispiness, also (which I thought was an appropriate touch)

Which brings us back to the final image below (for convenience):

Musically:

This week I've been working with several amazing songwriters and composers from all over the country on Drooble.com. I remastered a recording for Colette O'Connor ("Hippy Dance") that was boomy, muddy, and the vocals were WAY too low in the mix. (Here's a link to the original version I had to work with, for comparison.) The challenge was that it was a jam-session type recording in a room with a single microphone, so there was no way to separate out the tracks for individual leveling and EQ, but iZotope's "RX7" worked some major magic on it! (Vocal Rebalance Algorithm) Be sure to check out Colette's "Life Is Day At The Fair." It's my favorite of her posted works on drooble! She also has her own website: http://coletteoconnor.net/ There you can hear more of her music and learn about all the amazing things she does to make the world a better place with her talent...

I also, had the opportunity this week to finish creating a lead guitar part for an epic soundtrack collaboration by Aaron Costain and Dr. Stephen Weber ("Undaunted"). Here's a link to the original version and to my guitar addition.

Be sure to check out all their music if you get a chance! Drooble is a free streaming service full of amazing original music, mostly produced by the artists themselves, which allows for full artistic expression and creativity (not conformed to commercial cookie-cutter constraints). And not only will you find every possible genre represented there, but also lots of track that defy a single genre...

As always, thanks for listening!

-Shawn