That's pretty awesome that you play jazz clarinet. Have you heard the Grim Fandango soundtrack? The first track, Casino Calavera has this amazing clarinet solo that exhudes this subtle attitude.
I was looking through what I have available to show, and I'm not certain if any one of my samples would be what you might be looking for, so I just picked out some that I felt could give you a feel for how I approach music. Granted, if any of these styles or methods don't jive with you, don't count me out! I'm very much of the mindset that as a composer I'm providing a service to the designer, who alone carries the grand vision of the game and dictates the style or amount of stylistic freedom for the composer.
Rush Theme
This theme was for a Sonic the Hedgehog-inspired DBPro project that sadly never came to fruition.
Drunk Monk
This is a song for jazz combo (septet), inspired in part by Thelonious Monk.
The Road to Abu Dhabi
This was my first attempt at writing a piece for two pianos/4 hands. It ended up being a little too difficult for the pianists to learn it in the week they were allotted for recording, so I mainly use this MIDI rendering for showcasing it. There are a several points at which it could loop and transition, and the two pianos work well as stems.
Redwall Themes
This is a demo I put together for Sunflash's Redwall project. The sounds used in this are from an older Yamaha Clavinova.
Not Games - Rebel Intro
This was a proof-of concept track I wrote for a coworker who was trying to create good vs. evil Fable/KOTOR style game in the Source engine. the beginning is meant to be played out of an old record player, a la Bioshock and Fallout 3, and then as an in-game sequence progresses, the score sort of emerges out of this physical location in-game in order to fill out the background score as the action emerges in the opening scenario. The orchestra sounds are Garritan Personal Orchestra, and piano is actually an old, out of tune piano from the dorm that I lived in last year. I just recorded myself playing it live in order to capture a feel similar to the Warsaw Concerto from the 40's Briish film
Dangerous Moonlight--a concerto played on a piano that's somewhat out of tune, but still has a certain live characteristic.
Rock Intro
This is a sample I put together last weekend, it's the most recent indication of the quality of production I can get in the guitars, drums, and synths department. The guitar is a wet distortion patch from my keyboard, then fed through Logic Pro's amps and compressors to give it a little more edge. The backing chords is a trance synth chord patch, but ran through similar effects as the guitar so it sort of mimics a really phat rhythm guitar. When composing this, I envisioned it would work well for a racing or speedy platformer game, so I tried to create a distinctive lead guitar melody like you'd hear in F-Zero.
Many of these cues are on the shorter side for the purpose of serving as demo tracks. Another thing I am working toward is being able to create scores that are highly adaptive. As in fading out different instrument groups depending on the game situation's intensity, and each transition between scenes having an appropriate ending, or a transition for the sake of changing tempos or modulating, or even just fading out. Just in case you're interested in that sort of thing.
If you'd like to hear anything more, like some of my older tracks or whatnot, please let me know. The personality in your character concepts is great inspiration for themes and motifs.
