Ethan Hein's Blog

Tag Archives: improvisation

Bach to the future

Sunday, May 2, 2010

I’m not a big classical music guy for the most part, but I never get tired of Bach. This stodgy eighteenth century Lutheran doesn’t seem a likely inspiration for a hipster electronica producer like me. There aren’t too many other wearers of powdered wigs in my record collection, and Bach is the only one in [...]

Filed in music | Also tagged bach, classical, douglas hofstadter, morimur, recursion, remixes, wendy carlos | Comments (0)

What does live music mean in the laptop era?

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

This weekend my electronica band Revival Revival is doing some shows for the first time in many months. We’ll be doing a lot of what my non-electronic-musician friends consider to be cheating. The lead vocals and guitar will be live, as will some of the synths. Everything else will be canned, recordings played back from [...]

Filed in autobio, hardware, music, software | Also tagged authenticity, electronica, guitar, lionel richie, michael jackson, midi, miles davis, pop, pro tools, reason, remixes, revival revival, songwriting | Comments (0)

The Grateful Dead and electronica

Thursday, March 25, 2010

In keeping with my posts thinking of the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix as electronic musicians, I thought I’d round out the techno-hippie trifecta with the Dead. Their fans might lean to the crunchy granola side, and they did some of their most endearing work in unplugged mode, but for the most part the Dead were [...]

Filed in music | Also tagged electronica, grateful dead, guitar, hippies, midi, sixties | Comments (0)

Inside the recording process

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 [...]

Filed in hardware, music, software | Also tagged analog, audio, audio editing, autotune, book, computers, electronica, hip-hop, looping, mashups, music, pro tools, recording, remixes, revival revival, sampling, sequencing, synths, tape, tape editing, visualization | Comments (2)

Imogen Heap and artificial harmony

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Here’s a live rendition of Imogen Heap’s song “Hide And Seek.” It’s introduced by Zach Braff, but don’t let that dissuade you from watching.

Filed in music | Also tagged authenticity, autotune, book, brian eno, electronica, harmony, imogen heap, interface, keybs, midi, music, pop, remixes, sampling, synths | Comments (0)

Copyright Criminals

Monday, January 25, 2010

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:

Filed in movies, music, software, tv | Also tagged a tribe called quest, audio editing, beastie boys, biz markie, book, clyde stubblefield, computers, copyright, dance, dj, eighties, george clinton, hip-hop, james brown, jeff chang, looping, mashups, memes, michael jackson, music, pro tools, public enemy, recording, remixes, rock, sampling | Comments (1)

Open-source music

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

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 [...]

Filed in music, software | Also tagged amazing grace, blues, book, copyright, folk, google, internet, jazz, kanye west, learning, memes, music, music theory, opensource, remixes, sampling, transcribing | Comments (1)

How we wrote this song

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Boys And Dance Floors [Audio clip: view full post to listen] 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 [...]

Filed in autobio, music, software | Also tagged autotune, composing, janet jackson, looping, pro tools, production, reason, recording, remixes, revival revival, sampling, songwriting | Comments (0)

Coltrane was an analog remixer

Saturday, November 28, 2009

The current fetish for originality in music is partially an outgrowth of copyright law. If you write your own songs, you can make more money from the publishing rights in addition to your album sales. The influence of Bob Dylan and the Beatles further created the expectation that popular musicians would mostly be writing their [...]

Filed in autobio, computers, music | Also tagged arrangement, big band, book, chet baker, coltrane, copyright, count basie, duke ellington, frank sinatra, harmony, jay-z, jazz, lego, looping, memes, miles davis, modules, music, music theory, my favorite things, originality, reharmonization, remixes, sampling, swing, symmetry, the sound of music | Comments (0)

DJ on the one and two

Friday, October 16, 2009

Turntablists use record players to play records in ways they weren’t meant to be played. By speeding up, slowing down and reversing the record under the needle, a whole universe of new sounds becomes possible. The record player as musical instrument is still in its early stages of development. DJs already invented the instrumental sound [...]

Filed in music | Also tagged a tribe called quest, afrika bambaataa, apache, book, dj, dj premier, funky drummer, grand mixer dst, grandmaster flash, herbie hancock, hip-hop, looping, mashups, music notation, peter piper, rahzel, remixes, rhythm, rockit, run-dmc, sampling, scratch, turntablism, visualization, wu-tang | Comments (4)

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Tag Archives: improvisation

Bach to the future

What does live music mean in the laptop era?

The Grateful Dead and electronica

Inside the recording process

Imogen Heap and artificial harmony

Copyright Criminals

Open-source music

How we wrote this song

Coltrane was an analog remixer

DJ on the one and two

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