Rohdesign Weblog: Music
Here you'll find all posts file under the Music category.
March 27, 2008
New Wave 1980s Mix
A little fun for a Friday! Check out the New Wave 1980s Mix I threw together on Mixwit.com for your listening pleasure! :-)
Bands include: New Order, The Fixx, The Cure, UB40, English Beat, Heaven 17, R.E.M., Tears for Fears, INXS, The Smiths, Haircut 100, Missing Persons, Flock of Seagulls and more... :-)
Check out my Mixwit Mix Tape Collection
Related Links:
Marcus Nelson's wife was inspired by my mix tape and pulled out a New Order Substance cassette in this Flickr shot.
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January 29, 2008
Great Music: El Ten Eleven
One of my favorite parts of the film Helvetica is the soundtrack. After buying the DVD, I checked the track listing to find out who the collection of artists were.
As it turns out, the California band, El Ten Eleven, has 9 of the 21 tracks on the film's soundtrack. I've found this selection of tracks a perfect mix. The band's instrumentals have a quirky, optimistic sound which helps me stay focused whether I'm driving, sketching, writing or designing on the computer.
I've found all 9 of the Helvetica tracks on Amazon MP3 (DRM-free), spread across their 2 albums: El Ten Eleven and Every Direction is North.
Tracks from the film include: Thinking Loudly, Lorge, Every Direction is North, Central Nervous Piston, My Only Swerving, 3 Plus 4, Hot Cakes, Fanshawe and Bye Annie, Bye Joe, Bye Michael, Bye Jake.
El Ten Eleven also features 5 of their tracks as PayPal-What-You-Want Downloads on their site, if you want to check out full tracks before you buy them.
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September 26, 2007
John Coltrane: Impressions Music Sketch
Last week, I had to get my mind in a logo sketch groove after working on the computer most of the day.
To do this, I sometimes choose a music-driven exercise to get into the rhythm of sketching.
Music Sketching
Pick a fresh page in your sketchbook, then queue up and listen to a piece of music, while expressing what you're hearing and feeling on the page.
Don't worry about making it "right" because it's based on how you feel at the moment. Because it's open and free, this can relax you to enjoy the feel of pen or pencil on paper.
This process really helps me focus in on the music, loosens my hand up and gets me in the right frame of mind for sketching.
Above is the sketch created while listening to Impressions by John Coltrane, a wonderful piece which itself helps me loosen up for sketching.
Give it a try sometime!
Related Links
Music-driven Moleskine Sketches
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August 14, 2006
Sufjan Stevens: Illinois
After recommendations from several good friends, then hearing an NPR interview with Sufjan Stevens, I picked up a copy of album Illinois from the iTunes Music Store.
I had an idea from what I'd heard that Sufjan's work was a bit eclectic and unusual, but I wasn't prepared to experience such a wonderfully addictive album with catchy melodies and complex, thoughtful lyrics.
Sufjan's work is very unusual and difficult to describe or even categorize. My best description would be the vocals of Paul Simon over a blend of They Might be Giants, Paul Simon, Steve Reich, Vince Guaraldi, Bluegrass and Folk bands, with Schoolhouse Rock tossed in for good measure. Instruments include piano, strings, brass, oboe, banjos and glockenspiels. Quite the mix!
As I replay the album, it becomes more and more attractive... it's one of those works which grows on me, revealing new aspects with each listen. Illinois is the kind of album I find myself coming back to, never tiring of another listen.
The 22 song album features song topics which range from UFO sightings in Highland Park, and a sad ballad about John Wayne Gacy Jr., to the Black Hawk War, Superman, Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln. Illinois also features songs about Jacksonville, Decatur, and Chicago. The iTunes Music Store version includes 2 additional tracks: a remix of Chicago by jongalloway and Avalanche, an out-take.
This is actually the 2nd installment of Sufjan's "States" album series. some have had the idea he plans to do an album for each of the 50 US states, though this is not confirmed. The Michigan album, was the first in the "States" series. That album is next on my list. Here's a complete MP3 of Holland from that album.
If you're an adventurous music lover, willing to experience a quirky, haunting, stirring, and very unique album, check out Illinois from Sufjan Stevens.
You won't regret it.
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April 3, 2006
Pandora & Rohdesign Radio
For the past several months I've been playing around with a free, flash-based online music service called Pandora, which has you choose a favorite song or artist and then builds a music stream based on it. The stream is displayed in a browser window, or may be "minimized" to its own browser window, as a pseudo-standalone player.
Pandora is a very interesting use of flash, and is based on the Music Genome Project, setup to have musicians identify and categorize all sorts of music so that streams could be created using this information.
This flash-based player shows the station you're listening to, the album, artist and song info, volume levels and more. In addition to showing what's playing, you can also have impact in what is played in your "station" by providing feedback. This is done by clicking the album art and selecting, "I like it" or "I don't like it" which then impacts what will be played as you continue streaming tunes.
Just last week I thought it'd be nice to enter more than one artist or song to my stations, so that the stream would be built with a more comprehensive selection of music sources. Turns out this is was a feature of Pandora already — I was able to click my stations and enter multiple artists and songs. Very nice!
Further, I was able to rename one of my stations to "Rohdesign Radio" and then share the URL via email, with friends of mine who might also enjoy hearing the station I'd created. My station plays various artists, covering 80s New Wave, 90s alternative and other more recent music of this style that I enjoy working to (Snow Patrol, New Order, Radiohead, Travis, Stars, Doves, Switchfoot, etc.) . Here's the link:
I like that Pandora starts with and plays music I already enjoy, yet continues to present new music I may enjoy and may not know about. So far I've discovered several artists such as Stars, The Stills and Feeder. Of course there are tunes I don't like as much, so I've just "disliked" them in the interface — and as I've done this more and more, the tunes seem to get closer to my taste.
Feel free to check out my station, or create your own! You can't beat Pandora for free (if you don't mind the ads) or you can buy an annual ad-free subscription for $36, or 3 months for $12.
UPDATE 2006-04-04: I've now added two more stations playing Electronica and Classic Jazz for the different moods I have when I work. Check 'em out!
Technorati Tags:rohdesign, mike+rohde, music, jazz, electronica, alternative
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March 26, 2004
Three Cool Music Sites
This week I was reminded of one great music site I'd found a year or two ago, a second found about a year ago and a new site I've just found this week. All three focus on independent artists, provide real earnings to those artists and offer lots of samples to hear the music before you buy.
Epitonic.com
I cam across Epitonic maybe 2 years ago and I forget just how. But when I found it, I was excited with the idea. Here was a site created by music lovers, with a wide variety of tunes to check out. I was particularly interested in electronica and alternative music, but if I had interest in other music styles, they were there too.
What I most liked about Epitonic was access to the music. They have several options for streaming albums by a specific artist, or tracks in a genre of music. The even have little introductory streams of description and tunes for each sub-genre, in case you want to know more about them.
I especially like Epitonic's approach of offering MP3 streams of albums or genres, since I often want to hear variety in a genre of music without the hassle of checking every artist's page for tracks to sample.
Lastly, they even offer MP3s for free download, that you can listen to locally. I've grabbed several tracks for personal listening, and if I choose to buy a CD from the artist, I know exactly where to go. And it's cool stuff. :-)
Some faves include Dune, David Duriez, Brendan Costigane, Llorca and Imperial Teen.
GrassrootsMusic.com
Grassroots Music is a site I found about a year ago or so, focusing on Christian oriented folk, rock, electronica, etc. Basically, good music on many genres with lyrics focused on praising and worshiping God.
The site focuses more on folk/acoustic tunes, but also provides a nice selection of other genres as well, particularly alternative and rock. Samples are offered on the site for each album they offer, and they have a nice MP3 page where you can download selected tracks from their artists.
I need to email GrassRootsMusic about establishing a nice SHOUTcast or other streaming server with samples from their artists. They offer streaming of certain albums with Real Audio, but I'd prefer something closer to what Epitonic offers — streaming by genre. I think this would be a great way to showcase the work of their artists.
I've already located some nice stuff here, like Tree63, The Maccabees and Trent Monk which are on my list of artists to buy CDs from this year.
Magnatune.com
This week I came across the Magnatune site via my iTunes 'Radio' selector. I was in the mood for some ambient music that doesn't get in the way of my work, and chose a Magnatune stream. I noticed in the info that they also had a site, so when I had a break, I took a look. I was impressed!
Magnatune was created by a husband and wife team (John Buckman and Jan Hanford) who were fed up with the music business and artists getting a pittance from their contract deals. So they started the site and offer 50% of all profits from album sales back to the artists.
Magnatune has a nice selection of music, also heavier on electronica, classical and world music, and they offer streaming of albums, tracks, and genres.
If you like an artist's work, you can buy the CD online immediately with a credit card or PayPal. What's interesting is, you can choose the value of the album, generally between $5 and $18 (from what I saw). You're encouraged to be generous, as a full 50% of that payment goes right to the artist. Very cool.
As for delivery, it appears to be primiarly by download — once the album is purchased, you can immediately download the full fidelity WAVs, MP3s, Ogg Vorbis and other formats from the site. The site suggest that a cable modem downloading an average WAV formatted album, zipped, is about an hour.
Some faves from Magnatune so far: Very Large Array, Solace, Kemper Crabb, Cargo Cult, Belief Systems and DAC Crowell.
Overall, I find this approach to music distribution really refreshing — seeing websites like Epitonic, Grassroots Music and Magnatune working direct with the artists, providing decent cash for an artist's hard work, and offering me great tunes.
So, if you're up for exploring some new musical sounds and artists, check out one or all of these three excellent music sites. Hopefully you'll find some interesting new music and will reward a musician for their art. :-)
Have a great weekend!
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March 4, 2004
Koss Porta Pros Rock!
Funny thing happened today at the cafe. As I was writing in my journal, listening to some Miles Davis, another customer tapped me on the shoulder to talk. I initially thought he wanted to take the spare chair at my table, but turns out he had noticed my Koss Porta Pro headphones and wondered where I'd bought them.
Turns out he once had a pair like mine, but (I assume) they were either lost or broken. I probably should have asked, in retrospect. Anyway, he'd replaced them with some new ear-clip style Koss phones, but had been unhappy with them.
We had a nice little discussion about Porta Pros, and where to find some (I suggested a Google search for "Koss Porta Pro") and how we both preferred over the ear headphones to ear buds. I thought it was quite cool that he approached me about this... I was now in the Porta Pro Club. ;-)
Now, you might think it strange for someone to approach me like this to ask about headphones. But really it wasn't... to me it seemed quite natural, knowing how much I love my Koss headphones. In fact, whenever I travel or bring music to the cafe, my Porta Pros are always along for the ride.
Why am I such a fan of these headphones? Well, first off they sound superb. The wide dynamic range and excellent bass response make them a great phone for any type of music. Secondly, they can be folded up into a relatively small package for travel. Lastly, they're open, over the ear phones, which allows me to hear my surroundings, making them much safer for walking.
Porta Pros aren't cheap (about $50 a pair) but are well worth it for their quality and lifetime warranty, which I exercised once years ago for an intermittent jack. The two I have were actually gifts from Koss, given to me while I did design work during my days at the print design firm. But if I lost both phones today, I'd be happy to spend the money to buy a new pair because they sound so good and work so well.
Bottom line is, if you're unhappy with your current phones or are considering a change, check out Koss Porta Pros. Once you hear your music through them, I bet you'll fall in love with them too.
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February 3, 2004
Streamin' the Tunes
One thing that I must have around while I work from my home office is music. As a designer, it can be even more critical for getting creativity flowing and keeping it at high levels. While my iTunes music collection is reasonably nice and large, there comes a point at which it's very nice to hear someone else spinning their favorites.
Fortunately, the web has provided many options for music listening via streaming stations. With such a variety out there, you can always find something to suit your mood any time of the day. This is a huge deal (for me at least) since I can bring up music from anywhere in the world right from my home computer system and tailor it to the work I'm doing (creative or technical), or my frame of mind, or to change my mood.
Usually I take this blessing for granted, but today while listening to one of my favorite streams at KEXP Seattle 90.3 FM and their on-air drive, I was reminded how wonderful streams can be. This got me thinking about how I came to independent stations -- the precursors to all of the streaming stations we have available today. I was so moved I decided to donate a few dollars to KEXP as a thank you. :-)
Now, Here in Milwaukee we're very fortunate. We've had a great college radio station that's non-commercial, called WMSE 91.7 FM, at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) since at least the early 80s. Back in my college days, I loved "MSE" because they were the place to hear "new wave" and "alternative" music all day long, without commercial interruption. I can still recall cruising around town with friends, jamming to The Cure or U2, R.E.M., They Might Be Giants, Talking Heads and many, many unusual artists I would have never heard otherwise.
I used to tape songs from live MSE broadcasts and build my own mix tapes from them, first for myself and then later in my college and early work career, for far-flung friends. Then I bought CDs of my favorite music (often heard on WMSE) and built tapes from them. It was great fun mixing music and doing a few voice overs... I almost felt like a DJ. But the foundation of these tapes was always the local WMSE low-power FM radio station, spinning odd, off the wall stuff. What great memories those are.
WMSE has a stream available now, though their format has changed a little since I used to listen all the time. The mix of music is much different now and more varied, which in some ways is good but in other ways means I never know what's on, unless I consult their schedule online. I have a very wide taste in music, but there are occasionally times when the music is just not that appealing on WMSE.
But with the net and streaming it's very easy to locate just what I might be looking for. If WMSE is playing stuff I may not be in the mood for, in iTunes, I can click on KEXP's stream and hear a very nice blend of new and old tunes. I especially like the morning people (John in the Morning, Stevie Zoom) but it seems they're always playing great stuff.
A few other favorites include SomaFM's Groove Salad, a nice down tempo techno stream for times when I don't want any talking. SomaFM has many other stations as well, all nicely done.
And there are others as well, all gathered in various places like Live365, through iTunes or as suggestions by friends of mine. I find it wonderfully amazing that these resources are out there... as a music lover who grew up with a station like WMSE, it's very good to see these kinds of stations available for people all around the world.
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June 19, 2003
The Ultimate Mix Tape
This morning I came across an intriguing article at Wired.com called IPod Muzak Isn't Same Old Song. The article details similar ideas being used by two different entrepreneurs; one who rents out iPods with electronica music playlists as Hip Muzak for upscale clients, and another who lends iPods to potential clients for no charge, as a music promo tool for his Philly music store.
Then, I read this article in TiBITS called Internet-Guided Offline Recreation (IGOR): Database Rituals which talks about the phenomena of sharing things between groups of people. The article discussed Geocaching, where groups of GPS users 'hide' artifacts and provide general coordinates for others in the group to locate the item; and BookCrossing, where book readers paste an ID tag on a book's inside cover and leave it in a public place for others to pick-up, read, comment on at a website and then leave in public for another reader to discover. Cool stuff!
These two articles got me thinking... what if a casual iPod trading service got started? For instance, two or more friends with iPods could organize a bunch of their favorite songs and cycle their iPods between the other friends? It'd be kinda like creating your own ultimate mix tape club where your friends could hear your favorite music and you'd get to hear their musical selections in return. When your iPod returns, build a new playlist and send it out again.
I remember having great fun making mix tapes for friends of mine back in my college days; it was a blast to find cool new songs and then share them, and to hear tapes my friends had made of their favorite tunes. I even did a little DJ work between songs back then, which by the way, sounds incredibly cheesy to me now.
I'd love to create a month-long mix collection on an iPod and share it with a small circle of friends with somewhat similar tastes in tunes, though with anywhere from 5 to 30 Gigs to fill up, getting playlists together might take some time to compile! :-)
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May 13, 2003
MP3 & Critical Mass
Been having some good discussions with a few Mac friends who are both very interested in the new iTunes Music Store and more particularly, the AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) format. This is the format Apple is using (with DRM features enabled) to distribute $0.99 tracks. AAC can also be used to burn personal music files from CDs, using Quicktime 6.2.
Matt is currently in the process of converting his entire music collection from MP3 to AAC, mainly because it takes so much less space on his drive. In our last discussion about his conversion Matt estimated he might save upwards of 10GB on his drive going to AAC from MP3. That's nothing to sneeze at!
Another friend, Andy, is also contemplating conversion of his music collection to AAC. Last week he told me that the quality of AAC is much improved over MP3 files with much higher bit rates. He claims AACs rival the quality of the original CD tracks even at 128 bit rates. He's also interested in space savings, as his drive space is limited and his music collection is quite substantial.
I can't comment on AAC sound quality vs. MP3, since I've not yet heard a comparison, though Matt posted an interesting tidbit on his weblog today questioning if there is any real difference between sound quality of an MP3 vs. AAC file, other than file size.
What I will comment on is this: the quality of AAC, even if it proves better sounding than MP3 is still not compelling enough to convince most regular people to re-rip their entire MP3 music collection. Here are my reasons:
MP3 has achieved critical mass. MP3 decoding can be found on more and more electronics items -- Craig Froehle mentioned buying a MP3 CD player with FM tuner for $40 at Best Buy just last week. MP3 players are now even available in mobile phones and car stereos. I fully expect to buy a fridge in the next two years with a 500GB MP3 player and Wi-Fi networking capabilities built-in. :-)
Most music players support MP3 and not AAC. Music players like my trusty Rio Volt SP250 can't play AAC files, so I'm out of luck whether I've burnt the AACs myself or bought from the iTunes Music Store. If my RioVolt and other devices like it offer a software or a firmware update, I'm pretty sure most regular users will not perform the upgrade. This leaves only the Apple iPod (an excellent bit of hardware) and Macs or PCs with Quicktime 6.2 for AAC playback.
Locations where you most often listen to MP3s are really noisy. Ambient noise surrounds any listener in a bus station, on a train, in an airplane, in your car or even your home office. Because of this ever-present ambient noise, any quality benefits of an AAC are going to be lost anyway.
MP3 is good enough for most listeners. I think of MP3 music as my own FM radio -- it has high enough quality to sound good in most locations, even with good quality headphones. FM radio is nowhere near the quality of CD music, but it has millions of happy listeners worldwide, because it is good enough.
So, if you're a stickler for better sound quality (which is still up for debate), you need more drive space, you have an iPod or only play converted music on your Mac or PC (with Quicktime 6.2), then it makes sense to consider AAC. Otherwise, AAC falls a bit short for those without a way to play tunes on a portable device, like me and millions of other people who use MP3s.
I do hope the iTunes Music Store does well. However I fear that until AAC reaches a wider audience and gains more users, it is destined to remain a cool yet minor niche format compared to the ever-popular MP3.
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Rohdesign is the site of designer Mike Rohde, who writes about design, sketching, writing, mobile computing, technology, travel, cycling, books, music and more.
