I've been a big fan of 1970's Private-Eye TV shows, like Mannix, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, etc. and have always wanted to try my hand at writing thematic music for a fictional PI show. Since I recently read a book revolving around PI "Cash Register", written by Tai Baker (our own Al-David!), I combined these two and developed this track.

"Cash on the Case"

It contains 4 short themes, each 45-60 seconds, that might be used in key phases of the PI show:

1. Main Title Theme
2. The Girl (who is she? what does she really want?)
3. The Stalk (careful now--who might be lurking in that dark warehouse?)
4. The Chase (speeding cars or running down a back-alley)
5. Reprise, same as #1, just a bit fast tempo, over the closing credits.

I used some RT's, esp for jazz bass and drums, but most of it is midi content, and I used SampleTank3 principally.

For anyone who is interested in my methodology and approach, following are more notes.
--------------------------------
Seems to me, listening to soundtracks for these shows, esp those by Lalo Schifrin, 45-60 seconds is about all you have to state your case, musically. And you need to use styles and harmonics that evoke/compliment what is being shown visually. Here's a breakdown of each theme and the thought behind it.

Main Theme
The first few notes have to be a catchy phrase that the listener will always associate with the show and character. Plus, that small phrase is going to be used in other contexts (minor key, slower/faster) throughout the drama to tie it all in. I chose a simple 7th riff as my main hook, stated it right up front, then tried to repeat it in some of the other themes. I used RT's for drums and bass here, but did the rest in midi. I kept the instrument in the vein of a jazz combo (horns/vibes). It runs just about 60 seconds.

Girl Theme
FIRST, let me state that I'm a complete mysogonist when it comes to detective characters and authors--completely a male realm--sorry about that! So there's always a girl, some mysterious, sexy beauty who enters the story early, invariably introduced by some sultry, solitary sax riff--and so I have that here. And it seems to be based on a minor scale, maybe m9th. Then, as the action warms up a little, it seems like it always morphs into a gentle bossa, and I've done the same. I found the sax phrases in my SampleTank library, and used RT's for bossa drums and bass, otherwise all midi. Runs about 40 seconds.

Stalk Theme
These kinds of scenes are accompanied by a collection of random rhythm elements (a snare drum, a shake of a shaker) and isolated musical elements, like the piano low notes I used here. And, of course, diminished chord phrases to suggest mystery. I tried to place those main theme notes in there as a tie-in to the overall motif. No RT's, just midi sounds. Length = about 40 sec.

Chase Theme
RT's for jazz brushes and bass, tempo = 300bpm. Entire sequence chord harmony is Cm7. In order to get the fast solo's for vibes, I used the "Generate Midi Solo" feature and found "Long Phrases, Fast Tempos"..then tweeked some of the notes to get the flavor i wanted. There's also a cool "gliss down" sound that I got out of ST3. Time is about 40 sec. And--to end the 'chase' there's a familiar Cm-maj7th chord.

Reprise Theme
I just cut out 8 bars of the original track and sped it up a bit..seemed like, at the conclusion of the "show", you'd state the theme with a little more energy and speed.