Promedia Podcast Episode 007

Hi there and welcome to episode 11 of the Promedia Podcast. If you would like to use any of the songs featured on my Podcasts please let me know don’t forget you can drop me an email and I can provide you with a higher quality version if required georgewood1966@hotmail.com Something a bit different for this week, it’s the “all jingle show”. Each one of these tracks was composed or submitted to be used as a jingle for another Podcast, if you’re a big Podcast fan you may have heard some of them already. The first three were create for the Excel Guru himself Bill Jelen, the first song was inspired by duelling banjos with Bill battling it out with fellow podcaster to see who has the best solution to your Excel problems. I don’t know a lot about programming banjo but I was really pleased with the results. Track two again was for Bill; he wanted a jingle for his Where is it Wednesday Podcast; I decided to keep it simple and catchy (all the best jingles are) and ripped off High School Musical, if you’re going to steal do it from the best I say. The next two and also for Bill, Bill had very clear ideas about what he wanted for this jingle, if you guessed in the style of ‘Born to run’ you were spot on. Onto the Giz Wiz Letters jingles, the first one was a special holiday version with mandatory jingle bells and lush strings, the next one was the original and still sometimes used on Leo’s show, I am really pleased these jingles caught on and have been themselves copied; the Daily Giz Wiz is an excellent Pocast and deserves all the support it gets. The last two songs I didn’t compose, they are cover version of Game Spots Hot Spot theme ( called Too hot); I sent it to the guys but never got a reply; the second is my take on the Giant Bombcast theme; again I sent it to the guys but never got a reply, I guess they were either too busy, never got it, or thought it was shit! So there you have the Promedia Jingle Show; please send feedback good or bad as long as it’s constructive, until next time…

Hi there and welcome to episode 10 of the Promedia Podcast. If you would like to use any of the songs featured on my Podcasts please let me know don’t forget you can drop me an email and I can provide you with a higher quality version if required georgewood1966@hotmail.com Only one track this week, it’s called Goodbye Grey Sky, and no you’re not hearing things I am singing, now I know I don’t have the greatest voice, I can hold a tune and that’s about it; I’m hoping to get a ‘real’ singer to record this song at some point. I think there’s a bit of a David Gray vibe about the vocals (no offence David) which works well; the song is about depression or rather looking on the bright side as Monty Python would say. I feel the song could use a nice guitar solo but as I don’t play guitar keyboard will suffice, musicians out there may notice the song changes from minor to major for the solo (you sad people) Please send feedback good or bad as long as it’s constructive, until

Hi there and welcome to episode 9 (has it really bean 2 years?) of the Promedia Podcast. If you would like to use any of the songs featured on my Podcasts please let me know don’t forget you can drop me an email and I can provide you with a higher quality version if required georgewood1966@hotmail.com Only one track this week, it’s called Inner Light and is unusual in as much it’s based on a Shuffle groove which itself is fairly uncommon these days. The song as it was (just the piano part) sat on my hard drive for a good few years, I had totally forgotten all about it until one day I was going over some of my old ideas (looking for inspiration). I re-recorded the piano and the rest of the song just fell into place, there are lots of lead strings (so it’s very me) and there are some nice melodies; the piano at the beginning is reminiscent of Billy Joe’s Piano Man, not sure f that’s intentional just an observation. Please send feedback good or bad as long as its constructive, I promise it won’t be anther 2 years!

Hi there and welcome to episode 8 of the Promedia Podcast; as usual I’ve included another 3 songs for your listening pleasure. If you would like to use any of the songs featured on my Podcasts please let me know don’t forget you can drop me an email and I can provide you with a higher quality version if required georgewood1966@hotmail.com Track 1 is called ‘Threshold’ and was originally created to be used as a blanket track on level one of a space shooter video game (can’t for the life of me remember the name); I’m sure if it was ever used in it’s original form, however the version on the Podcast had to be recreated using the original audio file. Track 2 is called ‘Música genérica’ and was inspired by all the lain songs that were made very popular by artists such as Shakira and Enrique; to be honest I couldn’t think of a better name (Babel fish translation of ‘Generic music’). Track 3 is called ‘Eye in the sky’ and was created as a blanket track for VIP on Air’s traffic / travel reports, as mentioned previously the station has subsequently relented / rebalanced so I don’t think the music is in use at the moment. OK so I keep threatening a Retro show, I suppose I’m hesitant because I don’t want to let anyone hear anything that doesn’t have the highest production values or just simply sounds dated (some of them are 15 years old), if you’re interested please le me know: georgewood1966@hotmail.com

Hi there and welcome to episode 7 of the Promedia Podcast; as usual I’ve included another 3 songs for your listening pleasure. If you would like to use any of the songs featured on my Podcasts please let me know don’t forget you can drop me an email and I can provide you with a higher quality version if required georgewood1966@hotmail.com Track 1 is called ‘Core Meltdown’ and while not a favourite of mine has received a lot of positive feedback, I’m not sure if there was anything in particular that inspired this song, although in hindsight the orchestral stabs do sound a little (exactly) like the Weakest link stings, just coincidence? Track 2 is called ‘Out and about’ and was created as a backing track for a commercial DVD about the Boy Scout movement; it was supposed to be fun, unobtrusive with a little touch of a Celtic theme here and there for good measure (you can hear some Celtic whistles during the bridge sections). Track 3 is called ‘Travelogue’ and was created as a theme tuned of VIP on Air’s travel magazine show, as mentioned previously the station has subsequently relented / rebalanced so I don’t think the music is in use at the moment. If there song makes you think of holidays in Spain, sun, sea and sand I’ve been successful. OK so I keep threatening a Retro show, I suppose I’m hesitant because I don’t want to let anyone hear anything that doesn’t have the highest production values or just simply sounds dated (some of them are 15 years old), if you’re interested please le me know: georgewood1966@hotmail.com

Hi there and welcome to episode 6 of the Promedia Podcast; as usual I’ve included another 3 songs for your listening pleasure. All 3 songs on this show were created for a radio station called VIP on Air; the station has since re-branded and re-launched, I’m not sure if they’re still in use. Track 1 is called ‘Crossing over’ and has a nod towards Go West, being a huge 80s fan I was influenced with the production techniques used back in the day; if you listen to ‘Call me’ you’ll hear where the inspiration came from. Track 2 is called ‘Daydreamer’ and I hope does have a dream-like quality, the song developed from a simple percussion loop I found on the Internet, I don’t know where it was taken from. Track 3 is called ‘Lazy nights’, OK so you’ve finally figures song titles are no my strong point. This song was chosen to launch VIP on Air, I was really happy about this as there was a large press contingency present. Again like most of my songs it just developed from a simple chord progression / groove into the finished song. Next show might be a retro show I haven’t decided; the songs in questions are getting on for 15 years old and were recorded on cassette tape (they sound it too) so I’m not sure if I want to lay myself bare, if you’re interested please le me know: georgewood1966@hotmail.com

Hi there and welcome to episode 5 of the Promedia Podcast; as usual I’ve included another 3 songs for your listening pleasure. Track 1 is called ‘Slack jaw’ and features a picked Banjo arpeggio; it is quite atmospheric which I feels is caused primarily by the traditional Banjo licks played over Minor chords instead of Major. If you’ve ever heard the Music for the BBC version of Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy you’ll know where the inspiration came from. Track 2 is called ‘Lost in a dream’, I suppose it does have a dream-like quality however there’s not a lot to tell really other than the song just developed naturally from a simple chord progression, it was one of the first songs to feature the virtual guitarist so it does sit quite prominently ion the mix. Track 3 is called ‘High Five’, well what can I say, it’s hard to do a song featuring Piano and Acoustic bass played in 5/4 time signature and it not sound like Dave Brubeck’s Take 5 (well it was for me OK), I may go back to this song at some point, I do feel it is rather short. I hope you enjoy the tracks, I had contemplated adding speech to the Podcast but wasn’t sure if that would actually add anything, is that something you would like to hear? Talking about the songs, their history and what went into creating them? One last thing… If you subscribed to the show via iTunes I would appreciate any honest feedback

Hi there and welcome to episode 4 of the Promedia Podcast; as usual I’ve included another 3 songs for your listening pleasure; to reiterate I was thinking about including some of my early material, we’re talking 1990 onwards; I have to warn you some of the recording techniques were not particularly stellar but I just about managed to capture the essence of the songs. So what do you think; would you like to hear some ‘retro’ stuff too? Track 1 is called ‘Nice’n’Sleazy’, I only finished recording it the day before the show was posted. The song itself started as an idea for a bass line, and was originally in a minor key; after sleeping on the track it was obvious it wasn’t going anywhere so decided to start a fresh. As you’ll hear it kind of sounds like your traditional 70’s porn track. I’m not sure if it’s the Wah Guitar or the Hammond Organ? I’ve used a ton of soft synths on this track, I’ve used the B4 (a virtual Hammond), a Pro 53 (a virtual Prophet) and also a Virtual KORG Mono Synth for the Bass line, I do hope you like it, it was a lot of fun to compose, especially the honky-tonk piano parts. Track 2 is called ‘Looking up’ (as in ‘Things are’), don’t ask me to explain the name because I can’t; this song was inspired by a commercial MIDI file I was commissioned to program called ‘You only get what you give’ by The new radicals; if you ever hear the song you’ll hear the similarities immediately. Track 3 is called ‘Seeing the light’ and was inspired by a 3 note jingle I once heard on BBC Radio Scotland, the whole song is based on the first three notes of the song (G, D and C), and unusually for me most of the song is based on only two chords (C and Bb). I hope you enjoy the tracks, I had contemplated adding speech to the Podcast but wasn’t sure if that would actually add anything, is that something you would like to hear? Talking about the songs, their history and what went into creating them? One last thing… If you subscribed to the show via iTunes I would appreciate any honest feedback

Hi there and welcome to episode 3 of the Promedia Podcast; I’ve included another 3 songs for your listening pleasure; I was actually thinking about including some of my early material, we’re talking 1990 onwards; I have to warn you some of the recording techniques were not particularly stellar but I just about managed to capture the essence of the songs. So what do you think; would you like to hear some ‘retro’ stuff too? Track 1 is called ‘Propaganda’, I have no idea why I picked the name other than the intro sounded somehow political, and there was also a German 80s band of the same name I liked too. The song was originally created for Media Tracks library CD; I was commissioned to create 2 tracks so I created 3 (just to be on the safe side). The intro is very orchestral, or as orchestral as I could get with the kit I had. After the intro the song morphs into a funky dance track with orchestral strings featuring prominently throughout (orchestral strings were part of my brief when composing the song). Track 2 is called ‘Head over Heels’ and was created for a remake of the classic 80s 8 bit computer game of the same name. I was in touch with one of the developers at the time but lost touch due to other commitments. You’ll recognise the style of you heard 8 bit Junkie on the last Podcast. The whole song was inspired by the drum loop you can hear in the background. Track 3 is called ‘Fatal attraction’ and was defiantly inspired by the kind of stuff Anistacia was putting out at the time, I believe she had a keyboard player playing the Bass parts at the time, this track is also rather special because it features some ‘real’ guitar, one of my musician friends (Stuart Craston) was kind enough to record the verse rhythm guitar and also the guitar solo, cheers Stu! I hope you enjoy the tracks, I had contemplated adding speech to the Podcast but wasn’t sure if that would actually add anything, is that something you would like to hear? Talking about the songs, their history and what went into creating them? One last thing… If you subscribed to the show via iTunes I would appreciate any honest feedback

Hi there and welcome to episode 2 of the Promedia Podcast; I had some great feedback already from the first show lots of friends request and even a fan. If you are a musician and you also create your own music please get in touch with me, I’d love to feature your songs on the show too. Track 1 this week is called 8 bit junkie; the 8 bit refers to the kind of music you might have heard on an old sk00l 8 bit machine (like a Commodore 64); the music chips were very limited so the musicians had to be very creative to get the most out of the machines. Because the hardware only supported 3 note polyphony in some cases a common trick was to use a very fast arpeggio (basically a chord with the notes staggered) to emulate a chord. This method gave these songs a unique quality and style and I wanted to use this effect on 8 bit junkie, I hope you like it. Track 2 is called Proteus and is an out and out dance song which I did back in 2001, at the time I was still programming commercial MIDI files and had done some dance songs cover versions. After listening to the tracks and figuring out the various elements that go to make up a dance track (must genre music is formulaic I suppose) I wanted to see if I had what it took (I was in my late 30s don’t forget) to create an authentic sounding dance track, I will let you be the judge. Track 3 is called Critical mass, I’m, afraid there not a lot to tell here, the song kind of developed by itself. I think I had recently finished a Girls Aloud MIDI file (Sound of the underground) and was inspired by the feel. I also liked the Pulp fiction guitar sound and how it sounded through a digital delay. I hope you enjoy the tracks, I had contemplated adding speech to the Podcast but wasn’t sure if that would actually add anything, is that something you would like to hear? Talking about the songs, their history and what went into creating them? One last thing… If you subscribed to the show via iTunes I would appreciate any honest feedback Message to Pod Casters I invite you to browse through the songs on this site and download anything that strikes your fancy. I have released this music under the Creative Commons license and agreed to allow the music to be used by you in any way and form for webcasting, as long as you don't take credit for the original work. I hope you will find something that will be useful to you in your Pod Cast!