Rick Reifenstein

The studio has been quiet this week. Took a mini vacation with the family. Took a couple of days at a resort hotel with an indoor water park. It was a nice way to kick some winter blues. I've been revisiting some older material; doing some remastering and re-recording. I also refreshed the tracks on my SoundCloud page.  https://soundcloud.com/rmreifenstein

Last night I watched one of the latest video's from The Hollywood Reporter which talked with Hans Zimmer, Marco Beltrami, Danny Elfman, Trent Reznor and John Powell. You can watch it on youtube here: It's always good to listen to how the A-list composers deal with issues we all face as composers writing for picture. Granted the projects I have worked on are nowhere near the same league as the projects these composers have worked on; however they share the same fears, anxiety, and pleasure in the same things that I believe many of us who compose music for picture. One area they talk about is how your "ears" change when you listen to your music with others in the room. You hear the music differently when your listening with someone else than when you are composing. Your suddenly not in "your" head but in someone else's. You sense things differently. Sometimes the "magic" that you felt when you were composing the piece or even all the way thro...

2014 was a great year! My family was healthy and we were able to make some fun mini vacation trips. My music was heard in more countries and in more shows than before. I signed an exclusive agreement with Jingle Punks music. I'm so excited about the opportunity to expand my work with a great company like Jingle Punks! I look forward to providing quality production music for Jingle Punks clients. My work at UVA this year was filled with lot's of projects and challenges. But with a great team like I have; those projects and challenges were handled successfully. This is an exciting time in the world of technology. As a technologist working in academia there will no doubt be lot's of testing and learning of the latest trends and the impact it will have on higher education.   So what's next? Continued releases of production music through Jingle Punks. I also am planning a better way of using social media to let you all know when new music is available and projects I'm...

Exciting news this month! I signed an exclusive artist agreement with Jingle Punks music. Jingle Punks is the premier creative music agency. Custom music. Licensed music. Servicing film, television and brands. I'm very please to continue to work with Jingle Punks but with even more focus. I've been releasing music through Jingle Punks since 2010 and all of my music that has been placed in TV shows since then has been through Jingle Punks. They are a great team! The completion of this deal is good timing since I am starting to finish up my Fall collection of tracks for film, and TV. I've got Ambient Electronic, Orchestral, and Rock tracks ready for final touches and mastering. It's the time in the process where I put on my producer hat and get honest with my artist self as to what works and what doesn't. I have found over the years that 'time' is a good tool to use for evaluating tracks. I like to get away from a track after a while. When I come back to it la...

Morning coffee conversation with my daughter turned into looking up people I used to know in the "business". One that always blows my kids mind is producer Gary Hartle who worked on shows like Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes. My dad used to work with Gary when my Dad was a film editor in the 80's.They both worked for Kensington Falls Productions. As a teen boy into superheroes; seeing Gary draw Marvel type characters was awesome. Now I'm a father of a very talent daughter who can draw anime characters as good if not better than many of the pro studios. I can't draw to save my life. My dad, brother, and daughter have that gene. I got the music gene. I hope that my daughter can go after her dream. My dream came late in my life which led to my odd professional life currently. Director of Technology by day and TV and Film composer at night and weekends.

As a kid while staring at the back of Isao Tomita albums (yes vinyl albums) I dreamed about someday owning audio equipment that were stamped with the names I saw in Tomita's studio. Names like Moog, Roland, and Bode burned into my mind as "must haves" for when I had my own studio. I've been successful in owning two out of the three names. I own a Moog synthesizer and three pieces of Roland equipment. My first of the Roland brand was my trusty go to keyboard MIDI controller, the PC 200 MkII. I't survived many smokey bars, clubs, and art galleries. It's lived through cold over nights in the back of vans and in the trunks of cars; many times with no case and crammed in what ever space was available. It's hard plastic shell survived falling of the top of a pile of gear on a cart during load ins and outs. However, every time I needed it, it would turn on and be ready to go. Now however after 17 years it's started to show it's age. As I have transitio...

Hello Japan! Just found out that the Nat Geo show "Too Cute! Puppies!" that has my song "The Mission" in it, aired in Japan! That very cool! Japan is one of the places I want to visit at some point. Also my song "Lux Atrum" was used a lot by the Canadian show E Talk. You can check out the song in the player on my blog at the top of the page.