Alex Ball

Got the Spitfire Audio Joby Burgess percussion library, obviously had to do this with it! The infamous jingle from Back to the Future is as follows: (descending triplets) G, D, B E#, C#, G# E, B, G# D, Bb, F C#, G#, E# B, G, D Got a bigger Alan Silvestri video coming along soon....

A complete re-record of the cue "Payback Time" from the Predator OST using virtual instruments. Composition © Alan Silvestri Recording © Alex Ball Sample libraries used: Strings: Spitfire Audio Chamber Strings, LA-SS Lite, Orchestral Tools Berlin Strings EXP E SFX. Woodwinds: Spitfire Audio Symphonic Woodwinds / Albion Woodwind Brass: Cinesamples Cinebrass Core, Spitfire Audio Albion Brass Percussion: Spitfire Joby Burgess Percussion, Fluffy Audio Log Drum, Xtant Audio Slit Drum Pianos: Cinesamples Abbey Road & Spitfire Albion Piano Harp: Orchestral Tools - Symphonic Sphere Synths: Omnisphere FX: Waves EQ, Izotope Vinyl, T-racks alexballmusic.com

I recently discovered my childhood keyboard at my parent's house, a 1989 Yamaha PSR-27, so I used it to make a track about....well....Yamaha PSR-27s. Everything played by me, sounds and gear used: Keys: Yamaha PSR-27 (D.I.)

A complete re-record of "Kitchen Aces (And taking names)" from the 1993 game Doom. Music composed by Bobby Prince, recording by Alex Ball.

A complete re-recording of Bernard Herrmann's iconic main theme from "Vertigo" (1958), realised with virtual instruments.

I borrowed a 117-year-old Dulcitone. They were mainly used by Victorian missionaries, so I wrote a pseudo-hymn on it.

As I just watched "Alien Covenant" this week, and noticed music from the original Alien interpolated into the soundtrack, I thought I'd have a go at re-recording a cue from Jerry Goldsmith's incredible score to "Alien". This has been created with virtual instruments.

A complete remake of a cue from "A Beautiful Mind" using virtual instruments.

As I've done quite a few mock-ups recently, I thought I'd throw up a couple of mics, grab the nearest instruments and knock together a quick groove. Real instruments: Dulcitone, Double Bass, Piano, Viola, Violin, Alto melodica, Snare drum, Bass drum, Cymbals, Cabasa, Egg shakers, Claps, Toy piano, Spanish guitar, Glockenspiel, Triangle, Gem F30 Organ. Virtual Instruments: Woodwinds, Brass, Timpani, Optigan, Sound Dust Percussion.

I've always loved these cues from Dumb & Dumber and was gutted they weren't on the soundtrack release. So my tribute to Todd Rundgren's score is to recreate them from scratch (albeit with some slight rearranging). Sounds used: Virtual: Omnisphere (lots of patches), Spitfire Audio The Grange, Linn Drum, Kontakt Factory, Spitfire Audio Joby Burgess Percussion, Requiem choir Real: A 1989 Yamaha PZR-27 keyboard, Yamaha U3 Keyboard, Dulcitone, Ibanez JEM 7DBK guitar, Fender Blues Junior Amp, Multi-tracked vocals Composition © Todd Rundgren Recording © Alex Ball

ot an original 80s Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer. So had a quick bit of fun. These things were a serious bit of kit in the 80s and are heard all over the hits of that era.

A complete remake of a cue from Alan Silvestri's legendary "Back to the Future" score.

The Juno-6 is from 1982, so I made an 80s inspired track with it.

As summer comes to a close, here's a spot of Surf music.

A project I've been working on for several months. I had a few jobs last year that involved composing 40s and 50s Light Music and I was frustrated with the lack of material online. So, I rolled up my sleeves, did a lot of research and searching and managed to track down a bunch of scores from this era. First, I did a few mock-ups to get my head around how it all worked (the "My Computer is a 1950s Orchestra" series):.

80s nostalgia.

A complete remake of the opening cue from Don Davis distinctive Matrix score with a bit of a break down of the sections and what parts they play in the piece.

I borrowed a 1970s Rhodes Mark I Stage Piano. It's beautiful.

A complete re-make of Danny Elfman's famous Simpsons Theme.

I thought it would be fun to show the sources of some famous samples and loops I've stumbled across over the years whilst producing music.

A complete remake of a cue from Brad Fiedel's score to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). One of my favourite films of all time.

Quick jam

Most vintage groove bkxes come with a selection of Latin rhythms. The one built into my 1978 GEM F30 Electric Organ is no exception. So, I decided to put my own spin on it.

I've finally managed to put together a second episode to this pet project of mine. This time getting right into the nitty gritty of basic five-part harmony and block chord writing. The video assumes you have some musical knowledge and can read the scores, otherwise it would be several hours long!

Picked up a Roland SH-101 monosynth. It's a little analog gem from the early 80s. It's incredibly simple but surprisingly versatile and just sounds fundamentally great.

My Roland TR-707 came with a receipt from 22/12/86, so I thought it fitting to sample it and give away a virtual version 31 years later. And whilst I was at it, I sampled a patch from my Juno-6 and my DX7 for good measure.

Picked up the lesser known Roland JX-3P. It's a 2-oscillator per-voice analogue synth that's capable of some great sounds.

Good heavens! Part 3 of our foray into Light Music from the 1940s and 50s. This time we're having one last look at harmony and string writing with several demonstrations of more complex harmonic concepts. I was incredibly pleased to be able to track down some ultra-rare sheet music for this, so I'm hoping the authenticity is of interest and use! As mentioned in the video, things like tri-tone substitutions, modal interchange and altered chords are a bit too heavy to get deeply into. In fact, I made this video a total of four times! When I cross-checked it with some actual jazz theorists, there was too much going on, far too many mistakes and a lot of things I couldn't cover precisely enough. So, I've cut it back into something much more palatable and hopefully it covers the major elements. Beyond this episode, we'll cover use of woodwinds and brass and I'm also hoping to do a video on using Vsts to recreate this genre. Bare with me as these take an awful lot longer to research.

This is a re-upload of part 4 of our journey into 1950s Light Music. This video focuses entirely on woodwinds. Frustratingly, the original upload got blocked due to the 25 seconds of music used in the outro, so I've swapped that out and re-uploaded.