Chords for I spent a year making a free plugin...

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Earlier this year, I had an idea.
I wanted to combine this thing with some recordings [Gbm] from this thing, and then add these things
into the mix and turn it all into one big [Ab] sound library.
[Dbm] Since I've been doing so much more composing work lately, I thought it would just be handy
to make [Db] myself this big ol' collection of sounds that more or less embody my own signature
ideas and sounds so that I don't [Ab] constantly have to hunt through my other personal libraries
or record a bunch of new stuff because, [Db]
I mean, let's be real, that's tedious and I'm kinda lazy.
What I didn't know is that this idea was [Eb] going to eat up the next [Ab] year of my life.
[Em] So why am I here now in the [D] great white void telling you about all this?
Well, I guess for that we need to sorta rewind and talk about how [Gbm] I got into this situation. _ _ _
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_ _ _ For someone in my position, having done this type of thing for a while now and having created
a lot of different instrument libraries and more sample packs than I really even remember,
you would think that this would be a pretty straightforward job.
As it turns out, yeah, not so much. _
For the first month or two, I recorded a bunch of samples from all this stuff and threw them
together into a few [Db] prototypes to test out the concept.
_ _ The horror box [Dbm] thing I built was easy enough to sample, but of course [F] I didn't think about
the fact that it doesn't really produce a specific pitch [B] most of the time, so multi-sampling
this to make a proper library was [C] out of the question.
The EMF microphone was equally a bit of a thorn in my ass.
[Am] Although it made some really cool textures and tones and stuff, you can't exactly tune
the sound of a lightbulb [Ebm] or go and ask a [Db] parking garage to play an [Gb] F sharp. _ _
[A] Of course, sampling synths and stuff is [Ab] the easy part.
But with the other [Db] two components missing to make the whole idea work, there wasn't
really much of a point. _ _ _
And so I once again found myself at that all-too-familiar stalemate [Eb] of my ideas and ambition [Bb] far outweighing
my ability to actually do the thing.
Next thing I knew, it was April and time for NAMM.
So I headed off [Bbm] across the country with my friend Ben, we did this whole [Bb] project, it
was super cool, and [Bbm] we ended up in California [Bb] for the NAMM show.
During the show, I was working at the UVI booth, and eventually we got to talking [Bbm] and
I mentioned this idea I had for this library I was trying to make for myself, asking for
some advice and such, and they gave me a ton of different tips and even offered to help me out.
A little over 2,000 miles home and a bit of an ego check later, I decided to meet with
the team to get the ball rolling. _ _ _
_ _ Hey, [Bb] _
so normally I do every six semitones, do we want to do that or do we want more of
a tight sample set?
I spent the next couple months re-recording the samples [Abm] and trying to push myself to get
this idea to actually come to life. _
[Eb] The horror box, naturally, was a nightmare to try and sample properly, but thanks to
a couple tricks from meeting with the sound design team and a little bit of experimenting
with some [Abm] granular processing, I was actually able to get a solid collection of multi-samples from it.
_ With that checked off the list, the EMF microphone was next.
This was [Eb] probably the biggest challenge, and the team and I were pretty stumped on how
to make it work since it was such a critical part of the overall sound.
But after [Ab] tuning up the samples, I ended up finding a process thanks to a tip I picked
up from a video from Marshall [Dbm] McGee to use some RM and FM along with a couple plugins
to turn the EMF textures into actual multi-sampled synth instruments.
_ Recording the synths was the easy part, and after that it was all wrapped up.
[Eb] A little bit of blood, sweat, and tears, and a couple bottles of bourbon later, it was
October and the raw samples [Abm] were done, so it was time [Dbm] to hand things over to the team at UVI.
[Eb]
The team and I met up a couple times to design the UI and work out a few prototypes to bring
[Ab] the sound engine together and take my absolute mess of an idea and turn it into a functional
product since they know [Abm] a whole hell of a lot more than I do about [Dbm] turning these things
into something actually usable.
And after we were all in agreement on everything, it was time for me to ship off to Paris to
get the details hammered out.
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_ _ I [Dbm] spent a couple weeks eating [Eb] my body weight in pastries and working with the UVI team
at their office to put together the final product and work out all the details of [Abm] marketing
and promotion and preset design.
By the time the end of October rolled around, we all had one last big meal together, and
back home to Nashville I went.
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_ _ [Db] _ Through [Ab] most of November, we designed all the [D] presets and then I [G] worked on scoring the
trailer and worked with the UVI team to get all the other sound demos and photos and everything
put together for the final release.
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And that brings us to now, in December, and [B] it's time to finally release this [D] thing because
it's all over, but there's a little bit of a twist with all that.
Back [F] in Paris, one night during a meeting, we all [D] just got to talking and had one final
[Dbm] idea, why don't we just make the whole thing free?
So we did, [Db] and they even made it run inside of the free [Ab] workstation platform so everyone
can go use it.
And that [Db] brings us back to the question of the day, what was the point of this whole video?
It's easier to forget than we might care to admit for ourselves as [Ab] creatives, but making
art or whatever, at least usually, isn't about making it for [Db] the act of safekeeping.
It's about sharing it and letting it resonate and evolve through the [Dbm] experience and lens
of others in ways we don't necessarily intend or even imagine.
[Db] The point of all this being, maybe ego is the ultimate killer of art, despite it being
a necessary ingredient in the process.
[Dbm] I can do things on my own and I will do things on my own [Db] and I know that I am capable of
that, but there's something in learning to admit to myself, especially [Dbm] as I now enter
my 30s, that that's only ever going to get me so far in terms of being [Db] able to realize,
I guess in the grander sense, my own creative potential.
[Ab] _ And maybe there's a lesson in all of this somewhere.
Or maybe [Db] not.
I don't know.
But I wanted to make this video just to share what I've learned through this whole process
because I think [E] it's important and maybe it will help someone out there working [Ab] on something
to [Gbm] make something.
And I guess that's kind of the point of these videos anyway.
[Ab] _ _ Probably.
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