To complement your Dictator for Life experience, the game's creator, Marcus Helveticus, has undertaken an ambitious project - creating a full soundtrack to add mood to your playing experience. A lifelong musician, Marcus also has a 2 year diploma in audio engineering. In the downtime during the kickstarter's run and game production phase, he started working on the framework for the album. Ultimately the soundtrack will have 2 parts - the regular, background music that will run for an hour or more, and a series of short songs meant to back up speeches given in-game.

The spark to really commit happened when I (Marcus) downloaded the amazing virtual instrument known as Eastwest's Opus. This is a remarkable set of sounds, masterfully and meticulously recorded by master engineers. Ultimately this is a digital product, but it is very, very human, with the traditional orchestral instruments being painstakingly performed and recorded in such a way to facilitate the end user producing a very lifelike and emotional sound. JJ Abrams was on Eastwest's website talking about how good tools should be inspiring. And he's right! This collection of instruments is what I've been waiting for. I have nothing but praise for Eastwest in putting this spectacular project together.

I'm not a fan of paying monthly for software. In another post I'll detail the huge expense it is for me, all to ultimately not even own any of it. If I miss a payment it will all be gone, nothing available for me to create with. In this case, I'm very happy to pay the yearly fee. Part of the reason is that I can browse and select instruments from their cloud. This collection has so much available that downloading and owning all of it would be a logistical issue.

I'm happily composing and arranging all of this using my favorite audio editing software, Reaper. I play a melody on a keyboard, edit, nudge, and perfect it in Reaper, and then sort through all the available instruments, finally landing on the one that feels right. I'd like to think the whole process is very organic and very human. I'm putting lots of time into coaxing these melodies out of my head, and earning it through hard work and focus. At no point of the process (of anything I do) do I employ AI of any sort, including for initial inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration - I am setting off for a month-long tour across Europe in May 2025. There I will keep my ears open and draw inspiration for the rest of the album. As a man who plays guitar every day and takes theory very seriously, it's a shame that I won't be able to travel with an instrument. But I will be trying out a new composition software for my ipad. I'll be using it to construct a series of musical sketches on my trip, later to be revisited and expounded upon to complete the soundtrack.

As mentioned on the the prior page, the songs currently posted are rough drafts. I have more plans for them in general but specifically:

1. Not a single note has been articulated. This is a specific term used for expression of a virtual instrument. And by that I mean - a trumpet, for example, can be played in many ways. Sometimes it's a mighty blast. Other times it's a long, subtle note. Other times still it rises in a crescendo. I need to go back through and tell the software how each note (or section of notes) is to be articulated. This is what will really unlock the sound I am thinking of. Additionally some musical techniques, such as trills or glissandos, are programmed in a similar way.

2. These demos are mastered with a heavy hand. I positively crushed them with compression just to get them presentable. Mastering an orchestra is something I have never tried before. Before final release, effort will be put into final mastering of the material.

Thank you for your interest. When I return I'll be devoting lots of time to finishing this project. It will be my first official release as a musician. I'll be linking to my more modern works sometime in the future.