Behind Soundtrack from a Box

Posted by DJ Crinkles on Mar 21, 2015 in Albums | 0 comments

With the release of Soundtrack from a Box 12, and a request from Alan, here’s a little bit about Soundtrack from a Box.

Soundtrack from a Box is basically a collection of tracks from my attempts to make music. I had no music education starting off. My only experience was with scratching, and simple hip hop / DnB remixes of various music. Eventually in my later remixes I started adding extra notes on top of the samples with a midi piano. Then I started just making patterns of notes using the midi piano until I got something that was nice, which lead to the tracks in Soundtrack from a Box 1.

From there I started learning basic music theory. Each time I tried to make a new track, I would choose a key signature at random to mess around in for that day. Sometimes I would start with a random percussion loop, other times I would find a pattern of notes and just add more stuff from there. Over time I studied more music theory, and kept trying to make new tracks.

When I started off, my biggest and main influence and style of music I was aiming for was Playstation 1 era JRPGs. Chrono Cross, Tales of series, Final Fantasy etc

Around Soundrack from a Box 10 I started to really get into the whole orchestral sound, especially influenced by movie soundtracks at that time.

And now, I’m just making tracks as they come. I load up Omnisphere, go to the patch browser and hit shuffle. I try random notes and chords with random sounds / loops until I get something, and I build / layer other sounds from there. Sometimes I can get a track going in 10 minutes, other times I can mess around for hours and get nothing.

Software / VSTs used:

Ableton
Omnisphere
Kontakt
PSP vintage warmer
BReverb