# A deaf composers bellowed "hullo!"



## myles (Mar 19, 2006)

Hi V.I Control folks,

My name is Myles de Bastion. I am a hard of hearing composer and have always been passionate about music since I could first reach the old piano in my Grandparents house. This would be even before I could hear anything. I must have enjoyed the vibrations. 

My family discovered I was deaf at the age of 4 and gave me hearing aids. These brought a world of sound to me but I was shocked and remember ripping off and throwing the aids across the room the first few times they were turned on.

After I got used to them I found that I could explore my world in new ways that were previously inaccessible to me. My mother bought me a little Casio keyboard all of my own so I could make this wondrous noise all day long sat on the edge of my bed in the comfort of my room without disturbing the slumbering naps of my Grandfather.

Fast forwarding over the years I have since discovered the range and limits of my hearing, I am thankful that I can perceive a good range of tones and have a heightened sensitivity to timbre. My perception drops off more you progress along the higher frequencies and the upper ranges of say a tin whistle are very hard for me to hear. 
The top last octave on a grand piano is also nearly out of my perception but that doesn't stop me from making musical sounds from the mechanical clacks and relying on transposition memory.

The high frequency loss also has a dramatic limit on my ability to hear recorded speech and singing. Unless I have a face to lip-read with minimal background noise then I struggle. For this reason I am primarily an instrumentalist.

My main love in composing is melody and I enjoy exploring the inexplicable way tones in a particular sequence and articulation can convey or evoke emotions. 

Zipping onto the present day, I am set to finish my Computer Animation degree in two months here in the United Kingdom. The animation has been my back-up for many years but I have decided it is time that I focus more on music and so I hope to attend a graduate music course in America this fall.

I have also finished some small contributions to a local small (read zero) budget film effort where I composed some cues and a full length song for the climax of the film in a unique take on the 'Sergio Stare'. 

I hope this will be the start of a career in composing for film and visual media, my work is cut out for me however as the talent from others in this industry is nothing less then scary.

So that's it, a short essay about me. I hope to be a constructive contributor to this interesting community. Thanks for reading!


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## jamriding (Mar 19, 2006)

Great to hear from you Myles. Good luck for the future and perhaps you're able to post something for us all to hear? 

Keep us posted with the news of any further developments.

Cheers!


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## Herman Witkam (Mar 19, 2006)

Welcome to V.I. Myles. I wish you good luck with pursuing your career in composition for the media.


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## myles (Mar 19, 2006)

Thank you jamriding and Herman!

I come from a background of composing instrumental music on the guitar and computer. I seem to have a knack for atmospheric electronic music with strong recurring melodies. I shall show some examples of this if anyone is up for listening to that.

I have to admit that I'm only just dipping my toes into the deep waters of composing in the orchestration sense. I can post up some little experiments however I am just beginning to get a grasp on how I should be using sequencers and sample banks to create authentic sounds let alone compose material that is relevant to the instrumentation. So a full length scored movement is still some ways off!

Recently I have bought some books including the excellent 'Principles of Orchestration' and also have my eyes on the EIS course that this very forum has a section for.
So I'm hoping to pick up a lot here that I may apply to my music and get some valuable advice.

I shall post something soon in the relevant sections.


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## Chrislight (Mar 19, 2006)

Hi Myles & welcome to V.I.!  That's wonderful you were able to recover enough hearing to be able to pursue your path as a composer. Best to you in your endeavors and have fun on the forum!


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## Evan Gamble (Mar 19, 2006)

welcome to VI Myles!


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## Hans Adamson (Mar 19, 2006)

Myles,

Looking forward to seeing (and hearing) you around the forums!


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## TheoKrueger (Mar 20, 2006)

Hi Myles, welcome aboarò?   4á¡?   4á¢?   4á£?   4á¤?   4á¥?


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## Frederick Russ (Mar 20, 2006)

Welcome to VI Myles! Great having you here - enjoy the forum!


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## ComposerDude (Mar 20, 2006)

Myles, welcome to VI!


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## madbulk (Mar 20, 2006)

Myles,
Wecome to the forum.
Brian


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## Mike Greene (Mar 20, 2006)

Welcome Miles. Yours is a great story. I'm looking forward to hearing your music.  

- Mike Greene


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## myles (Mar 20, 2006)

Gosh, this is a warm welcome indeed, rather overwhelming to say the least!

Well as some of you have requested, let me show you some small examples of my humble tinkering with sounds.

I should forewarn that I have a guitar and electronica background if that makes any sense. Thus my tastes can be quite eclectic at times. Here are some narrative and melodic pieces that show you where I have come from.

Ambient spooky: *http://myles.debastion.com/music/softerthanyou2b.mp3 (softer than you)*
Melodic focus: *http://myles.debastion.com/music/eagerlyplease.mp3 (eagerly please)*
A short 'evil' action cue: *http://myles.debastion.com/music/hellspawn-cue3.mp3 (hell-spawn)*

Not forgetting the main reason why I am here, to improve my orchestration abilities. Here is a short experiment I have created in trying to learn how to use sample banks effectively. A long way to go I reckon!

Dramatical movement: *http://myles.debastion.com/music/dramaah3.mp3 (dramaah)*

This is of course a small segment that shows a part of the music that I do. I don't limit myself to any style or genre though and enjoy creating my funk tracks, guitar ballads through to glitched beats and industrial soundscapes.

Be cruel :mrgreen:


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## choc0thrax (Mar 20, 2006)

myles @ Tue Mar 21 said:


> Dramatical movement: *http://myles.debastion.com/music/dramaah3.mp3 (dramaah)*



You must have Porpellerheads Reason. The sound of those strings are burned into my mind.


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## myles (Mar 20, 2006)

Yes! Haha, it's really that easy to spot isn't it?

Reason seems to be my main sketching tool as it is easy to get going with decent-good sounds from the off with minimal fussing about meaning you can concentrate on the song itself.

That said I am trying to save up for Miroslav Philharmonik as that is about the best that my poor student budget can stretch to quality wise. 

Gotta start somewhere I guess


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## Mike Greene (Mar 20, 2006)

Those are nice cues! I especially liked "Softer Than You." You might want to post them in the . . . . heck, I can't remember the name of the section, but it's obvious when you look at the main forums page.

What I really like is the originality of your style. I wonder if that may have something to do with your hearing history. My advice would be to keep the style you have. Obviously, learning more about music techniques is always a good thing, just be sure not lose the voice you have now. Just my opinions.

Ten points to ChocOthrax for nailing the strings. I could never do that. Strings is strings to me.  

- Mike Greene


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## Frederick Russ (Mar 21, 2006)

"Softer than you" is well done - my favorite in your line up. Very original!


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## neoTypic (Mar 21, 2006)

Very inspiring story, and welcome! :D


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## Sid_Barnhoorn (Mar 21, 2006)

Hi Myles,

Welcome to V.I. and I wish you the best for you and your career!

Cheers,


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## Patrick de Caumette (Mar 21, 2006)

Hi Myles, welcome to VI!

Great to hear that your handicap hasn't stopped you from composing!

I can somehow relate since I was born with 70% of my right ear hearing gone and recently got tenitus in the left. Your story is an inspiration :smile:


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## gravehill (Mar 22, 2006)

Hi Myles and welcome!

I just listened to your songs. Nice compositions. In "Softer than you" I think the bells are rather in-your-face for my taste but IMHO the best cue of the bunch.

"Eagerly please" and "Hell-spawn" are a bit too short snippets to really say anything about them. Though I would imagine "Hell-spawn" as a prelude to a chase cue.


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## myles (Mar 22, 2006)

Thank you very much for the comments people!

It is intruiging that most of you appeared to prefer the "Softer than you" track that was made in my usual style of composing.
"Hell-spawn" was created for a very short moment in a scene from a local gangster film that I wrote music for.

I shall post some of my fuller songs up for critique in the relevant forum section in the near future.


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