Music is critical to Google’s historic Super Bowl ad above, as Adam Westbrook pointed out here. Note how the music sets just the right tone of expectant joy.
Oh and speaking of Adam, a freelance multimedia journalist and sophisticated advocate of new forms of journalism, here’s his excellent list of six tips on using audio. Right on, Adam.
UPDATE: Looks like the beautiful piano track the piece uses comes from these guys: http://www.analoguemuse.com/
Here’s a song I wrote for my almost-6-year-old daughter Sophia. I’m posting it today because tonight is our father-daughter dance – an event she’s been talking about for, oh, about the past 364 days – since last year’s dance.
I wrote and recorded this in 2008, during a period in which I was living in the St. Louis area and my wife and two younger children were still in Florida. I was alone, and missing my family — and especially my little girl. You can hear some of that in my voice. In fact, by the end I was all choked up!
Tonight the DJ is supposed to play this song for us and for the other fathers and daughters. I hope we all savor the moment. They go by too quickly.
This piece of computer animated scenes focusing on architecture is a fantastic multimedia experience. Even more impressive: creator Alex Roman not only created the CG images himself, he also recorded the haunting musical score, using Cakewalk’s Sonar and East/West orchestral samples. He said the soundtrack is “based on” works by Michael Laurence Edward Nyman. (The Departure) and Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns. (Le Carnaval des animaux)
Here is the just-released music video for my song “Serendipity.” It was conceived, shot and edited by the fabulous Elie Gardner of St. Louis. She did a great job, given what she had to work with!
As I wrote last year in a blog post, “Serendipity” was my attempt to say that even a calamity — in this case, a flood — can end up being a positive thing. Musically I was going for a Tom Petty/Jeff Lynne/ELO/George Harrison kind of sound. I recorded it via Sonar Producer Edition, using an Audio Technica 4047 and a Groove Tubes Brick preamp, for all you fellow recording nerds.
And, if by some odd chance you really like the song, it IS available on iTunes or Amazon.
The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod is among many denominations bringing aide to Haiti. On a just-concluded assessment trip, a team from the Kirkwood, Mo.-based church visited a gathering of refugees in Jacmel, a few hours outside Port-Au-Prince.
The refugees — many grieving the loss of loved ones, friends and homes — began singing the classic Christian hymn “How Great Thou Art.” Here is their rendition, in French, accompanying images of devastation recorded by the church team in an audio slideshow. Though I don’t understand French, I can’t remember hearing a more moving version.
The video was put together by Rudy Blank of LCMS World Mission. He used photos shot by James Neuendorf, a member of the LCMS assessment team and also of LCMS World Mission.
Disclosure: My wife, Melanie Ave, is public relations coordinator for the LCMS.
Want to know the No. 1 secret to getting really good at something, like, say, composing music or creating multimedia projects? Eric Maierson over at MediaStorm’s blog has the answer. You have to click the link to find out what it is….
1. There are no golden rules of mixing
2. Get good monitors (and, I might add, treat your room!)
3. High-pass everything
4. Always cut before you boost
Check out this multimedia piece from the BBCon an artist named Michael Reagan who draws military personnel killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s called Portraits of the Fallen. Note the ambient audio, such as the sharpening of the pencil, and the spare, judicious use of music, which in my view adds just the right feel. (Wait till you get to the line, “They never met.” It will rip your heart out.) Thanks to Duckrabbit’s blog for pointing this out.
dia piece from the BBC on an artist named Michael Reagan who draws military personnel killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s called Portraits of the Fallen. Note the ambient audio, such as the sharpening of the pencil, and the spare, judicious use of music, which in my view adds just the right feel. (Wait till you get to the line, “They never met.” It will rip your heart out.) Thanks to Duckrabbit’s blog for pointing this out.