An awesome project, Craig, with sounds that abound from all over the world.  Members, recording and collaborating is an incredible reward to your musianship on so many levels.  I am truly thankful to have the opportunity to work with Craig again, and his performance on this tune is fantastic.  The arrangement, rhythm guitar, phrasing, and patience build a sonic image and really make you think about how and what to play.

My humble thanks to you, brother Craig, for letting me share in the gift of music!  

That's so good it has commercial possibilities!

That's fantastic, boys! Reminds me of film music. This could work for Hollywood!

Tell us more how you composed and recorded this. We can all learn from this.

Posted by: robert

That's fantastic, boys! Reminds me of film music. This could work for Hollywood!

Tell us more how you composed and recorded this. We can all learn from this.

Very fulfilling getting encouraging feedback from such talented musicians.Many thanks!

What an experience developing and recording with Clayton in NY. and me in Canberra!

As to the creation and development.

The rhythm chords are inspired by a David Gilmour concept from his solo album, track called Raise my Rent. I've been playing around with these chords for years.
The solo was done mostly in one take after a few months of experimenting. I wanted to keep it open and simple with lots of implied feeling and tension, with a spacey overtone.

Both solo and rhythm were played on a Suhr Strat through the full version of Native Instruments Guitar Rig. I used several preset amp /effects configurations. Really great in conjunction with Cakewalk Sonar (DAW) which allows multiple instances of Guitar rig as an audio plugin (Im sure other DAW's can too), so you can layer several amps and effects on multiple tracks and independently configure each track - then record one guitar through several tracks getting impossible sounds -stunning program that many pro's use live!( not that I am one by any means)

The drums were produced through a program called Addictive Drummer. Excellent device for all things percussive, simple yet effective.

The Bass was handed over to Clayton who just NAILED it IMHO. A perfect Drum to rhythm bridge providing a divine driving engine that lifted the piece to the next level.

The synths actually came last.(and there is a lot of them) They were created using another Cakewalk plugin called Dimension Pro.

What cant it do? Seemingly no limits to the level of sound creation you can achieve. Heaps of presets (I get lost for days) that create entire sound "dimensions" at a single keyboard keystroke.
It also has entire symphonic arrangements as well as being able to tweak them or create your own.

First came the drone in the background, then the bells/dulcimer simple theme. the rest was just like decorating a Christmas tree, where to add color and space and to allow the silence to frame it.

Its just a matter of where to place the sounds in the progression (each synth has its own sonic placement and pan)

And most importantly- when to stop adding stuff.

Clayton had very creative ideas around these sounds which again made sense and provided a segue to transition smoothly. Genius.

Total of about 14 tracks mixed down then Mastered through Izotope Ozone (can be used as a plugin or standalone) A most comprehensive audio mastering software suite.

That just about covers it.

Questions happily answered.

I heard this and thought walkabout through the bush, or an epic journey across north Africa, and thus the inspiration for my contribution.  Craig's guitar work laid out a vivid picture and I planted the footsteps for the intrepid voyager.  

And its Baltimore (not that B'more is anything to brag about)!  Not quite NYC -that's where #1 daughter lives. 

Hat's off to Craig!!!

Uuuh Craig (and Clayton as well) !!! That's cool. Imported it immediately to my itunes library, to prevent it from getting lost. And I hope you don't mind. It's a piece of music I will like to listen more than one time for sure. Great, really great. I love the mix of guitar sounds, the melodic grounding of the bass line and the synth sounds as well. Thank you very much for sharing!

Gottfried

Gottfried, thanks for the feedback. Really glad you enjoyed it. I don't think I have ever had someone import my music into ITunes! Share it around as much as you like. 🎶🎵🎼