Hi there!
It's a long time since I've posted anything here. How're you doing? Here's my new version of my piece "Darkness". The original version can be found here. Which version do you like the most?
The new version:
The old version:
I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year! I think I will try to write more regularly here - it's a quite fun thing to do - but we'll see what the future brings.
Question: are you looking forward to Christmas? :-)
This post is going to explain the
process I've used earlier to transfer recorded music on your keyboard to your
computer (or record "live" if you prefer that as well). I no longer
use this process in my music production, because I have acquired a DAW (digital
audio workstation) - Cubase 7 - in addition to virtual instruments (VST
libraries) from EastWest's product called Goliath. The main difference is that
I now operate in MIDI (you transfer information as well - not just only the
sound), instead of only audio. The process I am going to elaborate more on will
give you high-quality recordings (well, in my opinion at least) which gives you
a good sound if you're for instance going to upload it to Youtube (better sound
than with a normal camera). The keyboard I use is a Yamaha DGX-630. Just to give you a clue of the quality and
sound, here’s a recording I’ve done with this technique:
Okay, let's get started, shall we? First,
here's is the equipment I have used for my videos which you need if you're going
to do it as I did:
1. A normal audio cable. This is not a rare
product and you probably have one already, for instance if you have speakers
with your computer. In other words: you can a get a cable like this everywhere. This is the one I've been using:
2. The audio cable will probably not fit the headphones output on your keyboard, so you will probably need a little adapter to make it fit. It may be that you don't need this or that it was included when you bought the keyboard. Check if you can plug in a normal headset with a standard audio cable into the input (and that it fits). If this works, you don't need an adapter. I had to buy one by myself. This is the one I've been using:
Let's dive into the process and see how you can get your recordings as a MP3-file on your computer (or WAW by all means - actually you should export everything in WAW in order to maintain the best quality you can get...MP3 compresses the sound to lessen the file size). Here are the steps:
1. Plug in the little adapter in the headphones-output on the keyboard.
2. Plug the audio cable into the "Microphone"-input on the computer and the headphones-output on the keyboard (into the adapter if you used one).
3. Plug the audio cable into the adapter.
4. Turn your keyboard on.
5. Open the freeware Audacity (click on the name for a download link).
6. To be able to hear the recording while you're recording, do as following:
- Edit --> Preferences --> Check the box called "Software playthrough"
Start to record on Audacity.
Click play on the song on your keyboard (if you don't have the
recording-option on the keyboard, you have to play it live while you're
recording on Audacity).
Export the file in your desired file-format (File-->Export). If
you want to export it in mp3, you need the LAME MP3 encoder (click on link
and follow the instructions on Audacity's website in order to download it).
Hope this helps. Please 1+ this if you enjoyed it. If you have any
questions, you can ask them in the comment section. Thank you for your
attention!
Best wishes,
Peder
How do you record your songs and compositions? Any tips you want to
share?
My journey as a hobby composer In this post I will write about the very core of my second user on Youtube (www.youtube.com/user/MusicLoverOriginals): composing music. Music has always been a great part of my life. I've played both the trombone and the piano for several years, and I additionnaly love to sing. I am not sure exactly what sparked my interest for composing music. I have always had a desire within me to create something - if I have spare-time I often get an urge to just make a tune on the piano or shoot some scenes for a short film, or something similar. I want to contribute to the world of the creativity.
What I do know though is that I one day in April, 2011, sat down with my keyboard and thought: "Let's come up with a horror tune. Let's just play two chords I never play in a sequence". And I did. I played the Bm (which actually is called Hm in Norwegian - random trivial fact of the day), followed by Bbm - two chords I never had played together before (at least as I could remember). I recorded on my keyboard a random improvisation with the two chords, and voilà. The result? My most famous video on my music channels on Youtube of all times:
After receiving good feedback on the composition for over a year, I got inspired to compose more music and I therefore created a new channel dedicated to my original compositions only. From there on I've continued to compose/improvise (mostly improvising - I get too frustrated if I work on the same piece over a longer period - my patience could have been better) and upload videos to my channel.
Composing and aspects of inspiration One of the most irritating things that can happen to oneself, is the musician's equivalence of writer's block. When you sit in front of your keyboard and so deeply want to come up with something, but everything you try seems dull and cliché. Even though this can make you scream of anger, tear your hair, create scratch marks on the table with your nails (okay, maybe not that dramatic, but almost), these moments are natural in all kind of areas of creativity and work. There's no point, in my opininon, in trying desperately to come up with something when you are not inspired. Inspired I say. So how do you get inspired? Well, there's no correct answer to this - that's obviously highly subjective. I will therefore not mention what others do - I don't know either - but simply tell you about how I get inspired to create music.
1. Picturing an object, location, animal, landscape etc. When I compose music, I find it to be much easier if I have something to relate it to. An example of this can be a picture in my head, for instance a raging storm or a quiet day in the forest. For me this works as giant source of inspiration, considering the fact that ideas seem to show up a lot easier for me. An example of this can be my newest original composition for solo piano:
This compositon started with the idea: "I want to create a sad, emotional and flowing piano piece". I didn't want the composition to be too slow - I wanted some movement. I therefore pictured a flowing river in my head when I came up with the first right-hand "runs" (Gm, Dm etc.). Although quite few people actually would think of that as a river (I think, but I am not sure - tell me what you think), I think the melody turned out to be nice and memorable. With other words: while picturing a flowing river I found a melody I was happy with, regardless of the resemblance to an actual river or not. 2. Trying to express a certain emotion, mood, feeling or atmosphere Another great way to get inspired (works for me at least), is moving from the concrete world of picturing objects etc. as described in 1., to the more abstract world of feelings and emotions. Instead of picturing a forest or children playing, you can instead try to think about more abstract and general feelings and emotions. This can for instance be tranquility, joyfullness or anger. For me, this is quite important to decide before I record an improvisation/composition. Do I want the composition to be relaxing? Sad? Hopeful? Playful? That way I know what I want with the piece and how I want the piece to progress. But of course: I wouldn't lock myself totally to this - spontaneity should not be restrained. If you suddenly feel very angry while you play, let yourself loose. Here's an example of a song composed with the mood and atmosphere in mind:
In this composition I hadn't anything planned, except that I wanted to convey fear and anxiety through the music. I wanted it to be a suspenseful and creepy track. This was what I ended up with.
3. Trying to convey a story with the music The last thing I like to do (but I have only done it once among the uploaded compositions), is to actually create a story and make music to it. Alternatively you can base your original composition on a story you've read or written. The best example I have of this, is my original compositon entitled "Reflections". A few years ago I wrote a short story (for a Norwegian mock exam) about a prisoner sentenced to death, and his reflections and thoughts regarding life. I wanted to compose a piece that corresponded to the short story, so I actually had the short story in front of me while I improvised on the piano. As I played, I then pictured the different scenes in the short story and the main protagonist's thoughts. The result became this:
To finish off Just to clear things up here. I do not by any means claim to be a professional composer, not even remotely, but I take great pleasure in composing music, learning others' techniques, and broaden my horizon regarding the theme. So, please, do take my post with a pinch of salt - this is just my humble opinions and thoughts on the subject. And please, do not hesitate commenting on it if you have any thoughts on what I've written, composing in general or anything to say. I've got a lot to learn. Take care, Peder
This post is meant to shed light on some updates on this blog, as well as on my other pages. Firstly, I will not continue to have "Composer of the week" because this takes quite a lot time to do every week and I'd like the freedom to choose the subjects when I blog. I may continue to have it, but maybe a "Composer of the month" or a "Composer of the two weeks" (maybe not). Certainly not "Composer of the day". I've written "Composer" quite a lot now, I think. If someone strongly disagrees and loves "Composer of the week", please let me know ("Composer" again, he he).
Secondly, I want to inform you that I've created a community on Google+, called "Original Compositions!". The community has become very active with many new posts every day. This is a nice place to expose your music for feedback, discuss composing techniques, software, music libraries etc., and in general get to know other fellow composers. You should be able to find it here: https://plus.google.com/u/1/b/114071658902184721045/communities/117367350844999045013 You are of course welcome to join! :) I think my originally intended "Original composition of the week" will be replaced by this community, but again: let me know what you think!
Thirdly, because of interest from several users on Youtube, I've actually started to sell my music. This is very exciting for me, and it's the continuation of the wonderful adventure I've experienced through Youtube over a span of several years (Themusiclover1705 and MusicLoverOriginals). Some users have expressed that they would like to have it on Itunes, but as for now I only have my music on Bandcamp. If you're interested, you can buy my music here (with Paypal or a credit card):
http://musicloveroriginals.bandcamp.com/
I'd be very happy if you did. :)
I also want to inform you about my new Facebook-page here, for quick updates and posts:
http://www.facebook.com/Themusiclover
That was everything for now. I wish you all a wonderful day and weekend!
Daniel
Robert Elfman, or more famously known as “Danny” Elfman, is an American
composer often collaborating with the director Tim Burton. Famous works by
Danny Elfman are, among others, his music for “Batman” (Tim Burton), the melody for the main
titles in “The Simpsons”, “Edward Scissorhands”, “Spider-man” (the first
and second), “The Nightmare before Christmas”, “Planet of the Apes” and “Men in Black”
(the first, second and third).
Photo of Danny Elfman, taken from Wikimedia Commons.
Some of
Danny Elfman’s most recent works include the soundtrack for “Oz the Great and
Powerful” (American fantasy adventure film from 2013), “Frankenweenie” (Tim
Burton’s newest animation movie from 2012) and “Silver Linings Playbook”
(American romantic comedy-drama film from 2012).
Danny
Elfman was born May 29, 1953, in the American city Los Angeles, located in the state California. After the creation of a ska band during his high school years, performances with "Le Grand Magic Circus" in France after following his brother, a musical journey through Africa, and Balinese music lessons at CalArts ("California Institue of the Arts"), Danny Elfman started his musical career in 1972 when he joined the American New Wave band called "Oingo Boingo" (originally called "The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo"), founded by his brother Richard Elfman. This led to Danny Elfman's first film score for his brother's debut movie "Forbidden Zone". Danny Elfman remained a part of "Oingo Boingo" until 1995.
Danny Elfman and Tim Burton started to work together when Danny Elfman in 1985 composed the music for one of Tim Burton's earliest movies: "Pee-wee's Big Adventure". This collaboration led to the, for me, beautiful music found in the scores of Tim Burton's dark movies. Examples of this are: "Edward Scissorhands", "Corpse Bride" and "The Nightmare before Christmas".
Danny Elfman is one of my all-times favourite composers. I find his music for Tim Burton's dark and gothic movies hauntingly beautiful. I think likewise that his music for other genra of films is really good, for instance "The Planet of the Apes", "Spider-Man" and "Big Fish". All in all, Danny Elfman is for me a great treasure in the world of film music.
Question of the day:
What is your personal favourite soundtrack by Danny Elfman?
The first
composer out in this weekly series is Mychael Danna. Mychael Danna is for many
probably most known as the composer of the recently award-winning soundtrack to
the movie “Life of Pi”, directed by Ang Lee. The score got an Oscar for “Best
Original Score”, and was nominated for “Best Original Song” (winner: Adele’s “Skyfall”
for the movie with the same name). If you’re interested in viewing Mychael
Danna’s winning speech, it can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bN-aHoFPgA
Photo of Mychael Danna. Photo taken from "Wikimedia Commons".
Mychael
Danna is a Canadian composer and the brother of fellow composer Jeff Danna.
Jeff and Mychael have worked on several movie scores together, for instance: “Camelot”
(TV-series, premiered April 2011), “Lakeview Terrace” (American thriller from
2008) and “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”(fantasy film from 2009). Mychael danna was born in Winnipeg, the capital
of the province of Manitoba in Canada, and studied music composition at the
University of Toronto (Toronto is Canada’s largest city and is the provincial
city of Ontario).
Other works
of Mychael Danna include but are not limited to: “Little Miss Sunshine”
(American movie from 2006), “Moneyball” (drama film from 2011) and “(500) Days
of Summer” (American comedy from 2009).
Mychael
Danna’s most recent soundtrack for the visually impressive movie “Life of Pi” is
a wonderful soundtrack for everyone who appreciates a strong, melodically rich and
moody soundtrack. If you haven’t checked out the soundtrack, check it out! You
will not regret it – the movie didn’t win an Oscar for nothing.
Question of the day:
What do you
think of Mychael Danna’s work on “Life of Pi”? Do you think it deserved the
Oscar win for ”Best Original Music”?
Hello, dear reader! (If you're here, please do not hesitate to make a sound)
This is the first post on my very first blog. This blog will not be a blog describing my daily life down to detail (not often at least, maybe once in a while) - this blog will focus on different topics such as news, music, movies, books etc. We'll see what comes out of this. :)
So, an introduction of myself seems like a good way of starting this. My name is Peder and I come from the northern country Norway. I play the trombone in a marching band and I play the piano at home.
I upload piano covers here: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMusiclover1705/videos?view=0
My original compositions: http://www.youtube.com/user/MusicLoverOriginals/videos?view=0
Me and my brother's lego stop-motion videos are here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Legoman1705/videos?view=0
I like books, movies, science, taking photos and videos, sports, music and other things as well. I am currently in high school and I am very uncertain regarding what I am going to do study after school. I feel that my mind is split between a scientific study path and something creative, such as writing, composing music, shooting films or something similar - I am very interested in all of that.
That was a quick introduction of me just to start this blog up. If there is anybody who reads this, it'd be great if you left me a comment saying "Hi" or whatever you want to say! :)
