Music, Technology, and What-nots

Adventures at tide pools

Wed, 6 Apr 2011 13:43:14 -0400

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Amazon Say ‘Beat-le This’ iTune!

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:33:03 -0500

The Beatles catalog is on iTunes now. OK. That’s a little interesting.

But...the songs are exclusive to iTunes, and not available on Amazon. CAT FIGHT. The claws have come out.
Amazon is offering the CDs for $7.99. If you have Prime Shipping membership, you can get your order with free shipping in 2 days.

The stereo box set (list $259.98) is $129, and the mono box set (list $298.98) is also $129.

iTunes has the stereo box set to download for $149 and the single albums for $12.99. The mono box set isn’t offered.
Amazon’s prices are the cheapest I’ve ever seen (except for Chinese knock offs) and I bought both sets when they first came out.

Why wouldn’t anybody rather have the actual CDs that can be copied anywhere, for cheaper, rather than the iTunes downloads that gets hung up in iTunes world?

You gotta love capitalism sometimes. Amazon says “Beat This” meow...hisss

___________________________________

follow up: So how did sales go? From Billboard:

'Abbey Road' Tops Beatles Albums Sales
November 24, 2010 -

By Ed Christman

The much-hyped arrival of the Beatles catalog on iTunes helped move a total of 144,000 units in the U.S., or about seven times the scans generated by the catalog in the prior week, when the total was 20,000 units, according to Nielsen Soundscan.

The best-selling albums were "Abbey Road," which was priced at $12.99 (it scanned 19,000 units overall); followed by the White album, which was priced at $19.99 (14,000 units scanned); the boxset, which retailed for $149 at iTunes (slightly more than 13,000 units scanned); and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which was priced a were priced at $12.99 by iTunes (nearly 13,000 units scanned).

The other albums selling over 10,000 units last week were the Beatles "1967-1970," which scanned more than 12,000 units and the "1962-1966 (Greatest Hits)" album, which scanned nearly 11,000.

And for those who are curious, "Rubber Soul" outsold "Revolver," with nearly 9,000 vs. more than 7,000 scans.

iTunes, which exclusively will sell the Beatles catalog digitally for an undisclosed period of time, sold 119,000 digital albums form the band, of which nearly 13,000 units was the Beatles boxset.

iTunes also generated 1.42 million track scans in the first week. In terms of track equivalent albums, that translates into another 140,000 units. And if the boxset is converted into equivalent albums, (dividing the box set price of $149 by an iTunes single album price that yields 11.54 album units for each boxset). In terms of total album sales, that's equal to nearly 400,000 digital album units.

Despite all the hoopla surrounding the Beatles, brick and mortar stores and online CD sellers didn't reap a big sales bonanza. According to SoundScan data, CD sales for the week total about 24,000 units. That was a 20% increase over the previous week's 20,000 units, but only a 4,000 units gain.

Within CDs, the internet/mail order/venue category snared about 5,000 units, and the bulk of that was probably Amazon, which was selling single-CD albums for $7.99, the double White album for $11.99 and the mono-boxed set for $130. At iTunes those prices, respectively were $12.99, $19.99 and $149. For the year, the Beatle's catalog U.S. sales stands at 1.8 million units.

It was picked up and sent off to Lantau Island. and now a tidbit... “It’s a little known fact that Hong Kong is comprised of 236 unique islands, the largest being Lantau Island and the second largest being Hong Kong Island which is the political and commercial center of Hong Kong”

Then it was flown to Anchorage Alaska, US of A, where it was accepted and released as an international package.

Then to Indianapolis Indiana....

And finally to Middletown PA where it was put on a FedEx truck, that arrived at 10:02 AM. 28 minutes before the projected time.

So 3 days to come from the largest communist country on the planet, to my capitalistic ‘I Want My iPad’ greedy hands.

Pretty amazing.

Better Than A Mail-Order Bride

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:12:56 -0400

A friend of mine used to go to Hong Kong to partake in some ‘sensual’ activities, if you know what I mean. He actually brought back a mail-order bride.

I just received something better from China, a good ole’ USA Apple iPad. That’s right, I bought one of Steve Job’s 64-gig babies. Since the Apple stores didn’t have any in stock, I had to order it online at the Apple store three weeks ago. It’s been fun watching it make its way to me, the little darling.

First, it was in the birthing process for a couple of weeks. Predicted delivery date was 6/18, but it was born early, so it came today, the 16th.

Let’s look at the journey from conception to adoption:

It was born in Shenzen China (established in 1978 to compete with Hong Kong, then a British colony, now a part of communist China).

It was picked up and sent off to Lantau Island. and now a tidbit... “It’s a little known fact that Hong Kong is comprised of 236 unique islands, the largest being Lantau Island and the second largest being Hong Kong Island which is the political and commercial center of Hong Kong”

Then it was flown to Anchorage Alaska, US of A, where it was accepted and released as an international package.

Then to Indianapolis Indiana....

And finally to Middletown PA where it was put on a FedEx truck, that arrived at 10:02 AM. 28 minutes before the projected time.

So 3 days to come from the largest communist country on the planet, to my capitalistic ‘I Want My iPad’ greedy hands.

Pretty amazing.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want...Unless You’re Rich

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:57:07 -0400

Today, Billboard provided a summary of the quarterly statements from the music industry (SONY, MG, etc.). Although they all seem to be trying to put on positive spins for the stock holders, it’s obvious that the music industry’s blood-letting continues like the oil spilling into the gulf.

So how can the labels get us to (again) buy the same products we already own (or owned as in LP, cassette, 8-track, reel to reel, CD, MP3, DVD-A, SACD, etc.)?

Box Sets. I like box sets with their, uh, box, and booklet, and unreleased music, and remastered again tracks, and T-shirt, and LP, and whatever else can be stuffed in a box to tempt me to pay more for the same music I probably already own. I admit it’s a weakness. I have a bunch ranging from George Strait, Genesis, Beatles, John Denver, Buddy Guy, Eagles, Zep, Floyd, etc.

Amazon is putting a lot of box sets on sale for Father’s Day presents. As I read through the list of sets, I had a ‘Holy Crap’ moment when I saw some of the prices. So here I’m going to list the more expensive box sets. Obviously, some ‘limited edition’ hard-to-find sets are going to be more expensive. Like my Iron Maiden box set, Eddie's Archive that costs $977 new, and $228 used on Amazon. (The scroll and shot glass are just too cool). Yes I paid over $100 for the Tom Petty deluxe Collectors live set described below.

The Deluxe version has the 4 discs above, plus a 5th bonus disc of more live material as well as the following:
-Blu-ray audio disc of all 62 tracks in both stereo and surround sound, high resolution 96K 24-bit audio with 256 times more resolution than a CD
-DVD of "400 Days," a previously unreleased documentary film by director Martyn Atkins, made during the 1995 Wildflowers tour and recording sessions
-DVD with previously unreleased New Years Eve 1978 Santa Monica, CA, concert
-12" vinyl of a remastered 1976 official Live Bootleg album
-Deluxe book with liner notes offering personal perspectives on the band and their music by Tom Petty, Warren Zanes, Bill Flanagan, Robert Hilbum, Joel Selvin, Austin Scaggs and Phil Sutcliffe
-Reproduction "Litho" of Shepard Fairey cover art (12x12 on high quality stock)
-Assorted authentic vintage backstage satin passes

Is it all worth it? I haven’t played the LP, I don’t have BluRay, haven’t watched the DVD, and looked at the art/passes and put them back, so since all I’ve done is listen to the music, I could have saved a bunch just buying the regular edition. Still, one day I’ll get to all the other stuff, at least I plan to.

What becomes clear, is that box sets are marketed for the aging demographic that stills listens to and can afford to buy 90 Yo Yo Ma CDs for over $700 or 172 CDs of Bach (Notice the large number of classical sets).

So what are some other jaw droppers? [note that I’m not including imports except for the Elvis set].

Great Pianists of the 20th Century: The Complete Edition, Box 1 by Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century (Audio CD - 1999) - Box set
1 used from $3,999.00 Currently unavailable

Bach 2000: The Complete Bach Edition (Includes Commemorative Book) (Box Set) by Johann Sebastian Bach, Rene Jacobs, Olaf Bär, Max van Egmond, and Walker Wyatt (Audio CD - 1999) - Box set 1 used from $2,499.99 Currently unavailable

Elvis Paper Sleeve Collection Mini LP Replica Japan Limited Edition 24 bit 96 khz [Box Set] 1 collectible from $1,999.95

Complete Works of Bach Hanssler Edition Bachakademie 172 CD Box Set by J.S. Bach and Helmuth Rilling (Audio CD - 2001) - Box set
1 new from $1,900.00 1 used from $1,800.00
Currently unavailable

Ghosts I - IV (4 Vinyl + 2 CD + DVD) [RARE] by Nine Inch Nails (Vinyl - 2008) - Box set 1 new from $1,598.00

.

The First Ten Years Box by Iron Maiden (Audio CD) - Box set 1 new from $890.90

Van Halen Box 1986-1993 by Van Halen (Audio CD - 2002) - Box set 1 Used & new from $800.00 Currently unavailable

Riding Some Kind of Unusual Skull Sleigh by Captain Beefheart (Audio CD - 2004) - Box set 1 new from $787.97 Currently unavailable

Complete Motown Singles, Volume 4 by Gene Henslee, The Serenaders, The Marvelettes, Bobby Breen, and Joanne & The Triangles (Audio CD - 2006) - Limited Collector's Edition 3 new from $650.00

grateful dead: fillmore west 1969, the complete recordings, limited ed, 10-cd by grateful dead (Audio CD - 1969) - Box set 2 new from $2,429.00

Minotaur (Limited Signed Edition) by Pixies (Audio CD - 2009) - Box set Buy new: $629.9 9 new from $580.57

Complete Reprise Studio Record - Deluxe Edition by Frank Sinatra (Audio CD - 1995) - Box se2 new from $1,500.00 5 used from $524.98 Currently unavailable

Stones Touring Party Deluxe Road Case Box - Size Large Shirt by The Rolling Stones (Audio CD - 2010) - Box set
Buy new: $500.00

Available for Pre-order. This item will be released on June 29, 2010.

The Complete Rolling Stones: The London Years (Amazon.com Exclusive) by The Rolling Stones (Audio CD - 2007) - Box set
Buy new: $486.99

Not in stock; order now and we'll deliver when available

Olivier Messiaen Complete Edition [Box Set] by Olivier Messiaen, Olivier Latry, and Roger Muraro (Audio CD - 2008) - Box set
2 new from $428.99

Currently unavailable

Yo-Yo Ma: 30 Years Outside the Box by Yo-Yo Ma (Audio CD - 2009) - Box set
Buy new: $789.98 $499.99

10 new from $421.33

Glenn Gould: The Complete Original Jacket Collection - Amazon.com Exclusive by Glenn Gould (Audio CD - 2007) - Box set 3 new from $744.99
Currently unavailable

Disney's Animated Music Collection by Various Artists (Audio CD - 2007) - Box set
Buy new: $377.56

Fifties: Complete by Pat Boone (Audio CD - 1997) - Box set Buy new: $409.98

The Complete Bill Evans on Verve by Bill Evans (Audio CD - 1997) - Box set
6 used from $359.99

Exile on Main St. [Super Deluxe Edition] by The Rolling Stones (Audio CD - 2010) - CD+DVD
Buy new: $179.98 $136.89

26 new from $135.71

The Beatles Stereo Box Set by The Beatles (Audio CD - Sept. 9, 2009) - Box set
Buy new: $259.98 $179.98

The Beatles Mono Box Set by The Beatles (Audio CD - Sept. 9, 2009) - Box set
Buy new: $298.98 $189.99

The Beatles [USB] [Box Set, Limited Edition]
The Beatles | Format: Audio CD List Price:$298.98 Price:$268.99

Book Review: Heaven and Hell (My Life in the Eagles)

Wed, 26 May 2010 09:36:34 -0400

I just finished reading the book written by Don Felder about his time as a member of the Eagles (no...not the football team) from 1974 - 2001.

It’s pretty well written. Of course, like most tell-all books written by rock stars, there is a lot written about rough childhood, sex, drugs, etc. It also though, is a good look into the workings of a music machine, one of the most popular bands ever with the number 1 record for decades (Eagles - Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975).

Here are some interesting facts and observations:

• It is becoming clear that most all of the legacy bands that have lasted for decades have followed a similar pattern.
The band began as a group endeavor. Each member (in this case Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, and Don Felder) was an equal member in the band. They were in it for the music, not the money, “Equal shares in writing, singing, playing, and royalties.” Later Bernie left the band (because of tension between he and the ‘Gods’ - Frey and Henley - as the band moved away from country to rock sounding), and was replaced by Joe Walsh. Meisner (who almost beat up Frey) quit and was replaced by Tim Schmit.

The band eventually evolved into the domain of Frey and Henley. Think about it, Lennon and McCartney, Bon Jovi and Sambora, Jagger and Richards, Townsend and Plant, etc. Seems likely that a band that is successful enough, and long lasting, eventually will boil down to the two strongest personalities who write most of the songs. So forget the whole we are brothers ethos, and write some great songs, or you’ll be like George Harrison, or Charlie Watts, or Don Felder.

• David Crosby and Graham Nash fired David Lindley (famous for playing the great guitar parts for Jackson Browne) and hired Felder after he filled in for Lindley when he was too sick to play one night. They even called themselves Crosby, Nash, and Felder. The lesson here? Don’t ever get sick...and if you do...make sure your replacement is way worse than you.
• Felder was in a high school band in Florida with Stephen Stills. He tried to visit Stills backstage at a Manassas (post Buffalo Springfield) concert. Stills wouldn’t meet with him and sent the security guard to tell him that. Later, while Felder played with Nash and Crosby, Stills came on stage to sit in and saw Felder. He was suprised and asked what Felder was doing there. Felder said “being you.” The lesson? The guy you blow off because you’re a star, could be the guy standing next to you on stage later. Be nice!
• Irving Azoff of Frontline Management, was the manager for the Eagles. Theoretically, he worked for each member of the band. It became obvious that he would always side with the ‘money makers’ Frey and Henley, even though he was being paid by all of the members of the band. He also wouldn’t let Felder look at the financial accountings of the band saying to not worry about it...just play music. The lesson? Don’t think that a band manager is there to be fair to everybody. He’s there to make money. Don Henley described Azoff, “He may be Satan, but he’s our Satan”. Managers will always favor those members who are the ‘stars’. So it may be best to hire your own manager, but then are you not being one of the boys?
• The band had buttons made up with ‘3E’ printed on them. The buttons were handed out to ‘worthy’ women who could use the buttons to get into the ‘Third Encore’.
• Felder created a reggae type guitar progression that turned into the song ‘Hotel California’. The credits on the album for Hotel California read “Written by Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey.” On the Hell Freezes Over album, the credits were changed to “Written by Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Don Felder.”
• Hotel California was mostly recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami. They stayed at the same house, 461 Ocean Boulevard, featured on the cover of Eric Clapton’s album of the same name.
• Hotel California was one of the first songs played on the radio, over six minutes long, and not forced to be cut down to 3 minutes.
• Irving negotiated the highest royalty rate in history - $1.50 per album.
• The band ‘broke up’ in 1980, but has reformed a couple of times since after being offered tons of money.
• The band did a lot of benefit and political concerts that gave great exposure and tax dividends, yet wouldn’t do a one night show just for the road crew that had worked so hard for them. Felder wanted to show the road crew some appreciation that would have benefited them and their families with over $1 million. The ‘Gods’ rejected the idea.
• In 2000, Felder was ‘fired’ by the the ‘company’s board of directors’ who felt that the goals of the ‘company’ were best served without Felder. He owned 1/3 of the Eagles name, and they wanted his shares in the ‘company’.
• The Eagles record label, NEA (Felder guessed meant New Eagles Agreement), was created by Henley and Frey, to release the Eagles box set. The ‘label’ made the WalMart exclusive distributor of the release of the ‘Long Road to Eden’ record of a couple of years ago.
• Before becoming famous, Felder stayed in Boston with Peter Green who’d left Fleetwood Mac and gave away his money. Felder worked for $50 a week at a studio called Triple A hiring musicians for recording sessions...many students at Berklee College of Music students.
• Also while in Boston, Felder did sessions at another studio called Ace. The owner’s son was Shelly Yakus who cleaned, swept, rolled cables, etc. Later Yakus became one of the recording gods recording Lennon, Petty, etc. Ironically, he also later engineered Don Henley’s smash hits.
• The original lyrics Don Henley wrote for “One of These Nights” ...”I’ve been searching for the daughter of God”. Worried about being too controversial, the lyrics were changed to “I’ve searching for an angel in white”.

Why are 13 Year Old Girls Pissed at ME ?

Sat, 15 May 2010 15:47:37 -0400

update: CD is released 9/15/11 with Amazon offering as Deal of the Day for $3.99....it begins.

I did it now. I responded to a reporter with the Christian Science Monitor about the following:

I'm looking for experts to comment on the online world as a talent scout. How easy or hard is it really to make your own breaks online these days? Greyson Chance is the latest breakout, but what does it take to rise above the din of literally millions of online hopefuls putting a homegrown video online? E-mail responses are fine.

I concentrated on how to rise above the din.

here’s my response:
______________________
>>>How easy or hard is it really to make your own breaks online these days?

1st some numbers. According to TubeMogul ( http://newteevee.com/2010/05/09/five-questions-with-tubemoguls-brett-wilson/):

Only .33 % of vids on Youtube have been viewed over one million times

53% of vids have fewer than 500 views

This means that approx. 46% of all videos on YouTube have been watched over 500 times.

So in theory at least, there is actually a 40+% chance that a video uploaded to YouTube will be watched over 500 times!

>>>what does it take to rise above the din of literally millions of online hopefuls putting a homegrown video online?

How to rise to the surface. First jump to Facebook for an example.

According to the May issue of Rolling Stone, a 26 year-old, Zack Sestack, read about Colton Harris-Moore, a teenage ‘outlaw’ who steals airplanes and breaks into unoccupied vacation homes around Puget Sound. He has been able to avoid getting arrested and even taunted law enforcement. Sestack decided to create a Facebook page about Colton that had only around 7 members for a long time, until a brief mention on the Associated Press. It has close to 40,000 members now. Sestack has been interviewed on national media.

The point being that getting noticed anywhere on the Internet is possible if opportunities are taken advantage of. Sestack, a writer with no connection to Colton, has received incredible exposure.

There are multiple vids on YouTube about Colton with some getting over 25,000 views. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=colton+harris-moore&aq=4

One video shows a trio playing a song about Colton, with over 2,000 hits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Z71FBc6Ks

Write a song and video it and upload it...probably not many hits. Write about something controversial and there is a great chance of being noticed, regardless of the video or audio quality.

Another video features ‘The Ballad of Barefoot Harris’ with over 15,000 views. Just a guy sitting on a bed playing a guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66hgvV9KSek&feature=related

Find a subject that you know people will flock to, and incorporate a song into a video about it. I recently bought a new effects pedal for my guitar. Wanting to get a jump on how to use it I searched for videos about it on YouTube. I watched a kid show off the pedal, describing how to use it. Close to 26,000 views...26,000 times, someone watched an amateur play his guitar. 26,000 auditions!

So never before have so many individuals had the opportunity to achieve Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame, without major labels or media companies. Just a FlipVideo, YouTube account, and a song.

Now how to make money from it all is another story...

____________________

This led to another email asking specifically about Chance Greyson. So I buried myself in learning all I could about the kid.

I ended up with a lot of questions:

• Why is he playing only in front of 13 year old girls (except 1 boy)? If it’s a talent show or whatever, where are the boys?
• Watching the girls fall in love is so perfect.
• Justin Bieber's manager is Scooter Braun. Braun was the person who discovered Bieber and pushed him into stardom. One of the curious things was the interaction between Lady GaGa and Bieber.
• There are a lot of parallels between Bieber and Greyson. I’m not going into details here, but Braun has already been interviewed about being Greyson’s manager. It feels like he already is doing the same he did for Bieber. As Bieber’s voice changes with maturity, it’s ironic (?) that Greyson is referred to as the ‘new’ Bieber. Thus filling the 13-year old heartthrob vacuum that Bieber will leave.
• What was the catalyst that caused the video to go viral so fast? How did anybody find it? Even if he emailed it to his family, and his classmates emailed it around, would it reach millions of views so quick on its own? If something is already known about from a TV show, like American Idol, then people know what to look for and it’d be understandable that something like this could happen, but this, in such a short period of time, is almost too incredible to believe happened without some kind of marketing plan.
• Etc.. in other words, I’m not posting here all of my questions or connections I found.

After a couple more emails and a phone conversation with the reporter I gave it up for the day. Then this morning the article came out...and I said yikes!

I’m not saying this is all a ruse as stated in the article. The kid is very talented and is worthy of the attention (hair and all).

I am doing what I tell my students to do, always look below the surface. Ask questions. There is a lot of marketing muscle behind Greyson, and there is nothing wrong with that. The entertainment industry is based on smoke and mirrors. Lou Perlman made the Backstreet Boys, and then N Sync, then O-Town. He found a formula that worked and kept repeating it. If Braun has found another way to be profitable in the industry today, then good for him. There is nothing real in Hollywood. The record industry has perfected the art of creating ‘overnight’ sensations...Cinderella stories.

“You Want The Truth? You Can’t Handle The Truth.”

Anyway, If you see me being chased through a mall by a gang of pissed off 13 year old girls, you’ll know why.

What Do David Letterman and ‘Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins’ Have in Common?

Wed, 12 May 2010 09:07:19 -0400

David Letterman is now the proud owner of a record label, Clear Entertainment/C.E. Music. His production company, Worldwide Pants, Inc. is in charge. The first band signed is Runner Runner from Huntington Beach CA. http://www.myspace.com/runnerrunnermusic

Looks like he is using EMI Music’s sub-label Capitol Records and MRV (Merovingian Music) label (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merovingian_Music http://www.merovingianmusic.com/blog/)
for distribution and development.

Great time to get in the record industry, especially with EMI that even Paul McCartney and Queen have left.

There’s plenty of info on the Web about this. What I find interesting is when TV or movie stars decide to get into selling records. Most people don’t know that Bill Cosby had a label, Tetragrammaton Records, that signed Deep Purple and distributed Lennon and Ono’s nude covered album ‘Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins.’ You can see why EMI/Capitol wouldn’t touch it. Of course Bill Cosby made hit comedy records (yep, people would put on a record to listen to him tell jokes, like great great grandpa listening to the radio, only in this case you had to jump up and flip the record over in 15 minutes), so it was natural for him to start his own label. It isn’t exactly the image though that people associate with Cosby. Pubic hair and Smoke On The Water.

So how will Letterman’s image fare signing a popish-punk pretty boy band? Will there be a hit on his snide coolness, or will he win the hearts and dollars of a new generation? Does he really care?

Who else? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/may/08/tv-stars-with-record-labels)

• Matthew McConaughey’s label is jk livin with artist Mishka
• Kiefer Sutherland: Ironworks, artist Rocco DeLuca And The Burde
• Film director Guy Ritchie: Punchbowl Recordings with the band, the Punchbowl Ban
• Randy Jackson (American Idol): DreamMerchant21 with AI finalist Kimberley Locke
• Simon Cowell: Syco Music with another AI finalist Olly Murs
• National Geographic has a label, Nat Geo
• QVC attempted a label a while back, Q Records
• Obviously Sinatra had Reprise
• Survivor Reality Show star Rupert Boneham, label named Saw You On TV
• Obviously WalMart is the most successful label that isn’t a label with AC/DC, Eagles, Journey, Garth, etc.

The point to all of this?

Millionaires look for ways to spend money. In the case of starting a record label, if it fails it is a tax write-off. Meanwhile, the cool-factor of being a record label mogul is tempting.

So forget the big record labels. Find a rich person, hopefully somebody that already has access to TV, talk him/her into starting a label, and then sign yourself. Easy breezy!

Psssst...Corgan...I Can Play Prog-rock.

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:27:41 -0400

From Rolling Stone
“Musicians interested in the two new open slots are being asked to e-mail a resume and performance clips to either pumpkinsbass@gmail.com or pumpkinskeys@gmail.com. A note to perspective keyboardists: Corgan says he’s looking for someone with a prog-rock background, a la Yes’ Rick Wakeman, so maybe familiarize yourself with Tales from Topographic Oceans.”

From Spin Magazine
“Corgan is also searching for a keyboardist who, "can play in the prog-rock style of [Deep Purple's] Jon Lord and [Yes'] Rick Wakeman,"”... To audition, bassists and keyboardists should send their background info (including age, a resume of any bands/recorded work), photos, and performance web links via email to pumpkinsbass@gmail.com or pumpkinskeys@gmail.com. Only musicians with video clips can be considered. Final date for submission is March 31...As you can see from our past and present, age, race, or a person's background is not an issue. Everyone is truly welcome to audition."

When I first read the article in Rolling Stone about open keyboardist auditions for the Smashing Pumpkins, a band I like, I was intrigued. When I read that Corgan was looking for a keyboardist who actually can play progressive rock, and age doesn’t matter, I began to think (fantasize) that I could do this. First thing I’d have to do is make a performance video. OK. No problem there. Just set up my Flip camcorder, fire up the MiniMoog, Oberheim, Rhodes, and ARP and show that I actually CAN play like Rick Wakeman...even his non-Yes records. Hell, do keyboardists these days even know who Wakeman is? He, along with Keith Emerson, Jordan Rudes, Jan Hammer, Tom Coster, and Chick Corea, were my big influences. Synth solos were my thing. I think I still have my cape somewhere around here.

But guys like me, well we just aren’t in style anymore. Guitarists rule, and they limit keys to ‘organic’ organ, piano, and Rhodes sounds...nothing fancy. Having to create and whip up a sound quick by turning knobs is a lost art. Using a mod wheel and pitch wheel at the same time to bring life to a solo is a skill long gone. Can you name one keyboardist ‘God’ these days? Plenty of guitar ‘Gods’, but who cares about Moby wanna-bees (DJs are more open to new sounds and ideas than a lot of keyboardists I’ve met)? Plus saying you’re a prog-rock-ist to kids now is like saying you’re a liberal to a bunch of Tea Party-ists. Just drop some loops, fire up Reason, and that’s all there is for keys these days.

Back to the audition. OK, make the vid and post it. I could do it. Did I. No. Why? I have a gig as a prof...with tenure. Job security. I have summers off with a bunch more time off for holidays. I like doing what I do. I like the students. At this point in my life, I can’t throw caution to the wind and run blindly into the unknown like I did so often in my younger days. Last time I did that, I ended up a prof (some still wonder who let me in).

I missed the deadline.

Last night, Smashing Pumpkins played on the Leno Show. The lady keyboardist simply sat behind an organ and played simple parts. So, today I decided to see the vids of who auditioned. I stopped going through the vids on the 14th page. Every vid was bass or drums, except for 3 keyboardists, and I could have smoked them easily.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=p&tbs=vid:1&q=smashing+pumpkins+audition&start=110&sa=N

So now I sit here thinking, maybe here is one of those opportunities I could have run with. I could been a contenda.’ Leave academia and its conflicted collegiality. Move to Chicago. Go on a tour again with wine, women, and song.

It sucks to be ‘mature’ and ‘responsible’ and ‘logical’.

I’m so bummed, maybe I’ll take my afternoon nap a bit early today.

ps

Yes that’s me behind the Moog. Also at that time was using a Fender Rhodes (below the Moog), Elka String Machine (off to the right), and Korg MS-20 synth (next to the Moog on the Rhodes). Jazz fusion baby...

This Really Bothers Me

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:15:44 -0400

This really bothers me.

One of the cool things about Amazon is the free sampler albums put out by labels. Sometimes it’s great...sometimes not.
I have purchased music from bands or artists that I hear on these freebies, so it’s a great way to market the bands as well as get brand recognition for the label.

But today I noticed the sample album offered by the Sympathy for the Record Industry....record label. The 1/2 swastika logo caught the eye.

And it bothered me.

So I googled and found the label Webpage. The opening page looked like this (pic to the right): The caption reads, “ Somewhere a glory awaits unseen...” along with the bavarian looking gal (iPhoners click here to see). Could it be a slam of the industry, or some perverted way to condone it?

The .5 swastika logo placement bothered me.

So I kept clicking to see what the whole Nazi thing was about. Turns out it’s a legit indie label using, I think, the whole swastika thing to draw attention to itself (along with following Roger Black’s opinion about the best colors in advertising: red and black). But once there, clicking on the interns link brings up a series of young oriental girls, interns, who look like they are part of the asian sex-slave industry.

This bothered me.

You see, I’m pretty open. I actually like a bit of anarchism and rock-and-roll outrageousness. Hell, Lady Gaga and Insane Clown Posse are both examples of getting noticed because of being a little crazy (as did KISS, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Iggy, Bowie, and in a strange way, Neil Diamond).

But you see this, bothered me.

This draws on hatred, history, and blood. It’s the emotionally charged reactions that gets stirred up that draws the eye and attention to the label, above the competition.

This bothered me.

If I was on the label, unless I played in a skin-head white supremacist band, would I want the first impression to actually be that it must be a skin-head white supremacist band. On the other hand, would anybody notice my band if the label didn’t do this?

This bothered me.

So here I am, writing about a free sampler on Amazon that anybody reading this would be curious to go and check out, and advertising the Webpage that begins with an aryan looking gal with a 1/2 swastika hiding her netherlands, which will no doubt entice young male readers, the obvious primary demographic, to follow the porno-ish/Nazi-ish trail to the label. So I’ve just provided more advertising to something that really bothers me...

...and this bothers me.

I wish Amazon would make them redo the logo, but I believe they have the right to draw attention to themselves in such a manner, and customers can judge by not buying the music, thus the marketplace determines if it is actually successful marketing or not. But where does it end? Holding up signs that read ‘God Hates Fags’ is also repulsive to me, yet people do it and it draws national attention, and they obviously aren’t getting arrested for it.

This bothers me.

And finally, by a record label taking a swipe at the music industry in such a fashion, is great marketing...in the music industry. Sorta saying “We are not the music industry, we hate the music industry, the music industry sucks, and you should buy our CDs.”

This bothers me.

So finally, did I download the sampler, no. Did I even listen to the song samples on Amazon, no. Did I read the reviews, yes, and read comments by some who attacked anybody who also was bothered by the logo.

Which bothered me.

If the music is great, then is such an attention grabber necessary? Maybe. I don’t know.

What I do know...I’m bothered by it all.

YouTube and You and Crank Dat!

Fri, 9 Apr 2010 15:27:27 -0400

I was sent a link to a YouTube video, An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube. It featured a presentation by Michel Wesch, a cultural anthropologist at Kansas State University. The first thing I noticed was that it was 55 minutes long, and who wants to watch anything on YouTube that is almost an hour in length? Today’s short attention spans equal 3 minutes max. Plus it had the word ‘anthropological’ in the title...come on.

I finally got around to watching the whole thing today, and it was quite enlightening. It reveals the impact that YouTube has had, as well as some of the revelations of how people, though alone, seek to be a part of a bigger universe and be noticed in their little spaces. The little unblinking eye of the cam becomes a friend, or enemy, or jury, or audience.

It also makes you realize the impact YouTube is having on not only the music industry, but society worldwide. Everything from Soulja Boy’s getting signed because of Crank Dat to the latest dance craze. The wedding dance video copied on The Office during Pam and Jim’s wedding, how much money did the music by itself generate?

We are exposed to so much media not created by big media machines (SONY, WARNER, etc). Bedroom producers lead the way and the industry is realizing that it is no longer the leader, but rather the follower. People are more interested in what everybody else is doing, warts and all, rather than the polished Wall Street machinations. People want what at least feels real.

So I recommend taking an hour and watching it. If you are serious about making it in the music industry...forget radio...that’s right...forget radio. Turn on the cam and jump out there on your own.
http://www.youtube.com/user/mwesch

Music Mine in 2009

Tue, 6 Apr 2010 18:02:57 -0400

I finally filed my taxes. Every year I’m amazed at how much money I spend on musical stuff, CDs, books, software, gear, etc.

I keep every music related receipt because it’s all a tax write-off for me. Being a music prof involved in music business, performance, and technology, allows me to consider all of my ‘research’ as expenses. Yes, Tom Petty CDs are write-offs because I must analyze the audio, lyrics, album covers, etc. I figure I have over 3,000 CDs now...so my ‘research’ has been pretty extensive over the years. This may seem a bit over the top, but it’s better than a friend who told me he writes off food as a medical expense...because without it he would surely die.

I also collect music related books about industry issues, people, album covers, recording techniques, labels, or just lists of number 1 hits. I also have a bunch of music DVDs ranging from performances to the making of hit albums. Anybody who has ever seen my office knows I ain’t kidding.

Obviously, musical instruments are deductible. So that Samick 6 string bass I bought...a write-off. The big surprise for me was how much software I bought. I seem to be going down the virtual path.

So how much did I spend in 2009?

• CDs $554.69

• DVDs $50 (still the best one ever...the Making of Dark Side of the Moon. Very inspiring!)

• Books $166.38

• Software $1,113.35 ( A lot of iK Multimedia and Native Instrument plug ins)

• Gear $2,588.98 (another Ensoniq ASR10 sampler, Samick 6-string bass, Baby Bottle MIC, Ovation acoustic guitar (had a crack so I got it for $83....sweet), plus various hard drives, cables, etc.

So I spent over $4,471 on music related stuff last year, and that’s just the items I kept receipts for. I’ve already kicked off this year with a new Taylor guitar, Mackie mixer, and Presonus ADL 600 Tube Pre (also sweet), I’m set to beat last year’s numbers.

So I consider myself to very fortunate in being able to invest in something I am so obsessed with and get enjoyment from, as well as provide tax write-offs .

But perhaps I need to get some help. Is there a 12 step program?

Hi. My Name is Jeff. I’m a compulsive music consumer.

Too bad I couldn’t write off all of those damned Woot Monkeys!

It’s About Control

Thu, 1 Apr 2010 15:28:35 -0400

Previously I wrote about trying to compensate for the lack of a number pad while using the bluetooth keypad. Using the numbers for the most used functions in ProTools is a big time saver. As I wrote, I tried using a virtual number pad on the iPod touch, and it worked just OK. It would drop out of touch (so it was an inoTouch) now and then.

So I’m now trying ProTransport, another iPhone app by Far Out Labs. The cost is $7.95 and you have to also download a free program on the computer for it to work (looks like just Mac right now).

So after doing all the downloading and installing and what not...it wouldn’t work. The program imitates the Mackie HUI controller, so you assign that in the MIDI controller area of the peripheral menu (ProTools). The iTouch followed the location of the song, but wouldn’t control anything.

Now you think that this is about control as in the app. Nope. It’s about controlling yourself when things don’t work like they are supposed to. My first inclination was to bitch-slap the computer and write nasty things about the app here on the blog. But, I kept control. I calmly shut everything down, and walked away. Then fixed a rum and diet coke.

So today I fired it all back up and voila...it worked perfectly. Before you say anything, I did reboot the computer a couple of times last night trying to get it to work.

The way I see it is it’s a test. If the computergrems (gremlins who live in computers) think that they succeeded in irritating you, they’ll never stop. If you just keep your cool and walk away, they’ll get bored and go somewhere else, like the WiFi setup or the Playstation.
(<----AMC Gremlin. Not relative to this discussion.)

So back to the app, it’s working great so far. You can turn pre and post roll on/off, jump to next or previous markers, create new markers, plus the standard record, stop, go. The scrub works as well, though I’d rather have seen all of that space be used for more commonly used functions, like marker numbers to be able to jump quickly to specific spots, zoom levels, and track view on/off.

The company also makes a full-blown app ($99) that controls the faders, pan, etc. Ahhhh, imagine using it with an iPad...ooooh. ahhhhh. (slight tremble).

Two-b Crash : Label Did(‘nt) : Things to Know 2

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:48:31 -0400

PART 2:

The previous post opened up the YouTube rabbit hole...and now I can’t stop myself.

This will make more sense if you’ve read the previous post.

According to a bunch of postings on the Internet, Beyonce has her own video channel on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/beyonce?blend=1&ob=4#p/a/f/2/FyHVQT8aIBM . Beyonce is signed to Columbia, which of course is SONY. She’s sold a bunch of records and made SONY a little money...ya’ think. SONY is a co-owner of the music vid site Vevo that channels the music vids through YouTube.

SONY forced Beyonce to stop posting the video for ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On it)’.

Or did it?

I was filled with major A-HA (spoken out loud) and had the big finger pointed toward the evil SONY BORG...but found one little response from somebody on a blog stating that the site mentioned wasn’t the official Beyonce channel. So I went to YouTube and found the official channel where the video played OK. Both channels looked the same. SONY (and Beyonce) had every right to force the other site to take down the video (though I don’t really agree with that being good marketing).

So now the point is, everybody is way too quick to have fun exposing the dark side without checking the facts first. It’s no fun raising fists, turning red, holding signs, and screaming obscenities about things that are actually, well, OK.

I began this post with condemnation of SONY because it didn’t make sense why SONY would cut off the video of one of its biggest stars. Cutting off its nose to spite its face type stuff. It was such prime mocking potential. You’ll find some pretty righteous articles floating around the Web that are doing that.

But not here...

After digging deeper into the hole, I found that my initial assumption was wrong. And you know what happens when we assumption. We make an ass- out of -umps- and -tion....wait that’s not right.

Oh well you know what I mean.

Tube Crash : Label Dough : Things to Know

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:30:10 -0400

Thursday morning, March 25, 2010, the world stopped spinning. YouTube had crashed.

Imagine a world without YouTube....shudder.

The interesting thing is that when these micro-catastrophes happen, cracks appear and stuff oozes out.
What oozed out Thursday was some data about how much money the record labels make from YouTube, in the context of how much they lost because of the crash. The number of plays revealed (equate to spins on radio) was also astounding. I really had no idea:

The following are estimates from a Billboard article:
• WMG (Warner Music Group) vids are watched 9.3 million times a day.
• EMI vids, 6 million times a day.
• Total for the big 4 labels, 29.3 million times a day.

Estimating 65 Cents per view (stream), the total revenue for the big 4:
• $190,000 per day
• $1,330,000 per week
• $5,320,000 per month
• $63,840,000 per year
• Roughly $8,000 per hour.

Lady Ga-Ga by herself has had three vids surpass 1 billion views. If the same .65 per view is applied, that’s over $6 million.
Soulja Boy has the most watched vid, Crank Dat, with 722 million views. That’d = $46,930,000.

The .65 rate is from the Billboard article. It’s also been reported that the rate is .004 - .008 per stream. This rate is mentioned in a NY Times article about EMI not allowing a band to let its video be embedded outside YouTube. Since the label is only paid per stream from the YouTube site, the label doesn’t want me to embed the vid on this blog. So the band lost 90% of the vid views, which equates to exposure, lost income, and sales. And since I have maybe 2 people actually read this blog...well such exposure is lost. Crazy.

Something else I didn’t know is that three of the labels, UMG, SONY, and EMI, use a site, Vevo, to host their vids (85% of all music vids). Vevo is owned by UMG, SONY, and Abu Dhabi Media Company (in the United Arab Emirates). Vevo uses YouTube for the streaming and splits the ad revenue amongst the labels. Now how does the ad revenue get counted as royalties for artists or writers? Probably doesn’t. The interesting thing being that if the vids are embedded off the YouTube site (like my blog), then the ads don’t appear, thus no ad revenue...get it? (see a good article here, description of Vevo here)

Also...these amounts are to the labels...not ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC.

Like from TV,these Performance Rights Orgs are paid big lumps of dough each year by YouTube's owner (Google) for the right to have the music played. The PROs then are supposed to let the money filter down to the copyright owners. But there is no exact payment system in place since there is no specific way to count individual vids. So they split it among the most popular artists assuming it is their vids being watched (after taking out the usual fees and what-nots). So Lady G G gets paid every time your vid is watched. Makes you feel loved, don’t it?

last year, the UK’s PRO, PRS, went to war with YouTube and eventually negotiated more royalties per viewing.

So what is up with all of this text I made you read? It began with just posting some interesting data about labels, YouTube, and $. But if you pull one thread, soon the whole sweater comes unraveled revealing the machine underneath. So I fell further into the rabbit hole, like Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs.

The lesson for you today? Don’t stay stuck in radio play mentality, it’s over, give it up. Focus instead on YouTube and other means of getting your junk out there.

iPhone Phormat Phun (Ph***king Not)

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:57:32 -0400

You can do anything if you set your mind to it. Of course, you have to be a bit compulsive to spend hours and hours trying to figure out what should have been an easy task.

I use iWeb to maintain this blog on my Mobile.me account. I know, wordpress offers more capabilities, and there are free Webpage hosts, blah blah blah...I’m an Apple guy. Have been since way back to the Mac SE days. I’ve owned a dozen Macs, printers, iPhones, iPods, iTouches, Apple TV, Time Capsule, and anything else that sports the cool fruit icon. Being an Apple devotee, everything Apple is easy, right?

So who makes iWeb? Apple

Who makes iPhone? Yes Apple

If you look at a regular Webpage using Safari (also...hmm...Apple) on the iPhone, it looks terrible. The print is too small and the formating is wacked.

So you’d think there would be a simple way to make any pages created with iWeb, iPhone and iTouch ready. But nooo. I’ve spent multiple days, hours and hours google-ing, cursing, trying different things, and after spending 4 more hours today...finally got it to work.

tah-dah
http://www.lostsurfer.net/Site/music,_technology,_and_what-nots/iphone/

I even figured out how to create the little icon that looks nifty on your iPhone if you decide to save the page to your iPhone’s desktop.

[I’ve had to do and redo this a couple more times. See below for addendums]

So though it doesn’t have to do with anything musical, accomplishing such a confusing, difficult, and probably insignificant task is worthy of a posting in itself. It’s not a sign of intelligence, just blind ignorance mixed with a bit of compulsion disorder...a potent brew indeed.

If you are wondering what I did...here is the main resource I began with. You have to figure out the rest yourself. Go with God.

http://www.maciverse.com/make-your-iweb-blog-iphone-ready.html

Note that finding iPhone SDK, which contains Dashcode, isn’t as easy as portrayed. Copies are floating around the Net...but you’ll have to poke around. I found and used ver. 2 not 3.
_____________

PS
1 hour later...now it doesn’t work. Damn you web gremlins!
______________

PSS
2 more hours later and it works again. The iPhone folder had just disappeared from my host. I had deleted it from my hard drive, but found a copy sitting elsewhere on the server. Web gremlins again...

PSSS

Turns out that graphics don’t show on the iPhone (only the entry’s pic and text contained in the main column) . So maybe if I insert them into the text, they’ll show up. Otherwise, the entries keep referring to graphics that ain’t there. (didn’t work)

PSSSS
So if you put the iPhone folder into the blog folder, it gets wiped out everytime a change is made to the blog. Even if only the ‘Publish Site Changes’ is chosen. So had to move it to another location and figure the url pathway to it.

PSSSSS
I’ve had to create another site, put the iphone folder in it, and point to its url. We’ll see.

Worked...for now...how many songs could I have written today while trying to get this to work????

PSSSSSS
Pics still didn’t work, so I spent the morning creating another site just for iPhoners to click to in order to see the images.
Of course when I did that, iWeb erased the iPhone folder from the server when I updated. So I created another site just to host the iphone folder. Hopefully...this will be the last post about this!

I’m Suing Jeff Bridges

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:51:41 -0400

In a previous post (see Infringe...and thou shalleth be summonedeth), I wrote about how using an image of a national monument or building or whatever in an ad or movie, without a license, can lead to a lawsuit. Now, you could be sued for using someone’s name. I don’t mean a known name like Madonna, or Cher, or Prince, or Sting, or Edge, or Slash, or whatever. Even a simple name like lindsay could lead to calling in the lawyers,

Lindsay Lohan is suing E-Trade because one of the talking babies in its commercials was referred to as Lindsay. And of course, anybody hearing the name Lindsay automatically thinks of Lindsay Lohan....right?

$100 million. That’s right you namE-traders. $100 mill.

There are a lot of articles about this, a good one is here by Esquire http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/lindsay-lohan-etrade-lawsuit-031010 . The page had the copy of the original script which I copied here because it’s educational to see real scripts (for educational purposes only, all rights are owned by somebody who knows somebody who knows cousin Vinny). The offensive baby that lifted Lindsay’s name, was originally named Deborah. Obviously they were afraid that Little Debbies would sue them as well, so they changed it.

Now we may even have figured out the mystery of just why the band America didn’t have a name for the horse in the desert...lawyers probably said too much risk.

So I’ve found my golden ticket. Tomorrow I’m going to copyright, actually I guess that is trademark, my name (Jeff © ® 2010 all rights reserved). Then I’m going after Jeff Bridge’s Oscar and all them cool guitars. Sorry, Dude .

Brown M&Ms: It Was More Fun When I Thought It Was True. Now It’s Just Plain Smart.

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:53:30 -0500

There is no story that has been passed down for ages that better reflected the audacity, excesses, power, hedonism, and egotism of rock and roll (all attributes of course that make rock and roll great) than the story about the chocolate M&M rider in the Van Halen contracts. You know...M&Ms must be provided before a show with all chocolate M&Ms removed . The actual rider on the left (Click here for iphone) is from the smoking gun webpage.

What fun. It is the stories like this that feed all of our rock and roll dreams and desires, along with mudsharks and the chicks that took real live plasters of certain famous private parts (now in living color on DVD). But alas, if only this particular story was true.

Turns out that the M&M clause was actually a brilliant business strategy to make sure that every aspect of the rider would be read and taken care of. The reasoning being that if this is overlooked, then it’s very possible that more important and vital requests would also be overlooked. It was a red flag that the band used to test the accuracy of following the contract. Finding a chocolate M&M could mean that the parts of the rider pertaining to the PA or stage or other vital parts of the show could also have been missed.

David Lee Roth wrote about it in his book, Crazy From The Heat (I found it being blown-out and figured even Roth’s scholarly output would be worth the cost). He wrote about what you’d expect about he and childhood, he and babes, he and his faith, he and the Van Halens, he and Hagar , etc. But there are also some surprising little nuggets of information that anybody can benefit from learning. He writes pretty well (though he also probably had a good editor).

You can find more about the rider, and what happened when it wasn’t fulfilled at http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp

The point is that even rock and rollers need to have good business sense, like who will pay for the TV thrown out of a hotel window? A lot of those guys, like the Stones, didn’t get rich and last forever by accident. So look deeper than just the surface to find out why they do the things they do. Even Courtney Love, as whacked as she may be portrayed to be, is smart and prolific. Read her manifesto at http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2000/06/14/love/.

Now of course there ARE some crazy things going on, it IS rock and roll. Go to smokinggun.com and search for musicians, riders, contracts, etc. and you’ll be surprised and amused. Your faith in the debauchery of it all will be restored.

Just a Flash in the Piano

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:10:19 -0500

Years ago, I used a Commodore 64 (64 K of ram!) using Dr. Ts sequencing software. I had both the standard ‘desktop’ as well as the ‘portable’ SX-64 that I actually used on gigs, both in duo and solo settings...total bleeding, gut wrenching edge. I used a Sequential Circuits MIDI interface to connect my synth to the iPhoners click here and the first muti-timbral synth, the Sequential Circuits iPhoners click here. Six note polyphony...up to six parts...pure heaven, when it worked. No drums so I used white noise to create percussive sounds. That I could play something and hear it magically played back instantly, without using tape, was just sooo cool. Back then it all was so new that I could contact the software designer, Emile Tobenfield, and make suggestions about new features for his software that he actually implemented. Big-assed floppy discs, long load times for songs, very limited # of notes that could be recorded (around 3,000 that included both on and off messages, so basically 1,500 notes.), and the likelihood of crashes didn’t stop my being a Howard Jones wannabe. I was featured on Public TV twice and was written up in some print articles. Not so much about how great my music was, but the novelty of playing with a computer. Obviously I didn’t translate all of this into fame and fortune and was just a flash in the pan, but I did learn a lot and became sort of an expert, which helped bring me to my professorial status, which at least pays the bills and lets me count myself amongst an elite bunch of ‘scholars.’

Anyway, it amazes me that having access to a webpage allows anybody to compose and share music for free, with sounds that may sound stupid today, but would have been considered ‘professional’ back in the day.

One example is this flash based ‘game’ complete with sequencer and sounds. It’s simple, but that a teacher has such technology to get kids to composing and sharing music, makes it valuable, and it just gets better as time goes on. You can go to this webpage, copy the code, and insert it into your webpage and voila, kids are learning about pitch, beats, and sounds. Not only that, they can share the ‘songs’ with anybody, similar to hanging the picture of a fire truck on the refrigerator.

This is just one example that is out there to find. So before you criticize the silliness of Bobi Bobi Composer, or suffering through the commercial for 15 seconds, or the quality of the sound, it’s actually pretty damned amazing. You could be investing in $1000s (back in the 80s dollars) in gear just to accomplish the same features...so quit your whining. (iPhoners)

Is Your Face Melodius or Just Noise?

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 08:18:00 -0500

Go back to Popular Science Monthly, March 1921, Vol. 98-no. 3, and you can read about the use of new cutting edge technology using a 32 element synth to create a correlation between sound and your physical beauty. I’m not sure how to figure out what chords to play to represent your face. For some reason it feels like my nose would be G# and my forehead a D. I know some people, I won’t mention names, whose faces look like they would be John Cage-ian cluster chords, or Yoko Ono screeches.

Would looking pissed-off equate to fff dissonance? Would eating a Reeses Cup cause the face to be a major 7th chord? Would being sad be a minor? Would going from suspended to resolved chords result in the need to smoke a cigarette afterwards?

It also would be cool to do the manometric flame and revolving mirror experiment to actually see waveforms. Obviously there are now many software programs that show what frequencies look like. But any reason to play with fire is always good.

The real reason for this post is to show that Google and Popular Science have made every issue of the magazine free. I found this article by searching for synthesizer. You can also type in MIDI, music, etc. for some pretty cool stuff.

the article (iPhoners click here)

Go to http://www.popsci.com/archives and type in synthesizer for all of the results.

Go here and you can see them listed by date:
http://books.google.com/books/serial/wzsEAAAAMBAJ?rview=1

Google's paging only goes to 100. If you manually change the numbers in the link, you can see older issues.

http://books.google.com/books/serial/wzsEAAAAMBAJ?rview=0&lr=&sa=N&start=1010

Change the 1010 to a higher number to see even older issues.

http://books.google.com/books/serial/wzsEAAAAMBAJ?rview=0&lr=&sa=N&start=1560
takes you to May 1872.

faces waveform...

Below the google/popular science ad

Infringeth...and thou shalleth be summonedeth

Sun, 7 Mar 2010 21:42:56 -0500

I was working on my first almost serious entry reviewing a free sequencing program, but became side-tracked by an article that surprised even me, so off I go chasing a rabbit right off the top.

I have never considered public statutes, buildings, or anything else I can stand outside in the open air and take a picture of as a source of a possible copyright infringement lawsuit. Want to put a picture of the Empire State Building, or bridge, or bus, or whatever you may look at everyday on your way to work on your CD cover? You better call in the lawyers.

Columbia pictures, the producer of the movie ‘2012,’ is being sued for copyright infringement by the archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. In the movie, that big statute of Jesus overlooking Rio is destroyed (iPhoners click here), and now the church is upset because it didn’t give permission for the use of the image in the movie. Want to take a picture of my fence and put it on your Webpage? Better pay me.

To read more about the lawsuit, go here: http://scifiwire.com/2010/02/church-upset-roland-emmer.php .

You’ll read that Roland Emmerich did actually ask for permission, was denied, and decided to include the image in the movie anyway. Whether or not he was right in including it, knowing the church wasn’t in a forgiving mood for destroying such an important tourist attraction, is something I can’t judge. The scary thing is that it is becoming impossible to figure out what you can and cannot copy before getting the cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer. Once cities, countries, or companies realize they can make money just by physically existing, you might as well put down your camera.

According to http://freakbits.com/church-and-hollywood-fight-over-2012-statue-copyright-0228, “The statue was created by Paul Landowski who died in 1961, but the archdiocese holds the copyright until 2032, when the sculpture enters the public domain.”

If I was a lawyer...I’d make some calls. Here are some examples of potential long overdue lawsuits (and just to avoid the same fate for me, all pics are linked to their sources. So no I didn’t get permission, and yes I’d be glad to remove them if someone gets his/her panties in a wad):

(iphoners click here for image)

Led Zeppelin
Physical Graffiti

St.Mark's Place, East Village, NY

US Dollar

Pyramid, Eygpt

Smashing Pumpkins

NY

Pink Floyd
Animals

Battersea Power Station
London

Said the Keyboard to the NumPad, “You complete me.”

Sat, 6 Mar 2010 10:18:36 -0500

Bluetooth is great. Now you don’t even have to connect your keypad to your computer using a cable. There are too many cables in the world...and somehow it feels like like it helps the planet without all those cables hooked up everywhere. Of course now there are even more unseen radio waves frying our brains, but we’ll leave that up to those secretly controlling us through mind-control.

Anyway...the cute little bluetooth keyboard that comes with new Macs skipped out on the number-pad side of things. So all of those shortcuts to start and stop, record, rewind, etc. using the keypad are suddenly poofed away. Whose bright idea was that? So now I have to grab the mouse, find the right spot in a song, arm the track, create a pre-roll, click play, take the pick I’ve been holding in my mouth, stop making the chair squeak, prepare to shred on guitar, then play the wrong chord, then put the pick back in my mouth, reach over and grab the mouse, click stop (or try to click on the command and period keys to not leave a file on the drive), and then start over again...well that saps any creative juices I might have. One option is to have a friend who’ll engineer for me, but that’ll cost me beer, and the energy to actually make a friend. I could buy another bluetooth keyboard that has a number-pad, but those are around $70 and tend to be big and trying to figure out where to set one within arm’s reach while recording can be a pain. I could buy a cheaper wired keyboard, but then I’d have that cable draped dangerously close to my cocktail, plus it eats up a precious USB port.

I decided to try the numpad app for the iPod touch or iPhone. Of course if you don’t have a Touch or iPhone, this could turn into a $300 number pad, but hey...life isn’t fair.

It works using WiFi to connect to the computer. It (the iPhone or Touch) also is small so it’s easy to sit anywhere within reach, away from the Mac. All of the keys serve as the quick-keys for Pro Tools. 3 = record. Enter for putting in markers, etc. Very cool. The only problem is that it loses contact with the Mac every now and then...so I have to quit and then restart the app. But that’s pretty fast. It does cost $2.99, but that’s way cheaper than another bluetooth gizmo. Be sure to turn off the volume. I guarantee that that it WILL ring in the middle of the best solo you ever played in your life. I know this from experience (every solo is the best solo I ever played).

If you get it, flick the keypad to the left for more keys...and then flick again and it pretends to uncover the circuit board momentarily. Cute for 3 seconds.

http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=89972&expand=false

Pickup Note

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 12:23:22 -0500

Ahhh...the pickup note. The little under-appreciated hiccup just before swinging the arms wide open and charging ahead. So before we embrace the 1st movement...

...you ask yourself, what can I expect in exchange for my precious time perusing this small corner of the websophere*? Maybe just tidbits. Maybe life changing epiphanies. Regardless, expect things that I have determined that is important and you must know for your own good.

A list of topics may include (just so I can remember):

reviews
• Technologies (software, hardware, etc.) I think would benefit music teachers or anybody else partaking in the art.
• Praise and mockery of books you should or shouldn’t read/use.
• My deep and extremely scholarly analysis of music industry/technology related news that you should be aware of. (Since I used the word scholarly, my esteemed professorial colleagues may allow me into the exclusive scholars room where I can smoke a pipe, partake in mutual admiration, engage in chin stroking conversation, and practice profundity...never mind...I’d never fit in anyway).

tips
• If there is a mistake to be made, I’ve made it. So I guess that makes me an expert in what not to do, and hopefully how to fix it.
• In my quest for simplicity and ease of use do to extreme laziness, sometimes I stumble upon some cool gimmick or trick that makes life a little more meaningful. This could be using MIDI, recording, synthesis, teaching, writing, or anything else worthy of my attention.

media
I might...might mind you...might post some audio or video files for your edification. Maybe podcasts, maybe music, maybe vids, maybe pics. Remember that what you find here either belongs to me or to somebody else, so act accordingly (you’ll know because the good stuff is usually mine).

links
I’ll try to divert you from sucking up my bandwidth by tempting you with links of sites and sounds I find worthy of sending you off to.

smartassenicity*
• I gotta be me. So forgive my jabs, shakes, and bakes.
• I’m going to write my opinions about things I see, hear, or partake in.
• If you don’t like it, go stake out your own corner of the websophere* and get all academic and what-not.

legalese
Lebanon Valley College, the programs in which I teach (music business, recording, masters), all of my friends, and a couple of my enemies, are not responsible for and don’t have any relation to anything you find here. Matter of a fact...they’d probably disavow having any knowledge of the existence of such obvious dereliction of scholarly output. Some even challenge my worthiness in being in academia in the first place (who let this guy in the room?).

* Because of my age and limited vocabulary, I make up words I think fit. Any word I whip up belongs to me. Copyright 2010. Beg me and I’ll let you borrow them for a small fee.
* Obviously. any graphics displayed that I didn’t steal from others, I expect to get credit for if you decide to steal them from me.