Be sure to check out my Soundcloud page!

My Soundcloud page is now up to date with my most recent projects. I have links on the top of my page and on the sidebar. Please be sure to take a listen to my creations. There is a mixture of game scores, game narrative, and some side projects!

With that I just thought I would post a piece by one of my biggest inspirations Two Steps From Hell. This song is beautiful, powerful, and epic. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite orchestral pieces. Also check out their new album SkyWorld. It is an absolutely amazing album with tons of variance between the pieces.

Composing for fellow DSU Students game "Arcana"

I recently created a piano track for one of my piano courses. It was a simple midi track of just piano. I posted it on Soundcloud with little hopes of it going anywhere. About 10 minutes later it was being added to on of my friends video games entitled "Arcana." When I wrote the song I was going through kind of a rough time and got stuck in the writing process about halfway through. My day got a lot better eventually and I picked up the song again and finished it. It starts slow and solemn  almost hopeless, and then picks up. As the song picks up there is a sense of confidence growing. It hits its peak and then the confidence quickly dissipates. This caught the eye of the team creating the game and according to them it fits the mood of the game perfectly.

The song will be re-recorded, mixed, and mastered in the future (When I have free time).

Here is a video of the song being used in game. (It will eventually be split into stems to fit the game as it needs to)

"Arcana" Demo [With temporary audio]

And here is the link to the full song on my Soundcloud.

"Dreams" on Matt Lyon Audio Soundcloud

Music Promotion through Youtube

For years now, Youtube has been the number one place for me to find new music. It seems like an unlikely thing, but its really not. There is so much music on Youtube it is almost ridiculous. The old way I used to find music was by simply typing in a band name and using the related videos and so on to find other songs like the one I typed in. For the past year or so now, though, I have been discovering many different Youtube music promotion channels.

While exploring the vastness of Youtube about a year ago, I discovered this peculiar channel called Liquicity. I had no idea what it was but I was attracted to the channel's unique logo and beautiful backgrounds. But, the best part about Liquicity was the music. Liquicity is a Liquid Drum and Bass promotion channel, which means that artists can submit their liquid drum and bass track to Liquicity and Liquicity will create a video in their channel with that artists track, if they like it. 

There are so many music promotion channels on Youtube now, especially in the electronic genre. 

Here are some that I found and regularly listen to. 

• MORchillstep [Chillstep] http://www.youtube.com/user/MORchillstep 
• UKF Dubstep [Dubstep] http://www.youtube.com/user/UKFDubstep
• Liquicity [Liquid D&B] http://www.youtube.com/user/Liquicity
• Mr. Sucicide Sheep [Varies] http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSuicideSheep
• Going Quantum [Mixes] http://www.youtube.com/user/goingquantum
• Monstercat [Varies] http://www.youtube.com/user/MonstercatMedia

Music promotion channels such as the ones listed above are great ways to get your name out there. If you are a dubstep artist and are featured on UKF Dubstep, which is a huge promotion channel, its almost assured that you will get a lot of exposure. The kicker though; you have to be good enough. 

But seriously, these channels are a great way to find new music and I feel like these simple Youtube channels could one day be the future of music promotion, at least to a degree. 

- Matt

A typical Liquicity video.

The standard UKF Dubstep video.

Audio Production III Project - Bon Iver - "Calgary" Remix

One of the most intriguing projects that I have worked on recently is a remix of Bon Iver's "Calgary." Originally this remix was assigned in my Audio Production III class, but as I worked on it I made it more of my own personal project than simply being an assignment. I am fairly new to remixing as I had only done one other remix at the time. Recently I have been messing around with Massive VST and thought it would be cool to remix this song into a chillstep track. I have been itching to use a harp in a song so I really focused on that in this remix and I think it brings a very unique feel to this mix. Since I am rather new to the midi world it took me some time to do this project. Initially I created all of the sounds in Ableton Live using Massive VST and Garritan Personal Orchestra. After completing everything I needed to do in Ableton, I then exported all of the raw tracks and did the mixing in Pro Tools 10. It was not my preferred way of doing things but it was easy enough and required for the assignment. I do not currently have a preview of the track as I am currently working on a new version of it.

- Matt

This is a screenshot of my Ableton Live session before I exported it to Pro Tools 10. 

Avian Sunrise at Dakota State University.

On September 20, 2012, Dakota State University Live Concert Productions (DSU Live) hosted Avian Sunrise and openers, The Seen. It was a pretty exciting night as it was Avian Sunrise's third trip to DSU and there is always a good turnout for them. I ran sound for the majority of the night with minimal problems. The only problem with sound that happened that night was a problem with the crossover that we couldn't figure out. It is a long and funny story that I probably will not go into detail about. With this being my final year as a member of DSU Live I really soaked in this concert as there will not be many more left for me to run or attend. The Seen was an unexpected surprise and I thought they actually sounded great! Avian Sunrise sounded awesome as usual, with the exception of the crossover issues. All in all, it was a great night and a great concert. 

Here is a video of the concert that was made by Nathan Fields and Cody Welu.
http://fieldsrecordingphoto.wordpress.com/
http://WeluPhoto.com/

Rameses B - "I Need You" - Daily Song Posting

Of all the artists I listen to, Rameses B is among my top three favorites. The guy can not put out a bad track. No one, and I mean no one, comes close to being able to create melodic dubstep and drum and bass like Rameses B does. The song I am posting is an older one by him, but one of his best tracks to give you an idea of what I am talking about. This song is called "I Need You." [LIQUID DUBSTEP]

This was a very short review, but I am in class and should probably get off blogger.

- Matt (muzen)

Just because I am proud of this.

This picture I have posted is my current desktop on my laptop. I (for some reason) decided to go all out on my laptop. I was going for a Walking Dead-esqu wallpaper and I thought the one I used fit that style pretty well (wouldn't mind if there was a zombie somewhere in the pic though. maybe ill photoshop it). The addition of the clock actually gave me a Zombieland impression. So yeah, I am pretty proud of this for some reason and is the first desktop setup I have truly enjoyed in a long time. Though, I have no idea why I decided to post all of this on here. But here ya' go anyway.

- Matt (muzen)