Blue Kiwi Condenser Microphone

I have recently been looking into purchasing a condenser microphone for vocals that would fit my needs. While researching professional condenser microphones, I stumbled upon a Blue Kiwi. It's been a while since I have seen one and it just so happened that it fit my requirements. The Blue Kiwi is known for it's unique sound that is built directly into it's hand crafted large diaphragm capsule and provides a rich low end, beautiful airy highs and a countered mid-range. The Blue is a great sounding microphone that works well in the professional setting. The microphone picks up frequencies from 20Hz to 20kHz, which consists of the entire frequency range that can be heard by a human. The microphone also features 9 different polar patterns including Omni, Cardioid, Figure of eight and several in between.

Bellow are some of the specifications for the Blue Kiwi Microphone:

- Transducer: Pressure Gradient Large Diaphragm Condenser
- Polar Pattern: Omni-directional, Cardioid, Figure of 8 with variations of each pattern for a total of 9 patterns
- Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20kHz
- Dynamic Range (Typical): 75dB
- Signal-to-Noise Ratio: CCIR468-3: 76dB
- DIN/IEC 651: 87dB-A
- Maximum Input Sound Level: 0.5%: 133dB
- Power Requirements: 48V Phantom
- Output Impedance: 50 Ohms
- Output Connectors: XLR-3M Type
- Pad: None
- Low Frequency Roll-Off: None
- Dimensions: 8.66 x 2.36" (220mm x 60mm) LxD diameter
- Weight: 31.74 oz. (900 g)

Although a low frequency roll-off would have been nice, the Blue is an exceptional choice for a vocal condenser microphone. It will bring any professional recording to life. In the hyper link provided both on the words Blue Kiwi and at the bottom of the blog, there are examples of what the recording would sound like on both male and female vocals and an instrument. And as you can see in the picture bellow, the Blue Kiwi is also visually appealing and would be a great addition to your studio, home or otherwise.

The only down fall of this microphone is that it is on the more expensive side of vocal microphones. It typically runs around the $1,999 range and it does include a shock mount specifically designed for the microphone called "the shock" and a cherry wood case for storage.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--BLUKIWI

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Kiwi/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=recording&utm_term=blue_kiwi&adpos=1t1&gclid=COGiy6rt-qoCFY9S7AoddF9-1w

http://www.bluemic.com/kiwi/

Pottermore

I actually did a presentation about this in class but I thought that it was newsworthy enough to include in my blog. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and since this website opens up to the public by October 31st, I figured it would be worth a mention.

Pottermore is an interactive website that brings the Harry Potter book to life with animated inserts to the book while you read and actual game play that goes along with each chapter and book of the series.

When you first enter the site, your first task would be to answer a few questions that would let you be sorted by the sorting hat in to your house.

The website also provides tasks that needs to be completed by the reader/player to be able to continue with the series. For example, you have to earn money to place in to gringotts bank so that you can purchase books and robes for your year at Hogwarts. You can also purchase your own specialized wand. The shopping will take place in a virtual Diagon Ally. Readers will also learn spell as they go along and progress through the books.

The website also includes Character bios that are not available in the book or anywhere else for that matter (ex. how Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon met and fell in love and Professor McGonagall’s childhood)

The website also offers the Exclusivity of eBook purchases for the entire Harry Potter series. This will give the website traffic for many years to come seeing as it is also the only exclusive place to purchase future works for the series if Rowling decides to write a continuation.

The site will also serve as its own social media site because it includes online chats within the houses called the common room and online chats that span all the houses called the great hall.

Below is a video from author J.K. Rowling herself explaining what to expect from Pottermore that leaves you wanting more.

http://www.pottermore.com/

Is pirating music really worth it?

I have decided for this post I would not be reviewing any equipment or providing information on music copyright. Today in class we had a presentation on how Jay Z and Kanye West have come out with an album that has not been leaked. Well this presentation started a discussion about pirating music. I actually got really frustrated because it got me thinking. I am about to finish my master’s degree in entertainment business and I am about to head out into the industry. The music industry, incase you didn’t know, is dying. Customers, well I can’t really call them that, so I’m just going to refer to them as robbers. Robbers are going online, purchasing one copy of this album and then distributing in through torrents. Now a days, this is such a common thing that it doesn’t really make anyone think twice about downloading this stolen material.

What these robbers don’t realize is what they are actually doing is de-motivating these artist from creating music at all. These robbers are starting a slow downward spiral for the entire music industry.

It costs a lot of money to create an album and with out sales of these albums, those artists that you love so much are soon going to be unable to afford going into a recording studio.

Eventually, what is going to happen is that these artist are going to get fed up with the whole industry and its “customers” that they are just going to lose the will to actually create music for greedy music robbers who don’t deserve these artist to spend their lives creating music that they are not going to get reimbursed for.

The real question is… if you created something that took you months to create, something that you poured your whole heart and soul into, something that cost you possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars to create, would you be happy if people where taking it for free?

           

I have provided some videos that show exactly what can happen to people who pirate music.

What could have cost you 99 cents on iTunes can cost you millions of dollars from a pirating lawsuit. Do you really think it’s worth it?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQzbY7FB98k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgbGhbrYbuY&feature=relmfu

Copyrights Part 2

Larry Lessig

Laws That Choke Creativity:

The video I watched on TED.com by Larry Lessig was concerning Copyright and the digital age. Lessig "has built a reputation as the king of Internet law and as the most important next-wave thinker on intellectual property" (New York Magazine, 2008). His unique look at how copyright law should be is revolutionary, not only to the owner of the copyright but also for the public that wants to use specific copy written material and does not know about copyright laws, namely kids. Lessig give examples of how kids take what is old and worn out and “remixes” it to become something new and refreshing. He explains that these remixes are a way for this new generation to speak (how this generation expresses themselves).

Margaret Gould Stewart

How YouTube Thinks About Copyright:

Margaret Stewart is the head of user experience at YouTube. Stewart explains how YouTube finds any form of copyright infringement through software that analyzes the “20 hours of video a minute and over 100 years of video per day” that is uploaded in to YouTube and how it is “referenced against the millions of content already in the database”. She then goes on to explain that the copyright owner has the right to say which videos can be posted. She then gave an example of a wedding video that used a song owned by a record company and it received over 40 million views. The song used had been off the charts for 18 month and was suddenly back at number 4 because of the allowed use of the song in the video.

Dennis S. Karjala

International Copyright in the Digital Age

Dennis Karjala is a professor of law at Arizona State University. Throughout his video he explains what intellectual property is and the differences between a copyright and a patent. He also goes on to explain just how hard it is to implement copyright protection in today’s digital age.

Together all three videos form a solution to the problem that Karjala explains. Since the internet is so vast and there are so many form of technology in the world that help the average person create a copyright infringement with the click of a button, why not embrace it instead of fight it? Stewart’s video shows how a home video brought a song that was no longer popular back into the main stream. Lessig shows that there is an up and coming generation that has grown up with the basic knowledge to “remix” content to create a fresh new concept. Putting all three aspects together will not only help the industry grow but help put a stop to the “war” that Lessig referred to in his video.

References:

Ted.com

YouTube.com

Copyrights and Plagiarism

I have lost count of all the plagiarism cases I have heard of in the music industry. For example, there are artists that do not pay royalties for covering another artist music or song. Of course there are other form of plagiarism, only, I do not believe that it is plagiarism.

Let me see how I can explain this. There are 7 chords in a key. And there are only 12 major keys and 12 minor keys. So there are 24 keys all together.

Now lets say that only one artist can ever use the key of b flat. That means that there can only be 24 artists that can exist today because the rest would be plagiarizing. Well that doesn’t make any since does it? The answer is no, it doesn’t make since. Therefore no one is allowed to copyright a specific key or chord progression.

This ruling is the cause of many different lawsuits throughout music history for plagiarism.

I am going to use an example that is not too old and people can relate to. The case is Joe Satriani (If I Could Fly) vs. Coldplay (Viva La Vida).

Both Coldplay and Satriani's song for you to compare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvB9Pj9Znsw

Opinions on the Satriani Vs. Coldplay lawsuit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5tgeaBhbtE&feature=related

I have to admit that both song sound alike but in my opinion it is just a coincidence. But the chord progression used is a common chord progression and it had been used many times before even Satriani used it. Take Cat Stevens (Foreigner Suite) and Creaky Boards (The Songs I didn’t Write). All these songs have the same chord progression and tempo but it doesn’t mean that it is plagiarism. If it was then Cat Stevens would be the owner of the chord progression and none of the songs mentioned above would be a part of our musical library.

Samples of the above mentioned songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z2x8q5wMfk

In the end of this intense battle between Satriani and Coldplay there was a settlement between them for an undisclosed amount. I personally think that Coldplay gave in to easily and that in time they would have won the battle. Satriani does not have any rights to the chords used in Viva La Vida.

Bellow are some other songs that contain the same chord progressions. You be the judge if it is plagiarism or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I

Video Links/ references provided under each video.

Computers

In a poll, I asked 10 people to name the top 5 MOST important pieces of equipment used in a professional recording. Below are the popular answers that they gave me:

               1.     Microphone

               2.     Console

               3.     Speakers

               4.     Headphones

               5.     Instruments

I can understand where these answers come from. When you look at any music video that takes place in the music studios, the things that take the main focus aside from the artist are the instruments and microphones and the console.

As a recording engineer, I would have to agree that the above-mentioned items are important, but even more important is the computer and software used to record the artist. The software allows for the recording and editing of the song but the computer is the powerhouse that drives everything.

Typically there is a choice of 2 computers to pick from for your recording studio, a Mac or a PC, but which should you pick?

Lets start with the Pros and Cons of each

 

    PC

           Pros-

                    -       More universally known

                    -       Easier to service

                    -       Actual computer is inexpensive

          Cons-

                    -       Thousands of known viruses and more susceptible to them

                    -       Not as user friendly as a Mac

Mac

Pros-

          -       Visually appealing

          -       Very user friendly

          -       Pro Tools is Native to Mac (meaning pro tools was made for use on a Mac computer only and then later redesigned to be compatible with PC), Making Pro tools have less glitches and software problems with Mac then PC

          -       Higher quality sound and video processing

       Cons-

          -       Prices for a Mac are higher then for a PC (very expensive)

I might be a little bias when it comes to picking a Computer type because I currently own a Mac and think that it is one of the greatest inventions on the planet. But actually having worked with both a Mac and a PC in the actual studio, I have learned that working with a Mac is more efficient in all aspects. It is easier to work with Pro Tools and it is even easier to configure all devices to it. I have fewer Problems with the actual software with a Mac then with a PC. It is very common for Pro Tools to have problems and shut down but it seems to happen more frequently with the PC.

So since studio time is so expensive, you want to try and minimize the amount of time you spend troubleshooting. Even thought it is cheaper to purchase a PC, in the long run it will benefit you and your future clients to purchase the more expensive Mac.

ESPN Shoot

I had an amazing time at the ESPN U shoot!!