Originally released on March 11, 2012

In this episode, I introduce myself and my musical background, and then talk about my composition “Rue’s Whistle” inspired by the Mockingjay Call from the Hunger Games soundtrack.

You can play the podcast using the play button below, or right-click on the “Download” link to save it to your computer.

Notes from the episode:

Fireside Chat podcast talking about movie trailer Rue’s Whistle on their YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNQP_z1jbOs)

Nate Dean Ross (2026 video is now private) talking about movie trailer Rue’s Whistle on his YouTube channel

Originally posted on August 11, 2013

In this episode, I talk about and play two songs that I creating in the iOS app Figure: Lypasi and Do Re Mi. I also talked about Jenn and my participation in Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir 4.

My wife Jenn and I discovered Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choirs, and after seeing the first 3, we wanted to participate when the next one was available. When we got notified about it, we rehearsed our parts and recorded and submitted videos. Eric and his team edited and mixed the audio and produces a great video of VC4: Fly To Paradise.

During this process, I got ideas on how to mix V’Shamru, a song I arranged for choir or quartet, and I will try to get my parts recorded in the next month.

On the Home Recording Show, episode 166, they talked about different apps that were available on iPhones and iPads. Jon Tidey mentioned a great app by Propellerhead called Figure. It’s a simple but powerful app for making music. The songs are loops that are 2, 4, or 8 measures. You can record and edit a drum part (kick, snare, cymbal + one other part), a bass part, and a lead (synth) part. You create the part by drawing a figure in a rectangle while the song is playing or recording. You can modify the timbre of the parts using Tweaks. You can modify the key and tempo of the loop as well.

My son Logan likes to use this app as well. I played a couple of his songs. I made a video of him creating a song with Figure. I decided to take two of my songs from Figure and publish them.

On the first one, Lypasi, I exported a loop, and put it into Cubase where I added electric guitar parts and a shaker part.

On the second one, Do Re Mi, I recorded myself playing the loop, and live-changing a bunch of the settings to vary and extend the loop.

Figure is only $0.99 in the iTunes store, so I encourage everyone to try it. I’d love to hear what you’ve created. Send me an email to tsnivelymusic@gmail.com.

Originally posted on July 28, 2013

In this episode, I talk about three songs that I have re-mixed and re-released since the original episodes. I talk about my upcoming move, moving my studio to a new house, and my career change to work on music full time.

I got an email from Nicholas who is a music educator in New York City. He was interested in a version of Rue’s Whistle that did not have the sax solo on it. I mixed Rue’s Whistle and Fusion without the improvised solos and sent them to him to possibly use in his music camp this summer. The new versions are on the site in the Songs section.

It’s been 7 months since my last episode of Making My Own Music. I’ve been listening to a lot of Home Studio podcasts. My favorites are:

• Home Recording Show with Ryan Canestro and Jon Tidey
• Simply Recording Podcast with Joe Gilder and Graham Cochrane
• Ask Joe – also Joe Gilder
• Home Music Studio 1 with Dave Maxey

I’ve learned a lot in the last 7 months about ways I could improve my mixes. I decided to re-mix three of my songs, and re-release them.

For Revolution Fan Podcast Theme, I basically neatened the timing, especially the woodwinds.

For Fusion, I used digital noise reduction to remove a hiss that was underneath two of the ride cymbal tracks. I used EQ to improve the sax sound, and added a short delay on the sax to give it some more depth.

For A Teenager In Love, I removed the doubled vocals, and made the crash cymbals louder. In order to get the crash cymbals at the right volume level, I had to turn all of the other tracks down. This was a new mixing technique for me, and led to a mix that was not as loud as it could be without clipping – a tip from Joe Gilder on Home Studio Corner. It’s OK for the mix to not be that loud when recording with 24 bits. The song can be made loud during the mastering phase.

I am changing my career. Starting in September 2013, I will make my living with music. You can hire me to compose music for you. You can hire me (through MyOnlineSax.com) to record a saxophone part for your song.

To contact me, send an email to tsnivelymusic@gmail.com.