Tag: composing

Words and Music – The Site Motto At Work

Posted on 2019-07-14 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Revision Ten of my novel, Tapper, has been completed and has been uploaded to Scribophile. This is the version that I hope will be the last major rewrite. Of course, there will be tweaks made to the new material, but I don’t anticipate wholesale changes. They won’t be critiqued for at least the next six weeks, due to the way The Ubergroup on Scribophile works, so I finally have some free time.

My first revisited project has been my second album. I’ve put it off for a long time now, and it’s high time that I gave it some attention. I’ve only got four tracks complete to date. Track number five is now under way.

I had some delays due to some hardware in my sound setup going on the fritz (an old Mackie 1202VLZ mixer feeding two channels into a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2). I wound up replacing both the Mackie and the Focusrite with a Steinberg UR44 six channel USB 2.0 interface. It was a bear to set up, but once I got it going, it sounded great. It also allowed my son, Nathan, to rip out about half of the cables from my patch bay. My mixer rack is a much cleaner area now. I was also able to recalibrate my monitors (i.e., pro-level speakers) to a state that they’ve never been since I bought them.

My second revisited project has been Sergeant Marcos’s Rescue. Now that I’ve finished the Tapper revision, I can attack the rewrite of that short story at my leisure. I intend to work on it when I can’t work on Album #2 (e.g., when my wife is washing clothes or doing other noisy things around the house that I’m physically unable to help with, when I’ve got musical writer’s block, and so on). I got a lot of really good advice from my critiquers, and I intend to make the most of it, using as much time as I need to get the job done.

Words and Music. Working on both at the same time. That’s the idea behind this web site, and the idea behind how I spend my days when I’m able to function. Wish me luck.

When Does It End?

Posted on 2019-03-18 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

One thing that I rarely see touched upon is the subject of how long it should take to write a book. Of course, there is no “should” when it comes to writing a novel. Each book comes with its own timeline and demands, and no two are ever alike. What I can give you are a few samples from my own work in progress, Tapper.

I completed my first draft around the end of July, 2014. I thought I was finished with it sometime in 2016—that’s when I started going through the “query” process of trying to find an agent to represent my book to publishing houses. Needless to say, I got no bites on my query. Around that same time, I got a proposal from Gearbox Software to write the soundtrack to the 20th Anniversary World Tour edition of Duke Nukem 3D. I put Tapper on the shelf and went back to writing music.

The hiatus on Tapper ran out in February of this year, when I pulled the book out and resumed writing. I’m passing it through Scribophile, where I’m getting some very useful, yet frustrating advice. Why is it frustrating? There’s that timeline again. My first “real” chapter (spoilers!) is on its 54th revision, and some of the comments I’ve been getting are first-time comments. Why couldn’t someone have raised these same points back on my 5th revision, eh?

If it sounds like I’m revising my book to death, let me come to its defense. I have done a major rewrite of the first few chapters, in order to make them more appealing to readers (and to agents). That also explains why some of the comments I’m getting are first-time ones. It doesn’t explain all of them, mind you—I’m still getting some of the “why did no one mention this earlier?” kind of remarks in later chapters.

The point I’m trying to make here is that if you’re writing your first book, you can go ahead and smash your clock for what it’s worth. Don’t expect to knock out a novel in a year, or two years, or even four for that matter—although, if you do get signed with an agent within four years, count your lucky stars. Be patient, and be ready to spend a lot of time working on your novel … and even more time re-working it.

“Composers Play” Interview – “Rise of the Triad”

Posted on 2019-01-28 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

I have had the pleasure once again to have been interviewed by Scott Tobin, host of the “Composers Play” series of interviews. This time around, we discussed my involvement with the Apogee Software classic game, “Rise of the Triad.”

“Rise of the Triad,” or ROTT as it is commonly known, was my first attempt at writing a soundtrack for a video game. I was given six weeks to write 36 songs on my own time, more or less, and the result was one of the wildest soundtracks to ever be produced, thanks to the help of folks like Tom Hall, Mark Dochtermann, the late William Scarboro, and too many others to count. I had a great time composing the music, and I hope it shows in the interview.

With that, here is a link to said interview:

New Song Released – “What It Shall Be”

Posted on 2019-01-12 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

My first serious foray into the world of jazz/funk fusion is out and available for download from CD Baby as a digital single! “What It Shall Be” was released on Friday, January 11th, as an MP3-320 file. Grab your copy today at this address:

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/leejackson12

There’s also a high-resolution 96KHz/24-bit version available on Bandcamp at this address:

https://leejackson1.bandcamp.com/track/what-it-shall-be-96khz-24bit-version

You won’t believe it when you hear it, but like all my other songs, this one was done “in the box” – meaning that no live musicians were involved in the recording. Only my trusty Roland SC-88Pro and several software samplers and synths were used. It still comes out sounding like a jazz/funk quartet, with a guitar, an acoustic bass, a person on keyboards (electric grand, organ, Mk.1 electric piano), and drums.

Geek insight of the day: I used XLN Audio’s Addictive Drums 2 on the song. I even sent off a copy of my finished product to XLN Audio to get their feedback. They were impressed! Said they liked the “ghost notes” I used. All the more reason to grab a copy and hear them for yourself.

Please spread the word!