Moving Back to Omaha!

Joseph, Look and See – Premiere Performance

Bandcamp, How I Love Thee

Feedburner Email Subscriptions – Where Are My Photos?

I don’t exactly have the answer to that question yet…  At least definitively.  But I am going to test a few things out with this post.  Yep, more live testing, but it’s the best way to see results…  Good or bad.  So I will try to accomplish two things:

1.  Embed my Logo into the post via Feedburner’s Feed Image Burner and Flickr.

2.  Make the photos you see in the actual post appear in the email.  For this, I have installed a plugin that changes the image URLs to “absolute URLs.”  Appropriately enough, it’s called URL Absolutifier.  Since I am limited on time right now, I’m just going to shoot from the hip and see if it works.  If not, I’ll move on to stage 2:  Actual Research

If this works, there will be a logo in the email subscription email and an image of the MTT Blog Banner.

Feel free to report results…  Also, if you have any suggestions on the best time to have email subscriptions delivered in general, please let me know.  Thanks for reading!

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

Feedburner RSS Feed Changes – File Too Big

Subscribe by Email – An Easier Way to Follow

Gallery of Living Art 2010

Gallery of Living Art, March 2010

A Pleasant Surprise & The Gallery of Living Art 2010

Sonar 8 – Features and First Experiences

It thought about re-titling this post “Why it is Dangerous to Play with DAWs” or “Knowing Just Enough to be Dangerous” or “Don’t Try This at Home” or “How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Brass Quartet,” but since I couldn’t decide between them, I stuck with the original title. After all, this is a re-post of the very first article I wrote for Music Tech Talk, at which time, no one even knew this blog existed. Now that a few more people have run across my ramblings on various musical and technological subjects and I can post to multiple platforms all at once using (you guessed it) Posterous, I will re-introduce the first couple of articles. Besides, I doubt too many people really have time to go back and look at every article on someone’s blog archives. I know I don’t. Read more »

Joseph, Look and See – SATB & Piano

There’s nothing I love more, musically speaking, than finishing a new piece. Today I finished a new Christmas choral work called Joseph, Look and See. It was composed for friend and director, Chris Latta.

I try to tailor works, as closely as I can, to an ensemble’s needs. JLS turned out very well, even while sticking to certain requirements. In fact, sometimes it is actually easier to write given certain criteria, because it helps to focus the compositional process. I was particularly happy with the interplay between the piano and choral parts. Generally, I try to make both equally interesting and complementary.

The following example uses a string sound in place of the choral MIDI sound, because I find the strings to have more in common with the texture of real voices than most synthetic vocal textures seem to.

Score samples can be found on the Detail Page page or here.

Next, I will move on to my big project… Transcribing the orchestral version of Chorus of Psalms to be performed by organ and chorus. More on that topic later…

Christmas Choral Music Scores – Package Pricing

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Christmas choral scores now available through D. M. Gardner Music at a package price.

SAVE 20% off retail prices by purchasing as a package!

This full-spectrum choral selection features pieces for all ranges of your choir, highlighting the full range of talent your choir has to offer.

This package includes:

The First Noel (SSAA)
Precious Child (SATB)
Christ My Savior (TTBBBB)

Note: This package contains only a cappella scores.

Visit this link to take advantage of this great collection of Christmas scores or to learn more about these pieces.

Why I Self-Publish

I have only attempted to publish 4 of my works outside of D. M. Gardner Music. Of those 4, all were published successfully. However, I quickly began to have emotional issues with signing away rights to my compositions, as I have invested many hours and potentially shortened my lifespan significantly by writing them. Much more than a product, I wanted to market my music for what it really is… A deeply personal, introspective expression of various aspects of faith, love, family, humor and life in general.

One of the pieces that I think best exemplify this is Annette. I wrote this piece as a gift for J. Roger Wilson’s and his wife, Annette’s, wedding anniversary. It was hard not to be moved by the beautiful words that Roger had penned, making it that much easier to write the music.

I rely on friends, associations, networking and a few good Google searches to get my work out there. Except, of course, for those ensembles I am specifically writing music for, everyone else trips upon my music by word-of-mouth or happenstance. While I sell significantly fewer scores this way, I make significantly more on each sale, allowing me to invest 80+% of profits toward the creation of new music. So, instead of people supporting the welfare of publishing companies, they are supporting only the future of compositions by D. M. Gardner (me).

Pieces like Precious Child have actually received solicitation by publishers and have been very popular overall, receiving numerous performances. Precious Child is the perfect example of the type of music that could potentially sell in much greater numbers through a big publisher. …And though I have not completely ruled out that possibility, I am currently content to sell to those people who happen to come across my site. That way, I am sure they picked this particular piece because they liked it, not because it came in a package deal with a bunch of other scores.

This is probably as close as I will get to becoming a court composer for the wealthy, as that concept seems to be a bit antiquated. It’s a good thing I am not in this for the money. Unless, of course, that means spending it on my passions rather than making it. My philosophy on spending money business-wise is that if I don’t make it, I can’t spend it. Therefore, it is imperative that I see a least a little profit from sales of my music, or I will eventually have to stop marketing my music all together.

The good news is, I will still continue to write music even if I end up broke doing it. That is because my passion for this medium of expression far outweighs any potential gain I might receive from writing it. And as I said, I am still making sales and commissions, so there is hope for further development of my self-publishing concept. In the future, I hope to help others publish their music as well.

Classical Hip-hop

I am always a little puzzled as to why so many people out there don’t seem to like classical music. It is the basis from which pretty much all of the music today is formed. We wouldn’t enjoy most of the movies we can think of without it… Taking a greater interest in the foundation of western music can only serve to enhance one’s musical endeavors.

Recently, I received an email from my kid’s teacher asking for help motivating the students to go to the symphony on a field trip, as they all seemed to think it would be boring. Even I will admit that symphonic concerts are often way over-programmed, but the music is beautiful, exciting and intellectually stimulating none-the-less. Leave at intermission, if you must. I’ve talked to many people who seem to have nothing good to say about classical music, but I wonder how many of them would tell me they actually hated listening to Dvorak’s New World Symphony or Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. I think people secretly like a lot of classical music (or would if they heard the right selections), they just don’t know or realize it. Maybe no one has the patience for it in this fast-paced society in which we live. It would be a very interesting experiment to take a random group of people and subject them to a selection of great classical music to find out what they really think of it.

Some artists have, of course, already successfully merged various style of music, including classical. Miri Ben-Ari comes to mind as an obvious example of success in this arena. Her classical/jazzy violin style do a lot to add to the texture and enhance the quality of music she is performing. Here’s what Wynton Marsalis has to say about her work:

“Miri’s playing is wonderful, beautiful, exquisite, unpredictable, original and spontaneous. Her creative energy can set a band on fire and it does!” -Wynton Marsalis

Visiting her website, you will no doubt get the impression that she leans a little more toward Hip-hop than classical, at least in wardrobe… One thing for sure in the world of pop music in general is that image is everything. Perhaps the greatest obstacle faced in my case is that I am definitely not the popular image of anyone associated with this kind of music. I’m am certain I could never pull that off. Is there a category of Hip-hop for nerds?

With all that in mind, I embarked on a collaboration with a fellow artist known as Phoenix Jay. He is a Hip-hop artist, and I am obviously a classically trained musician and composer. I wanted to see how much I could manage to fuse his art with mine and still make it work. As mentioned in previous posts, this was a much more difficult task than I had supposed it would be. At first, the two mediums seemed incompatible, but once I learned the standard forms used by the Hip-hop artist, the kinds of sounds and orchestration they require, and what a “beat” is in Hip-hop terminology, I was good to go. I rather enjoyed the challenge and will likely try to compose some more beats in the future. Hopefully, this sort of collaboration will not only yield a fresh, new sound, it will also give those out there with a low opinion of classical music a better perspective on it’s usefulness and validity.

Alien Downlink

Alien Downlink: Trailer from Alien Downlink on Vimeo.

I can’t say enough about the awesomeness of this website. What an incredibly imaginative concept. Refreshingly enough, not only is the concept good, but so is the music. I have a couple of favorites. This one is funny.

I Wanna Be An Alien’s Pet

This one is just cool… And filled with a wisdom regarding an understanding of our culture’s view on what would be termed drug use, versus self-medication, versus dulling a headache. A snippet of the lyrics below gives you a good feel for the context.

Don’t Do Drugs

An excerpt from the Don’t Do Drugs lyrics:

“…and earlier today, federal agents raided a house suspected of being at the center of a local marijuana growing operation. The bust yielded five marijuana plants and also resulted in the arrest of the home’s owner, a 76 year-old grandmother who had to be rushed to the hospital after agents mistook her cup of tea for a handgun and shot her 24 times.”

Don’t do drugs! Unless it’s…
Ibuprofen, codeine, morphine, oxycodone, cephalexin, sertraline, prednisolone
They’ll make ya feel good!
Methadone, diazepam, hydrocodone, lidocaine, sildenafil citrate
Your wife says that you should!
Side effects may include anxiety, sweating, headaches, and a week of blurry vision.
But it’s alright because your pusher wrote your prescription.

And finally, a hilarious documentary that chronicles the discovery and revelation of signals from the depths of space… That happen to be Rock N’ Roll. Awesome.

Alien Downlink: Analysis Video #1 – Introduction from Alien Downlink on Vimeo.

Music Without Technology?

In a way, I am a purist. My favorite music will probably always be the work of the masters. But in another way, I have always been fascinated with technology. Sometimes, I am frustrated with the use of technology in place of musicians, but I like what it does for me in terms of creativity and productivity.

Technology in general is fascinating and ever-changing. I love to acquire new software or equipment, then to learn everything I can about that newly acquired toy. Initially, I probably waste way too much time messing with the software and not enough time composing. So, my future efforts will concentrate on integrating the music with the tech in a compositional, rather than purely practical sense. I started to explore some of these options in projects mentioned in earlier posts, such as Stare Wars, HL2, Thinkin’ of You, etc. These were student projects. However, I now plan to incorporate technology into some of my serious work.

I think that this combination of music and tech in a serious form should be approached with discretion. I don’t think throwing everything my software or hardware will let me do into a “classical” piece will work. My initial thoughts on how to use technology involve scene painting in regard to specific themes, scenes, ideas or emotions. I want to think of my tech voice as another member of the orchestra that adds character to a piece where needed. I want the music to be the focus, not the tech. I want to avoid changing the style of music I compose to fit the tech. It should be the other way around.

A lesson learned in my early experimentation with technology in music revealed at least one universal truth:

Using live, real instruments is ALWAYS the best scenario, but not always the most practical scenario.

Clearly, a midi performance, even with the best technology and mastering, will never fully emulate the nuance, quality and individuality of human performance. A dilemma is presented in my mind when I consider the game music industry and its heavy reliance on synthetic or sampled sounds. I think what they do is great and certainly on a similar talent level, perhaps an even greater creative level than other forms of composition. Even game composers will add at least one live musician when given the chance, and would probably jump at the chance to have their scores performed by a live orchestra. In their case, it comes down to a matter of practicality, rather than an intentional replacement of musicians.

Universal truth amendment #1:

Using live, real instruments is ALWAYS the best scenario, but not always the most practical scenario… Unless the instrument you are using is uniquely synthetic. That is, not a reproduction of something that already exists.

A second dilemma is created in my mind when I consider the impact that gaming music has on a generation that might not otherwise be exposed to this style of music. Some people are almost obsessed with game themes, as they are no doubt reminded of the many engrossing hours spent mastering the game. Games themselves would be empty shells of the virtual without any sense of reality if it were not for the finely crafted scores of game music composers.

This raises yet a third dilemma. Despite all of my concerns with the balance between music and tech, I find myself becoming increasingly interested in creating game music. As I continue to plan the course of my musical endeavors, I am gravitating toward this fascinating musical art form as a perfect combination of interests. I love music. I love technology. After all, those are the same reasons I decided to study music technology in pursuit of a degree.

The solution to these dilemmas (concerning my current plans to integrate technology into my serious compositions) lies in the balance and discretion that I mentioned earlier. Balance, in that the tech does not replace or overshadow the real… Discretion, in that those voices and effects chosen to enhance a musical composition truly add to the composition, help tell the story, or set the proper mood… Preferably these voices and effects will be unique to the world as an utterance of the digital creation of original media. Production, not reproduction. Enhancement, not replacement.

Here is a short summary of rules that I am forming in preparation for my new compositional theories and concepts:

1. The inclusion of technology in classical music should be approached with great discretion

2. Live music and musicians are always the best scenario vs. a simulation of the same

3. Synthetic voices should be used to compliment a score, not dominate

4. The musical form or style should not be slave to the addition of technology

5. The creative process should include the consideration of all available instrumentation, real or digital

6. Digital instrumentation should be limited to those voices that are uniquely technological

7. The same care and attention should be given to the creation of music that involves technology as those that are traditionally conceived

If it isn’t traditionally conceived, then it needs to sound that much better in order to compensate for the lack of realism. Thus, rule 7 was born. I think there is a tendency in my mind to think of music composed using virtual instrumentation as less serious. This is likely because I have been trying to use virtual means to reproduce what is intended to be live music. Here, I am discussing the prospect of using uniquely digital instrumentation to augment traditional orchestration as an actual part of the live performance.

While, in many ways I am a purist, I believe that the inclusion of technology as a part of live performance is a necessary exploration. I do not want to sacrifice the creative process for the conceit that real instrumentation is always better than digital. To fully exploit the added productivity and creativity that technology offers, I must make an attempt to fully integrate music with technology in my future musical endeavors.

Too Much Technology? NEVER!

Is there a such thing as too much technology for your studio? Really, do I have to even ask the question? Of course there isn’t. Having technology available at your fingertips just makes it that much easier to do and create projects exactly as you have imagined them. The real tragedy lies in not having enough technology to accomplish your goals.

Now, my studio is just a few components all mixed together, thus, not really a studio at all. However, I have just made two exciting additions to my setup… A 32″ monitor (using it at 720P via HDMI) and an HK 5.1 surround sound receiver! Overkill you say? Well, first let me explain why I added these components.

It really has to do with the fact that I moved all of my A/V equipment downstairs so I could dedicate the upstairs to living and the downstairs to more recreational affairs. Not only is the room perfect for surround sound and the LCD TV,

The Setup (Relevant Components):

- AMD Athlon 64 PC; 3 GB RAM; 500MB ATI GPU; Windows XP
- 19″ LCD 16×9 Monitor @ 1440×900 + 32″ LCD 16×9 Monitor @ 1280 x 720 (720P) (Extended display)
- Sony DVD-R
- Sony DV Camera
- PSR-3000 Keyboard
- Samson CO1U Studio Condensor Mic
- Yamaha UW10 Audio Interface (16bit)

Note: My system may not seem like the hottest thing on the market, but consider that it seems to take half the amount of RAM to run XP as it does to run Vista. Personally, I see no reason to upgrade right now.

Main Software I Currently Use:

- Finale 2009
- Sonar 8
- Adobe Design Premium CS4
- A bunch of free video and audio editing programs from NCH Software
- Gimp (for image editing)

That’s it really. That’s all the hardware and software I have to work with. Not too exciting, but it does the trick.

New Found Benefits:

- All of my recording and editing can be done in one location, as well as playback

- The audio sounds much better now through the HK receiver. I’m still pumping it through the Yamaha UW10 before it gets to the receiver for now. I could go 5.1 out of the on-board audio. Still need to get some near-field monitors speaker though.

- Everything is 2.5 times larger now.

Note: Keep in mind, the right 2/3 of the above screen shots appear approx 2.5 times larger than the images on the left 1/3. The screen shot eliminates this effect.

- I definitely do not have to strain to see anything
- I can play all my games in High Definition and the field of view is so large that I feel Like I am actually in the game.
- Netflix online videos play very clean and with surprisingly good resolution with no need to change my setup
- I can watch a movie and use the computer at the same time without using a laptop
- Icons are the size of my thumb

- My video frames per second (fps) have tripled! Using the DVI to HDMI cable has apparently lessened the load on my PC overall, presumably by requiring less effort in the conversion process. I watched my fps jump to an amazing 258 fps in some areas using the highest resolution and texture settings in CoD2 (way too much, but cool anyway). Most moderate game play areas hung around about 140 fps. Intense game play hovered between 55 and 90 fps. Needless to say, there was no lag or visible refresh rate. The most amazing thing is that these huge increases were gained by playing the game at a much better resolution… in HD (720p)!

Note: I can play it in 1080i, but lacking the progressive version of 1080, I like the way 720p looks.

– Half-Life 2 can be played at FULL resolution and perfect clarity
- CoD4 looks sharper than ever and almost all of the lag I was previously experiencing has ceased (didn’t check the fps).

Those are just some of the immediate benefits I could think of off the top of my head. There is a very interesting post from a professional game music composer (Breaking In as a Composer, Part II) that basically says you need a minimum of $14,000+ of software and equipment to even get a foothold in the gaming industry. I can’t remember if he mentioned needing a gigantic monitor anywhere, but it certainly can’t hurt. Anyway… As you can see, I am nowhere near that threshold, so I have a lot of catching up to do. Right now I’ll have to just be content to play the games and hope to win the lottery.

So, the moral of the story is…

Let's All Write A Story Together… And Some Music!

The Lost Book (thelostbook.net) is a collaborative, online, digitally-animated story, “written” by fans, even scored by fans in some cases.

Click Here for a more in-depth explanation of the concept…Or just read these next two paragraphs from their website for a summary:

You can do two things to join the storywriting team. There will always be a post on the home page inviting suggestions – about the plot or characters. If you’ve got a great idea, tell us about it by leaving a comment. Don’t be shy!

Or, there’s also a poll (sometimes two!) in the sidebar to the right. We use these to collect together everyone’s ideas and choose the best. You can let us know which storylines you prefer by casting a vote.

And just in case you missed the profundity of this “experiment,” here’s a quote to remind you:

“The most interesting collaborative book-writing experiment of the decade” Jasper Fforde

I agree, it is, at least, a most interesting way to write a book… I watched some of the actual videos and wasn’t exactly spellbound, but certainly intrigued. …Intrigued by the concept.

“You see, the thing about animation is that it’s all visual. You can only see it – there’s nothing to hear but silence. Animated characters can’t speak for themselves; even their footsteps are soundless.”

Cool, right? Well, here’s the part I really like. Not only do they use real musicians (Scottish Chamber Orchestra… for the real episode anyway) and commission composers, they have a competition for soundtracks too!

Soundtrack Winners
More Info On Soundtrack Competition

Check out these winning entries:

Check this one out only if you aren’t afraid to be out-composed by a 16 year old:

Good work… And good luck on the High School graduation.

Highly Commended:

Oh, there is one little trick… The competitors don’t actually get to have their music in the final soundtrack. Here’s the REAL soundtrack with the episode. You will note that the soundtrack is a recording of live musicians:

I found it very interesting to listen to and compare the different entries and the final version of the soundtrack. The Lost Book certainly offers some unique opportunities for composers and fans in general. I wonder if many of the fans involved are more interested in the process and concept like me, or the actual story. Either way, this project is certainly worth following.

I almost forgot to mention… The final episode comes out tomorrow, the 24th of July!

Torley Jams and Torley Demos

So, I ran across this guy’s YouTube video. Turns out, he has a lot of them. This one is particularly cool and one of the finest examples around of improv, at least that I have seen with this style of music. Torley is a very up-beat character that happens to have a lot of great information and demonstrations on just about every facet of music technology, it seems. I suggest checking out his website at http://torley.com/.

You will discover that he also has a wide range of textures (visual) created by him, available to you. If technology or music don’t do it for you, surely you can use a little lift by watching the crazy antics Torley brings to every video.

Below is his “Friendly Synth Breakdance Jam.” Oh, and get ready to dance!

Critics of the video you just watched have issues with the feet on the keyboard thing. Hey, maybe they stink, but his skills sure don’t. I think he may have fallen asleep during part of this recording…

Next is more of why I am so interested in Torley’s work. Here is a video he uses to give you a demo of Audio Ease Speakerphone. This software simulates real and unreal audio environments. If you are like me before I got into audio editing, you are probably wondering what use this would really be to you. Well, once you’ve had a chance to dabble in the audio editing arts, you very quickly realize that sound environment can be one of the most useful tools in your arsenal. It doesn’t come with a Torley plug-in though. I’m not sure that can ever be accurately simulated.

**Some mild language contained in the following video–You are hereby notified**

Star Wars – Not Me This Time… Or Him

This YouTube video has been incredibly popular (well over 5 million views), but I think a lot of people think the guy in the video is actually singing it… Well, he’s not. It’s a group from Utah called Moosebutter. It’s not nearly as cool once you know that little fact. The guy in the video comes right out and says it’s not him, but if you just watch the video, you will never know…

I’m not just writing about this video because I like it. I actually thought it was a good example of what you do with music technology. Granted, in this case most of the technology used by the video guy was video software, but it obviously relates directly to music. What is so cool about the video, is just how well he was able to lip-sync and match up his movements to the recording. Amazingly accurate, really. Or maybe I was just too distracted by the cool music to notice. Plus, he seems like a funny and likable dude. Apparently, his collaboration with Moosebutter went so well, they are working with each other on several new projects. I listened to a few other of their songs, and I wasn’t nearly as impressed… But you can go to their site and buy their Star Wars theme if you are so inclined.