Optimism is the fuel for creativity.
Guild Wars 2 OST - 19. Logan’s Journey
Guild Wars 2 OST - 19. Logan’s JourneyThe relief when you ring someone and they don’t answer
I am sure many of you feel the same as I do… That music somehow reminds us how much we miss our spiritual home. Meanwhile, life holds us, leads us on this journey toward an unknown goal, and we have to believe that the goal exists. As for me, being here, I think about home, about how many springs came and went while I was away… Will I ever return there, and, if so, will it already be too late? I try not to think about it too often. And, since this feeling is hard to express in words, all the eloquence of music comes to the rescue.
Guild Wars 2 OST - 36. A Land Restored
Guild Wars 2 OST - 36. A Land RestoredPascal — the perfect programming language. No () brackets, and the function executes
How I wish Roland Cloud had existed at the beginning of my career. Without a real source of information about career development, without community support, and even without a place to talk about flats and sharps, I was left to my own devices. A music career is hard, expensive, and at times absolutely isolating. And yet, I somehow managed. But, wow… Would you like to hear a little about the difficulties I faced?
Here is one: envy.
It may seem illogical, but as a person who has something to say in music, I fought a lot just to be heard as a composer. Envy is one of my oldest adversaries. And sometimes envy wears sheep’s clothing.
At times envy showed itself, loudly shaking the air about not following the rules, in “creative differences” with the people at the helm - or with those who tried to gain the authority to push me out of a project. I will never forget how I was once told that orchestral music would not be needed on their project because the Unreal game engine supports music only through a MIDI sound card… And, consequently, they would have no need for me as a symphonic composer. Of course, despite all the naivety of that statement, I had to turn to the CEO with the information that my help with a live orchestra could still be useful to them, since the Unreal engine, in fact, has supported streaming audio for many years.
Also, I will never forget how I began to receive “feedback” from people in Hollywood saying that “Jeremy Soule is, of course, talented, but he has no voice of his own”. It was like an echo chamber set up around Los Angeles. And, oddly enough, around the same time I saw an “assessment” of myself posted on a forum dedicated to film music. My technical team traced the IP of that “anonymous” user to the very top, which turned out to be one of the highest-grossing soundtrack production organizations. I was shocked. There was quite obviously someone posting from an IP that, as I learned, belonged to one of the most successful composers on Earth. And all of it was clearly started with the aim of slowing down or stopping my career. What was I to do about it?
But, even while all this was happening, I had something to say. My voice was my own, and I knew that there was life in what I was doing. The composition I posted here was as much about me as it was about Buckbeak. Everything inside was filled with that longing, that wistful hope. Oh, how I wanted to make something beautiful that would actually be achievable! And how many forces wanted to make me stop. To shut up.
Today I sympathize with young composers. The world can be very cruel - especially to those who have a gift. I kept count of my time, noting how much energy went to extraneous things rather than to my music, often simply out of the need to survive. And yet something as simple as the dynamics of competition, on the right forum, might well be received appropriately. Because, honestly, no young gifted composer should have to go through all this nonsense that I went through. I know that hard-won success is a worthy achievement, but seriously - enough!
I want to help change the system. The situation can, and will, be better if we work together. That is why all this time I have continued to work on Roland Cloud without letting up.
My conviction is that this world needs more beautiful music - and no less! And if future generations have a better situation, more resources, knowledge, and opportunities, I hope this will shift more attention to the music itself and leave less to politics, career pursuits, and other silly activities that interfere with the act of making music.
Surprisingly, it seems that I managed to devote only about ten percent of my life directly to creating music. The rest was just overhead that came down on me like an avalanche the moment I gave in to pessimism for a little while. If I had had mentors, it would have been easier for me to cope with my quest, but not one world-class composer recognized my talent or took a step forward to help.
The music BUSINESS should become a MUSICAL business, and no other way. On my journey I learned a lot, and all of it is taken into account both in creating community tools and, more generally, in the purpose of Roland Cloud.
In a nutshell, we are working on creating the shortest paths to success and enlightenment, in the context of real experience. I am a musician who has already worn your skin, and I have faced the very same trials.
Join me today and pre-register so that we can change the world with music. From one composer to another - I want you to succeed in every possible way.
Roland Cloud is a home and community for musicians.
02 - Buckbeak Night Flight - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Video Game Soundtrack
02 - Buckbeak Night Flight - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Video Game SoundtrackHow it all began… I was 19 years old, and I had the coolest job in the world - making music for the Super Nintendo. Back then I worked alongside many fantastic people who are still among my closest friends.
The SNES sound chip imposed a limit of just 50 KB of memory for sounds and notes, since the driver was built into the hardware. Even by the standards of floppy disks, that is a tiny amount. I was also limited to only 8 voices at a time. And in this composition, some of them were used to create an echo effect for the “flute”.
Secret of Evermore - greek temple
Secret of Evermore - greek templeThe American date format, created by me it was.
Source unknown
We couldn’t miss the news that Google updated its logo. But it seems to us that such a color scheme would suit them better ;)
Amazingly comprehensive map of every country in the world that uses the MMDDYYYY format
A young monk took his vows, and his first task at the monastery was to help the other monks hand-copy church statutes, psalms, laws, and so on. After working like that for about a week, our monk noticed that all the monks were copying these materials from the previous copy rather than from the original. Astonished by this, he expressed his surprise to the abbot: “Padre, if someone made a mistake in the first copy, it will repeat forever and can never be corrected, for there is nothing to compare it with!” “Hmm, my son,” the abbot replied, “we have actually been doing it this way for centuries… But, in principle, there is something to your reasoning!” — and with these words he went down into the dungeons, where the “original sources”, unopened for centuries, were kept in huge chests. And he disappeared. When almost a day had passed since his disappearance, the worried monk went down into those same cellars to look for the holy father. He found him at once — he was sitting in front of a huge open tome of calfskin, banging his head against the sharp stones of the dungeon and mooing something unintelligible. Blood ran down his face, covered in dirt and scratches, his hair was tangled, and his gaze was insane. “What is wrong with you, holy father?” cried the shocked young man. “What happened?!” “Celebrate,” the abbot groaned, “the word was: c-e-l-e-b-r-a-t-e! Not ‘celibate’!!!
Floppy disks are like Jesus. They died to become the icon of saving.
