my friends' blogs
- niteshift — New Single "You Do it Right" Released via Airplay Direct
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Hey All,
Well, after some time in the musical wilderness, I finally got back into it, and have a new commercial single coming out Monday December 1st. At this rate, the album should be finished by 2118. Ah well, can't win em all. Press release is as follows.....
NEW SINGLE BY LETHA ALLEN DUE FOR RELEASE VIA AIRPLAY DIRECT DECEMBER 1ST
Equinox Entertainment and Letha Allen Music in association with The Graveyard of Songs announce that "You Do it Right" , the new single by Letha Allen, will be released to radio nationwide and internationally the week of Dec 1st, 2008.
Written by singer/songwriter Letha Allen (ASCAP), composer/guitarist Mark Kaufman (BMI), and composer/producer Geoff Wood (ASCAP), over the month of October 2008, and recorded in studios in Michigan, Minneapolis and Sydney, "You Do it Right" is the unique culmination of a global collaboration of artists. Produced by Equinox Entertainment in Australia and Denmark, and released to over 940 stations globally, "You Do it Right" is truly an international record.
With soulful vocals delivered over a solid acoustic rock groove, "You Do it Right" is a number that stands out beyond the usual suspects of everyday musical fare.
Broadcast quality downloads as well as streaming plays are available to commercial broadcasters, exclusively and immediately from Airplay Direct.( http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/LethaAllen ) Internet downloads of "You Do it Right" are available to the public exclusively from Independent Artists Company beginning December 1st, 2008. ( http://www.iacmusic.com/songs.aspx?SongID=69909&ArtistID=70202 ) Interested parties are invited to contact Equinox Entertainment for broadcast quality preview, commercial review and available interview dates. ASCAP Title code 551130195.
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Contact ; Geoff Wood
Email ; audiofile@optusnet.com.au
Please take a listen, leave a comment, or just drop by and say gidday. It's been a long time between drinks.....
cheers, niteshift read more... - niteshift — Unplug the Plugins !
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Well, what a harrowing week it's been. Having the time to sit down and actually get it all togther and create something has got to be a gift at the best of times. A month just to write, a collection of internet collaboraters to help speed the process along, and long days dfirting off into the creative ether. Nothing could be better right ?
Now, nothing at all is suppossed to go to plan, and with no agenda, the pressure should be off, to just go with the flow and let the mind have a mental splurge. That is, until internet collaborater No1 comes up with some lyrics, a great tune, and a great voice to sing the tune, to a musical piece first visited a couple of months previous.
So, it's into the dark recesses of the computer, to pull up the track, and see how it sounds with a new melody line. Sounds great, and everything is flowing along well. So, it's a quick mixdown, and onto the internet for peer review.
First comment : "There is something very wrong sonically like the music is playing from a separate source than the vocals. I have never heard you have this sound before, is something off on the set up?
Second comment : " ...but the vox sound like they are recorded in a room quite different than where the music is taking place "
Third comment : ".....had the same sense of something off, so I'll look forward to the next one? "
And so they went on . OK, check and recheck, and yep, there is a phasing issue, and yep, those vocals are sounding really different to the backing track, so what's the problem ? The problem was, that the backing tracks were recorded months ago, built up one by one, with various effects being added to the tracks. Sometimes 2 or 3 units per track, as it was a bit thin at the time and needed some "oomph" After adding a total of thirty five tracks, each with it's own clutter of little gizmos to make it sound "better" the whole thing ends up a sonic cosmic slop, spinning around in the phones like a demented cat in a clothes drier.
Only solution. Back to basics. Back to square one. Back to kindy school and back to the simplicity of the sandpit. Like a child scribbling with crayons, the plugins are unceremoniously detatched and thrown out the virtual window hopefully to be shattered on the ground into a million little bits never to return. Replaced with just an EQ, a bit of reverb, a smidgeon of compression, and a big dash of ears, all is well in sonic land.
We live, we learn, and try to remember that "better" does not always mean "burden me down with gadgets" So the next time you consider brewing up a batch of sonic soup, just remember....... unplug the plugins.
cheers, niteshift
read more... - Molly Molotov — Entered the contest - come vote for me!
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- Hi there, Come and vote for me :) read more...
- Molly Molotov — www.mmbtp.com
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- Visit www.mmbtp.com for information about vocal tutoring. read more...
- Mindmovie — New song added: Theme for An Imaginary Mindmovie
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- This will be the opening title of my upcoming first solo album. If you find some time please take a listen and if you want to feel free to leave me a comment. Audio quality is below my normal standard as the song is 8 minutes long I had to go down with the bitrate to 160kb. Anyway I hope you may enjoy. read more...
- Mindmovie — New Song added - Moonmaiden
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- A rough mix of one of the songs which will be on Mindmovie's first solo record - your feedback is most welcome read more...
- Mindmovie — New Song added - House Of Love
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Although This side is now soooo painfully slow that it is no longer a real funny thing to upload something - here is a new song. Welcome to any visitor who wants to leave a comment about the music. This title features Sara England on vocals - she as well as myself have discovered what it means when you a re trying to build a "house of love" with the wrong person. That's what this song is about.
read more... - HaveMercy — Introducing: Ghosts Inc.
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- We just finished up a longer collaborative project "Ghosts Inc." 'We' are three musicians here at MI7. We have five tracks posted on the profile right now, and I would be very interested in hearing your comments on the music. See community.mi7.com/profile/12178 for more info. Thanks. read more...
- Mindmovie — Planet Passion IV
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- A collaboration with Andres Rexach a guitar magician from Spain. Check his profile on myspace this man is a guitar and sitar monster. read more...
- Raven — Calling All Interested mi7 Musicians
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As all of you know, I am a devoted mom as well as a composer and musician. And as all of you know, I am a very vocal advocate for Autism Rights.
I enjoyed participating in Mindmovie's CCC project so much a few months ago that I was thinking it would be interesting to create a similar recording with snippets of my son's insights regarding Autism from an interview done with him in July 2007 and the update interview that was done with him last month.
What I am thinking of doing is using his comments along the lines of a hip hop / vocal dance mix composition. The purpose of the song would be to bring a better, more positive understanding of how children with Autism perceive the world in which they live ... our world, not their world.
I can only offer credits in lieu of money unfortunately. All of you are such incredible artists and all of you have been such good online friends to me in good times and in the most troubling times these past few months.
If you are interested in participating in this project (which would be promoted globally with links back to your websites or to your mi7 profile page just as our MIC Audio Podcasts on Autism are global), please email me at ravenmagic2003@yahoo.ca.
Thanks.
Raven :-)
read more... - Masterbox — Plugins are your best friend and a dangerous enemy
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I've noted a tendency among a lot of DAW users: They're are more interested in graphics and mousing around with parameters on fancy GUI's than actually to listening to, what they do to the audiosignal. Joe Meek's old saying: "If it sounds right, it is right" seems to support such a simple approach to adjusting the parameters on your plugins. But is your choice of settings actually good or just easy? I say: Know your plugins!
Especially dynamic processing such as EQ's and compressors are beeing extensively marketed to be DSP-versions that are hardly distinguishable from legendary analog audio equipment. They're getting closer by the minute (this is not an outcry of "I think analog equipment sounds better") and I use plugins for mastering purposses more and more. As an example the Powercore based CL1B Tube Tech compressor is excellent as is the native SSL bus-compressor from Waves. But I only use them with moderate settings just as I doo with analog compressors and EQ's. The reason is simple: they sound better and more true to their origins.
I've seen sessions with Pultec inspired plugins gaining 10 dB here and there and compressions settings of 10:1 and a low threshold setting on an acoustic Martin D28 recorded in a great room with good microphones. The result was not in ballance with the instruments real sound, and in the mix, it sounded almost artificial. Lifting vocaltracks with a +12 dB high-shelf starting at around 5 kHz will just let you have problems with the highs of all the other sources in the mix. Putting a 5:1 compression and makeup gain on an accordion just isn't musical and it will for sure only boost those clicksounds you don't whish to be hearing.
The best way to improve sound quality is to work with the recording and the acoustics in the recording situation, but after that, you could improve the "musicality" of your mix drastically by setting your processing to more moderate settings and be more true to the sound of the program material. I'm sure that if you were using hardware, you would never use it with such insane settings, simply because they don't sound their best. By using more musically tuned settings, I think you will be surprised, how much you will hear plugins improve your results. read more... - rodney — computing humor
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Quotes of the day:
Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up. ...The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don't you just love that root certificate message?)
Now you're thinking "oh God, another Linux zealot going off about Windows"... until you see who wrote it: Bill Gates. Full story at Gizmodo Note: this is actually an old story about Windows XP. Vista, as we all know by now, is even worse. read more... - rodney — Symbian is Free Software
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- News just in is that Nokia have bought up Symbian, and intend to release it as Free Software (under the Eclipse Public License) as of today. As far as I'm aware Symbian is currently the most widely used Operating System in the world - there were 100 million phones running Symbian in 2006 - so this means that as of this moment Free Software is now more widely used than proprietary software. That's a pretty significant shift in the way of things, especially considering Symbian own 67% of the smartphone market, with Windows Mobile holding only 13%... read more...
- rodney — Real World stuff
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- Oh, forgot to mention in the last post: I've been spending some time recently talking with The Cedars, winners of the MI7 Real World contest. Looks like the plan is for me to produce the session at Real World Studios sometime next month, if all goes well. I'm very much looking forward to it, they are a great band, and I think we could create some damn fine tracks there. Let's see... read more...
- rodney — back from being a hermit
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I haven't been posting much in the past couple of months, mainly because I've been taking time to work on a new book and get some personal business stuff out of the way.
Things are looking interesting though... we've been approached about a new record deal, and asked to play some more festivals at the end of the year / beginning of next year. So the plan is to spend as much time as possible in the studio over the next few months and finally finish off all of the things that have been sitting on the hard drive for ages in a half-finished state.
So someday soon I might even get round to putting some new songs on the music player! :-)
read more... - Live Ullmann — New website
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Check out www.liveullmann.com
read more... - Raven — Updated MIC website, New Podcast on Autism
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In spite of the fact that the past two months have been exceedingly difficult for me, I have nonetheless updated the MIDNIGHT IN CHICAGO website and uploaded it as of yesterday evening. Stop by at http://www.midnightinchicago.com and wander about the new digs.
This time, I've added 7 ringtones (one that is free to download for the summer) along with other interesting things. There's an MIC blog that's co-written with the American Artist, Thomas D. Taylor, who is also the MIC Artist. There's a "Dime A Day Inspirational Quotes" service visitors can sign up to receive and information on the "Art from the Heart" and "De la part des beaux arts" events this summer.
It's worth taking a peak without a doubt.
Also, the two-part audio podcast on Autism and Vaccines has been uploaded. The podcast discusses Autism, mercury, thimerosal, vaccines and separates fact from fearmongering fiction. You can find those at the website as well by clicking on the PODCAST tab.
Drop me a line and let me know what you think of the redesign and the podcast.
Raven :-)
read more... - niteshift — Two Songs in the Top 10 Semifinals at Ourstage
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Well, what a week it’s been. Ups and downs, swings and roundabouts.
As anyone will tell you, the masterly art of entering song contests is not for the faint hearted. The expectations, the desires, the wants and the needs of the fragile at heart, are intertwined in the madness of the rush of the moment and the expectation that one’s works are simply the best thing since sliced bread. And tasty to boot.
So off the songs went last month, to Ourstage.com to try their luck in the pot pori which is the song contest. Each perfectly matched to their genre, and each with a suitable graphic to catch the eye of the musical beholder. Unlike most of the usual suspects, Ourstage.com really does have a very easy system. Put up the material, and let others judge your works of utter brilliance on a challenge basis, one on one. Sure, there’s a simple registration process, but that’s the price we pay to the digital gatekeepers.
Now, if you think you can get a whole bunch of your cronies to rock up and just click a few buttons, then think again. If you wish to judge a music channel, then two unsuspecting musical numbers that have been hiding in the depths of the digital realm, suddenly appear before you , and you are asked which is best ? Make your choice, and you’re on to the next battle. Couldn’t be easier, and fairer to the musically and socially dispossessed, who don’t own a mobile phone, let alone have the social network in which to use it. You just can’t say “Vote for me !” A MySpace or email mail out ? Forget it, there are far too many random combinations hidden in the depths to even attempt to bring up the desired result. It gets easier in the Top 20, but still a random selection of 190 combinations makes the play just that much fairer.
So what is the result ? Well, after not really paying much attention for the last month, in pops an email into the In-box saying “Hey, congrats, you’ve made it into the Top 20” This happens twice as 2 songs were entered in 2 different genre channels. What happens next, 48 hrs later ? Another 2 emails saying “Hey, congrats, you’ve made it into the Top 10” Now, usually such things would be treated with the utmost distain, and avoided like the plague. There is a slight problem here though, in that the winner of the Top 10 receives a nice little $100 gift voucher, and proceeds to the grand final for the Grand Prize of $5,000. Not too bad for sitting on ones butt, and clicking a few buttons.
So, the temperature is rising, the heart is a-beating, and the unused adrenalin finally has a purpose. So, its crunch time, time to say “Vote for me!” , let me win that grand prize, and buy that mobile phone that will give the social status and text-thumb so long desired. Either that or a nice couple of pints at the local. Ahh, the dreams of the dreamers. Forever in hope. Later…..
cheers, niteshift
Note ; Niteshift has no affiliation with Ourstage.com. Heck, he didn’t even remember he was in a contest until a few days ago.
Niteshifts web page at Ourstage.com is ourstage.com/fanclub/niteshift Please drop by and have a listen.
read more... - Live Ullmann — New album coming up soon
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- Please have a taste. read more...
- rodney — looking for the mouse
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- Very possibly the best article ever written about blogging, MMOs, and the participatory culture of the Internet: Gin, Television, and Social Surplus read more...
