The Music Of David Orr

 Many of you may know of the flash artist JAZZA, who’s quite well-known across the web for his high-quality animations and flash games. We’ve collaborated in the past, and I was honored when he asked me to write the music for his new animated series LARRY! You can watch the first episode at Newgrounds. You can hear the theme music I wrote for it on Newgrounds as well.

Thanks for your support everyone, I’ll be making a few updates to the site shorty, including adding in some new music!

 Hey everyone! Krin has just finished a brand new RTS game called Colony! You absolutely have to take a look at this game, it’s well worth it! I’ve had the pleasure of scoring an all-original soundtrack for it, which I’m really happy with. I’ll discuss that in one second. For now, let me tell you about the game. It takes place in the year 2273, on the first planet colonized by man. It features three governments you can play as (each government offers a different play style), and a host of buildings and units. The visuals are stunning- among the most polished I’ve seen in flash games to-date. Once you think you’ve mastered the game, you can put your skills to the test by battling against others using an online multiplayer server!

We took a different muscial approach than the Sonny games this time around. I incorperated more electronic and rock-styles in this soundtrack, to try and play homage (as the game does) to the Starcraft series. We decided to and create a more unique soundtrack- this time around, instead of a few loopable pieces, we created many smaller musical “slices”, that are assembled in any order during the game. Some slices are driving and blood-pumping, others are ambient and mood building. On top of that, each government has a unique theme that will play at certain times to help give each government a unique feel. I find that the music doesn’t get as old as quickly, and you can bet that we’ll be looking at this method to bring a more dynamic and ever-changing soundtrack to future games. This is very much a test run for future soundtracks, so we need to hear your input on how to improve it!

As always, you can head on over to Armorgames and play it, or you can click this link right here. We need your help to make this game a success!

Well, I wasn’t ever gone, really. My focuses for the past several months have been more studious, and as a result I haven’t had much time for website updates. A lot has gone on since my last update, though. Let me fill you in!

Sonny 2 was released a few months back on Armorgames.com (you can find it here). It’s done great, and almost has 5 million plays just on Armorgames! You can find the music I wrote for it on Newgrounds, along with a revised copy of the boss music from the original Sonny.

I’m currently reviving my ST series. For those of you who don’t know, I started the ST series a few years back as composition exercises. I would create a scene in my head, and then write a 1 minute loop to fit the music. A lot of people found that music useful, so I’ve decided to bring back the series for the movie, tv, and game developers to license and use. You can find some of the tracks temporarily on Newgrounds (and I’ll be featuring them here). I’ll let you know more about it as more are released and the project moves forward.

That’s it for now, be sure to stop by often for the latest new music and updates straight from the source!

 Jazza and Moonkey released a phenomenal flash-based turn-based strategy game called Brotherhood of Battle a few days ago. This is one of the best looking flash games I’ve seen, and it’s complete with  a full-fledged  multiplayer browser so you can play with your friends! If you haven’t played it yet, this is one game you can’t afford to miss!

Play it on Xgen (link opens in a new window). Also, visit the official website for tutorials, screenshots, and more! Check out the site mp3 player for two of the loops I wrote for the game!

I’ve been talking about putting out a new album for well over a year now, but the process has been very slow. Somehow, I always seem to be working on music for a game or animation, and if I’m not doing that, I’m busy with school. Now that summer has started, I’ve been really pushing towards releasing a new album.

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I’ve been having some difficulties getting the newsletter to work. I’ve got about 300 subscribers right now, and for some reason Thunderbird (the program I use to manage my emails) won’t let me send the letter out to everyone. I’ve been looking for an alternative program to manage the newsletter, but haven’t found something that looks promising enough to shell out money for. If any of you know of some software I could use to manage the newsletter, let me know!

Hopefully something pops up soon!

In other news, Tainted Kingdom has been released for several weeks now, so if you guys haven’t been over to Armorgames.com or Newgrounds.com lately, visit them and check it out! Tainted Kingtom is a RTS, which features all original music by me. As always, we greatly appreciate your support!

Tainted Kingdom

I’ve been lengthening a lot of my music (including the stuff from Sonny) with the goal to release it all on CD at some time. I’ve been thinking, though, that maybe releasing my music on iTunes would be a better idea. Here’s why:

• Mastering, Producing, and Distributing a CD requires a huge amount of time, and require a large investment upfront before I started to see any return. I’d have to share a large portion of the revenue with CD distributing companies that I figure I’d have to sell at least 250 CD’s before I’d even break even (that’s each CD selling for $15 plus s&h)!
• A lot of people have iTunes accounts, and find it much more convienient to buy music off of iTunes rather than buy through an online retailer.
• It’s cheaper for you, and I see more of the money. Even If the CD had 12 full length tracks (I’m guessing the number would be closer to 10), you’d end up paying at least $1.75 per track once you factor in shipping, whereas on iTunes you’d likely only pay $0.99.
• You can choose exactly what you want to buy, and not have to pay for anything you don’t want to hear!

Ultimately, I think an iTunes album would make far more sense, but what do you think? Would you buy my music on iTunes?

Poll Answers

For those of you looking for Sonny music, read on! I’ve decided to start an email newsletter. In the email, I’ll keep you updated with a quick summary about what’s going on with the site, and what new projects are underway. I will also let you know of any new music on the site. Now here’s the real bonus: I’m going to attach music files to the email.

I’ve always been a bit nervous releasing music on the site freely available for download. It’s not that I’m nervous that my music will be stolen, I just don’t like the idea that I’m putting restrictions on what I can use the music for by putting it on the site. I seriously limit my options by having little control over where the music is going. So, I’ve decided to let anyone sign up for the newsletter (free of charge, of course!) and send music through that. This way, I’ll have a much better idea who is getting the music and who isn’t. I have no problem with sharing the music amongst friends, I just ask that subscribers don’t post it on the web for anyone to download, as this defeats the newsletter’s purpose.

For those of you looking for Sonny music, I am only going to be releasing it for download via the newsletter! I’ll send out the first email sometime soon with one or two of the pieces, and then another newsletter later with all three pieces. To sign up, just enter your email and name into the form on the left, and submit. You’ll get a confirmation email, and all you have to do is click the confirmation link in the email and you’re good to go!

Hopefully that clears up any questions you may be having. This is just the first of several posts I’ll be making, so sit tight, an feel free to sign up for the newsletter!