How Green is My iPhone?
A great infographic courtesy of the folks at Geekaphone.
Apr 28, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
The Good News – Music (always) Rocks!
Despite the doom and gloom in my last post, this decade will be unique and exciting for music creators and fans alike. But if the web is the death nell for the conventional record business, whats the upside?
Lets start with fans:
To state the obvious, music fans drove labels and artists into the 21st century through creating and participating in massive music sharing networks – or piracy if you come from the other side of the fence. This has created some amazing ways of finding, storing, sharing, buying and streaming music. On top of this there are fan driven web labels, fan hosted tours and fan-based popularity contests. Finding, following, collecting, obsessing over and communicating with an artist has never been easier.
For music creators, the big break-through has come in two parts. Cheap (relatively), digital music production hardware and cheaper (or free) software has fed an enormous market of music creators and is empowering them with tools that where once the sole domain of multi-million dollar studios and recording artists. Second, of course, is the mighty promotional/sales/networking/learning/collaboration/ creation/funding all-thing that is the internet. Never before has the power to create so much been in the hands of so many. We have used it for good, stupidity and evil, but there is no doubt that in our society at least, music creation in isolation is a thing of the past. There really is no excuse anymore for musicians not to attempt understand or engage with their audience.
I’ll leave you with quote from Danny Barnes, a staunchly DIY indie artist, who can remember buying vinyl on mail order in the 70′s…..
there is more cool stuff out there than we can even keep up with. All these new configurations new riffs and new structures built upon the shapes and forms of the past. or not! perhaps the older forms rejected entirely. it’s all one big giant database and music has never been better. enjoy some today. it’s really the greatest thing we have on the physical plane. so get to jukin’
Apr 27, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
Mastering Souncrane: Astroboy fights Tsunami with soX!
Soundcrane is a project where ‘Australian musicians cover Japanese compositions to raise money for the disaster relief effort.’ I’ve just completed the mastering for this project in at The Edge’s Lab3. Check it out and buy a track for a good cause at Bandcamp!
I don’t usually do mastering so I was on the hunt for a resampling tool to use for this project. Re-sampling is the process of up or down sampling digital audio. The sample rate for CDs is 44,100 samples per second. In this case I want to go up 96,000 or 96k as some of the plug-ins I use sound better at higher sample rates. I also needed to get back down to 44.1k for the final output to be posted on bandcamp. Downsampling badly can make time spent in mastering tweaking subtle details wasted and is generally a bit of a black art in digital audio. Wikipedia has the details of course.
With the criteria of free, open source and cross-platform I went to to Infinite Wave Mastering’s awesome sample rate comparison site. I found soX – an audio processing toolkit that on spec beats pretty much every other tool out there. Its a command line tool but if thats too geeky for your, you can use as a plug-in for foobar – a free audio process tool for windows.
Apr 20, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
Is the (recorded)Music Industry a Zombie Industry?
Every now and then I pull my head out of the studio gopher-hole and try to get a sense of what’s going in the Music Industry, this usually involves a series of good news/bad news realizations and discoveries. Lets start with the bad news for people making a living out of the conventional means of selling, recording or producing recorded music.
Its become painfully obvious that the big record companies, the traditional bank rollers of the industry are heading towards zombiedom. They became living dead companies some time around 1999 with the rise of Napster. A decade later they are like a herd of stumbling corpses, each with an apple going to seed in its brain, being feasted upon by cute little web 2.0 maggots and venture capital vultures. Sure the industry is at least partially responsible for its own downfall, but I think that a lot of what is going on as picking clean the bones of a once thriving industry. An industry that despite all its bad points, up ’till now has financed and enabled the majority of popular recorded music that we know and love for…hmm…Lets see…. the entire history of recorded music? Its sad, but in a death of the dinosaurs kinda way. Only the dinosaurs are zombies and still walking around suing people. Enough mangled metaphors, how about some figures?
The chart below (made by Michael DeGusta) really bought this home for me. It uses U.S. numbers from the RIAA, but the numbers for Australia are similar. What is useful about this chart is that it conveniently shows 2010 US dollars spent on music per person in the states or the last 30 years.
Image: Recording Industry Association of America
From a high of $71 per person per year in 1999, its down to $26 in 2009. This is not a subtle slide. Digital sales will not be pushing sales up to anywhere near the dizzy heights of 1999 or 1976, its already obvious that they are not revitalizing the industry like the CD did with its introduction. So big labels are becoming less and less profitable, losing money every year, shedding staff, dropping artists and losing customers.
Surely this means that the independent artist and small labels are in the perfect position to take advantage of digital sales? Nope. I’d argue that in fact the next wave of streaming or subscription services will mean the just the opposite. Another chart for your edification, this time from informationisbeautiful.
Bear in mind that the numbers are certainly not perfect in this chart, mainly due to the difficulty in accounting for streaming income. But instead of selling 143 CDs a month to make a US minimum wage – under the newest, coolest, hippest, web 2.0est streaming service spotify (not availabe in Oz)- you need over 4 million plays a month.
4 million plays. Does that sound achievable to you? Surely if you are say…. Lady Gaga ….you can do this and more? Perhaps not. In five months, over a million plays for her single ‘Poker Face’ on spotify netted her the meager sum of $167 USD.
Am I being needlessly pessimistic? And what about the good news?
Stay tuned.
Apr 19, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
I Saw the Sign
If you’ve wandered into our temporary Edge Studio over the last couple of weeks, the first thing you will have seen is this:
At a first glance it might look like any old sign but if you look closely you’ll notice a few differences. It is in fact a moss graffiti, solar-powered LED sign!
“Wow!” (I hear you say).
“How do you create moss graffiti and how does that fantastic colour-changing, solar-powered LED light work?”
They are two very good questions and I will reveal all of my secrets so that you may too create your very own moss graffiti solar-powered LED sign (MGSPLEDS).
Moss Graffiti
I’m the first to admit I am no moss graffiti expert (although I’m happy to say I have met a couple of you lately) and while my failures currently outweigh my successes this is the best recipe that I have come up with so far:
Moss Graffiti Recipe 2.0
- A few handfuls of moss
- Half a tub (100g) of natural yoghurt
- About half a cup of a good yeasty beer (I choose Guinness- great for moss graffiti..not for drinking IMHO!)
- A teaspoon of brown sugar
- Two tablespoons of corn syrup (alson known as glucose syrup)
- I also crushed up a bit of fertilizer (Ozmocote) to give it a little extra grunt
Here’s how it all goes together
Wash as much of the dirt and rocks and stuff away from the back of the moss.
Add the yoghurt
Add the the moss
Test the beer
Add the remaining beer
Add the sugar
Crush some fertilizer and add to the mix (be sure to SERIOUSLY clean your mortal and pestle after this- fertilizer and stomachs don’t mix).
Mix it all together in a blender. Be careful with the corn syrup. Its there to bind everything together however if you use too much (as I have) you’ll end up in a sticky situation (literally). Store it sealed in the fridge until you’re ready to apply it. It should keep for a few days at least.
Making the Sign
Making the sign was trickier than you might think.
Bunnings on a week day is always a treat.
MDF (or custom wood as its also known) is a composite material and is really absorbant, so I had to give it three coats of paint to seal the surface. To transfer the Edge logo to the MDF backing board, I put together a big printed paper version of the Edge logo, stuck it on to the MDF and then traced over it with a ball-point pen, pressing down really hard to leave an imprint of the logo below.
The imprint becomes the outline of where to paint. I then traced over the imprint with a lead pencil to make the outline more visible. Its handy to have an architecture degree at this stage for the set square work, but not essential!
After this I applied the moss graffiti mixture very carefully over the logo. I actually found that using a kitchen butter knife for the fine detail and getting the edges and corners right really helped.
Its also good to do a few coats and try an build up some depth to the mixture so it has a better chance of taking off.
The LED solar-powered light
Connecting the LED colour-changing solar-powered light required a collaborative effort. Mainly because I have only ever soldered guitar parts and tend to get +’s and -’s mixed up. So, thanks to fellow-Cat Colleen and geek in residence Clinton we managed to hook up our solar panel (12V panel max 1.26 W) to a single LED RGB colour changing light.
We mounted the sign to a temporary wall in the new Edge Studio and the solar panel on the adjacent face of the wall with access to sunlight through the glass. Mounting the sign and lining it up with the light took a bit of dodgy gaffer tape engineering but it eventually came together nicely.
The moss part of the sign has been regularly sprayed (twice a day) with a few water concoctions; one with rice water (left over water from boiled rice) and another with Seasol.
Sadly the sign has been up for a few weeks now and the moss has not been entirely forthcoming. We have a theory that the very dry indoor, air-conditioned environment has prevented the moss mixture from retaining the moisture required to propagate. We’ve since transplanted some real growing moss from the gardens outside and it seems to be holding up pretty well.
Also, the LED light and solar panel have been taken down temporarily as we try to pimp up the LED with a super bright Arduino-programmable alternative courtesy of Markus from NICTA. We’re also trying to hook up a battery so that the solar panel can charge it during the day and the light can run at night.
That’s the story of the sign. Come down to the Edge studio and check it out. I’m sure it will find a place when we’re back in the main building soon. I’ll leave you with a time lapse video I did of the drawing and moss painting phase of the sign:
Plug-ins. From the ridiculous to the ridiculously expensive…
At the workshop on the weekend I gave a quick overview of writing music with the inbuilt instruments in Pro Tools. We didn’t really have time to explore the world of 3rd party software, so I thought I’d post a few resources for RTAS and VST plug-ins. These plug-ins are often cross-platform, mac or pc, and whatever program you are using to write music there will be something useful, or at least quirky and fun.
First up is kvraudio, the grandaddy of plug-in sites. Basically if a plug-in exists, then it is on KVR somewhere. This is my favorite place to find whacked out sound creating (and destroying) tools. There is an unusually useful site search engine here, which can be tweeked to show only free or unreleased plug-ins. Because of this site I was inspired (or fooled) into setting myself the challenge of writing for a kids TV series using only weird and wonderful sounds. I failed of course – but glitch , nutseq, polyiblit and drumatic were the soundtrack to my life for a while.
Cheap and blippy is not to your taste? Fancy yourself as the next Stravinsky? Then have a listen to the ‘Rite of Spring’ made using the Vienna Symphonic Library. Believe it or not, this is entirely programmed on a bunch of fast computers, using the VSL’s enormous, gigantic, huge, monstrously expensive sample library. How big? Well the largest, most expensive version has over 1 million samples, on 42 DVDs. For the cost of a small car (about $15,ooo AUD) you can have virtual versions of pretty much every single orchestral instrument ever made. The funny thing is – compared to actually recording a real orchestra of top players, or event the cost of a single good violin, 15k is a bargain.
Obviously, meticulously sampling real musicians is an expensive business, but there are some much cheaper sample libraries out there, like the Miroslav Philharmonik collection. If you hunt around you can find it for 1% of the price of the VSL monster collection, and its definitely not 99% worse.
Before you go installing the lastest crazy find – please remember that some of these freeware plug-ins can be …unpredictable…and its worthwhile taking note of what you’ve installed, so you can trash it later just in case.
Happy plug-in hunting!
Apr 11, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
RECIPES FOR RAPPERS- Rough Lyrics
(1)
Rapper/ Writer: William 20
ART rhyme I’m chillin on the side in the backdrop
Tanning and getting wet and it won’t stop
So I walk to the front and see what’s up
There’s a girl over there getting wet and drunk
So hold up, there’s a stop sign
Pissing water over there and it’s not nice
The screw was loose, I hope this rap rhymes
If it don’t
The picture in the book was black and white
WORD rhyme
LOVE
I got this little topic
This thing I got is love
When my heart is pumpin
She’s an angel from above
It’s like forever
But forever time is ticking
Is she the one?
I’m starting to be thinking
POWER
When I reach up in the sky, all I see is power
You want the moon, watch me get it, it will stay for hours
It’s like we own this city, we like the King and Queen
We rule over all of them, it was meant to be
HAPPINESS
There’s only one place where I wanna go when I die
Where it’s happiness, love and family all around
That’s heaven I hope I make it there
Scratch all the money and the fame
All I need is me and my girlfriend
HIP HOP
Feeling this beat, it’s in my head
It’s boom boom pop, they say hip hop is dead
But na, ima bring it back, I feel free
The rhythm is on lock and feels happy
(2)
Rapper/ Writer: Timothy 20 something
ART rhyme It didn’t start the way- what I mean to say,
Is this is not the way that transformers play
These Aliens they bulked themselves right
Govor the hulk gave Polk the Cadbury a real mean fright
Fairtrade! This cards ain’t playing
Cocoa beans! Them boys keep slayin
And dreaming of a better life
Where they don’t gotta hold the knife
No matter how they try, no matter how hard
These little boys will never play cards
WORD rhyme
HATE-POWER-HIP HOP-LOVE
Hate exists to fight, to battle with love
Yet hate loves to contradict itself
Given a choice I’d rather choose the existence
Of neither
I’d rather have a seizure, of immortality
I’d rather gain the power, harness my abilities
But I ain’t gonna abuse it, or misuse it
Cos you see here, power leads to fear
When in the wrong hands a self motivator
Could change the globe for the worse
Destroy natures celebrant
But never kill the fifth element
Power to the people and their hip hop city
Whether it be b-boying, beat-boxing or graffiti
I still prefer scratching DJing and Em-ceeing
But nah, I ain’t ignorant
I’m in this for love
I listen to my heart and let my feelings move
I listen to the beat and let my feet groove
So smooth is this culture
It’s time for the world to stop with all the hate
May way for the love, come on, open up the gate.
(3)
Rapper/ Writer: M-Kita 19
ART rhyme I’m in the room now, got given a book
Gotta rhyme about da picture I see, so look
The picture in front of me shows 2 people
Playing musical instruments, dat are unequal
1st instrument is a trumpet, 2nd is a flute
Both ma boys be looking good in their suits
Bout to hit the stage and perform
Deliver quality to your ears cousin
Gotta finish ma rhyme, time is almost up
Closing the book pages and standing up
Walkin to the front of the room
Show and tell ma picture’s story real soon
WORD rhyme
MONEY-POWER-HATE-HIP HOP
Right now I’m broke, n got no money
Money equals power, got now job, ain’t it funny
It’s like a key 2 freedom, n I don’t have it
Without dough in ma poacket I feel like a hazard
Streetz are at war, everybody wants power
Greed and distraction rains hard like a shower
I want to stand tall and represent our nations
Bring truth to the youth and all the generations
Though it’s hard to make progress in a world full of hate
Where people judge you and discriminate
The survivor, with a the heart of a tiger
I sting ma enemies with the venom of a spider
To me hip hop is my culture to stop
Let da turntable rip the beat, speakers pop
Streets full of graffiti
Bright lights reflect the city
On the subway train going home, no pity
(4)
Rapper/ Writer: Rhys 13
WORD rhyme
HATE- LOVE- HIP HOP- HAPINESS
We hate we love, we push we shove
We push and shove, we hate we love
We rhyme in hip hop, we make each word lock
Don’t bother get in our way because we won’t stop
Why sit in blackness, with all that stress
Rest from the pressure and find happiness
ART rhyme
Over there is my guitar
I have a guitar
But it’s too far
Don’t give a shit about the mess
It’ll be cleaned up by the pests
You can still check my records
And my awesome speakers
Yes I used to make music
But I’m too old for that shit
I constantly drink beer
It started coming out my ear
And now I need a pier
Just to get me out of here
How sad
I started to become mad
So stay away
Trust me you don’t want to play
(5)
Rapper/ Writer: Marko 13
WORD rhyme
HATE
My heart is what you ate
I served it to you on a plate
I thought we would be great
Till you destroyed my faith
Now I got nothing thanks to you
Now no-one loves me, thanks to you
What now you think I’m being rude?
Yeah fuck this, find another dude.
MONEY
Money, sex and drugs
Lil’ muggers and thugs
Expensive spray for bugs
Can’t even afford a rug
Oh you’re looking snug
Won’t even give me a hug
You’re train going chug chug
Now l’m feeling deep dug
ART rhyme
She’s so sweet with her red high heels
I think I wanna take her some place for a meal
Don’t wanna go to sushi, dude I hate eel
Just thinking about the stuff gives me a bad feel
Now I don’t know what I want to say
I’m just grabbin on the rhymes that are coming my way
“Hey gurl whass up? Did you have a nice day?
I was wondering if you wanted to go to the movies on a date?”
No no babe this ain’t a big game
I just want your number and your sweet name
No I’m not being weird don’t lay me that blame
If you were me you’d be acting the same
You’re almost as sweet as a pink lollie
You’re prettier than a Barbie dollie
What’s you’re name is Molly or maybe Holly?
Is this the end, is this the finished story?
Apr 10, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
Recipes for Rappers: Workshop #4
WORKSHOP #4
Studio 1a. Wednesday April 6th, 2011 5:30pm- 7:30pm.
In today’s session we recorded the first rhyme we wrote way back in March, Andrei (NOISE Catalyst) was our engineer and brought the studio vibe to meeting room 1b. We had Rhys, Marko and Tam laying down this little comedy rhyme entitled In the Library…. The beat is by Busty Beatz and it’ll be on the Edge website shortly.
The Library
Chorus
IN THE LIBRARY It’s place to meet
IN THE LIBRARY Chillin’ so sweet
IN THE LIBRARY Turn Up the Heat
IN THE LIBRARY Rockin to the beat
| Librarian | My name tag says Averil Benson
I’m head Librarian and I’m full of tension I make mistakes even though I’m trying I have anxiety and I’m always crying |
| Love sick school boy | You know who I am I’m little boy tony
I’m just thinkin’ of some rhymes for my girl Chloe Poetry poetry that’s just what I need I need it for my girl coz she’s the sweetest thing |
| Kitchen hand, teaching himself to read | I wash dishes my name is just Peter
I’m learning how to read on this two seater Nuthin too big but once upon a time After this kiddy stuff I’ll move onto crime |
Chorus
| Love sick school boy | Librarian, Librarian find something for me to read
Can you be my doctor and find my remedy |
| Librarian | The medicine section is what you’ll need,
Is it serious condition or just a nose bleed? |
| Love sick school boy | No L lady you got it wrong, see
I need to find some rhymes for little girly |
| Librarian | How old are you kid, get out of here
Just stick to the classics- like Shakespeare |
Chorus
| Kitchen hand, teaching himself to read | Miss can your help me find the big books?
Something about recipes or really good cooks. |
| Librarian | You’re learning how to cook, that’s so sweet.
You should invite me over ‘cause I love to eat. |
| Kitchen hand, teaching himself to read | WOW you look nice but can’t you see the ring
I’m married and let me tell you my girl can sing |
| Librarian | Oh my goodness, I’m losing my way
I think I’m gonna cry again, it’s the worst day |
Chorus
Apr 10, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
Recipes for Rappers: Workshop 2
WORKSHOP #2
Studio 1b. Wednesday March 29, 2011 5:30pm- 7:30pm.
5:30-5:50pm Warm Up: RHYMING GAME (freestyle)
First- check out PITCHO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFYskempD5E&feature=related
- Check this Belgian-Congolese Rapper out. Hear the sounds and let it impact on your range n flow.
- Sound it out (using gibberish.)
- 2 lines/ 4 lines/ 8 lines Cipher…
5:50pm-7pm HIP HOP SHAKESPEARE (20min)
- Check out these killer hip hop Shakespeare vids and go to hiphopshakespeare.com to see what’s happening in London right now.
MUCH ADO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxey3C9BGms&feature=related
FUNK IT UP ABOUT NOTHING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB3_OLaA56w
AKALA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gme1YN-qZV8
HIP HOP SHAKESPEARE
http://www.hiphopshakespeare.com/site/
Exercise ALL THE WORLDS A STAGE REMIX (30min)
- Discuss Original.
- Hit the text.
- Write a rhyme that is inspired by Shakespeare’s All the World’s a Stage from As You Like It.
TEXT
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances.
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Exercise : Perform it!
Apr 10, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
Recipes for Rappers: Workshop 3
RECIPES FOR RAPPERS
WORKSHOP #3: Sunday April 3rd, 2011 2:30pm- 5:30pm. Studio 1b.
2:30-2:40pm WARM IN
Watch film-clips: Akala (UK), Reggie Watts (US) & DEF Jam Poetry: Saul William (US), Taylor Mali (US)
2:40-3pm RHYTHM & RHYME GAME (freestyle)
Beat tracks by Monk and Busty Beatz
Stand in a circle and pass around the microphone.
- Sound it out (using gibberish.)
- 2 lines/ 4 lines/ 8 lines Cipher…
- Drop in images to rhyme about: HAMBURGER, SMOKE STACK (POWER PLANT), CHICKENS
3pm-4pm VISUAL ART INPUT(rhyme writing)
Beat track by Busty Beatz
Using a piece of visual art as starting point write 8 lines.
Resources: The SLQ Visual Art Collection.
Performance:-Show (picture) and Tell (rhyme.)
4pm-5pm WORD INPUT (rhyme writing)
Beat track by Busty Beatz
This is a fast and furious writing boot camp.
PART ONE: 2 min on each word- everything you can think of….colours, emotions, memories, rhyming words, scenarios, other songs, paintings, theatre shows, movies, moments, imaginings, grooves, flows- that com when the word is on the screen. You have to place the word in the middle of the page and write around it, a fresh page for each word. We used the following words-
LOVE
HATE
MONEY
POWER
HAPPINESS
HIP HOP
PART TWO: Choose 4 words and write 2- 4 lines on each. Put the bits together and you have a 8-16 line verse.
Performance:- Spit your verse.
5-5:30pm POETRY/ LITERARY INPUT (rhyme writing)
Beat track by Monk
We ran a little late so we missed this exercise… do it home y’all.
Use this stanza from Langston Hughes poem Democracy as inspiration to write 8 lines.
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.
Langston Hughes
Discuss the poem and concept of freedom together.
Homework
Introduce yourself- a capella 8 lines.
Apr 06, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
bsirianni
Amy
Andrei Maberley
Colleen Morgan
Candy
Christian Duell
