Izznit

Composing and Notation Software

admin — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 22:34:37 +0000

When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sat down to compose, he had to draw off lines on a blank page and draw in his own music notes. Every change he made to a composition required erasing and redrawing notes as necessary, and if one bar was wrong at the beginning of the piece, he had to chuck the whole thing and start over. Often, movies depict those composers as very angry men rolling up paper and tossing it away. Now you know why they were so upset. Writing music by way of a computer program is a vast improvement to the manual compositions of old. The same way that the computer replaced the typewriter, it is replacing the old hand drawn notes on scale paper. You know how easy it is to change the writing on a page with computer data processing; the same is true with composition software. If you know anything about music, you understand that there are different timings for songs. The timing sets the tempo and flow of the music. A person writing music may decide to change the timing at some point in the process of writing. This means more or less notes in a frame of music. Again, in the old days, the composer would tear up his or her work and start over. On the computer, it’s a simple matter of keystrokes and rearranging the work that is already there. The notes themselves are like typing a letter. You simply choose what length note you want and where to put it on the staff. Depending on the software you purchase, you can stop at any time you choose in the composition and listen to what you’ve written, often choosing from several different instruments. Imagine writing a line of music and hearing it instantly. When the music is written, the words are added in proper context to produce a piece of sheet music suitable for any musician or singer to read, sing, and play. A composer can perform the work to see if it is suitable or have someone else try it and give his or her opinion. If something is not quite right, it is a simple matter to change it. Many of the great composers of today use this form to write because it saves time on the mundane parts of composition. Just think of the many additional volumes of work Mozart could have composed if he had this capability in his time.

Ipod and MP3 technology

admin — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 22:33:45 +0000

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been decrying the use of MP3 technology since its inception. It is so easy for recorded music to be pirated that many people do it without even thinking it’s wrong. The fact that it is wrong has been brought home to some individuals in expensive ways. Last year a jury found Joel Tenenbaum guilty of sharing 30 songs with his friends. This willful copyright infringement brought with it a fine in the order of $675,000. Recently, Judge Nancy Gertner reduced the award to 10% of what the jury gave to the record companies. She cited in the decision that such an extremely high award was unconstitutional. While arguments from both sides may be heated on the subject, it only illustrates what a problem file sharing through MP3s has become. Whereas $22,500 might be an extreme expense for sharing a song, there should be a way to limit what can be freely used by so many. If there is a need for anything in the technology field, it is a way to control piracy without making it impossible to download music. The manufacture and use of MP3 players continues to grow, and there aren’t many homes that don’t have at least one. When thieves steal something they can easily sell for quick bucks, they often choose iPods because they are easy to grab and easy to find a market for. What concerns the RIAA is that MP3 is an unpatented and freely available technology. Without any controls, it is difficult even to get a handle on how much piracy is taking place. Because audio can be compressed to 1/12 of its size, as it exists in WAV format without perceivable loss in sound quality, it is a very acceptable media for everyone. An average song is compressed to approximately 3.75 Mb of data making it extremely easy and quick to download, and it requires such little space to store the data that thousands of songs can be placed in a relatively small storage place. The files are carried to a small iPod, providing hours and hours of entertainment for a minuscule amount of investment. Conversion of a standard CD to MP3 is done with little sound loss. The resultant file can be copied repeatedly without appreciable quality loss. Therefore, even if someone legally buys the music, it is often one sale to the benefit of many who never have to purchase anything, other than the hardware and storage to make copies. The technology is here; how to bridle it for the benefit of those who pay the money to have the music produced is the important issue.

Music CD versus MP3

admin — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 22:32:55 +0000

For those who have seen the end of vinyl records, eight-track tape players, and the serious health issues of the cassette tape, it may seem that the CD player’s days are numbered too. Before you start writing an obituary for this medium, you should look at some differences between CDs and the main competitor, MP3s. The three little digits, MP3, take the place of the longer identity, Moving Pictures Expert Group 1 Audio Layer 3. A CD WAV file can be compressed to 10% of its size for use in MP3 technology. The significance, of course, is the space that it takes to store the music. One small MP3 player can carry thousands of songs, compared to the bulky situation that is present with CDs and players. With the many places available to download music from the internet, there is no reason to go to the music store to buy CDs. It doesn’t require a great deal of experience or know how to put files in storage for playing back on the inexpensive player. Not only are MP3 players inexpensive, they have no moving parts, which generally equates to longer life. They have much broader play list capabilities than CD players. When purchasing music for download, it’s not necessary to buy an entire CD (or album, if you remember what that was); you only get the songs you want. With everything going for it, is there any possibility that MP3 technology will not be the demise of the CD? As with anything that appears so superior, there is typically a thorn somewhere. Due to the compression that WAV files go through for the MP3, the sound quality is compromised. This is not as discerning to some listeners as others, but it is a fact. CD players are not as expensive MP3 players, and they do not require the purchase of storage media. The sound volume of downloaded MP3s varies from one to another, and CDs don’t have that problem. When you want music from a CD, just drop it in and play. You don’t have to encode, transfer files from one place to another, or manage the files. When you want, CD duplication is an easy task. Searching for a certain song on an MP3 player can take longer than it does to slide one CD out and another one in. If you are on a camping trip or anywhere away from the internet, you can’t download MP3s. CDs last a lifetime if you care for them, but hard drives and flash memory players have more limited life spans. There are some file compatibility problems with formats in downloaded content; the CD plays one format only, so there are no problems. The MP3 player is a great invention, but the CD should remain because of the dependability it has shown for almost 30 years.

DVD duplication