Music in Games and Film

December 2, 2011 //

I’ve been wanting to branch out a bit with this blog, being a little hesitant and unsure how much I wanted to dither, but I feel very passionate about music in games and film (and tv, to some extent), so I wanted to incorporate that passion a little bit. Who knows.

Electric Dreams
I’ve been a girl gamer for years and a musician since I was ten, so I thought the appropriate place to start would be with the first movie that made me *heart* music: Electric Dreams. It came out in 1984… does anybody remember it? It’s about a computer that comes to life and falls in love with a cellist and composes music for her. In the movie, they play a duet (a take on Bach’s Minuet in G, I think). This confused me for years. When I heard it, I played the melody by ear on the piano, my first foray into music, and my mother called me her ‘little mozart’, so I always attributed this piece of music to Mozart, not Bach. Cheesy as it may be, here it is: Electric Dreams Duet Once a romantic, alway a romantic, and man, this tugged at my heart strings. I was besotted with this movie for years…. until Ladyhawke came along. And then Face the Music with Molly Ringwold and Patrick Dempsey (a guilty pleasure of a movie; I’m sure it’s absolute crap, but I loved the idea behind it.

Another Retro Piece…
Nobuo Uematsu has written a lot of game music. But one piece that sticks out in my memory would have to be the Opera scene in Final Fantasy 6. This was the first instance I ever found reactive music in a game, and was subsequently blown away: Opera Scene in FF6. Afterwards, I’d go on to play it endlessly in the music practice rooms like the geek I am, but really. I hadn’t found a game that had music as the focus before… well, with my limited funds. anyway. I’m sure there were other games like it. Or were there? I did enjoy the ability to record music in Maniac Mansion as one of the many possible endings. I never had Pa-rappa the rapper, but it’s gone on to become famous.

What are your favourite retro music games and films about music?

Categories Uncategorized

Birth of a SONG: the beginning…

November 2, 2011 //

How did it get to be November already? I’m trying to settle into a routine where I have more time for music and blogging. In my last post I mentioned ‘birth of a song’, showing you the process of my songwriting from start to finish, and at the time time I had been noodling with a Ukulele structure, recording it via video, but had tech issues (as in me not understanding how to handle video). Nevertheless, I lost momentum on that piece. But I loaded Ableton Live today and my MOTU Traveler and on start-up, I noodled a little piano riff. Then I added a lead vocal, then BVs (backing vocals). An intro was born. The chord progression in the end seemed very familiar to me as it’s a tune that’s haunted me for a while, coming and going in dribs and drabs. I often sit down at the piano and improvise really amazing (to me) pieces, and this melody comes up time and again. The melody came about after September 11, but I could never find lyrics as it was too close to my heart and everything seemed trite, and as I would improvise, I’d get too emotional, so it’s been on a back-burner.

I’ve had a theme running in my head: mass disaster tragedy, such as 911, Northfleet, Goodwyn Sands, etc., where lots of people die together. Morbid, right? Can Art be art without tragedy? But I get so emotional, I find those thoughts really hard to deal with in combination with sad music. Especially if I’m playing/emoting it. Anyway, it came out slightly more cheerful today, in disguise really. I only heard hints of it after I played it back… I think I’ll upload an improvisation on the whole melody sometime.

So we’ll see if I can wrench a song out of this. In the meantime, here are the wavs in the order I recorded them (except BVs are all together) WARTS AND ALL:
http://soundcloud.com/christina-cary

I’ll try to focus on getting this song done, so you can be there for the birth!

Categories Uncategorized

Intro to SongRIGHTing: First, You Need to Write.

August 31, 2011 //

It’s not an easy thing to teach… how to write music. The best you can really do is give someone ideas and guide them, but in the end it’s up to each person, hearing something in your head and moving it into to reality. If you don’t hear anything, well, you should ask yourself if songwriting is for you. This is only the beginning…

What comes first, chicken or the egg?

There are two ways to go about writing a song. You can start with the lyrics or start with the music. Or, if you are incredibly lucky and magical, perhaps you might get a chance to write them simultaneously in an instant. These occurrences are rare, but they can happen. For me, it really depends on happenstance.

I write poetry that informs my lyric-writing. I get ideas, I jot them down in one of many cute little notebooks I can’t help but buy. I refer back to them constantly. Sometimes, some songs are poems as they were written, sometimes the lyrics are the poems, but jumbled around, and sometimes they just take the essence of an idea from the poems. Other times, I play around on the guitar or piano. I might have a few musical ideas. I rarely write these down or record them unless they smack me across the face with Wow. I then have to record it instantly, panicking until I get to pin it down… Sometimes it’s gone, disappearing the instant it came, sometimes I make it in time.

Even then, the song is just forming, it’s a living entity waiting to be born. I won’t say fetus, because that’s just a gross metaphor. But for me, the songs are my babies waiting to be born. Some can come to fruition in those magical moments perhaps in a single night. Some have taken longer… much, MUCH longer. That’s okay. When you’re stuck on a song , it’s okay to move it to the backburner as long as you visit it from time to time to check if you are ready yet.

What do you mean, ready?

The song that took me the longest (seven years) is one I’m really proud of. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t find the chorus. It wasn’t until I’d had more life experience that I could finally say what I wanted to say. This doesn’t mean you can’t write a song until you’re old, but be patient. Don’t force something that doesn’t feel right.

I would recommend jotting down your lyrical ideas, recording sound snippets on anything to hand. Phones are brilliant tools now. There are loads of apps like Evernote which help capture those musical epiphanies.

Finally, like writing anything, if you give yourself time every day or every week at a certain time, it allows yourself more freedom and ideas start to come out of the woodwork. At first it seems pointless, but how can you write anything if you never give yourself time to play around? (and have the paper ready…) The more time, the better results, but you knew that.

In the next few posts, I’m going to invite you to witness the evolution of a song in a series call ‘Birth of a Song’ even though it’s going to be humiliating for me sharing the early stages, the noodling, the un-finessed work. I thought it might be helpful to see the process of how songwriters write. Be wary… and please be kind.

Tags help tuition, music, song, songwriting, write music, writing

Categories Songwriting, Uncategorized

Amazon, My Own Personal Toys-R-Us?

July 27, 2011 //

The popular and efficient online retailer, Amazon.co.uk, has finally updated its store to have a new sub-menu lablelled “Musical Instruments and DJ Store”. This comes after many years of sister-company amazon.com’s diversification. As an American living in the UK, I have always wondered why the websites differ so much, bemoaning the lack of departments that have always seemed evident in the Yank’s version. For a long while, the US version had swanky new graphics and layout and we were stuck here with the old out-dated look, then when they finally updated it, I thought ‘At last!’, but lacking the different departments, the website was still in a muddle. It would have music equipment, but only listed in the toy or electronics departments.

So now what? So it has a new ‘section’ to be listed under… how will this affect you? Most of the items stocked don’t seem to be sold directly from Amazon themselves, but through independent resellers such as GAK or Absolute Music. But checking on some prices, I’ve discovered many stores are selling their goods on Amazon at a cheaper price.

The keyboard shown here is a Korg SV1 88 key Stage Piano. It’s been listed on Amazon for £1549 through re-seller Absolute Music Solutions, whilst on Absolute’s official website, it’s selling for £50 more.

Aside from price, another bonus is the Amazon reputation. I’ve gotten very used to the customer service; no-hassle returns, prompt delivery (unless City***k get involved), solid reviews from real people. So much so, in fact, that shopping with other retailers can be quite painful. Amateurish companies that charge exorbitant delivery for goods? Having to ensure safe e-commerce sites? Arguing over returns?….. No, thank you! Many recent experiences have really put me off and I felt as if I was in the late 90s again.

Surely this new(ish) department will lead to more price reductions as more companies, Amazon included hopefully, join the fray, adding more products to Amazon’s ever-growing online catalog. *fingers crossed*

Categories General

Tom Cosm to the Rescue

July 14, 2011 //

Tom Cosm, Ableton Guru

Sounding like a superhero, Tom Cosm has been adventuring in New Zealand and Australia. I say adventuring when I should say he plays live sets, but to me that’s exciting, intriguing… On the surface, he seems to be an ordinary artist, but his website proves otherwise. Far from normal, he gives his music away for free, and has loads of free tutorials on aspects of the creation of live music. They’re clear, understandable, even for a newb such as myself. He uses software called Screenflow to record his computer screen, uses a mac (a macbook, I think) and he’s a certified Ableton Live trainer. Sound interesting? His music may not be to my taste, but I am a very visual learner and having someone show me the techniques I need is a real bonus and a treat to discover…

Categories News, Uncategorized

Along Came a Spider… Capo

July 11, 2011 //

This capo is not my capo...

The other day I was talking about capos to another guitarist the other day, explaining how I’d thrown away my bog-standard nylon strapped capo in a fit of disgust after it chipped my lovely Taylor 514ce. This led me to think about my current capo I play with, and how much I love it. To my dismay, I couldn’t remember what it was called, so I began to research. Sure, I can dig through years and piles of receipts hoping to find a glimpse of a name, but I was hoping Google would unearth it for me. Image searches, refining search phrases – all led to nothing. I searched my cast gmail archive. Nothing, nada, zilch.

It looks like a Paige, a u-shaped capo, with a bar that positions over the fretboard. However, uniquely, the bar on top can swivel to side a or b, each with a different depth of rubber, to make better impact when clamping. Its clamp runs parallel with the neck and, when you clamp it down, is almost flush with the neck’s underside. It’s very easy to reposition anywhere, always clamps firmly, with no string left behind, and doesn’t hinder wrist movement. I think it was called a fingerpicker’s capo, but other than that, the name eludes me. If anyone knows what this is, please comment, as I will need to replace it if I ever lose it. I will never use a kyser style capo again.

Now, in my research to find my capo, I came across two very interesting looking capos, so I thought I’d share. I saw capos for banjos, bouzoukis, dulcimers, but the ones I found most intriguing (and useful for guitar) were these:

The Spider capo looks pretty cool. I love the idea of capoing each string individually. I wonder if you’d really need to have a guitar pre-set for gigs, since setting it up doesn’t look immensely quick. Then again, maybe practice and a list of tunings would make it easier. I’m a self-taught guitarist with small hands, so I’ve tended to make up my own chords along the way, so this capo has definite appeal.

Another capo I found was the Bob Kilgore Harmonic capo, which looks truly astonishing, or maybe the demo guitarist has blown me away with his skills. I’m sure that if I got this capo, I, too, could play with such amazing ability! I like the idea of adding texture; however, I’d have to learn how to play harmonics. Sheepishly, I admit, I am not that advanced. Oh, the possibilities… Paul White gives a short mini review in Sound on Sound Magazine.

There are new gadgets being released all the time, so it’s hard to keep up with what is coming out. Sometimes they can seem pointless. After looking at the capo market, most are the same, rare to find any real innovation, but I believe these capos provide something truly fantastic; they give us an opportunity to explore different tonalities and textures within an instrument that has been around for quite a while. Now if only I could decide which one to get…

Categories Gear, Guitars and Accessories

A Mac for the Turncoat

July 8, 2011 //

Is the iMac going to give me an iMigraine?

After years of struggling with Cubase bugs, new hardware interface issues, and various othe r problems, I decided to chuck it all in and convert to Mac. Now, I’m a pretty fierce PC ‘fan’, and whilst I hesitate to use that phrase for fear of sounding geekish, I should just come out of my closet full of gadgets. I am fairly sound in my knowledge of computers, having used both Mac and PC. In fact, my first home computer was a Mac and, as a 12 year old, composed some pretty crap music on software I can’t even remember the name of. Somewhere between leaving school and entering young adulthood, I didn’t own a computer and used computer labs at University and, later on, the Air force bases at which I was stationed. It wasn’t until I met my hubby that I had my own computer again. By then, it was PC all the way (because that was what hubby had). When I went back to University, I had to come to grips with modern Macs. However, hair-pulling-out-worthy slow servers (I’m talking 20 minutes startup minimum) left me with a tarnished view. My home computer was a PC and as my interest in music technology began, I started off with Reason as a sequencer (version 1.0) and a midi keyboard which was a Studiologic SL-1100, which was pretty decent. Eventually I upgraded the Reason to Cubase SL 3 and my soundcard from a Soundblaster Audigy to an external audio interface by Steinberg – an MI4, which I thought would help with composing in Cubase.

Why the Conversion?

I’m a musician first and started adding in the technology about ten years ago. I guess by now I should be better versed than I am. However, as it is a hobby and I enjoy actually playing music more than recording it, I’ve not spent much time trying to actually learn, the technology being a bit of a muddle. My hubby, being a software engineer, has helped me through years of troubleshooting the problems I’ve had with bugs, weird steinberg faults, drivers (when I didn’t know what drivers were), buffering and latency issues. Even though he doesn’t know music software, he can see figure out how to fix things, lucky for me. I don’t understand how a normalmusician without a super-hubby is supposed to record themselves without becoming an uber-g33k. I wouldn’t have known where to start, but I’ve learned a lot through the years.

Sequencer Heave-Ho…

I’ve had many issues in my love-hate, passive-aggressive, not-so-co-dependant relationship with Cubase. Because I know it fairly well, I’ve hesitated to make a change to another sequencer package after being with it so long. Yet, so many times it has infuriated me, crashed on me, and left me wanting more. I realize now that a lot of problems have been due to my ignorance, but still I felt the need for change, some ownage over something without the dependency on hubby for support.

In my half-hearted attempt at looking at other sequencers, before I’d made up my mind to make the change, I found out the new version of Ableton Live 8 supports live-looping, which is something I’ve been getting into the last few years. Piquing my interest, I bravely decided to go for it. After much debate, I figured the best thing I could do for better stability would be to switch to Mac. After all, less choice for components means the hardware companies can make more specific drivers that work better and that means less ‘chatter’ and easier troubleshooting. Plus, I’m hoping there will be more on the forums if I have my gear setup to something more typical. Please excuse me if it sounds like I don’t know what I’m talking about occasionally, as some info I get second-hand and don’t fully understand.

I’m not a novice, but I’m not an expert. I decided to start this blog to sort of document the process of learning a new system and setup… I have loads of ideas and wanted to create a working dialogue in the hopes it might help myself, in having to explain processes and work through mistakes, and help other in-betweeners. I hope you find this helpful.

Tags imac, Music Technology, studio

Categories Music Technology, My Music Studio