Music

Hellevator Theme

| pauldigerolamo

After 5 weeks of work, my team in my Overview of Computer Gaming class was able to make an awesome game about a demon cat trying to escape from Hell by taking the elevator and tearing up anything that tries to stop him. I was in charge of making the music and the sounds, and we thought it would be cool if we had a nice and happy elevator theme for the menu, but it turns into metal as you start the game. It was quite the challenge for me, because in my past experience, trying to make metal music with MIDI instruments usually does not go well. However, I discovered an important feature inside of Garageband that made it all possible: Automation. This would allow me to change the dynamics of the guitar sounds down to the individual note, and as such I really took the pitch bend modifier to heart to make it sound like somebody was actually adding their finesse to the notes they play. Now I can’t wait to make more metal music in the future, and chart it for Clone Hero as well.

Game credits:
Main idea / cover artist: Alex Hernandez (xanderquo)
Programmer: Ryan Dixon
Enemy design / animations: Elizabeth G.
Management / enemy design: Jack Heyen
Elevator design: Irving Fenochio
Music and sounds: Yours truly 😉
Download and play the game

Plastic Planet

| pauldigerolamo
Plastic Planet

In addition to creating one of my favorite art pieces ever, this song of mine, that had been started over a year ago, finally came together with a push of inspiration. I was only really missing an ending that would properly wrap up the song, and once I had that, I took to making the video. The pastel rainbow color scheme of the artwork worked so well with the hue change keyframes in After Effects, along with this super cool hexagonal audio visualizer I made. As far as production value goes, this is the best video I’ve made on my channel, in every aspect.

Buried in the sand EP

| pauldigerolamo
Buried in the Sand, full album

While I’ve done a lot of work with music before, this was the first time fully writing out songs for ukulele, and one of the few instances where I write words to my music too. I originally just wanted to make one song, Buried in the Sand, but after the positive response I receive when performing it at a Cru meeting (I went with a friend from my summer job at an escape room), I decided to make a full album, and boy am I glad that I did.

Buried in the Sand album cover art, created by me

The whole album is an exploratory work that uses the metaphor of being stranded on an island to represent my current state of mind, at least at the time of writing these songs. I was optimistic at the start of my voyage into adulthood, but quickly realized I was largely unprepared for what was in store. The latter half of the album goes deep with the emotions I choose to express, all being present at one point or another in my life. As is with most of my other work, the darker parts of my life and conscious are where inspiration strikes the hardest, but I do have a positive upturn at the very end, as I had accepted this new life of mine, holding out hope for my future.

My ukulele, as pictured in the album cover

I was able to complete the entire album in just over two months this summer, while staying at my grandparents’ shore house in Ocean City for my work. Between spending so much time with my grandparents, having a blast at my escape room job, and writing this album, I could say it was one of the best summer vacations I’ve had. Since I pieced together everything really quickly though, I realized that there were some issues with some of the recordings, so I hope to re-record them after completing my audio production class, having learned a lot more about taking quality recordings.

Full track list:

Maker Workshop – Music Box Fox

| pauldigerolamo
Music box in use

For my final project in my Maker Workshop class, I decided to make a music box since I know a bit about composing music. The end result is displayed above, operating with a hand crank to control the dancer and a push-button system for the music and the lights. It plays three different songs that I wrote, Kitten Waltz, Skate Away, and Melody Meadow, in that respective order.

I had hoped that I could have a stepper motor operate at the same time so I would not need to manually spin the dancer with a cardboard gear system, but the codes I found would not properly mesh together and my instructors were incapable of figuring it out either. The RGB bulb was also giving me problems when I tried to install it on the outside of the box with conductive tape, causing my D Cell battery to malfunction. However, I was saved when one of my classmates told me that their portable phone charger worked to power the Arduino Board, so I used my own as a replacement battery. To not risk damaging the charger, I decided to use an alternate method of shining the bulb on the dancer: keeping it on the breadboard inside, but cutting a hole in the top that the light would shine through to bounce off a tinfoil mirror.