I created some more music. Feel free to download it and use it for stuff (Creative Commons / Share Alike) – all I ask is to see what gets done with it, really. Maybe eventually I’ll put this on a separate page if there’s more, but for now:
Some variations on a theme I’ve had stuck in my head for months, but just cant get to come out right:
wind – long version- kind of a dreamy loop with a clarinet melody and building strings toward the end
wind – short version – a little slower version of previous, with saxophone instead of clarinet, no strings
When I was a kid, often you couldn’t take a camera into a music concert – probably they wanted to make sure they had the market cornered on posters and publicity photos back then. Now, in the days of ubiquitous mobile phones and pocket camcorders people are not only sharing photos, they are sharing music videos. Fortunately, the music industry has by and large recognized that having videos on YouTube and other video sharing sites is actually good for business. Yes, it’s a violation of YouTube’s terms of service – but I personally think this is just YouTube’s way of covering themselves legally for the rare musician who still objects to having their music shared in this way.
Odds are, however, that you’re still not going to be able to set up a tripod and a professional camera and microphones. But you can hopefully capture something better than the shaky, grainy video captured by the guy in front of you, waving his cell phone in front of your lens.
If you have several cameras to choose from, bring the one that has decent optical zoom, first of all – and then think about image and sound quality second. Why zoom? Unfortunately, at a concert, there is such a thing as being too close. If you manage to elbow your way to the front, those speaker towers are going to wreak havoc on your sound quality. The vibration you feel from the bass is also happening in your camera’s microphone and there is no way you’ll get decent sound. So you want to find a balance between being far away from the speakers, yet close enough so you can zoom in. Don’t use the 60X zoom – 12-15X should be plenty. A little shaking helps capture the atmosphere, but if you’re zoomed to 60X your image will be so shaky you might have to include an epilepsy warning.
Most likely your battery will not last the whole concert, so what I like to do is pan around for a little scene-setting and atmosphere to add later, and then keep it ready for that favorite song or those unexpected moments. That way you can also minimize the irritation to the folks behind you from having your camera waving in their face the entire show.
The videos below were taken using a combination of a Sony HD camera with 60X zoom, and a Flip HD. If you watch “when September Ends” it actually switches partway through and you may not even notice the difference in sound quality. I was up way too close, unfortunately. You may also notice that the trick of filming the jumbotron doesn’t always work either – I think the frame rate of the Flip is too slow, so that the flickering you don’t see with your eyes ends up showing up on film. I don’t claim these to be great examples, but maybe you can learn from my mistakes and observations and do better.
For comparison, I was much farther back last year (and didn’t have jumbotron flicker) and I think the result was much better:
Videomaker’s free online magazine published a couple of great articles which, in combination with my earlier post on where to get royalty-free (and other low-cost or flat-fee) music to make your videos legal, is a great resource for ensuring (a) your videos don’t get yanked from YouTube and (b) you don’t get sued. Check them out at VideoMaker.Com: Royalty-Free Music Tips and Music Library Buyer’s Guide.
For decades, printed song lyrics lived in relative obscurity, relegated to album sleeves and sheet music. And until now, they provided no significant source of revenue.
Interestingly, only now that creative entrepreneurs have figured out how to make money from song lyrics have the publishers suddenly shown interest. Most people hosting song lyrics sites apparently did so only as a hobby, often relying on contributing members to post lyrics – and only later discovered that by hosting ads could they generate some revenue for their efforts (and offset expenses, arguably).
As much as I support the argument that those who write the lyrics to our music deserve as much credit as those who write the music (and perform), I’d argue that having overlooked the opportunity, the music industry should forfeit the opportunity. Sharing the words to the songs we know and love is in my view something of a public service – especially when done in a Wiki approach.
And I’d argue it actually already supports the artist. Why do I say that? Ever hear a song on the radio and wonder who performed it (presumably so you can buy it)? Jot down a line from the chorus or a unique lyric, place it in quotes, and drop it on Google. Nine times out of 10, those lyrics sites will take you straight to the answer.
So I spent a couple of days flying around in a plane for no reason (don’t ask). The not-to-be named airline which ferries Dutch troops back and forth to Kandahar go out of their way to spend pretty much all their time handing out food (2 meals in a 6-hour flight, and 2 each in two 4-hour flights), and they also give out portable digital movie players which are normally reserved only in Comfort Class (for their paying customers). But frankly you come to a point when you’ve had enough food, you’ve seen all the movies, and you’ve read the free newspaper and the in-flight magazine. Now what?
Fortunately, I happened to be carrying a couple of my favorite gadgets (I like gadgets) in my gray-digital-camouflage work clothes, which my Uncle (Sam) graciously equips with lots and lots of pockets for just that sort of thing. And as we began to dip toward the clouds that blanketed the area around Eindhoven, the Netherlands I realized I was in the prime seat for catching a good view of the setting sun. I positioned my Flip Camera as best I could against the window, and as we descended through what must have been five or six separate layers of clouds, each with gaps that allowed various shades of sunlight to spill through in odd patterns, I got the working parts of a pretty cool (I think) video:
It’s pretty wobbly at times, and the scratches and dust on the window are at times distracting, but I still think it’s pretty cool. You don’t see sights like that too often – in the early parts where the top third of the video is dark, that’s actually the top layer of clouds, but it almost looks like it’s filmed from much higher. And I asked the flight crew to PLEEEEEASE make the plane stop shaking – and for Pete’s sake could SOMEone please clean the windown – but no dice.
When I got home I stitched the most interesting parts together, sped up roughly double their original speed, and added a piece of music which, coincidentally, I had also dreamed up and “composed” on my Playstation Portable during the same flight (I told you I was bored). [See my previous post for more about music on the PSP] Actually, I redid the music on the Yamaha after I got home because the sound that is used for melody (it’s supposed to represent a saxophone) gets pretty grating after awhile on the original version. So we end up with something like a mariachi band bumping into Yanni in an elevator and collaborating on location-appropriate music, but I kind of like how it fits with the images. I hope you enjoy it.
Oh, and if you’re really bored, you can compare with the PSP-generated version:
In spite of the lengthy list of online royalty-free music sources I listed in my previous post, finding the right tune for your images can be a challenging and time-consuming process. So I’ve recently acquired some new gadgets to help make music for my videos myself – one conventional, and another quite unexpected. Not that I expect Spielberg to give me a ring anytime soon, but…
The first “gadget” (OK, it’s a two-man lift) is the Yamaha DGX-630 “Portable Grand”, which is a piano, multitrack recorder, keyboard, synthesizer, and music teacher all in one. If you know just a little bit about playing a keyed instrument and have a feel for music, you can use the multitrack recorder and all of the built-in harmony features and sounds to put together something relatively complex and decent-sounding. If you’re looking to capture a certain “feeling” for your video, you can play around with the sounds and rhythms until you come up with something that works. This thing is so “smart” it can even figure out which chord to play with the left hand based on what you’re playing with your right. So I took it for a spin this weekend and this is what I came up with as a first attempt:
If you can come up with something slightly more original to call it, I’m all ears! [And if you like it and want to borrow it, feel free. I'll call it "Creative Commons - Attribution" but I'm really just curious what it would work well with, whether I get attribution or not.
The second gadget for making music I stumbled across is a little thing I call Playstation Portable. Specifically, a "game" I picked up 50% off (ten bucks) called "Beaterator." Yes, it actually works. Especially when you compare it to an $80 program (to be unnamed here) I bought to do the same thing (which it doesn't). You can use the thing to play "live" music composed of pre-loade, samples and sounds - or you can program it using individual sounds on 8 different tracks, record or upload your own sounds, edit individual sounds, and export to wav files or upload them to their sharing site. Just playing around with the thing on a plane, here is what I came up with:
Flying To Kandahar (only so named because that's what I was doing at the time)
Desert Attack (because that's what I think it sounds like!)
So there you have it. Now if someone could just get me an iPhone so I can use all the different music apps they offer, well maybe I could start a band like these guys.
Just returned from a grueling,longer-than-expected trip in Washington, D.C. It wasn’t all for naught – though I had to wait until Friday for a series of grueling job interviews that had been scheduled for Monday, it resulted in a job offer. And while I waited, I snagged some video footage of the DC blizzard – which really was a blizzard, as far as I could tell – using a newly-acquired Flip Ultra HD. Of course the sound was a mess because of the wind blowing on the mic, but I think I managed to find some sound that accurately captured the empty, almost desolate mood on the streets of our normally crowded capital:
And then, the next day, life had almost returned to normal, along with some trick skiers in front of the Lincoln Memorial:
There are a lot of misconceptions about the use of music for your videos. Let’s start by addressing those, and move on to a list of options – literally about a million options – that may work for your particular project. (And if you know of other resources, let me know and I’ll update the list!)
Myth #1: “If I only use 30 seconds (or 10 seconds, or 1 minute) then I’m not violating copyright.” This is a common misconception that is even being taught in journalism schools. If I create and perform a piece of music, I automatically own the copyright – down to the last second.
Myth #2: “If I’m not making money off it, it’s OK.” Copyright is copyright, whether someone makes a profit off my creativity or not. For a home video of your vacation that you’re going to burn to DVD and keep at home, no one is going to have an issue with it because they won’t know about it (though it’s still not legal). If you’re planning to do just about anything else with it, you need permission.
Myth #3: “I can use it because it’s in the public domain.” Well…that depends. Any musical work created before 1922 in the United States is public domain. Depending on whom you ask, however, recordings of those songs are not. And considering most recordings were done after 1922, it’s slim pickings anyway. But if you want to give this a go, , check out PublicDomain4u, which also has links to other sites, or the Open Music Archive. Know how to play an instrument? Go crazy – check out this site to determine if something is in the public domain.
Myth #4: “I can use it because I sang (played, whistled, hummed) the song myself.” The tune itself is subject to copyright. A performance of that tune is a separate copyright requiring permission by the composer. And sound recordings by musicians – well, they’re extremely complicated because publishers get involved, rights are bought and sold…it’s a huge headache.
Myth #5: “I can use Creative Commons or ‘royalty free’ music in a video contest.” Typically, video contest organizers require you to hand over your work to enter – or to claim your prize. Check their fine print. A “Creative Commons” license almost always prevents you from doing this. They’re sharing their music to support your creativity – not giving you the right to transfer ownership to a contest sponsor. Same for licensed or “royalty free” music (which is also licensed, but for a one-time flat fee). They’ve licensed you to use the music, but that usually does not include the right to transfer that license to a contest sponsor.
All that having been said, there are a number of options available. For commercial works, fair use is a great loophole – although it is, legally speaking, poorly defined. But there are a number of fair use options. If you happen to catch your kids on video singing “Happy Birthday” or the TV/radio was on in the background and got on your video, that’s OK. Parody is OK. Using a piece for critique is OK. And so are a surprising number of other cases. Check out this web site to determine if you may qualify for a fair use exclusion for your video. It’s well worth the read.
You may also be a musician, or know someone – say, the high school band or a neighbor – who may be interested in collaborating with you. Again, focus on public domain works or original composition. Don’t know anyone? There are lots of folks on the internet who would like to work with you – sometimes for a fee, sometimes just for publicity. Or maybe you want to agree that any money or prizes are split 75-25, or 80-20:
- Undergunned Productions, on MySpace has a browsable ambient / rock collection and supports indie film.
- Settle the Score is for projects that are a bit more ambitious than a YouTube clip (no offense to YouTube), offering to develop music scores, such as for ad agencies or video.
- You could also collaborate with Moby (yes, that Moby) – he has placed a collection of music that is “free to independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short” (there’s a form to fill out). If you want to use it commercially, your licensing fee goes to the Humane Society – how cool is that?
Free Music
If that doesn’t suit you, there are a number of folks out there who put out their music in one or another “Creative Commons” license, which is just fine for noncommercial work. Be sure and check their license to ensure you’ve complied with its requirements – such as republishing under the same license, giving credit to them, whatever they ask:
- CCMixter is an awesome site whose subtitle reads, “Download. Sample. Cut-up. Share.” A community of folks who share and remix samples, they offer both the samples and the resulting works created from them for re-use under a variety of Creative Commons licenses…again, read the fine print to avoid using original works inappropriately. The site is very user-friendly.
- The Freesound Project, unlike CCMixter, focuses on individual sounds, rather than mixes. A bit of work is required to assemble the sounds into soundtracks. Again, check the Creative Commons license.
- Audiofarm is a bit experimental, and some searching is needed to find something useful. You could spend a lot of time just browsing and listening, and if you’re looking for something quick to complete your project, this may not be the best place to start.
- Jimmy Gelhaar is an aspiring musician whose work I have used quite a bit. He has a selection of pretty well-done pieces for different moods, you just have to register to use them. He just wants to be credited in order for you to use his work.
- Derek Audette hosts a couple dozen creative commons tracks on his site, with descriptions, for download.
- Kevin MacLeod has collected a variety of creative interests, including an extensive music collection, on his site, Incompetech.com. Some of his stuff is a bit whimsical, but his detailed search function (search by mood and genre) make his site useful to find something for your video in relative short order. He lets you use his music for just about anything, as long as you give attribution.
- Taylor Hayward is a software designer and pianist who loves to compose and play music, and offers “ambient classical music” tracks, completely free, no strings attached.
- Dan-O at Danosongs has a variety of vocal and instrumental tracks he has made available for free use (with attribution). You can even sign up for a “free download of the week” notification by email.
- Internet Audio Guy has about a dozen tracks for free, as publicity for his main site. It’s not much, but it may be what you need – and you can always check his main site for more (paid) options.
- Mp3Free offers a lot of his/her own songs for free (creative commons) use (attribution). The only weird thing about it is that nowhere on the site is an actual name listed. I guess you just credit mp3free.com. Also links to other free sites.
- Sonnyboo offers 20 tracks for free download, no strings attached. He calls it royalty-free, but in actuality he has donated them to the public domain, in exchange to crediting John Scott Ross for the piece.
- RockProper digitally distribute free music from a number of different artists. The music may be downloaded freely, but be sure and check out the licensing requirements for each musician – most of which is Creative Commons (but there are different types and requirements)
- Dogmazic is a similar service as RockProper. They boast nearly 40,000 pieces of music. Much of their site, however, is in French. They have a variety of search options, though I was unable to browse (listen to) music directly on the site for some reason.
- OpSound is a large collection of music contributed under Creative Commons – share alike (meaning your derivative work must carry the same “copyleft”).
- Free Music Archive is a collection of tens of thousands of quality music pieces, hosted by public radio station WFMU (and joined by a host of other curators). Each song has its own track page that explains how you can use it and how you need to credit the owner. The search function is pretty good to, and lets you filter by “sync to video”. And listening and downloading are simple as well.
- Human Workshop is another such site – with, from what I’ve listened to, some unique and quality music. The web site says it’s all licensed via a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license; if you want to use it commercially they give you a form to fill out.
- You can use the files at Free Production Tracks for any purpose – commercial or noncommercial. They ask that you refer back to their site in your credits.
- Soundclick hosts just shy of an amazing 400,000 pieces of music. You can search by genre and get commercial licenses for between $10 and $50, or select “creative commons” from the pull-down menu at top left, and filter for free music (again checking attribution requirements for each you use).
- the Internet Archive is a project to preserve all kinds of audio files, including live performances by well-known artists. If you absolutely want to use a big-name piece of music but don’t want to track down who owns the rights, this is the only way I know of that you can do it. These archive files are only for noncommercial use – check the individual file information to determine further requirements and/or limitations.
Free Sound Effects
- For sound effects – completely free – check out Universal Soundbank. The French version claims 20,000 sounds (the English claim of 12,000 is probably out of date) – and they’re all listed alphabetically by category.
- Pacific Digital Video mainly offers sound effects, but also a handful of completed music tracks – as well as lots of links to other resources. Use their sounds in exchange for a link back to their site.
- Music for Video offers both music and sound effects – but the music requires an annual fee of 1400 euro for permission to use all their music. The sound effects, however, are free. They just ask that you link back to their site if you use it on the internet.
Music for a fee (licensing)
If you’re looking for a broader pool to choose from, check out these web sites that specialize in licensing music and sounds from a large number of contributors:
- Music2License offers a license for 40 Pounds Sterling, regardless of what the music is used for. They have a wide variety of music styles and offer a number of different search options.
- The Blue Mask offers BIG sounds composed by Simon Wilkinson for (all prices in pounds Sterling) 0.99 for the mp3 plus 9.99 (noncommercial) or 49.99 (commercial) licensing fee. Fully searchable and browsable, the only downside is that the previous include a woman repeatedly saying “the blue mask dot com” which can get irritating. Probably he knows I own AudioRecorder Pro (see below).
- SmartAssMusic offers a variety of services, including music licensing, most commonly for $20 per track. They also span the gamut of music styles.
- FreePlayMusic has about 6200 pieces of production music, indie music, and sound effects you can license. The production music is the kind of stuff you’d have difficulty finding elsewhere, but you’re also going to pay $25 to $75, if not more (less than $10 for sound effects). It’s free for in-home or educational use; however, I had trouble previewing files – it uses Media Player, and it kept freezing up.
- Jamendo offers 30,000 “free and legal” music albums for download and use for private projects; but if you want to share your video, they’re not free – but in many cases, nearly so. Select your song, specify its use and the license term, and you’ll be given the licensing cost – often as little as $3. You can also “go pro” and get access to everything for an annual fee. The cool thing about this site is it’s a community – meaning the tracks and albums are sorted by popularity.
- Citybus Productions as a smallish (but growing, I presume) collection of production tracks you can license for about $25 bucks (web site, amateur video) or more for broader uses; and a list of sound loops for producing your own music. You can search by category, but their tracks are not tagged for other search options.
- Rumblefish hosts 30,000 pieces of music for licensing, and I particularly like them because of their user-friendly search function that allows you to search by mood, and the fact that for a YouTube video or a vlog piece, they only charge $5 (though the price increases for other, more commercial uses). They have a good working relationship with YouTube, and if you use their work it will immediately be flagged on YouTube. They won’t deactivate your audio, but if you want your video to be ad-free, dispute the copyright and put your invoice number on the form – it’ll be cleared up within a day or two.
- SoundSnap offers an amazing 100,000 sound effects and music loops (for use in a music editing/production program) at reasonable pricing depending on how many you buy (from $1,80 per sound to $249 for an annual unlimited subscription) and they are working on plans whereby you can contribute your own sounds for revenue sharing.
Other stuff
Also intriguing is Hobnox, a Germany-based sharing platform of sorts (in public beta testing). They offer users 2 GB space, and the ability to upload and share (and download) all sorts of content. They claim to be a forum to facilitate collaboration between creative types, so you may find someone there with similar interests to work with. In addition, they have a somewhat limited but extremely user-friendly, cloud-based AudioTool to create your own beats (here’s a sample of what I did in 20 minutes – gaps are due to my bandwidth) Check out their “what is Hobnox” link for more.
Along similar lines, New Grounds is a sharing and collaboration platform – a social networking site for creative types. In addition to music, they have flash video, gaming and other collections/sharing portals. Each uploaded music piece comes with its own copyright information.
DIY Tools
If you want to take a shot at producing your own audio, the simplest option is to record it with your camcorder, import it to your editing program, delete the video, and edit away. You can also record directly to your computer – but I’d advise against using your computer mike. I’ve had pretty good results with the USB mic that comes with the RockBand video game. A couple of programs you can use to record are Audio Recorder Pro, for $39.95 which I’ve used for years with great success, or WireTap Studio for $69 – which I haven’t tried. Of course there are plenty of other programs, including the option to just use Windows MovieMaker directly.
