Family visit to the Beisbroek Planetarium

Yesterday the Beisbroek Planetarium played both the Planetarium shows that they used my music in on the same day. So we decided to go to Brugge in Belgium yesterday with the family to go and see the shows for the first time. The first obstacle though was getting there. The roads were very slippery because of icing so we decide to leave early. But then it is still a problem to actually find it. The planetarium is way out of the city in the forest, so should you ever decide to go there, make sure you prepare your trip well. But we found it after all :)

It is about a 3 hours drive from our house and it didn't take us much more in the end. The circumstances were not so bad as they predicted actually. So we arrived too early at the planetarium and it was still closed and the nature museum that is in the same building was closed too. But luckily right next door there is a nice restaurant were we had lunch and some drinks. The planetarium is in a nice park as well so the kids played outside as well. Half an hour before the show we decided to try if someone was there and they were and also were expecting us :)

There was a nice lady named Karen that welcomed us and took us up to the big telescope first. It is right in the dome on top of the tower. Quite awesome to see the observatory too. She opened up the dome and we could look through the telescope. The only thing to see was the Sun because it was in the middle of the day. We must go back there sometime at night for sure. She explained a lot to us about the telescope and how they take deep sky pictures with another telescope that is right next to it. And then we went down into the planetarium.

It was bigger than I expected by the way, because everyone told be it was very small, but they can take quite some people in there. In the picture on the right you can see the special Zeiss projector that they use to project all the stars and planets on the dome. Next to this special projector there are two very big video projectors that can project computer images on top of that. It was awesome to see both shows finally and hear my own music playing under them :) You have no idea how good that feels :) Well I hope to work more with them in the future since they are very friendly people and you can tell that they really like what they are doing there. I an highly recommend a visit there whenever you are in Brugge in Belgium which is a very nice city as well to visit as a tourist. And that is exactly what we did afterwards. We had a very nice dinner in Brugge and then drove back home.

Planetarium Show is Playing at Beisbroek Now!

The Planetarium show that I made music for recently had it's premiere on the 21st of December. From now on it is showing in the space theater of Planetarium 'Beisbroek' in Brugge Belgium. The name of the show translates something like 'Sun of Heaven and Hell'. As stated before the show is only avaible in the Dutch language. If you are in the neighborhood of Brugge and want to check the show out you can find more information on this URL: http://www.beisbroek.be/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=186 and more information about the Beisbroek Planetatium is of course at http://www.beisbroek.be and in case you missed it here you can find my part of the show http://www.synth.nl/BeisbroekSun

P.S. On the 2nd of January both the shows I made music for are runnig on the same day. It is very likely that I'll be there that day together with the family to watch the shows myself. Maybe I'll see you there :)

New Planetarium Show Online

Last year I made 15 minutes of music for a Planetarium show that was made by the Beisbroek Observatory in Brugge (Belgium). Apparently they liked it, because recently they asked me again to make music for a new show. This new show lasts 45 minutes in total, but they only needed my music for the first 10:30 minutes. So I made music again especially for this project. The only thing I knew up front is that the show was about the Sun.  I pictured the Sun as a  violent and turbulent place., so the music is a bit less atmospherical this time but still it had to be in the background and therefore I couldn't use much beats or leads. I did try to keep it spacey though so it would fit nicely under the voice over. Unfortunately I didn't get the video this time either so I had to work with the voice over track only. This is my second documentary and I like doing stuff like this. I hope to do a lot more projects like this in the future. I will release the music I made somewhere in the future by the way. And even though the voice over is in Dutch I'm sure you will get the picture by listening to the track in the player if you don't understand Dutch. I used a picture of the Sun with kind permission of NASA. You can listen to my part of the show on this URL: http://www.synth.nl/BeisbroekSun

New Planetarium Show coming Soon !

I have been quiet the last weeks here, but I was very busy actually. I have been working on new music for a new Planetarium show that will have its premiere before the end of the year. I made 10 minutes of music for the first part of a 45 minute show. Again for the Beisbroek Planetarium in Brugge Belgium by the way, so apparently they liked the 15 minutes I made last year. Today I worked on finishing the track up by adding some Sound Effects to make the music more 'spacy'

For the sound effects I used the Korg MS-20, Roland SH-09 and Moog Minimoog today. All three very nice machines to do space effects like noise sweeps and filter auto-modulation stuff. I already send out the music in raw for as a demo last week and that was approved, but today I made the final mix including all sound effects and transitions between the three pieces of music that I made. And the good news is that they liked it :) So I'm actually done now. Hopefully I can put my part of the show online for you to listen to.

I made the final mix in Sonar X1. In the picture on the left you can see the arrangement of this final mix. On top is the voice over that I got from them. I synced my music to this track. Below that the three parts of music and under that some extra sound effects that I used to smoothen the transitions between the tracks. The music itself were made in three seperate projects that I converted to Sonar X1 as well eventually for the last mixdown. All in all a very nice project again. And like said before I hope to put it online soon. You can listen to the show from last year on this URL: http://www.synth.nl/music/scores/beisbroek. The voice is in the Dutch language by the way.

Beisbroek Planetarium Project by Synth.nl

I was asked to produce some new music for a Planetarium Show that is going to be featured in the Beisbroek Observatory in Brugge (B) the coming 6 months. The show had is premiere on the 3th of July 2009. The total show lasts 45 minutes but they needed music for the first 13:30 minutes of the show. So I made this music especially for this project. The music had to be in the background and therefore I couldn't use much beats or leads. I tried to create more atmospherically and spacey music for this project that would fit nicely under the voice over and also with the video. Unfortunately I didn't get the video so I had to work with the voice over track only. Actually this is my first documentary and I liked doing it. I hope to do more projects like this in the future.

I will release the music I made somewhere in the future by the way. I made four tracks in total called Eclipse, Meteor, Hubble and Nebula. They are mixed together to form the soundtrack for this show. The video is projected on a special dome by the projector you see in the picture on the right. It is able to create a nice image of how the sky looks like at a certain place on Earth at a certain time. Together with some video they produce a very nice image over your head that is 360 degrees around you. Just like you would be outside. I haven't seen the show myself, but I'm looking forward to it. And of course you can go and see the show yourself as well if you like. Here is more information on the Beisbroek Observatory:

http://www.beisbroek.be/

You should ask them when this show is playing though. I don't know that myself at the moment.

I did place a copy of the audio track on my own website so you can listen to it. And even though the voice over is in Dutch I'm sure you will get the picture if you don't understand Dutch. I used a picture of the 'Whale Galaxy' with kind permission of NASA to stay in the theme of my current OceanoGraphy Project by the way. You can find it here:

http://www.synth.nl/Beisbroek

Please do enjoy it and let me know what you think of it :)