Not really much to do with logo design, but when working with flash animation (and more recently videos), one of the more difficult aspects of project completion is the addition of sound and music tracks. Many available loops don't fit, aren't of adequate quality or are purloined from established recording artists (at the risk of copyright infringement). When developing our multimedia services, we realized that music would certainly be a fairly important aspect. We only wanted to work with original music - material that was our copyright - and thus unique to our clients. To that end, we developed an experimental division of our studio whose primary function is to develop sound loops and music files. Even gave it a name - The Vox Underground (read about the logo). These tracks are not licensed for commercial use but simply for listening to, should you be interested in a rather obscure part of our studio's day-to-day.

Downloadable soundtracks

Hacksaw 96 A fairly raucous track (probably better to turn the sound system down a bit). Originally put together a few years ago, just recently got around to mixing it into a more playable format. Contains samples, drum computers, live keyboards and guitar. File size: 4.1 MB. Format: MP3 Top of page

Mido Uplifting little track weighs in a just over 3 minutes. Created entirely with MIDI driven instruments and drum sequencers. 'ARP'd keyboard adds a little bit of European flair. File size: 3 MB. Format: MP3 Top of page

El Morte Funky little track features Asian instrumentation, live drums, keyboards and a few samples pinched from the TV. Additional Korg keyboard work and audio manipulation using Scream sequencer. Soundtrack for our video portfolio video. File size: 4.7 MB. Format: MP3 Top of page

Logopalooza The soundtrack to our podcast series. Latin themed background music was designed to 'fit' with the brand & atmosphere. Little guitar thrown in for good measure. A little 'light' in the volume - always designed to be a background piece. File size: 2.32 MB. Format: MP3 Top of page

Particle Velocity Upbeat track featuring a range of synthesizers, drum machines and verbal samples. Originally developed as a background track for our podcast series, Particle Velocity was recorded in the fall of 2007. File size: 5.49 MB. Format: MP3 Top of page

Crystal Palace Features choir track, live acoustic and electric guitar as well as sampled orchestral backing. Atmospheric and moody sound doesn't really lend itself to an up-beat visual presentation but worth a listen nonetheless. File size: 4.15 MB. Format: MP3 Top of page

Gear used

Tracks are available for download from our website site in .MP3 format - click on the links above to download. Featured soundtracks, loops and musical compositions are created using Reason sequencers, Abletons Live! mixing, and Cubase. Operating system is an Apple G5 running OS X. Keyboards by Korg. Audio interface by Audiophile. Guitars by Gibson. Coffee by Folgers.

Terms

Soundtracks and musical selections available on this page are not licensed for commercial use and are for personal use only. Copyright 2006 - 2008 Steve Douglas. For more information on Vox Underground contact us.

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About the Vox Underground logo

As is usual with anything around the studio (and a classic example of 'walking our talk'), we needed to brand this music project with a fairly nifty logo. The Vox Underground design was first envisioned as a 'tattoo' - as opposed to a more 'cliche' hi-tech approach. Initial research into available tattoo art found nothing appropriate so it was left to us to develop our own. Featuring a winged heart with flame, the logo also features some nifty font work using typography from a custom font foundry. We kept the design down to two colours, but as with most of our packages, worked up variants for different uses:

As a general rule, logos have to work in black and white so it's advisable to develop several different versions of a design that are optimized for various uses. This involves creating completely different artwork (as opposed to just globally converting a file to black and white). Above L - R: black and white linear, grayscale and a version that's used on black backgrounds. See our design portfolio for more exampes.

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