Blog 12: Home Recording Studio

As I said in Blog 1, technology has truly changed the world of music. Going to a recording studio was pretty normal if you wanted to make songs a few years ago, but now more and more people are setting up their own recording studios at home.

http://blog.dubspot.com/electronic-music-home-studio-setup/

This website talks about how to get your own home recording studio for under a thousand dollars! I find this very interesting because I am currently trying to create my own studio for personal reasons. I want to start producing music for myself and others. I like making hip hop beats and having other people rap over them. I need to do some research about different equipment but I have a good idea of what I need. I would like to record some vocals and have the opportunity to record an instrument or two at the same time. I own multiple guitars and have access to many other instruments including basses, a trumpet, a trombone, a saxophone, a violin, and a clarinet. I will use my DAW (Blog 1) to make the beat of the song, edit the song, mix the song, and master the song. I am still learning how everything works in the software, but it will be hard because there is so much to know. My plan is to get all of the equipment I need, create a good studio-oriented setup, start recording and make beats.

My Equipment So Far:

• Two KRK RP6G2 Rokit G2 6-inch Powered Studio Monitors

http://www.amazon.com/KRK-RP6G2-Powered-Monitor-Speaker/dp/B001A6IC7Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354902110&sr=8-1&keywords=krk+rokit+6

• Williams Allegro 88-Key Digital Piano

http://www.amazon.com/Williams-Allegro-88-Key-Digital-Piano/dp/B0049SBVLG/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1354902297&sr=1-1&keywords=88+key+allegro+keyboard

• Akai Pro MPK mini

http://www.amazon.com/Akai-Pro-MPK-mini/dp/B00466HM28/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1354902477&sr=1-1&keywords=akai+mpk+mini

These three items have really helped me progress in music production. I really love being submersed in music and other people as passionate as I am. Some people do not like how accessible music production is because they think it takes away from talented musicians, but I believe it causes people to be more creative in what music they make. I would like to spend a good amount of time on furthering my skills with music production. You can do it too! 

Blog 11: Future for Music

As technology continues to improve, so will the way we make music. The video below shows a device called the Reactable. It is essentially a big circular touch screen. It also consists of glass pucks which act as instruments, synthesizers, effects, and much more when placed on the blue circular screen. With just a simple turn of the puck you can edit the sound by increasing or decreasing the volume.

I think the Reactable is a great new way to visualize everything that is going on in the music. It shows the sound waves which connect to the center of the circular touch screen. The puck is immediately detected once it is placed on the screen. An outline of light shows up on the screen around the puck which displays the settings. You are able to change the pitch, tempo, and much more. I assume you are able to program what data each puck contains so you could potentially set a sample to one side of a puck.

I can see a new kind of DJ experience with this technology. Instead of just listening to the music, it will be like a form of visual entertainment. You can watch the DJ create music on the fly by simply placing pucks onto the device. I think the Reactable will make people think more creatively as they make their music. It would be a fun way to interact with the audience and show them how easy making music can be.

Blog 10: YouTube and Viral Videos

This video talks about viral videos and their effects on society. They say that there really is no agreed on definition for viral, but I liked when one of the commentators said the video is viral if the it is inspiring enough to share with others. It kind of breaks down what makes content sharable and interesting to other people. This video tells how people's attention span for online stuff has gotten very small and that these videos are a small opportunity to express meaning. I think people's small attention span for online media might be a good thing though because it puts more pressure on the new online media by setting a higher standard. The video expresses that when we share viral videos, we dont just share a video but we share a little about ourselves. One guy says, "I like to be the funny guy so I share the funny video." This is especially true in terms of social media websites where sharing is as easy as a click of the mouse. Another guy talked about how a remix artist community that started emerging. These videos would take existing clips and edit them so that it would convey a certain message and be gauged to a wider community.

The video also talks about how these videos were mostly created on accident. Nowadays people attempt to make a viral video but it is very hard to predict what videos will go viral or the criteria for a viral video. So if some of these videos were made on accident does that make it art? I think that most of this type of media differs from one to the next so it is hard to categorize them into an art form. I think viral videos are similar to dadaism because they really question what art is.

This is a video of some of the most popular videos on the internet. Most of these would be considered to be viral videos.

Blog 9: Glitch Art

Glitch Art is an art form that is really trying to "find the soul" of the computer. This video talks about what Glitch Art is and how you create it. I thought this was extremely cool because it gives you a whole new perspective about how the computer works. In this form of art you tend to 'break' or mess with files to create a new version of that file. If you understand why and how you are breaking it, you will get a better understanding of how it works.

One example of Glitch Art I liked that the video talks about is taking an audio file like an MP3 and changing it into a RAW file. Then open up that RAW file with Photoshop and you will see a visual representation of the audio. It simply takes all the data stored from the MP3 file and shows it as a RAW file opened in Photoshop.


Another really cool and simple way to force a glitch and create Glitch Art is to take an image file, lets say a JPG. Open the file in a text editor and there will be a bunch of meaningless data that you will not be able to understand. Delete some portions of this data and than open the file back up as an image. What you see will be a weird version of the original image. This is a cool way to edit files without knowing what will happen. If you can understand that what you deleted caused that 'glitch' than you can get a better feel for how the computer works.

Blog 8: Video Games as Art

There has been a big debate if video games are considered art. Some say that video games can never be art because there are goals to them and art does not have goals. They also say that since video games have a commercial and business aspect to them. If the game can make money and people have to buy it before they play it than how can it be considered at?

I believe video games can totally be art. These games continue to get better and better in terms of graphics and looking more real. Nowadays in video games, you can see the wind blowing the leaves or an extremely real looking tree. Sometimes people forget that it is not real life and it is just a video game. I think that in certain video games you have a very clear goal that needs to be achieved to 'beat' the game, but I think role playing games or RPGs do not necessarily have goals. Games like World of Warcraft are set in such a huge world that the things you can do are almost endless just like real life. You have 'missions' that you can do and sometimes they need to be completed moving to a select location but they do not need to be done. There is no specific ultimate goal in these RPGs. There is no way you can 'beat the game.' In terms of commercial value, art is also bought and sold. If art has commercial value than is it art? I believe that just because it is bought or sold does not take the fact away that it is art. So this applies to video games also.

Blog 7: GenJam

http://igm.rit.edu/~jabics/GenJam.html

GenJam is a revolutionary concept. It is "an interactive genetic algorithm that learns to improvise jazz." It is programed to make up musical notes that play along with other instruments. Its jazz influenced style has about 300 tunes that it can play. It listens to what music is playing and can figure out what notes would sound good with the original piece. It can generate full chorus solos while someone is playing the melody. With the GenJam you can collectively improvise by soloing both at the same time. The GenJam even has events and gigs that it can show off its incredible skills.

The creator designed the GenJam so that it knows which notes sound better together. The only problem with this idea is that how can a computer know if something sounds better? The answer is that the programmer needs to tell the computer what better means or else the machine will not know what to do. The creator gives GenJam a set of rules and functions.

This idea of a interactive musical improvisation done by a machine is incredible. Some of the recordings sounds a little bland, but for the most part it sounds good. I could not believe that a computer could create something so creative just as a human. So does that mean a computer can be creative? I do not think so because the creativity actually comes from the programmer who designed the function and algorithm of the GenJam.

Blog 6: Meme

According to Wikipedia, A meme is “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” It seems that our society is exploding with new memes every day. It is a fun and artistic way to tell a short joke or make a suggestive comment. I think that our culture has made them an important part of our lives. There are no strict rules of how a meme is created so it is a very general term. They usually consist of a photo with captions or unrealistic facial expressions. One example of a meme is the one of Mitt Romney talking about poor people. I think this is a great example of the function of a meme. 

A meme is a great example of conceptual art because it focuses less on the picture and more on the meaning behind the image. So in other words, the message being told is way more important than the actual picture inside of the meme. The best part about a meme is that there can be common pictures used for them. For example, the image could be of a persons facial expression and it could have a saying on it, but then another person could use the same picture but change the words. This changes the entire meaning of the meme.

The meme of the weird face, it is simply saying no. It could be used to express that a person is being irrational or just wrong. 

These memes are a great expression tool via the web. If there was no form of digital communication we wouldn't be able to send each other these files. Some memes can be extremely intricate or very basic.

Blog 5: Image Editor Software

                

Pictures of famous people and models seem to be everywhere from billboards to the internet. Looking in most magazines you will see pictures of gorgeous people. These images seem extremely real but they are usually edited to appeal to society. With the technology today, we are able to enhance and edit these pictures to make people look more ‘beautiful.’ In the movies there is an extreme amount of editing to make the video more real and appealing to the eye. There are numerous software programs that can do basic or more complex editing. For example, in Photoshop you can pretty much do anything you want to an image. You can create images from scratch or change aspects of an existing file. You can mash up multiple pictures together to create a new image too. Most images you see on billboards and magazines are not the original picture. Programs like Photoshop can do things like make a wrinkly old man into a young man. You can drastically change the appearance of the image. Other programs like Adobe Illustrator makes it very easy to create and edit images too. Creating posters and flyers can be done in these types of software which would be useful to artists that want to promote events. These skills are becoming more necessary in the world today as technology continues to rapidly improve. The down side to this aspect of image editing software is that it can be done so easily that anyone can do it. It can be somewhat deceptive in that the original image looks nothing like the edited one.

Blog 3: Data Visualization

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/50-great-examples-of-data-visualization/

On this website you will find some cool examples of data visualization. It can be hard to truly understand data especially when you have a massive amount of it. That is where the visualization aspect comes into play. If a person can actually see an image or video of the data, it can be much easier to comprehend that data. The main goal of data visualization is to communicate the information in an aesthetic and functional way. The visual representations of data can often be beautiful, but if it does not convey the information to the viewer than it will be hard to understand and most likely useless. Data visualizations can help people understand connections within huge networks. For example, on the ’50 great examples of data visualization’ website, The Opte Project (http://www.opte.org/) attempts to map the entire Internet. This project required the development of new software that traces all the routes of the Internet.

Data visualization is a great way to convey information and give it some meaning. You can actually do something with the data if you can just see the big picture. So are these visual representations art? I think they can most certainly be considered art. Some are more simple and boring than others, but some are extremely complex and intricate. Incorporating colors, shapes, or line movements can add to the aesthetic experience of the viewer. Looking at data visualization is like looking at an image generated from a program but the program is derived from a dataset. This way of looking at data will revolutionize the world, as we know it.

Blog 4: Digital Copies

                Back in the day copying photos, documents, or anything in analog would reduce the quality with each quality. Now we are in the digital age so making digital copies is much easier and will not reduce the quality. In fact, with the technology we have today we can make perfect copies. This brings up the idea that in the digital age there is no original copy. If there is no original than who truly owns the media? Intellectual property is very important if you don’t want people to steal media. This is critical for people who deal with the arts. You would not want others to take and benefit from the hard work you did. There are laws to protect people’s intellectual property but it is somewhat difficult to protect something that lives in the digital world and does not exist in the physical world. One popular form of creating music is to take samples from other songs and arrange the sounds to form your own tune. This is where Intellectual property gets somewhat hazy. If you are publishing and obtaining profit from someone else’s work, you are breaking the law. If I just take a small snip of your song does that mean I am breaking the law? It depends on a few things. It depends on how similar your new song sounds from that sample you are using. There is something called ‘fair use’ which looks at the purpose and character of use of the media you are using. If you use someone else’s work, fair use looks at the amount and sustainability and effect upon original work’s value. Therefore, before you want to copy or use someone else’s work make sure you are abiding by the law.

Blog 2: Sampling - Madeon/Araabmuzik

In this YouTube video Hugo Pierre Leclercq, the French producer also known as Madeon, performs one of his songs “Pop Culture.” He uses 39 different samples to create a single song. I personally think this video is incredible. He programs the device, or instrument, he is using to play a different sample for each pad. He has gotten so acquainted with his pads that he can simply make the song on the fly. He could reprogram this device so that the pads played different sounds. In fact he could put whatever sound he wants to a single pad. The technique he is using is called a mash up which is similar to sampling. He is basically layering samples over each other to make this song.

The guy in this YouTube video (Araabmuzik) is using a MPC (Music Production Center) to create this clip. He takes a sample, or a small portion, from an existing song and creates a beat to it. He programs or maps each pad of his MPC to a specific sound or clip. He plays a series of pads to generate an on tempo and awesome sounding beat. This technique he is using with the MPC is called sampling. This guy is extremely talented in his ability to keep the beat complex and fast at the same time. This makes it very entertaining to watch and listen to.

Madeon and Araabmuzik both use techniques that make producing and composing very simple. Madeon used a mash-up or sampling technique where he took clips from songs and put them into a song of his creation. Araabmuzik used a sampling technique where he took a small clip from a song and used sounds like a kick and snare drum to create a hip hop like beat. So what is the difference between sampling and mash-ups? Using equipment like an MPC or a DAW (introduced in blog 1) has completely changed how music is made today. This technology has added to the accessibility and creativity of music production and creation.