Sound Master Recording

The Greatest Music Sites on the Web

2007-09-28T17:04:00.001-07:00

MOG - "music discovery for real people." Features artist, album, concert and music video reviews by us, the community, also includes recommendations based on your profile and taste so that you discover new music. A prominent part is for MOG TV which shows videos personalized to your taste. You can spend your life here.MOG is similar to Last.fm, but it first uploads a listing of a user's digital music collection to their MOG page, then it keeps track of what music is played on the user's computer. See also the Wikipedia entry on MOG

DRM Free MP3s from Amazon.com

2007-09-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Amazon is selling 2,000,000 tracks as DRM-free MP3s! From Amazon.com’s press release:

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today launched a public beta of "Amazon MP3," a new digital music download store with Earth's biggest selection of a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads. Amazon MP3 has over 2 million songs from more than 180,000 artists represented by over 20,000 major and independent labels. Amazon MP3 complements Amazon.com's existing selection of over 1 million CDs to now offer customers more selection of physical and digital music than any other retailer.

"Amazon MP3 is an all-MP3, DRM-free catalog of a la carte music from major labels and independent labels, playable on any device, in high-quality audio, at low prices," said Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President for Digital Music. "This new digital music service has already been through an extensive private beta, and today we're excited to offer it to our customers as a fully functional public beta. We look forward to receiving feedback from our customers and using their input to refine the service."

Every song and album on Amazon MP3 is available exclusively in the MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) software. This means that Amazon MP3 customers are free to enjoy their music downloads using any hardware device… organize their music using any music management application such as iTunes or Windows Media Player; and burn songs to CDs.

Link

The Greatest Music Sites on the Web

2007-08-21T15:34:00.001-07:00

I'm going to start a new series of posts highlighting some of the best music sites on the Internet. So let's get right into it:

Last.FM - The mother of all web 2.0 music communities is Last.FM. It has an active user base of 15 million users. There is information on almost all artists ever including their top tracks, a radio that plays the artist’s top songs and the weekly top listeners. Each user can display the latest songs they played and their musicial preferences all time. You can join musical groups, download the Last.FM player, make friends and compare your musical taste with them. The “Recently Played” widget on many weblogs is the output of the Last.FM goodie called audioscrobbler.
see also the Wikipedia entry on Last.FM.

12 Great Music Social Networks

2007-06-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

Mashable put together a nice little run down of what they think the 12 best music social networks are:

There are simply too many of these to keep track.

Aphex Twin Hides Image in Music

2007-05-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

Read this cool account of how Aphex Twin hid an image in tracks, #2 (the long formula) on "Windowlicker".

Link

Marek's Dancing Robots Are Cool

2007-03-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

Marek Michalowski is a Ph.D. student in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His latest project is Beatbots - cute little robots with microphone noses and video camera eyes which can dance to music. In the video on his site, the 'drum' clip is OK, but the clip of the robot dancing to Spoon's 'I turn my camera on' is fantastic.

Create Digital Music Interviews Pandora Founder

2007-03-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

Two great posts from Peter at Create Digital Music -- if you're a Pandora fan or just love internet radio, they're a must-read:

Interview with Pandora Founder: Royalty Rate Hike

Interview with Pandora Founder: How Pandora Works

SellaBand

2007-03-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

SellaBand has created a platform that enables fans to sponsor bands and get a piece of the action in return. This is how it works: fans, dubbed 'Believers', find an artist they like on SellaBand.com. For USD 10, they can buy a share, or 'Part'. Once the band has sold 5,000 parts, SellaBand arranges a professional recording, including top studios, A&R managers and producers. Believers receive a limited edition CD of the recording. The interesting twist is that the songs are then made available as free downloads. Income comes from advertising revenue, which is split three ways: artist, believer and SellaBand. Since both believers and artists benefit from getting 5,000 parts sold, both are likely to actively promote the band (and SellaBand) everywhere musicians and music fans are active: on their blogs, on their MySpace pages, in online communities, to their friends, etc. Once the recording has taken place, the same goes for SellaBand's download portal: artists and believers profit from ad revenues created by driving traffic to their download page.

So far, bands Nemesea, Cubworld and Second Person have reached the USD 50,000 target and have started recording, while a further 20 artists have racked more than USD 5,000.

Kompoz, a New Collaboration Worspace for Musicians

2007-03-13T07:57:00.000-07:00

Interesting. Kompoze released a beta version of an online workspace for musicians to collaborate in the creation of new recordings. Think Apple's GarageBand audio recording software meets MySpace Band pages, where the social network revolves around song projects.

Basically, anyone can start a new "song project", choosing project attributes such as song key, beats per minute, and an appropriate Creative Commons license. Kompoz members can then add parts to the betterment (or detriment) of the project, and the whole work in progress is both streamable and downloadable by everyone, both as a whole or in parts. Features include:

Artist profile pages with list of started projects, projects you've joined, and favorite projects
Individual project workspaces for each collaboration
Project-specific discussion forums (multiple topics/threads).
All tracks/audio uploaded to and hosted by Kompoz
Uploaded files automatically encoded for fast streaming playback. (Original format is preserved for downloads.)
Uploaded files are organized into tracks and versioned.
Support for MP3, WAV, and WMA formats.
Download a single file, an entire track, or an entire project with one click.
Search for projects by genre, artist, tags/keywords, license type, and more.
Choose from multiple licensing options when creating your projects.

There's also a "Private" setting, where only invited musicians are able to participate and collaborate, but it doesn't seem to be enabled, currently. This will be key, as many musicians will want to work with a set group of co-writers or band members. Perhaps it's a post-beta feature, or part of a 'paid' version of the service? I'm also wondering if there will be a way to "mute" parts of the track... If 50 people contribute parts, it could become a tad messy unless you're able to select which tracks are being played back at any time. Would a Creative Commons audio archive "search" module make sense here? (I'll add an update soon with the answers...)

It's definitely a cool concept, and a nice feature set considering it's free.

Internet Radio Gets Royalty Rate Smack Down

2007-03-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

Ouch. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) announced its decision decision to adopt the "per play per customer" royalty rate proposal made by SoundExchange (the RIAA-created digital music fee collection service). As a result, webcasters will have to pay, retroactively:

2006 $.0008 per performance per listener
2007 $.0011 per performance per listener
2008 $.0014 per performance per listener
2009 $.0018 per performance per listener
2010 $.0019 per performance per listener

Add to that a $500 flat fee minimum per station. In the past, webcasters paid 6-12% of revenue, based on audience reach. The new rates are pretty harsh, as demonstrated in RAIN's analysis (Radio and Internet Newsletter).

Who Loses:

US-based internet radio. Radio-only sites like Pandora and Live365 would have to shut down. Bigger companies like AOL Music will have crazy-big bill to pay, rather suddenly.
Internet radio listeners. There will be far less places to go to listen to music online. (I love Pandora, myself.)
Record Labels. Both large and small; that's a lot less exposure they'll be getting.
Artists. Less channels of exposure equals a "long tail" that's been cut short.

Who Wins: (I'm trying to see a positive spin, here...)

Creative Commons-licensed music repositories and Podsafe music sites. Internet radio broadcasters will be looking for sources of free music to add to rotations.
Artists offering CC-licensed and "podsafe" music. Same reason as above.
Non-US Webcasters. Companies like Last.fm will be able to capitalize on the sudden disappearance of major competitors.
Alternative Radio Options. Satellite radio, terrestial radio, CD players...

Internet radio webcasters are expected to appeal... Good luck, guys.

music.tumblr.com

2007-03-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

Check out the new Tumble Log from Eric Rice: music.tumblr.com - this is where Eric shares the music he's playing way too loudly at the moment. Powered by IODA's Promonet.

Here is Eric's description of what his Tumble Log is:

Tumblr, is a hybrid site between twitter and wordpress, because it's more like a scrapbook than a blog. There is an interface with six simple buttons: you can post an article, photo, quote, link, conversation, or video. The end. No comments, nothing, just hyperlinks and RSS.

Now, I'm not sure how long Tumblr has been around, and because I have Web 2.0 bigotry, I probably ignored the site because it had that cutesy, idiotic let's-all-be-like-flickr-and-appease-techcrunch spelling to it. However, I've noticed some pals passing around some URLs with the tumblr.com suffix, and it peaked my interest.

So, I'm using it as a creative scrapbook and it works most excellent. I could almost see ditching Twitter for this, but not ditching wordpress. Also, no comments to deal with. This might be 'anti-conversation' but most of the conversation is me battling spam or picking up my half of the conversation when I get a chance. It's not real time, it's documentation conversationalism, and I don't have the bandwidth for that. It's why I like the phone more than e-mail. Things get drawn out forever in e-mail. But I digress.

Yay, tumblr!

Moby at EQ Magazine

2007-02-21T08:43:00.000-08:00

There is a cool story on Moby over at EQ Magazine. Here what Moby has to say about his software platform:

...Poor-sounding album has more to do with a poor performance than a poor production, but good tools are certainly an invaluable aid. Cubase and Pro Tools are his methods of choice in achieving those patented lush sounds that he manages, since the usual suspects have been forced into semi-retirement . . . though he’s not safe from the same day-to-day platform frustrations we all deal with. Eliciting more than just a brief pang of empathy, he shares: “I have a dilemma: I’m using Pro Tools and Cubase in conjunction with each other and, as a result, I’m still on OS 9 in my studio, because you can’t use Pro Tools and Cubase together in OS X. I think at some point I’m going to have to bite the bullet and figure out a new software platform because, five years from now, I don’t want to be a complete relic.

Image-Line Deckadance: The DJ App/Plug-in To End All DJ Apps ?

2007-02-21T08:16:00.000-08:00

The creators of Fruity Loops aka FL Studio (Image Line software) have just announced a new DJ application called DeckaDance, and this thing looks very cool. I love applications that don’t tie you into a specific controller/hardware/control vinyl solution. DeckaDance seems to have everything I've ever wanted in a DJ application, and not only does it support several different types of control vinyl, it actually has a learn mode to adapt itself to new types! Add the fact that it’s a VST host capable of hosting both effects AND instruments, and is capable of operating as a VST plugin as well, and I think we have something that will truly change the face of DJing (unlike some other recent products). Here’s a run-down of some of the more notable features:

Works as standalone or VSTi plugin
Hosts VSTi soft synths & FX in 8 slots
8-slot sampler that samples from the decks
6 inputs & 12 outputs
Supports Final Scratch, Serato Scratch, MixVibes and (our favorite) Ms Pinky vinyl
Capable of learning new vinyl control system
Auto-sync

Most surprisingly, it says that a Mac / Audio Units version is planned, in addition to the current Windows version. With the availability of Image-Line’s Poizone and Toxic III soft synths for OS X, perhaps it’s not as big a surprise as it would have been a few years ago, but it’s nice to see ImageLine pushing forward with multiple OS support (I’m guessing that a Linux/Jack port is further down the line :-).

The only glaring omission I see so far is a lack of support for FLAC files (although it does support MP3, WAV and Ogg), but I’m sure we’ll see that in a future version. No release date has been set, although Image-Line says it’s coming “real soon”. If the performance aspect is there, and if this thing has a similarly powerful workflow and rock-solid stability like it’s sequencer brethren Fruity Loops, I think Traktor (and DJ Decks, and Torq, and everything else) is in for some serious competition.

A demo is already available.

DeckaDance Sneak Preview

Master of Your Own Domain

2007-02-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

Electroinc Musician has a decent primer for aspiring sound engineers:

Should you decide to master your own project, your best asset is time. Building in sufficient time helps you in two ways. First, it allows you to set your mixes aside long enough to gain some objectivity. Only by taking a few steps back can you be sure you're seeing the forest instead of obsessing over individual trees.

Second, extra time gives you the opportunity to listen to your mixes on a variety of playback systems. Checking your sound in the car, on a boom box, over big and small speakers, and with or without a subwoofer helps level the playing field between you and the mastering engineer who has 20 years' experience and a monitoring system worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Here is the link to the rest of the article.

Steve Jobs, Michael Robertson, and Public Letters Re: Mp3s

2007-02-16T08:57:00.001-08:00

Hooray. Industry leaders throw their weight around:

Steve Jobs' Thoughts on Music - (Apple head) Steve states his case for why the music industry should stop selling DRM-protected songs (ie Digital Rights Management-protected). Is he just deflecting the criticism and complaints targeted towards Apple's proprietary media formats towards the more general bad guy, DRM systems?

Michael Robertson's Response To Steve Jobs' Call For MP3 - (Founder of Mp3.com) Michael says, "Cool", but asks Steve to put his money where his mouth is. A nice maneuver to take advantage of some buzz.

Good fodder for the press.

Audio Cubes

2007-02-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

You can use these cubes to create MIDI messages that can be routed to your DAW to control effects and virtual instruments. Their cubes' orientation and relative positions can generate all manners of control data. This might be just the thing to make performances by laptop jockeys a tiny bit more interesting.

Link

iJigg, A Cool Digg-Like Popularity-Based Music Site

2007-01-30T09:19:00.000-08:00

If you've ever used Digg, you'll get iJigg, but for those who haven't -- songs are uploaded by indie and unsigned artists into a mega-pool of music. Surfers check out the new music, and "Jigg" what they like. (i.e. they click on a "Jigg" button) and the number of "Jiggs" (or votes) goes up, increasing the rank of the song. Fun stuff.

iJigg took it a step further, however, and added a bunch of flash functionality including sweet players, comments, emails, embeddable code, tags, and other blogosphere goodness. I just checked out the popular tracks section, and am pasting some of that embeddable code right here for the song "Unravel" by jsleuth, which is currently the most popular with 95 "Jiggs":

There's no way to buy or download the music as with Amie Street, but it's still yet another way to find cool new music.

Gear, Gear, & More Gear

2007-01-29T10:08:00.000-08:00

If you've ever wondered where all the cool synths from the '70s and '80s went, Studio One at Play Industries is your answer...

Yunyu Music Video Uses 16,000 Digital Photos

2007-01-29T09:54:00.000-08:00

Cool. Enchanter, a production company in Sydney, Australia, produced a stop animation music video for Bjork-like artist Yunyu. 16,000 digital photographs were used, making for a somewhat creepy, but visually impressive work, that was awarded the 2006 ACS NSW & ACT Award for Cinematography, and was also a finalist for the 2006 ATOM Award and 2006 SunScreen Film Clip Festival.

Amie Street and its Popularity-Based MP3 Pricing Model

2007-01-29T09:40:00.000-08:00

There are a million digital music stores out there, and Amie Street has successfully broken through with an incredibly unique concept that seriously rocks.

Get this:

New songs uploaded by unsigned & indie artists start out at a price of $0.00. (Thereby encouraging people to visit the site.)
As the song gets purchased by more fans, the mp3's price increases up to a max of $0.98. (Thereby encouraging artists to promote it like crazy.)
If you're the first to find a song before it goes up in price, you get credit towards more songs. (Thereby encouraging everyone to try and listen to new stuff as much as possible.)

Artists get heard, and music lovers get cheap music plus the thrill of the "hunt". How sweet is that?

Best Indie Music of 2006? You Decide!

2007-01-05T16:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a random smathering of opinions about the best indie music of 2006:

Metacritic's Best Albums of 2006: Metacritic picks the best 30 albums of the year. I haven't heard of many of them, which I like. Bob Dylan's #1 (ok, it's not really indie I suppose), which I'm a little hesitant about, but a few of my favorites like Yo La Tengo and The Decemberists made it, so all's good.
BestMusicPoll's National Indie Acts of 2006: BestMusicPoll asked the fans what they thought... Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Belle & Sebastian, make the list, among others. (Gorillaz won the general music category.)
NPR's Best CDs of 2006: The top ten albums as picked by NPR listeners. I'm a big fan of All Songs Considered, and fully trust the show's listeners to pick a few goodies. The Decemberists are #1, awesome.
Pitchfork's Top 100 Tracks of 2006: It's hard to go wrong with Pitchfork, right? #100 is "Southern Comfort" by Hyperdub, interesting. #1 is "My Love" by Justin Timberlake... hmmm. Hopefully everything in between is better -- btw, mp3s are included with each listing, which is good.
PopMatters' 10 Best Indie-Pop Tracks of 2006: Ok, that's a much more digestible list. I'll admit, I am completely unfamiliar with all of what's listed, and will have to do some digging...
Modern Music's Best Indie Rock of 2006: The top ten indie rock albums of 2006, according to a Blogger blogger.

But why should we only consider the past?

About.com's Top 10 New Albums to Covet in Early 2007: A list of the potential best albums of next year.

So, there you have it. You no longer need to decide what music is best; several music editors have done that for you...with a little free will wiggle room, since opinions vary.

R.I.P. James Brown

2006-12-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

Visual Acoustics

2006-12-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

Visual Acoustics is a concept for interactive expression. A canvas to paint reactive music and vision as a real-time artistic performance.

Brushes are painted across the screen, each consisting of an instrument and accompanying visual. The position of the mouse on the screen determines which instrumental note the brush paints onto the screen.

Each brush stroke is triggered over time using a timer. The further the mouse is moved over time, the more strokes the brush paints.

Layers of different brushes can be built up, resulting in a stunning performance of improvised musical vision. Each brush is variable, giving the ability to control the volume and rate at which the brush paints onto the screen.

Bill Gates on the Future of DRM

2006-12-14T08:31:00.000-08:00

Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch had an opportunity to ask Bill Gates about the future of DRM:

Gates didn’t get into what could replace DRM, but he did give some reasonably candid insights suggesting that he thinks DRM is as lame as the rest of us.

Gates said that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM, which “causes too much pain for legitmate buyers” while trying to distinguish between legal and illegal uses. He says no one has done it right, yet. There are “huge problems” with DRM, he says, and “we need more flexible models, such as the ability to “buy an artist out for life” (not sure what he means). He also criticized DRM schemes that try to install intelligence in each copy so that it is device specific.

His short term advice: “People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then.”

He ended by saying “DRM is not where it should be, but you won’t get me to say that there should be usage models and different payment models for usage. At the end of the day, incentive systems do make a difference, but we don’t have it right with incentives or interoperability.”

These quotes are rough - I was typing fast but it was not an exact transcript. Still, it is interesting insight from a man who is in a position to shape the future of digital music models.

Turntable/Casio Keyboard Circuit-Bent Musical Instrument

2006-12-14T07:53:00.000-08:00

Flickr pool user Devowski writed up a turntable to an old keyboard to make a very strange circuit-bent hybrid instrument. From his description:

In the arm of the turntable there are 3 photo cells (light sensors) that are wired into the circuitry of the Casio. the record on the player has three red LEDs mounted on it... when the LEDs pass under the photo cells, it causes a glitch in the keyboard, making some strange noises.

Link to Flickr post, Link to video on YouTube.