Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Modern Vs Classical Music

   From the 12th century to the 21st century music has been vital to everyday life. Whether the music is coming from the trumpet playing an old time classical or from the beat boxer raping his favorite tune song; the creativity and passion for music starts to flow out of every person who lets it. Music had changed drastically over the years. Three ways music has changed is by adding instruments, changing the message, and by changing the purpose. A lot of people have been exposed to music, whether it’s classical or everyday modern.
          
  The basis of music has changed, since the early days of just playing one instrument and singing the thoughts that pop into the singers head. Music started out with little equipment and has only progressed since. Today, music goes through a process before it’s even heard. There is so much work put into having a song sound good. Back in the old days, music was played out of enjoyment. It came from the heart. Classical music is known to have a wide dynamic range and will often speed up and slow down at different times. While modern music often expresses emotion through the singer, there is more of an emphasis and variation that in classical music. From classical to modern music the amount of instruments has increased tremendously.
          
  In classical and modern music the message differs in each century. Whether the people know it or not music can affect their mood and influence their behaviors as well. Music had personalities, which can express what people feel. Each song touches someone through ways like teaching a life lesson or by touching you heart. Every generation has music that impacts the world by motivating people to do certain things or defines a person’s personality. Each had music sums up the generation. Classical music generally gives the message of relaxation and peace. Modern music has many messages depending on the genre. There is a song for every mood. Within each century the message changes through each passing mood.
         
   In modern and classical music the purpose for the songs written had varied. Classical music’s purpose is generally to entertain an audience and to excite listeners emotionally and intellectually. While some modern music is developed to stimulate in similar ways, it also diverges from classical music. Most modern music is developed simply for dancing, which is uncommon for classical music. Whether your purpose is to dance and jump around or to relax in bed, there are endless possibilities.

         
   Throughout the years, each music genre has been imperative to oneself. Music is what moves everyone, and without it, life would be meaningless. From an old hymn to a funky lyric; the intentions have changed but one thing still remains. Music has and will always be a way of life to our culture.  Music has transformed by adding instruments, changing the message, and by altering the purpose. Although music has changed through each passing year; it is still vital in how we view life today.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Hans Zimmer - THE MAN OF STEEL

A bold new approach by Academy-Award winning composer Hans Zimmer.  The result couldn't be more different than Williams' beloved and now more than 30-year old score.  Where John Williams used brass fanfares and snare drums accompanied by full symphony orchestra Hans Zimmer uses a 12-member drum band of renowned drummers accompanied by 8 pedal steel guitars, and synthesizers. 

Zimmer has composed two principle themes for this score.  The first is a theme representing Superman's hope and struggle to become part of human race.  This delicate piano theme was featured at the beginning of the third trailer for the movie released earlier this year.  Incidentally, the entire cue from the trailer is included on the album in track 17.  This theme, the Humanity Theme, finds liberal usage in several cues including the highlight cue, Earth, which presents several satisfying variations.  Like his theme from Inception, Time, the Humanity Theme is very simple, but it touches the heart in its intimacy especially played so tenderly on the piano.

Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel
The second theme is Superman's.  In composing this theme and anthem Zimmer has stated that he procrastinated for three months just feeling intimidation at the prospect of treading in John Williams' shoes.  For those like myself who have grown up with John Williams' epic theme and can whistle and air conduct it on command its hard to imagine anyone topping Williams' legendary effort.  That said I had high hopes for Zimmer especially since he has composed some amazing themes such as those for Crimson Tide, The Lion King, and Backdraft.  The result is a theme or really anthem, much simpler and shorter in construct than Williams' work, that will likely find popular appeal.

Superman's theme first appears in the Look to the Stars where it receives a restrained and very slow tempo treatment conveying a sense of reverence and nobility.  Some alluring vocals enhance the beauty of this cue.  The best performance of Superman's theme comes in the concert-fit piece What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving the World (that's a mouthful).  This cue begins with the humanity theme and then at 1:23 the drum march subtly begins.  Over the next minute the music continues ascending and building anticipation until at 2:41 the full on anthem explodes and you cannot help but envision Superman flying triumphantly through the air.  Chill inducing?  Yes!  Exciting?  Yes!  Inspiring?  Yes!  Zimmer's approach couldn't be more different than Williams', but at its core Zimmer's anthem inspires the same feelings of elation as Williams' theme.  Unfortunately, nowhere else in the score on album does that anthem reach those same heights.  This is Clark Kent and Flight do offer some swell, but short variations on the anthem.

Zimmer's Man of Steel Drum Band
Percussion obviously plays an important role in the score.  Oil Rig brings on the big drums in beat-you-over-the-head fashion.  The first minute of Terraforming features my favorite drum march performance on album.  Probably the most intense drumming comes in This is Madness! where the drummers go gangbusters for almost four minutes with virtually no other accompaniment.


The destruction of Krypton was an epic part of John Williams' score and so too for Zimmer's.  If You Love These People is a perfect merging of guitar, the drum band, and the chorus.  At its climax the cue recalls some of Zimmer's best choral action work from The Lion King.  The finale of the cue reprises the violin solo heard earlier during the cataclysm of Krypton's destruction with a beautiful solo violin.  Don't be surprised if you find yourself wanting to hit the repeat button when you come to this cue!

Friday, December 4, 2015

Knowing your rights

Copyright means the protection given by the laws of the U.S., as well as many other countries of the world, to the original works that a writer creates. The works can be songs, or underscore to films and television programs, or symphonic or electronic pieces, or advertising jingles or any other original creation of music, lyrics or both. 

The Copyright Law gives to the copyright owner (the writer, publisher, etc.) of a work, a number of exclusive rights which are good for a specific number of years. The law also puts certain limits on those rights. The exclusive rights include the right to produce a work in copies and records; the right to prepare derivative works; the right to distribute copies of the work; the right to perform the work; the right to display the work; and most recently, a limited performance right in sound recordings digitally transmitted. 

In late 1998, Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act which changed the 1976 Copyright Act by significantly increasing the length of time a song remains under copyright protection. Different rules though apply for songs written prior to January 1, 1978 and those written on or after that date. 

For compositions written on or after January 1, 1978, the basic term of protection is the life of the writer plus 70 years. For example, if two 20 year old writers wrote a song in 2005, and one lives to be 50 and the other lives to be 100, the copyright protection for that song would last for 150 years from its creation. In this case, the protection would last from the time the song was written through the life of the last living writer (i.e. 100 years minus 20 = 80 years) plus an additional 70 years. 

For compositions written prior to January 1, 1978, and which were still under copyright protection as of the time the Term Extension Act was passed, an additional 20 years of protection was added to the old law's terms. As the total number of years of protection for most pre-1978 songs under the 1976 law was 75 years (28 original years + 28 renewal years and a 19 year extension), the term of protection for these works has been extended to a total of 95 years from the original date of copyright. 

As to "works made for hire" written on or after 1/1/78 (many compositions written for film and television fall into this category), the new law's term of copyright protection is 120 years from creation or 95 years from first publication, whichever expires first.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Genre Discussion - Country Dance Music

Country Dance Music

(aka CDM)


Country Dance Music, 
  • Basically a 4/4 beat structure
  • Electronic production overlaid with folk or country melodies or vocals


CDM origin,
  • What happens when you mix a Luke Bryan song with Eminem?


(Luke Bryan - new age country singer)


Results,
  • Creates a RAGE in traditional country music fans.
  • But answer is simple: PEOPLE DANCE



DJs in clubs,
  • Nashville record labels are bringing it to MAINSTREAM
  • Second life by remixing country witha thumping techno making them dance tunes.


(Carrie Underwood / Dolly Parton) 



Reasons,
  • Country music isn’t slow - it’s party music.

“We’re keeping the music, but just giving you a different way to listen to it” - Jason Aldean.


Pop and country is also blend together, challenging task.

Adding elements like,
 - accelerated dance beats
 - drums
 - keyboard
 - electronic sounds
keeping the original guitar track to maintain the root of the song.


Young generation market:

Huge trend toward hip-hop, EDM and other styles of dance music.
“I’ve noticed as much as people want to two-step and waltz all night, there’s a lot of people who just want to shake it.” - DJ DU.

COMBINE THEM.!!!! CRAZY PARTY

Current country singers, grew up listening to hip-hop as well as country. So a lot of their melodies have a hip-hop element to it.

Balance, keeping the country roots while adding new remix flavor.







Bibliography:



http://www.maniacmusic.net/home/blog/5-new-music-genres-you-need-to-hear-in-2015

Reviewing Kontakt

 Native Instruments Kontakt 5 is a robust and versatile soft sampler that operates as either a standalone or as a plugin within your DAW. It delivers tremendous value for its price, but how much you get out of that depends on your musical goals and willingness to delve into the guts of the sounds you are working with.

                                                                                                      SAMPLER VS. SAMPLE PLAYER
Kontakt Player
There are a lot of sample playback engines on the market. NI’s Kontakt Player (which is a separate but related product) is among a strong pack including EastWest’s Play engine, Vienna Symphonic Library’s Vienna Instruments, Best Service’s Engine 2, and a whole lot of others. You can get good mileage out of simply buying instruments that come with their own playback engine, but what you will miss out on is the deep customization and sound creation power that a full sampler offers. Kontakt 5 performs all the functions of its little brother, the Kontakt Player, and goes far beyond that. It offers a full-fledged suite of tools for you to edit existing instruments or create your own from raw sounds. You don’t have to be an expert to benefit from these tools. It is easy to pick up the basics, and there are many resources available for those who wish to learn the deeper intricacies. Once you realize all the ways you can improve the instruments you own, or tailor them to your workflow, you may find it hard to go back to more restrictive sample players. It is worth noting that not all libraries that work in the full version of Kontakt are available in the Kontakt Player format. Many developers do not go through Native Instruments due to the costs involved in obtaining the license. The full version of Kontakt offers access to a far wider variety of sounds.

Kontakt with Orchestral Instrument
KONTAKT VS. OTHER SAMPLERS
    There was a time when Kontakt was the de facto standard format in which sample libraries were developed. It supplanted Gigastudio, the original king of the softsamplers, and for a while it was nearly the only game in town (particularly if you worked with orchestral sample sets). Increasingly of late, though, developers have shifted to their own proprietary engines like Play and Vienna Instruments to deliver their content. Despite this move, Kontakt has retained a massive cast of providers who offer top notch, cutting edge libraries which are unavailable in other formats. Kontakt isn’t the only softsampler available. Users of Logic have EXS24 at their disposal, Steinberg offers their Halion sampler, and other competitors dot the electronic landscape. However, none have nearly as broad or deep a community of developers as Kontakt can boast. This advantage translates into both more options for the consumer to choose from when looking for new sounds, and more resources for those learning how to create content.


KONTAKT VS. YOUR HARD DRIVE

Kontakt with effects rack
    Kontakt 5 comes with 43GB of instruments. Even in this day and age, that can be a big chunk of real estate on your drive. If your computer is current, you likely scoff at such trivial amounts. But if your machine is a couple years old that space may not be as easy to come by. Are those instruments worthwhile to have? If you are a beginner just starting out in producing sampled music: absolutely! The Kontakt library covers all bases, and if you purchase Kontakt 5 as part of one of the Komplete bundles, you’ll have even more sounds at your disposal. Orchestra, choir, world instruments, rock bands, synths, and more are all represented in the sprawling library. The instruments all have many parameters you can tweak and are of uniformly good sound quality. If you’ve been working with sampled instruments for a while, you probably have better examples of much or all of what K5 provides. None of what it offers could be considered ‘best in class,’ which can make it a frustrating decision trying to figure out if it is worth having 43GB of dead space on your drive. You may find a few useful patches interspersed throughout the library, an esoteric bit of this or that which your arsenal lacks. In my case, I rarely find myself reaching for anything in the Kontakt library, but I’ve also nearly bankrupted myself buying sample libraries.