Halloween Sound Effects

Conrad Askland’s Haunted Mansion Sound Effects released October 17, 2011.

This was a very fun, exhausting and scary project to work on. The fun part was I improvised a lot of different creepy pipe organ, harpsichord and piano music to create a feel I liked for the different Halloween themes. My favorite part was playing a lot of JS Bach style pipe organ bits interspersed with the expected Halloween tritone movements.

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Email Q&A: Fiddler on the Roof plot antagonist

Email question received:

Hi Mr. Askland,
I am trying to break down the storytelling structure of Fiddler on The Roof.
I would like to talk to you, briefly, about who is the antagonist. What is
Tevya’s want. What’s his need. What you think the filmmaker’s statement is.
Norm Jewison said Fiddler’s about trying to maintain traditions in a
changing world. Do you think he’s saying that it is important or that it’s
not important to maintain traditions in a changing world.

Kind regards,
Glenn

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Haunted Mansion Organ Music

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAQZ8JKnDTk

Original organ improvisations by Gaylord Carter for the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. If you’re into vintage theater organ improvisation I think you’ll really enjoy this video.

Learn how this man created the spooky organ music in the Ballroom of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. Find out how it was made, who wrote the music, who played it, what organ was used, and hear the first version that was never used.

ProTools Optimization for MacBook Pro

My projects are getting larger in ProTools 9 and my MacBook Pro was starting to strain a bit. (2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8 GB ram 1067 MHz DDR3 on Mac OS X Version 10.6.8). Here’s info to optimize your Mac laptop for Digidesign Pro Tools 9. Probably works for optimization with ProTools 8 and below and other Mac computers as well.

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Email Q&A: What Is a Music Producer?

Email question received:

hi i’m joseph i’m just intersting to know what is a music producer, what are
there jobs and what do they do

My Answer:

Hi Joseph,

Direct answer to your question is that a music producer produces music. I’m not being a smartass when I answer that. A music producer needs to produce music. And actually I think for many up and coming artists that doesn’t really sink in or connect.

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Zaia 2011 Promotional Video

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hF8YZfz7j8

Cirque Du Soleil’s ZAIA show promotional video released September 2011. Zaia is the resident show that opened in August 2008 at the Venetian in Macau (SAR) China. Acts in the video include Straps, Trapeze, Hand to Hand, Gypsy, Skate, X Board, Aerial Bamboo, Lion Dance, Firedance and of course Zaia’s dragon. Music composed by Violaine Corradi.

Cirque ZAIA Third Anniversary

August 28, 2011 was the 3rd anniversary of Cirque Du Soleil’s ZAIA show in Macau (SAR), China. Above is one of the new promotional posters. You can click it for a larger view.

Cirque Du Soleil ZAIA band

Maria Elena Medina (cello, viol), Olivier Milchberg (guitar, plucked strings, flutes), Gabriel Cloutier (singer), George Manz (key 2), Conrad Askland (bandleader, key 1, accordion), Rose Winebrenner (singer), Darrin Johnson (drums), Eduard Harutyunyan (percussion), Justin Wilman (violin, recorder).

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