David J. Michalak
music producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, videographer
Video, Film, and Score
As a kid, I loved how film and music came together into a heightened emotional experience. Ever since, I have been passionate about creating films and soundtracks that support the emotional content of the scene.
I've made many films, videos, and soundtracks over the years, but only a few are shown here.
Soundtrack for FACSS Seminar Series
With the shut-down of in-person conferences during 2020, some friends decided to host a multi-university online conference to showcase the latest work in their field. The organizers wanted a custom ~3 minute composition to play as people joined the Fall seminar series. The style needed to fit the academic nature of the conference but also be a source of relaxation after a stressful year.
For the first composition, "Autumn Falls", the multi-talented Chris Cappa wrote the two acoustic guitar parts and the overall song structure. I followed up by adding all the other instruments, mixing, and mastering. The intro guitar and bells set the stage for a light and relaxing composition, but the bass and syncopated drum beat add an energetic twist. The brass and piano then bring some regality to the mix to match the academic setting. A less syncopated drum beat takes the song out on an even footing. The original plan was for the organizers to play a shorter track ("Autumn Falls Outro") at the end of seminar while the chairs were organizing questions from the 700-member audience. It turns out this break wasn't needed, but I'm proud of the composition and how it builds quickly within a short time.
The addition of music to the seminar system worked well, and we were asked to compose a second piece for the Spring 2021 semester. Once again, Chris composed the acoustic guitar track and overall song structure, and I followed up with the remaining instrumentation, mix and mastering. The finger-picked guitar, bells, and syncopated drum beat keep a similar style to Autumn Falls, but we substituted the brass for a more informal organ that says, "hey, we've done this before". The Electronic Remix allowed me to play with some new Serum Wavetable patches, and I love how it turned out.
Chris and I just finished our third composition for Fall 2021: "A Walk in the Park." Once again, we stuck to the usual instrumentation of guitar, piano, bells, organ, and drums, but this one has some new elements. The bells and piano give a soft sense of optimism, while the addition of strummed rhythm guitars gives an energetic groove to those parts of the song. Chris had worked on his recording setup and delivered a much cleaner recording of the guitars. I added the instrumentation around the guitars. This time, however, things were rather different for me: all my physical instruments (bass, guitars, keyboard, and drum kit) were stuck in transit between USA and NL. This means I couldn't record anything with live instruments; rather I was forced to compose everything by hand the old fashioned way. In the end, I like the simplicity that resulted from this approach.
Instructional Video Short Music Spots
I composed two short musical spots for an instructional video on rock and jazz drumming.
The sound of jazz brushes is amazingly rich. For the jazz spot, I recorded live brushes via my Vanguard mic, and I recorded my bass and piano as normal.
For the rock spot, I recorded bass and guitar DI into ProTools and used the Universal Audio amp emulators: E646 VS for guitars and Gallien Krueger 800RB for bass. I love the sound of these UA emulators!
Mary Peveto for Metro: Campaign Video Production
Along with the excellent on-site co-producer Juliane L. Fry, I produced 3 short campaign videos for Mary Peveto. Mary is the co-founder of Neighbors for Clean Air in Portland, Oregon, and was running for Metro Council in 2020.
We shot the 3 campaign videos in her apartment and the soundtrack music was custom-composed for each video. One video is shown to the right. All three musical scores are shared below.
As Mary claims to be an activist mom, I went with an approachable family music style of acoustic guitar, bass, piano and drums in an energetic and positive style. To make it Portland-centric, I sampled the ringing of the local public transportation train bell.
Other Scores
Here is a selected playlist of other scores I've composed
Skate Squad: Film Trailers and Music
Skate Squad Episodes 1 and 2 were written, directed, and produced by myself and a group of friends between 2000 to 2005.
Two wreckless police officers lose their drivers licenses and have to solve crime on skate boards. Havoc ensues. Check out the trailers for the two Episodes below.
The score for Episode 1 was co-composed with the amazing Jay Olin in the later half of 2002. We recorded all musical parts as real takes with a make-shift click track prior to what today's scoring software has available.
