Ochre

I don’t think I’ve really spent much time discussing equipment, so I thought since I’m currently unable to write music within my usual surroundings, I’d publicly fantasise about some of the things I hope to purchase at some point. Starting with Waldorf’s barely-released software synth: Largo. Now, any of you who have used Waldorf’s Attack VSTi will probably have cottoned-on to the fact that I’m a huge fan of its sounds, and have used it in practically every piece of music I’ve written. What may not be obvious, is that I’m also a heavy user of Waldorf’s hardware too—I’m a proud user of their Micro Q synth, which can most recently be heard at the start of Circadies and Whispers (the FM modulation kind of gives it away—it’s one of the many unique features I seldom come across in other virtual analogue synths).
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This remix medley of mine, based on various themes taken from Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda game franchise, seems to pop up now and then on the radar of various blogs, so I thought it might be useful to offer a few notes about the circumstances under which it was written. Although I’m a huge fan of the franchise, with many happy memories playing Zelda: A Link to the Past on my SNES, the remix didn’t come about purely as a celebration of the game and its music; it was written for a 2003 competition (I think it was 2003 anyway — my memory’s pretty hazy) hosted by UK games mag Computer and Video Games, and sponsored by Nintendo and Turnkey (a chain of UK music stores). The possibility of winning a Gamecube bundled with Zelda: Wind Waker, plus an Access Virus Indigo 2 VA synth, was too good to pass up. So over the course of one weekend I set about writing a little remix medley homage to the music of Hyrule.

As luck would have it, after completely forgetting about the competition, I got a phone call a few months later, from one of the competition organisers notifying me of my win, and a couple of days later I received the Gamecube and Access Virus, feeling like an excited kid on Christmas morning. Somewhat regretfully, I then sold the Virus a month or so after, as at the time I was wholly convinced VSTi synths were all I’d ever need (oops), and that the proceeds of the synth would be better spent purchasing another UAD-1 DSP card, as they were a just couple of hundred quid short of a grand at the time. Ah well, at least I still have the Gamecube (mostly used for Mario Kart!).