Hi all,

I’ve posted a new instrumental song titled “Morphine” to http://broadjam.com/rhunter. Go to that URL, and you’ll see the title at the top under “songs”. Click on it to start the Broadjam media player and hear the song. This piece was inspired by the band Morphine (not the drug, which I have never tried and do not recommend for anyone not in extreme pain and under a doctor’s supervision). In keeping with that band’s aesthetic, it’s dark and driving — definitely not on the sweet and pretty side. There’s a lot of funk in it too. I began working on this piece as harmonica-based electronica years and years ago, and I decided very recently that it was time to finish it up. Lately, as one of my friends said to me, my pieces are harmonica-led, not harmonica-based, so the first thing I did was throw down some big guitar sounds. That said, there’s a lot of harmonica on this piece, including:

1) a flanged harmonica “pad” up front
2) another harmonica pad with a filter effect that makes it sound like the “whoosh” of a
giant breathing out (or something to that effect — I haven’t actally sampled a giant breathing,
so can’t swear that it’s an accurate imitation)
3) a “horn section” comprised of sampled tenor sax, synthesizer, amplified and unamplified diatonic harp, and 3 amplified chromatic harps.

I was surprised to hear how much these harps sound like trumpets and flutes in the final mix. I recorded most of the harp lines years ago, and I don’t remember what I used — it’s possible that the amped sounds are actually made (gasp!) by an amp. The amped sound on the diatonic harp is in fact made by a piece of amp modeling software, in this case Studio Devil’s Virtual Guitar Amp. In general, I really like the way the harp horn section came out on this piece. Did I mention that there are also a lot of big guitar sounds? After decades of experimentation, I have come to the conclusion that the easiest way to get a big guitar sound is to put down the harmonica and pick up a guitar. So the thing making the big guitar sounds is a bunch of amped guitars (or strumsticks, to be more precise — hey, they’re stringed). Delighted to hear any feedback on this piece.