Friday, February 26, 2010
The vast majority of music that I hear is recorded, and if you’re reading this the same is probably true of you. Most people don’t have a clear idea what the recording process is like, especially using computers. Here are my adventures in recording. I grew up in the eighties. Cassette recorders were just starting [...]
Also filed in Autobio, Composition, Hardware, Improvisation, Music, Recording
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Tagged analog, audio, audio editing, autotune, computers, electronica, hip-hop, Improvisation, looping, mashups, Music, pro tools, Recording, remixes, revival revival, Sampling, sequencing, synths, tape, tape editing, visualization
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This PBS Independent Lens documentary on sampling culture is a good one, and you can watch the whole thing on Youtube. Their resources and links page includes my Biz Markie blog post. Thanks Beautiful Decay for posting the videos. Part one:
Also filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Music Business, Politics, Sampling
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Tagged a tribe called quest, audio editing, beastie boys, biz markie, clyde stubblefield, computers, copyright, dance, dj, eighties, george clinton, hip-hop, Improvisation, james brown, jeff chang, looping, mashups, memes, michael jackson, Music, pro tools, public enemy, Recording, remixes, rock, Sampling
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The most sampled recording in history is (probably) the Funky Drummer loop from James Brown’s song “The Funky Drummer Parts One And Two.” Here I go deeper into how this sample can be reworked into new music. DJs call this practice chopping a sample. It’s much easier to chop samples with computers than with hardware [...]
Also filed in Composition, Music, Sampling
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Tagged dna, electronica, Evolution, funk, funky drummer, hip-hop, james brown, memes, midi, mutation, recursion, recycle, remixes, Sampling, sequencing, songwriting, visualization
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Sample-based music isn’t stealing. It’s valuable and important. It shows the way toward a future for recorded music that’s more in continuity with music’s past. Recordings are cool and everything, but they encourage passivity. If I buy a recording, I can listen to it or dance to it, both fine activities, but what if I [...]
Also filed in Copyright and Authorship, Music, Politics, Sampling
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Tagged amazing grace, blues, copyright, folk, google, Improvisation, Internet, jazz, kanye west, learning, memes, Music, Music Theory, opensource, remixes, Sampling, transcribing
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Thursday, December 3, 2009
Boys And Dance Floors Revival Revival vs Janet Jackson mp3 download, ipod format download Right-click or option click the links to save the track to your computer. There are as many different ways of writing songs as there are songwriters. Barbara Singer and I have arrived at a good one, so I figured I’d share [...]
Also filed in Autobio, Composition, Improvisation, Music, Recording, Sampling
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Tagged autotune, composing, Improvisation, janet jackson, looping, pro tools, production, reason, Recording, remixes, revival revival, Sampling, songwriting
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Wednesday, December 2, 2009
One night, Anna was watching me Twitter over my shoulder. After a while, she announced: “I get it. It’s a video game where you compete for attention from strangers on the internet.” She’s completely correct. Having a web presence is effectively a real-world immersive internet game. The scoreboard is your stats page or follower list. [...]
Also filed in Autobio, Hardware, Social Media, Writing
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Tagged attention, blogging, civilization, recursion, simcity, Social Media, social networks, stats, twitter, Video Games, wordpress
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Saturday, September 12, 2009
Over the weekend we stayed with Anna’s sister Joanna, her husband Chris and their adorable new baby Lucas. Chris and I spent some of the time talking about electronic music and the internet. He’s a social media professional and a music fan but not a musician, and it was cool to hear his perspective on [...]
Also filed in Interfaces, Internet, Music, Music Teaching
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Tagged daft punk, delicious, design, drum machines, electronica, fun, interface, Internet, inudge, minimalism, multitracking, reason, remixes, sequencing, Social Media, tenori-on, toys, visualization, web browser
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This is a picture of my electronic funk-soul-R&B band doing a show. From left to right, it’s Nicole Bishop, me and Barbara Singer. We were the whole band for that show. I did all the beats, samples and keyboards from my computer using a video game controller. Here’s a screenshot of the program that the [...]
Also filed in Autobio, Hardware, Improvisation, Interfaces, Music, Video Games
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Tagged composing, electronica, hip-hop, Improvisation, interface, keybs, mapping, max/msp, midi, programming, reason, Sampling, sequencing, synths, Video Games
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Now that I have an office job, I’m spending a lot of time under headphones while I correct people’s grammar. It’s a good opportunity to explore the outer reaches of my music tastes. The office has some networked iTunes libraries heavy on the Pitchfork 500, and I have whatever I’m bringing from home. I’ve also [...]
Also filed in Internet, Music, Music Business
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Tagged algorithmic composition, bjork, database, dj, herbie hancock, hip-hop, internet radio, itunes, kanye west, napoleon dynamite, netflix, pandora, random, remixes, shuffle, thelonious monk
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Before digital recording media, recording artists faced a tradeoff between spontaneity and perfection. Recording take after take until the performances are spotless can quickly suck the joy and energy out of the music. But the kind of sloppiness that goes unnoticed in a live performance can get on your nerves after many repeated listens. It’s [...]
Also filed in Composition, Improvisation, Music, Recording, Sampling
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Tagged audio editing, beatles, composing, gnarls barkley, hip-hop, kind of blue, looping, michael jackson, miles davis, Music, pro tools, psychology, Recording, thriller
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