Approaching Nirvana

Dec 1 - Downtempo/Chill/Lofi

Hey everyone! If you're in the US, I hope you had a great holiday weekend and if you're not, I hope you picked up something awesome and cheap for Black Friday!

This week... I forgot to post the December genre poll (sorry about that - I'll be posting it soon for the rest of the December streams). So for yesterday, I decided to write some chords and see where it takes me with chat's guidance. I also wanted to focus on using a few new pieces of software that I picked up over the last week....

Nov 24 - Carol of the Bells Remix V2

Hey Everyone & Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the US!

Yesterday was the final session on the Christmas remix and I made some good progress. I wrote the drop, did some basic sound design, and arranged the rest of the song. After stream I spent a little bit dialing in a few bits that were really sticking out. 

Overall, I think the remix turned out pretty well. There's still some work left to do (FX, Automation, Sound Design, extra drop percussion, mixing, etc), but I...

New Release - Separate Ways

Hey everyone - I'm really excited to finally share this song with you! It's a song about moving on and moving forward. Alex Holmes is on the vocal again and she's done another amazing job! I've put a lot of work into this one and I really hope you enjoy it!

MP3, 24-Bit Wave, & Artwork are attached.

This song releases publicly on Friday. I'll see you on stream today for another session on the Christmas remix and on Friday to celebrate the release of this song!

Thank you f...

Free Release - Fable

Surprise, it's a FREE song! I wrote this for the community Extra Life charity event that is currently happening right now!! (Nov 20).

It's a fantasy/cinematic influenced EDM song that tells a story of adventure as a group sits around a campfire - during the event there is a DnD session and I felt like this song would be a great theme for the segment and event as a whole. MP3, 24-Bit wave, & Artwork are attached!

Check out the Community Stream: 2021-11-20 13:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Nov 17 - Carol of the Bells Remix

Hey everyone! I hope your week is going well :)

I'm working on a Christmas Remix this week. Over on the Discord, we had a vote and the Twitch Subs & Patrons voted on "Carol of the Bells" for me to remix.

The original Carol of the Bells is in a 3/4 time signature (like a waltz) and in my head I was hearing some type of triplets chillstep remix so I started off in that direction. Piano seemed natural for the high arpeggio line and strings was a natural jumping off point for the ...

Nov 9 - Stellar (Downtempo Orchestral)

Hey Everyone!

This week, I'm out of town Wed-Sun for the Mindcrack Marathon Charity event so this week's stream was yesterday and it worked out pretty well! I started off the stream just wanting to write some chords that I was vibing with, pinged chat for some ideas, and went from there!

After settling on a chord progression I followed a downtempo/halftime/slow dubstep direction with orchestral elements and I think it worked really well. I spent some time during the rest of the st...

Nov 4 - Plucky House

This month, I'm writing my choice of genres (as voted by you), so I'm just going to go with what I am feeling each week. And I think for Nov 17, I'm going to work on a Christmas remix!

This week, I went with a plucky progressive house song. It's been some time since I wrote a song in this style. I came up with a decent idea on stream but it's not as far along as I'd like because my head was a bit hazy during ...

November Genre Poll

New month, new genre! What do you want to see me write? Vote below & I'll see you on stream Wednesday!

- Andrew

PS - I'm also leaning towards doing a Christmas remix during one of the streams this month (Nov 17)

Annual Memberships Enabled!

Hey everyone! As mentioned in my update post on Friday, I'm enabling annual memberships. If you'd like to switch to an annual membership, you will receive a 10% discount.

To update your membership to annual, click on "Manage membership" from the user menu. If you decide to upgrade tiers during an annual membership, you'll only be charged a prorated amount.

2021-10-31 19:50:19 +0000 UTC View Post

2021 Patreon Update & Adjustments to Benefits!

Hey everyone!

Today I'm announcing exciting adjustments to the Patreon tiers - I've been thinking about this for a while now and I'm making these changes with the goal of consolidating some of the repetitive benefits and adding value to all the tiers. These changes will go into effect on November 1 (Monday).

Additionally, I am enabling an annual subscription option with a 10% discount. This will be available on October 31 (Sunday) in the event you want to update before November is...

Oct 27 - My Goodbye (Week 2)

This week, I continued the idea I wrote last week. The main focus (like the 1st song this month) was to write a drop and finish the arrangement. I went more of a chillstep direction with this one and I think it worked pretty well. Currently, the drop percussion doesn't exactly match (mainly the kick/snare) and the build FX need to be dia...

New Release - Regrowth

I wrote another song for Love Tropics again this year and this is it! I've been writing a lot of piano-focused deep house songs this year so I chose that style and worked with the theme of regrowth (hence the name, haha).

There are a lot of elements from the local area in the Caribbean that the charity is working with this year (like marimbas and other tropical elements) as well as some actual ambience from the charity on-location that helped ground the song in reality and location.

Oct 20 - My Goodbye (Melodic Dubstep)

Yesterday was another melodic dubstep stream and I started another song idea. I started  building out some foley percussion from field recordings & blended it with some proper dubstep drums. Then I wrote some chord ideas and with some input from chat, came up with what you hear in this version. 

Despite some serious Zelda vibes (thanks Waaz), I think it really works and with some vocals I believe this could be an awesome song. After a bit of sound selection and arrangement...

Oct 13 - Teardrops (Week 2)

Hey everyone! Yesterday was a followup stream on last week's song, Teardrops. I wrote the drop and arranged the rest of the song and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

The bulk of the writing work is done on this song. What's left is sound design, FX/automation, mixing/mastering, and general polish. I'm leaning towards finishing this one and potentially getting some vocals for it, 2021-10-14 17:40:26 +0000 UTC View Post

Oct 6 - Teardrops (Melodic Dubstep)

This month I'm switching it up and writing some Melodic Dubstep. I was only able to come up with a verse and build, but I really like this idea. I started off writing chords and then moved to drums, some basic sound design and a lead melody. After that was some simple arrangement and FX to end up with what you hear above! Check out the VOD for exactly how the song developed.

I'm definitely returning to this ...

Sept 29 - Catharsis (Liquid DnB)

Yesterday was the final stream of September and I wrote something I really liked. After coming up with some okay chords/melody I built out some percussion and a few other layers. I wasn't satisfied with what I initially wrote so once I had the barebones layers down, I went back and rewrote the chords and melody.

The 2nd time around, I came up with something I really liked and ran with it. I did some quick arrangement and a few other layers to end up with the version you hear above. If y...

Sept 22 - Plucky DnB

Hey everyone,

Another week and another song! I came up with this idea after a few tries writing chord progressions and settling in on something I really liked. The pluck rhythm came to mind and after deciding on a direction I moved on to layering and some rough arrangement. I spent the rest of the stream exploring this idea and ended up in the version you hear above. If you want to see how the song developed, ch...

New Release - Like a Dream

Hey everyone!

This song was written on stream back in February. It's a piano-progressive house song in the style of "You," "Dream to Remember," and other similar songs. It's very evocative of Blocking the Sky and while I don't write in this style as much anymore, I feel like this one deserved to be finished.

MP3, 24-Bit Wave, & Artwork are attached - Release Archives 2021-09-22 14:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post

October Genre Poll

Hey everyone!

We still have 2 more streams in September, but October is going to be a new genre - what do you want to see me write? Vote below & I'll see you on stream tomorrow!

- Andrew

Sept 15 - Astray (Liquid DnB)

Yesterday was the 2nd Ableton stream and I think it went really well! Ideas are coming really quickly in Ableton and I definitely feel like it will be in regular rotation on stream moving forward. 

This week I wanted to focus on writing some drum and bass that was less piano focused. I started with building out the drums and decided on an arp-based melody. I spent the rest of the stream adding layers an...

Sept 8 - Glitters (Piano DnB)

Hey Everyone!

Yesterday was my first stream using Ableton and it went pretty well! I got Ableton 10 last year and it's been amazing for sketching out ideas. I haven't used it as much as I've wanted so I felt it was time to switch things up a bit on stream. I started out building a DnB groove and then moved over to chords. After I had a solid direction, I added layers for the rest of the stream. If you want to see exactly how the song developed, 2021-09-09 15:58:11 +0000 UTC View Post

Sept 2 - 5AM Rains (Liquid DnB)

Hey Everyone!

Yesterday was the first session for September. I'm writing Drum and Bass this month so I got started with some chords and a simple melody. I wrote 3 options and Twitch chat voted on which idea to develop. I moved on to drums, sound selection and a bit of arrangement. After about 3 hours I had the idea you hear above. If you want to see exactly how the song developed, check out the Twitch VOD. 2021-09-03 16:38:39 +0000 UTC View Post

September Poll

Hey everyone! 

I really want to write some DnB next month. How would you feel about me doing DnB next month and we're back to a full-on Patreon-voted genre for October?

Vote below - if the consensus is "no," I'll post a genre poll Monday morning.

Thanks for your support & have a great weekend!

- Andrew

Aug 25 - Prog Future Bounce House

Hey Everyone!

This week I wanted to write something a little more intense. I started out with a melody and  expanded it over 8 bars. I like the melody as it is now, but I think it needs a bit of variation. From there I added more elements: drums, bass, and a few FX. Towards the end of the stream I did a very basic arrangement to end up with what you here in this version. If you want to see how the song the developed, check out the 2021-08-26 17:01:22 +0000 UTC View Post

Aug 18 - Dark Deep House

Hey everyone!

This week's song started off as a progressive house idea but during stream chat encouraged me to take it in a deep house direction and I'm really happy with how it developed. The overall tone of this is much darker than what I've been writing lately and it's a nice change of pace. This still needs an extended arrangement, lots of FX, and of course mixing & mastering. If you want to see exactly how the song developed, check out the 2021-08-19 14:31:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Aug 11 - EDM Pop House

This week's song did not go well haha. I set out to write something darker, more upbeat, and a lot more intense but this is what came out. The session went well enough and I wrote ... something. But sometimes you come up with good ideas and sometimes you come up with bad ones. Definitely a lot more of the latter here.

That said, there are some decent ideas sprinkled throughout this session and while I won't come back to this project to finish it, I might repurpose some of the sounds or ...

New Release - Rise Again

It's finally here! I'm super pumped to share this song with you. I feel like this is one of the better (best?) songs I've written and it features some amazing vocals by Alex Holmes. MP3, 24-Bit Wave, & artwork are attached - Release Archives have also been updated as well.

This one releases everywhere on Friday and we'll be celebrating the release on Friday's stream. Tha...

Finished Demo - "Is This Real"

Hey everyone,

Finally finished this one! Well... outside of some small mix/master adjustments before a potential release. This song was originally written on stream last December and I'm really happy with how it came out. MP3, 24-Bit Wave, & Demo Artwork are attached! Release Archives have also been updated.

How do you think this song turned out? 2021-08-09 22:19:47 +0000 UTC View Post

August 4 - Expectations

This month I'm writing some intense/epic progressive/future house. The first idea I came up with yesterday has a lot of potential and developed really quickly throughout the stream. While each section is relatively basic, the whole song idea is written. If you want to see exactly how it developed, check out the VOD on Twitch!

Overall, I think that each section is strong. I don't anticipate changing any chord...

August Genre Poll

Hey everyone - this month we're back to writing new ideas! What genre do you want to see me write? Vote below!