“valleylist” v174 r.1 – - the digital recording studio [ray kurzweil]

valleylist(sm)  v174 r.1 thursday 09.01.2011

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  NEWS

 + mtv music awards gets record 12.4 million viewers

 + record companies sue to close youtube download site

 + music industry news and concert reviews – - hollywood reporter

 + riaa - - recording industry association of america

 + ascap – - american society of composers authors and publishers

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THE DIGITAL RECORDING STUDIO requires an apple laptop a few reel-to-reel tape recorders or large hard drive and a dvd recorder. add a bunch of microphones the full array of musical instruments and professionally trained recording engineers and you move to the professional level. at the center of it all. the digital mastercontrol board.

 

the big news. polymer-coated digital discs [dvd's] are out. from 2000 to 2008 sales of cassettes declined 70% while sales of music cd’s declined 24%and music video discs declined 55%.

 

internet download sales of digital albums increased 33% digital singles increased 27% and music videos 46%.

 

digital internet music for download is already here.

 

apple is among the few computer companies to target creative people. they started out with macdraw and macpaint [later copied by microsoft]. apple and their suppliers evolved to add software to record and edit music movies and videos. apple later added digital mixing and editing software to publish perform record edit and distribute new music.

 

wasn’t it apple that first invented the midi-file used by early digital musicians to record and playback music through email and bulletin board systems?

 

midi [musical instrument digital interface] was the first commercial standard for recording music. it required hardware of some kind to interface with the musical instrument. for example you could mike your piano and then have the amplified musical signal patched into a mixing board with an output to a midi recording device like a computer or digital recorder. rather complicated. effective.

 

mp3 [mpeg-1 audio layer 3] was invented much later [year] as a standard for uploading playing and downloading music from the internet. since not everything is “internet” the world of digitally recorded music is much larger than mp3 or ipod.

 

add the media player [for example real media or itunes] and you have a software program to manage and play all your multi-media. almost all digital devices have media players and send mp3′s and every other kind of video or music file almost anywhere using email. as far as downloading from the internet it’s as easy as clicking your favorite song or music video.

 

what do musicians do to come up with new music?

 

improvise and mess around. very often on a synthesizer. 

 

ray kurzweil inventor of the synthesizer is the “valleylist” avatar this week. kurzweil came up with a synthesizer similar to a real musical instrument piano keyboard interface. additionally the synthesizer has a big matrix of controls that specifically shape the sound with changes in pitch range sound frequency volume amplitude wavelength and an endless array of technical factors. synthesizers are fun. early electronic music devices did not have a keyboard or follow the musical scale. it was a bunch of levers and dials on a big grey box controlling sounds and adding new sounds. it’s like a big mixing board with controls to shape the sound only the early devices had music generators as well. after a while any instrument could be used as a “controller” for sythesizer sounds. thus the electronic drum set wild guitar rifts through an electronic synthesizer and voice modulation produced from a synthesizer interface.

 

what’s odd is that kurzweil comes to the music scene from a technology problem solving point of departure. the synthesizer is just one of many inventions that made kurzweil rich and famous.

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top 10 most famous recording studios in the world

1.olympic - – london england

2.the record plant - – new york new york

3.hansa - – berlin germany

4.hitsville usa - – detroit michigan

5.chess studios - – chicago illinois

6.abbey road - – london england

7.air studios - – london england

8.sunset sound - – los angeles california

9.muscle shoals - – sheffield alabama

10.sun studios - – memphis tennessee

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source: top 10 most famous studios in the world greatest recording studios of all time usa’s top recording studios

 

the headlines and products mentioned here are included in the “valleylist” youtube playlist and favorite videos.

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analysis. software for creating and recording music is available from apple logic studios or sony acid music studio among others. the apple product “garage band” requires a separate hardware interface to plug into the computer so that microphones or musical instruments can be recorded using logic studios software. apple “genius bar” people describe the workflow for music or video or graphic arts as “imput -> acquire -> edit -> enhance -> share (or publish). they describe “itunes” as a multi-media product to “organize media files and synchronize them with all devices including mobile devices using their “library” function to download music or video or images or photographs or publications or even upload cds.   top 10 reviews rated 10 studio software products for almost any computer. then there products that don’t require a computer. wired magazine recomends 5 “digital studios that make tracks on the go” products that don’t require a computer controller. here’s a list of digital recording studios for the home. yet again no computer needed.   the guitar center sells the apple computer interface for around $150. it’s a separate hardware device for microphones and headphones. portable recording studios are available starting at less than $100 (apple calls these “expresso machine” solutions) and they also provide inputs for microphones and instruments. low end mixing boards start at less than $100. drum machine synthesizers start at less than $100. more expensive are the keyboard synthesizers like the korg micro org ($475) moog littlepatty ($1299) or the morpho dave smith ($799).   writing practicing perfecting finally performing and recording and publishing new music can be done in a day. or it can take weeks. or it could all be done the same day. master tape to the record company not needed. just burn your own cds paste on a new label then insert the disc into a sleeve with new cover art and run it over to the corner record store. the same day. send the midi [or mp3] file to all the internet online services the same day. and your there.   could be done.   probably not that often.   instead modern digital recording studios rely heavily on standard analogue musical instruments. hybrid amplification and recording technology are the standard these days. 3/4″ tape for the multi-track mixing phase and a master tape. send it all to the record company. let them do the packaging and distribution. the all digital recording studio is kind of a fun idea. big record studios rely on hybrid technology.   here’s a final trivia question for those anxious to know who the right answer. who invented digital music downloads. was it napster [1999]? or itunes [2003]?   napster wins. it’s the world’s first internet music download service.

 

at least “valleylist” electronic publishing is online and now so is movies film and video.

 

- – - – > music

 

the new “valleylist” planned titles – - people who lined it up

planned new titles and sponsorship online

 

actual publishing schedule online at http://calendar.yahoo.com/g_mcpaul

 

planned new titles

pub date - – - # title - – - – - – - - [avatar] - – - - version

thursdays

 

07.21.2011 – - – - 20_music [thomas alva edison] v168

07/28/2011 – - – - 21_digital radio satellite radio [howard stern] v169

08/04/2011 – - – - 22_digital music [shawn fanning] v170

08/07/2011 – - – - siggraph conference

08/11/2011 – - – - 23_digital instruments electronic music [les paul] v171

08/18/2011 – - – - 24_live music events [bill graham] v172

08/25/2011 – - – - 25_music for downloads [brian eno] v173

09/01/2011 – - – - 26_digital recording studio [ray kurzweil] v174 <- <- current edition

 

09/08/2011 – - bonus track 27_emi [the beatles] v175

 

coming soon – - the digital home

 

planned new titles and sponsorship online

actual publishing schedule online at http://calendar.yahoo.com/g_mcpaul

 

on the political front. george bush himself comes out of semi-retirement to clarify the reality of the “opt-out” project.

 

it’s not mandatory.

 

 

 

 

conclusion. why not a recording studio on a chip?

 

in fact it does really already exist. no computer required. those less-than-$500 portable music studios include lots of standard music sounds and instruments. jack your guitar and microphone in and record new music right then and there.

 

software included to play or publish your new song as midi file.

 

could you do it all yourself on your apple air book?

 

the ”do it yourselfers” face endless solo hours of adding new tracks and new instruments to come up with a real song. probably guitar bass drums vocals and keyboards require a day each to complete. then there’s editing and mixing. maybe some special effects. add another week. technical considerations and problems require an additional week. say 5 weeks later you have your new song. only it’s a midi or mp3 file. send it to the record companies and publish it on the internet.

 

professional recording really requires all the instruments performing at the same time to record the music accurately. there’s almost always something wrong. yet a day in a recording studio to produce a good tape is very possible. just prepare way in advance.

 

brian eno roxy music david bowie moby howard jones king crimson pink floyd depeche mode new order pet shop boys the residents jean michele-jarre kraftwork isao tomita vangelis massive attack are just a few of the artists who have commercialized and advanced the art of digital electronic music.

 

kurzweil is an example of the kind of genuis that only shows up every once in a while and comes up with important new solutions to very big problems.

 

from a music appreciation point of view it all sounds really great. the digitally enhanced instruments sound great. precise control and recording of music with digitally precise mixing boards sound great. take the noise and hiss out with digital filters for cds or dvds or midi or mp3 or itune files. make the new music sound really different with totally new sounds from digital synthesizers.

from studio to internet immediately is eminently possible. 

 

compose and perform your music on a synthesizer.

 

use your apple airbook for the final editing and mixing.

 

conceptually it seems appealing. 

 

does it sound good?

 

 

 

 

 

 

greg mckenna

publisher

valleylist

valleylist_news@yahoo.com

 

 

 

all rights reserved

 

 

 

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