Kanye West and Aiming for the Bushes

Kanye West is a man of many talents and resources for sure.  However, his seemingly boundless confidence does, at times (especially like this), remind me of the scene in the 2010 film The Other Guys.  Two actors (who are only in the film's first few minutes) played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson, portray detectives with boundless confidence on the dangerous and mean streets.  Nothing can go wrong for them; they have the admiration (and envy) of their peers; they are impervious (or so it would seem) to all perils of their profession.  Yet that fateful day arrives when they simply over-estimate their abilities and miss the mark - by a long shot.

Kanye West Sings Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen at Glastonbury

Okay, so maybe Kanye was aiming for the bushes on this one.  I get the strange sense that he landed just fine.

MuseScore 2.0 Preferred over Finale

I've been a Finale user for many years - and I will be for many more to come.  However, it probably won't be my go-to music notation software for new projects.  I'm pretty much using MuseScore 2.0 for every new project these days - it does just about everything extraordinarily well, is reliable, feature rich and fits nicely with my own workflow and preferences.

Here are my top 10 reasons why I now prefer MuseScore 2.0 over Finale:

1. Note entry - MuseScore 2.0's features in this department rival even Finale's Speedy Entry feature, something I never thought would be possible.  
2. Navigator - the ability to navigate quickly to any part of the score.  The Page and Continuous view modes directly correlate with Finale's approach but the Navigator (bird's-eye view) greatly enhances both of these views.
3. Slurs and hairpin dynamics - these are just two examples of common input shortcuts made simple.  Pressing "S" will slur any selected notes; hairpin dynamics are input using the < and > keys.  Pretty intuitive!
4. Chords Symbols - I love MuseScore 2.0's ability quickly enter chord symbols just the way I want!  No, chord symbols don't play back as they do in Finale - but that was never a desired feature and one I often had to scramble around figuring out how to turn that feature off.
5. Metronome - I know this is a simple thing, but I love this feature.  I no longer have to compose a drum part as my click (although drum and percussion entry in MuseScore 2.0 is very powerful).
6. Page and Score Layout - I've gotten pretty good at page layout with Finale although much of that learning was the product of a great deal of time and experimentation.  MuseScore 2.0's layout features (with the "Breaks and Spacers" and the vertical & horizontal frames) are easy to use and work pretty much as I'd expect.  
7. Inspector tool - very useful for selecting a group of notes and changing their attributes en masse.  At first it seems like an "Advanced" tool but once explored you'll be clicking F8 to get at these features - for example, making notes invisible, making a group of notes smaller, etc.  All very easy with this tool.
8. Looping Measure(s) - the ability to select one or more measures and loop them in playback!  That's really useful for practicing lines with the score!  Used in conjunction with the metronome and this is a double cool feature with many practical uses!
9. Playback - the score playback in MuseScore 2.0 is actually quite wonderful.  The ability to control the mix and pan are especially intuitive.  Do I miss Finale's Garritan Orchestra playback?  Maybe a bit.  But it really is about notation first.  We're writing music for a player to see and bring to life.  The playback must be good, but not at the expense of bogging down the system. Besides, people who need super high resolution playback simply have no imagination! ;)
10. Open Source - I love the fact that this software has a huge community and support network.  It's a true marvel, creating such a feature-rich tool for creating musical scores and lead sheets given the wide range of musical styles and preferences within the world of music notation.  The barrier to entry is incredibly high, but MuseScore 2.0 clears the bar and then some.  And because it's open source, the anticipation and support for new features will hopefully continue long after this MuseScore 2.0 honeymoon is over!
11. Repeat Last Selection ("R" shortcut) - I know I said "Top 10" but my list of favorites would be incomplete if I didn't mention the "R" feature - which is to say the "Repeat" feature whereby you simple select any measure or note group within a measure and press the R key - those selected notes notes and/or measure items will be repeated to the next beat or measure.  This is extremely powerful and reduces millions of key strokes!  

I love many, many other aspects of MuseScore 2.0 - from the ability to import a variety of formats, including MIDI and MusicXML, to being able to export a score's playback to MP3, WAV or other audio format, to being able to use MuseScore 2.0 on Windows, Linux or Mac.  The list of favorites goes on.

However, there are many features I still greatly appreciate about Finale - most all of the same things I like about MuseScore 2.0, but these features are particularly powerful in Finale and are either missing, lacking, or unknown to me in MuseScore 2.0:

1. Note Mover Tool (ability to move/merge/replace select notes from one staff to another) - yes, I can copy notes many different ways in MuseScore 2.0, but when it comes to fine-grained note movement I believe MuseScore 2.0 could improve on this lack of functionality.  Finale's "Note Mover" tool would be a nice feature to have in MuseScore 2.0.
2. Exploding Notes - although MuseScore 2.0 does indeed have a very useful "Explode" note feature, it's limited to the staff directly below the one you are exploding too.  Finale has more fine-grained control over this feature.  I wish MuseScore 2.0 would allow me to explode notes from different voices as Finale does.  Still, I can work with MuseScore 2.0's explode note implementation - works good enough for what I most commonly need. 
3. Copy/Paste only certain items (via filter) - Finale's features in this department are powerful.  While MuseScore 2.0 rivals many of them, I miss being able to (easily) copy only articulations, slurs, et al.,  from one melody to another un-detailed..  Maybe this feature exists in MuseScore 2.0 - but as of this writing it's not obvious to me how to do this.  

Following My Muse

I've been in love with music for a long, long time.  I enjoy learning about it, listening to it, writing it, and of course performing it.

I love the friendships, laughter and deep kinship I experience with fellow musicians.

Music can serve as a refuge (the word "escape" sounds a bit negative, though it may very well be).

Music opens up many conversations and causes me to think about the natural world in different ways - there are so many mysteries and things still unknown.  Perhaps music and all that goes into it (and from it) is helping to contribute to human kind's understanding and perspectives.

There's a responsibility being a musician - one must be prepared, show up on time of course, and play the gig in front of them.  In any creative endeavor, there's a mix of emotions: excitement, anticipation, and a fair share of disappointment - all of which test our will to continue creating.  But continue to create, we must.

Most of my favorite musicians and artists are what you might call "elders" - they are men and women who have been around.  In the youth-centric media market it's easy to lose sight of the fact that there remains a wealth of deep wisdom and artistry in the work of these elders - those who have lived through success, failure, re-invention, and are still pushing boundaries and creating and performing.  Yes, I keep an eye and ear open to the new trend, the new thing, the new "it" - but with all that is new we must also devote our attentions, at least equally, to those who have traveled and those who continue their creative travels.

So here I am - after all these songs and years, finally making my first music video - a real do-it-yer-selfer for sure.  But I did it - and I'm not boasting, just sayin'.  Part of the muse we all follow requires that we be vulnerable; that we share a part of ourselves and our work.

In his poem Bluebird, Charles Bukowski - a prolific poet and author who explored many wonderfully dark aspects of the human condition - seems to speak of himself; that sweet part of him that, if revealed, might blow his cover.  Pretty cool way of doing just that!  Night after night - following his muse.  And thank goodness for that.

Following the muse - it's a choice.  To follow her may be folly, but to ignore her would be ignorant.

To follow one's muse is to pay homage to all we are; to all we were; to all we are to be; to all we have learned; to all we have loved; to all we have dreamed; to all who have believed in us; to all who would deny us but no longer can - because we followed our muse;  to times past and times still to come - when, if we're fortunate, the muse will still beckon.

Rob Birdwell

Musings and Gigs for Fall 2014

Fall is fast approaching - here's a quick list of some of the gigs I have coming up:

• September 27 - Private gig with LMNO - see you if you're in on this!
• September 30 - Early Bird Jazz Band at Linus Pauling Middle School will start up our early morning sessions!  I direct this before-school program and it's a lot of fun!
• October 17 - The Svens at Imagine Coffee! 7:30pm
• October 18 - Creighton Lindsay Band plays 2 Towns Cider @  2pm
• October 24 - Sideways Portal Sandbox plays The Magic Barrel @ Whiteside Theater

And more coming soon - check my calendar for the latest.

And what will I be musically busy with this Fall?

• Practicing lots of course!  I enjoy performing but it all starts with preparation!
• Writing new tunes - got lots of them brewing and I'm excited about the next batches!
• Teaching an online Jazz History course at OSU - this always inspires me as I learn lots too!

I'm definitely missing not conducting another Halloween with Harry concert with the OSU Symphony..  We had three great seasons of Harry & the music of John Williams and they were all very magical - a great run...but alas, not this season.

More Music Videos for Blue Macabre?

My plan was (and remains) to find new or compelling ways to share my music.  I've dabbled with making a few fairly humble videos so far.  I "orchestrated" my own pseudo "framework" so that I could easily script out lyric videos.  Both Swimming Upstream and Nobody's Business leverage this framework.  I can use this framework to do some simple animations/motion, lighting and display the lyrics in time with the music.  Used in combination with traditional video editing tools, there are some neat things that can be done.  I'd like to take a slightly bigger step this fall and produce a more "real" music video for my song, My Muse.  Again, I'll keep you posted.  And if you would like to help me produce it, don't hesitate to contact me! 

Rob Birdwell and his Ridiculous One-Man Band

Okay, so this isn't really even really a thing yet.  But something I've been dabbling with for a while.  I've got a lot of tunes (old, new and in-the-making) that would be fun to perform live.  And I doubt I'd be completely solo - would like to mix it up with some special guests/friends, stories, readings and of course, original songs.  I'm aiming for something mid-November...we'll see as to the when and where...I need a bit of time to re-learn how to play/perform my own songs!

Oh - did I mention I have a new CD of original songs out?

Blue Macabre is released and available just about everywhere!  I will almost always have CDs and/or download cards with me at gigs...just ask and we'll begin the negotiation.  I warn you, I'm a complete sucker and you'll likely get the best of me.

This time of year always feels like such a transition - a new beginning with every season.  Much to look forward to.  Much to be grateful for.  

Here's to a happy and safe autumn to you all!

Download Song - My Muse from Blue Macabre

Download the complete track to "My Muse" here. 

My Muse is the 3rd track from my forthcoming CD release, Blue Macabre.  It features me playing on everything: lead and backing vocals, keys & synths, flugelhorn and percussion.  A moody minor groove, the song is about losing and finding one's creative muse:

my muse is hard to find
can hardly call her mine
where she goes I never know
playful as the breeze
she walks away with ease
to love her is to let her go...

• Download the complete high-resolution audio track MP3 to My Muse for free here.

• Or if you simple want to listen to an excerpt, you can also catch that here.

"My Muse" words and music © 2014 Rob Birdwell / BirdwellMusic.com - all rights reserved.

Blue Macabre - new songs by Rob Birdwell releasing on 9/1/2014

I'll be releasing a new CD on September 1, 2014 (on CDBaby). This is exactly the album I wanted to make - new and original songs that I love to sing; songs with horns (just about every track features my horn work either on trumpet, flugelhorn, tenor sax and for the first time even a little trombone); the songs all have deep meaning for me and I'm glad to finally be sharing them in this collection.

It's a "solo" CD release for me but it was not a completely lonewolf production.  Some dear friends offered up their extraordinary talents and I am grateful for their fantastic contributions: Creighton Lindsay (guitar), Nick Rivard (guitar), Dave Storrs (percussion/drums) and Dave Leslie (piano).  Additional thanks go out to Jed Irvine and Dave Storrs for their suggestions for mixing and mastering.

blue macabre

1. how many times
2. swimming upstream
3. my muse
4. nobody’s business
5. long way to go
6. harry and the mannequin
7. where u at
8. them bones
9. beautiful moments
10. love the most
11. swimming upstream (unplugged mix)

Credits

Rob Birdwell: lead and backing vocals, piano & synths, trumpet, flugelhorn, cornet, tenor sax, trombone, bass, drums, melodica, percussion

Creighton Lindsay plays guitar on Swimming Upstream
Nick Rivard plays guitar on Nobody’s Business
Dave Storrs plays drums and percussion on Them Bones
Dave Leslie plays piano on Beautiful Moments

All songs written, arranged, mixed, and produced by Rob Birdwell

Copyright © Rob Birdwell

Swimming Upstream

It's always interesting when a song I wrote shares the same title with some other tune, book or movie.  My song "Swimming Upstream" shares the same title as this movie of the same name - well, since I love swimming (and swimming-related stories) looks like I'll need to watch this film!

And last night while watching the Tony Awards (and dang if I don't wish I could somehow see every single one of the musicals and plays they honored), I witnessed a fantastic song and dance production of the classic number, 'Tain't Nobody's Business" (a song written in 1920 by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins and adapted for the Woody Allen musical, Bullets Over Broadway) which shares a similar enough title to my own tune, "Nobody's Business", that I have to admit I was relieved to hear I hadn't subconsciously ripped off any aspect of that tune.

Still, with the authorship of our respective tunes nearly 100 years apart, it was interesting that the sentiments were similar (starting with the title and diverging from there), even though the lyric, style and approach of our respective tunes were completely different.  I'll post more on my song Nobody's Business another day; but for now, here's my song, Swimming Upstream which shouldn't be confused with the Geoffrey Rush movie Swimming Upstream - but, hey, 'tain't nobody's business if you do! ;)

Beautiful Moments

A new recording and video featuring Dave Leslie on piano and myself, Rob Birdwell, on vocals.  Recorded "live" at Dave's studio near Portland, Oregon - enjoy!

Rob Birdwell performs new songs via Concert Window Webcast on March 15

I'll be performing new songs via webcast from my home studio on Saturday, March 15 @ 5pm (west coast time).  

Who:  Rob Birdwell
When:  Saturday, March 15, 2014
Time:  5:00 pm (PDT) / 8:00 pm (EDT)
Webcast Link:  http://www.concertwindow.com/shows/2797-rob-birdwell or click here!

The webcast will not be taped – it's offered in real time. I hope you can join me! 

Most of the songs I'll perform will be from my forthcoming release entitled Blue Macabre (April 2014).

Performance Tune List:

• How Many Times
• Swimming Upstream
• Beautiful Moments
• My Muse
• Them Bones
• Song of Eliza
• Nobody's Business
• Harry and the Mannequin
• Love the Most
• ....and more!

The webcast concert is free (but donations are appreciated of course).  I've enjoyed listening to other artists/performers in this type of setting and have found this online format to be very enjoyable, interesting, and certainly convenient.  

Wherever you are in the world, you can tune in!  All you need is to click my webcast link at 5 pm  (west coast time, or  8 pm for east coast folks)!  Send me some real-time comments during the show - some great possibilities and I'm looking forward to sharing my latest batch of tunes! 

Sincerely,

Rob Birdwell

Backing up Music Projects

Let's face it, hard drives fail and files get deleted.  As Forrest Gump once said, "Shit Happens."

Imagine, if you will, that the device you are reading this blog post on - particularly if it's a laptop or desktop - suddenly melts down or is completely pulverized (and of course you are perfectly unharmed!).  Replacing the hardware probably won't be too expensive - chances are it was due for replacing anyway.  But what of the creative files that existed on that device?  What of those?  Are you certain they are backed up?  You may say, as I did, "Yes, absolutely - I have Carbonite and it's backing up all my files.  If this device fails, I can restore all my creative projects."  You may be right - but only partially right. True, your photos, documents and various other files may indeed be backed up.

But being partially right, at least when it comes to backups, may mean you're totally screwed.  

I recently discovered - and fortunately sooner, rather than later - that certain Abelton Live project files (which consist of WAV audio and other associated files within a project folder structure) were not being backed up.  Some of them were - but the truth is that if my laptop crashed right now (and without a manual backup) my next CD project (of which I've spent considerable time on over the last year or so) would be completely lost!

Here's the good, bad and utterly ugly truth of Carbonite's backup software (on Windows at least) when it comes to backing up Abelton Live projects:

The following is a sub-directory with several of my Abelton Live projects- as you can see, the "green dot" is Carbonite's way of providing visual feedback that my project is being backed up - so far that seems good:

But here's the "bad" - if we look into the sub-folders of this particular project, we see two folders ("Abelton Project Info" and "Samples)" that have a Carbonite "green dot" signifying that they are backed up.  There's a "Desktop.ini file which is insignificant and no big loss if it's not backed up.  However - and this gets ugly fast folks - the actual Abelton Project file (in this case the file with the .ALS file extension) is NOT being backed up!  Attention music creators:  this is the frickin' project file.  It's the file that Abelton Live needs to open to load the project in order to render the MIDI and associative WAV/audio data.  This alone is very ugly - but, unfortunately, it gets even worse!

The logical step is to simply say, "Oh, I see.  Carbonite doesn't automatically backup this file so I have to manually tell it to do so."  If I right click on the .ALS project file and click "Properties" and then click the "Carbonite" tab, something like the following dialog appears.  First of all, you'll note that the "Back up" check box is grayed out.  That's bad - or ugly, I'm not sure which.  It doesn't matter because the other check box with the label "Back up files of this type (within folders selected for backup)" does not retain my check setting.  And that's just darn-right annoying:

Oh dear reader - if you've suffered this far into my ranting post you're probably thinking, "Well at least the WAV files are being backed up - right?"  No - they are not.  If my hard drive crashed this second - and I did not have an alternative backup plan (which I do) - this project (and all of my other ones) would be lost to the giant bit bucket!

As we saw previously, the "Samples" folder (which stores the WAV audio data associated with the project would appear to be backed up.  After all, it has the trusty Carbonite "green dot" on the folder.  But the software is deceptive in the worst of ways.  If we navigate into the "Samples" folder there will be a "Recorded" folder, and it too will have the Carbonite "green dot" - but within that file are the WAV audio files, which are.....evil dissonant chord here....NOT being backed up!  Nor, apparently, will Carbonite allow them to be:

Again, any attempts to override Carbonite's settings to force the WAV files to be backed up proved unsuccessful (for me at least).

In short, there's only a perception that Abelton Live projects are being backed up by Carbonite.  The reality is that any restore of the actual backup (from Carbonite at least) would produce a mere skeleton of the projects folders - nothing of substance would have been backed up.  All that work - gone forever!

But fortunately not for me, and hopefully not for you either now that we both know.

One very simple solution is to back your music projects (Abelton, Carbonite, Finale, or a host of other different music apps that we, as music creators, use to create and produce our music with) to a separate backup device.  Here's where the antiquated, but highly efficient, DOS-style "batch file" can help out, at least until a more robust and comprehensive "cloud" solution can supersede Carbonite:

You'll need to substitute your own "rob\music" directory (and possibly even the "C:" drive) reference, as well as the "J:\backup\rob-music" with your own corresponding "source to target" drive/folders.  The XCOPY command with the /Y /R /D /E parameter flags are sufficient to backup all sub-directories that have changed since they were last backed up.  And of course, the *.* ensures that ALL files, without exception, are backed up to your target drive.  The XCOPY backup approach is far from perfect.  But you can implement it, freely, in a matter of a couple minutes.  This technique is not ideal when folders and/or files change names - you'll find your backup will have extra copies of files.  But at least they will be backed up and that's a small price to pay.

We've all seen the Carbonite ads - I like this one, about the guy that manages to get his backup started in a matter of minutes and is then able to frolic the rest of his day away while Carbonite does all the work.

But I can't help imagine that he's a musician/producer.  His partner is, in my imagination, a musician as well and together they have a group and big dreams. Later that month they will both discover that all of their new recording projects (including her vocals and his banjo solos) were completely lost due to the fact that he never actually verified that their critical DAW project files were being backed up!  So much for the great Carbonite value proposition.  For $59 a year, backup your stuff.  Rest easy.  Then realize later - much too late - that the stuff you thought was backed up was, in fact, not.

Is it possible that there's a Carbonite config file I can dig into to override the settings?  Maybe.  However, options, as far as I can tell, to force Carbonite to backup files not automatically backed (like Abelton Live projects) do not appear to be available.

I believe this to be a major flaw in the Carbonite software.  In my particular case, the Abelton Live project files are not being completely backed up.  I suspect, however, that there are numerous other creative files produced by artists, writers, and filmmakers that are not being backed up, yet the perception and false sense of security that they are persists.

There are clearly internal business rules in Carbonite's software layer at work here - the lack of options to override these internal rules is also, in my view, a major flaw.  I have considered the possibility that these  rules are intentional; perhaps to lower the volume of files being backed up to their data warehouse storage sites.

I've reported the issue to Carbonite support and, to their credit, they did get back to me - it was an automated reply directing me to setup an appointment to speak with someone directly.  I haven't done this yet - maybe I will, maybe I won't.  It's a drag to have to operate like that.  Why can't the written word and some screen shots convey the issue?  Why must they connect into my system to diagnose this?  It seems funky to me.

Anyway, that's pretty much my rant for this month - it's a bit technical but definitely related to music - but not just music.  It had to be said.

As creative people, we have to take care of business and make sure our hard work isn't inadvertently lost.  Everyone needs a backup plan!  And every once in a while it's a good idea to make sure that plan is working as advertised.

Ventures in Video

Recently I've been learning a bit more about video editing.  In the past I've dabbled with (and continue to use) Adobe Premiere Elements, but recently gave Corel Video Studio a go and am very pleased with what I've been able to do with it so far.  I'm mostly an audio guy, so the tricks and workflow of video production are not native to me. I clearly have a long way to go and much to learn, but it's been pretty fun and I'll keep at it as long as there's always some music in the mix!

Here are two recent offerings:

Coming Home - my first attempt at an actual "lyric" video.  I also explored some other effects and played with motion.  (And of course I always have to qualify that the song itself is a work of fictional fantasy.  I haven't been to any of these places!)

Season of Change - this one was really interesting to do put together.  Not from any technical reason - I simply enjoyed the routine of taking a picture of this tree - a Pin Oak - every day for a few weeks.  I had a vague idea of the musical mood I wanted to convey.  On new year's eve I simply recorded the trumpet part in a single take, to my own pre-recorded piano track.  At the last minute I decided against flugelhorn and opted for the muted trumpet.  That fit the mood I was after.  Yes, it's just a tree losing its leaves over a period of time.  Nothing particularly spectacular.  But for me it was part of a process - a healing thing - and it helped in some small way.

Some other projects I'm working on:

• A collection of new tunes to release (Spring 2014) - got a couple more to finish recording, but it's something I've been working on for a couple years now.  I always hate it when people say "this is some of my best work" - but in this case that's exactly what I feel inside.  I won't say more other than it's been a quite labor of love...
• On March 15 I'm planning on performing some of the material from my new release live on Concert Window from my home studio.  The CD release will follow sometime in the Spring, so this will be a sort of pre-release showcase - and yet another new fun thing to try out! Other performances to follow...
• Working on lots of new music with a group called The Lubians.  I can't begin to describe what an amazing group this is.  Much more to come on that when the time is right and definitely looking forward to performing live with this great group of friends...
• I'm co-producing a new podcast with teacher and musician Bob Madar.  We're exploring the intersection of music, science and art.  We're currently deep into the production of our first season of episodes - going very well and something sort of new for both of us.
• Several months ago I wrote a mini framework for creating lyric videos using nothing but HTML5 and jQuery.  It's really quite simple and sort of elegant.  Just the sort of tool the budding songwriter like myself needs!  It won't replace "real" video production tools, but for what it is, it will be a handy little tool to reach for in the tool box.
• My Early Bird Jazz Band continues to be a source of joy and inspiration.  I lead this group twice a week and the kids are fantastic.  This year we're playing the NAMS Jazz Festival and looking forward to witnessing their musical growth.
• Last October was another successful Halloween with Harry Potter concert - my third consecutive year guest conducting.  It was probably one of the smoothest so far.  Just learned that I'm to guest conduct again this February for the Children's concert - so the Harry Potter spell clearly still has me under it's power.  But any chance to be part of the Corvallis-OSU Symphony is a good one.
• Gigs, gigs, gigs...The Svens, Creighton Lindsay, Dave Storrs & Friends (The Lubians and Sandbox), The Van Meyers, and others if you can believe it - dang I'm a lucky guy!
• On May 2 I have the honor to join in with Halie Loren and band at the Majestic Theatre - looking forward to that!

Well, that's a smattering of what's going on.  I made a promise to myself that I'd blog a bit more.  I hope to at least double the number of posts I wrote last year - whew, only one more to go! :)

A Musician's Perspective on HTML5 Audio

Where Can I Hear Your Music?

Okay, so I've been a little lax on the blogging front.  My excuse?  I've been busy making music and performing!  So the music part of what I do would seemingly be pretty important.  But recently I was taking stock of my online presence and was a bit surprised at what I discovered: it sure was difficult to actually "listen" to any of my stuff on my home page!  Musically I'm not a one-trick pony. I play multiple instruments; sing and write songs; I compose music, conduct and collaborate on a variety of different projects.  By not having some of these audio/media clips on my site, I was missing out on sharing what was probably a much bigger part of the story of what I do and the musicians I am fortunate to interact with. I have clips on CDBaby.com, iTunes and Google Play - those are powerful hubs that do a lot in terms of presenting my official "releases" as a "product."  But what about "unreleased" tracks? Jam sessions?  Live clips?  These are important too - and they're a big part of my musical output - and yet I wasn't making these audio available.

Taking Control

So I made some changes!  In short, listening to audio on any well-conceived web site should be a swipe, click or touch away on any page.  My site was already somewhat "mobile" friendly (thank you Twitter Bootstrap), but the days of showcasing audio as part of some "flash" component are long gone.  I needed to do some revamping.  I can't say it was entirely easy but it was worth the time.  HTML5 audio to the rescue!

All This Stuff by Rob Birdwell

Five Reasons HTML5 Audio Is Awesome

1. No plugin required!
2. Works on any device - will run on any modern browser on just about any device or operating systems, e.g., phones, tablets and desktops.
3. Simple to implement - and I realize I'm understating things a bit, but it really is pretty simple.  
4. Flexible - need to do something complicated?  HTML5 Audio will allow you to expand.
5. Control - implementing HTML5 audio throughout my site gave me a measure of artistic control that I don't always have with "commerce" sites.  I can showcase long or short clips - whatever I want.

For me, a measure of control over content is desirable.  I recognize that there are commerce sites that can host and track audio/media sources much more efficiently than I can.  But it's also nice to be able to have control, tell the story about the song or composition, talk about the players, post photos, videos or whatever else comprised the narrative of the song.  I can't always do that on commerce sites - I have to abide by their rules, layout and content restrictions.  That's pretty much why I think personal websites remain powerful resources.  But with this control comes the need to dig in and figure out how to harness this power.

HTML5 Audio Implementation Tips

• Avoid multiple audio Tags - One thing I noticed early on was that when tried to implement multiple HTML5 audio elements on a page is that performance suffered, particularly on mobile devices.  The solution is to render a hidden audio element and use jQuery to route your play requests to that hidden element.  The details of this are beyond the scope of this article (and it's really sort of the key) - but you can investigate any of my main audio page hubs (http://birdwellmusic.com/discography/ and http://birdwellmusic.com/music/) to see this technique in action.
• MP3 and OGG formats - provide two sources in the audio tag.  This is a bit of a hassle, but if you truly want your users to hear your music, having two sources (with OGG as the fallback source) you're increasing the odds that someone will actually hear the track. (I am assuming that soon MP3 will be ubiquitous on every device.)
• To loop or not?  That's up to you, but I happen to like the audio tag's loop feature.  For a short clip it allows the user to simply listen again (and again) without pausing.

On BirdwellMusic.com I now have a generous and growing number of audio tracks being showcased.  In general, my audio clips are fairly high quality (192k, 44.1 kHz) - for clips that are under a minute or so this is generally fine (maybe 1mb per clip, which typically loads fast).  Checkout my "music" and "listen" sections - plenty of samples of my work past and present, with much more to come.  With HTML5 audio (and a bit of jQuery in the mix to optimize the presentation) there's no limit to how many tracks I can serve up!

Naturally, there's more to dig into when implementing HTML5 audio on your own site than I'm offering up here.  You'll likely need to use a bit of jQuery to manage the play/pause event interactions, and that's beyond the scope of this post. With so many projects and collaborations, there's a lot of work remaining to showcase all I would like to on my site.  But with HTML5 audio and a bit of know-how, the technical solution is fairly simple and the results are well worth the effort.

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For more about Rob Birdwell and his musical and creative offereings, visit BirdwellMusic.com
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5th and B Perform at Cloud and Kelly's in Corvallis

5th & B will be performing in Corvallis this Saturday at Cloud and Kelly's on 1st St. They will be premiering a new suite composed by Mike Curtis inspired by his many visits to Mexico. Mike will also be reading from his book, Memories of a Musician in Mexico during the performance.  Show should begin around 9pm or so.  Music until midnight!

 

5th & B is a musical collective that explores intersections between diverse musical traditions. Over the past 40 years, the members of 5th & B have studied and performed jazz, blues, klezmer, bluegrass, classical, rock, African, Central Asian, and American folk idioms. In 5th & B they call upon these musical cultures to inform both fully composed and completely improvised music.

5th & B:
Fred Berman; clarinets, saxophones
Rob Birdwell; trumpet, flugelhorn, tenor sax
John Bliss; guitars, misc. strings
Mike Curtis; clarinets, soprano saxophone
Page Hundemer; bass guitar
Dave Leslie; keyboards, accordion, synthesizer
Ben Mutschler; bass clarinet, saxophones
Dave Storrs; percussion

JamMan Librarian - Development Progress

For the latest development status on this tool, go to my JamMan Looper Manager page.

(Editors note:  you can download the latest completed version of this librarian here.  For a glimpse at the tool when I was developing it, check this out.)

I've owned a DigiTech JamMan for a few years now.  It records mono WAV files and is a fun and useful device.  There are new "stereo" versions and who knows, maybe I'll get one someday.  Still, I like this device and would like to use it for as long as it seems useful (which could be a very long time).

You can glean a good deal of technical information about the JamMan online.  It's listed by DigiTech as a "discontinued" product but that doesn't mean much to me - my device still runs great!  The storage of the WAV files and associated data are easy to understand since the data is in XML format.  Still, ask anyone if they enjoy manually managing a myriad of loop files and the accompanying XML data by hand and they'll likely tell you that librarian software is a must!

Like many, I was using the LooperTools librarian software for my JamMan (and you may note that the LooperTools.com domain isn't serving up anymore), but that software failed to work for me once I updated to Windows 7 (64 bit).  The "new" librarian software from DigiTech (to support the new stereo devices) does not recognize or support the "classic"(mono) JamMan devices (at least as of this writing) which deals exclusively with 16-bit, 44.1 mono WAV files.

So I decided to write my own JamMan librarian.  This blog entry simply captures what I'm calling my first "milestone" - importing the WAV files from my "classic" JamMan (previously managed with the LooperTools software) into my own library.

I actually started writing my own JamMan librarian over a year ago, strictly for personal use, just a fun weekend warrior type project, or so I thought, but I eventually moved on - it seemed sort of silly and there was music to write!  Like most programming tasks, they often seem easy, until you start getting into the details!  I was writing it using Visual C# and the target platform would have been Windows only.  But I recently started  dual booting Ubuntu and started learning  MonoDevelop using C# and reconsidered when it became obvious that, using MonoDevelop, I could not only write the librarian software fairly easily (at least a basic one) and have it run on multiple platforms (Windows, Linux/Ubuntu, Mac).  Plus, getting to know how to use GTK#, MonoDevelop has been a great learning experience!

My "JamManClassic" librarian (I probably won't come up with a more clever name than that)  is still a work-in-progress (I'm not currently offering anything to download until I can finish it and use it myself but stay tuned!), however, I hope to finish up the basic funcationality soon and suspect that it will be ready for 1.0 sometime in early 2012.  And yes, I will make it available - maybe not completely free, but perhaps pretty close.

If you are interested in this software and/or would like to be a tester once I'm closer to being finished, contact me.

Current and planned features for my JamMan Classic Librarian 1.0 include:

1. Simple library management - all WAV files are imported into their own using library folder so your original WAV files are never modified.  This will hopefully make the concept of "smart sync" possible.
2. Simple play/stop of library and loop WAV files.
3. Simple properties editing - my data is also in XML so it's transparent and fully extendable.
4. Backward support for LooperTools librarian files (LooperTools.xml).
5. Simplified JamMan "slot" management - basically edit the properties as you want in the librarian and save to JamMan.
6. Smart sync between the JamMan device and the library (slightly more advanced so we'll see how smart!)
7. Option to convert imported WAV files to mono 44.1
8. Load and edit the JamMan loops and JamMan properties directly (without a library).
9. Search - a simple way to search/filter library files on name and description. (post 1.0, probably via "tags")
10. Export WAV - a simple way to export or save any WAV file from the existing library to an external directory.
11. Print Set List - this will probably be an HTML export of the JamMan loop files with name and optional other details.  That way the list can be quickly edited by the end-user and printed as desired.

Not supported or Another Day:

1. MP3 or other file format imports - other software does this well so use those tools to convert files.
2. Audio normalization or levelings - that's just way to geeky for me and nothing I want to embark on.  I'm leveraging some portable WAV library code now that detects WAV headers and converts to mono or stereo 44.1, but normalization and gain leveling is probably not part of the feature set for me.  Again, there are a plethora of other audio tools that can normalize and level audio files.  
3. Everyone's special pet request.  This is a small tool for a discontinued product. I'm open to suggestions, but my first priority is to keep things simple and useful.

My Long Month

It feels like it's been a very long month - it has.  The Harry Potter concert (if you were fortunate enough to go) was the culmination of a very busy month for me musically in October.  But just how long was it - 31 days?  No, for me it goes back to July - and maybe even back to last April for the Botti concert.  Anyway, I feel like November 2011 might just give me a bit more time for reflection.  For a couple months now I'm hopeful I can hunker down on what I'll just call "Project Blue" - a collection of new songs for sometime in 2012.

But before I move on, I'll indulge in a not-so-brief  blog post looking back on my "long and lazy month"...

July 2 - 5th and B played a fundraiser for the Majestic Theatre (the term "fundraiser" will come up often here) - love the causes, but boy is it tough sometimes.  Not this gig though - a chance to play on the Majestic stage for a full house with some of the best players around.  It was cool.  And we created a score for the Roscoe Arbuckle movie "The Garage" - the show was not without a hitch or two (our auspicious start still haunts certain players) but it was grand.

July 4 - Backup horn work with Caught in the Act for the Red, White and Blues fest in Corvallis. A great band and a lot of fun.

July 9 - The Svens played Bombs Away.  Playing sax?  What am I, nuts?  Guess so.  Oh, I played my Trumpet/Flugel too.  Sang a couple I think.  I'm pretty sure I messed up the lyrics but no one has ever called me on this so I don't usually bring it up.

July - creating an online Jazz History course for OSU e-campus.  Teaching an online course - really?  I'm in over my head but fortunately I've got great material.  And fortunately it all has to be done by August 4, so I'm almost there!

July 25 - August 3: summer band camp!  Normally 30 to 40 kids sign up.  But since I'm so popular in this field, well 14 kids actually signed up.  No worries though.  This band was awesome and the kids did a great job.  4 rehearsals, 4 gigs...very fun!

August 3 - I sat in on a couple tunes with jazz vocalist Halie Loren and her music director/pianist Matt Treder at Enoteco.  Halie was gracious enough to take a chance on a kid like me (ha!) - when it came to the decision of what to play, I suggested  "How Should I Know" - it sounded to me like a standard and nice tune to play on and one of Halie's tunes - it went well and so after that one Halie recommended "Sway" - which was nice too.  I'd get a second chance to play with them on a recording date - but meanwhile...

Around this time meetings begin about the spring 2012 pops concert...and then meetings start about the Harry Potter concert.  It all seemed so distant at the time - but the planning goes on...a real treat to work with Marlan, Ken, Erin, Tina and the many others involved.

August 18 - 20:  helped out with an OSU Jazz Camp lead by Dr. Dana Reason.  What a great time and all great people involved...I'm being lazy by not mentioning all their names, but they know who they are!  This event culminated with a short concert by the students in Benton Hall (which was amazing!) and then a concert at LaSells featuring Billy Childs and Steve Wilson.  I had the honor of introducing them - now how cool is that?  And if I was long-winded, well sue me.  These are some of the best musicians on the planet so I simply said what I thought needed saying.  It was sort of funny because I peaked in to their dressing room where Billy and Steve were just chatting like old chums (and of course they are great friends!) and mentioned that I was introducing them.  I asked them if there was anything I should or shouldn't say - Billy got all serious and said:  "Yea, Rob please say this:  Billy Childs is....the....(and I'm starting to take notes) ...the greatest...piano player ever..." - hey, I wasn't going to argue.  Steve wanted to check my notes and I said sure - he's amazed that so many people mess up his bio...but I'm a fan so that wasn't the case here.  My head is still spinning with the things they played.

August 27 - a Svens Beach party at at Starker Arts Park.  For the history books though, I'll just call this "Summer Jam 2011" - a mini festival of folk music and then The Svens.  It's such a beautiful park and nice to play - maybe next year we'll get the attendance up a bit.

On September 15th I sat in with the Creighton Lindsay Band at Cloud 9.  What a nice time that was.  Looking forward to more interactions - great players playing great music!

On September 17th The Svens played the Corvallis Brewfest at the Benton County Fair Grounds - holy smokes, was that event packed.  It seems that people really like beer and music- go figure!  Anyway, that was nice - playing under a tent like that.  And I sat in with the Plaehn-Hino group too - strikingly similar to the Creighton Lindsay band, but no, a completely different ensemble!  That was fun and just seemed like icing on the cake to sit in again.  Besides, it would mark the start of my Tom Waits listening bender, that still persists today and probably for some time to come.

At some point in here in late September I did something else pretty cool - I played on a "real" album! (Or at least what will be a real album in 2012.)  Halie Loren and Matt contacted me - they were literally finishing up and mixing their recordings for an early October mastering session and thought some trumpet and/or flugelhorn might work.  Never one to say no, I said a jubilant "yes" - it was a fantastic experience.  They were so nice and professional.  I played on three tracks and yes, I got a second crack at "Sway" - it's going to be a great record for them I'm sure!

September 26 - my online course at OSU begins.  And on a personal note (like none of this is personal) I pay $5 to get my dog into the Dog Day at Osborn - we're there 5 minutes.  My dog hates the water...I knew that but just needed to be sure.  5th and B rehearses here and I bring in a new tune, Väsen Dance - a relentless stream-of-notes-in-your-face-horn-line-thing in a triplet feel that tries to emulate the great folk band "Väsen" who I heard when they were in Corvallis.

And finally, I'm into October 2011 (now ancient history) but after all that, there's more fun.  October 4 marks the start of my Early Bird Jazz Band for 2011-2012.  This is my 9th season leading the group - hard to believe how time flies.  I've got a great band this year.  Very heavy on the saxes, but no worries there.  A new tune is brewing for them and I must write it down very soon.  I just need a title and that will get me most of the "way" there...

5th and B play a show at Sunnside Up on October 9.  One of the hightlights of my musical life is playing with Dave Storrs, Fred Berman, Ben Mutschler, Mike Curtis, John Bliss, Dave Leslie, and Page Hundemer.  I can't imagine it gets any better than that.

On October 12 I get the honor of guest conducting two selections with the Corvallis-OSU Symphony:  the first was my own arrangement of the Spanish folk song, "De Colores" - I dedicated it to the memory of Corvallis resident and composer Tim Misner.  There was a children's marimba group out in front and nearly 1000 5th graders singing along. It was quite a sound - and at the end I conducted "Harry's Wondrous World" as a sneak preview for the Potter concert.  And a good thing too - getting to rehearse that piece went a long way as it sort of got us into the "Williams" mode.  I don't believe there was any recorded documentation of this event which is too bad - it's not often I get to conduct an orchestra and 1000 kids singing - but unless I'm dreaming, it really happened and I recall it as being really, really fun!

On October 21 "Sideways Portal" re-united to perform a tone poem for the Magic Barrel event.  This year's event would bring in more donations than any other year.  I think our performance really gelled.  Despite all the different things we all do and the amount of time we do or don't get to play together, there's been enough "sweat equity" invested that we can actually just go out, find that gear and drive down the road.  And what a drive it is playing with Dave, John, & Page.  Never better on this one.  Although Dave had a cold and was probably feeling awful - that didn't affect his musical spirit though - not one beat.

The next night, October 22, I'm back with The Svens at Bombs to play my part in the great story by Viking: "Wade H. Dean - Businessman" - always very rich to play with Sticky, BasSven and Viking.  I'd miss their October 28 show since I had a rehearsal that night with the Symphony - I don't have any problem shifting gears from symphonic to surf...but it was not to be on that particular night.

Besides, at that point I was focused on pretty much one thing:  The Harry Potter concert on October 30 wherein I get the honor of guest conducting 8 selections from two different suites by John Williams of the music from Harry Potter.  Many nights of score study, planning, and wondering - afterall, this was hard music.  A relatively short rehearsal time frame.  Not only is the music sensational (I've loved John Williams since the days of Jaws, Raiders, Superman, Star Wars and everything since) but being able to witness what the team put together for the Diagon Alley lobby was absolutely amazing. It was an amazing concert.

As I look ahead there will undoubtedly be more gigs, concerts, shows, one-shots, recordings and collaborations.  But this period of time feels sort of like my "long month" - certainly not lazy. If I could spend most of November in my PJs and slippers just practicing every day, writing and producing little bon-bon tunes, I would.  But there's really no chance of that so I'll have to forge on the wee small hours.  And there's an even bigger chance that my long month is only beginning.

Timothy Scott Misner - memorial

The memorial service today for Tim Misner - very sad, but comforting to hear the stories about Tim from his family and friends.  Much healing and comfort will be needed for his family of course.  Ken Saul played a from-the-heart rendition of Danny Boy.  I saw many familiar faces.

I came to know Tim several years back through music.  We were part of a monthly "Corvallis Composer's Guild" - really just a rag-tag group of us that shared our works, methods, and encouraged each other.  I think that group lasted about 3 months but it was still a nice time.

Tim shared some of his production techniques with me and still to this day whenever I mix drums I recall how Tim did his.  He shared with me some of his early versions of his Oregon Trail suite and I was very impressed and proud of him for following his dream.

We were all handed beautiful flowers at the memorial - well, I think dandelions are beautiful - but these were a mix of sun flowers and other field flowers.  Perfect for fall.  Mine's wilting now even though I'm trying in vain to keep it going in a cup of water.

I've got a little bon-bon of an arrangement of a traditional Mexican folk song on my plate called De Colores.  It's just a simple song that pays tribute to the wonder of colors.  I'll dedicate it to Tim.  Now I just have to finish it...and I will.

5th & B Play the Majestic Theatre July 2 2011

Join us for an evening of music with 5th & B and support the Majestic Theatre! This will be an entertaining evening of music and it's a great cause. The show is Saturday July 2 at 8pm.

Featuring their original written and spontaneously composed tunes, along with new music especially prepared for the 1920 silent movie "The Garage" directed by Roscoe Arbuckle and co-staring Buster Keaton. 5th & B are:

Mike Curtis - winds & percussion
Dave Storrs - percussion & brass
Rob Birdwell - horns & percussion
Page Hundemer - bass & percussion
Ben Mutschler - winds & percussion
Fred Berman- winds & percussion
Dave Leslie - keys & percussion
John Bliss - strings & percussion

Tickets $10 - wine, beer and other refreshments available for purchase.

This event is a fundraiser for the Majestic Theatre.

Constant Guard Security Messing up Composing and Music Tools

After a couple weeks of seeing weird stuff with my computer keyboard (typing in alpha characters and only seeing numbers) I was even more confounded when I attempted to compose some music this morning using Finale only to find I couldn't enter any notes because my keyboard mapping was completely foo-bar...attempts to enter notes through Speedy Entry were just producing random rhythms - very frustrating, particularly when my creative windows of time are very limited - if I'm bogged down with technical glitches then that pretty much spoils the mood and the ideas are lost in the wind.

So realizing that I'd recently updated my Norton Antivirus (from comcast.net) I deduced that one of those components was responsible - and simply by uninstalling the "Constant Guard" component I was able to get my computer back (although it did require a reboot).

Maybe there's a way to make CG behave nicely...but my feeling was that it was doing way more harm than good.

Now, where was I?  Dang, another lick lost...

The Svens - Pendelton Show at Bombs Away Cafe

It was a pretty amazing Svens show at Bombs Away in Corvallis, Oregon (Saturday, May 21, 2011 aka "The End of the World As We Know It"...right!).  What a festive and fun audience - they really kept the band going...we pretty much played until it was useless (as Zappa might say).  Moods were light (in-spite of the absurd threats of doom and gloom, which never happened) and a great new story, Pendelton, was unveiled, wonderfully told by Viking.  Sven (and I'm talking "the" Sven, aka, Mike Rhodes) played his final gig with The Svens (but don't worry, he's done this before and he'll be back someday soon!) and that made it all extra special.  Here's Billy May's "Green Hornet Theme" or as we call it:  The Green "Flugel" Hornet:

The Svens are Viking (leader, guitar, narrator, sound clips), Saxy (sax/flugelhorn), BasSven (bass), StickySven (drums), Sven (guitar/keyboards)

Chris Botti in Corvallis with the Corvallis-OSU Symphony

A show that took nearly two years of planning and hard work by so many folks is finally just around the corner:  "Chris Botti in Corvallis with the Corvallis-OSU Symphony" - wow, what a nice thing to be able to say!
The Corvallis-OSU Symphony will complete its final rehearsals this week and then on Friday, April 1, we finally get to put it all together with Chris Botti and the band! (And again on Saturday, April 2.)  It's a great honor for me to have this opportunity to guest conduct the orchestra and be part of this musical event.  What seemed like a somewhat whimsical notion back in June of 2009 (beginning with Dr. Marlan Carlson's intension to put together a "pops" concert in 2011) has manifested into a truly amazing reality thanks to a series of very fortunate events and many talented and dedicated individuals.

Seems like everywhere I go in town there's some sort of reminder of what's to come:  posters, radio ads, a "welcome home" banner over Harrison Boulevard for Chris Botti, articles, and a cast of many organizing, planning, collaborating and doing everything possible to make the shows the success I'm certain they will be.

Combining a 60 piece orchestra and Chris' world-class touring band is something you might not read much about, but it's something quite special - and rare.  Just about everyone has seen that sort of format before - maybe on TV, the Oscars, PBS, etc.  But how often do Corvallis area musicians get this type of performance opportunity?  I don't know the exact answer, but I do know about 60 or so musicians who will be able to tell you all about it very shortly.

Here's to whimsical dreams!

P.S.:  if you want tickets, you might still be able to get them - but you'll never know unless you try!