There are two names mostly associated with the development of the MP3. The Fraunhofer institute helped with the audio encoding buy Dieter Seitzer, a professor at the University of Erlanger. Dieter Seitzer worked on the quality transfer of music over a standard phone line. This research was being led by Karl Heinz Branden Burg who is also called the father of MP3. Karl Heinz was a specialist in mathematics and electronics and was involved in researching methods to compress music since 1977.

Timeline of MP3
In 1987, the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany began research code named Eureka project EU147, Digital Audio Broadcasting.
In the month of January 1988, Moving Pictures Expert Group or MPEG was established as a subcommittee of the International standards organization.
In April 1989, a German patent was received by Fraunhofer for MP3.
In the year 1992, Fraunhofers and Dieter Seitzers audio encoding algorithm was integrated into MPEG -1
In the year 1993, MPEG-1 standard was published.
In 1994, MPEG-2 was developed and published a year later.
In the month of November 1996, United States patent was issued for MP3.
In September 1998, Fraunhofer started to enforce their patent rights whereby all developers of MP3 encoders or rippers were obliged to pay a licensing fee to Fraunhofer.
In February 1999, a record company named SubPop started to distribute music tracks in MP3 format.
In the same year portable mp3 players appeared.

Power of Mp3
Mp3 stands for MPEG Audio Layer 3 and it is a standard for audio compression that makes any music file smaller with little or no loss of sound quality. MPEG sound encoding can shrink down the original sound data from a CD by a factor of 12, without losing the sound quality.

Mp3 players
In the early 1990, Fraunhofer developed the first and unsuccessful mp3 player. Later in 1997, developer Tomislav Uzelac of Advanced Multimedia products invented the AMP MP3 playback engine that was the first successful MP3 player.

For more details, log on to freedownloadmp3song.info

History of MP3 is a post from: Gothmountainmusic.com - Your Music Reviews, News, and Discussion

In the mid 20th century jazz became popular. As double bass’s were used those days, they were often not heard due to the lack of amplification. The drums, banjos and other instruments in the band drowned out the sound of the bass. Until the 1950 when the first electric bass came into existence with modern amplification techniques.

The bass guitar is played like all guitars with the player holding it close to his body in a horizontal position. The strings are plucked with hand or with the plectrum. In the 1970′s, the slapping technique became popular.

Today, the bass guitar ranges from 4 strings up to 11 strings. The 5, 6 and 7 strings providing the mid range while the 11 string starts from a lower than human hearing going up to a very high active. Electric bass guitar players use various configurations. These changes are made by using preamplifiers and speaker sets. Signal processors are also varied to provide new soundscapes.

In night clubs, combo amplifiers are used. These amplifiers are fixed with single loud speakers to make them portable and effective.

The body of the instrument can be of wood or graphite. A wide range of finishing is applied to make it look good. IT can be colored or simply clear white. The work done on the body is fine engineering and delicate balances have to be maintained.

A hot debate rages on what to call this instrument. For non musicians, the term bass guitar is common, while hard core players like to call it electric bass or simple electric bass. Slowly but surely however, this instrument has gathered a large following which likes to use its own jargon.

The electric bass is a part of modern country music, post 1970 jazz and funk. Used mainly to provide backing, it adds a depth to the music. This instrument has added a whole new color to our musical pleasure. In sole music particularly, the bass guitar is effective.

Are sound effects used? Well, yes and no. As the bass guitar sets the tone for the rest of the band, sound effects are not often used, unlike electric guitars. Modern bands however have started experimenting with distortion units to add a new flavor to the bass and low key that they provide behind the music.

As we go into a new century, electric bass’s become more and more popular. All bands use it today to add a subtle background. Many groups like U2 even use it to give a haunted feeling increasing emotional attachment with the music. Newer techniques have made this instrument a crucial part of any musical group today.

History And Use Of The Bass Guitar is a post from: Gothmountainmusic.com - Your Music Reviews, News, and Discussion

Earlier musicians, however, encountered a problem with the clavichord and harpsichord: the sound was relatively diminutive as compared to how they would have wanted it to be, considering the fact that keyboard instruments were often played in large rooms (chambers), cathedrals and churches.

Around the year 1700, Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) created the new keyboard instrument and coined its name from the fact that it could both play “piano” (soft) and “forte” (loud), addressing the problem of the old keyboard instruments. Thus, the pianoforte, or what we call shortly now as the piano.

Aside from the direct connection between the fingers on the keys and the sound, the piano also has two different pedals which are the sustain or damper pedal and the soft pedal. The sustain pedal allows the pianist to hold the tone or sound even after releasing the key. The soft pedal veils or muffles the sound. There is also a third pedal called the sostenuto pedal. However, not all pianos have this.

Other kinds of keyboard instruments include the pipe organ which was most prominent from 1600-1750, when it was commonly used for church music and considered then as the “king of instruments”. The accordion is also another kind of keyboard instrument, as well as the modern organ and electric keyboard.

The role of the piano in the modern world is very versatile. The piano can cover a wide range of musical types from classical to pop to jazz. It can cater to a wide variety of audiences from music connoisseurs in concerts or artists in theatres, to children and pupils in pre-schools. Very noticeably too, piano students can very well play other instruments as well, even without its formal training.

The piano is also a very relevant tool in the culture of society. Since the turn of the 20th century, many households have been able to acquire their very own piano. From this assessment, we can infer that modern society believes in the benefits of studying music and piano in particular.

In almost every gathering (social, religious and even political), one cannot undermine the important role of music. It expresses ideals. It bonds the youth. It provides for a positive, productive & creative channeling for this generation’s aggression and collective angst.

The importance of music on the development of a person, and eventually, of society cannot be understated. Perhaps its time to rethink how this important element of cultural and social development in our society has been treated.

History and Role of the piano in the Modern World is a post from: Gothmountainmusic.com - Your Music Reviews, News, and Discussion

The rap industry posted revenues in excess of 1.5 billion dollars in 2005. Its a far cry from the roots of rap, perfected in east coast ghettos some 25 years ago. Today, the industry of hip hop is run with the efficiency of major corporations. Potential rap stars are plucked from obscurity with the public psychology in mind. Businesses pour millions of dollars of advertising revenue into artists such as Nelly and Eminem to shill for their clothes and shoes. Music industry corporations have fully accepted and promoted gangsta rappers like 50 cent, leaving violence and sexism in their wake.

The over commercialization of rap has spawned a litany of pretenders hoping to strike gold. The use of controversy to garner attention is widespread. Involvement with a shooting, being associated with a gang or getting arrested for weapons charges can add street credibility to your image. It follows that in order to gain millions of dollars many artists may stage a shooting or purposefully get arrested. This misuse of violence is matched with a high degree of sexual exploitation of women. Females are valued for their physical attributes only. Video after video show us herds of women dressed in porous outfits dancing aimlessly. Rap lyrics reveal a general perception of woman as whores and liars. Sexist and violent mainstream rap no longer holds the position as the enlightened voice of a struggling generation coming to grips with the harsh realities of an unfair world.

The quality of the music itself has been diluted. Rappers who do make it tend not to produce great albums like we saw with the likes of Run DMC. Instead they focus on producing hits hoping to experience a windfall from the impulse buying public. Never mind about elevating the art craft, lets get paid, now. The market is flooded with one hit wonders and fools pandering to target audiences. Meanwhile, the public is left with the bad taste of weak albums hurriedly slapped together in anticipation of advertising deadlines. The revolution that was rap is now a business model for hustlers.

Rap is not dead, yet. There are some bright stars. Artists like Kanye West and the more obscure Jurassic 5 have had success in the face of the emergence of commercialized rap. They represent a side of rap that can still be cutting edge but more responsible and socially aware of the consequences of their actions. They are conscious rappers who are concerned by more than their bottom line. Africa Bambaata was the first to identify hip hop as a cultural movement. Rappers like Common have carried that torch by not selling themselves through controversy or promoting violence. They use words to stimulate thought, discussion and hopefully change. The commercialized rapper will answer these charges by pointing out that violence and sexism is reality and he is just testifying. There is truth to these comments. But where is the responsibility to your community? Why not uplift the people with your music? The answer is not up to him but rather to us to reverse our bad habits with buying gangsta rap and establishing a commitment to our communities with our music choices.

Hip Hop Potency is a post from: Gothmountainmusic.com - Your Music Reviews, News, and Discussion

Hip-Hop producers were quick to understand the powerful worldwide reach of the internet and started selling instrumentals to artists through this channel.

A couple of websites therefore gathered enormous music inventories from professional record label producers, and started selling complete instrumental tracks just like Amazon sell CDs. Pay x amount online, and well ship you a CD with the tracks you purchased. A new market full of opportunities was born.

About a year and a half ago we also understood the potential this new market had. Having promoted our own music on websites such as mp3.com and vitaminic.com, we realised that creating our own service would give us much greater flexibility and reach. We also had around 250-300 instrumentals sitting on our hard drives waiting for rappers and vocalists to rhyme/sing over them. There was no way we couldve used all of these instrumentals ourselves, therefore why not offer artists worldwide the chance to easily obtain top quality instrumentals for their musical projects?

Hence the birth of La Cantina Productions. Our aim is to give artists who may not be able to afford to buy expensive instrumentals/beats a fair chance to get their music out there. Our typical artists are talented emcees or vocalists, desperately in need of beats, but with little cash.

So how does it all work? Artists just need to visit the website, listen to preview samples of the instrumentals and then purchase the ones they like directly online. We were one of the first websites to offer the possibility to download instrumentals immediately after payment; no more waiting for CDs to arrive through the post, high quality mp3s can be downloaded immediately.

And it doesnt end here. Artists record their vocals over our instrumentals and we then take care of promoting their complete tracks in the right places. After years of promoting our own music on the web, we know exactly where the online promotional efforts should be concentrated. Promoting music online requires hard work, but when you know where to go, the job is a thousand times easier.

So in other words, we produce hip hop instrumentals and promote the artists who use them. We take great pride in what we do and hope to see some of our most talented artists make it big over our tracks. Were not in this for financial gain, but simply for musical enjoyment.

Were growing fast and are now one of the top online production websites in a market unfortunately already cluttered with me too faceless unprofessional services. Were not trying to be a business, but simply a group of friends hoping to take hip hop to the next level through the reach of the world wide web.

Jerry Spina and Stone Tone
Founders of La Cantina Productions

Find us at :

La Cantina Productions

Or, email us for further information at info@lacantinaproductions.com

['Hip Hop Beats Online,' article appeared on Fat Controller Issue #2 (the UK National Student Magazine) www.fat-controller.com]

Hip Hop Beats Online New Ideas in Music is a post from: Gothmountainmusic.com - Your Music Reviews, News, and Discussion

1. You should use your favorite category of music and in case you dont like Mozart or classical music then dont use it. Good and quality music can be found in most genre of music.

2. You should choose music that has pleasant associations for you or music that brings you cheerful memories.

3. If you want to try new music, then go for instrumental music tends that are more stress relieving than the music having lyrics because this doesnt requires you t o think.

4. You should choose music that is slow and has regular pulse or beat. This is because researchers discovered that music with the tempo of healthy resting heartbeat will synchronize your own breathing and heart beat to it thereby slowing down your racing body rhythms.

5. Racing thoughts can often lead to anxious and stressed out feelings and for this you should use rhythms of slow music so as to slow down your body and thoughts.

Music is even used for surgery whereby surgeons listen to their favorite music while operating the people. This is because they know the power of music and the profound effect it has on their ability to focus and concentrate on their work. Surgeons listen to Mozart, Wagner, and Handel or sometimes, rock, jazz or pop and claim that they have more energy while music is being played.

Patient is not provided with music because it is the patient who is sleeping and is not able to hear music. But the fact is that music has tremendous benefits for the patient such as he needs fewer anesthesias, less anxiety before, less pain after, faster recovery, less time in the hospital and many more. Patient can hear music with the help of lightweight headphones.

Visit our recommended website music-future.com

Healing Music is a post from: Gothmountainmusic.com - Your Music Reviews, News, and Discussion

Whats the difference? While both HD AM and HD FM are digital, AM radio has smaller sections of bandwidth than FM radio. This means there is not enough “space” to give AM stations the same near-CD quality as FM stations. But there is enough bandwidth that AM stations will be able to broadcast with the same clarity of signal as one of todays analog FM stations. This performance boost is expected to make AM radio a better alternative to FM than it has been to give you more listening choices.

Because HD radio is digital, its signals can be subdivided. This allows a station to multi-cast. meaning it could broadcast two or more programs at the same time. So, its listeners might be able to choose between music from the 60s, 70s or 80s on the same station at the same time.

This could change everything you know about radio because it allows stations to do more niche broadcasting, just as cable as brought niche channels to television. For example, the radio station youve always tuned to for classic rock, might subdivide into classic rock, and reggae, or classic rock and old school hip-hop.
Naturally, you would be able to hear these stations only if you have an HD receiver. If you don’t, you’ll still hear the same AM or FM station you’re used to.

HD Radio and multi-casting or more is really better is a post from: Gothmountainmusic.com - Your Music Reviews, News, and Discussion

If you are simply interested in gaining a new skill and enriching your artistic capabilities, learning to play the piano can be one of the most calming and satisfying things you do in your life. Music is a great way to escape from stressful things that are one your mind and focus on something that you really want to do. Finding the right musical instrument to play is a great way to try something new and experience music from a different perspective. Try out a few lessons and soon youll be hooked on the beautiful sounds you make while sitting in front of the piano.

Learning the piano while also taking piano music theory courses is a great way to incorporate theory while you are learning to play new songs. This way you can focus on the particular chords, notes, and scales that apply to individual songs. Understanding the mechanisms of each piece of music you play will become easier the more you practice and learn over time. Then you will be able to assess each song or piece of music before you try to play it because you will be able to understand the notes and rhythms within the music.

All it takes is a few music theory lessons and you will be well on your way to experiencing a difference in the way you learn and play the piano. You may also find that you are more confident when tackling new styles of playing or more difficult pieces once you have mastered basic theory concepts.

Above all, make sure that when you are learning online you move at your own pace. Once you have mastered one concept in music theory, then move on to the next. Piano music theory is essential to your growth as a musician, and it will help you succeed at playing anything you choose to tackle down the road.

At Hear and Play, we offer a variety of online courses designed to help you improve your piano playing skills including theory courses and programs that will help you learn how to play by ear. Contact us today at http://www.hearandplay.com to learn more.

Have A Better Understanding Of Piano Music Theory is a post from: Gothmountainmusic.com - Your Music Reviews, News, and Discussion

If you want to learn to play the harp and are planning to take instruction, you should understand the different types of harmonicas that are available. The leading makers of harmonicas include Suzuki, Hering, Hohner, and Bushman. Beyond brands, though, there are other differences you should know about.

The harmonica that most people are familiar with is the ten-hole “Blues harp.” Each of the holes has two reeds, which are tuned to play different notes. Blues harps come in virtually every key, and each harmonica can play 19 musical notes.

Blues harps are a subcategory of diatonic harmonicas, so named because of the two reeds in each hole. Diatonic harmonics generally play only one key. Another type of diatonic harmonica is the octave harmonica, which is tuned so that each hole plays the same note, only an octave apart from one another. The tremolo harmonica also has two reeds, but one plays a slightly flat note and the other plays a slightly sharp note.

A different category of harmonica is the chromatic harmonica. These harmonicas typically have twelve, fourteen, or sixteen holes, and four reeds per hole. They also have a sliding bar that moves the air from the mouthpiece to a specific reed plate. Chromatic harmonicas are most often used in jazz and Classical music.

Harmonica Instruction

When you learn to play the harmonica, you’ll first be taught how to breathe correctly. Because successfully playing the harmonica involves both breathing out and breathing in, it’s important to breathe from your diaphragm. You’ll also learn how to correctly hold the harmonica, how to move it, and how to position your lips so you’ll achieve the right notes. You’ll also learn harmonica tablature, or tabs, which in instruction that replaces the need for learning to read music. Harmonica tabs tell you what actions you need to take, such as blowing in the fifth and sixth holes, rather than simply showing you music notation. For example, tablature might indicate an upward arrow with a number above it, indicating that you need to blow on that numbered hole, followed by a downward area with a number on top, indicating that you need to inhale on that hole. Tabs make learning to play the harmonica much easier than learning to play other instruments.

Choosing a Harp

Most harmonica instruction is given in the key of C, so it’s probably best to buy a diatonic or Blues harp in the key of C. Most experts recommend that beginners purchase harmonicas with plastic or aluminum combs (the body of the harmonica) rather than wood. Plastic and metal are both more comfortable and more durable. However, you should be aware that, over time, you’ll probably buy and try several different brands of harmonicas. Each person is unique, and each has to find the harmonica that is the best fit for his or her playing style.

Harmonicas: Finding the Harp that Fits Your Needs is a post from: Gothmountainmusic.com - Your Music Reviews, News, and Discussion

The most common key on the harmonica is C. Harmonicas that are played in the Appalachian South only play a diatonic scale, but not chromatic intervals that are between diatonic scale tones. Therefore, these harmonicas are typically sold in various models based on keys. For instance, there are G-harmonicas, D-harmonicas, C-harmonicas, and so forth.

Harmonica Construction and Sound

In the past, harmonicas were usually made of wood. Today, many harmonicas are constructed from injection-molded plastic. There are also high-end harmonicas that are built from metal alloys, silver, or Lucite. The harmonica’s sound is often based on the materials it is made of, with each material giving its own unique sound. For example, blues harps or marine band harps are made of soft wood that resists moisture and create a rich, unique sound.

Types of Harmonicas

Harmonicas come in many different types and styles. These are often chosen by players according to the type of music they would like to play. Some harmonica players enjoy performing at events as soloists or with a group or band. The cross harp is often used in blues music, but can also be used in many types of music. It is a diatonic harmonica that is played in a key that is actually seven half-steps up from the harmonica’s main key. For example, if the harmonica were tuned in C, it would actually be played in G.

A diatonic major harp is the most common type of harmonica. It has all the “Major Scale” notes such as C, D, E, F, G, A, B. The chromatic harmonica has the same notes as the diatonic major harp, but with a half-step between each major note.

Common brand names of harmonicas include Hohner, Hering, Suzuki, Bushman, Lee Oskar, and BTI. Tremolo and octave harmonicas are offered by Hohner. Different styles of orchestral harmonicas are also available for those who perform with orchestras.

Find Harmonicas and Accessories Online

There are many harmonica resources online today that sell harmonicas and accessories. There is free tablature (with tabs and symbols) to help beginners and experienced harmonica players learn new songs. Accessories such as amplifiers, cases, sheet music, microphones, CDs, and more are available online at reasonable prices. Beginners can research online to find out how to care for their harmonica. From tuning to cleaning, there are a few definite “dos and don’ts” to follow.

The beautiful music that flows from the harmonica can never be matched. Harmonicas are so diverse that they can be played alone while sitting on a porch swing, at a family gathering for singing and fun, or in a professional concert. They can be played around the world no matter what the country. These hand-held instruments bring joy to any setting!

Harmonicas: French Harps with International Appeal is a post from: Gothmountainmusic.com - Your Music Reviews, News, and Discussion