You are currently browsing the monthly Archive for February, 2008.
Honk if you love Barry Manilow? No, just “honk” the real thing; -hit the horn and hear Barry crooning “I Write The Songs”.
Just imagine hearing the sweet strains of Snoop Dog’s latest album (Ego Trippin’) the next time your sluggish acceleration irritates the guy driving behind you… Or maybe you’ll hear some “Seek and Destroy” (Metallica) as the blue-haired little old lady passes your worn-out jalopy, leaving you behind in a cloud of dust.
Car horns that play music? Yes, any MP3 is game if you purchase one of these $300 units from Horntones. I can just imagine the RIAA suing drivers to collect royalties every time someone honks with their Amy Winehouse “Rehab” honker… OR load in your favorite movie lines; -the possibilities are endless!
(Thanks Earfarm)
This Youtube video demonstrates how our ears use volume differences between them to create the “effect” of location. (this example works best with headphones, but you can still get the idea…)
Try the other 4 neat ear tricks here: (thanks, Musicthing)
Sample friend twitter names to shizzle:
paulandstorm
jonathancoulton
Bloody Red Moon Alert! (An eclipse pic from my house).
Top things to bring with you for a recording gig. (fun list from Matt at AudioGeekZine).
More progress on the studio at Gemini Pines (new pics are up!) (DMMobile Studio).
Earfarm blew my mind with this post about Prokofiev’s Alexandre Nevsky score (earliest music video). This movie sorta helped start the Cold War (from the Russian side); –I need to show it to my classes! (Actually, I own a copy!).
MediaFuturist’s new book is out…go buy Music 2.0!
It was only a matter of time before someone offered a sample library of the Balinese Gamelan orchestra (thanks, Harmony Central).
What on earth are you ever going to do with all those old vinyl records in your closet? Our Digital Music has a suggestion. Analog=Art.
GuitarFlame has suggestions for increasing your blog’s traffic (hey, I should probably go re-read that one!).
Paul and Storm are out to win Jonathan Coulton’s T-Shirt Design Contest. (That’s not how the Godfather of Geek Rock really looks, Paul…)
ProtoolsTraining Blog reminds us how to set up time-saving templates.
Moozek has discovered nifty new ProTools keyboard covers!
That’s about it, folks… Happy Wednesday!
WiretotheEar shared this yesterday and I’ve had more fun with it than is sanely possible.
I downloaded a new Remixing program today after reading about it on Jonathan Savage’s blog. I’m a hip dude; I can remix!
Features:
1. It’s free.
2. It has beatmapping. (i.e. tempo stretching without pitch changes.) And it has rudimentary Beat Detection (estimation).
3. Support for MIDI devices (basic MIDI controllers), Serato timecode (for scratch tracking) and Hercules DJ control surfaces.
4. Open Source, so you have a community of developers/tweakers out there to expand the product.
Results:
I started the program and immediately chose the wrong directory for my music files! Luckily, I could change this under preferences…
Adding music was easy; I pulled songs from the desktop to the center media list and could easily select which player I wanted to load the file onto. So far, so good. Hit the play button; –it plays! Tug on the balance slider; –Fatal Error!
Ok…I’ll try again…maybe it will work this time….oops! (CRASH!).
You might have some success with this freeware; I didn’t (I was using my office PC (running Windows XP, sp2).
I hate to give this a bad rating, though…it showed a lot of promise!
Anyone else wanna try it?
First Tracks is having a songwriting competition and I think you should enter something.
You have to hurry; the contest closes on Feb. 27th, 2008. Here are the basic rules:
1. Must be U.S. Resident.
2. May be individual or band (up to 4 members).
3. All songs must be entirely original and the recording less than 1 year old.
What do I win? Well…you get a choice of $20,000 cash or an EP commercially recorded, produced and distributed by Decca Records.
Who are the judges? You are! Just like American Idol…sort of. There are 3 rounds of online public voting, then a 4th round where the Decca brass and A&R folks get a vote (they’re actually voting in round #3; the public has the final vote!).
Interested? Go here.
I’m a Jonathan Coulton fan. I learned about him when he started touring with my friends Paul and Storm. This People of the Web segment from Yahoo News features JoCo’s story and has a neat little video; -some parts were filmed when I saw him in Atlanta a few months ago. I haven’t spotted my wife or myself in the video yet, but we’re there somewhere!
as played by heavy metal artists Children of Bodom. It’s amazing the amount of classical training you find in “non-classical” artists; I remember meeting A.J. Pero, drummer of Twisted Sister fame, in a clinic and realizing the incredible depth of musicianship that can get hidden behind long hair and stage makeup. Did he sell out? He made more $$ w/ Twisted Sister than any timpanist…so could anyone blame him? And maybe he’s able to have more fun now that he’s entered a new phase: Circle of Thorns.
In true Listenerd tradition (except he always posts phonographs)… Hey, guys, I’m sorry for not posting more; truth is, I still feel very sick. I’ll make it up to you somehow!
This clip is of Gary Burton; one of my heros and perhaps the most influential jazz vibraphonist in the whole world. He also runs Berklee School of Music.
Producer Don Was shares good music, interviews and undiscovered artists. I can’t get the player to embed, but here’s the link to it:
http://www.mydamnchannel.com/channel.aspx?episode=448
Here’s a vid of a band member from Switchfoot passing out from the flu while onstage. I know this feeling very well; Since this flu grabbed me Friday, I’ve passed out twice during my Sunday organist gig and then once during the afternoon rehearsal for the university’s musical. Last night I passed out while Tessa was waiting at Taco Bell for her fast food order. It’s really creepy not being in control of one’s own body…kinda like an out-of-body experience. One minute I was playing, the next minute I’m surrounded by people asking me if I’m OK. Anybody got any really good cures for this crud?
My wife and I didn’t go to the Grammy Night viewing party with the Atlanta Chapter this year. Good thing, too; -’cause I’m sick as can be with bronchitis/flu symptons. I will probably not make it in to work tomorrow, and I really hate missing another day of school.
Anyway, enough of my whining. You can view the awards list here, with the winners highlighted in RED.
Congress passes a higher ed funding bill that requires colleges & universities to deal with the illegal downloading on campuses. (webware via future of music blog).
John Mellencamp demands John McCain stop using his songs for campaign events. (WTOP via future of music blog).
Gerd Leonhard (MediaFuturist Blog) recommends a book predicting what the future holds for the music industry.
Hometracked shares some Vocal EQ Tips.
Protooler shares a link where you can get PDF files to make your own ProTools shortcut stickers.
Guitarflame asks “where do you find your music?”.
Listenerd shares a link to a company that has used pitch to MIDI conversion to create a version of Guitar Hero that is usable with real guitars Plus, it also offers a teaching mode to help you learn new songs. Cool!
Music Row reports that Warner Music Group’s head is under investigation by French authorities for insider trading. Bad, Edgar, Bad!
Musicthing has posted the strangest accordian equipment review ever. (I’ve never seen an accordian do anything like that!).
Seth Godin’s post on deciding what to make could speak to musicians. Rewrite it yourself only with a focus on making music.
Good Musician shares tips on how to get young children interested in playing an instrument.
I’m not originally an Erykah Badu fan, but after seeing her on Before the Music Dies (a great video!!), I had to catch this review of her new music video on Killed by the Video Star’s site. As I watched it, my grins turned to guffaws…she’s probably one of the most intelligent artists out there today! I won’t give away the cool stuff, but it’s a real trip down memory lane in the spirit of RHCP’s Dani California vid.
A response to Guitarflame’s Dreaming of a Perfect Guitar post :
Friday.
Our music building’s heat is stuck on and my office is about 80 degrees. Outside it’s 56 degrees. When the humidity is high and the temperature gets hot, I start thinking about playing the blues. My favorite blues guitar setup is a Gibson Classical w/ a pyrex bottle slide. Why? Because it’s not loud, it’s warm sounding and not too whiney.
The dobro is the classic instrument for slide blues playing. I have a O.M.I. steel dobro from the 1989 era (one of the last ones made before Gibson acquired the company from Mary Lipzak after George died (Sp?)). I remember her attending the NAMM show in the late 1980s; –she looked like the typical sweet grandmother and she had her OMI Dobro guitars displayed in a booth and she sat in a chair working on sewing or knitting something (I can’t remember which). I couldn’t resist talking with her and felt a strong need to help her out. That day, my company became a Dobro dealer and I walked away knowing I’d have to tell the boss that I’d buy the expensive engraved one if it didn’t sell.
I ordered one like this: (pic from Brothers in Arms album from Dire Straits).
Long story, but Mary kept calling me and telling me she had trouble delivering because the welding guy wasn’t showing up for work, then she didn’t have an engraver anymore. Desperate to try to get one of what might have been the last of these ever made, I asked if they had any finished that they could substitute for my engraved one. She said she had a “baby blue” one. So that’s what I have. No engraving, just a baby blue blues guitar. That weighs a ton and makes my leg fall asleep when I play it for very long. In fact, you might say it gives me the blues every time I play it!
Pic by Zikinf
Studio trickery uncovered; –film at 11.
After a 24-hr lag in finding or thinking of anything to post, I stumbled upon this goodie:
Hometrack’s Top 10 worst Auto-tune abuses. (see original post for offender list).
http://www.hometracked.com/mp3/hometracked-autotune-abuse.mp3
It’s amazing the number of folks who can’t sing on pitch that go on to become entertainers. Auto-tune keeps ‘em in business. Too bad they sound like mutant replicants from the planet Zeno.
Auto-tune is the Antares plug-in that allows engineers to correct bad singing. In the hands of an amateur, the results can be bad. My old protools trainer, Shawn Simpson was a great vocal tuner and I believe he insisted on editing every syllable manually, even though Auto-Tune was available. I’m still groovin’ on Melodyne (recommended by Shawn) and I try to do things just like my teacher. Imagine that!
This is a cool video tip I found at http://www.recordbetteraudio.com/ :
The clinician is Terry Howard (3 time grammy award winner).
From Gearslutz via ProTooler here’s an interesting (albeit slow-paced) video review of the C|24 from Digidesign.
10 Bloopers that made it on the final album. Priceless.
Check it out here:
See, guys; –the good of the whole outweighs the problems. We don’t have to be perfect (but it helps).
If you thought this was entertaining, then try:
All Linkin Park songs look alike. Classic!
Thanks and credits to www.hometracked.com for assembling these!
KilledbytheVideoStar posted a review of this great blast from the past:
Blind Melon’s No Rain (the one with the girl dressed as a bumblebee).
First of all, he’ll have to pick a rap name, but Bill Cosby is reportedly working on a new rap album dealing with issues such as crime, parenting, drug abuse and teen pregnancy. (AllHipHop.com) . Judging from the comments on this rumor, the hiphop community is not taking it very seriously. Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch Blog says:
Cosby’s drawn a healthy amount of criticism for what some call overly broad, reactionary attacks on a younger generation’s culture. What could he possibly do with a mic, other than embarrass himself?
I’m actually hoping it will be great. You go, Bill!
No, they’re not going to play @$%&ing “Stonehenge”….
The Sundance Film Festival had a rock-umentary this year titled
It’s a story of the amazing persistence of a Canadian metal band that never broke through to stardom. In some of the interview clips, I get this Spinal Tap deja-vu feeling. You can decide for yourself, though if this is a case of the music industry ignoring great talent or just another semi-pro band that didn’t have the material. Read the rest of this entry »
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