MacJams.com - Song: Theme for a Poor Man's Wizard (Jampack Drak) by drakonis

Theme for a Poor Man's Wizard (Jampack Drak)
by drakonis

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Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial

Guest profile visits: 1024
Member profile visits: 1
Song comments: 67
Tokens: 0
Plays: 167
Last Played:
Downloads: 34
Fans of this song:
Submitted on: May 30, 2008 - 07:28:37 AM
Last Updated:

Keywords not (24), harry potter (3), at (10), all (25), wizard (1), harmony assistant (15), padowan_learner (1), drakonis (56)

Description This is a piece of music written by Padowan_Learner ("http://www.icompositions.com/artists/padowan_learner"), re-recorded with GarageBand instruments by Drakonis.

The original piece can be heard here for comparison:
"http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=85890"

Padowan_Learner's original Notes:
This is my first upload since the "Big iComp Crash of '08." I let myself go through withdrawal during the downtime, and I've subsequently forced myself to stay completely away for a while, so I could get caught up on work and several projects that absolutely had to get done ASAP.

The "upside" of my self-imposed sabbatical is that one of the projects I had to focus on was finishing up drafts of the music for the two upcoming Trans-Iowa Canal Co.(tm) shows. So I've now got several things in the ol' personal catalog that I can share here; how soon I post them depends on how much "final" tweaking I decide to do before I decide I'm sick of mucking around with 'em, and just post the darn things.

But this one is a relatively decent draft that's fairly listen-able. And if it sounds a tad familiar, well... let's just say some of us can't afford the big bucks for royalties on original songs, so I have to kluge together my own homemade versions of this stuff. This is not -- repeat, not -- a cover. It's an original piece that's, um... "inspired" by the original. Yeah, that's it... inspired...

(Hey, let's face it -- no one listening to the two pieces back to back is going to mistake mine for the original. See, I go up where the original goes down, and I go backwards where the original goes forwards, and... ah, forget it. Methinks the composer doth protesteth too much, LOL!)

Drakonis Notes:
When I heard this music, I marveled at the playful fun of Jeannette's composition, and I wished the instruments sounded more realistic, since I felt this piece deserved to sound like it was played by a real orchestra. When I discovered we both used the same composition software (Harmony Assistant), I contacted Jeannette and asked if I could tinker with this piece, to see if I could play it via GarageBand's Symphony Jampack, and she graciously agreed. She allowed me to change one violin note near the beginning, but the rest is exactly the same as her original piece. I did a fair amount of tweaking as I re-assigned instruments, trying to get levels and fermatas to work out properly in GarageBand. And this is the result... hopefully much closer to what she was hearing in her mind. Thank you again Jeannette for allowing me this opportunity! I really enjoyed working with your music, and I look forward to more collaborations someday, perhaps?

Hardware Mac Pro

Software: Harmony Assistant, GarageBand, Jampack Symphony

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	Roxylee said 177 days ago
	Fanciful and mysterious Hmm.. i went to hear the original and it seems its been deleted. Oh, well, even without a comparison, this is superb instrumentation of an excellent original composition. :-)

drakonis said 177 days ago

it's still there...
Perhaps you didn't get lined up properly before running at post 9 and 3/4? Dunno, I copy/pasted the link and it worked fine for me. Sorry I cannot give a direct-clickable link, I tried, but Macjams does weird destructive things when I put in a link in the description that does NOT point to a Macjams song, so I left it as just text.

Anyway, thank you for listening as always! Jeannette's piece is really quite fun, and I just had to mess with it!

Have you gotten your Saffire LE replacement back yet? We want more RoxyVox! :-)

ttfn,
Drakonis

	davisamerica said 177 days ago
	right then eduard wonderful work on the instrumentation ... unfortunately couldn't find original either [see roxy] ... however this is lovely and too short ...:-]

	Birdman Wayne said 177 days ago
	Fantastic! Great piece of writing Mr. Eduard, wonderful use of instruments. Very enjoyable, thanks for the journey. Take Care - Yeman A. Al-Rawi

	magnatone said 177 days ago
	Theme Drak - this is GREAT! I had no idea this is what you were doing with this song. So this is a bunch of reassigned instruments from her original? I can't even really begin to comprehend how you did this. But I remember hearing the original when it came out on icomp and thought it was great then! I'm so totally impressed! What a great project - you're DA BOMB!

drakonis said 177 days ago

my sneaky project
It's funny, but this is EXACTLY how I write *my* compositions. I start out writing them in HA, just like Jeannette did, and they sound like that. Then when I'm close to finished, I export them over to GarageBand and assign instruments, tweak and fix things like crazy, go back to HA to change more, go back to GB, then when it is a total mess and I don't remember what I'm doing any more, I just post it. :-) This is a peek into my brain.

Karen, I'm trying to catch up to your wonderful compositional skill, thank you for offering up your super works!
ttfn,
Drakonis

gail60 said 177 days ago

hmmm...
Well I heard the original and if you think this sounds ANYTHING like it then you are listening to a different song than I am!! (lol just kidding!)
Eduard you are very good at this music making stuff and you always come up with additions that make it different in a whole new wonderful way. Although I did not hear the first one, it does not matter, because I know how talented you are. Very enjoyable to listen to this, as always. I love your creations! Great collaberation.

Muse Ritual said 177 days ago

Lovely Drak!
Jeanette did wonderful work here and your sound sculpting worked very very well indeed. Had me wanting to prance around a bit as my broom is in the shop (its old but Im a poor wizard ). I had that exact same sign for many years by the way. I think I gave it to some witch or another.

Your music is always such a pleasant break from the electro/didge stuff I pound into my ears all day. Truly delightful, thank you!

	tokai said 177 days ago
	great composition very nice combination of sounds. Unique and uplifting, well done.

	Dee1962z said 177 days ago
	Theme For A Poor Man's Drak it sounds gorgous. Some of it reminds me of Karen's work is she rubbing off on you - Or are you rubbing off on Karen. LOL Blimely you might both be rubbed out soon. Now that was just of the cuff it's the way I tell em .Heee hee that was good LOL Considering I feel depressed what my laughing about. Nice work.

	The Orbiting said 177 days ago
	Drak Martin I haven't checked out the original yet, Drak, but you definitely have a good 'ear' for great material. This just scampers along so playfully and is like many of your own pieces, so I can see (hear) why you related to it and why it called to you. I love the energy in the piece and it sounds completely professional. You did a lovely job and thanks for bringing it here!

	Moviz said 177 days ago
	Hmmm Sugar Plum Faries come to mind with the instrumentation, so I think the boy did good here, excellent choices. Just a lovely piece, regards M

MarkHolbrook said 177 days ago

I think...
The problem for some is the quotes around the link. Try pasting the link without the " characters. It worked for me.

Drak once again your Dragon magic has completely wrested this piece into a marvelous work of art. Not that the original was bad at all... but wow... this is simply great!

So when does your contract with Disney start again? You and Karen will be manning the musical creations for all future Disney films right!?

	lavalamp said 177 days ago
	Ready I could totally imagine this in a kind of Hitchcock film. As the theme. Mischievous and sinister at the same time. Impressive. Dave

	kassia said 177 days ago
	yeah yeah yeah Brilliant work, mr. dragon. You've done a fine job transforming (with a twitch of your dragon snout) Jeanette's piece into a very professional sounding work of art. You really know how to manipulate that software. Can I hire you to remix all of my pieces? Good job on this one, friend.

	Feter said 177 days ago
	Theme for a Poor Man's Wizard this is a very genuine composition ..totaly impressed by the material and how it sounds so theatrical ... as for the arragnment and the enhancement I didnt hear the original track but i can feel a dragon touch all over there definatly a great work thnx alot for sharin !!!!!

	lengold said 177 days ago
	This is a lovely composition by Jeannette and your tinkering really does make it sound like a real orchestra. Excellent. Cheers Len

	caroline said 177 days ago
	really enjoyable drak.... it reminded peter of the bumblebee from carnival of the animals and i loved the layers - i do admire your skill with the technology too - thank you so much xoox

	LunaTrick said 177 days ago
	Interesting version touch of the HP soundtrack sound too. Nice work!

drakonis said 176 days ago

Bumblebee?
Is that the one that stings the lion, who roars and scares the fish, who jump on the back of the swan, who trumpets louder than the elephant... who... no? OK, some other piece I was thinking of then. Someday I'll come to my Saint Saenses.

Did you get him back down off his broomstick, or is he still drawing arcane java method calls in the air with his wand?

Always good to see you poppin' in 'ear, dear!
ttfn,
Drakonis

	chipan said 176 days ago
	Wizard This is full of the usual dragon magic. Very nice. I can imagine a super fast-ride on a broom. chip

	kristyjo said 176 days ago
	Drak- Great bit of playful arranging and orchestrating. I liked the low brass section in particular. So, now you're doing orchestration! (That IS where the money is ;) ) Very good instrument sounds. Nice lively piece, too. 'In the style of...' is what I thought of immediately. Great collaborative effort!

drakonis said 176 days ago

I did very little...
Hi Kristine, Actually, I did very little. Jeannette already orchestrated this. I simply did a (mostly) one-for-one mapping from the Harmony Assistant instruments to Garageband JP4 instruments... then I did a bunch of EQ tweaking, tempo-matching for her fermatas, and interestingly, to get that strong brass sound, I doubled her "french horn" track, and doubled french horns and trombones to get the strong blat sound... one of my tricks is revealed :-) Then there was more master EQing, etc. So she did all the hard work of actually WRITING the thing! I didn't orchestrate, I just, um, twiddled knobs on this a little.

But, it did bring out the sparkle and richness of her work, I like it!
ttfn,
Drakonis

	Alannah said 176 days ago
	Witches .... ..wizards and warlocks ... oh my ... with a touch of sugar plum fairies .... indeed a good romp !!!

	guitapick said 176 days ago
	As in: "This is excellent" I rarely vote...but this gets straight 10s in my book. I'm familiar with Jeanette's work (she's a really nice person, too), and you've done a truly wonderful job with this, Eduard. Kudos to both of you. And thanks for the download. A very special piece.

paul f. page said 176 days ago

What they...
...said. Eduard, you've done such a wonderful job with orchestrating this tune. I remember the original very well [and it was great], and you have captured the flavor of it perfectly. Your instrumentation is suburb and well-thought-out. Jeannette must be happy with what you've done, too. Congratulations to you both and particularly to you for working out such a distinct realization of the original track. Much fun to listen to...andso secure in its final version.

	Char said 176 days ago
	This is like looking in on baby wizards learning to fly in nursery school. Sweet!

	VicDiesel said 175 days ago
	Comparing the two? That's nuts! I'm having to read between the lines here what you're comparing this to. If my guess is correct, then this composition has considerably more zip to it. Fun piece. Even with your better instruments the fast lines still sound pretty synthetic, but I don't see that as a real problem.

drakonis said 173 days ago

agreed...
I can't imagine playing those on the clarinet that she scored that for, but hey, that is why I was always second-chair clarinet, Jeannette likely plays clarinet MUCH better than I! Thank you for listening to this. I agree that even these instruments playing those runs sound to synthetic/MIDI/regular... I didn't go in and adjust note-by-note pressure to ramp up/down as they were played and add a little spacing here and there, something I do on my own pieces sometimes. But then, perhaps she'll have this work performed live sometime, and recorded!
ttfn,
Drakonis

	mikey_d said 175 days ago
	Hey now- that was fun! Glad I finally got over here to listen. They way those bells were zinging near the end kinda mimics my life at the moment, hehe! Nicely done sir!

	richardhowardjones said 174 days ago
	Whoosh REally loved that one Edouard. Magic (pun intended)

	thetiler said 172 days ago
	I don't know how in the world that background got so crazy fast, but it sure seems to work and work very well. All the stuff in that tune is a delight. Terrific! One of the best ive heard of that kind. Very Christmasy in a way. WaY TO gO !!! :) A delight!

Macaudion said 172 days ago

And so class begins...
What and how to do w/ a digital orchestra... And it is a symphony orchestra, at that

One of the first instruments that caught my ear is the trombone? (I like the blasting-like sound that you're getting from the initial attact)

And what is the instrument that sounds as though it's cascading or maybe, it sounds to be kinda waving through the air - it almost sounds like some type of string synth, but not...

The other thing that grabs me in a good way here is the human-like feel on this! I don't mean, "human-like feel" as in, how it's being played. Nor am i referring to "feeling" as in, emotions (although I'm aware that feelings report what an emotion is or, that one is present) I mean human-like as in, the state of an affair", sort of... (don't know if that makes sense to you

I should prolly finish reading your liner notes... BRB... Okay, now I feel as though I should do more homework and listen to the original... BRB... Okay, I went there, ended up on the page for this tune, but there was no player and, of the songs in the upper right corner on the song page, the title for this tune was the only one that wouldn't highlight as an option for selection - And now, the rambling narrative wining, tired me is too too - Help!

Nice job, Drak! I'm quite a bit impressed! I have a few more questions but I should prolly send you a note at some later.

I wonder how much time you have in to this...

Thanks for the DL! Macca

Macaudion said 172 days ago

Can you believe that I have more to say...
What i forgot to mention is how much this sounds like you, the person that I've never met. I would have bet that you wrote this piece and I was surprise to read that you didn't.

It's the light heartedness, "prancing a step at a ball-like" sound, reminiscent of the mid to later-teen centuries that makes me say this... (I'm sure the time period is off) Okay, now I'm done.

drakonis said 170 days ago

Ooh, Macca says hi!
Hi there sir D! I always get all tingly excited when you drop in to say hi. I greatly admire your musical skills, no matter how dismissive you are about them!

The original piece was scored for french horns there, but even the GB French horns didn't have the "bite" I think Jeannette was looking for in brass. So I took the liberty of doubling the french horns with trombones too, giving a realistic brassy-blat that you hear (and I like.)

As for portraying the "state of human-ness", dealing with life-kinda-thing, that's ALL Jeannette's compositional prowess here, I think she wrote a great short-story (part of what caught MY ear too!)

Sorry you couldn't play the original, not sure why... but it does help to see just how little I actually did :-) How much time? Oh, since I have so little time for this lately I really work HARD with the hour or two here or there... I dunno, probably 8 hours went into the reworking of this (across 2 weeks.)

Oh, More from you! Yes, this has a bit of the whirlwind whimsy of my life... again that is another reason it captivated me when I heard it, and I just HAD to introduce myself to her and see if I could work with it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such provocative prose, as always!

ttfn,
Drakonis

	Macaudion said 168 days ago
	Sir I just love you, Drak! (we now pause for a moment of awkwardness) And you're so cool too! Thanks! Macca

	rsorensen said 170 days ago
	wow REALLY well done. Love the arrangement and instrumentation. Sounds like the real thing!

	edpdx said 164 days ago
	Great! I like what you have done with this song. I like short pieces, it keeps you wanting more. Nicely done.

	guygrooves said 143 days ago
	Very cool This is very well done. I am a fan for sure now.

	estellie said 141 days ago
	especially pretty piece/instrumentation! So provocative in a simultaneously dark and amusing way. I may have said this before, but I hear in your music the soundtrack to a Tim Burton animated film (Danny Elfman style).

	composerclark said 107 days ago
	Hitchcock My first thought was that this would work great in a Hitchcock film, but I see that others have already pointed that out! So I'll just say that this is extremely clever, very atmospheric, and there's even some wit in there too! Really fine job!

	Bowman said 82 days ago
	Magical I very much enjoyed Jeannette's original on icomps. It had a J.Williams/Harry Potter sound to it but still plenty of playful originality to make it unique and wonderful. What you've done with it is quite beautiful. You've added clarity and a marvelous specificity to the sound that brings out it's magical charm. Charlie

	elektronix said 48 days ago
	Great The celesta sound is really Tchaikovsky style, much better than in the original instrumentation. I like your arrangement very much. I have to think about Alimar, he did similar wonderful things with the Symphonie Jampack. Where ever he is, I hope he is well... Anyway, thank you a lot for sharing. ttfn Bernd

	drakonis said 177 days ago
	lovely and too short You know, I hear that all the time! About my music, I mean. Jeannette's original is still there, and just as lovely and just as short :-) Luckily I'm not alone in the too-short department. I guess it keeps you "Long"ing for more? :-) Sort of like Emma... ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 177 days ago
	it was fun I enjoyed working on this, I learned a lot while working on her music! Thank you for stopping by, Yeman, especially during this busy time of final exams! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 177 days ago
	Harumph Well, it's good that your music doesn't sound anything like mine! Otherwise I wouldn't have anything to do... I'd be perfect. Thank you for enjoying this playful romp! Jeannette was a very helpful collaborator. ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 176 days ago
	take a broom to the ears... Always wonderful to see you Didge-Man! Sorry you lost your sign to a witch, but you still got your stick (didgeridu)! I happen to be rather partial to those delightful drone sounds you coax out of your hand-made didges... we gotta do another collab sometime! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 176 days ago
	way up there Jeannette's music is great... hope you sample some of her other pieces too. I always learn new things when doing this... or make new friends, or both! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 176 days ago
	There's the rub Karen is DEFINITELY rubbing off on me, as is Jeannette, and you, and everyone I listen to. That's how this works. I'm just learning by soaking up everything I can... I don't think I'll ever be rubbed the wrong way :-) Thank you for listening, Dee, and I hope this little romp gave you a smile! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 176 days ago
	light and dark She did a great job of capturing that wicked light/dark feeling in her piece, didn't she? I loved it! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 176 days ago
	what are YOU looking at? Just because I have a big snout? I'll have you nose tha.. I mean KNOW that my big nose is really useful! Her music was great already, just added a little realism to the fantasy :-) Sorry, dragons cannot be hired. Bribed, maybe, but not hired. ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 176 days ago
	Glad you stopped in Feter, you are a great friend, and always give me warm smiles. I hope I can do the same for you. Her music here is indeed theatrical, rather exhilarating, and captures the mood of zooming through the air. ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 176 days ago
	master tinker-bell Being a software engineer, I was born to tinker. Glad you enjoyed the immersion! ttfn, Drakonis

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	drakonis said 176 days ago
	you got it That's what Jeannette was going for... I just added a little high tech pixie dust on her broom to get it to Mach 3 :-) Very glad you enjoyed the ride! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 176 days ago
	hehehe You know us dragons, always up for a good romp! This was very rompy music, so I had a blast with it. Looking forward to YOUR next romp too... what will you come out with next? ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 173 days ago
	Yay for Jeannette! I agree, she's been wonderful to work with, and has such a great piece here. Thank you for the generous rating, and the listen and comments... ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 173 days ago
	Paul Thank you so much for stopping in to listen. I appreciate you comparing the original to this one... I bet you can see why I immediately saw it as a great piece. She likes the careful update I did, which is what I mainly wanted to accomplish, and I also had fun, learned a lot, and got to work with her, which was a blast! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 173 days ago
	heehee There's definitely childish silliness going on here. The super-fast arpeggios are dizzyingly fast, maybe as fast as a 4 year old going for the cookie jar? :-) ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 173 days ago
	Bells... Mike, is work getting you dingy? Thanks for checking out my latest little project here, this was fun indeed! Most of the fun was getting to know Jeannette a little! What a kick she is! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 173 days ago
	vroom broom Hope this swept you off your feet! Glad to meet you too today, and I look forward to more of your nice music and singing! Thank you for checking out this collaboration, and hope you enjoy more of my offerings over time! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 164 days ago
	glad you like it... It is short and fast and sweet, I agree. I guess it is sort of a hit-n-run tune :-) Padowan_Learner actually wrote this, but I really liked it and tried to improve the sound of the recording a bit. ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 142 days ago
	it was great fun This was a fun collaboration, I always learn things when looking over other people's music... and this was my kind of silliness too. Glad you got "swept up" in the magic :-) ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 107 days ago
	Yay Estella! Although Jeanette actually wrote the music, something really struck me when I heard the piece... and now with your comment, I'm starting to think that it is probably because "I wish I had written that" :-) Anyway, yes it is a quirky Elfman'esque tune. Glad you listened and enjoyed it as much as I did! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 48 days ago
	good to hear thank you for comparing and enjoying this update. And I don't think I deserve the comparison to Alimar, but that is very nice of you to say... and yes, I think about him and hope he's doing OK too! I try not to over-use the Celesta, but it is a really pretty-sounding instrument, I know why Tchaikovsky fell in love with it. ttfn, Drakonis