Euphonic Remarks

Sci-fi author Doctorow writes in the Guardian on filesharing and the record companies. Certainly an interesting read that reiterates what everyone has been screaming at record executives for years. You just can’t reach some men.

Ten years ago, the record industry had a simple little problem they could have solved by showing a tiny amount of future-looking flexibility. A decade of intransigence and stubborness has bred a killer strain of antibiotic-resistant filesharing technology that grows more and more difficult to police by the year.

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This is a public service announcement for all those who are self-appointed cheerleaders when at concerts. Stop it. You are not enhancing anyone’s enjoyment of the concert. In fact, you are having quite the opposite affect. I say this because I was at a Hip concert a few months ago, and this guy a row ahead of me was up and dancing and singing to every song. I repeat, every song. You want to get into the music, fine, get into the music. Hey, it’s why we go to see live shows. But when you turn to the people around you and chastise them for not getting up and dancing and singing, then you cross a line. Everyone is allowed to enjoy music in their own way. We don’t need to be shouted at to “Get up!”. We all don’t need to flail around to show our appreciation. To insist that your fellow patrons act as you do is tyrannical and frankly ruins the concert for all those around you. So please Mr. Cheerleader, keep to yourself. It’s the right thing to do.

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BBC has a writeup on the oldest known music produced by a computer. My how far we’ve come.

During the session, the temperamental machine managed to work its way through Baa Baa Black Sheep, God Save the King and part of In the Mood.

Following one aborted attempt, a laughing presenter says: “The machine’s obviously not in the mood.”

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Interesting software has emerged to help visualise music as you play. It’s a novel sort of notation system though not the first to incorporate colour. There have also been other attempts to visualise music. I’d like to see what becomes of this.

“It’s essentially a visual translation of the language of music,” said Lemons, 34, who founded the company in 2006.

The hope is that the software will launch a new way of teaching and learning music. Instead of playing notes from sheet music, students could learn — or even compose music — by visualizing the notes on Musical DNA’s colorful grid.

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The following is just a short list of words whose inclusion in lyrics I feel should be seriously considered, rather than haphazardly sprinkled in.

While some are overused, others too obvious, most are blunt and do not convey any craftsmanship that may be present in the lyrics. In short, they’re a turnoff. As soon as I hear one of these words my expectations just drop. That’s not to say these words can’t be used well, but the more of them included in one piece, the less likely it is that the work is a brilliant gem.

When writing one should strive to ’show’ and not ‘tell’. The writing then takes on a more experiential tone and not one of a third grade book report on a teenager’s breakup letter. I felt used, then I felt angry, then I felt … blah, blah, blah. One can only hope that producers in the recording studio would have an intervention before anything was committed to tape. Alas, all too often terrible lyrics slip out into the wild and sully what would have been a perfectly listenable song.

The List:

Dark, Darkness, Black, Night, Pain, Hurt, Broken, Sad, Angry, Rage, Feel, Love, Understand, Cry, Tear, Empty, Cold, Stone, Want, Alone, Care, Blood, Hide, Mask, Heart, Everybody, No one, Run

BBC reports on robots that have learned to appreciate punk music. I like this story because it combines two of my favorite subjects. As far as building robots that evaluate music goes it’s an interesting reversal on the usual endeavor to have machines perform or write music. In the sci-fi vision of the future could there be a robot audience to a robot band? I can only see this as furthering the ability of computers to generate songs. If they have an ability to judge the musicality of a piece then by using genetic programming algorithms or even using a Monte Carlo approach there ceases to be a need for human interference guiding the process.

The robots can decide whether a song is punk or not within 30 seconds.

“It depends on the form at the beginning of the song. It flicks between thinking a song is punk and not punk at the start and then becomes convinced,” said Mr Jones Morris.

Professor McOwan added: “If you look at the audio cortex in the brain and the cochlea in the ear you find that’s exactly how the human system does it.

The robot reacts to the level of “punk” in the song.

The more punk it believes the song is, the more it pogos in a “happy and frenzied way”, said Professor McOwan.

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I was recently shopping around for an overdrive pedal at my local music shop. I tried out a T.C. Electronic Classic Booster + Distortion this pedal is nice. Really nice. I have an Epiphone SG running through a Traynor amp, so that’s the setup I had going on in the store just to make sure everything sounds good together.

While this thing costs more than my amplifier you get what you pay for. This was brought into sharp focus when I compared it with some Boss pedals. The Classic Booster + Distortion sound was like a fine cream while the others I tried were coffee whitener. The incorporated noise gate was really nice; it took out all my finger noise. There are enough settings to get a wide range of sounds making it a versatile pedal to have in the chain.

If you’re saving up your hard earned money to buy some distortion for your guitar, then I’d recommend you take this one out for a test drive. You may forgo the the cheaper pedals and save a little longer to get this. I know I’ll be socking away to have it.

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