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Digital Download for Endless Lives
Posted on September 29th, 2009 No commentsHi,
Just a quick update to let you know that you can now download Endless Lives from CDBaby. $7.49 for the whole album can’t be bad, can it?
CDBaby will be sorting out the whole digital distribution for the album so it will be available on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, etc in the next few weeks too.
Cheers,
Terry.
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Creative Process
Posted on September 15th, 2009 1 commentHi,
I had someone ask me today how I can call my music ‘carefully crafted’ (he was quoting the Purple Rhapsody Home Page). I don’t think was being agressive, antagonistic, or cheeky but it made me think about my creative process - and can I justify my own marketing spiel.
If you want to hear my musical life story and my current process then read on…
My methods have built up over many many years. When I was a teenager (too long ago) I would use what I’d learnt in musical theory to write out scores of music on staves and play it on the piano.In my 20s I got a PC and started to use MIDI to keep a record of the music and even play it back through my cheap keyboard and soundcard - it sounded dreadful but I enjoyed it.Now I’m in a comparative paradise of musical possibilities - my laptop is powerful enough to record what I want and can handle multiple virutal instruments, I have a Yamaha Clavinova that feels and sounds like a real grand piano, and I have an understanding wife that loves both me and my music so I can spend whatever time I want to on it.The only reason for this history is so that you know where I’ve come from…My current creative process can be different from track to track but generally I’ll be inspired on my way home from work, while reading, or even while playing something else on the piano (I’ve even dreamt music that I had to record when I woke up). I work on the music as solo piano to get the flow and patterrn of chords and melody - at this time I’ll also have in my head an idea of what instruments will play which parts and how the rhythms and themes will interact.I then record the solo piano onto my laptop into an ‘ideas’ folder and it can sit there (being listened to occasionally) for anywhere up to a year. When I think the time is right and I have the time to work on it I then start to build it up.I use Sonar 8 Studio and build up the track playing everything in real time but recording the MIDI at the same time so it can be tweaked later if my playing is really bad (obviously no MIDI for guitar).Then once I’m happy with it (maybe weeks after starting) it gets put on my iPod and I listen to it again and again and again over a period of weeks, maybe months. Sometimes I need to change things, sometimes not, but I always need to remix/remaster the balance and EQ.This happens with multiple tracks at a time becase different tracks need different moods.After all that work I think it’s fair to say the music is carefully crafted but I no longer do anything with proper musical notation - it’s all straight from my muse to my laptop.Hopefully this isn’t too long and wordy a blog entry, once I started I couldn’t stop…!Cheers,Terry. -
Thanks… and an update
Posted on September 14th, 2009 No commentsHi,
First off, thanks to everyone that has listened to my new album. I really do appreciate the time you’ve taken to listen to my music!
I haven’t had many comments - positive or negative - and I’m on a continuing quest to improve my music so please please please can I ask you to spend another 30 seconds of your time letting me know what you thought, whether good or bad?
And a quick update - I’ve just packaged up the CDs to be sent off to CD Baby so they can be processed for iTunes, Amazon MP3, Napster, etc so hopefully within a couple of weeks (fingers crossed!) the digital distribution side will be completed too.
Thanks again,
Terry.
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Endless Lives released
Posted on September 12th, 2009 No comments
Endless Lives album cover
Endless Lives is now available to listen to on the Purple Rhapsody site’s Albums page. You can listen to the album in it’s entirety courtesy of the ReverbNation widget. It will be availalble to buy from iTunes and other download sites in the next few weeks but for now only physical CDs are available via the Purple Rhapsody site.
The album embodies the concept of reincarnation and, although it doesn’t tell a chronological story, it does still flow with that concept in mind.
This is the first Purple Rhapsody album to contain percussion on almost all the tracks - however it does still maintain the focus on melody above all. There’s still the trademark piano motifs, the guitar highlights, and sweeping keyboards, all pulled together into a cohesive album.
That’s all very wordy… what are you doing still reading this? Go and listen and then come back and let me know what you think.
Thanks in advance for listening.
Cheers,
Terry.
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Artwork proofs
Posted on September 8th, 2009 No commentsHi,
The proofs of the artwork for Endless Lives arrived in the post today and they’re looking really good!
I haven’t had my CDs printed and pressed by a professional company before and I’m quite impressed with the difference in quality of the printing. Previously I’ve just used my trusty old HP Inkjet printer and some templates from the local stationery shop.
Getting very excited because these will be the most professional looking CDs yet…. just hope the music is classed that way by the listeners too!!!!
Cheers,
Terry,
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New album imminent
Posted on September 7th, 2009 No commentsJust a short note to let you know that activities are proceeding to get the next Purple Rhapsody album available.
Endless Lives is now registered at CD Baby and the master disc has been sent to the Duplication Centre for copies to be made.
A couple of tracks from Endless Lives are available to listen to on the Purple Rhapsody MySpace page with more to follow soon.
Cheers,
Terry.