Hear Me Out

"SoundShoots is a unique music platform that challenges music makers to create a 180 second piece of music in response to a given weekly theme. The site is 100% free to use and whether you make your own music, or just like listening, there are plenty of good reasons to join!"

This is a theme that I think I can really relate to, "Lonely". According to my playing style, I'm more incline towards the sad/emo piano genre, thus making this soundshoot would pretty be 'expressing myself'. I am trying to portray a scene where, in a rainy day, a person sitting at a corner of his room, being upset of close friends leaving his life, being all alone. So much to tell, so much to share, but no one is there.

This time, I'm actually trying to record on a real instrument, instead of using midi. If anyone would have ask me to play something random on the piano, it would most likely be IV - V - vi chords. Personally, this is the most soul catching chord progression, the one that connects most with the deeper part of me and being comfortable with it.

In order resonates with the lonely theme, I'm gonna use as less instruments as possible, starting off with reverb piano solo, with emo level maximized~ Followed up is the cello at 2nd verse, which adds onto the sadness. With the bass at the 2nd chorus, adding onto the weight of atmosphere. Finally, the last touch with overdrive guitar solo, the yearning of the and the shout of the heart.

Click here to listen to:
Hear Me Out - Adam Jong

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"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour."
-Matthew 25:13-

Loneliness probably sounds like a bad thing to most people, but to me... it might be the best medicine some times. People do need some space for themselves, being separated from the noisy and viscous world. Let not the loneliness drive me sad, but be a quiet time to see some hidden blessings, Amen.

Prism Chamber

"SoundShoots is a unique music platform that challenges music makers to create a 180 second piece of music in response to a given weekly theme. The site is 100% free to use and whether you make your own music, or just like listening, there are plenty of good reasons to join!"

This is a theme that I don't anticipate, "Rave" is a kind of dance party which is pretty popular in the UK, with full blast techno/trance song and disco lights. I've only experienced clubbing once, and I don't like it at all =.= I don't dance and I don't drink, sat there for a few hours tortured by the loud music... Generally, the music is done by a DJ mixing beats and parts of songs with random sound effects.

I've been practicing to make tracks using synth, and after the previous theme, 'electric', this is exercise 2. I've implied rapid synth for chords, and slap base as the main riff. I kinda used a heavier pads here, synth voice. The synth lead came in after layering all the accompaniment, at the same time hype up the drum beat. It's pretty much the same style as the previous soundshoot... The only thing lacking is a dance kit for drums, but I haven't really figure out the right software to make it.

Click here to listen to:
Prism Chamber - Adam Jong

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"Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand."
-Matthew 12:25-

Doesn't seems like there's alot of improvement, there's still plenty of space for me to expand. Gonna spend more time to figure out how to work on this new style. Solid Rock is having a Christmas event soon, pray that everything will be fine and people will be touched by the message that we convey, Amen.

Volt Up

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Before I introduce the new theme, there is a breaking news in Soundshoot! The admin is removing the 90 seconds limit of submitted track and now extending it to 3 minutes! It is indeed opening more space for creativity. So, the theme for this week is 'Electric'. The possibilities are either using heavy distortion of electric guitar, the element of thunder, and electronic circuits. The main style I'm gonna use is trance music, which is called 电音 in mandarin (direct translate: electric sound).

It's time to practice my usage on Synth, I recently notice the wonders of this instrument patch and is getting more and more interested in it. I'm using square synth lead for counter melody, with synth strings under phaser effects, a very modern feel. For the chord provider, distortion guitar with power chord riffs. I learned some of these styles from Planetshakers. As the accompaniment are layered up, saw synth came in as the lead. Wow... synth sure is one of the best lead, I love its attack.

Click here to listen to:
Volt Up - Adam Jong

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"For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth."
-Malachi 2:7-

This Soundshoot is more like an exercise for me, digging into a new style that I'm not familiar. Anyway, I'm glad that I've found a possible area that I could expand into, or else my composition would reach a plateau. It might not work out, but it's always better than not moving at all~ May God bless me with new creativity, Amen.

Turbulent Emotion

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I thought I'm gonna skip last week's soundshoot theme 'Chaos' because I was away at Stonehaven. Coincidentally, soundshoot team made a change, instead of having a new theme every week, it is now two weeks. It also means that track submission duration is now 2 weeks, so I have an extra week to work on this theme! This really makes my life less busier.

Dota wallpaper best describes chaos:

For this theme, I start digging up my emotions and memories about frustration and confusion. Just as defined, 'complete disorder', chaos is those moments when you feel like you're not being yourself at all. I pretty much relate it to situations when worldly logic disagrees with my thoughts, it's like I'm having a fight with myself, mentally.

I used a pretty uncommon chords progression, which the bass line goes down chromatically from the vi chord, but it really gives the eerie and dark atmosphere. I'm using sound effects of fights and war behind the track to picture my image of chaos. It started with a piano lead that gives the identity, slowly build up with drums and strings, and a climax with distortion guitar taking the lead. It sorta signifies in the mental space, when problems arise from nothingness, we starts to wrestle with ourselves into a more intense battle.

Click here to listen to:
Turbulent Emotion - Adam Jong

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"Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling."
-Zechariah 2:13-

There're a lot of opportunities facing temptation and being provoked living in this world. That's when conscience and human nature have conflicts, not having a good stance to make decision. Pray that God will always grant peace and self-control, and to love is the key to overcome all unfairness, Amen.

Harmonized Fusion

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Another beautiful theme, 'Earth' is up for this week's soundshoot. I think this is a theme that gives a lot of space for creativity and flexibility. It could be an emotion of home, protecting the planet, or praising the beauty of creation.

My initial thoughts about Earth is elements, an image of the sky, sea, ground, sunlight, villages, almost everything... (basically it does contain almost everything that we know). Hey, these thoughts sound pretty familiar, it's somehow related to some previous themes. This would be exciting, I've decided to do a mash up of my previous soundshoots.

Mash ups are basically taking essence and significant parts of different songs/tracks and putting them into one. My soundshoots have no lyrics, so I can only extract instrument tracks that gives the identity. The line up of my parts with related themes are:

• Garden of Life (Rainforest) - Guitar plucking (loop 1) & Piano fill ins (loop 3)
• Submerged Beauty (Underwater) - Vibraphone counter melody
• Sunny Steps (Sunshine) - Whistle lead (loop 1) & Phaser pad (loop 3)
• Starry Tide (Wave) - Guitar plucking (loop 2) & Piano fill ins (loop 2)
• United Division (Cityscape) - Pan flute lead (loop 3)

I've had this idea for the whole week, but only have the time to start midi-ing on Sunday night (submission dateline is the next morning). I wonder if it's an improvement or a rush =.= Was working on this soundshoot til 4 am, I thought I'm gonna skip this theme if I don't make it in time.

Click here to listen to:
Harmonized Fusion - Adam Jong

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"Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light."
-Micah 7:8-

It's been a while since I did a mash up, although this is a really simple one. A rather fresh idea instead of doing original new tune all the time. I pray that I will not become weary of doing this, it could be pretty discouraging during time constraint and lack of ideas. Just want to be reminded that this is something fun to do, Amen.

Not Coming True

"SoundShoots is a unique music platform that challenges music makers to create a 90 second piece of music in response to a given weekly theme. The site is 100% free to use and whether you make your own music, or just like listening, there are plenty of good reasons to join!"

This week's theme, 'Dream' gives a lot of space for creativity. It could be done as dreaming during a sleep, dream as in vision and aims in life, or a wonderful moment that is too good to be real. All the above sounds pretty positive, but how about, the breaking of dreams? When what you hope and hold on to just shattered, that things you really wish to happen seems impossible to realize. The disappointing and hopeless moment that hurt so bad and you try so hard to hide these inside yourself.

This is my first time recording soundshoot with live instrument, using the piano in university chapel. I've never intended to do this theme this way, but I guess my emotion just poured out as I touch the keys. Too many things happened throughout the summer, mix feelings here and there. I guess playing the piano still reflects my very true self inside.

Well, in order to support using other instruments, I really need to keep time using the metronome while recording. Trying to sync some simple beats, bass and strings to the piano piece can be a bit difficult. Anyway, it's suppose to be sorrow and emo, simple tune suits the ambient. Well sometimes we could be angry at the truth, so building up at the last loop with 16th beat drums kinda enforce that.

Click here to listen to:
Not Coming True - Adam Jong

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"He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord God Almighty is his name."
-Amos 4:13-

I know I don't understand right now, but I believe these scars are part of a greater plans. Pray that all these pain, doubts and fear will be washed away, and may us learn through these experience to be a greater person, Amen.

Lurking Crisis

"SoundShoots is a unique music platform that challenges music makers to create a 90 second piece of music in response to a given weekly theme. The site is 100% free to use and whether you make your own music, or just like listening, there are plenty of good reasons to join!"

I basically think that the themes lately resembles some themes that I used to do. "Hendonism" feels like making "Sunshine", "Ancient Civilization" is like "Cityscape", and now the theme of "Demons" that actually feels like "Death" theme. Demons are the fallen angels that tempt human into sin, and pull us away from God. In everyday life, there will be situations that cause negative thoughts such as jealousy, hate, lying and so on. Compare to the 'ghost'/monsters form of demons that movies portray, I think the sin of human is even scarier than that.

Basically, the flow is sorta like being alert of ambush, being uptight of when and where the enemy will be attacking. Abusing the minor chords gives the eerie and dark ambient. Layering strings as different parts, pad, counter melody and attack sort of strengthen the nervous and worrying emotion. Violin is used for lead, it does a great job for the struggling and sorrow bit. I finally have the chance of using tom tom drum pattern. However, I have to admit the transition parts are made too hasty, probably not in the mood at that time.

Click here to listen to:
Lurking Crisis - Adam Jong

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"Though they built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning."
-Hosea 8:11-

No matter what the others say, no matter what people do to us, Lord bless us with a heart that forgive and forget. Instead of holding grudge and blaming each other, let us have the compassion to pray for each other. Most importantly, the faith and courage to stood up and ask for forgiveness and make things clear, Amen.

Fading Sweetness

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'Hedonism', something that I must look for its definition online. From wikipedia, ethical hedonism is the idea that all people have the right to do everything in their power to achieve the greatest amount of pleasure possible to them. It is also the idea that every person's pleasure should far surpass their amount of pain. Sounds quite complicated but I'll take it as an emphasis of pleasure.

In this track, 'Fading Sweetness', I'm trying to say... people try so hard to achieve something that they thought would be a pleasure to have, but at the same time, lost things that are important as well. Also, nothing on Earth last forever, things that we once hold dear, might lose its meaning tomorrow.

Nothing complicated in the arrangement, simple guitar counterpart and piano sprinkle. Slowly building it up just like a journey to pursue happiness, and at the peak of the build up, breaking with a minor 4th chord, and slowly fade off as finisher. Kinda realize that no matter how hard we tried, the greatest pleasure is still the simple things that we already have in the beginning, a pure heart that love and care for each other.

Click here to listen to:
Fading Sweetness - Adam Jong

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Another challenge while making this shoot is, I'm suppose to make a sort of lively and cheerful track, but someone just really said something insensitive that greatly affects my mood. It is so not fun to do soundshoot that contradicts my real emotion.

"I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice in love and compassion."
-Hosea 2:19-

Dear Lord, I pray that You open our eyes and hearts to know the things that are truly important and beneficial in our life. Give us peace and strength to endure unrighteous thoughts. Even all wonderful things on Earth will come to a pass, Your love endures forever, Amen.

Submerged Beauty

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Something new and specific, 'Underwater' as the theme for this week's soundshoot. Well, again... staying in Sabah for most of my life, sea is definitely one of the most beautiful place around. Especially our nearby island - Sipadan, rated as one of the top diving destination in the world.

At Sipadan Island:

To me, underwater is a totally different world. A place where you hear no noise (except bubbles), just peace and calmness. Another dimension where motions of aquatic animals, with the refraction of sunlight, paints the majestic and fantasy-like feel in the water.

I started off with some eerie chords, it could be quite nervous and scary when you first dive into the water. As you slowly open your eyes, you're in awe of the beauty in front of your eyes, which I emulate this by lightening the mood with vibraphone counter-melody. The gradual build makes it feel like you're starting to explore around. Adding on with percussion and accompaniment signifies the excitement of seeing all the wonderful scenes. Of course, adding sound effects like bubbles and water droplets are standard for this kind of soundshoot.

Click here to listen to:
Submerged Beauty - Adam Jong

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"They must not sell or exchange any of it. This is the best of the land and must not pass into other hands, because it is holy to the Lord."
-Ezekiel 48:14-

For being in a whole new condition/place, it actually takes a lot of courage and faith to adapt to it sometimes. Anyway, remember that there is a reason for us to be where we are and doing what we do. Just hold onto the very first reason that makes us take the step, and trust, Amen.

Sunny Steps

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This soundshoot theme is actually one that I look forward for, 'Sunshine' which portrays a joyous and easy atmosphere, a theme of hope. After living a year in UK with this gloomy weather, I started to appreciate the sunlight more. By walking in the park, you will know how English celebrates this divine moment.

Nottingham lake side during heat wave:

In order to provide the joyous swing feel, I'm playing with the beguine time (long short long short beat). The lead instrument would be whistle, the relaxing human instrument~ (partly caused by the addiction of "Whistle - Flo Rida"). I put more effort at on the bass line as well, being alternating bass most of the time, and some octave reef here and there.

Besides family, there are always couples roaming around the park if the weather is good. Slowing the tempo and changing the time signature to ballad adds some romance into the clip. It's actually quite hard to choose sound effects for a theme like this, but since I'm doing the sunny garden style, some kid's laughter and bicycle bell might do the job.

Click here to listen to:
Sunny Steps - Adam Jong

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"I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory."
-Ezekiel 43:2-

This year's summer isn't as pleasant as any past summer in the UK, too much rain and not much of sunlight. Anyway, pray that the weather won't affect us too much who can't make it for holiday. Also pray for a new hope for the coming semester, may all the bad things come to pass, Amen.

Look Up

"SoundShoots is a unique music platform that challenges music makers to create a 90 second piece of music in response to a given weekly theme. The site is 100% free to use and whether you make your own music, or just like listening, there are plenty of good reasons to join!"

A theme that explains itself pretty much, 'Flight' is up for this week's soundshoot. Literally, it means flying high into the air. This word always lead me to think about airplanes, as I spent most of my life staying at places near the air terminal, I often see planes passes by in the sky.

Everytime I see the white trail that a plane left, I would ask... what kind of people are in that plane? Where are they going? for what reason? It always amaze me whenever I thought of the amount of dreams waiting to be realize in that plane, and that flight taken by certain passengers might just change their life and lead them to success.

It's not just a flight, it's a life changing journey:

"Look Up" is my soundshoot that expresses this feeling. Starting off with plane flight sound effect and muted guitar strumming, it's like standing on ground while watching others reaching that height. Piano and strings came in to add on the heavy thoughts and mix feelings. Hi hats and cross sticks enters, bringing up the pace, a desire to reach that height.

From standing, it turns into running as the song goes into a full band setting with electric guitar lead and turbulent air sound effect. Inserting a wing flapping sound effect, followed by a transposed chorus, it's like after trying several times, we finally nearer to our dream.

Spread your wings and prepare to fly high:

Click here to listen to:
Look Up - Adam Jong

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"All who had spread terror in the land of the living went down uncircumcised to the earth below."
-Ezekiel 32:24-

It's always heard that as you persevere, you will realize your dream. I'm not too sure of being stubborn to reach success, but I do hope that this passion will not fade away... too soon at least. Hope that some day in the future we will all be where we are looking up at today, Amen.

Aki Nabalu

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The theme of this week is "Mountain", I'm pretty sure I don't need google to verify the meaning of this word. The first thought that I had is Mount Kinabalu, with height of 4095 m above sea level, situated in Kota Kinabalu, my hometown. Being the highest peak of South East Asia, it attracts a lot of tourists to my place, but I haven't been up even once, though I heard enough stories about it.

Aki Nabalu is the original name of Mount Kinabalu. In local Dusun langguage, "Aki" means spirit/soul while "Nabalu" means big rock. The top part of Mount Kinabalu is always misty and covered by clouds, which urban legend says it is the collection of souls, the destination of the dead people.

So, I'm gonna try to portray its grand and majestic view. The overwhelming feeling as you watch at the bottom, conquering it step by step, and finally sow the reward at the summit. As I call it the grand chords, I've used a lot of flat 6th and 7th chords, which is quite rare for my songs but kinda give the flavor that I'm looking for. Majestic, couldn't leave trumpet out of the picture this time, flute would be a good lead for the softer parts. An attempt of nature and majestic fusion.

Click here to listen to:
Aki Nabalu - Adam Jong

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"Because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gate of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste,’ therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves."
-Ezekiel 26:2~3-

Come to think of it, I'm really proud to be born in Kota Kinabalu, a place rich of the blessings of God. Wonderful mountain, tranquil coasts and simple life (used to be), it's time to have a pause to appreciate what has been given to us all this time, Amen.

Hatred Kills

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For this week's theme, "Death", I may have different ways to make my soundshoot. I could do my usual sentimental style for a rest in peace motive, or sad piano style for heartbreaking moment of loosing someone. However, I chose hatred and anger, thanks to the bad mood and frustration over the month.

Ever experience being ignored by a close friend? We used to tell each other almost everything, and now both act like strangers to each other. The worst part is, I don't even know the reason. It's definitely one of my worst/most devastating moment in life, but now I'm using it to grab this emotion.

According to 1 John 3:15, "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him." The mentioned brother refers to a believers of Christ, no eternal life simply means not going to heaven, which only leads to hell. I tried browsing songs related to hell, death and demon, if I could get some ideas how to portray those negativity in music. Honestly, they're just too disturbing, felt so uncomfortable listening to them.

In Matthew 13:42, "The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This verse gave me a pretty good illustration. Fiery furnace sounds like a wielding factory, terrible temperature with screeching noises. Gnashing teeth is only done when in extreme anger and fury. Weeping stands for mourning and sadness. Indeed hell is a perfect place for betrayal, sorrow and weak heart.

Gnashing of teeth and weeping:

For dark ambient, minor chords do their jobs best. I used heavy strings/orchestra, as their attacks are pretty aggressive that bring sense of anger, with some piano sprinkle and appergio that adds for the sadness. The sound effects really took me a lot of effort, such as heart rate monitor, burning, crying, and teeth grinding sounds. I admit, this is so far the hardest soundshoot to make, I'm kinda exhausted spiritually and mentally.

Click here to listen to:
Hatred Kills - Adam Jong

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"Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory."
-Ezekiel 10:4-

If you hate a person, you've killed him in your heart. He no longer lives in your heart, which makes one's heart a pretty gruesome place for anyone else. Forgiving is never easy; to seek for forgiveness/apologize take a lot of courage as well. Pray that God bless this broken friendship, fix this heartache, Amen.

Garden of Life

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Originated from Malaysia especially the state of Sabah, I'm probably familiar with this week's theme, "Rainforest". It's like the trademark of Borneo island, which people from West Malaysia refers as 'jungle'. I'm proud of growing up in this 'jungle', we don't live on top of trees by the way.

My hometown, Sabah rainforest:

If anyone have been to jungle trekking in a tropical forest, you should know how amazing are the wildlife, plants and animals that live in it (minus the mosquitoes and leeches). Also, I personally think that the song of nature is actually very comforting. The sound of birds chirping, river flowing, wind passing through the leaves and crickets, they are all wonderful sounds.

In this soundshoot, I'm doing the nostalgic feeling of adventure in a tropical forest with friends. I was imagining... walking through the narrow path in the jungle, where everyone have to look back occasionally to make sure no one's missing. Stepping over mud, resting at the riverside, taking pictures with random animals and plants, those are definitely great memories.

Click here to listen to:
Garden of Life - Adam Jong

Guitar plucking serves well as accompaniment, providing a sense of 'keep going'. Piano sprinkle as main lead, reminiscing about nostalgic adventures. Pan flute and bongo add on for the urban sound, remote enough from city/town to forget those life problems. Most importantly, some sound effects of the song of nature, the animals and river which I really love. There goes my recipe of my "rainforest" track, Garden of Life, a beautiful art and creation of God to bless our land

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"They will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them."
-Ezekiel 6:10-

Thank You Lord for Your wonderful creation, a magnificent sight of how great You are. Also for the memories with trusted companions, to walk through ups and downs in life. I just pray that this marvelous treasure at home can be preserved and continue to be a blessing for many people, Amen.

Unchained

"SoundShoots is a unique music platform that challenges music makers to create a 90 second piece of music in response to a given weekly theme. The site is 100% free to use and whether you make your own music, or just like listening, there are plenty of good reasons to join!"

"Freedom" is the theme of this week's soundshoot. I think... there're a few ways to portray freedom, such as wide space, sky, breaking out, flying or running. These ideas suits an upbeat track a lot, but I'm gonna do some contrast this time. The fact that human only appreciate freedom after being bounded, just like how students long for holidays because of exams.

In order to bring out more flavour for freedom, I'm starting the track with a sub-theme "bondage". It's like being thrown into prison and chained, mixture of despair and loneliness. The most obvious way to bring this out is by adding sound effect of chain. Heavy reverb for drums adds on to the confined space and stiffness in mood. By using strings at low pitch kinda feels like attempting to struggle.

Shifting from minor chords to more major chords, I'm bringing in the "freedom". It comes in mild at first, showing a dim light found in this eternal darkness, a possible exit. Strings are played in higher range for the heavenly effect. The main melody is a variation from the first half, with heavier impact. Overall, the second half is like a bird break off from its chain and turbo burst into the sky.

Click here to listen to:
Unchained - Adam Jong

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*Update*

This is surprising, I thought I didn't do good enough for this theme, but it is announced that "Unchained" is no.3 for the week! Two no.3 soundshoots in a row with "Peacemaker" of previous week, never could have done any better than this.

"Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love."
-Lamentations 3:32-

It is often confused if we are bounded by some earthly restriction or having enough freedom to live. I guess human just never learn to give thanks for what we are blessed with. No matter what, God has freed us from the bondage of sin, it's up to us to have that step of faith, Amen.

Peacemaker

"SoundShoots is a unique music platform that challenges music makers to create a 90 second piece of music in response to a given weekly theme. The site is 100% free to use and whether you make your own music, or just like listening, there are plenty of good reasons to join!"

Here comes the theme "Spirit" for this week's soundshoot. Not wanting to do things last minute again, I really spent time thinking about it for the whole week. Well, there're a lot of different interpretation on this word "Spirit". If I google it, the first thing is... Spirit Airlines, definitely not the thing I want. Wiki says that it comes from the Latin word Spiritus, which means breath, interesting.

Mostly, it's about something without a physical form. People often refer spirit as ghost, soul, and morale. I will take the idea of soul, as in Genesis 2:7, "Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person."

So, what can I come out with my 'soul'? Probably due to some frustrating matters recently, I visited the chapel quite frequent to have my own time with the piano. I used to (or still) rely heavily on playing the keyboard to release stress, it's like using the gift of God to seek this moment of absolute peace within myself, my style of meditation I guess.

It is pretty similar to Starry Tide, as I want the soothing and relaxing feel. With clean guitar as counter melody, and a piano leads with slight variation along the clip. Not even complicated arrangement, just primary chords. Drums are just quarter hats, soft kicks and side stick, no cymbal no snare. I think simple tune is the best way to bring a heavy heart out from this complicated world. Keeping it mellow while building the dynamics is also a challenge.

Click here to listen to:
Peacemaker - Adam Jong

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*Update*

I do think that this is so far my best soundshoot, probably same level of favor with Starry Tide, but it caught me in total surprise when the top 10 artist for the week is announced as usual. Peacemaker is ranked no.3 for this week! Probably my best result ever. Previously when Behind the Blinds is at 10th (actually 11th), I was kinda satisfied already. This is really an encouragement to go on.

"Yet I will restore the fortunes of my people in days to come, declares the Lord."
-Jeremiah 48:47-

I think everyone has their own problems in life, most of them can't be helped, but just to face it. While wrestling with all these worldly matters, may God grant is strength and peace that will help us overcome all these challenges, Amen.

On My Way

"SoundShoots is a unique music platform that challenges music makers to create a 90 second piece of music in response to a given weekly theme. The site is 100% free to use and whether you make your own music, or just like listening, there are plenty of good reasons to join!"

It's time for the theme "Time", which I found it really challenging because I'm running out of time! The weekly soundshoot theme submission due is every Monday 9am, I started planning on Friday and try to make something on Saturday, but I wasn't in the mood to make things done. In the end, I'm forcing something out on Sunday night itself, working under pressure to meet a deadline is not fun.

This is a pretty general and wide theme, being a student in University of Nottingham, the clock tower pretty much affects my idea. Thus, I'm starting the clip with clock ticking sound effect and goes to a typical clock tower alarm tone.

Trent Building clock tower in uni:

Also due to watching Japanese anime often, the clock tower sound makes me think of school dismiss time. Well, it's quite true that the end of last period in school is what we await the most, rushing to fulfill all the plans we had in mind for the rest of the day (but in reality, we're just trapped at home doing homework).

OK, it's more like... when the clock strikes, I'm setting on a journey to do whatever I wish. The whole clip is basically a variation of the clock tower alarm, with drum beat progression from quarter to eight-note, and finally to sixteenth-note, that builds up the sense of longing and rushing (it's like the journey started from walking, to slow jogging, and finally running towards a goal).

Click here to listen to:
On My Way - Adam Jong

It's a synth and distortion guitar driven clip, and I admit it really sounds like an anime opening theme. Another thing that I learnt is... to build up the emotion, it's not necessarily adding more and more layers of instruments. Muting off most of the other tracks except the rapid synth and sixteenth-note beat kinda gives an image of time-freeze for a flashback, and resume running as the instruments join once again.

Support by rating the clip with the ✓ icon (you need to be a member to do this), or facebook like it with the icon, thanks.

"Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do."
-Jeremiah 42:3-

I kinda agree that everyone is heading to somewhere, for a dream that how we define success. No matter if we are walking or running, we're on our way. There will be time that we are discouraged and blinded by lies, and not see the direction clearly anymore. Pray that The Lord strengthen us, just like the verse has said, guide us there, Amen.

Behind The Blinds

"SoundShoots is a unique music platform that challenges music makers to create a 90 second piece of music in response to a given weekly theme. The site is 100% free to use and whether you make your own music, or just like listening, there are plenty of good reasons to join!"

This week's theme is "Space". The thought of outer space somehow leads me to Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger and Kamen Rider Fourze which both series are actually Space themed... but I don't think I will do soundshoot base on toku heroes. OK, space... while I started brainstorming, the feelings that came are such as darkness, emptiness, wide, mystery, and probably sorrow. Seems like a pretty solid direction.

So, to give the gloomy sort of atmosphere, it's mostly minor chords on loop. Adding effects on pad really gives the longing and mystery that I want (I'm officially in love with strings+phase sweep). Besides of sprinkling the high range to emulate stars/dim hope, I applied some echoes for the "empty big room" kinda feel. Also with a lot of stereo panning from left to right and back, it somehow creates a wandering and wondering effect.

I named this clip Behind the Blinds because I'm focusing on the mystery aspect of space, which human curiosity can't help to uncover them. Personally, it's more like the "space" inside a person, no one can fully understand somebody, and everyone is hiding a part of themselves from everyone else. It's probably a big darkness and sorrow behind every smiling face we see, waiting for somebody to uncover the blinds.

Click here to listen to:
Behind The Blinds - Adam Jong

Support by rating the clip with the icon (you need to be a member to do this), or facebook like it with the icon, thanks. Oh ya, I'm kinda surprised that I'm the 2nd one out of 100+ artists in soundshoot to contribute for all 3 themes, probably they're on their way.

E-mail from the producer:

*Update!*

After 2 weeks of showcasing "Space" soundshoots from different artists, the top 10 has been chosen by ranking as usual. I don't normally care about it, as I don't really promote my clip, but I'm actually kinda happy that I hit top 10 for this theme! It's actually 11th coz of the tie for no.1, doesn't matter... it still feel great anyway.

No.10 - Windranzer!

"But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true."
-Jeremiah 28:7-

For a dim hope in every darkness that we face, we will continue to pray and persevere. Lord, be our strength and guide, show us the path that we're suppose to be on, for Your glory and purpose, Amen.

United Division

""SoundShoots is a unique music platform that challenges music makers to create a 90 second piece of music in response to a given weekly theme. The site is 100% free to use and whether you make your own music, or just like listening, there are plenty of good reasons to join!"

This is my second SoundShoot clip under the theme of "Cityscape". In order to understand this term, I actually went to wikipedia and have a look. There are a few key points that describes it:

• Urban equivalent of landscape
• Configuration of built forms and interstitial space (urban design)
• An artistic representation (visual arts), of the physical aspects of a city or urban area 

Since the word "urban" appears a few time, I decided to once again wiki it. An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. After a little while of brainstorming, my key words for this sound clip are: identity, buildings, crowd, culture.

Honestly, I wouldn't be able to pull this theme off if I didn't went travelling around Europe. Dublin gave me the most impression with Irish Celtic music everywhere in town. It's a joyous feeling of celebration that involve large number of people.

Varies performances in the street of Dublin:

The mood of this clip is mainly festival-like. For the first half of this clip, I used ethnic instruments (lead with pan flute) trying to imitate Celtic style of music, later into the second half which is mainly modern band instruments (lead with electric guitar). Finally at the last part a fusion of both ethnic and modern instruments as the climax.

I'm expressing the transition of a culture and city from older days into modern timeline, the current generation is pretty different in styles and thoughts but still emphasize the importance of being in a community and fellowship. This is what I felt as the most beautiful thing of a cityscape, not literally the physical scenery, but the bond and link of pass/history and future/hope. Two different poles but they blend, the United Division.

Click here to listen to:
United Division - Adam Jong

Please support by rating using the "tick" option, or 'like' through facebook account with the "wave" option beside the "tick" option (of course, these are optional).

"A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary."
-Jeremiah 17:12-

As a God the reign over all city, town, time and culture, bless us as we seek Your mission in our lives. We trust that for wherever we are, there is a reason. Pray that we remember lessons of the pass generations, move on courageously to a righteous era, Amen.

Starry Tide

Early in December last year, I received an email from Oliver Squirrell about this new website that he is working call SoundShoots and recruiting musicians to participate. I am taking word by word from the website on how it describes itself:

"SoundShoots is a unique music platform that challenges music makers to create a 90 second piece of music in response to a given weekly theme. The site is 100% free to use and whether you make your own music, or just like listening, there are plenty of good reasons to join!"

I myself think that it's a good exercise for music composing and arranging. Rather than spending days or weeks struggling on vocal recordings and mashup ideas and ended up abandoning projects by projects, this could be something less demotivating that keeps the charcoal slightly warm. The website is finally launched in May 2012.

The first theme is "Wave", so basically anyone can do any kind of sound (not even music in particular) of how they interpret the theme. Spending most of my life near the sea, this directs me to sea waves. The best feeling ever is lying at the bay, listening to the sound of wave flowing gently, and watching at the clear dark sky, with stars all over. It's a indescribable feeling which I just thank God that the universe is so big and beautiful, all other problems and worries seems so much smaller at that moment.

So I name this 90 seconds of music clip that I made Starry Tide, generally to convey the feeling of being comfortable and relaxing. It's all midi since I have no access to any real instrument, layering simple guitar plucking, some piano sprinkle imitating twinkling of the stars and sea waves sound effect as padding~ I put it on loop, lied on my bed while closing my eyes, loved that few minutes of getting everything out of my head.

Click here to listen to:
Starry Tide - Adam Jong

If you really like it, please support by rating the clip with the "tick" option. I guess you need to be a registered member to do that, if it's too troublesome then leave it, I'm fine anyway. The option next to the "tick" actually "like" the link using your facebook, I guess that's a better promotion :P

"I will fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey’ —the land you possess today."
-Jeremiah 11:5-

I don't know if holding on to this little bit of determination is a right thing to do, but I will try my best to keep on listening to what God want to do about it. May this little offering be used mightily for Your kingdom, Amen.