Ambient Song: "Dead Cow"

I've got a new song for a Half-Life 2 Mod in progress ( http://ii.hl2files.com/index.php ), it's called "Dead Cow." It's an ambient piece for the in-game music, so it's bent more on subtlety.

Get it here: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/3/ilamstonemusic.htm . It's the top one, called "Dead Cow." If Soundclick is down, you can also try http://ii.hl2files.com/music.php , in which case you click on the link called "II Dead Cow."

The thundery clacking sounds that begin and end the song are junk sampled drums - vacuum cleaner tanks, wooden drums, and plastic bins, but pitch shifted down quite far.

Other things used include:
SampleTank 1 Free (For the strings)
TTS-1 (For the synth choir, harpsichord and sitar)
Kontakt (For the junk drums and the 'real' samples)
A mashed up, distorted Smartloops percussion groove (Translated into the 7/8 time)
A Guild acoustic guitar, DI'd (Distorted and stuff)
MPEX pitch stretching to raise the guitar part up a whole tone for the modulation

Any comments, constructive criticism, or whatever, welcome.

Thanks for listening Zep. I think you've gotten the mood that I tried to convey!

Peter, definitely cool stuff, very dramatic too.

ORIGINAL: Chad Beattie
Definately has a HL2 gaming feel to it. Nice job on this.

Thanks for listening Chad! I appreciate your taking the time to comment.

ORIGINAL: rolo95
hallway its dark....
im afraid of crossing it...... ( some eerrie creature wanting to chomp me!!!! )

im gonna leak into my COKE empty can...... yiackssssssssssss

LOL

It's good that the song produced a strong emotional response though!

Errie...you make me feellllll
AWESOME man....
keep the good work

Thanks Rolo for listening man, and commenting too!

Thanks for listening Oli.

Yes - I think of ambient as being like that too, but I don't write that kind of ambient music - I don't really enjoy it so much as music like this. But the mod guys were happy enough with it, so I'm cool.

Thanks for listening and taking the time to comment Raevin!

I'm glad you think it will fit.

Thanks for listening and taking the time to comment Tim.

Yep, 7/8 time isn't for the dance floor really.

RockMaestro,

While listening to this, I could swear I saw Big Brother peeking in my studio window. It was a weird experience! But I like it. This will work great for the game.

-Ed

ORIGINAL: rgfors
Very creative stuff, Peter. This definitely has the "quircky" RockMaestro signature!

Thanks for listening and taking the time to comment Randy!

Quirky is my thing - at least, I sure can't do anything that isn't so I guess I'll own it!

ORIGINAL: ed_mcg
Sinister, brooding, intense. I liked it.

Thanks for listening and your comments Ed. I'm glad that I managed to fit 'intense' into the ambient genre.

Thanks for listening and taking the time to comment pilfa. It's good that you think it fits its purpose.