"Like Finding Moses' DVD Collection"

Yesterday I spent most of the day and some of the night working with an orchestra. Not a synthesizer, but an orchestra. Of course, I've never met any of the players and can't imagine that I ever will. But I'm still using them as much as I can.

What I actually spent my time working with were two music products. One was a CD of orchestra samples. Meaning that some guy got an orchestra and a microphone together and said, "Violins, play middle C!- Great! Okay, now Trumpets, play the G above that!" After recording a multitude of single notes, combined notes, short notes and sustained notes, all at various volumes and intensities, he organized it together into a CD product for people like me to edit into our music however we'd like.

The other product is a CD containing musical phrases played by a live orchestra in a variety of cinematic styles. These files I can either use as they come, or spend time (like I did yesterday) chopping them up into smaller bits to use as samples, giving me more control over the final product.

At least one (and probably more) of the songs I'm working on for "Dark Ritual" will use a blend of dark electronic beats and sampled orchestra. I'll also be using a blend of live and sampled voices to create a men's chorus and mixed choir when appropriate.

I've always loved mixing together elements that seem opposed to each other: Extreme Violence and Christian Fiction, Sci-fi mixed with Fantasy, and now a Classical music sound blended with Electronic.

I'm certainly not the first. Far from it. Danny Elfman has been littering his film scores with electronic production value since "The Planet of the Apes". The bands "Evanescence" and "Red" have both combined hard rock with emotive strings.

It's something I've wanted to do before, and even imagined early on for song concepts (that had to be put aside) in "Spirit Blade". But two things have brought me back to the idea. First, I've grown in my ability to create and mix tracks, making it the right time to stretch myself in this area. And second, the story of "Dark Ritual" calls for an element of the ancient. Our main characters spend most of their time in a world of ancient tradition and dark mysticism, so I'd like the music to reflect that.

Hopefully, when you hear "Dark Ritual", both the scoring and the songs will help transport you to an ancient and mysterious place filled with both power and dread.