Claire Fitch
Claire Fitch is a composer, cellist and sound designer living in Ireland. As a cellist Claire has spent 10 years working in the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and studied at the Royal Academy of Music.She has shared her cello on stage and in the studio with artists such as U2, The Corrs, Shania Twain, Riverdance, Elmer Bernstein, Daniel O'Donnell and Michael Crawford. She also produces music for games and film through her web site: Fitchsounds. Her love of electronic music has encouraged the two CD Ambiencellist project. Combining the Thomas Smith cello, made in 1774, with the latest in synthesizers and effects, she has recorded beautiful music blending the smooth haunting sounds of the cello with the organic electronic sounds of the software synthesizer. There is a DVD and third CD currently in the pipeline.
How did you get into writing music and being in an orchestra?My formal musical training was at Birmingham Conservatoire and The Royal Academy of Music. In addition to expanding our principal and secondary instrument techniques we also learned everything from ear training and musicology skills to harmony and orchestration. After college I hit the audition trail and was thrilled to be offered a job with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. That was back in 1995, and since then I've worked as an orchestral musician for concerts, operas, ballets, CDs, films and live shows. In 2001 I decided to broaden my creative output and start producing my own music. This led me back to my original love of synths that had been ignited as a teenager and introduced me to the learning curve of building up my own studio using a Mac,Logic and lots of VST synths.
What projects have you used Camel Audio software on?
Right now I'm focusing on a third ambiencellist project which is just cello and effects. My main inspiration was listening to my cello played though CamelSpace and CamelPhat. The different instances of CamelSpace and CamelPhat have turned the cello sounds into swirling pads and sparkling percussive sounds.
Cameleon5000 was used in producing the underscore sections in my most recent film project Midnight In A Perfect World . Cameleon5000, Camel Space and Camel Phat are also being used in a space themed DVD project that is currently in production. Cameleon5000 was also a great addition to the bottom end of the games score I wrote for Dreadnought , developed by Torc Interactive. Basically I constantly use Camel products!
What do you like most about Cameleon 5000?
I like lots of things about Cameleon 5000: the sample import, the sound, the stability, the presets, the morph function, the random function and the ease of use.
What do you like most about Camel Space and Camel Phat?
On both of them I love the ease of use again, they both have a great amount of presets that can be tweaked to your hearts content. I love the CamelSpace step sequencer it's great for producing wonderful lines with the delays and gates.
What are your plans for the next year?There's a fantastic games project in the works for me that'll probably take up the next couple of years I reckon, but I can't tell you what it is yet. It should be announced soon I hope. There's lots more though: the DVD and ambiencellist CD are brilliant, and I'm looking forward to getting them pressed.
