iPhone app turns hummed audio into MIDI

27th May 2009

iComposer features 130+ instruments

iComposer is a new app for the iPhone/iPod touch that's designed to turn your hummed melodies into MIDI data that can then be played back by one of 130+ built-in instruments.

The premise is that you can capture your moments of inspiration whenever or wherever they strike (though humming into your iPhone when you're on the bus might mark you out as something of an oddball).

Once your score has been generated, it can be edited in the staff editor, and it's possible to play back up to eight different parts simultaneously. The bank of supplied sounds includes piano, organ, drum, string, guitar, reed and brass instruments.

Songs can be exported as MIDI and compressed audio files, and you can set key and time signatures.

You can learn more about iComposer on the developer's website. This contains examples of the audio-to-MIDI conversion in action.

The software costs $8.99/£5.49 and is available now from the Apple App Store.

(Via Synthtopia)

3 Simple and Free Website Design Resources for Musicians

3 Simple and Free Website Design Resources for Musicians

A Guest Post by Crowd Audio

I’ve harked on marketing for a few posts now.

Not for nothing, because being a band in a vacuüm is pointless.

You want fans, and marketing is the thing that will get you fans.

It gets a bad rap, but marketing isn’t evil. It’s what you do every day when you talk about your music, upload a song or post a music video.

And as you all know by now, you should be doing this through your own website.

Where Do I Find a Good Website Design for My Band?

Good question.

The answer is: ALL OVER THE PLACE!

It’s actually quite frustrating because you can feel like you’re drowning in designs when you go search on Google. But let’s narrow the search parameter a little bit and focus on something that’s more budget friendly.

Or as you musicians might know it as: free.

I’m only recommending and talking about WordPress themes because that’s what I’m familiar with and confident to talk about.

There are a ton of free options out there, and even more Premium, paid themes as well.

Just a quick search on Google for “free WordPress themes for musicians” yields some good results. Obviously they won’t all be free but here are some great sites that have some good free options for you.

Premium Free WordPress Themes

PremiumFreeWordpressThemes has some good options for musicians on a budget that would like a simple and nice design.

The Retro Music and IndaClub are both cool options for wildly different genres.

Heaven Themes

Heaven Themes looks super cluttered and seems to portray itself as a massive hub for website themes. At first glance it looks like Amazon.com if they only sold website themes.

But once you get past that you can’t deny the massive amount of different themes available on their site. And they’re not only limited to WordPress so if you have different preferences for your platform(you shouldn’t) then you can choose a Joomla or a Blogger theme (don’t do it).

TightMixBlog

There are some interesting choices on TightMixBlog. I guess the generic 2010 theme could work for your music, but it just lacks design and is a bit “blah…”

However, the author’s favorite theme on the site is Sight, a really cool free theme that comes with a bunch of customizability.

I actually used it a few years back as the theme for my band so I can highly recommend it to anyone who needs a simple but cool looking theme that won’t cost them a dime.

Other notable mentions are the City Dreams theme, which would come in handy if you have a really cool band photo or an awesome live shot of your band rocking out on stage.

Make it Simple

You don’t need an expensive designer to make you a website. You just need some intermediate skills in setting up your free WordPress theme and you’re good to go.

This is something anybody in your band should learn because you should always treat your website as your flagship marketing tool.

What themes are you using on your website? Did you go with something free, or did you treat yourself to a premium theme?

Crowd Audio helps you take your music to the next level. They connect independent bands and musicians with excited audio engineers eager to help them with their music.

If you’re a musician, Crowd Audio gives you access to a community of audio engineers eager to mix and master your music, giving it that professional sound.

If you’re an audio engineer, Crowd Audio creates a community of like minded individuals looking to gain experience by doing the audio work they love.

Through community and crowdsourced competition, bands get a professionally produced sound while audio engineers get exposure and experience

How To Structure A Good Singing Practice Session

How To Structure A Good Singing Practice Session
A Guest Post by Rowen Bridler

Most of my clients’ original singing practice session structure went something like this:

1) Take a deep breath

2) Sing through a song

3) Sing through the song again

4) End

They then came to me wondering why their singing wasn’t ‘up to scratch’.

It’s a common problem that most people face – having to be a bit disciplined and organised about something. The great news is, you only have to get consistently organised about one or two things and then you’re going to find it much easier to add a few more as necessary.

For example, if you have a regular exercise regime, even if that’s only – go for a run on Mondays and Thursdays in the morning before work – that’s something to rely on and work with. The same simplicity can be applied to your singing practice. At least, to get started. We all want to save time, and the only way to do that is to be super-effective with our time. (Yeah, I know that sounds horribly business-y, but it’s kind of true. Sorry.) So, how about on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, you try this:

1) Have a cup of (herbal) tea

2) Stand up straight, take a deep breath and sing a long note

3) Work through more basic singing exercises such as scales (see the ‘Essential Singing Exercises’ audio training on my shop page) for about 20-30 minutes

4) Get out a copy of the lyrics of a song you want to sing

5) Listen to the beginning of the first verse and work on each line, one at a time and then two together, then all four lines (or whatever it is) in one go. Note where you need to take a breath by drawing a big V shape at the necessary point in the lyrics you have in front of you.

6) Record yourself singing this verse (on your phone or laptop, iPad or whatever, it doesn’t have to be superb quality)

7) Listen back to it and note the things you need to improve

8) Sing the bits you need to improve about 3-5 times over trying different ways to approach the high note or sing more smoothly, according to what needs correcting

9) Sing the whole verse again – note how you’ve improved!

10) Sing the whole thing through now – just to HAVE FUN with it.

11) Make a note of the parts of the song you’ll need to go over and improve on in your next session

12) END

The idea of this process is to hone in on the bits of any song or aspect of singing that needs improving and work on those first, then come back to singing the whole thing and having fun with it. It makes it both more efficient, and more enjoyable this way because you get over the boring part of being frustrated with the bit of the song that doesn’t sound as good, much quicker.

Try it for yourself. Let me know how you get on!

Rowen Bridler is a singer-songwriter, actress and voice coach. She lives in Prague in the Czech Republic but works with clients all over the globe via Skype. She specialises in coaching actors and singers with an issue with a song or speech that needs fixing, or a performance to prepare for, using simple and systematic techniques to target problem areas quickly. She is currently working on a Danish film,'1864', where she plays Johanna von Bismarck, speaking in German. She has a 'minisongs' series of short 15 second videos of her own songs on Tout, which she releases every Friday. In her spare time, she can be found wearing Cookie Monster t-shirts and pearls and reading old copies of Vogue.

http://www.rowenbridler.com
www.howtosingforyourlife.com

How To Get Featured On Blogs

How To Get Featured On Blogs
A Guest Post by Symphonic Distribution

At NoisePorn.com, we pride ourselves on featuring little-known, talented artists just launching their music careers, alongside their established counterparts. We love getting emails from artists who don’t have 1 million, 50,000, or even 1,000 Likes on Facebook. Discovering new talent for us is typically more exciting than just another release from a legendary artist.

It shouldn’t be news that we, like every other blog out there, get a TON of email submissions from independent artists, established record labels and professional PR agencies alike.

When we see that professional PR agency/record label email, we know that with every email we will get the same quality and necessary information needed for a review/post. They make life easy on us.

But when we get emails from little known artists or unsigned artists, we might get that, but we mostly get everything but that. How do you make your emails stand out to blogs? How do you make blog writers/curators to pay attention and actually click to listen to your music? You should give as much concern to the email content itself as you do to the music you’re sending. Your email subject line and content determine whether or not bloggers actually click on the link to your music or simply go straight to the delete button.

Want to increase the likelihood that blogs will actually notice your email, click on your music, and potentially post it? Follow these guidelines.

1. Put Keywords In Your Subject Line.

For starters, tell the blog in your subject line what exactly they will find inside for posting content. For instance: “Electro House Free Download.” Even better, give us some fun, descriptive word attached to it. Example: “Free Winter Mixtape – Dubstep/Drum&Bass/Electro.” Even better to trick me into thinking it’s tailored just for me: “NoisePorn – Electro House Free Download.”

2. Get Straight To The Point.

Don’t start an email off too casually, especially with “Yo bro.” Make it as simple and professional as possible. You probably don’t even need a salutation at the beginning. Just get right to the point.

Furthermore, don’t start an email off with an entire paragraph explaining your life story, how great our blog is, or begging. No one cares. Get straight to the point. What are you offering to us for posting? Is it a free download or official release? Why should we post your track? What do you have to bring to the saturated, overcrowded table of electronic dance music?

3. Provide Readers With ALL Necessary Info.

I have received an email before containing only a link to music along with the enlightening text, “Yo bro, love your blog check out my latest track man let me know what you think much love.” Yo bro, I’m not interested in your lack of care for my time. DELETE.

First off, as an electronic music blog editor who happens to be a woman, I despise getting emails from producer/DJs who assume I’m a man/bro. The electronic music industry is filled with women running sh*t on all sides of the business, so it’s idiotic and uninformed of people to assume any blog writer/editor is a man/bro.

And most importantly, this individual has given me nothing but the track itself. Technically, he did get straight to the point by giving me only a link to music. But if I liked the track and wanted to craft a post on it, I would need to email him back and ask for all the necessary information.
Give us ALL the information up front. Look around at blog posts and notice what they include. If it’s not all right there, it’s too annoying and time-consuming to email you back and wait for your response.

What to include?

• Link to stream the music on Soundcloud.

• Link to purchase the music on Beatport or iTunes (if it’s an official release).

For any links, if you say:

Click here to stream!
…sometimes the eyes are tired and that little “here” with the link embedded is hard to find. Make our lives easy and just copy and paste the entire link. Test out the links before you send.

• ALL social media links for artist and label (if applicable).

Note: If you as an artist don’t have an official Facebook Fan Page, make one! Your personal Facebook Page is worthless to blogs and fans. Sorry. Show people you mean business.

• Your Official Artist Bio.

Even if you’re almost completely unknown in the blogosphere with no official releases and no charting Beatport tracks, it’s always smart to tell blogs a little more about yourself. But don’t tell unimportant and uninteresting details if this is the case; keep it concise and simple. Otherwise you will appear immature and inexperienced.

Heads Up: If your bio is full of grammatical errors, spelling errors, and awful sentence structure, you a) make it very difficult on blog writers to read it and comprehend it, and b) make yourself look stupid and unprofessional. This is a HUGE red flag that automatically triggers the DELETE button. Some blogs don’t post the actual bio, but at NoisePorn we post the artist bio. I’m not going to waste my time editing your mistakes or attempting to read it.

• A paragraph or so (no longer) describing the music you’re sending, what makes it so interesting, and what makes you as an artist so interesting. Prove to me that what I’m about to click on is insanely unique and brings something to the completely over-saturated table of electronic music.

• Release cover artwork that is large (2000×2000 is universal) & high-quality. (See more on this below.)

4. Make Sure Your Release Cover Is LARGE & High Quality.

First, make sure your release cover is large. 2000×2000 is universally large and is the smartest way to go.

Next, understand that your release cover is often the first impression of you and your music, especially if you include it in the actual body of the email. Even if you’ve beguiled me enough to click on the Soundcloud link, if I see that the cover art looks awful, I’m not going to post it because it reflects poorly on both us AND you.

Take a look at your favorite blogs and the top blogs out there. Blogs and even official websites today are almost entirely image-based. The visual image on your release cover defines your brand, identity, taste, and gives an idea of the music it represents. Invest your time in creating professional, sexy cover art utilizing good design techniques. If you know NoisePorn, you know our front page is made up entirely of release cover art. It’s really important to us that our front page look high-caliber.

CONCLUSION: Show bloggers you mean business. Show us you have your sh*t together. Show us you respect our time. Make life easier on us.

By Kaitlyn Raterman
Noiseporn Editor
Managing Director of Licensing & Publishing of Symphonic Distribution
kaitlyn@symphonicdistribution.com

Symphonic Distribution was launched in the winter of 2006 by a Music Producer from Tampa, Florida. The company was launched with the intention of providing new and established record labels cost effective digital distribution to retailers such as iTunes, Beatport, Rhapsody, Amazon, and more with a strong emphasis on customer satisfaction. By the end of 2007, the company
struck agreements with over 250 record labels, and improved its offerings to include additional services such as Mastering, Marketing, Label/Artist Development, and more.

Could you write a song a week for an entire year? She did!

Could you write a song a week for an entire year? She did!
A Guest Post by Songwriting Scene

52 songs, 52 weeks. It might sound overwhelming to pen a song a week for an entire year, but it seems like these kind of marathon-like challenges are everywhere these days — The FAWM challenge (28 songs in 28 days each February); The 50/90 challenge (50 songs in 90 days); and even the Fearless Songwriter weeks of 7 songs in a week that I’ve partly taken part in (as in, writing one or two songs in a week).

Still, 52 songs in a year is still mighty challenging, particularly if part of the gig is to post a video on YouTube each week — which means you can’t hide any tunes in a half-hearted pile. Every song is out for the public to listen to and judge. And a year is a long time — it’s easy to drop out halfway through.

So, I was impressed and proud of my friend Carolann Solebello, who took part in a songwriting project put together by Texas singer-songwriter Cary Cooper on YouTube called RealWomenRealSongs.

I saw Carolann the other day when she hauled song #52 with her to the New York Songwriter’s Exchange for feedback. She seemed tired but happy. Carolann has a brand-new album up for grabs, called Steel & Salt, which features several of her RealWomenRealSongs efforts. Here’s what she had to say about her year-long songwriting journey:

Q: How do you feel now that 52 weeks of writing one song a week are complete? Emotionally? Mentally? Physically?

I feel equal parts inspired and tired, if that makes any sense. I am proud that I was able to complete the project in that I posted a song every week for 52 weeks, regardless of its degree of polish or refinement, glad that I was able to break down a few of my own emotional and musical roadblocks in the process, yet afraid I might have repeated myself thematically, or even melodically. It was a long journey, but worth it in so many ways.

Q: How did you get involved with RealWomenRealSongs, how did you get involved and how did you feel a year ago when you started?

Cary Cooper gathered 13 other women songwriters who were brave — or maybe crazy — enough to agree to write and post brand-new songs weekly, written around a prompt. Pairs of writers were assigned to each day of the week, so as to ensure that at least one new song would be posted on the RealWomenRealSongs YouTube channel every day for a year. Part of Cary’s hope for the project was not just to spark creativity in the “official” writers, but to awaken the creative spirit in others following the project. Along the way, we picked up a few adjunct songwriters who posted songs to the Facebook page right along with the rest of us, plus a photographer who used his visual composition skills to illuminate weekly prompts. My hat is off to Cary and to everyone who participated!

Q: What were the biggest challenges of writing a song a week for a year?

The biggest challenge for me was differentiation. Is that even the right word? I strove to write different types of songs as much as possible and not sink too far into my “comfort zone,” either musically or lyrically. I’m not sure I succeeded in that, but I’d like to think I gave it my best effort.

Q: What were the biggest things you got out of the project? What did you love most about it?

I developed a concrete writing process for the first time in my career, which helped stave off the anxiety of staring at a blank page. Every week, I tried to start the process with a little freewriting exercise in my notebook, riffing on the prompt. This allowed me to write whatever popped into my head, whether or not it rhymed, made grammatical sense, or even any sense at all. This untethered me from the constraints of my own “rules” about writing, and allowed me to be emotionally honest on a page I knew no one but me would read. Later, I’d return to those disorganized, uncensored ideas, sift out the emotional core, and begin writing the song around that. That said, I also learned to be flexible. If the freewriting didn’t really spark something that worked, I’d often try to approach the song from the other angle – exploring musical ideas first, and letting the melody lead the lyric. That’s not my natural way of working, but it inspired some good stuff, I think.

Q: Of the 52 songs, how many ended up being ones you really liked? How many were total throwaways?

I haven’t counted yet, but I’d guess that at least half of them will stay on the scrap heap for a long time, if not forever. Of the better half, maybe half of those will (or have already) ended up on a recording somewhere…

Q: What do you think the biggest benefits of this type of project are for anyone?

Tenacity and sisterhood. Having a weekly “deadline” gets us away from the trap of waiting for inspiration to magically strike. To write better, write more, and then some more. Also, working with a team of other songwriters who are all in the same boat fosters community, and allows us to appreciate where other minds go from the same starting point. We learn to rejoice in each other’s work rather than competing with each other.

Q: Did you ever feel you were about to throw in the towel?

Oh, sure. Every. Single. Week.

Q: What was your favorite song of the 52? Is your new album composed of songs mostly from this project?

Five of the eleven songs on my new album, Steel and Salt, grew out of the RealWomenRealSongs project. A few of those were recorded the same week they were written. I’m pretty jazzed about that. I think that nervous energy helps give the record a certain immediacy and edginess. As for a favorite – at the moment, my favorite is the one I just submitted, “Goodbye,” week number 52. That happened quite a lot, as a matter of fact…

Q: I know your son was really by your side through the entire year…sometimes even on video! Can you tell me about that just a bit?

My seven-year-old is a budding writer himself, I think. He was very interested in the whole process – asking me about each week’s prompt, talking about what that meant, offering suggestions about how he would approach the topic… I think he appeared in three of the videos with me (those got the most views, of course) and actually co-wrote two of the songs. That was great for both of us. It allowed him to feel fully vested in the project and allowed me to write in the voice of a child, and get a little window into the way he thinks. It was a wonderful way to make creativity a part of our daily life as a family, and not just something I do all by myself.

Q: What now? Are you taking a songwriting break for a while, or are you still raring to go?

Well, I thought I might take a little break from songwriting, but then I was inspired by a story someone told me the other day and immediately knew I must make a song from it. So, I guess the wheel rolls on…

Here is Carolann’s very first effort from 52 weeks ago — the prompt was “Patience” — enjoy:

Songwriting Scene is a blog founded by New Jersey-based singer-songwriter Sharon Goldman, written for songwriters about songwriting -- including tips, interviews, inspiration and thoughts about the creative process.

Use a past idea

Look back at a previous project you worked on, how can your solution for it relate to what you're doing now? Journals are great for references like this.

This is a great idea for a writer. Keeping journals, blogs, and other things that you like to keep ideas in. So you can always go back to it when your stuck on an idea, or even wanted to twist up your idea a bit.

Draw it blindly

Creative Ideas

By Morris Hayes Jr

Grab something to draw with. Close your eyes and tilt your head slightly upward, then imagine what a solution would look like and draw it with your eyes closed.

I've got one better, go outside on a nice sunny day when there are a lot of clouds in the sky. You can do this a simply thing for few minutes, or even make a day out of it. But the thing is look up in the sky, and look at the clouds for a while and make a mental, or even a visual picture on paper. And if you're doing it right your imagination will run wild with you, and you can come up with a lot of good picture, crazy picture, or art masterpiece. Whatever it is have fun with it and let your imagination run wild.