D. Lee Jackson

New Single – “Ant Farm Melee”

Posted on 2021-07-09 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

My newest single has just dropped on Bandcamp! The song is called “Ant Farm Melee,” and it was written as one of my contributions to the Ultimate MIDI Pack project on Doomworld.

The Ultimate MIDI Pack is a pack of MIDIs made by Doomworld members, which aims to replace all MIDIs in The Ultimate Doom and ensures that all MIDIs in the game are unique. The project was led by Ivan Stanton (northivanastan), and I am eternally grateful to him for inviting me in. You can grab a copy of the Pack and the MIDI files therein at this link, including the MIDI file for my song.

Ant Farm Melee falls into the hard driving rock genre. The original MIDI file for it was written in Cakewalk by Bandlab, my MIDI editor and DAW of choice. I originally used the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth built into Windows 10 as my sound source when creating the MIDI file, since it was the least common denominator when it comes to which sound source end users would have available. For this single, I sent the playback of the MIDI file through my Roland SC-88Pro Sound Canvas and recorded it back into Cakewalk by Bandlab, where I mixed it using some plugins out of the MEGA Bundle from Plugin Alliance. I did final mastering in Steinberg’s WaveLab Pro 10.

You can get a high-quality 96 KHz / 24-bit version of the recording from this Bandcamp link for $1 per download. Make sure you download the FLAC, WAV, or AIFF format files to get the full high-quality experience, since MP3 and OGG formats are compressed at lower frequency and bit rates.

Grab your copy today!

My First Collaboration

Posted on 2021-06-14 Written by D. Lee Jackson 1 Comment

We/Me I have recently had the chance to participate in something I’ve never done before: a musical collaboration on a single piece. Composer James Paddock approached me via a Direct Message on Discord and asked if I’d like to collaborate on a work for one of the user projects going on in the Doomworld forums. I agreed, and a day or two later Jimmy (as he’s known on the forums) sent me the first section of the song.

Boy, was I ever in over my head! Jimmy is a great composer, hands down.

Fortunately, I was able to find a few spots where I could insert a solo piano melody, with my line complimenting his work. I sent the MIDI file (we’re doing this for the Plutonia 3 user project, which needs MIDI files) back to him with my work. A few days later, I received another stellar installment. This time, we were able to discuss the project across the Discord chat application. We made some tweaks, especially to the tempo of the piece, and I then set about writing more melodic lines. Unfortunately, I had to stop halfway through for reasons I can’t go into here, but Jimmy carried on for me, even going so far as to incorporate some of my melodic ideas into his writing for the second half of the piece. He did a bang-up job on the end product, creating a fantastic work of music.

If you would like to hear it, it’s posted as “MISSION UNPOSSIBLE” on Jimmy’s YouTube channel. Please give it a listen when you get the chance!

New Music? For What? DOOM???

Posted on 2021-05-05 Written by D. Lee Jackson 2 Comments

A while back, I teased that I'd written three new songs over the past few weeks, and that you'd have to stay tuned to find out what they were for. Well, the song count is up to five, and I can now disclose the projects (yes, plural) that they're … [Continue reading]

“Duke Nukem Tank Tracks” Still Selling

Posted on 2021-03-22 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

It's been almost a month since "Duke Nukem Tank Tracks" was released, and sales have been moderately okay. Granted, the only sales I see at the moment are the ones that come in via Bandcamp. CD Baby has not yet reported any of the sales from Amazon … [Continue reading]