Tuesday, 8 December 2015
Fight Through It!
For all the struggling artists or people picking up a new skill, here's a video to inspire you to keep up the good work, and never give up!
Friday, 16 October 2015
The World's Largest Sound Library is Now Made Public, Online!
From an article on VideoAndFilmmaker.com I came across this amazing piece of news!
The library, housed at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology, has made available over ten terabytes of recordings, with a runtime of 7513 hours of natural sounds.
Visit the page and take a listen to the amazing library that represents the tremendous effort of a multitude of passionate professionals, spanning lifetimes of effort and dedication.
Monday, 5 October 2015
A Collaboration Album Published on YouTube
I'm proud and excited to present a collection of songs I have been working on, in collaboration with the very talented +Alex Bett. Alex has publised this compilation on YouTube.
The video is embedded here:
In this album, Alex arranges and performs the guitar tracks while I arrange and record the piano, strings and the flute.
Please enjoy and share the love, joy and relaxation.
If you wish to license any of the tracks please feel free to approach +Alex or myself (+Patrick Woo).
Monday, 14 September 2015
Corniche Mega Marshmallow Commercial
Finally, here's my first piece of music scored to a commercial video. It is on the client's official YouTube channel :)
Visuals
This is a full CGI production. All imagery were produced by +Tiny Island Productions.
Music
I wrote the music to already edited visuals. Thus the beats and timing of key moments were timed to the cuts and action. The edit changed a little bit during my scoring to give the establishing shots a bit more time. This actually worked to my advantage, giving me more space to play establish the musical mood as well.
The most difficult part in this project is the fast paced mood changes in the edit. I had to decide how to find the nearest half-bar or full-bar to transit the mood, and whether to transit on the cut. Sometimes it works but at other times it may become too cheesy when timing transitions exactly to the edit.
Sound Design
The sound design was done in collaboration with a partner company. They recorded the effects and voices, timed to the video.
Mixing
My music came up to about 12 - 14 tracks. I created a mix for music, and when the sound effects came back, I gave some final tweaks to make music and sound effects sit better with each other.
Visuals
This is a full CGI production. All imagery were produced by +Tiny Island Productions.
Music
I wrote the music to already edited visuals. Thus the beats and timing of key moments were timed to the cuts and action. The edit changed a little bit during my scoring to give the establishing shots a bit more time. This actually worked to my advantage, giving me more space to play establish the musical mood as well.
The most difficult part in this project is the fast paced mood changes in the edit. I had to decide how to find the nearest half-bar or full-bar to transit the mood, and whether to transit on the cut. Sometimes it works but at other times it may become too cheesy when timing transitions exactly to the edit.
Sound Design
The sound design was done in collaboration with a partner company. They recorded the effects and voices, timed to the video.
Mixing
My music came up to about 12 - 14 tracks. I created a mix for music, and when the sound effects came back, I gave some final tweaks to make music and sound effects sit better with each other.
Sunday, 26 April 2015
Understanding Music Publishing
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/02/28/understandpublishing
Here's quite a comprehensive introduction and overview of music publishing, the pieces which makes the process function and what each element does.
This is really worth a read for musicians and composers who have be hesitant and afraid to step into the business side of things. I am definitely in that group.
Sunday, 8 February 2015
Head2Head Mix Contest by Mixrevu - February 2015
I just got to know about this Head2Head Mix Contests by mixrevu.com. They give out free multi-track projects of actual released tracks by various bands with different genres.
For this round, the track is a country song, Motherload by Merrygold.
Head2Head Winners are featured on our Homepage, Social Media & our Newsletters. In addition, the Winning Engineers may also be Featured in their Promotional Ad Campaigns!
In return, professional and aspiring audio engineers can use them to practice and submit the finished mixes in a contest.
Visit the article here to download your session files, and begin mixing now!
The contest for this month ends 14 February 2015.
Find out how to submit your mixes here.
Friday, 23 January 2015
Spectrasonics Announces Omnisphere 2!
Spectrasonics has outdone themselves with Omnisphere 2!
Here's a quick run through of some of the features we can look forward to!
Introducing Omnisphere 2 from Spectrasonics on Vimeo.
Watch out for release dates!
PS:
Great news! Spectrasonics has announced that new owners of Omnisphere 1 will be entitled a free upgrade to Omnisphere 2 when it releases on April 30 2015.
Here's a quick run through of some of the features we can look forward to!
Introducing Omnisphere 2 from Spectrasonics on Vimeo.
Watch out for release dates!
PS:
Great news! Spectrasonics has announced that new owners of Omnisphere 1 will be entitled a free upgrade to Omnisphere 2 when it releases on April 30 2015.
Chris Hein Horns Compact Doodle
Just got myself the Chris Hein Horns Compact Library. Boy it is so good!
This is me completely playing nonsense (no note edits) on one patch of each instrument in the sax and clarinet section.
It starts with saxes of the highest registers down to the lower ones, then clarinets from the higher to the lower ones.
Please note that with exception to the bass and contrabass sax and clarinets, most of these have at least 1 other variation, (like the Eb and Bb clarinets, and Soprano Sax A and Sop Sax B) There is a whole other section with brass (trumpets (with & without mutes), flugel horns, trombones, tuba, etc)
There are 65 instruments in all, a really great value for great sounding and playable instruments! Chris Hein Horns Compact sells at VSTBuzz.com at 50% discount (until 28 Jan 2015), at the price of 72.49 Euros (regular price 144.99 Euros). Grab it if you can!
http://vstbuzz.com/deals/50-off-chris-hein-horns-compact/
At the time of writing, the deal will run for 4 days and 13 minutes.
This is me completely playing nonsense (no note edits) on one patch of each instrument in the sax and clarinet section.
It starts with saxes of the highest registers down to the lower ones, then clarinets from the higher to the lower ones.
Please note that with exception to the bass and contrabass sax and clarinets, most of these have at least 1 other variation, (like the Eb and Bb clarinets, and Soprano Sax A and Sop Sax B) There is a whole other section with brass (trumpets (with & without mutes), flugel horns, trombones, tuba, etc)
There are 65 instruments in all, a really great value for great sounding and playable instruments! Chris Hein Horns Compact sells at VSTBuzz.com at 50% discount (until 28 Jan 2015), at the price of 72.49 Euros (regular price 144.99 Euros). Grab it if you can!
http://vstbuzz.com/deals/50-off-chris-hein-horns-compact/
At the time of writing, the deal will run for 4 days and 13 minutes.
Sunday, 18 January 2015
New Track: Oriental Canon in D
Listen on Soundcloud
My new track is an oriental rendition of Pachelbel's very popular Canon in D. I created this oriental arrangement at a friend's request for his oriental themed wedding.
I always have had reservations about oriental instruments sounding less authentic when they are not playing in their native pentatonic scale.
Living in Singapore I have heard a great many tracks that use oriental instruments to play western melodies, some even pop tunes in the 80s or 90s. Many times in the past when I encountered these oriental adaptations, they were played at more traditional Chinese restaurants, maybe at a relative's wedding banquet or an auntie or uncle's birthday. I feel this was one way these traditional restaurants were trying to add a modern twist to their traditional ambience.
Chinese new year is another big thing for Chinese folks. In the last 10 years the Chinese community in Singapore and Malaysia has been under the onslaught of oriental festive tunes infused with Techno beats and bass (always the same pattern, same sounds and same arrangement). Maybe another attempt at reinventing the otherwise evergreen new year songs with a modern element.
Hence among many younger folks they probably find oriental instrumental adaptation of a western work to be cheesy, or low-class conversion.
That was my greatest worry when making this track.
My first attempt was a very resistant attempt that tried to conform the melody to a more oriental phrasing and in the area of scale used too. The outcome? The track became unrecognisable by my friend/client, who isn't a musician. That would disqualify this track as an adaptation.
This final piece is also not an exact transcription of the original, but it has enough elements to make the listener recognise the piece. Also I applied changes to the main melody very sparingly. Maybe a bit of pentatonic scales here and there in the supporting instruments.
I hope you enjoy it :)
My new track is an oriental rendition of Pachelbel's very popular Canon in D. I created this oriental arrangement at a friend's request for his oriental themed wedding.
I always have had reservations about oriental instruments sounding less authentic when they are not playing in their native pentatonic scale.
Living in Singapore I have heard a great many tracks that use oriental instruments to play western melodies, some even pop tunes in the 80s or 90s. Many times in the past when I encountered these oriental adaptations, they were played at more traditional Chinese restaurants, maybe at a relative's wedding banquet or an auntie or uncle's birthday. I feel this was one way these traditional restaurants were trying to add a modern twist to their traditional ambience.
Chinese new year is another big thing for Chinese folks. In the last 10 years the Chinese community in Singapore and Malaysia has been under the onslaught of oriental festive tunes infused with Techno beats and bass (always the same pattern, same sounds and same arrangement). Maybe another attempt at reinventing the otherwise evergreen new year songs with a modern element.
Hence among many younger folks they probably find oriental instrumental adaptation of a western work to be cheesy, or low-class conversion.
That was my greatest worry when making this track.
My first attempt was a very resistant attempt that tried to conform the melody to a more oriental phrasing and in the area of scale used too. The outcome? The track became unrecognisable by my friend/client, who isn't a musician. That would disqualify this track as an adaptation.
This final piece is also not an exact transcription of the original, but it has enough elements to make the listener recognise the piece. Also I applied changes to the main melody very sparingly. Maybe a bit of pentatonic scales here and there in the supporting instruments.
I hope you enjoy it :)
Saturday, 17 January 2015
New MIDI HD Protocol has Reached a Milestone
Here's an exciting article from Synthopia I have just read: New MIDI HD Protocol has Reached a Milestone.
 |
| Dave Smith, the man who proposed the MIDI standard |
 |
| Dave Smith again |
I'm a huge supporter of the MIDI format. It is really matured and reliable technology. Being still relevant after more than 30 years has proven it to be a really well designed protocol.
Without devices that connect to computers through MIDI via an affordable computer with an affordable soundcard, I would never have had the chance to started my journey into music.
While being a solid and reliable, our demand for more data, more channels and increased control over our devices has prompted the MIDI Manufacturer’s Association (MMA) to come up with an additional set of standards to guide the implementation of additional feature and information that allows MIDI compatible devices to share information with each other.
Taking information from the Synthtopia artiicle, new capabilities of the standard will feature:
| - Backward compatibility with MIDI 1.0 to ensure wide-spread adoption |
| - Plug and Play network connectivity over USB and Ethernet for easy integration |
| - Thousands of Channels for handling large complex systems |
| - A massive number of high resolution Controllers and Parameters for channels, groups and even individual notes, for unrivalled precision and adaptability to new controller technologies |
| - Precise Pitch Control and Articulation messages for expanded expressivity |
| - Time Stamped messaging for accurate timing and tight real-time performance |
| - Plenty of room for future expansion to eliminate obsolescence |
The MIDI Manufacturer’s Association (MMA) will host an open discussion at the 2015 NAMM Show about this "HD” version of the MIDI standard.
I look forward to hearing more details about this.
Friday, 2 January 2015
Creating and Posting Cover Songs on the Internet (YouTube, SoundCloud, etc)
So 3 posts ago, I posted about a cover version of My Grown Up Christmas List that I created and uploaded onto SoundCloud.
I was wondering if it would be infringing any copyright laws, especially if I am not intending to make money out of the track.
On the other hand, I see a huge number of YouTube artists performing cover versions of songs. Has anybody wondered if it was legal at all?
I searched and found an article in NewMediaRockstars,com that held some promise of answering my question.
From what I understand from the article, it is actually illegal to upload and produce our own cover versions of copyrighted songs without permission from the creator.
However, quoting from the article: "Back in 2012, YouTube made deals with major US publishers that allowed creators to keep up their covers while publishers took upwards of 50 percent of the revenue generated from them. Unfortunately, we’re still not sure which publishers officially signed on. This means that even though YouTube has made it legal to upload a great deal of cover songs, we have no clue what those cover songs actually are."
Therefore if we really want to steer clear of copyright infringement when posting cover recordings of copyrighted songs, we have to check with YouTube's list of publishers and which songs fall under the coverage of that deal.
For those who have uploaded material that publishers have flagged up to be infringing their copyright, that video will have the following notification on his/her video.
Another consideration for content creators who upload cover songs on YouTube, is the "three strikes" policy. YouTube states that for any user who receives three strikes of having claimed to be infringing copyright, his/her account will be removed, along with all his/her videos. Thereafter, he/she will be barred from creating a YouTube account, and from accessing YouTube's community features.
I was wondering if it would be infringing any copyright laws, especially if I am not intending to make money out of the track.
On the other hand, I see a huge number of YouTube artists performing cover versions of songs. Has anybody wondered if it was legal at all?
From what I understand from the article, it is actually illegal to upload and produce our own cover versions of copyrighted songs without permission from the creator.
However, quoting from the article: "Back in 2012, YouTube made deals with major US publishers that allowed creators to keep up their covers while publishers took upwards of 50 percent of the revenue generated from them. Unfortunately, we’re still not sure which publishers officially signed on. This means that even though YouTube has made it legal to upload a great deal of cover songs, we have no clue what those cover songs actually are."
Therefore if we really want to steer clear of copyright infringement when posting cover recordings of copyrighted songs, we have to check with YouTube's list of publishers and which songs fall under the coverage of that deal.
For those who have uploaded material that publishers have flagged up to be infringing their copyright, that video will have the following notification on his/her video.
Another consideration for content creators who upload cover songs on YouTube, is the "three strikes" policy. YouTube states that for any user who receives three strikes of having claimed to be infringing copyright, his/her account will be removed, along with all his/her videos. Thereafter, he/she will be barred from creating a YouTube account, and from accessing YouTube's community features.
So it looks like in order for us to be on the safe side, we need to find out the publisher of the songs we want to cover, and to see if those fall under the list of songs included in the YouTube deal struck in 2012.
That is how much I have found out at the time of this post.
I will continue to read up and find out how other music hosting platforms deal with the issue, and what are the proper procedures to go about doing this, if it is legal at all.
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