Category: single

New Commissioned Single Out Now

Posted on 2022-01-28 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Ereis Overture Single Cover Thanks to commissions, it’s time to announce the release of a new single! This one is dropping today (Friday, January 28, 2022), and it’s the result of a client by the name of Mr. Peter Campi, who wanted music that sounded like the works of composer Miklós Rózsa, with a little bit of John Williams tossed in. Mr. Campi wanted something that evoked the sounds of the sinister side of the Roman Empire, but in an outer space setting, all within 3 1/2 minutes. Not an easy job to fill.

The end result is a work that I’ve named “Ereis Overture.” I will let you guess at the meaning of the word “Ereis.” The overture pushed me in ways I’ve never been pushed before. First, I had to unleash the forces of a pair of virtual instruments I invested in last year but have never used until now. These instruments, created by Aaron Venture, were his Infinite Brass and Infinite Woodwind virtual instruments. They’re quite the powerful beasts, and I fear I haven’t tamed them – I’ve only managed to get into the same arena with them, thanks to the help of a new piece of hardware, the TEControl USB MIDI Breath Controller. I also had to learn how to use the percussion part of another virtual instrument library, that being the Sample Logic Virtual Ensemble Trilogy. (Fortunately, I caught a break when it came to the strings – they were supplied by the Mighty Roland SC-88Pro.)

I wasn’t alone on my journey through this piece, thank goodness. This time, I had a special beta team helping to guide me as I wrote and produced the overture. This secret group of folks, who I call the Night Hawks (in homage to the late drum corps out of Houston with which I marched in 1984), worked with me on the project for several weeks, and they were incredibly helpful. I’m recruiting new members for the Night Hawks as I transition into work on my next commission. The recruiting is taking place in my Facebook discussion group.

Anyway, Ereis Overture is officially out on Bandcamp! I hope you’ll purchase a copy, but if you’d like to hear a preview, here’s a player for your listening pleasure:

<a href="https://leejackson1.bandcamp.com/track/ereis-overture">Ereis Overture by Lee Jackson</a>

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!

Second Single is Out, Plus Album Details!

Posted on 2021-02-12 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Sniper Single Cover It’s February 12th, 2021, and as promised, the second single from my upcoming album is out! It’s called “Sniper,” and it is sort of a sequel to the classic track called “Stalker,” which was used in E1L1 (Hollywood Holocaust) of the world-famous first-person-shooter, “Duke Nukem 3D®.” It’s available for purchase at Bandcamp and Amazon, and is streaming on Spotify and other streaming services. Please check it out and grab a copy today!

Oh – and there’s that pesky Duke Nukem reference again. What’s that all about? Well, wait no longer, because I can now officially tell you that both “Underground Train” and “Sniper” are tracks from my upcoming album, “Duke Nukem Tank Tracks,” due out on February 26th! Yes, 15 new songs that are inspired by everything from the original “Duke Nukem 3D®” game up through “Duke Nukem: 20th Anniversary World Tour,” based on both Bobby Prince’s works and my own, to be published as a digital-only release. It’ll sell for $10.00 on Bandcamp, while pricing may vary on other services.

In addition, I’m putting together something you’ll be able to buy if you own a copy of the PC version of the “Duke Nukem: 20th Anniversary World Tour”: the “DUKE NUKEM TANK TRACKS” OGG Pack which will let you insert the songs into your copy of the game and play with the songs in the game levels! They feature high-quality audio with custom loops and a pre-configured USER.CON file that you can use to get you up and running instantly. The OGG Pack will sell for $5, and will only work if you have a copy of the PC version of the 20th Anniversary World Tour.

Things are getting exciting around here! I can’t wait until “Duke Nukem Tank Tracks” comes out. But, until then, please grab a copy of “Sniper” and enjoy it. Also, check out the Music Video that Adam Chebot-Goldman cooked up for me for “Underground Train” the other day! It’s a blast!

Duke Nukem, Gearbox and the Duke Nukem logos are registered trademarks, and Gearbox Publishing is a trademark, of Gearbox Enterprises, LLC.

New Album On Its Way!

Posted on 2021-02-03 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Underground Train Cover It’s that time again, friends! Another new album from yours truly is on its way, and the first single from the album is already out!

I’ll get to the single in a minute, but first, the album. It will be released on Friday, February 26th, 2021, just a few weeks away. While I can’t give out all the details of it just yet, I can tell you that it’s a project that’s been a couple of years in the making. First work on it began in 2018, and I’ve tweaked it off-and-on ever since. The songs, all 15 of them, mainly fit into the “soundtrack” genre, although the secondary genres for them are all over the place, from hard rock to modern music (the latter is according to my son). I’ll be distributing it as a digital-only release, through my Bandcamp page and via CD Baby’s worldwide download and streaming distribution services.

As I said, the first single from the album is already out, and it’s getting rave reviews! It’s called “Underground Train,” and it’s a hard-pushing, bass-driven, game level soundtrack kind of song, as is my forté. It’s available via a link from my Bandcamp page for $1 per download, and it’s just now starting to hit the streaming services, including Spotify and YouTube. I can safely tell you that “Underground Train” will be departing from Track 10 on the album. 🙂

The fun doesn’t stop there, though. Check back on Friday, February 12th, 2021 for the release of the second single leading up to my new album! That single, “Sniper,” will be accompanied by full details about the album, as well as about a related product that will be for sale alongside it! I’ll just say this much: if you like playing games, this will enhance your experience of playing one of them. Come back on the 12th and find out what it is!