wire to the ear

We all know that having a few music videos per album is great promotion. With inexpensive tools like iMovie and a Flip video camera there is no excuse for not producing them. Once your video is all finished you uploaded it to YouTube and MySpace and your done. But wait what about that gorgeous video site Vimeo? Or that site let lets viewers comment along the playback timeline… Viddler? You know having your video in Blip.tv is also cool because they offer an embeddable show player. Hmm it’s going to be a long day uploading the same video to all these sites. But alas there is a better way: Tubemogul.

Tubemogul is an incredible free service to which you upload your video to one time and they distribute it to over 20 sites. That distribution service alone is truly a gift from the time saving gods however they give you more goodies. Once your video or videos are uploaded and delivered around the web universe and a few days go by log back into your Tubemogul account and viola you can see Analytics. Analytics is the fancy word for “Who is watching, how many are watching and where are they watching.”. The data is presented to you with nice interactive charts and graphs.

You may end up surprised that YouTube is not getting you the most views. Remember your video on YouTube is lost in a huge ocean of content. Earlier this year I discovered videos from a music blogger named Vergel Evans in his studio via Viddler. I got to his video because I searched “drum machine” and because Viddler is low on content like music tech his LX7.ca videos show popped up.

Don’t worry if you already have your videos on a few sites already because you can still upload them to Tubemogul and deselect “distribute” to those you already have covered.

Be sure to check out Tubemogul’s video channel on YouTube which is full of usefull tutorial videos: click here

Here’s a great video visit to Daptone Records studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Co-founders Neal Sugarman and Gabriel Roth show you around their music making fun house. If you ever wished you could find new soul records produced the way they used to be this is the place to check.

Everything at Daptone is analog except their one single digital piece: a CD player! Incredibly they even edit without computers using good old fashion razor blades and tape. I really like how they floated a floor for a sound proof room using tires and used clothes.

Visit Daptone Records: click here

Here’s some video from a Rave called Tunnelvision which happened sometime in 1995. As you can see the event takes place in a public tunnel and lasts until 7:00am which causes the locals to complain. However, surprisingly the promoters secured all the proper permits so the event was not shut down. Between scenes of people dancing (which are hilarious) you get a glimpse of the local news coverage of the event.

I started playing events like this in 1992. I would bring a Roland TR-909, 2 TB-303s, SBX-80 Sync Box, a small Boss 8 channel mixer which when pushed distorted in a delightfully frighting way and a Shure SM-58 microphone to yell at people with. Sometimes I would let people come on stage and twist the knobs on one of the 303s.

This video is fun to watch but the events in New York were far more crazy.

It’s clear online music collaboration has potential. Mixmatchmusic came out of beta this week and there are a host of other similar services including Splice, eSession and digitalmusician.net. Electronic Musician magazine has an article online comparing a bunch of them but it’s from October 2007 so keep in mind things change fast online. To read the article: click here

Channelflip.com is a net “TV” channel full of tech stuff and they have profiled yet another competitor in the online music collaboration space called Rifflet. For any of these to succeed in the long term they need to be free (ad driven and paid pro-accounts sound good to me), beautiful, fast and have a strong community.

Have any of you tried any of these services? How was your experience?

The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

Paul Mawhinney’s has a 50 million dollar record collection. I always imagined there must be people with insanely huge vinyl collections. I personally have 5000 records in storage all mostly from the 80s. My favorite 12″? A German edition of Depeche Mode’s “Leave in Silence” on clear vinyl.

Paul Mawhinney was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the years he has amassed what has become the world’s largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection.

This is the story of a man and his records. I hope you enjoy it. - veryapeproductions.com

So are you still hording a giant record collection? Do you have any records that are crazy expensive collectors items?

Brian “Botkiller” from Albuquerque, New Mexico shares his thoughts on playing live. I agree with what he says concerning doing your own share of promotion. Even if your playing an event with 10 other hot acts and you you know it will be packed you want 50 of your own superfans front and center. Remember crowds follow the lead of the people near the stage!

I talk about working with promoters and clubs and promoting your shows. - brianbotkiller

He’s also correct to mention that the person who books you is probably not the only individual who you need to deal with. Getting to know a few people who work at the venue early on could save your if anything goes wrong at 2AM.

I noticed he kicks off the video by mentioning he just bought a house. Congrats to Brian but later in the video he mentions sometimes he only gets $10 for a gig! He must be in one hard working band! Maybe he has a day job? Something about his “vlog” videos crack me up but I respect him for going for it.

brianbotkiller.fwank.net

Real analog synthesizers, hairspray and makeup. What more do you want? If I had a time machine I would spend a few hundred years in the 1980s.

via Best Free Documentaries

Infrasonik is a Canadian company which produces sample packs for electronic musicians. They just posted an outstanding video on YouTube of their top 10 Ableton Live shortcuts. This is one of the best Ableton Live tutorial videos out there. I knew most of the shortcuts but this was a nice reminder of a few forgotten tricks. If you use Live I am sure you will learn something.

On the Wire to the Ear YouTube channel I have created an Ableton Tips & Tricks Playlist. So far I put five videos in it and will be added more as a come across videos I think fit.

Ableton Live - Uses for White Noise from Andreas Wetterberg on Vimeo.

Andreas Wetterberg from The Covert Operators is always sharing wicked Ableton Live tricks. In the video above he shows you how to mangle white noise into something useful.

White noise is both annoying and useful. Here’s why. - Andreas Wetterberg

Watch how he maps the keyboard to the Note Value on the Ableton Resonator plug-in. Good one! Later he tosses together White Noise, Auto Filter, Compressor, Phaser and Autopan into a stew and comes out with some nice scratch effects.

By the way if your looking for a place to grab some white noise don’t forget my post, “Simply Noise. A website with a single purpose.“.

Be sure to check out all of The Covert Operators stuff: www.covops.org

Another great music documentary has popped up on my favorite place I find my daily “TV” viewing aka Best Free Documentaries. This movie called “Scratch” chases down the origins of Hip Hop’s background sound.

Grand Wizard Theodore (the “Thomas Edison of the movement”) recalls the day, way back in 1975, when his grandmother told him to turn down the music he was making in front of his Bronx River Houses apartment. In order to hear her, he put his hand on the turntable, holding the record in place. As he moved his hand, slightly, a new sound rose up. And so, he smiles, scratching was born. - Best Free Documentaries

An interesting side note is that this video is one hour long and it’s on YouTube. They have started rolling out this feature for some film makers. Believe it or not my favorite Scratch track of all time is Reckless from Ice-T… seriously check it out: click here. Oh yeah and while your listening to it listen for the TB-303’s!

Have you put any Scratching into your own productions? Have you tried any of the various Scratch plug-ins?