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Reflections On A Pandemic

There’s a quote by an unknown author that states: “Every new chapter in your life will require a new version of yourself.” While new chapters in life are a universal theme for all of us, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought sudden plot twists to so many people’s lives. I’ve encountered stories of grief and loss and seen those who have made huge career changes and personal adaptations in the last six months. There’s little doubt that most of us will have looked at our lives and taken stock, contemplating what the future might hold, while reassessing our paths and goals.

The tagline “the new normal” has been a grating one; none of this is normal, and we need to remember that, both in our interactions with others and with ourselves. Acting with kindness is needed now more than ever to get through these times. It’s easy to feel low and disheartened when the collective worries of safety, careers, and the future hang in the balance of such uncertainty. So many in the creative industries around the world have been through hardships, and have had to find alternative work and lifestyle routines around the pandemic. Some have been shielding, others have had to take on full-time carer roles, and some headed out to work on the front line as key workers.

Oprah once said: “Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.” As we ponder where we are, and where we hope to be after the pandemic, it’s useful to remember that this chapter won’t last forever. Too many people are beating themselves up, worrying that they haven’t ‘got it all together’. Even during the best of times, the human condition can be a challenge, and when we are restricted by circumstances out of our control, we can’t hold our expectations up to our normal standards. Working in the creative industries in the pre-COVID world already came with its struggles, many of which have been illuminated by the pandemic. Campaigns such as #WeMakeEvents have shone a light on where live entertainment can improve, though when better days might come is still unknown. The emphasis on doing what you ‘have’ to do is strong, as we are quite literally in survival mode right now – there’s no template, no ‘one size fits all’ solution or ‘right way’ to maneuver through this chapter. But it is a chapter, and it will end.

I recently read about a phenomenon called “TIL Smile Mask Syndrome” where “depression and physical illness is a result of prolonged, unnatural smiling”. Discovered in Japan during the 1980s, it is thought that the result of this condition is due to a disparity between the sufferer’s actions and their emotional state. When these aren’t aligned, it seems natural that discomfort will arise, and that putting a brave face on things, or ‘faking it till we make it’ can sometimes do more harm than good. While mindfulness and gratitude are useful practices when faced with tough times, there is a balancing act to be had with the many layers of the current climate, and it’s ok to acknowledge when times are hard and we aren’t doing so well. Perhaps the best way to philosophise is by looking at Reinhold Nieburh, who said: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

None of us will look back on this chapter in our lives as a golden era, but we can reflect on what and who is truly important to us and try our best to find pleasure in the little things in life for the time being. While we collectively do what we have to do until things improve, kindness is key to wellness, good mental health and as a means of keeping community spirit alive and lending a hand to those hit hardest. We are living through a unique time, unlike anything that’s come before and ultimately it is deeply unsettling. This chapter has been sudden and has brought pain to so many. I cling to the knowledge that all things must pass, and live in the hope that we will see out this chapter and start a new, better one soon.

Editors Note: Taking care of your mental health during this time is important. Don’t be afraid to reach out. We recently hosted a webinar with Handling Trauma from COVID with therapist Kaprece Stallings.

Review of BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover

Review of BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover

I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I saw Spitfire Audio was offering a smaller version of their BBC Symphony Orchestra titled ‘Discover’ at an affordable £49. Not only this but if users can’t afford the ‘buy it now’ price, Discover is available for free if you complete a short questionnaire and wait 14 days to download.

What is BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover?

So how and why has Spitfire done this? The concept behind Discover is to create an accessible gateway into orchestral composition for music creators at every level. Discover is a smaller version of larger BBCSO editions and features the same professional and detailed recording process for 33 instruments and 47 techniques, but is under 200MB.

Download and installation

The download process for BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover is extremely clear and simple, and options are given for choosing from a version for either Mac OS X 10.10 or later, Intel Core 2 Duo, or Windows 7, 8 or 10, Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon 64X2. Once you’ve selected the correct option for your computer, you can then open BBCSO as a plugin that is compatible with most music creation software and DAWs. The download and installation was quick, with easy to follow instructions and took a matter of minutes.

The Instrument Sounds

As soon as I’d installed BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover, I was like an excited kid, eager to open a project and start making noise. The first thing that struck me was the realism of the instrument sounds; Spitfire Audio did not skimp on the quality in Discover, and I was instantly impressed. Another element that I appreciated was that Spitfire kept the playable range of each instrument voice true-to-life; a decision that not only keeps the caliber of the sound where it should be but one that will also benefit learners who are finding their way around the orchestra.

The controls available to each instrument are intuitive and easy to navigate in the plugin window, and everything is labeled clearly. All instruments have three sliders that control the amount of expression, dynamics, and reverb.

Playing techniques are specific to each instrument, with options including long vibrato, spiccato, pizzicato and tremolo on all strings (minus tremolo on double bass). Woodwind and brass instruments offer long or staccatissimo. The percussion section provides realistic staccatissimo techniques for harp plucks, celeste, timpani hits and untuned percussion, tubular bells, marimba, xylophone and glockenspiel.

Another unexpected surprise in the plugin window is the easy editing option of instrument tuning, panning and volume controls.

Advanced Articulation

Depending on which DAW you are using, your articulation controls and methods will vary. Babylonwaves have created free Cubase Expression Maps and Logic Articulation Sets which are created to assist those who are struggling with these elements in Discover. This can be really helpful for learning and understanding how articulation can be used, and this shortcut should add to the creative experience rather than feeling like a separate and arduous task. The Babylonwaves free download is available here. https://www.babylonwaves.com/2020/05/07/free-art-conductor-for-spitfire-bbcso-discovery/

Other notable points

The library can be installed on up to two computers at a time, which is a nice option for people on the go, who are away from their main workstation. Spitfire has made it easy to copy the downloaded folder over to other devices for this purpose. With this in mind, owners of the Professional and Core versions of BBCSO will automatically receive Discover for free, and all editions are fully interchangeable and compatible with each other thanks to mode switching technology. The other editions of BBCSO are Core at £399, and Professional, which is £899.

The approach Spitfire Audio has taken with the BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover edition is one that provides high-quality instrument sounds to all, while also offering an insight into the more advanced packages that users can aspire to own when they have maximised their options and need to move on up. Personally, I can’t praise Spitfire’s approach enough; they have created a truly accessible option for orchestral composition without fault – there’s no catch, no compromise on quality and no hard sell. Discover is a highly pleasing product that stands alone, delivers more than expected, and authentically supports music makers and composers of the future.

You can find out more about BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover and download here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/bbcso/discover/

 

 

 

Fixing the #BrokenRecord Business

 

Should we be readdressing how we split revenue for streaming?

 

As we approach the middle of 2020, there’s no doubt that we are increasingly living in an online world. While technological developments mean that many of us are lucky enough to stay connected with loved ones, the hit taken by those working in the music and entertainment business has been a big one. Since the Covid-19 crisis took hold a large proportion of industry professionals are struggling financially, unable to work, bringing the issue of musicians’ earnings to the forefront. In May the USA asked Congress for improved support for musicians in the next relief package, however, in the UK there have been several prominent conversations happening about music streaming payments.

Streaming revenues have gone up year on year and the IFPI announced 56% of $20 billion global revenues last year from streaming. The average payout per stream is £0.00076 on Apple Play and £0.0004 on Spotify. These numbers are an average as the calculations for payment are often complex and take into account many different factors. The overall split example of the current working model outlines:

 

 

In the UK the Ivors Academy and the Musicians’ Union have formed the “Keep Music Alive” alliance and launched a petition to the Government for an industry review of streaming. Ivors Academy CEO Graham Davies believes the current model is out-dated and not suited to the way the industry currently works:

“It is time to replace the pre-digital record industry models with a system that is fit for our digital future. Currently, payments are still structured around record labels being exclusively responsible for recording, manufacture, shipping, and marketing. Those days are gone and now we see songwriters, publishers, performers, managers, and producers investing heavily in developing music and acts. They do this in their own studios, at their own cost, in their own time and at their own risk.”

Another campaign initiated by UK musician and PRS Director Tom Gray has been working for change in tandem by launching the #BrokenRecord campaign to #FixStreaming. Gray argues that the split amounts broken down further into their respective copyright areas highlight some of the problems when it comes to streaming.

The 4 associated rights with a song are:

Gray explains the current model states there is no broadcasting element to streaming, and so the Neighbouring Right doesn’t get taken into account at all and is eliminated from the equation. He argues the suggested songs that automatically play next on streaming platforms are more like broadcast radio and that this element should be changed. Another point he makes is the companies that own the Major Labels are also the biggest publishers in the world. If there are publishers working on behalf of songwriters then they will control the song, which means the Performance Rights and the Mechanical Rights goes to them.

Whilst Gray covers the legal and technical elements of ownership in-depth, he also equates how many streams it takes in the current model to afford various supermarket items, using practical examples we can all understand to demonstrate the stark reality of streaming for musicians.

Gray also highlights an interesting area of streaming that may have been unknown to most of us: your subscription fees do not necessarily go to the artists that you have listened to. “If you listen to one song in a month, of your £9.99 subscription, £0.005 would go to the one song you listened to. £3 would go to Spotify and £6.995 would go to music you haven’t listened to.”

 

Along with Gray, several arguments for a “user-centric” model have been made by others in recent years to address this issue. Stuart Dredge from musically.com explains:

“The current ‘pro rata’ system used by streaming services divides their royalty pool by each track’s share of streams in a given period. If Drake gets 5% of the streams, his rights holders get 5% of the royalties. Which means that even if you never play Drake’s music, he’s getting 5% of your subscription. However, under a user-centric model, the royalties from your monthly payment would only go to the tracks that you listened to.”

Dredge acknowledges it is unknown just how successful this change would be in practice, but also notes that Deezer plans to trial a user-centric model in France (with labels only) to find out how this might translate in the future.

While it still seems that the answer to fully addressing the complexities of streaming revenue may be some way off, it’s a topic that is getting a great deal of coverage with one main theme in common: the streaming market is largely unregulated at present and there seems to be a unanimous call to collecting societies to become more active and involved in this area.

You can read more about the current petition updates at https://www.change.org/p/the-rt-hon-oliver-dowden-cbe-mp-secretary-of-state-for-digital-culture-media-and-sport-it-s-time-to-fixstreaming

Ivors Academy: https://ivorsacademy.com/campaign/keep-music-alive/

Tom Gray: @MrTomGray https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1249290407088881675.html

Stuart Dredge: https://musically.com/2020/05/13/what-are-user-centric-music-streaming-payouts/

Copyright in the 21st Century

 

As we know, March 2020 has been a strange time for most of the world due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Subsequently, the music industry at large has been extremely quiet, but before the outbreak and lockdown rules became widespread there were several interesting events and technological advances relating to music copyright law.

The start of March saw the current Led Zeppelin “Stairway to Heaven” legal battle rage on into its sixth year, with the band winning their latest appeal for a new trial – the group Spirit had previously won a case that ruled Zeppelin’s famous opening arpeggio riff had infringed the Spirit 1968 song “Taurus”. While it seems this particular feud may be far from being over, it was closely succeeded by another high-profile case days later.

Stairway to Heaven:

 

Taurus:

Following a previous lawsuit in 2019 that ruled Katy Perry’s song “Dark Horse” had copied the ostinato from Flame’s 2009 track “Joyful Noise”, the verdict was overturned on 17th March by federal judge Christina A Snyder. Judge Snyder stated:

“It is undisputed in this case, even viewing the evidence in the light most favourable to plaintiffs, that the signature elements of the eight-note ostinato in “Joyful Noise” is not a particularly unique or rare combination.”

While news of the judge’s decision to overturn the verdict came as a surprise, the sentiment of Snyder’s statement resonated with most musicians who had listened to the songs in question – you can read my comparison and analysis of the 2019 trial here

The latest Katy Perry development felt like a “win” for good musical sense, but where do we go from here? What might the future hold for common sequences and regularly used traditions of composition? Damien Riehl and Noah Rubin think they might have some influence on this – the duo has developed technology that is working to find the answer to the eternal question “Is the number of melodies in this world finite?” As there are only a finite number of notes, can they only be arranged in so many ways?

Rubin is a musician and programmer as is Riehl, who also happens to practice law. Together they have created an algorithm that writes 300,000 melodies per second to disc as a MIDI file, thus automatically copyrighting them. The data set parameters for measuring the melodies use a range of one octave (incorporating a major and natural minor scale), and counts up to 12 individual note values for the length of the melody line, as this range works well for the conventions of pop music.

The two big questions arising from this technology lead us to ask whether the pair have infringed on every existing song there’s ever been, and will the songs of the future infringe on them? Riehl says no to the latter – the intention of creating this technology is to put the findings into the public domain to make the world better and “keep space open for songwriters to be able to make music”. The technological parameters of the algorithms’ range are expanding and developing all the time – the pair are currently working with a pitch range of 12 chromatic notes which means that in terms of genre this covers more than pop music, such as classical and jazz melodies. Riehl is sure that one day the technology will be equipped to use “100 notes and every rhythmic and chordal variation in the future”.

From Riehl’s expert legal view the repercussions of this technology could be ground-breaking in ensuring creative freedom exists for composers; he believes the copyright system is broken and needs updating, explaining that the average legal fees for these cases are in the range of $2 million-plus a fee to the original songwriter. The consideration of whether the accused had access to hear the original song in question would still be taken into account, as would the idea of conceding that songs can be “subliminally infringed” without ill intent.

In explaining the mathematical programming element of the algorithm, Riehl borders on the metaphysical as he shares the findings that we have a finite number of melodic combinations available to us and that “melodies to a computer are just numbers – those melodies have existed since the beginning of time and we are only just discovering them”.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition that this new technology is strangely aligned with the ancient concept that we pluck or channel our ideas from an unknown aether where they have always existed. Who knows, but maybe we can find some comfort and feelings of connection with something bigger than ourselves as we work through these solitary times.

You can download all the music created by Riehl and Rubin plus the algorithm programme code at http://www.AllTheMusic.info

A Beginners Guide to Wireless Frequencies 

Learning about and using wireless equipment can be overwhelming – there are a lot of differences from traditional gear and rather importantly there are strict rules around using radio frequencies that vary from country to country.

How does wireless equipment work?

 

Wired microphones convert sound into an electrical signal. This is sent through the wire to the sound system. Wireless microphones, however, convert sound into radio signals. This signal is then sent from a transmitter to a receiver which sends it to the sound system. The transmitter is a device that converts the audio signal into a radio signal and broadcasts it through an antenna.

Transmitters are small clip-on packs or in the case of handheld wireless microphones, they are built into the design of the handle. All wireless transmitters generally use a 9-volt battery. The receiver is tuned to receive the radio waves from the transmitter and convert it back into an audio signal. This means that the output of the receiver is just like a traditional wired signal. The balanced audio signal from the receiver output is then connected via an XLR to a typical input in a sound system.

There are a few different kinds of antennae on receivers – single and diversity. Single antenna receivers have one receiving antenna and one tuner but these can be prone to dropping out or getting interruptions in the signal. Diversity receivers, however, perform better as they have two separate antennas and two separate tuners. This means the receiver will automatically choose the best of the two signals, sometimes using a blend of both. This reduces the chance of a drop out because the likelihood is high that one antenna will be receiving a clean signal.

What frequency should I use for my equipment?

This is one of the trickiest areas to cover with wireless equipment because it depends on a lot of factors. Some frequency bands work brilliantly for speech but not for music, and some bands are simply too small to fit in lots of audio channels for a larger group. Some are prone to interference due to being license-free, popular bands and it can be a minefield working out where to begin.

When deciding what band to use, firstly it is good to know that each performer/person that is using wireless in the same location needs to be using a different frequency. It’s good practice to set up the receiver with a blank channel in between or a spacing of 0.25Hz increments on the receiver. Secondly, it’s important to know which spectrum band is suitable and legal to use for your venue – this will depend on the number of wireless devices you’re using, where you are in the world, and if you are moving around or touring with the same equipment. Wireless devices include “low power auxiliary station” equipment such as IEMs, wireless audio instrument links, and wireless cueing equipment, which all have the same rules as wireless microphones. Though not fully extensive, a guide to the available frequency rules of most countries can be found at Frequencies for wireless microphones

There are different areas of the radio frequency spectrum that we are allowed to use for wireless equipment but some are more suitable and better than others, and these are constantly changing, which makes it a hot topic for discussion. It’s useful to remember that the frequency spectrum works in the same way as physical space, in that it has a finite amount of room to be shared. The company Shure has strong concerns, particularly about the ever-decreasing UHF band in the Netherlands and has set up a site to raise awareness at www.losingyourvoice.co.uk

 

The UHF band is the preferred spectrum for wireless equipment however this is getting smaller for wireless use all the time. Ultra-high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one-tenth of a metre (one decimetre).

Most places including the UK and the USA have overhauled their UHF frequency ranges in recent years due to the digitisation of television, freeing up the old analogue frequencies. Originally analogue television transmitted in the 400-800MHz range had been separated into 8MHz “channels” and these refer to a particular frequency range.

Channel 38 is the spectrum of 606.5 – 613.5MHz and is a popular choice in the UK. Governing body Ofcom requires customers to purchase a yearly UHF UK Wireless Microphone Licence to use Channel 38. A flexible license means that owners are allowed to use radio microphone systems in any location. Channel 38 is a shared space and is large enough for 12 radio microphone systems, however, the downside is that if wireless equipment is tuned to the alternative Channel 70 it cannot then return to Channel 38.

Channel 70 is the band of 863 – 865MHz and this is free to use for radio microphone equipment in the UK. This spectrum is so small that it can be difficult to fit many systems into this space. Additionally, if other users nearby are also trying to use this space it can cause interference. Another issue with Channel 70 is that there is no “buffer” range at the lower end as 4G transmission lives immediately below 863MHz which can cause interference.

The band of what used to be Channel 69 (833-862MHz) is illegal to use since its’ digital auctioning in 2013 and it was replaced with Channel 38 for wireless equipment. Because of these challenges, Channel 70 may not be the best solution for larger setups requiring more space.

In the USA there are similar changes coming into place courtesy of the FCC which is the US governing body. The latest changes include the bands 617 – 652 and 663 – 698MHz which will be banned from wireless use as of July 13 2020. The move away from the 600MHz band is due to channels 38-51 in this spectrum being auctioned to television stations. This means that after July 2020 the available frequencies for wireless will include some frequencies on TV channels 2-36 below 608MHz, 614 – 616MHz, 653 – 657MHz, and 657 – 663MHz. Though this may seem like a current transition, this has been in progress for some time – the use of band 698 – 806MHz has been prohibited by the FCC since 2010 as this was repurposed for licensed commercial wireless services and public-safety networks.

What other frequency options am I allowed to use if the UHF range isn’t right for me?

Again, the list of available space is specific to each country, license and equipment tuning limitations however utilising either side of the UHF range can work, with the VHF (very high frequency) spectrum often making a good and practical backup solution.

The VHF band is classed as 30 – 300MHz, with a differentiation given between low and high VHF:

“Low-band VHF range of 49 MHz includes transmission of wireless microphones, cordless phones, radio controlled toys and more. A slightly higher VHF range of 54-72 MHz operates television channels 2-4, as well as wireless systems defined as “assistive listening.” VHF frequencies 76-88 MHz operate channels 5 and 6.

Band III is the name of the range of radio frequencies within the very high frequency (VHF) part of the electromagnetic spectrum from 174 to 240 megahertz (MHz). It is primarily used for radio and television broadcasting. It is also called high-band VHF, in contrast to Bands I and II.”

The Shure website explains the pro points of using the high-band VHF range, saying:

“The high-band VHF range is the most widely used for professional applications, and in which quality wireless microphone systems are available at a variety of prices. In the U.S., the high-band VHF range is divided into two bands available to wireless microphone users. The first band, from 169 – 172 MHz, includes eight specific frequencies designated by the FCC for wireless microphone use by the general public. These frequencies are often referred to as “traveling frequencies,” because they can theoretically be used throughout the U.S. without concern for interference from broadcast television. Legal limits of deviation (up to 12 kHz) allow high-quality audio transmission.”

Other than the UHF and VHF bands, if we look to the higher end of the spectrum the WiFi frequency range at 2.4GHz is another option, however, this also has its limitations due to it being a small shared space and the fact that a lot of WiFi networks in the area can cause interference.

So what does this mean in practical terms to get started?

If you are purchasing new wireless equipment it’s very important to understand its limitations in what frequencies you will be working with at any given venue, and this is multiplied tenfold if you intend to travel with the same equipment. Many modern receivers do not allow the tuning options to change ranges once they have been set – as previously mentioned, the UK channels 38 and 70 cannot be swapped once they have been tuned, and similarly, radio microphones that can tune to Channel 38 will not tune to the “Duplex Gap” of 823 – 832MHz or the shared space of 1785 – 1805MHz. This means that equipment needs have to be very well researched prior to purchasing and that pre-loved second-hand gear will need extra investigation for this reason.

What are the power restrictions for my wireless equipment? 

As a general rule the power must not be in excess of 50 milliwatts when operating in the television bands, and no more than 20 milliwatts when operating in the 600MHz band or the Duplex Gap.

So to recap what questions should I ask first to get setup?

To get started with wireless equipment the key starting questions are:

While it may seem like a lot of questions to ask and elements to consider, most wireless manufacturers will state the capabilities and limitations of their equipment, and keep you up to date with changes that may affect its’ use. With a bit of research and preparation, it’s possible to find wireless equipment to meet a variety of audio needs and budgets, that works within the law and sounds great wherever you may be.

 

AI Composition Technology

 

It feels like technology is developing at an incredible rate with every year that passes, and in the music world, these changes continue to push the boundaries of what is possible for creators as we approach 2020. Several companies specialising in AI music creation have been targeting composers lately, headhunting and recruiting them to develop the technology behind the artificial composition. So who are the AI companies and what do they do?

AIVA

One company called ‘AIVA’ has been the most prevalent that I’ve been aware of this year, and they have reached out to recruit composers stating they are ‘building a platform intended to help composers face the challenges of the creative process’.  Their system is based on preset algorithms, simplified and categorised by genre as a starting point.

I set up an account to experiment and found it to be quite different from the demo on the landing page led me to believe. The demo video demonstrates how the user can choose from a major or minor key, instrumentation, and song length to create a new track, and that is it – the piece is created! The playback of the piece has overtones of the keyboard demos of my youth in its overall vibe however I have to admit I am genuinely impressed with the functionality of the melody, harmony, and rhythms as well as the piano roll midi output that is practical for importing into a DAW – it’s really not bad at all.

The magic happens while watching the rest of the demo and seeing how the composer modifies the melody to make slightly more technical sense and sound more thought-out and playable, they shift the voicing and instrumentation of the harmony and add their own contributions to the AI idea. I have to admit that I have similar methods for composing parts when inspiration is thin on the ground, but my methods are not so fast, slick or lengthy and I can completely see the appeal of AIVA being used as a tool for overcoming writers’ block or getting an initial idea that develops quickly.

On the argument against, I was pretty stunned how little input was required from the user to generate the entire piece, which has fundamentally been created by someone else. The biggest musical stumbling block for me was that the melodies sounded obviously computer-generated and a little atonal, not always moving away from the diatonic in the most pleasing ways and transported me back to my lecturing days marking composition and music theory of those learning the fundamentals.

In generating a piece in each of the genres on offer, I generally liked most of the chord progressions and felt this was a high point that would probably be the most useful to me for working speedily, arranging and re-voicing any unconvincing elements with relative ease. While I’m still not 100% sure where I stand morally on the whole thing, my first impressions are that the service is extremely usable, does what it claims to do, and ultimately has been created by composers for those who need help to compose.

Track 1 – https://soundcloud.com/michelle_s-1/aiva-modern-cinematic-eb-minor-strings-brass-110-bpm

Track 2 – https://soundcloud.com/michelle_s-1/aiva-tango-d-major-small-tango-band-90-bpm

Amper

‘Amper’ music is a different yet interesting AI composition site that assists in the creation of music, and the company states that the technology has been taught music theory and how to recognise which music triggers which emotions. The nerd in me disagrees with this concept profusely (the major key ukulele arrangement of ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole is just one example of why music is far more complex than key and instrumentation assumptions) however in looking at the target market for Amper, this makes far more sense – they provide a service primarily aimed at non-musicians who are faced with the prospect of trawling through reams of library music as a means to support concept such as a corporate video. In a similar vein to AIVA, Amper creates fully-formed ideas to the brief of set parameters such as timing length and tempo with the addition of incorporating a video to the music creation stage, making this a really practical tool for those looking for supporting music. I loaded a piece from the given options and found it to be very usable and accessible to non-musicians. While the price tag to own and use the pieces seems steep, it’s also reassuring that the composers should have been paid a fair fee.

IBM

Similarly, IBM has created compositional AI they have named ‘Watson Beat’ which its creator Janani Mukundan says has been taught how to compose. The website states:

“To teach the system, we broke the music down into its core elements, such as pitch, rhythm, chord progression and instrumentation. We fed a huge number of data points into the neural network and linked them with information on both emotions and musical genres. As a simple example, a ‘spooky’ piece of music will often use an octatonic scale. The idea was to give the system a set of structural reference points so that we would be able to define the kind of music we wanted to hear in natural-language terms. To use Watson Beat, you simply provide up to ten seconds of MIDI music—maybe by plugging in a keyboard and playing a basic melody or set of chords—and tell the system what kind of mood you want the output to sound like. The neural network understands music theory and how emotions are connected to different musical elements, and then it takes your basic ideas and creates something completely new.”

While this poses the same arguments to me as AIVA and Amper with its pros and cons, it’s clearly advertised as a tool to enhance the skills of composers rather than replace them, which is something I appreciated once again and I am curious to see where IBM takes this technology with their consumers in the coming years.

Humtap

The last piece of software I tried myself was an app downloaded onto my phone called ‘Humtap’ which was a slightly different take on AI for music composition. In a lot of ways, this was the least musical of all the software, yet conversely, it was the only one I tried that required something of a live performance – the app works by singing a melody into the phone and choosing the genre. I hummed a simple two-bar melody and played around with the options of what instrument played it back and where the strong beats should fall in the rhythm. The app then creates a harmonic progression around the melody, a separate B section, and this can all loop indefinitely. It’s really easy to experiment, undo, redo, and intuitively create short tracks of electronic, diatonic sounding music. This app by its nature seems like it’s aimed at young people, and I felt that was pretty positive – if Humtap works as a gateway app in getting youngsters interested in creating music using technology at home, then that’s a win from me.

There’s always a discussion to be had around the role of AI in music composition, and I suspect everyone will have a slightly different opinion on where they stand. Some fear the machines will take over and replace humans, others make the argument that this kind of technology will mean everybody will have to work faster because of it, and there are some who fear it will open up the market to less able composers at the mid and lower end of the scale. On the other side, we have to accept that we all crave new, better sounds and sample libraries to work with, and that the development of technology within music has been responsible for much of the good we can all universally agree has happened through the last 5 decades. My lasting impression in researching and experimenting with some of these available AI tools is that they are useful assets to composers but they are simply not capable of the same things as a live composer. To me, emotion cannot be conveyed in the same way because it needs to be felt by the creator and ultimately, music composition is far more complex and meaningful than algorithms and convention.

Troubleshooting Ourselves to Gain Perspective

 

Do you ever notice how now and then, a series of annoyances seem to happen one after another? I’ve had a month where it feels like every day has provided something new to test my patience.

When we have weeks like these, it’s so easy for feelings of fatalism to set in – the philosophical belief that life is predetermined no matter what our actions may be. Stuck in a mental slump borne out of frustration and annoyance, I needed to pick myself back up again.

I remember that sometimes it would be better that some things don’t happen the way you want them to. Although this one is hard because it’s human nature to let ourselves get carried away in our imagination, picturing the things we think we want only to be disappointed when they don’t work out. Often we never get to see how that untraveled alternate path would have panned out, but once in a while, life will give us a glimpse of why this wasn’t the best thing for us.

Last year I was turned down for a gig that I was sure would be fulfilling for me both creatively and financially, and I felt like I’d missed out at the time. Not long after, I was shocked to see in the press that there had been an incident that turned into a politically charged legal and PR nightmare and a very real safety issue for those involved in the gig. It was a disaster. I certainly would have been caught in the middle of the crossfire with potentially long-lasting ties to it if I’d landed the job. It’s been useful to have this rejection in the back of my mind to draw upon when times of frustration come around as they inevitably do, and remember that sometimes things not happening can be a good thing.

The second phase of my fatalistic detox was thinking about perseverance and what it means. The alternative to going after what we truly want in life is accepting defeat and ceasing to try anymore. Surely this feels worse than any setback? Kim Liao’s viral article from 2016 Why you should aim for 100 rejections a year beautifully outlines her outlook on perseverance in the creative world of work. But it really can be applied in any area of life where we are losing our cool. Liao theorises that the more times we fail, the fear of failure itself shrinks and holds infinitely less power over us because the act of persevering has become routine. Additionally, Liao reasons that the more we practice at anything, the better we get, including building our resilience.

Most people tend to feel they need something to aim for to grow. I first became aware of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs during my teacher training, as it is heavily referenced in the British education system. Maslow’s expanded model is a motivational theory of human behaviour, though these needs are interchangeable, and some may even supersede others entirely.

  1. Biological and physiological needs– air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sleep, etc.
  2. Safety needs– protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, etc.
  3. Love and belongingness needs– friendship, intimacy, trust, and acceptance, receiving and giving affection and love. Affiliating, being part of a group (family, friends, work).
  4. Esteem needs– which Maslow classified into two categories: (i) esteem for oneself (dignity, achievement, mastery, independence) and (ii) the desire for reputation or respect from others (e.g., status, prestige).
  5. Cognitive needs– knowledge and understanding, curiosity, exploration, need for meaning, and predictability.
  6. Aesthetic needs– appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.
  7. Self-actualisation needs– realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth, and peak experiences.
  8. Transcendence needs– A person is motivated by values that transcend beyond the personal self (e.g., mystical experiences and certain experiences with nature, aesthetic experiences, sexual experiences, service to others, the pursuit of science, religious faith, etc.).

The final part of my troubleshooting process is to mentally file which goals and needs can be met by reassessing my plans and actions accordingly. Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got,” and I feel like this mantra is so useful when thinking about what we can proactively do to help ourselves.

Over the years, some of our goals and needs will remain the same, while others require tuning into in order to keep their relevance and propel us forward. Even when we are happily travelling down the same road as before, our surroundings or circumstances can change, making our old goals seem outdated. By being rigid, we can close ourselves off to change when it might be helpful to us, and they say that the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing while expecting a different outcome. If we can embrace change, whether in ourselves when it is needed and chosen, or when it feels like it is happening “to” us, we are also building resilience, and whether it feels like just what we need to hear or a philosophical reminder, the only real constant in life is change.

Hearing Health – Hearing Test

What to expect from your hearing test

After seeing several recent articles and social media posts promoting good ear health, I realised that I was long overdue for a hearing test so promptly booked myself in with an audiologist to get a check-up at my local Specsavers hearing centre. The NHS covers hearing tests here in the UK, and so they are funded and available to all who require them. Whilst I am eternally grateful we have this service, I found the process of the test rather unpleasant, baffling in its design, and felt it left me with more questions to research myself than it had answered.

The Hearing Test

The exam started with a series of questions regarding medical history, hearing concerns, work, and lifestyle. I told the audiologist my concerns and was met with a weird scoff and strained line of subsequent questions when I answered my profession, making it an uncomfortable start. Maybe she was having a bad day, or had found musicians and engineers to make difficult patients? I can only wonder. Next, a photograph was taken inside each of my ears, which is called an otoscopy, and then the photos were brought up onto a computer screen to show the ear canal. Once those were out the way with no problems, the headphones went on in the soundproof booth, and the hearing test started.

Pure tone audiometry (PTA) is a test that measures the hearing threshold. Pure tones are played in each ear, and the responses are measured – in this case, by pushing a button each time I could hear a sound. The test starts with one ear: a frequency is played loudly, and then the same frequency is played slightly softer, again and softer again several times. This is then repeated in the same ear with the next tone. PTA measures audibility thresholds and has a “normal” average range but does not identify all hearing loss, and therefore some question its accuracy. The average levels refer to the average of hearing threshold levels of the tones used in the test, which are typically 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz. Headphones are changed during the test from being on the ear as you would normally wear them, to a different set which is placed slightly behind the ear onto the bone of the skull. The process is repeated on the other ear, with the click response being the only interaction from the patient to the audiologist during the test.

Questions arising from the test

The strange thing to me about this method is the lack of the element of surprise – the interval time between the diminishing volume tones was quite rhythmic and predictable, creating absurd existential doubt over the tones reality versus expectation. I had gone in with no real memory of my last hearing test and had thought it would be more similar to an eye exam in the way that new pictures and letters are introduced to the eyes for the first time with no way of cheating your way through, and there’s a continuous back and forth interaction with the optometrist. The lack of interaction meant that there was no opportunity to discuss whether there was a different experience in each ear or anything else that might have cropped up during the test. It seemed quite odd not to have any dialogue, and the decision not to randomise the tones in frequency, volume, and ear was the thing that surprised me, rightly or wrongly.

I was brought out of the booth and greeted with fine results, but unfortunately, it was not the cause to celebrate you’d imagine; I was told that my concerns raised back at the very beginning of the test were either:

  1.  not real and were in my head, or
  2.  due to a brain problem.

The audiologist explained to me that her role only studies the signals as far as the ear and that the signals to the brain from the ear are the jurisdiction of another doctor. The test was over, and I wondered how older or more confused patients might be dealt with at this point.

What to do if you are facing hearing loss

Hearing impairment is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a hearing loss with thresholds higher than 25db in one or both ears. Loss at this level at one or more of the previously mentioned frequencies in the PTA test can guide an audiologist to the specific diagnosis and treatment.

If you’re curious to get tested but are unable to arrange an exam in person, there are various online sources with recreations of PTA tests you can do to discover if you are in the “normal” range or have any areas of concern you’d like to understand better. As with most things, though, prevention is better than the cure and looking after your hearing should be a priority. While I’m not working with stadium rock levels of loudness every night, safety measures are so crucial for those working in potentially damaging environments.

Moulded earplugs and IEMs are a big but worthy investment for both prevention and treatment to stop further damage occurring. Whilst I’m not affiliated with any companies myself, I have peers who collaborate with businesses who provide IEMs and earplugs to them in the way of sponsorship deals, which can be a great and mutually beneficial way to help with the cost of necessary ear protection.

Since my hearing test, I’ve been pleasantly surprised in my research to find there are rolling schemes in the UK such as the Musicians’ Hearing Health Scheme which provides access to specialist hearing assessment and bespoke hearing protection, partnership with Help Musicians UK and Musicians Hearing Services. These tests are with musician-specialist audiologists and include regular check-ups and bespoke hearing protection, all at a massively subsidised rate, making hearing health and treatment both accessible and affordable.

Final thoughts

In the last few weeks, I’ve learned that PTA is possibly not the most suitable or in-depth method for testing musicians’ hearing, although it gives a good benchmark to pinpoint severe hearing loss. I’ll definitely be visiting a musician-specialist for my next appointment, for the bedside manner as well as the knowledge. In matters of health, I do sometimes worry that complacency is encouraged, and if possible, my advice would be to visit a specialist and get a second opinion if something feels ‘off.’ There are experts, sponsorships, and schemes actively working to help look after musicians and engineers, and I for one am comforted knowing they’re out there taking musicians’ health seriously.

To find out more about getting specialised hearing assistance in the UK, including tests and ear protection visit:

Musician’s Union

In the United States visit

MusicCares

Musician’s Hearing Solutions

Lifting each other up – Interview with Naomi Larsson

 

Sometimes I forget that England is on a tiny island and the six degrees of separation is a common phenomenon in the UK music scene. A few weeks ago I’d had the pleasure of engineering a lovely band for the second time. As we chatted whilst packing down, we discovered that I admire the work of the lap steel guitarist’s girlfriend Naomi Larsson, writer of the recent Guardian article “You lift with your mind, not with your muscles.”

Not only is Naomi an award-winning humanitarian journalist with a hefty back catalogue of empowering and candid pieces on women in music, she’s an active musician and creator of a female-centred collective titled “Sister Rosetta’s.” Boyfriend Joe Harvey-Whyte kindly makes the introductions and the following week Naomi, and I meet for a chat in a relaxed coffee shop, hidden from the backdrop of a busy London afternoon.

The first thing we talk about is the previous Friday night’s gig – Naomi and Joe put on a sell-out show at Wilton’s Music Hall, which is the oldest surviving Grand Music Hall in the world, recently restored keeping the original features, complementing the theme of the night. The show was an ‘Americana’ live homage to the film Heartworn Highways and featured 13 artists including The Magic Numbers, Zak Hobbs (the grandson of Fairport Convention’s Richard Thompson) and Ren Harvieu from Bella Union. The event was co-promoted by Green Note in Camden, with an afterparty held at The Betsey Trotwood, who provided sound for the night. In order to emulate the vibe of late-night jams, the stage was dressed with barroom tables and chairs for the acts, and the technical setup was captured with condenser mics strategically placed on the tables.

Q: Friday’s show was a huge success, and it’s nice to see that 6 of the 13 performers were women. Was this a conscious decision for you and Joe when organising the project?

A: “It was a conscious thing in part to make sure there was a balance, but also they all are just amazing, so it’s not a token thing. The Magic Numbers played a big part in that as they’re 50/50 and then it just worked out quite organically as something that needed to happen. Heartworn Highways is a music documentary from the 1970s about all these outlaw country artists before they became famous, and the representation in that is awful – there’s only one song sung by a woman that’s a bit of a joke in it! It was important for us to show that’s not the case.”

Nothing about the musical contribution from the women involved in the show could be further from a joke, and while the full live recording of the show is under wraps, for now, I am privy to a gorgeous snippet from one of Naomi’s original songs, Where the Love Goes.

Q: How did you get into music and what hooked you?

A: “I started learning classical guitar when I was six but I was a way better guitarist when I was little than I am now!  A few years later, when I was a teenager, I played the electric guitar and bass a bit and then started playing chords on acoustic guitar more. When I was at Uni I wrote some songs and played a little bit and probably sang more than played, then in the last few years I’ve been slowly doing it again, and now I write and play way more which is really cool.  My sister is a couple of years older than me, and I was kind of copying her, and we’d write songs together, so she’s probably why I started playing and singing. I also fell in love with Laura Marling, and I guess when she started, she was very much singing and guitar, and it felt like there weren’t that many successful people around my age who were doing it at the time, so she was quite a big inspiration.  Then I gradually got more interested in country music, and now that’s more like what I play of my own stuff.”

Describing her sound as ‘blending new British folk with classic American country from the 50s and 60s’, Naomi plays as a solo singer/songwriter as well as front-woman of the house band at Jambalaya’s Honky Tonk Thursdays, which is one of the regular nights from the event management project she and Joe organise. With a full diary for the foreseeable, Naomi plans to record her solo material next year between all the events that keep her busy which “diversify life” and get her “away from the computer screen.”

Q: As a gigging musician, you decided to set up the female-centred collective “Sister Rosetta’s” which has both an online community and live events, creating a safe space for women to come and perform. What sparked the idea in you, and what is Sister Rosetta’s about?

A: “The more you think about it, the more you realise how embedded it all is, that culture and people just aren’t aware of it, and women too feel like we shouldn’t be in these spaces or we’re not the kind of people who should be playing this instrument. I was thinking about the general imbalance and where it all might stem from, and I guess it just came to me that it was such an everyday thing across all levels and ages. In guitar-based music, 90% of the artists are men, a gig at your local pub when you’re little is more than likely going to be men, so I get that you don’t think that’s going to be an option for you. The reason I started playing guitar was because my dad forced me to – it wasn’t a choice. I think that he had always wanted to play the guitar and then forced it on me and my sister; otherwise, I don’t think either of us would have taken it up because it didn’t seem like something that was for women. It’s the same with the guitar shops when you’re a girl and wanting to buy your first guitar; it’s scary going into a place where it’s mostly blokes there that are gonna patronise you. I had this connection with the Betsey Trotwood venue because that’s where we used to do “The Honky Tonks” (the previously mentioned country music night) and already knew that they were a really friendly pub. I knew I could use that link for something positive because I just got really bored going to nights, especially singer/songwriter nights, and it was just a load of white men who all sounded the same.

I think diversity brings more interest in music, and what you can do on more of an individual or grassroots level is open some spaces to make little changes, so you can make sure you buy music made by women and support them, go and see women playing gigs in your area, or you can put on event in your area if you’re able to that promotes women and gives them these spaces because I think that’s what’s fundamentally lacking on a non-professional or more amateur level getting into it and starting. When you feel like that space isn’t for you, if you make that space, it gives women the confidence and ability to do it in a safe environment which I think is really important.  It’s partly a confidence thing, and it’s also a safety thing in the Sister Rosetta’s stuff and what is so nice about it is that it’s always such a respectful audience – people listened, and they appreciated the music, and there was a special vibe there.” Naomi laughs and clarifies, “People have said that! I’m saying that objectively, there was a nice vibe!

Interestingly, the one time there was an issue was from a guy who works in music, he was there in the audience, very wasted, and he shouted a few times over a young woman who was playing, asking if she was single and was being very drunk and lairy. I said to him that if he was going to behave like that then get out, because that’s not what that is for, and I didn’t want to create an environment where people thought that was an alright thing to do. While he responded and behaved better after that, it made me really upset because you just can’t get away from it at all. On the Sister Rosetta’s team, we always had a female sound engineer, and my friend she designed the poster, it was very much a package of ‘we can do this.’ I also hoped that from doing it, people would get more work and it could be used as a sort of larger thing.”

The Sister Rosetta’s online community and newsletter are open and available while the live events will be starting back again in the new year after a short break.

As well as the active events Naomi runs and performs, she does a lot for the cause of women in her journalism. While there have been recent studies and conversations on the frequent imbalance of superstar festival headliners, Naomi felt strongly about the everyday interactions at smaller venues and so decided to research and write a story for The Guardian whereby she found all of the gig listings for one day across the UK and counted how many men and women performers there were listed: 69% of all acts were made up entirely of men, 9% were female-only, and half of those were solo artists. “I kind of expected it, but it’s still a bit bonkers!  I felt that I wanted to do something about that but in a more tangible way, because I think writing is really important, but it is kind of true that people just read stuff and it might have some traction for a day, but then people move onto the next thing”.

While I tell Naomi that I disagree and feel the power of her writing has the ability to stay with people, I also admire how she was able to channel her feelings into something practical in both her writing and Sister Rosetta’s. We discuss the aim to normalise groups such as these so that it gets to the point where they’re not needed anymore, so that representation and safety is much more accepted in the mainstream at all levels. Naomi tells me that since the article, she’s aware of more pockets of groups in the area with the same ethos springing up all the time: “There’s a really great organisation group called Soul Stripped Sessions, and it’s not exclusively a BAME events collective, but they’re well represented, and that’s really cool, there’s another one called Herd which started a little after I started mine that is really good, so there are little microcosms of people with the same aims trying to do this, which is really positive and nice to see.”

Q: The recent Guardian feature you wrote about women sound engineers went down a storm in audio and music circles and the SoundGirls community! So many of your articles that centre around women’s rights and women in music resonate deeply with your readers. What inspires you to write about the topics that you do?

A:  “I’m really glad to hear that it had some traction, that’s really great.  The Women in Engineering article was part of a supplement that they were doing about engineering in general, and so I pitched the idea about sound engineers and then did the case study. I think it’s really wonderful to be in the position to write what you care about and I’m lucky that I can do that.  I think once you have a skill or a craft, it’s really worth it to use that to some kind of benefit and to give a platform to these issues as well. I think there should be more stuff done on not only the face of the music, and would really love to do a podcast in the future. It’s really interesting to write about it, though I wouldn’t call myself a music writer because I’ve never done reviews or anything like that, but these kinds of issues of representation or gender imbalance are the things that I really care about, and I think that by writing about it you can create conversations which is important.”

I argue that Naomi is a music writer and is way too humble on the importance of what she contributes; her Huff Post article on catcalling won an award this year. She counters, “I need to do more. I did say to myself that I was going to do more, but I haven’t.  Also it’s kind of difficult to sell these stories as I’m freelance, so whilst you might want to write about something, you’re pitching to editors who maybe don’t have the space, money or interest to commission pieces like that, so that’s a bit trickier, which I’m sure loads of freelancers have experienced, where you want to write about something. I’m on a bit of a mission to focus on Women in Music, and I guess I did pursue that by doing the Sister Rosetta’s but just didn’t do it in so much of a writing way, because much as I would have liked to have done more articles, I put more energy into doing the gigs, but there’s always time in the future to do more about it. It’s not going away.”

Q: What advice would you give to any young women and girls wanting to do any of the things that you’re doing, whether in the music or writing world?

A: “Find someone that you respect and like their work and get in touch with them and see if they want to go for a coffee or something, cause I think that most people do, most people want to help someone else. That can be really important to get some good advice from them and not feel so alone. In terms of music, just keep at it and find a special place where you can feel safe and confident to do the music that you wanna do. Again, find other women doing the same thing.”

It’s been a real pleasure spending the afternoon sharing stories and hearing all about this fascinating woman’s work. I could happily stay and chat with Naomi for the entire evening, but for now we must part ways and run across town to our respective gigs; Naomi is playing at a craft beer festival, and I’m off to work, curious about where and when the six degrees to women making an impact will strike again.

You can catch Naomi next playing at Green Note on 10th September, tickets at www.greennote.co.uk

 

 

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