27Mar
The field of music cognition involves the study of many aspects of music including how it is processed by listeners. Rather than accepting the standard practices of analyzing, composing, and performing music as a given, much research in music cognition seeks instead to uncover the mental processes that underlie these practices. Also, research in the field seeks to uncover commonalities between the musical traditions of disparate cultures and possible cognitive “constraints” that limit these musical systems. Questions regarding musical innateness, and emotional responses to music are also major areas of research in the field.
24Mar
If you’re going to make music, you’ll need the proper tools to help you on your way, although a good sounding synth may help you get on your way, there are some software available on the Internet that can make your music sound professional.
One of them is Deckadence. It’s a DJ application for mixing music and different sounds. You can control most midi controllers and CD systems. Below is the system requirements to make the program work:
- Processor: PC: Intel Pentium III (or equivalent), Athlon XP or Mac: Intel Mac or G4 (1.25 GHz)
- OS: PC: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista orMac: OSX v10.4 (Universal Binary)
- Memory: 512MB ram
- Hard Disk Space: 200MB free space.
- GFX: A decent graphic card will make the Deckadance experience a lot more enjoyable.
- Monitor: Minimum horizontal resolution of 1024 pixels.
- Sound card: PC: DirectSound or ASIO compatible soundcard
- Mac: Sound card with CoreAudio drivers
If your computer hardware fits these requirements, you can download a demo from the site.
24Mar
If you’re going to put your Techno music online for sale, what would you rather use? MySpace or a blogging platform?Although you may notice these days that MySpace has a lot of musician patrons, according to a NYU Study made last year, blogging about your music is increases sales more.
Possibly it’s because that most music in MySpace can be downloaded for free while the blogs just link to amazon or ebay? Here’s what the researchers think:
Our hypothesis is that blogs and social networks matter independently for the following reasons. First, we believe that a considerable amount of effort goes into writing good blogs, and their authors feel passionate enough about the topic to spend the time writing and sharing them with others. Readers recognize good blogs and pay attention to them. Secondly, while blogs are largely unfiltered, some blog sites tend to have more authority than others. In other words, reputation helps them attract traffic that is in turn influenced by their content.
Yes, it’s the quality of the post content and the one who blogged you that’s important. If your music got a good review from Spin.com’s blogs, then most likely you will get noticed compared to someone blogging from MySpace.
Source
24Mar
Here’s news from one of Techno’s major influences, Kraftwerk. NME says that the legendary group will be touring some US dates come spring. Although, they will only be playing three shows, this will eventually lead up to California’s Coachella Festival in April.
Tour Date are as follows:
April 19: Minneapolis
April 20: Milwaukee
April 23: Denver
April 26: Indio, CA Coachella Festival
Kraftwerk, as stated in Wikipedia, “…combines a driving rhythm section with catchy, synthesized melodies and harmony; mainly following a Western classical style of arrangement, accompanied by simple lyrics that are sometimes sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software.”
If you’re anywhere near those places, we suggest you go on over there and hear them live.
Source
24Mar
Acid Techno is loud and political. The primary instrument used is the Roland TB-303 for base and lead sounds, while the attitude, or lyrics in some, are more often political in nature. It’s no surprise since most of its originators were part of the early punk scene.
Its origins started from parties known as “Squat Party”. According to Wikipedia, it’s a party that takes place in a disused building or in an existing squat. Organizers usually just give flyers away or tell their friends to spread the news so the authorities can’t track them down easily. The party usually lasts for hours until either the organizers have had enough or the police catches them.
If you think you’re a rebel techno lover, Acid Techno’s for you.
24Mar
Friends are usually the best people to make great music with. The founders of Techno, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May started as good friends in school. They were further bonded together as they were the only African-American kids in school during that time.
Their after school hang-outs was an extension of their creative side. During their spare time, they would listen to Bootsy and Yellow Magic Orchestra in the dark. According to Derrick May, they “…never took it as just entertainment, we took it as a serious philosophy.”
These guys went on to create Techno. When they grew up they got together and called themselves the Belleville Three. The rest is history.
24Mar
What’s a futurist? According to all-mighty Wikipedia, it’s “...the practice and art of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures.” in short, it’s like predicting the future based on what happened in the past and what’s happening in the present. Mind you this is a complicated subject; but what does this have to do with Techno Music?
One of the founders of Techno, Juan Atkins was inspired by the books of author and futurist, Alvin Toffler. From his book, Future Shock, also came the terms, “cybotron” (Atkins’ first group) and “metroplex” (Atkins’ label).
So you guys out there, read your books: you never know how it’ll inspire you to create music.
14Mar
Build your song around a central theme and discard those which are irrelevant. Know the rules but don’t be afraid to break them. Experiment and Have many techniques as possible. Feel free to make mistakes but again…learn from them.
Consider the location because atmosphere affects the mood of the music. Texturize your music and experiment with many textures as possible to increase interest. Hook the audience by using catchy phrases and taking a simple melody and modifying it slightly. But of course most of all…have fun! Yeah.
