A new site with information about NZ music is now online. It is a work in progress, but already has a lot of information on artists, bands, record labels etc.
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The other day I was searching for a particular album and neither Spotify or Grooveshark had it. Then I discovered it on another music steaming site called ohmytracks (that's oh my tracks, not ohmy tracks). The really good thing about it is the comprehensive list of genres.
There seems to be a lot of these around on Youtube nowadays. I guess once the multitrack master leaves the studio then the cat is out of the bag (if one additional copy was made from each copy at the rate of one per year then there would be over one billion copies out there by now). Just type "Beatles deconstructed" or "Beatles isolated tracks" into the Youtube search engine.
Neuroscientist and musician, Daniel Levitin discuses why we understand music, or why we even bother with it. He fails to be conclusive as he tries to ratify musical perception with evolutionary theory, but it is an interesting read all the same. His (and other) research has made significant headway into mapping the brain musically (using scans), but mapping the mind musically (or any other way) is still a long way off. I found the chapter titled "What makes a Musician?" a highlight. Here he looks at what exactly constitutes 'expertise'. InGameNZ have made an online and iPhone software game that allows you to se if you can manage NZ music acts (from soloists to bands). They received $287,000 of taxpayers money from NZonAir to produce the game. Some musicians have already decried it as insulting. So...helpful or just a gimmick? Time will tell.
Freegal (free & legal) is a Sony music database that can be accessed through a membership to a local library. Three song downloads per weeks are allowed (maybe it should be called Frugal), so if you want to build a collection that will take some time. Good for getting the occasional song, though.
Dr. Rik Pfenninger at the Plymouth State University has put a series of software tutorials online. There is a set for Logic 9, Pro Tools 10, Sibelius 7, Finale 2011, Garageband, and BIAB.
To celebrate The Beatles Please Please Me recording 50 years ago, 11 top artists went in to Abbey Road to record the album again - all in one day! The video is here.
David Byrne (Talking Heads) has written this new book. In it he explains how the music biz operates, looks at recording technology, recording sessions, and has a go at explaining exactly what music is. Alternative styles of music and amateur music making are included, and a whole chapter is devoted to the important, yet rarely included topic of collaboration. Much of the content is straight from his own experience, so overall it is a perspective, rather than a textbook. |
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