Welcome one and all to Sound Portfolio, or more simply put, Alex's sound showoff arena.  This site is still an infant, not yet subjected to the harsh reality of the internet's dark alleyways, but you will find over the coming months I will continue to provide you all with new content.  I will begin by simply introducing myself...

I am not making a business out of this "free content" thing.  The truth is, I have a job and a family, and music is something that happens in my spare time.  I would *love* to be writing soundtracks for commercial games, films and anything else that requires music, but to me that seems a dream, something that might happen one day but until then, music must remain a hobby. But hey, Mr Big Producer guy, if you like my stuff, please contact me and we'll discuss contractual arrangements.

So anyway, I write tracks and make weird sounds in my own home, as I have done for the past 13 or so years.  My real passion at the moment is soundtracks.  I went through a whole techno-rave phase that put a pause on my musical development (well, I did learn to make a doof-doof beat and a womp-womp bass with some "vaccuum cleaner" sounds in between for good measure)...  But lately I have returned to ultimately trying to express and evoke emotion through the vehicle of sound.

Some might say I've had some small successes in this arena.  A few years ago, I crafted the menu theme for the GPL (free) Star Control "Timewarp" game, using Impulse Tracker, which was a pounding orchestral / electro mix up.  Then, not long after, I wrote a drum-and-bass influenced track that a friend described as "A rave in a gas line", but was good enough to be given a timeslot on RTRFM 92.1, which is a community run radio station in Perth, Western Australia.

More recently I have been working with the team from UFO - Alien Invasion, to provide soundtracks, sound effects and GUI sfx.  The feedback I have been getting is quite good, and many of the soundtracks and fx have already been added into the game.  On a side note, if you ever played Xcom, UFO Enemy Unknown, or any of the UFO / Xcom games, check out UFO - Alien Invasion - it is free, released under the General Public License, so without paying a cent you get a great game which is always being improved upon.

The reason I get involved with so many freeware projects is because the music I write would otherwise rot on my hard-drive.  Finding acceptance within the open source underground makes me feel accepted for my ability to sequence various noises into different arrangements which can, at times, please people's ears. I hope that my sounds are pleasing to your ears too.

Over time, I will continue to add to this website in order to build a library of free sounds (released under Creative Commons - see license details at the bottom of the page).  These sounds will be free, meaning you can download, edit, slice up, mash into 1000 compressors, include in your own games or movies (commercial or not).  The only catch is you must give credit to me.  Proper credit would be to add some text along with your production, such as "Song Title - Kindly provided by Alex Parker (www.soundportfolio.com)". 

If you do use any of the sounds off this website please contact me as I would love to hear where they end up and how they are used.