Rick Reifenstein

About a week ago I was asked by another department who was putting together an annual report if I could create a 1 to 2 minute video about my work with Microsoft Surface here at the University of Virginia. So I wrote up a script recorded a voice over and even included some of my own music. I shot the video myself on an inexpensive digital camera and included some still I shot. Since the subject was going to be a Microsoft product; I thought I would put the whole thing together using Microsoft Movie Maker versus iMovie (I hate the new one anyway). Movie Maker was decent enough to work in. It had all the editing and special FX tools you would expect. When I was done I exported it as a High Definition WMV. Here’s the kicker. The department putting the online annual report together asked for the file to be in H.264. Movie Maker only does WMV’s and Flash for YouTube. So I put the movie together in iMovie and saved it as an H.264. The iMove file was pixelated and the audio was full of spots ...

This week as been mostly dominated by computerizing in one form or another. My current projects are surrounding phase II of application development for the Microsoft Surface unit in the “Declaring Independence” exhibit at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collection Library at the University of Virginia. I've been writing code all week. I am also writing and producing a small video about the use of Surface at the University Library. I will also be providing the music. Speaking of music; music production has come to a halt since the studio computer has decided that it didn’t like one of its hard drives. This is at a time when I was all set to finish the latest compilation of music to send to Jingle Punks as well as start to assemble CD for release online through iTunes and other online distribution. That’s the way it goes sometimes. So this weekend will be a continuation of computerizing by reformatting hard drives and reloading software, as well as possible resurrection of my wi...

Yesterday was a day off from the University and a day home in the new studio/office. This was the first full day in the new studio/office. I have noticed being on the main floor of the house meant more coffee consumed during hours spent in the studio/office than normal. HHMMM I think there is a correlation there. :-) Most of the hours were spent working on an arrangement of music for the Library at the University. However it proved too difficult a task for the amount of time I have. During that same time period I have to produce a video showing off the Microsoft Surface installation in our "Declaring Independence" exhibit at the Harrison Institute. I spent the morning putting together the monitoring system and loading some more software on the computer. Mostly yesterday was trying to figure and configure which ever DAW system I was going to use. I have an older Cakewalk Plasma DAW, but it doens't support VSTi's; I also have the latest Reaper DAW. Reaper crashed server...

The Living Dead Festival 2009 really grew this year. They were however plagued by rain all week so arrangements for performances had to change. The crowds were smaller than expected; but the ones who came were big fans of the movie. One of my favorite parts was the exhibit by Andrew who has collected NOFLD for over 20 years. Probably the best moment for me was a conversation with Russ Streiner who was of course Johnny in Night of the Living Dead but was also the films producer. He and I talked about me getting in touch with student and indie film makers to provide free licensed music for films. He and I along with Jack Russo will be discussing in the coming months how best to work with their students at DuBois college Film making course to deliver fresh original soundtrack music for their works. If you are or know someone who is looking for original music for soundtracks for a film please contact me. I am willing to wave licensing fees! There are 2 new projects that just got put on the...

A reminder that I'll be performing at the 2009 Living Dead Festival in Evans City Pa. where the movie was shot. The ONLY festival organized and approved by the original cast and producers including Russ Streiner, Judith Ridley and Jack Russo writer of the movie "Night of the Living Dead". I'll be performing live cinematic horror music that will get everyone in the mood for classic horror. As spooky darkness approaches; the tone of the music changes too. Soundtrack music created live for the ghouls as they wait for the original cast to take the stage before the movie. I'll start around 5pm. http://www.thelivingdeadfest.com/ I'm starting rehearsals this week.

On Saturday night I had a great conversation with Gary Streiner about the 09 Living Dead Festival. Seems like it's really grown this year. It's a 2 day event with a festival like atmosphere on both days. There will be live music and DJ's. The second night will have the same stuff going on; but the big event is the outdoor screening of the movie. Gary asked if I would play live before the movie again this year. I really enjoy doing it. Live ambient electronic horror music on a spooky Halloween night! Can't get better than that. I'm planning on a slightly more involved set up so as to allow for a deeper sound. Maybe some sound samples from the movie as we get closer to the screening. Head over to I should be starting somewhere around 5pm or so. Meanwhile back in the studio to continue on the latest set of cues to send to Jingle Punks. This weekend I completed 2 really great exciting cues that should feel at home in an action game promo or maybe a History or Discovery...

As we head into one of my favorite months; I started thinking about last year during October I was up to my faders in horror music. Director/Producer Gary Streiner was putting together a video montage for the 2008 Living Dead Festival in Evans City and asked me to compose some music for it. The video was made up of previously unseen photographs and posters from the movie. We were working long distance and had many late night Skype chats as I composed the music. As with many projects it came down to the wire. He was dealing with getting time in the post house to put the video together as well as new material coming in that he was hoping to shoe horn into the video while I was composing. Usually notes to me were..."Sounds great , but I need a couple more seconds cause we added a new photo to that section" or "We need to shorten the music under the titles because the program doing the titles only has one damned speed!" Gary was great to work with and enjoyed talking sh...

Before I give an update on projects in the studio I want to talk about Isao Tomita. When I tell Electronic Music students today that he is one of my major influences they always ask "Who?" It surprises me how many people don't know this man. His albums I think are just as important as Wendy Carlos. Maybe more so. He didn't just redo the classics with a synthesizer he arranged the pieces for synthesizer and used sounds that ONLY a Moog can make. I used to sit for hours reading the back of my fathers LP's, memorizing the list of equipment Tomita used. It's where I started my electronic music self study and research. What other 12 year old would know what a Bode Ring modulator does. Or that a Roland Space Echo was a must have item. Thanks to Mr. Tomita I did. His human voices singing were other worldly. His strings lush. His music is the stuff of fantasy. I found a few videos of him working in his studio and I was like a kid meeting his favorite superhero. He is...

OK so before someone says "That's not really revolutionary!" I'd like to qualify that the goal was not to spend extra money with new sound cards. The idea was to use my existing 2 systems; one Apple based and one Windows based and get them working together with Logic as the master program. The result was using my master keyboard controller as the link. Logic sends MIDI information out to the keyboard through USB then the keyboard passes the information to the Windows box running a VST host by using a regular 16 pin MIDI cable. The audio from the Windows box them comes back to the Mac running Logic and records it on an audio track. The result is I can continue to write using MIDI whether I'm using an Apple past softsynth or a windows based softsynth. I now have the best of both worlds; with Logic Pro as the center of the sonic center of the universe. I gave the previously mentioned set up a test by writing a new cue for the next set of cues for Jingle Punks. I crea...

I've been pretty busy lately. I got an email from Justin at Jingle Punks last Friday that gave me some direction for future music. The Punks will be pitching my music to the History Channel and other clients who are looking for dramatic, and moody music for upcoming shows and promos. So Justin was letting me know more of the dramatic moody stuff from me would be great. Since the weekend was a holiday weekend and family was in town visiting; I didn't get into the studio till Tuesday. This weeks studio session were more about experimenting with set up rather than actual recording. Although actual recording did happen; it happened purely by accident as I was trying different systems, and blowing dust off of others. I have two complete recording set ups from different era's. I have a Windows set up with tons of software and hardware to match, but it's from 6 to 10 years ago. I also have an Apple rig put together just last year, but it's a mobile laptop based rig. So I...

This weekend my Dad and Stepmother came to visit for the weekend. A nice 3 day weekend given to us by Labor Day has developed into a great time! As always great food and drink appeared. Dad and I had some quality time together watching the movie "Les Paul Chasing Sound". We had several long conversations about the film industry. (Dad was film editor during the 70's and early 80's) Now that I've been writing cues for film,TV, and games, we talked a lot about music libraries of old and what as an editor he would look for in music cues. On Sunday he and I went to a golf course located on the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains and killed the afternoon with 18 holes of scenic golf. I didn't do too bad being that golf like twice a year. They leave today sometime after lunch. I will probably go into the studio this evening for a while. I got an email from Justin and Jingle Punks on Friday asking for some dramatic moody cues for some upcoming History Channel shows as wel...

Here is one of the latest reviews of the Healing Circle Message DVD that I wrote the music for. "...distinct and expressive; music was original and soothing; and the organization was good, I particularly liked the 'with' and 'without' instruction sections. I can't wait to get home and try it." ~ Steven B, ND I'm continuing to work on the next set of cues to send to Jingle Punks for licensing, I'm also looking at other companies to license music through. However Jingle Punks still seems to be the best! In this new set of cues I am going to continue to explore the mix between ambient electronic and symphonic scores.

I took the day off from the studio last night. I just wanted some quality time with the kids and my wife. We watched some of our favorite shows. I made some nachos using peppers from the garden. Boy you can't beat fresh peppers. After dinner I watched a great video from TED 2008. I can't remember the name of the conductor that gave the lecture. The point was however that no one is tone deaf and anyone can enjoy classical music. It was great! He got everyone in the audience understanding a little more about not only classical music but I believe music in general. Music is more than notes. It's more than sound. It emotion encoded. It's visions encoded. It's memories encoded. Encoded with tones and sound. Sound that has the power to evoke memories that have been lost or repressed. He also used a piece from Chopin to show a little about the thought process in music composition. He showed how we as human listeners know instinctively where the "home" chord is in...

I know I am going to one of many writing about Les today. My Father turned me on to Les Paul and all that he did for recording. I took that initial introduction and ran with it. I wrote papers on Lester and listened to hours and hours of recordings of interviews and studio sessions. When I could buy my first electric I bought a Les Paul copy. Almost immediately after hearing Les talk about playing with the phase of the pickups I took screw driver to pickup and flipped the neck pick up around. When played with the rear I got a totally different sound than any one else my age. His influence didn't end with the guitar. With only a 2 track reel to reel tape recorder I used his techniques to do sound on sound recording in my bedroom. His desire to explore new sonic territory will be his lasting influence on me. Les Paul will be greatly missed.

This weekend was mainly about getting masters together to send to Jingle Punks to be included in their Jingle Player. After spending most of the day outside catching up on much needed yard work; the studio lights were turned on the equipment lit up around 7:30pm. There were a lot of session to get through. most of them were recorded during the Living Dead Festival writing sessions last summer and fall. One of the things I realized I was listening for were instrument lines that would interfere with potential voice overs. since some of what Jingle Punks tracks have been used for are promos I wanted to be sure that I didn't have instruments that were in the sonic range of the human voice. It would interfere with any voice over that may be laid on the track. I was making sure that each cue was a good "bed" for what ever maybe over top. There were a few violin lines, and percussion lines that just didn't need to be. Of course one thing I struggled with was fatigue and over...

Last night's session in the studio mainly focused on determining what would be sent to Jingle Punks to be licensed. I had a pretty good idea, but needed to go back and listen to the actual session recordings. There were a few surprises like tracks muted because they didn't fit the original idea feel, but may work as an underscore for someone else. There was a lot of "Why the hell did I mute that? That sounds great?" There were plenty of "Why did I label that session that way?" There were a lot of "I gotta create a better system for labeling sessions!" There was even a session that I completely forgot about that was a great piece of music. I tried to stay away from mixing or re-mastering last night. It was tough. I did end up tweaking some stuff and even laying down a timpani roll. For the most part I just listened. At the end of the night I wasn't very tired so I fiddled with a vsti string rompler to compare it to Logic's samples for the EX...

I heard from Jingle Punks yesterday. I'm in! I'm really excited and look forward to working with them. I am also excited about finally having my ASCAP membership do something for me. Up until know the biggest thing that my membership provided was a card to use as a scraper for my car wind sheild when it would ice up in the winter. Just kidding ASCAP. It's not their fault. I just didn't have a reason to send stuff to get protected under a PRO before. Jingle Punks is a young company. Young but growing. I feel like I won't just be lost in the shuffle of artists. Last week was our vacation back up North. We visited with family, drank beer, played cards and made some great salsa! Oh yes! Once you make fresh salsa you will never go back to stuff in a jar again. OK back to work. A lot to catch up on!

I just sent 2 demo tracks to Jingle Tracks for review. One question I always pause at is genre. Not that I'm trying to be all rock and roll and say that "you can't label me man."; it's that to call my tracks classical is not correct. There are symphonic elements, but there are Rock and Electronic elements as well all mixed together. When I'm composing something to be used as a soundtrack; I choose instruments according to sound and how that sounds supports the overall feel of what I am trying to achieve. I also updated my Gamsutra page and included blog entry too.

I took on a new guitar student and gave his first lesson last night. One thing I really focused on in our first lesson was posture. While I don't believe my carpal tunnel problems were caused by playing the guitar, I am more aware now about the effects of tension in the arms and hands while playing. Immediate fatigue is one thing but the long term effects can more harmful and leave one drastically impaired. As a result the student told me today that my lesson was the first one (out of many in the past) he felt gave him any sense on how to hold the guitar. He felt more comfortable and capable to play the guitar than in past lessons. I am so pleased. Learning an instrument can be both rewarding and frustrating. The former usually out ways the latter. On to studio news: I've been working on compiling tracks to send to a licensing company. The trick for me is always deciding on which tracks to include. They are asking for two. Now which two? Not much work as been done on the Evans ...

I was asked recently now technology 5 years from now may change the way students use the library. Below is my response. More computers will come with alternative user interfaces like multi-touch screens, better voice and facial recognition so humans can interact with computers in a more intuitive and natural way. The reference desk becomes an interactive touch screen with optical components that can read a students ID card and instantly bring up past books checked out, books due, fines, etc. The librarian can check a book out by placing the book on the desktop then drag a tag to the students ID card with information about when the book is due back. This would trigger an email to the student a few days ahead of the due date. A researcher could take a book from the stacks go to a touch screen with optical components and see the metadata attached to the book. The researcher can make a more informed decision on whether the book they found will actually have the information they need. Goi...

Wednesday I traveled into my sonic past after re-imaging a studio machine with windows XP. I know, I know why xp. Well I have many old pieces of software that I used to use since 98 and really enjoyed using them. Some of the software has little abilities that some new sequencers have dropped. Plus running these bits of software today on a faster machine with tons more ram allows me to enjoy the software the way I never could before. Plus it it’s like putting on a old great pair of shoes or that great pair of broken in jeans. One such software is Fruity Loops. Fruity Loops 3.4 to be exact. In 2000 I used fruity loops for Digital Buddha material. I like the step sequencer interface but really liked the sampler software that I could then plug in a trigger with the sequencer. I was able to create pieces that didn’t sound like typical 4/4 sequence driven tracks. Fast forward to today where I am doing a lot of soundtrack composing. Is there a place for Fruity Loops in soundtrack c...

I started back to work on the Evans City DVD soundtrack on Sunday. However the power adapter for the external drive was left at the University so I wasn't able to create new project files in Logic to get a sense of where things are as far as progress goes. I've got to commit to some more time if for no other reason than to get my mind on the right frame of mind. My hiccup in writing this soundtrack will be when we get into the WW2 era. I never wrote big band stuff before. We'll have to wait and see how that all goes! :-)

Monday night I sifted through the box of tapes that were found in the old studio in Pennsylvania. Most of the tapes were from mid to later 90's sessions. We were living on Mount Washington in Pittsburgh and I was writing and recording in a small room with glass doors that overlooked the back street and a huge oak tree. It felt like I was in a tree house. I dubbed the studio "Rear View Studio" and wrote two soundtracks for live theater productions while there. I wrote the music for Carlow College's production of "As You Like It" and Pyramid Theater's Production of "El Salvador" performed at the Lester Hamburg Theater. I wrote and recorded solo material that was never released as well. I didn't label all the tapes as well as I do now so I had to listen to them all. Some were labeled very well as you can see in the photo above. As a side note the first song on the track list of the tape in the photo is "Waking of Dragons" which was r...

This business is full in interesting people. With every interesting person you have yet another interesting view on life. That said; I've been trying to contact Gary Streiner about writing music for the next Living Dead Festival. Last year was a lot of fun and really enjoyed being a part of the festival. This year brought a new website and I'm sure some new and exciting features to the festival. I've sent several email to Gary but have heard nothing back. It seems he wants to go a different direction this year. That's fine, it's the way things go. However an email back stating as much would be better than no response at all. The family had a great 4th of July weekend. Great food, and a relaxing weekend! The studio calls me from the basement to come and play. The newly installed dehumidifier is doing a great job in making the studio a welcoming place; so I may heed it's call. I am close to having enough music to release at least one CD. I still am working on a co...

Lately I have been hearing from many of the visitors to our exhibit and who sit down at the Surface table and look through the documents, that they are more interested in the material on Surface that the same document that are behind glass and on display. Why I ask? Mostly what I hear is that they can "touch" it. Obviously we are all tactile creatures that take more interest in those things with which we can interact. I think it also has to do with the senses. As I and my wife teach our children we have learned that the more senses you can engage while teaching the more they retain. Microsoft Surface seems to first grab the users interest because of it's re-creation of reality with it's multi-touch and physics modeling; in other words it's "cool" aspect. Then the user starts to engage with, in our case the rare material, the material and start a more scholarly experience. I tell the story of hearing from a student who was leaving the exhibit say that h...

Last week I gave 3 interviews about the applications i wrote for the Microsoft Surface computing table that we have in the Declaration of Independence exhibit at the Special Collections Library. Today I gave an interview for one of our local news stations NBC29. It went well. Your never as prepared for the questions as you would like to be. You think you know what the interviewer may ask, but there are always questions that take you by surprise. Interviews for TV are always more difficult because there isn't that nice news editor like for print news who is going to make you sound like you know what your talking about. TV shows you in all your stuttering and fumbling for words, glory. I've thought back to my music and theater career interviews and one thing is always the same; they never print or talk about what you want, they always focus on something different than you think you should and they almost always misquote you. Sticking with the subject of Microsoft Surface; I recei...

Summer plans include Microsoft Surface and Music CD’s I’ve been working on plans for summer projects both at the University and in the Studio at home. Projects at the University are of course centered on the second phase of the Microsoft Surface application development centered on the Declaration of Independence exhibit. As I have mentioned before the second phase of applications will be showcasing the new additional Elements introduced in Service Pack 1 for Surface. This includes among other thing new ElementMenu tools that allow for some really cool menu options for the applications. We also want to exploit the ability to hook into Live Earth; allowing the patron to see where the signers lived. I’ve started working on the ElementMenu parts but have run into some snags with how to get a Menu Element to work with an image with ScatterView attributes. I admit part of the issue is my newbie status as a WPF programmer; so classes are definitely in the near future. I’m planning on updatin...

April 21 “Amelia” soundtrack in the studio… Started working on the soundtrack for my brothers film “Amelia” this weekend. The title track started a little slow. The music I had written before the session sounded forced. I kept “plunking” away at it and eventually came up with a lovely yet haunting 3/4 piece that worked very well. Chris said it sounded “exactly like what I was hearing in my head!” Monday’s session was the start of the underscore recording. The film has no dialogue. It’s all voice over so the music is constant and helps support the action. So I wrote and recorded about 2 minutes of music in about 4 hours! Some of the cues are as short as 8 seconds; yet contain a dozen tracks. i got to have some fun with one cue that features Amelia finding the magic dragon statue. I thought synthesizers would convey the idea that this thing had magic. I wanted it to be mysterious sounding but not scary. It was a fine line, however it turned out very well. Chris again was very happy and a...

I received word today that giant boxes have arrived at the offices of Healing Circle Message HQ in California. The instructional home message DVD is complete. This is exciting. I have 5 songs on the disc all of which will be made available in CD form in the near future. In the meantime support me by supporting the projects I have written music for. If you interested in the DVD visit: Therapeutic Massage at Home: Learn to Rub People the RIGHT way! www.healingcirclemassage.com/instructional_dvd I completed 2 new tracks for a super ambient space electronic CD I'm working on. I'll be releasing on my own through Amazon. Sunday and Monday I'll be working on recording the score for Chris Reifenstein's short film titled "Amelia". Also stay tuned for some Space Rock coming under the name "Control Z".

April 02 Film making Brother and other stuff… When my brother was down visiting a couple of weekends ago; he shot scenes for a short movie he quickly wrote that would center around 2 sisters. The Sisters Reifenstein were of course the little stars that were stars of the film. The photos were from the scene where the oldest sister discovers a mysterious object that gives her powers of precognition. Now she has to determine does she use her power to save her bratty little sister from harm? Stay tuned and you’ll find out. View Full Album On the music front; the soundtrack for the Healing Circle DVD has all been sent to California and is being edited into the DVD as I write this. So far they will use 5 of the songs. Healing Circle will also be producing a companion CD for sale along with the DVD. I’ll need to write some more songs to fill out the DVD. I should only need 10 more minutes. My day job has been busy this week. We have a new exhibit centered on Edgar Allen Poe which has generate...

March 27 Healing Circle DVD soundtrack and new project on the way.. Last night was spent finishing up a few mixes for the Healing Circle Message DVD. Five songs in all have been completed and excepted by the Director. Whether all five make it in the DVD I can't say. This has been tough for me. I usually write things in minor keys and add a lot of tension and release. I felt for a message video tension was not something that would work well. By 11:30 pm eastern time all the files had transferred over to the editor on the west coast. Now it's on to contracts, cue sheets and paperwork. UGH! But it is a necessary evil. Not that I don't trust the purchaser; I've known her for a while. It's just that it is good to have all things documented in case of outside influence toward the negative. Next week I'll concentrate on getting the CD together to sell through Cafe Press. Heard from my brother today. He's got a rough cut of the short film he shot during his last v...