#8 - New Releases, Protege Meeting, Fried Graphics Cards & Green Stuff

Hey Guys

Hope you have had a good week.

I am going to start at the end and go backwards from there.

I was just recording the final video on a Protege course when my screen stuttered and glitched. Weird. I kept going. The glitches got worse, the fan on my 2010 mac went nuts and then the computer shut down.

Oh sh*t.

One day later and a lot of stressing. My initial worry was confirmed.

My ancient graphics card was fried. So until the replacement comes, my beast of a Mac Pro is basically as useful as an ice cube in a snow storm.

So here I am on my iPad. I call this a blessing in disguise as it has meant that rather than get distracted by my many and varied projects/businesses I have had to spend the day to life admin.

I will admit, I had let it stack up a bit.

Admin done (kind of), it’s onto the newsletter.

My latest Elephant Music release

Emotional and dramatic solo strings.

This was a lot of fun to produce and even more fun to hear Toby Mason’s amazing mixes too.

I used a couple of very talented violinists on Upwork (and one less so talented too…me).

We also used this album as the basis for a Protege course which the students absolutely smashed. Their Blue Pearl album is being mixed and mastered as we speak.

Zac Rivers Returns

My synthwave alter-ego Zac Rivers has just had his latest single ‘1983’ mixed and mastered by the very talented Ash Cutler and features another very talented vocalist on the hook.

The single will be released in the next 6-8 weeks and I am very excited about it.

An Actual In-The-Flesh Meeting

This was a pretty special week.

Vikram Gudi, Guy Jones and I got to meet up in the (intermittent) sunshine at the Mammoth Beer HQ on Hackney Bridge in London.

The purpose? Mostly beer, a little bit of business chat and some filming for the 2021/2022 Protege students.

We decided to have Guy interview Vik and I about our top tips to getting into the industry and also so we could speak more openly about why we started Protege and what our mission is.

It was a lot of fun, both beer and filming, and I am very very excited to start getting the next round of students through the door.

We have already gotten way more places sold than I would have expected which means those places are getting more scarce.

If this year is anything to go by, next year is going to be huge for Protege and Blue Pearl.

The New Star of the Trailer Music School

I would like to officially welcome to the fold, Espen Haagensli. The new face of the TMS YouTube channel.

As you know Espen has been a mainstay of the TMS since it’s inception and has started to get his music placed on more and more trailers. Plus his Blue Pearl albums are incredibly popular with all of our clients!

So, I asked Espen if he would be interested in doing some cool tutorials for the TMS channel and thankfully for me he agreed.

Here’s his first video for the channel (it’s awesome btw!)

We are currently running an exciting promotion where you can get the Trailer Music Course for 50% off AND we are giving you the entire Hybrid Trailer Music Course FOR FREE!

CLICK HERE TO BAG THESE COURSES!

My Latest Doodles

What I’m reading? - Echo Burning by Lee Child (I’m a HUGE Jack Reacher fan!) I’d like to say I read it to unwind but I usually end up very tense!

What I’m watching? - Call My Agent on Netflix. Brilliant french dramedy. As it is subtitled I can’t easily enjoy my TV time nachos, but wine will do too.

What Plugin am I using? - Izotope VocalSynth 2 I use this for all my Zac Rivers’ vocals.

Next week?

• Get more vocals recorded for Zac Rivers
• Record 7 more piano piece for Richard Pryn
• Begin my next Elephant Music solo release
• Complete the dreampop track for my next moniker
• Release some more ambient music with This Shimmering Sky

Have a great weekend guys and I do hope you get some time to be creative, have some fun and enjoy yourselves!

You are an absolute legend!

Rich