The musical creativity continues to flow and today I added another music track to my library that has more of a French flair.  The main instrument is accordion but it also features acoustic guitars, concertina, upright bass and percussion.  In addition to my Yari Alvarez Classical guitar, it also features my Santa Cruz steel string 1929-00 guitar as part of the rhythm.  I LOVE the Santa Cruz!

This one is titled "Paris Vacation" and will be available for purchase on AudioJungle within the next couple of weeks.

Take a listen below!
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Today I added another Italian Music Track to my library.  This one is driven by classical guitars with a little accordion, mandolin, upright bass and concertina.  I actually woke up this morning with the melody in my head and I had to record it!  The accordion is actually a real instrument I have owned for a few years now.  Though it's large and bit bulky the sound is quite amazing.  The guitar is a Yari Alvarez that has a beautiful tone.  I used a stereo pair of vintage Neumann KM84's to record the guitars and accordion.  They are amazing mics that are hard to buy now and the value continues to rise.  So glad I bought them about 15 years ago.
Take a listen below!  This track will be available for purchase within a couple of weeks on ​AudioJungle.

​I have been writing and recording some original Italian style music tracks in the last couple of weeks.  I love this style of music with beautiful classical guitar, accordion, mandolin & concertina.  I find Italian Waltz music very relaxing and it's certainly enjoyable to produce!  

Take a listen to this Italian Serenade that I wrote and recorded today!  Available soon on ​AudioJungle for purchase.

My primary instrument is guitar.  I became obsessed with a guitar when I was about 5 years old.  I guess I have Lawrence Welk to thank for it.  My parents watched The Lawrence Welk Show every Saturday evening and I especially enjoyed when a guitar number was being performed.  I remember thinking as a young child - I'm going to play guitar one day. There was never any question in my young mind about that.  I remember begging my Dad to buy me a guitar when I was 7 years old.  He promised that he would if I took 2 years of piano lessons.  So I did.  Not much choice if I was going to get that guitar.  I wasn't too fond of piano lessons but 2 years later my Dad was true to his word and I got my first "real" guitar at age 9 from my Uncle's Western Auto store in Swansboro, NC.  I was beyond ecstatic.  Within a couple of years I was writing my first songs.  Today, I have quite a nice collection of guitars.  The photo to the left shows a few of the main guitars I use to record with.

​Though it's small, the photo on the lamp table is of me with a toy el cheapo guitar I got for Christmas 1965.  There's a big smile on my face!  I was a happy little boy.

Hot weather is here to stay for a bit and what a great time to get out on the water and do some sailing!  Thanks to Captain Jim Sheegog and his boat Shamrock, we enjoyed a beautiful evening out on the sound and into the Atlantic Ocean outside of Wrightsville Beach, NC.  The trip began and ended at Trails End Road in Wilmington, NC.  The Shamrock is docked at the Trails End Marina.  I was able to get a couple of different sound effects as we traveled including the sound of the engine running and motoring through the sound that is available below to listen to.  We met some nice people, a couple from Kinston, NC and another couple vacationing from Boston.

To learn more about the Shamrock, check out Jim's website.

This sound will be available for purchase on AudioJungle within the next week or so.

We've been busy in the studio producing various music tracks including Indie folk/americana music.  Below is a sample of one of our new tracks that features acoustic guitars, ukulele, whistle, bells, accordion, bass, drums & percussion.

Available for purchase on AudioJungle as "Upbeat Indie Folk".

​Take a listen!

Our library of music is growing and we're adding some World Music tracks including Tropical themed backgrounds and now some Mexican/Latin music.

​Take a listen to our latest (soon available on AudioJungle as "Mexican Fiesta Fun").

I have been enjoying producing several tracks with a Tropical Latin feel in the last several days.  Most of those tracks include instruments such as Steel Drums, Marimba, Acoustic Guitar, Ukulele, Bass, Drums & Percussion.  I decided to slow it down and produce an easy listening Tropical track using primarily Nylon Acoustic Guitars and Ukulele.

​Take a listen to my Tropical Love Song (available for purchase soon on AudioJungle):

I spent the afternoon producing several Pop Up Ding sound effects.  These types of effects are extremely popular and are always big sellers.  They are the kinds of sounds you hear all the time on videos and games but you don't really pay much attention to them.  

​To make my Pop Up Ding Sounds I usually start with a whoosh effect and then add a popping sound I created using....my mouth.  Yep.  A mouth popping sound.  And then I typically add some sort of bonus effect to give it some punch and a distinctive sound.  I'll adjust volume levels and EQ for each layered sound and then Mix it all together in Logic Pro X on my iMac.  After mix down and normalizing the effect with WavePad I'll import it back into Logic Pro X and add a UAD loudness plugin to make it "pop" (pun intended).  Then I use WavePad to remove the front and end dead space and create a 96Hz 24Bit wave file.

Take a listen to a few of the sounds I made today: