ConradAskland.com

Kung Hei Fat Choy 2012

askland — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:57:15 +0000

The entire company of Zaia wishes you a Happy Chinese New Year. Kung Hei Fat Choy!

I had my noodles at the local Chinese restaurant and let off bottle rockets into the water of Macau. Happy to report no rockets hit me this year.

Good Bye ZED

askland — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 05:56:05 +0000

ZED had it’s last performance December 31, 2011 at Tokyo Disneyland. I was lucky to travel to Tokyo in October 2011 to see this Cirque Du Soleil show and meet the artists and musicians. The show and music were so fantastic. Consensus is that this was one of Cirque’s best shows. It’s an artistic crime that it is closing. I mean it was fantastic beyond words. It had that Cirque “magic” through out.

There are always hopes with the fans that the show will resurrect somehow – but Cirque has redeployed many of the artists to other shows and the ZED theater was built for the show which makes it difficult to move somewhere else. Artistically I know in my heart that whatever happens the original magic of ZED will have to be a time capsule for the short time it ran – about 3 years. A new magic can continue but you can’t go back and recreate the same magic.

To the musicians, artistic team and cast of ZED I say what you already know: You created a one-of-a-kind masterpiece that you can always carry in your theatrical heart. You were part of something truly magical…

In this video the various Cirque Du Soleil shows say goodbye to ZED, including the show I work currently work on: ZAIA.

I Want to Quit Smoking

askland — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:59:59 +0000

I really want to quite smoking. I’ve been smoking for 26 years at a pack or 1.5 packs a day. Today was my quitting day. I made it 7 hours. Was dizzy, disorientated and thought about smoking almost every second. I’m smoking a cigarette now as I write this.

I don’t want to die from a smoking related disease. I have a lot more music work to do. Any tips from people that successfully quit smoking?

Bruce Swedien – Keeping the Mix Primitive

askland — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:51:22 +0000

Audio engineer Bruce Swedien talks about keeping the mix primitive. Years ago I had his video series on microphone usage. The big tip I picked up from that was to use microphones to capture part of the room. Using microphone pairs to combine the source and ambient reflections. Also started to record keyboard parts going through amps rather than direct to the console.

I think it’s a wonderful approach to sound design and engineering. I’ve also always enjoyed Bruce Swedien’s low profile presentation. Most of us producing music these days are guilty at one point or another of getting too involved in the gear. I guess like with most studies the key is to study the details and geeky procedures as much as you can -- but then forget all that and do your thing when it comes to your productions. Swedien really emphasizes the important of not losing the root passion of the music.

The importance of any musical sound lies not in any inherent acoustical value but in what it signifies to the soul of the listener

No one ever left the record store humming the control console, or the tape machine or any piece of recording equipment.

I think we have a tendency to get wrapped up in the equipment and in numbers. My advice to you all is to forget all that. It’s bullshit. It’s meaningless. I mean we have to have a working knowledge of the equipment and how to make it do what we want it to do. But it’s not that important. I would go so far as to say I think it’s when the technical covers the primitive, in other words when we get so wrapped up in the numbers and the buttons and the dials that we don’t get the primitive part of the music out, then we lose the passion of the music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Swedien

Bruce Swedien is a Grammy Award-winning audio engineer and music producer. He is known for his work with Quincy Jones.

Swedien is a five-time Grammy winner and has been nominated 13 times. He recorded, mixed, and assisted in producing the best-sold album in the world, Thriller by Michael Jackson. He was the primary sound engineer for Jackson’s studio recordings from 1978 to 2001.

He also recorded and mixed for jazz artists such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Quincy Jones, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock and Jeff Oster. His pop work includes Patti Austin, Natalie Cole, Roberta Flack, Mick Jagger, Jennifer Lopez, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, Rufus, Chaka Khan, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Sarah Vaughan, and the zouk band Kassav’. He worked on the scores for Night Shift, The Color Purple and Running Scared.

On 10 November 2001, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the Luleå University of Technology, Sweden for his achievements as a sound engineer. Swedien also held “masterclasses” at the Swedish National Radio for practicing sound engineers.

Swedien is notable for pioneering the ‘Acusonic Recording Process’ which involves pairing up microphones together on vocals and instruments when making recordings. This achieved an enhanced roomy ambient sound, some of which is evident on albums produced in collaboration with Quincy Jones on tracks such as “Sounds And Stuff Like That!!”, George Benson’s “Give Me the Night”, and the Michael Jackson albums he worked on.

NORAD Santa Tracker 2011

askland — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:01:07 +0000

Watch Santa Claus in his visit around the world with the live NORAD Santa Tracker at http://www.noradsanta.org

Above is a video recapping the 2010 Santa NORAD tracker. Happy H0lidays!

2001 Space Odyssey Opener

askland — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 07:00:53 +0000

I find this incredibly disturbing so I’m posting it in the hopes that it incredibly disturbs you as well. And now ladies and gentlemen, the official 2001 Space Odyssey opener. (Mmmm…Also Sprach Zarathustra or something like that)

Pan Law – Recording and Mixing

askland — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 06:01:57 +0000

Pan Law, in practical application, states that an audio source, of equal amplitude and phase, that is played in both channels of a stereo system and panned from center to left or right will sound natural to increase 3db.

Read the Wikipedia link below for more details. (Actual change is 6.02db for perfect response and perfect acoustics, but practical application for most speaker setups is to think 3db).

Yin Yang

askland — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:48:45 +0000

Yin Yang. They are not completely black or white, just as things in life are not completely black or white, and they cannot exist without each other.

Highlights of Information from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang

the concept of yin yang is often referred to in the West as “yin and yang”
Yin is the black side with the white dot on it and yang is the white side with the black dot on it.
Yin yang are not opposing forces (dualities), but complementary opposites that interact within a greater whole, as part of a dynamic system.
There is a perception (especially in the West) that yin and yang correspond to evil and good. However, Taoist philosophy generally discounts good/bad distinctions and other dichotomous moral judgments, in preference to the idea of balance.
Yin and yang are always opposite and equal qualities
It is impossible to talk about yin or yang without some reference to the opposite, since yin and yang are bound together as parts of a mutual whole (e.g. you cannot have the back of a hand without the front).

SWTOR Massive Beta Testing Begins November 2011

askland — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:05:20 +0000

BETA testing just opened for everyone that signed up early and opted in. See you soon in The Old Republic!

SWTOR.com is Star Wars the Old Republic -- an new MMORPG game from Bioware, Electronic Arts and Lucas Arts. Video above are some of the design team stating their opinions of the Sith Inquisitor vs the Trooper. Mmmm……I think I’m sold on the Sith Inquisitor. For those of us playing SWTOR that used to play Warcraft (which is probably most everyone) this seems a little like the Orc Warrior vs. a Rogue with some Mage abilities.

BETA testing just opened for all of us that signed up early and opted in for the beta testing. So I’ll be out there somewhere with the rest of the geeks swinging my light saber and getting demolished.

Is this geeky -- I pre-ordered 3 different versions just to make sure I have the right one when it goes live in December 2011. Oh, and for expats like me that live in Macau, Hong Kong and China -- word on the street is we will be able to play when it goes live without spoofing through an IP proxy.

Geeks the world over have been salivating for literally YEARS for this game to go live. Geeks Unite -- our time is at hand.

Email Q&A: Who wrote Ave Maria

askland — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 04:59:30 +0000

Email question received:

I read quite a few articles on the internet but still not sure who actually first composed Ave Maria, despite so many name changes to the music. I read that Bach, Schubert and Gounod were at least the three persons associated with Ave Maria but separated by hundreds of years apart. The music on Youtube and other places are the same for all three. Can you tell me?

My reply:

First, here are some of my previous blog posts on the Ave Maria:

The most famous Ave Maria songs are by Schubert and Gounod. Gounod used the Bach Prelude in C Major as the background for his melody of Ave Maria. In other words, he put his Ave Maria melody to Bach’s music.

To my knowledge Bach never actually wrote an Ave Maria, he was a devout Lutheran, not Catholic. So the Gounod Ave Maria is called the “Gounod/Bach” Ave Maria.

Schubert’s Ave Maria is from a song cycle. At one point in the song cycle she is in trouble and prays to Maria. The song is that prayer. Usually when you hear an operatic vocalist sing Ave Maria it’s the Schubert version. Schubert’s original was in German, but people have put the Latin lyrics to it. And that’s usually the version you here sung, which is more appropriate for a liturgical setting.

I think on my blog I have the translation of the original German lyrics. (Here they are: http://www.conradaskland.com/blog/2006/07/ave-maria-lyrics-franz-schubert/ )

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Notes added to response after sender approved posting of question online:

In the Gounod/Bach Ave Maria the the Gounod melody is placed on top of JS Bach’s Prelude in C Major which is the first piece from The Well Tempered Clavier. Most piano students who take classical lessons (as I did) learn the Well Tempered Clavier book. The Prelude in C is accessible to younger grade players.

Working as a musician my whole life I have worked as musical director for several different church denominations and performances including Catholic presentations. For those not hip to the difference between Catholic and Protestant churches -- in short one of the differences is in Catholicism the Virgin Mary plays a larger role. Protestant churches in general are “all Christian churches that are not Catholic”.

As you can imagine, the “Ave Maria” song is more widely performed in Catholic settings than it is in Protestant settings. I have presented the Ave Maria many times in Protestant church services and settings without incident. In fact, even presented it in non-Christian church services without incident. I think because the song is almost universally accepted as a beautiful and inspirational devotional piece.

JS Bach was a devout Lutheran. JS Bach was German and the split from the Catholic Church in Germany was spearheaded by Martin Luther in the early 16th century. Luther’s protests gave birth to the new “protestant” religion Lutheran in Germany. JS Bach was a devout Lutheran and composing just 200 years after this break.

Catholicism and Lutheranism were vehemently opposed during JS Bach’s time (still are today to some extent, many blame Martin Luther for breaking up the Catholic church).

I am going to go out on a limb here (I could be very wrong about this) but I would think that in JS Bach’s time (1685-1750) it would NOT have been acceptable to perform the Ave Maria in a Lutheran church service. In fact, I imagine it would have been outright blasphemy.

So for that reason I am going to go out on a limb and suppose that JS Bach would never have written an Ave Maria. I would even imagine that JS Bach, back during the time of his life, would have been deeply offended that someone took his music to create an Ave Maria.

If anyone has info to the contrary then I hope they post that info in a reply here.

What do I think? We live in different times today. If the Ave Maria is inspiring to people and moves their gaze to a higher purpose and vision -- then let’s present it to them. That was my personal reasoning given to clergy before performances and usually accepted.

JS Bach says music has two purposes: Music should be for the glory of God or for the entertainment of the senses. In a very general sense I wholly agree with that.

Ave Maria by Franz Schubert with Latin Lyrics

(Not the original German lyrics)

Ave Maria by Bach/Gounod: