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Thoughts and explorations on various topics.

025 | A Rift Between Us and Oculus

## Show Notes What is the Rift S? And why does it sound just so awful? What are those start up sounds? And why do they sound just so lovely? Memes? ...

026 | Constructive Deconstruction

\[expand title=”Show Transcript”\] 00:00 \[Music\] 00:01 hello welcome to composure cast episode 00:04 26 this week month this time you talk 00:09 ab...

027 | Interview: Game Music Designer Matthew Walker

## Show Notes On this episode of the podcast, we talk to the wonderful video game music designer Matthew Walker. His work as a music designer, sound...

028 | Interview: Composer Denovaire

## Show Notes Our guest on this episode is Deno. He is a classical composer, producer, and artist whose compositions are performed by chamber ensemb...

029 | E1M1

## Show Notes On this episode, Lloyd and I discuss the amazing tech that is photogrammetry, chat about E3 and deconstruct a classic video game track...

030 | Tree Stream

## Show Notes On this episode we try and make sense of all the game launchers that are out there competing with each other, we talk about the game F...

031 | Making Music With Code

On this episode we talk about how fun it is to drive a truck in VR, discuss the co-op madness of fighting goblins in Karnage Chronicles, correct past...

032 | Amanita Music Part 1

On this episode we talk about VR racing, the 10-year anniversary of Machinarium and give a shout-out to Music Weeklies. Join us next episode where we...

033 | Amanita Music Part 2

This is part 2 of our talk about Amanita Design and the beautiful games they create. We go in-depth looking at the music and sound design of the Aman...

034 | Bewitche(r)d

On this episode we talk about BlazeRush, a naughty goose and a witcher. * Play Untitled Goose Game: [https://goose.game/](https://goose.game/) * ...

036 | Inside The Future?

### Video Version ### Audio Version Join us for a special lockdown episode of ComposerCast where Lloyd and I talk to each other inside virtual real...

038 | Interview with Evan Rogers

### Video Version ### Audio Version Our first VR interview episode! We talked to arranger, orchestrator and composer, Evan Rogers. Be sure to check...

039 | Interview with Elliot Callighan

### Video Version ### Audio Version Hello listener and welcome to another episode of ComposerCast. On this episode, we talked to composer and soun...

21 Days Of Video Game Music

This is the result of the 21 days of VGM challenge. ## Track 01 Today is the start of the 21 days of video game music challenge! I already wrote a ...

The History of Western Music - Notes On Lecture 1. Musical Horizons

# The History of Western Music - Notes On Lecture 1. Musical Horizons ## Summary In our first lecture, we are introduced to the fundamentals of mus...

The History of Western Music - Notes On Lecture 2. Musical Evolution

# The History of Western Music - Notes On Lecture 2. Musical Evolution ## Summary In lecture two, we delve into the development of Western music n...

The Neuroscience of Dreams - Notes On Lecture 1. Why We Sleep

# Lecture 1 - Why We Sleep ## Summary In our introductory lecture, [[Dr. Baland Jalal\|Dr. Baland Jalal]] begins our study of sleep and dreams by o...

A Composer’s Guide To Overcoming Writer’s Block

![](./../../wp-content/uploads/2018/08/writersBlock.jpeg) It’s always daunting starting a new piece of work. What’s even more daunting though is get...

A History Of Video Game Music (part 1)

# Atari 2600 ## **Release Date:** 1977 I’m going back to where it all started with home consoles, the Atari 2600. It had a really unique sound chip...

A History Of Video Game Music (part 2)

# Commodore 64 ## **Release Date:** 1982 Five years after the Atari exploded on the home console scene, the Commodore 64 was released. The C64 is h...

Aslan’s Theme

Who else grew up watching the BBC version of Narnia? – I recreated Aslan’s Theme from the opening and closing credits. It was a lot of trial and ...

Balancing Your Side Hustle With A Full-time Job

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*8KYcpGdnBzwfCVujS1ep-w@2x.jpeg) This post is about working hard on your side hustle while you’ve got a...

BASCA Presents: Composing for Media ‘Question Time’

![](./../../wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sevenDials.jpeg) BASCA hosted a question time style debate in London on Wednesday evening and I was lucky eno...

Beautiful Dreamer

This is an old song by Stephen C. Foster that my grandparents like to sing together. They both enjoy classical music too so I made them an orchestral...

Beautiful Dreamer

This is an old song by Stephen C. Foster that my grandparents like to sing together. They both enjoy classical music too so I made them an orchestral...

Building A Student Portal On WordPress For Free

_Originally written on_ [_Pickup Guitar_](https://pickupguitar.co.uk/building-a-student-portal-on-wordpress/)_._ For music teachers, especially remo...

Cadences

I made a simple infographic to help me remember the different musical cadences. We were taught them back at music college but I never really had any ...

Castle

I wrote some SEGA Mega Drive music using the Deflemask tracker. 32s long loop. I wrote this piece in preparation for the next podcast episode of Com...

ComposerCast 008 | My Top 2017 Game Music Picks

The great thing about being in the office over the holidays is it’s super quiet so I can do more podcast episodes like this! Check out ComposerCast e...

ComposerCast 009 | Social Games With Lloyd

This episode is a casual chat between me and Lloyd. We talk about D&D, Lloyd gives a rundown on couch co-op games and we discuss the pitfalls of drin...

ComposerCast 010 | Defining Your Work

Check out the written version [here](https://medium.com/@willhelliwell/define-the-work-you-do-187666fbf288 "Medium") This is another short episode, ...

ComposerCast 011 | Music Reflecting Narrative

Episode 11 is here and I’m really happy to have my first American guest on the show! Brannan and I take a look at a number of video game music tracks...

ComposerCast 012 | Open Doors – Careers In Games

I went up to London to attend an event about finding your perfect role and starting your career in the games industry. It was a great talk with some ...

ComposerCast 013 | An Interview With Kingdom Come Deliverance Composers Adam Sporka And Jan Valta

This was such an exciting episode for me! I had the great pleasure of talking with two fantastic video game composers. Adam and Jan wrote the music f...

ComposerCast 014 | A Gareth Coker Masterclass Summary

I had the opportunity to attend this great talk at BAFTA HQ in London. In the talk, video game composer Gareth discussed how he used music to reflect...

ComposerCast 015 | Essential Chord Theory

Music theory is one of those things a lot of musicians (I’m looking at you, guitarists) like to avoid. So I made this episode to try and simplify it,...

ComposerCast 016 | History Of Video Game Music – Atari 2600

We’re going right back to 1977 video game music with the Atari 2600! In this episode, I have a look at some of the limitations of that console and ho...

ComposerCast 017 | History Of Video Game Music – Commodore 64

1982, the year of the Commodore 64! Let’s take a look at writing music for this iconic system. [Difference Between SID Chips](https://www.youtube.c...

ComposerCast 018 | Fireside Chat With Sam Whiting

On this episode, we take a break from video game music history and sit down for a chat with my good friend Sam Whiting. We go deep into the mystical ...

ComposerCast 020 | Interview With Tony Manfredonia

\[expand title=”Show Transcript”\] 00:00 hello everyone and welcome to episode 20 00:02 of composer cast on this episode I chat 00:05 to the lovely T...

ComposerCast 021 – Music And Sound In VR

Lloyd is now the official co-host of ComposerCast! We talk about music and sound in virtual reality including binaural audio recording techniques. ...

023 | History Of Video Game Music – 5th Gen Era

This is the last stop in our history of video game music journey. We take a look at the 5th generation era of consoles including the PS1, N64, SEGA S...

022 | History Of Video Game Music – SNES and SEGA Genesis

I hope you all had a great Christmas break! Lloyd and I are back with a brand new episode all about the audio capabilities of the SNES and SEGA Genes...

037 | Celestial

### Video Version ### Audio Version We’re still in lockdown so join us for another lockdown episode of ComposerCast where Lloyd and I chat about vi...

ComposerCast 019 | History Of Video Game Music – NES and Game Boy

On this episode, I have a look at the chiptune sounds of the NES and Game Boy and dive into the audio capabilities of both consoles. * Check out R...

The David Wise Challenge

The David Wise challenge was created by [@musicweeklies](https://twitter.com/MusicWeeklies). They are a Twitter account who set composing challenges ...

Disasterpeace Challenge 1 – Shootout

The challenge this week was set by Music Weeklies and run by Disasterpeace. We were challenged to extend our favourite video game soundtrack by writi...

Disasterpeace Challenge 2 – Making Camp

This is part 2 of the Music Weeklies that was run by Disasterpeace. We were challenged to extend our favourite video game soundtrack by writing at le...

Discovery

Starting off gently with a glitched synth, the track builds up to a crescendo with the implementation of ostinato strings. ...

Don’t Be The Composer Who Loses All Their Work

Don’t be the composer who loses all their work. No, not the upcoming gigs you’ve got; your tracks. Those tracks and stems that you’ve spent hours wri...

Essential Chord Theory For Guitarists

Music theory is one of those things a lot of musicians (I’m looking at you, guitarists) like to avoid. Most of the reasons I’ve heard are that it wil...

Essential Gear For The Home Composer

![](./../../wp-content/uploads/2018/08/mixer.jpeg) I wanted to share with you what I’ve put together as my composing workstation. It may not be the ...

How To Find The BPM Of A Track In Reaper

[Reaper](https://www.reaper.fm/) is my DAW of choice. The main things that drew me to it initially were the very small file size, the ability to run ...

Masterclass | Art of Storytelling through Music with Gareth Coker

\[embedyt\] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVxjU6n3z0c\[/embedyt\] I had the opportunity to attend this great talk at BAFTA in London this week. Ga...

Guided Meditation for Presence by Duncan Trussell’s mom (Deneen Fendig)

I’ve created this 10-minute guided meditation. It’s really more for me than anyone else but I really hope people like it. It’s Deneen Fendig (Duncan ...

History Of Video Game Music – NES and Game Boy

## Nintendo Entertainment System: Release Date- 1985. Game Boy: Release Date – 1989 The NES made history in the video game music world. The original...

How To Learn Online

There is a crazy amount of information out there and sometimes it can be difficult to wade through it all. First of all, set a big goal. Mine is to b...

How to Use Digital Minimalism to Stop Your Addiction to Social Media

# Introduction There are many great things about social media. It’s where we get our news, where we interact with friends and where we can easily sp...

Iconic Video Game Music Throughout The Years

![](./../../wp-content/uploads/2018/08/iconic.jpeg) I absolutely adore video game music, so I’m making this list as much for myself as I am for ever...

035 | Interview: Chris Jolley

This is episode 35 of ComposerCast and was recorded in a lovely pub in Portsmouth. This is an interview episode where I talk to the wonderful compose...

Jumbo Big Band

Finished making this track in 36 degrees in the studio. Perfect track for a Summer vibe. * 0:00: This is The Gentleman piano with iZotope’s vinyl ...

Lucky Wallpaper

![](./../../wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Lucky-Wallpaper-Album-Cover-1024x1024.jpg) Since the lockdown started, I’ve been wading through old Spotify p...

Matthew And The Atlas – Palace | Guitar Lesson

This is a guitar tutorial for Palace by Matthew And The Atlas. It uses open chords, standard tuning and a capo on the 4th fret. I run through the fin...

Meditation Music

I wrote this track with the idea of it being used as a meditation piece or something you’d playing while doing yoga. I experimented with adding bina...

Mono Instruments In Reaper And Audacity

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*etaYLvAV-64UjxcSiBchdQ.jpeg) Reaper is an amazing DAW that is very customisable but it can get a bit t...

Music, Games and Becoming a Parent

It’s been a wild couple of months since [the first post](./../the-first-post/index.html) went out. My wife and I have our first child, Ramona! Althou...

My Favourite Games From EGX Rezzed 2017

[EGX Rezzed](https://www.egx.net/rezzed) is my absolute favourite gaming event to go to. It’s hosted in London across a weekend in April and is the l...

My First Game Jam

![](./../../wp-content/uploads/2018/08/homJam.png) #### Before the jam I heard about the [Home Of Nerds](http://www.homeofnerds.com/) (HON) game ja...

My Game Music Album And The Writing Process

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*-sCpa4nSEHMhIhrmnH5uAg.png) Track 1 — Heavy Oddities It’s 2017 and I’m getting closer to doing what I...

Why Creativity Doesn’t Have To Be Chaotic

This is something that always pulls at me and I worry that I’m too structured with my Trello boards and maybe not creative enough in the way that I w...

New REAPER Theme

REAPER just became a whole lot more beautiful 😍 If you look below, you’ll see the exact same project open with the default REAPER theme. It’s only ...

Open Doors – Careers In Games: A Summary

![The panel!](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*gWdhGzMMai3eJQLPOsBuXw.jpeg) I went up to London yesterday to attend an event about finding ...

Opening

![](./../../wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Opening-Art-Work-1024x1024.jpg) Finished writing a new track this morning. It’s inspired by “The Wolf” by Edd...

Overview

This is how the track would sound on the Gameboy, in stereo, with the sample channel removed. I think to be able to use a tracker successfully, you h...

Podcast Management Template

![ComposerCast Episode Planning](./../../wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Notion_hMYIDrHV6y-1024x483.png) At the time of writing, I’m 38 episodes into mak...

Pricing Yourself

I think pricing yourself is one of the most difficult things about being a musician. Hopefully, this video can help. It describes the process of pric...

VR games in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

At the time of writing, there are 2 days left to purchase the [itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality](https://itch.io/b/520/bundle-for-racia...

Ramona

_Purchase the EP from [bandcamp](https://willhelliwell.bandcamp.com/album/lofi-mix) with this and another lofi track called Lucky:_ <a href="https:/...

How to Record your DAW with OBS and ReaStream (Windows only)

This article will guide you through how to capture a screen recording of your audio software without any of the difficult setup or latency usually as...

Recreating Aslan’s Theme

Who else grew up watching the BBC version of Narnia? I recreated Aslan’s Theme from the opening and closing credits. It was a lot of trial and error...

024 | Remakes and Remasters

## Show Notes Remasters, remakes, reboots and “remaster plusses”. We get confused by all of these on this weeks episode of ComposerCast. Should they...

How to Rewire Reason Into Reaper

For those of us still on Reason 10 and using Reaper, I hope this guide helps. [Reason 11](https://www.reasonstudios.com/en/reason/new) solves all the...

Screen Music Connect – A Summary

## Exploring screen music and the talent behind it [![](./../../wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Dn1-rLQXsAMCtQE-1024x767.jpg)](https://twitter.com/Screen...

Combat the Lockdown Blues with Virtual Reality

We’re on a lockdown in the UK. All the pubs and restaurants are closed. You barely remember what your friends’ faces look like. You’ve been told to d...

Streaming Audio Guide For OBS And Skype

Credit for original article goes to: [http://twitch-guides.github.io/audio/routing-single/](http://twitch-guides.github.io/audio/routing-single/) Vi...

Superhero Strings ⚡

I got asked to take a midi file and turn it into a super hero string section. I split it up into violins 1, violins 2, violas, cellos and double bass...

The Civil Wars – Billie Jean | Guitar Lesson

This is a guitar tutorial for The Civil Wars cover of Billie Jean. It’s a nice intermediate fingerpicking piece with a swing feel. Download the tab ...

The First Post

## Why I’ve started a newsletter (can we find a better word than newsletter?) **Short answer**: I watched [The Social Dilemma](https://www.netflix.c...

The Library

Written as a piece for a string quartet and piano, this track conjures up images of a dusty library full of ancient books. ...

The Nathan McCree Challenge

This week’s [Music Weeklies](https://twitter.com/MusicWeeklies) challenge was set by the Tomb Raider composer [Nathan McCree](https://twitter.com/nrp...

Recognising location with Twilio, Python and Speech Recognition

This guide assumes you know a little bit of Python and Twilio already. Using Python with the Flask framework, I’ll show you how I handle speech recog...

Underline Waltz Noir

This track is for a yet unreleased game. I borrowed elements from TV drama intro music and film noir soundtracks. Nearly all of the track was created...

Watermark

Finished writing my synthwave track today. Made a video showcasing all the synths and settings I used in Reason. Of course I had to add a VHS effect ...

Wwise Interactive Music Symposium

![](./../../wp-content/uploads/2018/11/event.jpg) The [Wwise Interactive Music Symposium](http://info.audiokinetic.com/interactive-music-symposium-r...