Travis Conrad

Yesterday I was trying to convert some new songs I have been working on from .midi form (which I do my notations in) into .mp3 files, but the site I normally use (HamieNET) was down.

I was not impressed.

And as is usually the case in these situations I promptly looked for alternative free routes.

And that lead me to the Direct MIDI to MP3 Converter. It may not be free but it’s got a great 30 day trial which I’m VERY pleased with. It comes with it’s own soundfont and makes adding new soundfonts incredibly simple. The sound is crisp and clear which is a huge step forward; HamieNET’s conversions (as I’m sure you heard) tended to get scratchy. Not these. And it lets you control the reverb and adjust individual track volumes as you’re about to convert your files which is just fugging awesome. Needless to say I’m very impressed. It may not be garageband but it’s the best I have to work with right now and it’s a hell of a lot better than what I was using.

So in light of the new renderings at my disposal, I thought I’d share some of my older, pre-Dysfunction stuff here on the ol’ blog. It’s all classical/instrumental shit stuff, so I hope you like it, let me know what you think.

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This one’s aptly named ‘Orchestration 4′. Really got the creative juices flowing on that title. This was the first time I ever really toyed around with percussion instruments, as well as weaving motifs throughout a song. SO MUCH fun to write. It’s for strings, harp, glocksenspiel and numerous percussions, along with the occasional orchestra hit.

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This second one is called ‘To London’. It’s a piece I was writing in dedication to my city (here in Ontario, not the one cross the pond). It’s got a bit of a jazzy feel, I was aiming for something kinda urban although I think I failed at that. I worked on it for a couple days then got bored so it’s not even close to being finished. It’s for full orchestra.

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This final one here was a string quartet piece I was working on called ‘Orsus’, being Latin for ‘a beginning, undertaking, or initiative’. I thought of it as one of the first more serious pieces I worked on, and so ‘a beginning’ referred to the beginning of the wonderful things I would write (roflmao, talk about delusions). It’s very slow and not even CLOSE to being done, but this new rendering sounded amazing compared to the old version so I might just be inspired enough to work on it again.

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On a side note, I rearranged my room last night!!!111!!1!1!! I know you’re as excited as I am. There’s something about newly rearranged rooms that inflicts me with such joy. It’s a sickness really… and it runs in my family. My mom didn’t work on Fridays when I was younger and so more often then not, we’d come home from school and the living room would be turned around or the computer would be in the basement or somehow the couch found it’s way onto the back patio. -sigh- Goooooooooodtimes.

-Travis Conrad

Before tossing up the latest Dysfunction song to your collective, judging, unworthy ears, it’s important to understand the scenario surrounding the song.

1. It’s sung by a girl, Charlotte. Relatively quiet, passive, scholarly Charlotte.
2. She’s just been asked on out a real date from a guy, Cameron, whom she’s met twice now: once in his office, once at a business meeting over dinner.
3. She doesn’t have a wide account of experience in the world of dating. And nearly not as much as, say, Kim (in fact I doubt there are many people alive that have as much experience as Kim, porn stars omitted).
4. This is song takes place in her head. It’s an internal debate.

Below the song I’ve posted the first couple lines so you can read along with the synth vocal notes if you like (also will help give you an idea of the rhyme scheme). The lyrics are broken up into syl-ab-les to aid in following the vocals correctly if’n you so choose. I’d include all the lyrics but I really don’t want to give it all away like your girlfriend on the first date OH BURN!

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Damn-it Came-ron why would you,
ask me that,
for-cing me to pick an an-swer, when there are few op-tions on de-mand.

Things were go-ing pret-ty well.
Now this chat
has gone to hell. It’s a can-cer when you can’t dwell on the stakes at hand.

Peo-ple can’t leave things a-lone,
when they’re fine.
If I had known this was com-ing, I’d have post-poned walk-ing home with him.

But it’s too late to go back,
so de-cline,
or stay on track with this hum-ming train down tar-mac. Both op-tions seem dim.

On the one hand we have yes.
Rush-ing in’s
not bad I guess if you’re cau-tious and you a-ssess the sit-u-a-tion.

On the o-ther we have no.
It be-gins,
when I say so, and this nau-seous feel-ing is grow- ing. I want to run.

</lyrics>
<continue reading without lyrics for the remaining 55 seconds of the song :] >

I know what you’re about to say. “But Travis, that last chord sounds all wrong. What kind of second rate Vaudeville composer are you?” Fear not! There is reason. That chord was Charlotte’s clarity. She’s made her decision, her thoughts are clear. That final chord is meant to up-lift and remove the gloom and disorder that’s been building up over the course of the song. It ushers the way into the song following immediately after. hu-ZAH!

Next up I am pleased to announce a new, much more realistic rendering of the Festal Waltz that I posted just over a month ago. I convert it from midi to mp3 using a site called HamieNET. It gets the job done but it’s certainly nothing near commercial quality. Using a friend’s copy of Garageband, I converted my sheet music to mp3 once again. The results are unparalleled. UN-FREAKING-PARALELLED. It’s fantastic, I’m so pleased. I can’t wait to acquire my own mac so I’ll have this incredibly tool at my disposal 24/7/365/152 (I think 152 more years is pretty reasonable when you take into consideration the advances that are going on with stem cell research).

Feast upon the new and improved rendition. I cannot wait til I’m in a position to hear it being played for realsies.

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*note: the celesta’s been replaced by a glockenspiel as was the original intention. I apologize for any sleep you might lose/any grief this decision has caused you.

*also note: just a reminder that all mp3 files and images are on this website are Copyright © 2008-2009 Travis Conrad Reichstein

-Travis Conrad PEACIN’ OUT!