Showing posts with label MP3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MP3. Show all posts

Friday, June 15, 2012

New Music and Updated Chapters

Kathryn completed a new piece of music called Guildhall; named after the building housing the central government of The Guild, the decaying empire which dominates the world in Gods Among Men.  As usual, all chapters, author readings, and music MP3s can be found at http://gods-among-men.com/blog/books/book1.  And here is a direct link to Kathryn’s new song: http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/Music/Guildhall.mp3.

Also, I have republished all of my chapters on the website.  I did this for a couple of reasons. 

First and foremost, the book’s final three chapters have undergone substantial changes in the last few months and I’ve been remiss in getting these changes posted.  These changes were prompted by the invaluable editing suggestions from the Magic City Writers Group.  Chapter thirteen is going to be edited by the group in the near future, so it will be updated again in about a month. 

Secondly, during the editing changes I made in the last three chapters I realized I needed to tweak specific sentences and paragraphs in various places throughout the book.  Minor edits that subtly enhance the overall work and is more consistent with the final third of the book.  Along the way I stumbled onto errors that had escaped my notice in previous edits; misspellings, the wrong word used (‘would’ when I should have used ‘wound’, that sort of thing), unclear sentences, etc.   Again, a series of minor edits that primarily cleaned up what was already there.

Third, I did another edit on chapter 7,…And Critical Moments Relived…, in preparation for submitting it to a writing contest.  I’ll go into more detail about that in a future post.  The main point is that the edits to chapter 7, while not major, were more than tweaks or cleaning up mistakes.  These changes smoothed certain rough spots and sharpened specific scenes.

Finally, I decided to change the font I have been using in the PDF’s of my chapters.  Up till now, the text of the story has been in Times New Roman.  I decided that using Garamond would give the text a more “book-like” feel.  This is part of an larger process in which I am moving closer towards the possibility of self-publishing my book.  Another subject I will go into more detail in a future post.

That’s all for now.  Take care and have fun.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Still More Music From Kathryn

Kathryn finished another piece of music for Gods Among Men.  This one is called Guildtown at Dawn.  Within the story, Guildtown is the major capital of the empire called The Guild.  Essentially, it is the Rome of my fantasy world.  Kathryn’s song is intended as the city’s anthem. 

As usual, links to all downloads for the first book can be found at http://gods-among-men.com/blog/books/book1.

Direct links to the new material are below.

MP3 for Guildtown at Dawn: http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/Music/Guildtown%20at%20Dawn.mp3

Sheet music for Guildtown at Dawn: http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/SheetMusic/Guildtown%20at%20Dawn.pdf

Again I thank Kathryn for all her hard work.  Her songs are very good and I hope everyone takes some time to check them out.

Friday, April 6, 2012

More Music From Kathryn

Kathryn has been busy writing new music for Gods Among Men.  She has added the song Ilium and Dog Days Of Ilium.  Within the story, Ilium is a long lost capital city of the empire that Demiurge once ruled.  Ilium is built under a mountain range and was the center of a cataclysmic battle that nearly destroyed the world.  The song, Ilium is the anthem for that once great city.  Dog Days of Ilium adds in themes that highlight the return of the wolf-like Gogs and cat-like Magogs to their former home. 

As usual, links to all downloads for the first book can be found at http://gods-among-men.com/blog/books/book1.

Direct links to the new material are below.

MP3 for the song Ilium: http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/Music/Ilium.mp3

Sheet music for Ilium: http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/SheetMusic/Ilium.pdf

MP3 for the song Dog Days Of Ilium: http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/Music/Dog%20Days%20of%20Ilium.mp3

Sheet music for Dog Days of Ilium: http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/SheetMusic/Dog%20Days%20of%20Ilium.pdf

Kathryn has worked very hard on all this music and I think she has done a terrific job.  I hope everyone enjoys these songs as much as I do.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

More New Music

Kathryn created a few “piano only” version of the music she wrote for my story.  She created piano version for the theme song, At The Lady Behest Comes, and for the songs I Remember Marcus and I Remember Marcus Reprise.  She also created sheet music PDFs for the piano only versions of At The Lady Behest Comes and I Remember Marcus.

All files can be found at http://gods-among-men.com/blog/books/book1.  Below are the direct links to these new files.

http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/Music/At%20the%20Lady's%20Behest%20Piano.mp3

http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/SheetMusic/At%20the%20Lady's%20Behest%20Comes%20Piano.pdf

http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/Music/I%20Remember%20Marcus%20Piano.mp3

http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/SheetMusic/I%20Remember%20Marcus%20Piano.pdf

http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/Music/I%20Remember%20Marcus%20Reprise%20Piano.mp3

Kathryn’s done a lot of work on all of this.  I am very pleased with the results.  I hope others enjoy them as much as I do.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

New Reading, Song, and Sheet Music

I have added new content to my website, all of which can be found at http://gods-among-men.com/blog/books/book1.

Included is a reading of Chapter 5, Through Persuasion and Force,…, as read by my wife Kathryn.   The direct link to the reading is http://gods-among-men.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Book1Chap5Kathryn.mp3. 

Kathryn has also completed a new song, called Zephyr.  It is the anthem for the kingdom ruled by the Rihtwis clan.  It can be heard at http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/Music/Zephyr.mp3.

I have also posted PDF’s of Kathryn’s sheet music for everything she has completed so far.  Here are links to her sheet music.

http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/SheetMusic/At%20the%20Lady's%20Behest%20Comes.pdf

http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/SheetMusic/I%20Remember%20Marcus.pdf

http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/SheetMusic/I%20Remember%20Marcus%20Reprise.pdf

http://gods-among-men.com/Uploads/SheetMusic/Zephyr.pdf

For those paying attention, yes we have skipped chapter 4, …And Strikes Down the Inner Circle.  I will be getting back to it as soon as I can either find someone to perform a reading of it or free up some time to do one myself.

Rich has offered to do a reading of chapter 7, …And Critical Moments Relived….  I will be sending him the updated text shortly and will post his reading as soon as possible.

In the meantime, I have to incorporate the Magic City Writers’ Group edits to chapter 11, …Cause All to Cry ‘Havoc’!   The reviews of the chapter were very positive, but some of the changes will require a substantial amount of effort to complete.  I expect it will take me a couple weeks to complete that task.

Once I finish with those edits, Lindy has offered to perform a reading of that chapter.

As you can see, quite a lot has been happening all at the same time.  And I still have to resume my efforts to find an agent, revamp my website, find artwork I can display on the website, and get cracking on editing what I have already written for the second book, …Demiurge, Unbound,….

Until next time, have fun and party down.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

New and Modified MP3’s

Kathryn has been writing music which I am now using in my audio readings.  I have replaced the music in the first two chapters with snippets from three of the songs she has composed.  I have also posted my reading of chapter three, ...Warns the Ruling Circle,..., which also uses Kathryn’s music.

I also added mp3’s of the songs Kathryn completed.  She is working on several others, and I look forward to sharing them with everyone when she is done. 

All the updated content can be found at http://gods-among-men.com/blog/books/book1. 

Kathryn’s songs are called, At The Lady’s Behest Main Theme, I Remember Marcus, and I Remember Marcus Reprise. 

I did not add sound effects to the recording of chapter three.  I did, however, tweak the voices of Tara and Morel using some of Audacity’s cool features.

OH…MY…GOD!

Altering every instance of when either Tara or Morel spoke was a royal pain in the @$$.  Morel came out ok, but Tara’s voice isn’t right.  I tried (with limited success) to modify my voice so it would sound more feminine.  I find the results underwhelming, especially considering how long they took to achieve.   I doubt I shall ever mess with voices that way ever again.

The posted text of chapters two and three are a little different than the readings at the moment.  The reading are actually a little more up to date.   Minor edits in various spots made certain sentences less of a tongue-twister

Now I am going to do a read through of chapter five, Through Persuasion and Force,..., which Kathryn will be recording soon.  Till next time, have fun and party down.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Audio Reading of my Chapter Two Now Available

Last night I finally finished adding sound effects to the audio reading of my chapter two.  The MP3 can be downloaded from my website at http://gods-among-men.com/blog/books/book1.  I also made some improvements to the audio file of the first chapter.  Specifically, I added an effect so it will be easier to distinguish someone’s thoughts from dialog.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

MP3 of My First Chapter Now Available

I am pleased to announce that I just completed my first ever author reading of a chapter from my Gods Among Men series.  That is to say, I recorded myself reading  aloud the first chapter in book one, At the Lady’s Behest Comes….  I then scoured the web for sound effects and music which I added to the audio file to give the reading more flavor. 

Both the chapter, entitled The Wizard’s Spells…, and the audio reading can be downloaded/listened to at http://gods-among-men.com/blog/books/book1.  The link to the MP3 file itself is http://gods-among-men.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Book1Chap1.mp3.

It took several days to create the reading and add all the sound effects.  I was surprised by how much fun it was to do, and how  beneficial the exercise proved to be.  Listening to my own reading in painstaking detail, looking for places where sound effects would be useful, forced me to notice minor problems that heretofore had escaped my notice. 

I hope the final product is enjoyable, or at least interesting.  I plan to continue with this exercise, if only for my own enjoyment.  I expect that recording all the chapters which have been reviewed by the Magic City Writers’ Group will take approximately a month or so, with most of that time spent adding sound effects.  Any feedback or suggestions would be most appreciated, as always. 

After I finish with the audio readings, I shall focus on polishing and finishing  my rough draft of the second book, …Demiurge, Unbound,….  I expect that will consume much of the coming year.  And, of course, I will continue trying to get the first book published.   It’s safe to say I have my work cut out for me.