Rexeljet
Eternal Engine Classic Remix- Sonic Generations Style
updated
It's been a long old while since I've uploaded any music to my channel, so here's a piece I started nearly two years ago but finally got around to finishing. Given that Percy's main job is delivering the mail it made sense to mix his theme with the post train theme, and I hadn't seen (or heard) anybody else do it, so here we are.
It's been a year and a half since I uploaded anything here, but here is a new video to advertise a new Trainz model I've recently completed. (Note: it's PBR, and therefore TRS2019 only)
This is a sort of alternate universe "what if" scenario- Along with the various Proteus modules, the other synth that was everywhere in the early 1990s was the Korg M1. It was used in a lot of dance and house music during the turn of the decade, but was also used for TV show soundtracks (notably the Seinfeld theme), so I wondered, what if the standard synth used between seasons 3 and 7 of Thomas was not the Proteus, but the M1 instead?
It's been ages since I've done any Thomas music, but the other day I felt inspired and decided to make this.
I've switched computers (several times in fact) since I last uploaded any music onto this channel, and I've ended up trying out different programs (often out of necessity) to what I'd previously been accustomed to.
This track was made with Mixcraft rather than FL Studio, and while the latter is probably the superior program objectively, there are a lot of things that make Mixcraft a lot more efficient for making music in (either that or I was just never using FL Studio properly).
This track is a sort of mixture of Thomas' theme and the chase/adventure theme. My original plan was to have a more faithful rendition of the chase theme with bits of Thomas' theme thrown in, but the final product is more like a fast-paced verison of Thomas' theme.
kirkronan.webs.com/trainzlocomotives.htm
Or download directly at:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/8xwkknphh2bt5mn/850_v2.cdp/file
It's been over five years since I last made a GWR loco. Recent circumstances dictated that I had to switch to modelling in Blender, after I had been using 3DS Max for so long.
Alongside brand new stuff, I want to remake a lot of my older models that either haven't aged well, don't work properly on newer Trainz versions, or invariably both. The 850 is quite a simple design, so I used it as a way of getting the hang of Blender, which I'd previously never taken the time to learn.
I'm hoping to move onto something a little more interesting for my next Trainz project. I'm still getting the hang of Blender, so I'm thinking of making a small tender engine of some description.
http://kirkronan.webs.com/trainzlocomotives.htm or
http://www.mediafire.com/file/v12vz0mjjtzob3d/MetroPeckett.zip/file
I mostly created this as a sort of "breather" after the WD 2-10-0, before I (hopefully) move onto something a bit bigger. I've always loved the Metropolitan/London Transport liveries, so I thought I'd model an engine that wore them.
http://kirkronan.webs.com/trainzlocomotives.htm
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ht3pyciglkhtgtq/WD.zip
This has to have been the longest hiatus I've ever had on Youtube, though it honestly doesn't feel like it. I had originally planned for this model to be out about a year ago, but other commitments took priority over it, and I only managed to get four of the five variants complete fairly recently.
I think this is the first Trainz loco I've made in five liveries- those being the Longmoor Military railway, War Department, Preservation, British Railways and Hellenic State Railways. So it's also the first engine I've ever produced in a non-British livery.
My first industrial engine type in forever is finally available for download!
I've not made one of these in over three years. My first effort at remixing this tune was nearly four years ago. It was rather hollow-sounding, oversynthesised and used default FL plugins almost exclusively. I could do with remaking all of my old Classic Sonic remixes, but I felt that this was one of the tracks in the most need of redoing.
I might get round to redoing more of my old classic remixes (and making brand new ones?) at some point. Hopefully I've improved a fair amount in four years.
MP3: mediafire.com/?ux6oc24kijb13wq
Although I've made remixes in the style of Sega consoles in the past, I've never made a NES-style tune before so I thought I'd make this.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/y9yb888f4p41ggq/79real.cdp
Coaches:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/9l84vk90t98s9vi/LTSR_Coaches.cdp
The Tilbury Tank is finally ready for download!
It's finally released- my first model for T:ANE and the first to have legitimate angled cylinder animation.
or http://www.mediafire.com/download/8okgvow4l562g41/5ft6in242treal.cdp for a more direct link.
Watch till the end for a bonus outtake!
The most recent changes I've made include toning down the reflection on the wheel tyres, darkening the windows a little and making a custom whistle.
It's been a while since I've remixed a non-Thomas theme in Thomas style. The hardest thing is finding a tune that works. In the end I decided to remix the good old Doilus Stage theme, once again from Sonic 3&K. Quite pleased with this one turned out, especially with the trombone riff during the "chorus", which I thought was going to backfire spectacularly.
The N7 is one of my favourite classes of tank engine, and is one of the few preserved British steam engine types that didn't already have a freeware Trainz model, so when the chance came I decided to model one.
This is my first music-related upload not to have been performed on FL Studio- if the title wasn't enough of a hint, I made this using Deflemask, a tracking program that lets you arrange music for various 8 and 16 bit consoles/computers.
I've been mucking around on various music trackers for about a year now, and I thought I'd have a go at making Harold's Series 2 theme- one of the best pieces of music in the entire classic series of Thomas in my opinion. I've made a few Thomas themes using Deflemask before, but this was definitely the most complicated. I decided to make this a PC Engine arrangement because it has more channels than the other 8-bit systems whilst being more user-friendly than the Mega Drive (Deflemask doesn't support the SNES)
The best thing about music made with trackers is that they're completely legit- in theory, this tune could work on a real PC Engine.
Time for my first video of 2016! Though YouTube will probably still think it was uploaded on New Year's Eve because Merkinland.
I was partially inspired by the Chase theme (which seems almost like a spiritual successor to this tune in my opinion), and Harold's theme in "All at Sea", whilst retaining the bouncy, frantic nature of the original piece.
http://kirkronan.webs.com/trainzlocomotives.htm
Direct link at http://www.mediafire.com/download/3hvr44wbdd3qo1w/Cardeans.cdp
Just in time for the new year! Which, along with the engine in question being Scottish, explains the music.
Anyway, the E1R is finally here! You can get it now from http://kirkronan.webs.com/trainzlocomotives.htm. Direct link at http://www.mediafire.com/download/9kfzhwr778w0th3/E1R.cdp
Haven't made one of these in a while! As you can probably tell, the production values have improved in the past year and a half. Now we've got backgrounds, more buildings, and some grass.
I've been wanting to do one of these for the entire year, but procrastination meant that it took until now before I was able to get one completed. I wrote this story because, ever since Stafford was introduced to the TV series, I was interested to see an episode revolving around what he'd do during a power cut.
Originally, the story went through a different incarnation- James was featured, but Stafford took the main role. The power cut was a result of strong winds, and most of the story revolved around Stafford trying to conserve his battery life. But I thought that adding James into the mix made the story more interesting.
Anyway, I hope you like this video- if I have enough time, more will follow!
You can download it from http://kirkronan.webs.com/trainzlocomotives.htm
direct link at http://www.mediafire.com/download/59fnur08qa4ue7g/Claughtons.cdp
Here's my entry for Leokimvideo's contest:
youtube.com/watch?v=0M_sv5gcEjc
The toys and models in this video include:
-ERTL (x2)
-ERTL Wind up
-TOMY
-Wooden Railway
-Take-Along
-Mini
-Busy Book
-Hornby
-Bachmann
-Tomix
This is my first go at doing something like this so it's a bit rough round the edges. I'm thinking of maybe doing more videos like this, analysing different Thomas toys and models (or just toy trains in general)
sendspace.com/file/3l2lrh
I haven't uploaded anything music-wise for quite a while (10 months!) so I decided to make this. I felt like making an instrumental to one of the old songs. I didn't want to duplicate the existing instrumentals of The Island Song or Really Useful Engine, and I considered "It's great to be an engine" but I don't think that even uses any proteus instruments! So I went with this. I wouldn't say its absolutely perfect, but okay for a first try.
Don't Judge a Book by its Cover was always my favourite song when I was little. It helped that I quite like Terence's theme, I suppose. It even helped me to overcome my fear of the scene in Toad Stands By when Scruffey gets pulled in half!
I also find bits of the music video to be mildly amusing. As far as book titles go, you don't get much more blunt than "A Book". Also, is it just me or does the music video include footage of the world's fastest canal boat?
If anyone else has had this problem, this is how I overcame it.
After saving the model as a 3DS file as usual, I then went and imported the 3DS file into Max and reanimated the bogey all over again. I wasn't expecting it to do anything, but it did! And everything was lovely once again. Wonderful.
If anyone has the solution to this problem, or a suggestion that may fix the strange wheel/siderod animation then I'd be most grateful.
The reason why this took too long is mainly for the following reasons:
University is taking a lot of my time. On the plus side, the university course I'm doing is in animation, so a lot of the things I'm learning I can apply to this short.
Also, I hideously underestimated how long animating this short would actually take. Particularly the inking process, which takes about five times as long as just pencilling the frames of animation. (it feels like that anyway. If I ever find a job in animation I hope it doesn't involve inking.) I foolishly decided to animate one of the scenes in 24fps, and took about 2-3 months to complete!
Animating this sneak peek has been something of a learning curve for me (which explains the varying animation quality). I started out knowing somewhat less about animation, not drawing the keyframes first and animating everything all at once. As such, I think that some of the earlier scenes from this sneak peek will be reanimated in the final short, notably the second scene where Hazel walks stiffly into view in a Family Guy-esque manner. I think the scenes towards the end of this video are a fair bit better, however.
The good news is that I think I've gotten most of the more tedious scenes of the short out of the way, and with the university term drawing to a close I think progress will speed up from here on out. I may release another sneak peek or two during development before the final thing is released.
So here you go, a not-quite-two-minute video showing how the short's coming along. I hope you like how it's coming along, and if not, feel free to explain what I could do to improve.
Link to the script (RTF): sendspace.com/file/doowu4
Link to the script (RTF Mirror): http://www.mediafire.com/view/6z9wetnyyg6xxdp/PPP_script.rtf
I'll be working on this during the summer. Hopefully after this animation is completed I'll be making more shorts using the same characters.
Current cast:
Albert- Halfbaked8
Hazel: Ace-Spresso!
Lord Primstone: GeebMachine
Ad Voiceover: Kyle Jordan
Mum: Ace-Spresso!
I've been meaning to do this for a while. It's one of my favourite themes from Series 6-7, along with Elizabeth's theme which I've already done. Like Elizabeth's theme, it was only played a couple of times in the series, so it again it was a bit difficult getting it to sound like it does in the series. I think I've pulled it off though.
Anyway, here's my second ERTL stop motion animation. Oliver has to pull a fish train, but it's not a very smooth journey.
This is my first proper attempt at recreating an existing arrangement of a theme instead of arranging a theme in the style of something else. I decided to pick Elizabeth's theme because there are very few clean versions of the theme out there and I don't think anyone has attempted to recreate it yet. Considering all I had to go by were a couple of Series 6 episodes, I think it came out alright.
You know when I said remixing video game music in Thomas style wouldn't be a regular thing?
Yeah, I kinda lied. Though I'm still going to do Thomas themes in this style as well.
Because of the vaguely triumphant nature of this theme I felt that I should make the instrumentation similar to that of the post train theme
Just a slightly different one-off thingy. Whilst I don't really have the foggiest on how to make Series 1-2 style themes (I do have the Jupiter 8 VST but no clue on how to use it!) that doesn't mean I can't do Thomas themes that have something vaguely to do with the 1980s I suppose. Here's Thomas' theme from the first season in a Commodore 64 style.
Been wanting to do this for a while; a combination of various themes from from Series 9-12 composed for the Skarloey Railway. Though in my opinion this medley sounds a little less like Series 4 and a smidge more like Series 5.
I thought I'd have another go with stop motion after my Matchbox Pannier Tank one last year. This one has more of a story, along with some narration!
This is something a bit different. This isn't going to be a regular thing, I am still mostly planning on doing Thomas tunes after this, I was just seeing how well this tune would work in this sort of style.
This is a bit random, but when I was little, I used to think that the crests Gordon wears on his smokebox in Paint Pots and Queens were giant biscuits.
Anyway, here's Gordon's theme in the style of his number-sake. Like Mavis' theme I based it mostly on his Series 3 theme, made it fit more with the Series 4 house style and added elements from his Series 5 theme.
For whatever reason, I felt that Stanley's theme would work better as a Series 3 tune than a Series 4 one. I mostly based this arrangement on Toby's theme and the Post Train theme.
I think the main issue with Series 4 is the fact that it focuses so much on new characters. You have 14 narrow gauge episodes, 4 Stepney episodes, and just 8 to focus on classic characters. In my ideal version of the show, I'd have it so that less narrow gauge episodes were adapted so that there would be more episodes about the characters from series 1-3. Then the rest of the narrow gauge episodes could have been adapted in Series 5.
Anyway, less of my rambling. Here's Mavis' theme in Series 4 style. Like Bill and Ben, Mavis doesn't really do anything of note in S4, Unlike Bill and Ben, however, she does appear at such an angle that can be used for a mock-up VHS cover, as seen here.
I mixed aspects of Mavis original theme and Derek/Mavis' theme from Series 5 onward
Good ol' James never complains. Wait, scratch that- he always complains! I was asked to do this theme since James' full theme never gets played between Series 6 and 7- or any season after the first for that matter. Because most S7 tracks don't use percussion, I tried to get the flutes to convey a similar feel to the drums in James' triumphant theme from Series 1.
Like Percy's theme, this theme borrows aspects of all versions of the theme- Seasons 2, 3, 6, 7 and even Every Cloud has a Silver Lining.
I've experimented with some panning, mostly with the piccolo, clarinet and brass, though I've used it on the flutes as well.
I used Series 3 footage because Bill and Ben hardly appear in S4. Just one episode, and they don't do very much at all in said episode. Imagine if Bill and Ben had some episodes in S4 though. It would have been the perect time to adapt Thomas and the Twins, if only to get the S4 Harbour and Wellsworth more screen time.
My next theme after this will be James' full theme in Series 6-7 style.
Percy's theme was never played in Series 4, unless you count his crashy theme in Special Attraction. I decided to mix aspects of his Series 1, 3 and 5 themes together- as well as the general instrumentation style of S4- to make a Series 4 version of his theme.
This one uses a pizz bass line. Because I use a laptop I didn't really notice the difference until I put on headphones. This sounds much better with them.
Something a little different. I decided to have a bash at a Series 4 style remix. I think I'm probably a bit better at Series 7 style instrumentation than Series 4 style but this did come out a bit better than I expected.
I was originally going to make Edward's series 8-12 theme my next Series 6-7 remix, but it was a lot harder than I thought. Then I tried to remix "Trying to do things better" but it sounded more like Trying to do things worse. So I chickened out and made this theme, which I've been wanting to modernise for a while but never got round to it.
I was sort of inspired by the Red Balloon theme, which is one of my favourite themes from Series 6-7.


