The Bass Geek

So I finally installed the new version of iTunes with the Ping social network and – well, that’s about it. Honestly, it’s looking a little barren right now, as you might expect for a new service (even one based on a service used by millions worldwide). The initial recommendations of people and bands to follow are a little weak (I shall not be following Lady Gaga, although I offer no judgment should you choose to do so – I do not offer the same lack of judgment should you choose to follow Jack Johnson), and I wasn’t able to follow some other bands I might wish to. The service offered a connection to Facebook, although the time of this writing it was spinning with a familiar wheel of limbo, so I can’t offer words on that, either.

Another commentator on Musical Family Tree opined that this social network works best for a streaming audio service, where recommendations for listening can turn an instant profit for the artist. I tend to agree, if only because I think the similar eMusic review and “friend” system hasn’t really caught on all that well for purchasing tracks.

I’ll grade this incomplete for now and see how the implementation works out.

The new IMN podcast is up – download it or listen at the site or on WFYI HD2, Thursdays at 4pm and 10pm.

Picked up some new recordings over the past week through the magic of eMusic and the CD store. The notable standouts include Julie Slick’s self-titled debut and the Stanley Clarke Band’s latest release. Slick melds the brawny, muscular tone she displayed at the Adrian Belew show at Radio Radio some months back with intriguing, well-composed tracks featured a ton of guest artists. This one comes highly recommended. As for Clarke’s disc, I actually heard the first track via WWOZ without knowing who it was and was intrigued by the modern rock elements the song incorporated within the jazz framework. But pair Clarke with pianist Hiromi and the other great musicians on the disc, and that kind of ingenuity makes sense. Good stuff all around. Finally, I’m just getting into the new Trombone Shorty disc – it doesn’t quite capture the fiery presence Troy Andrews has live, but it still communicates what you can expect from his outfit. Pick it up, but I’d definitely be looking for the next live show.

Back to playing with the new Propellerheads software – the new drum and loop tools are great, and Record sports an auto-tune function now. Use with discretion, please.

NPR tackles the plight of those who write music for a living and distribute it via sheet music. File sharing doesn’t apply just to audio recordings – something that’s drilled in to me every time I get a Google new alert detailing all the sites torrenting my assorted books. Same thing happens with sheet music, and the NPR story considers how new technology makes the traditional publishing process obsolete. Who needs the publishing companies when you can take Sibelius or Finale (preferably Sibelius, for my money) and sell it via any number of online marketplaces. You don’t even have to pay for studio time. The piracy may still exist, but at least you’re getting the money directly instead of filtering it through middlemen.

But that also just accounts for the actual sheet music, and not the performance rights. Currently, when I perform in the pit for a musical, the director or theater buys the rights for the performance and awaits the delivery of well-worn paper scores and parts. These things have been abused, and most of the time they’re just photocopies of hand-written sheet music (or some crappy handwriting-like font). Then I end up using Sibelius to copy and transpose some of the numbers for the sake of the singers, toss together the whole conglomeration, and hope for the best. Since the performance costs are for the rights to the show and not the books themselves, why not distribute them digitally via computers or other devices (like Kindles, iPads, or other eReaders). The backlit screens mean we could even dispatch with the stand lights!

But wait, it gets better. Since these are digitally distributed, why couldn’t they also go into a program that automatically transposes the songs according to the needs of the performers? Or remove measures or sections as needed as well (another common occurrence, at least in the theaters I’ve worked in)? Even the iPhone can already do the transposition for lead sheets in the Real Book, although I don’t think it can handle written parts and the removal of measures. The initial buy-in for the eReaders of choice might be a little much, but paper copies could also be printed from the computer. Remember, the money is for the performance rights, not the books themselves.

So now we have the electronic sheet music available either in printable form (which, admittedly, is available right now at several different online locations) or to eReaders with additional abilities for modification. Money is saved in the transport and return of the books, and those responsible for the creation of the music still get paid for the performance rights as well. The tools are there, we just have to make it work, write the software, and use the new tools available to us.

The new IMN podcast is up – download it here or listen at the site or on WFYI HD2, Thursdays at 4pm and 10pm.

Macworld reviewed some new guitar amp and effect simulations for the iPhone and iPad – the only thing it seems to be missing is a connection to a PA or amp (headphone jacks do NOT count). I’m just wondering what happens when you get a phone call during the gig.

The theory of “Don’t program it until you can play it” expressed here is an interesting one, and the author certainly took the time to delve into it and consider the issue from different viewpoints. It is not, for instance, the knee-jerk opinion expressed about Vernon Reid’s guitar solo by a member of Blind Melon quite a few years ago. Basically, he said the part was terrible because “you can’t hum it.”

If I wanted to hear it hummed, I listen to somebody hum it. I listen to that part because it’s something that the instrument (and likely, that soloist) is singularly capable of performing.

So I go into this theory with a little trepidation, precisely because the tools are capable of doing more than what has been done previously. But at the same time, not everything can or should be boundary-pushing. I want to hear what is possible, but I also want to hear the Hold Steady, too. Comfort listening, if you will.

Drawing notes is boring, time-consuming, and a little lifeless, really. But it’s a tool to get to where you need to go, and I’m guessing that you probably tried to play it through once before giving up and drawing it in. If you’ve got a little skill on an instrument, it’s easier to give that a whack and modify it from there.

But before it’s set in stone, I think I’d like to play with the envelopes or settings just a bit. Just in case making it an un-hummable part makes it better. We have the tools, after all, and that guy from Blind Melon probably isn’t going to ever hear it anyway.

I’m not a huge soccer fan – I watched parts of a couple games last weekend (even walked into a club just before the USA scored their goal, prompting patrons to ask me to re-enter every five minutes or so), and my playing experience involved an older coach telling a much younger me to stand close to the goal and kick the ball hard if it came to me (a surprising effective strategy). However, it’s indicative of the power that soccer holds over the rest of the world that, in the span of a week, Waves has introduced an audio plug-in specifically designed to remove the sound of the plastic horns that fill the stadiums for World Cup games. And it’s available for both Pro Tools TDM and native applications. Although it’s designed for broadcasters carrying the games, there’s nothing holding back the enterprising audio engineer from routing their TV audio through their rig and ridding themselves of the sound of angry bees. Personally, I didn’t find it that annoying during the broadcasts, but maybe they were already using it on ESPN.

Only $150! Get on it!

Is it unreasonable that the music geek in me gets excited about news like this? Aside from the obvious benefit of getting ready-made transcriptions or scores, the amount of technology that goes into recognizing the environmental conditions around the sound, picking out the individual instruments, and translating all of that information into a notation system based on the preservation efforts of 15th-century European monks. Amazing. Although there might be theory teachers out there bemoaning the loss of transcription skills in favor of plugging it in and running, I’m still geeked about the possibility of getting a complete folio of some artists just based off of a few sound files. And what a boon to music libraries! Besides, the students will still need ears to fix the inevitable mistakes. No program is perfect.

I also want to see how they notate Albert Ayler and Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music.

The new IMN Podcast is up – download it or listen at the site or on WFYI HD2, Thursdays at 4pm.

We’ve already tackled the computer in the amp earlier this week. Now, it’s the computerized guitar, done DIY-style. What’s the difference between this and a keytar? Aside from the difference in sound, your DIY cred deflects any potential abuse you might take for playing a keytar. Because really, haven’t we finally moved beyond even the ironic keytar?