Entries in live performance (10)

Wednesday
Aug112010

Mashup culture: the Bootie Nightclub Phenomenon

Date20100811 at 11:00

 

photo by Leo Herrera

Adrian & Mysterious D, a pair of San Francisco DJ’s, started a monthly “mashup” night at a small club in 2003. Then they moved to the DNA lounge, the current home of Bootie SF. Guest DJs spin their own mashups and live music performances are common. This is all out in the open. Only one mashup track from last year’s “best of” compilation was subject to a complaint from a label, so far. 

Bootie is now a small international empire, serving a market that obviously isn’t being served by the music industry. Key to avoiding legal trouble is the way they profit: from people paying the $12 cover charge, minus the cut the venue takes ($15 for special events such as the upcoming seven year anniversary party)

No royalties, no products for sale, just ongoing live events where people are paid to spin or perform. 

Check out the reviews on Yelp:

The house band, Smash Up Derby, is FANTASTIC. (in 29 reviews)

In the end, I had a fabulous time drinking and dancing to mash-ups. (in 33 reviews)

The mashups are amazing, and I love the eclectic crowds. (in 38 reviews) 

To sell a mashup you would need to negotiate with all rights holders for everything, because there is no compulsory license for such use. Up-front fees for one mashup could run from the thousands to the hundreds of thousands of dollars, just for the privilege of selling it on iTunes. Per-item fees could be greater than total sale price. Only the labels can really sell mashups, which seems to finally be a big deal with the upcoming Gaga remixed album.

That said, most of the mashups premiered at Bootie events are available for free download at their blog.

Other resources:

Disclosure: I’ve met A+D, I’m a fan/friend of theirs, so much so I wanted them to join me and attend Larry Lessig’s “Remix” book gala, but they couldn’t. He wasn’t familiar with A+D at the time.

 

 


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Sunday
Jun202010

Performance Nightmares (weddings and funerals)

Date20100620 at 01:55

I just woke myself up from a nightmarish dream about the “gotcha” situations one ends up in as a keyboard player. I have played Puccini’s “O mio babbino caro” at a friend’s wedding, to accompany a singer:

That was no nightmare, except for an incredibly loud noise the piano bench made when I moved it on the concrete patio. One other time I was given the opportunity to play a very old organ at a (Catholic of course) church in Sóller, Mallorca. That was a little nightmarish because there were registers (the reed ones) that were in such a state of disrepair as to be comedic. I should mention that the church was open, and I had a small audience I was told later. I was sight-reading from whatever ancient sheet music I found there.


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So here’s the nightmare: I’m attending a funeral ceremony at the home of an acquaintance / organ maker, high up in a loft area, and all the sudden I find myself part of the ceremony. Somehow I’m being lowered down to the stage area with the singer / shaman woman, who I am to accompany in a rendition of “O mio babbino caro.” I end up at the organ console (in another room) filled with strange things. I’m looking for the familiar 7 white and 5 black, and am distressed that I don’t see the foot pedal register at all. Then the singer helps me activate the lower register where the keys are paired positive and negative feet and hands which must be dragged together to activate a pitch. Which pitch exactly is a mystery.

Of course I have no sheet music and it’s assumed I can remember the part. I think it’s in D flat major, it’s fairly simple. I only mention this dream because it is a recurring theme, one not appreciated by musicians who play portable instruments. It’s very much like being put at the spot at a party, where upon hearing one is a “concert pianist” one is presented with a casio keyboard on which to render Rachmaninoff. Truly, the people who put one in these situations are the stuff of nightmares. Please don’t be one of them!

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Sunday
Feb282010

De Profundis by Frederic Rzewski for piano and voice (Oscar Wilde, Lisa Moore)

Date20100228 at 23:36

Frederic RzewskiI suspect the microphone you see in front of Lisa isn’t turned on, as the voice part is barely audible.

My discovery of Rzewski’s (zheff-skee) music is thanks to Sarah Cahill’s radio program Then and Now on KALW. I’ve included my own archive recording of this piece because the video above has improperly recorded audio, and I consider this work to be very important. It is a piece by a living composer, played by a wonderful performer, incorporating passages of a work of tragic literature by a noted historical figure.

Demands on the pianist include speaking, whistling, laughing, humming, sighing, moaning, whispering, snapping, slapping, and the use of a bicycle horn. Present in the work is a fluency in many genres and techniques — including fugue, impressionism, post-romanticism and poly-tonality — all serving to illustrate and highlight the text. Also quite effective is the combination of finger drumming on the keyboard lid, shaking and hitting the piano, and whispering, during passages where Wilde addresses his vivid memories of time spent with “Bosie.”

Buy Lisa’s album Which Side Are You On - Music Of Frederic Rzewski from Amazon.

 

Lisa Moore

Oscar Wilde

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Sunday
Feb282010

Yamaha Vocaloid robot singer (with robot piano)

Date20100228 at 17:39

The embedded video shows a robot powered by the Vocaloid “voice synthesis” software. The movements and expressions were pre-programmed, but the generation of the singing voice from lyrics and score can be done in real-time apparently.

The piano is a Yamaha Disklavier of course, being controlled by the same program that is controlling the Vocaloid robot. This is a good example of state-of-the-art synthesis technology, and sounds natural and human to my ears. 

The inputs for Vocaloid are: 

  • phonemes (lyrics)
  • vocal line (music) 
  • expression (stresses, vibrato, etc.)

The inputs for Disklavier are:

  • precise key presses
  • precise pedal controls

Other inputs for the robot shown in the video are for mouth, face and head movements.

Wikipedia: Vocaloid (Crypton Future Media)

The Character Vocal Series is a computer music program that synthesizes singing in Japanese. Developed by Crypton Future Media, it utilizes Yamaha’s Vocaloid 2 technology with specially recorded vocals of voice actors. To create a song, the user must input the melody and lyrics. A piano roll type interface is used to input the melody and the lyrics can be entered on each note. The software can change the stress of the pronunciations, add effects such as vibrato, or change the dynamics and tone of the voice.

The series is intended for professional musicians as well as light computer music users. The programmed vocals are designed to sound like an idol singer from the future. According to Crypton, because professional singers refused to provide singing data, in fear that the software might create their singing voice’s clones, Crypton changed their focus from imitating certain singers to creating characteristic vocals. This change of focus led to sampling vocals of voice actors.[11]

Each Japanese Vocaloid is given an anime-type character with specifications on age, height, weight, and musical strengths (genre, pitch range and ideal tempos). The characters of the first three installments of the series are created by illustrator Kei.

Any rights or obligations arising from the vocals created by the software belong to the software user. Just like any music synthesizer, the software is treated as a musical instrument and the vocals as sound. Under the term of license, the Character Vocal Series software can be used to create vocals for commercial or non-commercial use as long as the vocals do not offend public policy. In other words, the user is bound under the term of license with Crypton not to synthesize derogatory or disturbing lyrics. On the other hand, copyrights to the mascot image and name belong to Crypton. Under the term of license, a user cannot commercially distribute a vocal as a song sung by the character, nor use the mascot image on commercial products, without Crypton’s consent.

It is encouraging to read that “professional singers refused to provide singing data” because, as you were warned in The Performing Pianist (a pocket primer, 2002), page 27 (Digital vs. Analog):

Pianists are for the most part analog creatures. They may be transformed into digital entities by such things as the glorified player piano, the Yamaha Disklavier. This hybrid machine digitally and precisely captures the manipulations of the keys and pedals, also known as performance capture, which can then be reproduced exactly, ad infinitum, on the analog piano. A lazy individual could purchase and not play this instrument, thus avoiding the need to hire (or bribe) musicians, take lessons, or even go to concerts. This is not in the best interests of the art form. You should consider carefully the degree to which you agree to be digitized…  

RELATED: Fauxharmonic Orchestra - The Robot Philharmonic


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Sunday
Jan312010

Miley Cyrus Exposed - I interrupt this blog for a special facepalm award

Date20100131 at 18:45

Here’s the shocking video of Miley singing live on the Today show. Fair warning - this has already been “fixed in post” on official outlets, and is a typical candidate for take-down. Enjoy while you can. Schadenfreude at its best. It’s worse than bad… catastrophic, tragic, and hilarious. There is no Santa Claus and your precious Miley can’t sing. Way to go, parents! How much did you pay for those tickets?

Let’s try not to confuse “auto-tune” with singing ability, shall we?

 

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