There were dozens of custom audio tools that I also developed as a part of this project—some software, some hardware. For example, I ran into a problem early in the production where I wanted to layer both pickup signals of my guitar simultaneously and discretely with different amplifier and effects settings, but this functionality was not readily possible with electric guitars, so my friend Ryan and I collaborated on a multi-pickup audio jack , which, ultimately, gave me this functionality. This was used on many songs and is particularly helpful on single-guitar power trio songs like “the Spark” and “Disengage”—you can hear some of the capabilities of using multiple timbres from different pickups (two magnetic pickups and one piezo pickup) from a single instrument source in order to produce a layered sound—each discrete signal evolves and decays at different rates, so even a single boring note has a novel dimensional quality. There were a variety of other hardware mods to electronics and instruments as part of the recording process including this 12-string electric guitar conversion, which can be heard prominently on "Recurrence" and "How I Love You". There were also lots of software systems I developed to process the sounds in novel ways for particular compositions like this unique delay effect, which can be heard on "Disengage".

It was important to me that I distinguished the timbres between the various musical characters in this story; that is, I wanted all of the recordings for the soundtrack and the score to feel like they belonged to the same universe, but I wanted each musical band/ensemble/entity to have its own distinct voice. The main ensemble in the story evolves in their musicianship skills over time, and they also compose and peform music in a few different styles—I tried to allow these pieces to reflect these musicianship differences while also retaining elements of their original timbre to some degree—that was challenging. Part of my approach to accomplishing this was to keep the timbres of each instrument consistent throughout the story—despite changes in both time and style—and to, by and large, allow the compositions and the production to change considerably; specifically, I dedicated specific instruments, amplifiers, effects, and so on to different characters in the story and didn't allow two characters to use, for example, the same drum kit sound—this is a subtle detail, I know. I ultimately made a variety of "sound templates " for each ensemble in the story—even though the music performed may vary greatly in style for a given ensemble, the limited timbral palette, I feel, helps unify these pieces. Additionally, the re-amping process was a critical part of our production and ultimately helped the many disparate ensembles that perform throughout the story (with different timbres, styles, effects, etc.) to have a unified sound; you can get a closer look at the analog hardware we used for re-amping and the settings we used by downloading this "Recall Sheet" tool I created—a convenient alternative to paper recall sheets typically used in a studio when dialing in device settings. The timbre allocations for each ensemble are noted herein:

—I performed all of the electric guitar parts associated with the character "Lylia" on one of my many Parker Fly guitars.
—I performed all of the bass guitar parts associated with the characters "Lylia" and "Jacob" on this Parker Fly Bass ; the character "Jacob" also played a rhythm guitar part on "Tears", which I performed on a Moog E-1 guitar.
—I performed all of the guitar parts associated with characters in "United Band" on this Fender Telecaster and this Partscaster .
—I performed all of the electric guitar parts associated with the character "Gene" on this Fender Stratocaster and this Parker NiteFly
—I performed all of the electric guitar parts associated with the guitarist of "Tessitura" on this T4RS-equipped Gibson SG , and with the band "Visigoth" on this Parker Fly Deluxe .
—I performed all of the acoustic guitar parts throughout the story on two Parker Fly Concert guitars (one tuned in B standard like a baritone) processed through this Fishman Aura Sixteen , and on this mic'd Ken Parker acoustic archtop guitar, and this mic'd and DI'd Takamine flattop acoustic guitar.
—I performed all of the nylon string guitar parts in the score on this Parker Fly Nylon and in the story on this Godin Multiac .
—I performed additional bass guitar parts on this Fender P-bass , Chris performed his bass parts on a Lakeland bass for "the Spark", "We Lift Our Hands", and the solo section of "Endlessly", I performed on a Hulse fretless bass on "Twins of a Gazelle" and a Spector 5-string bass on "You".
—I programmed all of the guitar amp sounds in Positive Grid Bias Amp and Bias FX.
—I sequenced/programmed all of the drum parts for use with Addictive Drums .
—I performed/recorded/programmed all of the piano parts for use with Addictive Keys ; all synthesizers through Native Instruments Kontakt, Massive, and FM8; all orchestral instrument parts through Miroslav Philharmonic and Native Instruments Kontakt.

One of my favorite aspects of the music for this story is the "Background Tracks", which play softly in certain scenes with some added ambience and room noise—the intention was the help readers feel like they're in the location while they're reading each scene. I had conceived of a feature in the interactive story we called " Focus ", which, when the "Focus" button is pressed, brings the background music to the forefront and reduces the ambient noises/filters—this is similar to the way, in real life, that one might focus on the music playing in a restaurant and tune out all of the ambient noise in the environment. The background tracks are an essential part of the immersive experience in my mind, so I wanted those tracks, too, to have a feel and timbres that were unlike the sounds of other ensembles in the story, so the instruments, amplifiers, effects, and so on used for background tracks vary widely, but, of course, don't overlap the tools used to make music by other characters.

Throughout the soundtrack to Fatal Fire are many musical references to compositions/composers that I really like—some of these references are more subtle than others. Additionally, there are a handful of works by composers that appear in more complete contexts within the story narrative as noted below:
—"Night and Dreams" (Nacht und Träume) composed by Franz Schubert
—"Sonatine" composed by Maurice Ravel
—"Bouree" from Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 4 in Eb major composed by J.S. Bach used in "Recital Hall Background"
—"Allemande" from French Suite No. 4 in Eb major composed by J.S. Bach and "Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 in E-flat major" by Frédéric Chopin used in "Inside Cali's Car"
—“In the Basement” features excerpts quoted in the style of by J.S. Bach, Niccolò Paganini , Ludwig van Beethoven , George Gershwin
—"Intermezzo" from Cavalleria rusticana composed by Pietro Mascagni used in "a Guitar with Electronics" along with "Bouree" by Robert de Visée used in "Effects", and "Little Fugue" by J.S. Bach used in "With a Pick".

All in all, the Fatal Fire production—the music/audio and the story/interactive platform—involved a small number of people (no robots, no AI, no ghosts...holy or otherwise, etc.). Every aspect of the story is completely free to experience—everything is unlocked for the reader as they continue to progress through each scene—but readers can, optionally, give some amount to the site to unlock the three main story albums. We then, in turn, take half of what we receive after transaction fees and give that to charities. The intention was to make the interactive site feel like a personal experience, so, in addition to it requiring a minimal amount of information in order to open an account, users can also write private notes on the page in the story as well as make bookmarks in the same way that one might scribble notes in the side margin of an actual book.