About ten years ago, I wrote three songs for Celeris Games' PC title, FlixMix. FlixMix shows up on eBay occasionally, and can still be found on various abandonware sites if you have the technical savvy to run old games. If you're a fan of the game, I'm told Ulterior Motive is a good follow-up (though I haven't played it myself, and was not involved in it's creation).

I wish I could find my original files -- what ended up published sounds very little like what I wrote, due to various filesize accomodations made after my departure. Likewise, many compromises were made to support lowest-common-denominator audio hardware. I did write versions optimized for MT32 and the then-emerging General MIDI standard, but lord only knows where they ended up. They're on a 5.25" floppy disk somewhere, unlabeled.

But while I couldn't find those, a Google search for my own name did reveal these:

• Quixotic Box Paradox
• Juggle Jumble
• Mishmash Mesh

Better than nothing, I'm afraid.

A few years ago, I e-mailed my old boss at Celeris -- a very nice man -- and got permission to update these songs on newer instruments for your listening pleasure.

• Here's a draft of one of 'em.

I'm not quite satisfied with it yet, but I don't seem to be doing anything about that, so you might as well listen.

I'll get around to the other two eventually.

When I buy new software or instruments, I have to put them in some sort of musical context so I know how they'll fit. If I'm pushing the software in a new direction? Same deal.

These are the results of such experiments - don't expect a lot of emotional depth here, or even structure. It's just stuff that amused me, here to confuse you.

• FL1_jazzybass
  early experiment with Fruity Loops / FL Studio. After so many years of writing traditional pieces at the piano, the departure was pretty liberating.
• Feb21
  Sort of a gamelan ensemble from abusing FLStudio's built-in guitar simulator. Uneven time signatures. Fun stuff.
• GPOtest
  Bouncy little number, trying the Garritan Personal Orchestra in a less organic environment. The first draft employed more electronic effects. Ultimately, it proved better without.
• Refrag
  A quick experiment to see if repeated fragments of music could be kept fresh by offsetting their relationship to the downbeat.
  There might be a mastering problem on this one -- make sure your speakers have a fair amount of bass, or you'll hear only drums.
• Feedback
  Upgraded to the Slayer 2 plugin, which means of course means more guitar!

--Aaron Levitz