Erin's Music!

Why is Brian Wilson so important?

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:46:00 -0400

Brian Wilson is known as one of the most influential musicians and composers of all time. He, however, was also victim to the pressures of the music business as he wasted away almost two years of his life in his room experimenting with drugs. Even through his struggle through drugs he was able to compose amazing music that was beyond the technology of his time. His album Smile was in retaliation to the Beatles Srgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, but was shelved because his method of composing was impossible for the current technology. This was called “modular” method and was revolutionary through its use of little snippets of sounds all put together in a specific order and time. His first song that modeled the modular method was called “Good Vibrations” from the album Pet Sounds.

Pet Sounds was made in 1996 and was a combination of upbeat sounds as well as sad ballads. One of the songs, “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” reflects both Brian’s inability to survive with all the drugs in his youth and his futuristic knowledge of recording. The reason for his problems with drugs was a combination of the stresses of the music industry and and the abuse and pressure from his father at a very young age to succeed. Both his mother and father played the piano and encouraged him with his singing and playing talents at a very young age. He started out singing at a very young age in his own home with his brothers. Originally called the Pendletones, the brothers signed with Candix records for their first hit song with them, “Surfer Girl”, and Candix changed their without their permission to the Beach Boys. The name stuck, but Brian Wilson became quite the man after he escaped from his drugged lifestyle.

Wilson was the bread and butter of the Beach Boys. He was the only American rocker at Queen’s Jubilee at Buckingham Palace, playing alongside Sir Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton. He created the most anticipated and most famous unreleased album of all time and utilized skills of his own to create masterpieces of sound. The pressure to release Smile forced music technology to surpass its previous standards, simply to be able to produce the music, all thanks to Brian Wilson.

This song was meant to be the background for a video game where...

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:10:07 -0400

This song was meant to be the background for a video game where two players compete against each other to get to the highest level. I used arpeggiation in my xpand sequence and multiple drum beats from Boom. Some of them were from the default version but others I created myself. I let the drums dictate the different parts of the song because I wanted to keep it upbeat and have two fairly different sounds back and forth to indicate the competition between the two players. Each level involves overcoming some race in different area of the world, ending in a race around the whole world. The drums made the action and race side of the game and the xpand parts indicated the different parts of the world.

This was our midterm exam as well as a fun song to create using...

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:58:37 -0500

This was our midterm exam as well as a fun song to create using only drums and bass. Each piece involved the use of different skills we have acquired in pro tools. For the drums, I started out by looking through the loops and listening to all the option until I found my favorite. Then, I worked on making the drums sound more real by adding a compressor, an eq and other effects. The drums are my favorite part of the song because I used one of the same drum loops throughout and changed the second one to make a consistent but fresh new sound every four measures. Then I focused on the bass and tried to create my own unique beat using the midi controller. I really liked this assignment and hope you like my song!

This is the first song we have done in pro tools and I tried to...

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:31:21 -0500

This is the first song we have done in pro tools and I tried to add in compressors as well as sophisticated fading in order to produce a much better song. I tried to focus on making the instruments blend together and then have the guitars featured in a little solo in the middle right before it briefly builds up and again and then fades out to the end. My favorite instrument in it was the organ because I felt like I was able to change that the most.

Who is Tom Dowd?

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 11:06:47 -0500

Tom Dowd was an incredible recorder and engineer in the United States during the 1940s to the turn of the century. When he was only 18 he aided the US government with his expertise in physics in the development of the nuclear bomb detonated in Japan in 1945. With the same hands used for such destruction and awesome power, Tom Dowd also created harmony and melody with the best of musicians during his time. The combination of his abundant intelligence and acute musical talent allowed for his success in the music-making industry and a very impressive list of records.

Not only did Dowd use the tools he had to the very best of his ability and truly to the best anyone had ever seen, he also saw obstacles in his path and found ways to overcome them. When the Beatles wanted to separate the sound of their four incredible vocals from the sound of the four incredible instruments, he developed a method called jumping which allowed for an eight track song. But why stop there? He used a stereo for recording and incorporated many new techniques for modifying music after it had already been recorded. He perfected the tools he had to work with, and made them better for those after him to perfect as well, completely altering and progressing forward the music industry.

Tom Dowd’s discography is nothing short of extraordinary. He has a total of 42 albums, with top bands and singers such as The Allman Brothers, Mae Burns, the Bee Gees, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Cream, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and Sonny and Cher. His style lent itself to a wide variety of musicians and talent. He effectively recorded and engineered multiple types and genres of music and created a hit every time. He just knew what was going to be good. He knew where to place the mics to receive the best sound and what should be played loud or soft in a song in order to make it pleasing for the audience. His knowledge of science put him at the top of music technology and his creative artistic style and broad musical spectrum made him valuble to any musician. Everyone wanted to go to Atlantic Records for Tom Dowd because he was simply the best of the best.

For this assignment we had to create an original soundtrack to a...

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:22:11 -0500

For this assignment we had to create an original soundtrack to a lego breakdance movie. I included crowd cheers all through the background that got louder and softer as each lego guy went through his routine. I tried to match the music with the moves as best as I could and made sure to change the beat for each different breakdancer. This was probably my favorite assignment so far and really fun to do.

This song turned out okay. I got caught up listening and trying...

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 10:46:48 -0400

This song turned out okay. I got caught up listening and trying out different beats so I was a little rushed at the end on deciding what I actually liked but I wanted it to be something like a techno song with but with a little earthy sound at the beginning in the background. I put my favorite part towards the end and now I wish I put it in the beginning and added something else at the end. I definitely learned from this and I wish we could do it again but I liked my song and I hope you do too!

MIDI

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 10:34:29 -0400

MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) is the easiest way for keyboards, samplers, virtual instrument plug-ins, sound modules, guitar synthesizers, and drum machines to communicate with each other and the computer. It allows composers to make music without even using a single instrument. One MIDI cable can send up to sixteen different tracks to the keyboard and back to the computer. The sound quality of MIDI has increased throughout time but the initial design of MIDI with an input and output is the exact same. All you need is a device to send MIDI messages, a hardware interface for MIDI and a computer. Some people use all the editing qualities to make their song perfect. Playing the music back just involves assigning a musical part to a MIDI channel, and it will replay it for you through the headphones. MIDI is a wonderful invention and allows composers to easily create music at home.

Here is chapter seven of Alice in Wonderland. It was fun adding...

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:43:27 -0400

Here is chapter seven of Alice in Wonderland. It was fun adding different voices to the characters and exploring what the options are (my favorite is the mouse). I thought it was kind of hard to split the audio since I didn’t really space out the narration enough but it worked out okay. I also liked adding in the piano at the beginning and end and getting to create that myself. Hope you like it!

This song was my first attempt to use multitracking in my song....

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:59:58 -0400

This song was my first attempt to use multitracking in my song. I wanted to incorporate a lot of different sounds so I made sure to include guitars drums and the piano. I had one set of drums used to transition between the piano and other drums, along with a few different beats. The constant beat throughout the entire song gets louder and quieter but its consistency keeps it from getting too out of control.

Les Paul

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:46:00 -0400

Les Paul was crucial to the succession of music in the United States. His inventions and breakthroughs were the springboard for other artists to leap from and continue on the precious combination of utilizing technology with music. Les Paul was inherently a jazz artist, but knew the key to making money was through the radio, providing songs the general population wanted.

Les Paul dedicated his life to advances in music. His ambition began when he was only 17 and joined a band. Soon after discovering his love and talent for music he dropped out of school to join another band and kick off his amazing career in the music industry. He eventually made his name known by never taking no for an answer. Whenever someone tried to turn him down, he always found a way to play for them. Once they heard his talent and realized how superb his style was, he always got the job.

Les Paul’s discovery of multitracking allowed music on the radio to take on a new meaning. With vocals from Mary Ford and his own guitar skills, he was able to record them harmonizing with themselves and each other throughout the song, making it sound like 10 instruments and singers when there was only two. He recorded them separately then played them over each other and achieved a new sound. His new sound spread and soon everyone was learning from and contributing to the innovations of multitracking. Music today would be nothing without the work of Les Paul.

My first song, I really like hearing the combination of drums...

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:52:00 -0400

My first song, I really like hearing the combination of drums and strings or something like classical and rock and roll so I tried to imitate that as best as I could.