Music by Patrick K. McDonald

Brass Ensemble GBA Game Viga Symphony




All of this music was made through the use of my keyboard and a floppy drive. A word of advice... It is ALL MIDI. If you don't know what midi is, then I'll give a brief description.

Midi is a form of sound that rather than recording sounds, it records instructions to give to whichever device activates the midi. This is done for one reason, it saves a TON of memory. I have about 800 midi's on my computer, and all of them COMBINED take up about as much memory as 3 Mp3's. Anyways, up until very recently, all video game systems used only midi, and even now, all electronic compositions are still in midi.

The downside of this, however, is that the quality of the music is solely dependent on the system that it is run on. Because of the recent (about 6 years ago for computers) switch from midi to mp3 or other formats, many great sound cards have horrible midi, as it is not used for anything other than electronic composition anymore.

These midi's sound very different from my keyboard to my computer, and I'm afraid of how bad they may sound to whoever downloads them. But... at least you'll get the jist of them.

At Calvary

This was simply an experiment to see what it would it would sound like with a group of instruments playing the four singing parts.

At Calvary

The Battle of Jericho

In this song, I took a piece that was arranged for 8 choir parts, and made an instrumental out of it. I did this because we had begun to sing it in gospel choir when I was in Worcester, MA. But, we never got very far, and I wanted to see how it would have sounded if we had finished it.

The Battle of Jericho

The Star Spangled Banner

Well, this was possibly my first arrangement done on my keyboard. I made it because while in high school pep band, there was a game when we did not have enough instruments to play the national anthem. I made this in case that happened again, then I could crank the keyboard. It never happened though.

The Star Spangled Banner

My Song

My first composition..... it's not that good.

My Song

My Classical Song

For one of my music classes, we were required to write a song, using rules that we had learned. Creativity is not my strong point in music. I actually wrote this entire song before playing it on my keyboard. I only recorded it, so I could hear how it was supposed to sound, but there are some mistakes, since I didn't try to clean it up.

My Classical Song

Invention

Another class assignment. We had to write an invention in the style of Bach. This song is entirely original, though we had many rules to follow.

Invention

Without Words

This song was originally a class assignment, but I have taken it further than that now. It's funny how it was written, actually. It was due the next day, and I started working on it at 12:00 midnight. In order to be "inspired" I listened to several different introductions that are included in my keyboard, until I found one that I liked. I took that intro, and went with it, and composed an entire song. I finished about 15 minutes before it was due. The first file is the intro that I took. The second file is the version that I submitted for the assignment. The third file is a newer version that I edited to make "better".

Intro

Without Words (Class)

Without Words (Edit)


Little Fugue in G-minor (Bach)

This song was written by Johann Sebastian Bach for the organ. In my freshman year of high school I made a four-part arrangement of this song. In my sophomore year, I got together with three friends to play the song, for the purpose of competing in an annual competition. Well, that never happened... Then, when I went to Massachusettes, I got together with some friends there, with the same purpose. We had a trumpet player for the first part, and a tuba for the 4th part (I play the 3rd part on trombone). We never got somebody for the 2nd part, but we planned to continue it the next year. I didn't go there a second year. Now, I just got together with some guys here at OSU, and we hope to play at the last concert of the year. (6 months later) Well, that didn't happen. Oh, well. It was the closest I have ever gotten this to actually be performed.

Little Fugue


Praise His Holy Name

Yay! I am finally using a music program that allows me to convert sheet music into MIDI. Before, all of these songs, I had to play on my keyboard in order to have a MIDI version. No more. Now, I can write the music in sheet music form, and press a "conversion" button. Anyway, I arranged (though I changed very little) this song in case my church's choir might want to sing it. A big part of the reason for me doing this was to learn this new program. I have one problem with it, though..... It's a Mac program....... Anyway, I think this is a great song. Too bad you guys can't see the lyrics, though.... and I've always hated the MIDI choir sounds.

Praise His Holy Name

Top


Brass Ensemble

My brass quintet performed at the beginning of Spring Term 2004. It was the first performance of "my" music. Though, all of the music is arranged from video game songs.

Zelda Theme

A very simple arrangement of the theme from many of the Zelda songs.

Zelda Theme

Nintendo Medley

This is a Medley of Metroid (the original), Star Fox, and Pokemon. It was the first "arrangement" that I did, that was more than a direct translation of the parts.

Nintendo Medley

Kirby's Adventure

A medley of two different Kirby songs. This was the first time that I tried to put some of my own ideas into a song, the last 30 seconds or so is basically my stuff.

Kirby's Adventure

Old-School Medley

This Medley takes songs from from Gradius, Gradius II, Castlevania, Tetris, and Gauntlet. This song was definitely the hardest song that we "tried" to play at the performance... I say tried for two reasons. We cut about 1/3 of the song for the actual performance, and we had problems playing that other 2/3 of it. This song also has my stuff interspersed into it, mainly during the transitions, and the last 10 seconds or so.

Old-School Medley

Musical Mario

This song takes music from Super Mario 2, Super Mario 3, Super mario World, Dr. Mario, and ends with the theme from Super Mario Bros. I added some percussion to the actual performance(claps, and stuff), but it's not in the MIDI. Also, the end of the MIDI is REALLY fast for some reason, we didn't play it nearly that fast.

Musical Mario

Top


RPG Game for the Game Boy Advance

I'm now in OSU's GDC (Game Developer's Club). I joined a group that is making a sci-fi role-playing game for the Game Boy Advance. I have two jobs in the group. Game Designer, and Music Composer. The way it works, is that I write a song, and then we try to find a place to put it. I'm horrible with names, so the names are temporary.

Battle 1

This is the first song I wrote for the group. My original idea was for it to be the battle music, but... when I write a song, it just takes over sometimes. Anyway, we were thinking of having a special stage when you travel between the planets. If that happens, then this song would be used for that space-shooter'esque \ mini-game.

Battle 1

Battle 2

This song was my second attempt at writing a song for the battle music. It's my favorite song that I've written so far(though I do like "Without Words" a lot too). However, the group thought it might be a little over-the-top for the regular battle music, so it might be "boss" music.

Battle 2

Character 1

I had a very unique way of writing this song. I got my friend Emmett (who was back from the military very briefly) to write a melody for a song. This is the result of that. However, the original melody is only about 50% there. The last section of the song is completely mine, too. But, it was a good way to get inspiration, and I might try that again later with somebody else. This song is supposed to be a "Character Theme" that means that every time this character is the center of focus in the game, this song will be played. We haven't decided which character, but the group and I both agreed that it should be a character like "General Leo from Final Fantasy VI"... in outer space, of course.

Character 1

Top


The Viga Symphony

Viga is a condensation of VIdeo GAme. This group will be playing music that I arrange from various video games. This is the next step from when I had the brass ensemble this term. I'm going to be conducting for a group of about 15-20 instruments. Assuming enough people sign-up. I'm not starting it until next Fall, so I just put flyers up for it last week.

Top


Back