Ableton Competition for Young Producers

Here is something from one of my favourite music applications Ableton Live. Live in case you don't know is a highly flexible and creative music making platform which I use daily with my students due to it's free workflow.

Well this summer they are running a Music Challenged aimed squarely at young producers. The nice thing is that they have an under 15yrs age group and then 15-18yrs group which makes things fare for the younger aged entrants. There will be 24 runners up in each category as well as the grand prize winner.

Simply build your track, upload it and wait and see! Looks like they are using another one of my favourite services 'Soundcloud' to facilitate the process.

Well what are you waiting for! Click the link and get to it!

http://abletonsummermusicchallenge.com/

Arts Jobs - UK Arts Job Listings

I stumbled upon this website recently and thought it was quite a decent site for arts opportunities. Basically it's a listings site managed by the arts council for all art forms. As is often the case with these sites; many of the listings are for unpaid jobs and voluntry positions.

The reason I really like it though is that the nature and focus of the site being arts based means that the postings are a little more interesting then the sites that have opportunists looking for cheap labour. By the way not allthe postings are for non paid work, there are many paid jobs listed that you may not stumble upon using the traditional searches. On the day I looked I saw vacancies as diverse as; a booking agent (£15K), an economic impact consultant (25K) and Workshop Practitioners.

Have a look for yourself http://www.artsjobs.org.uk/

Ben Mullon

Ben Mullon: "

musician, educator and record producer

"

Indie Record Label Internship

Just noticed this little posting and thought of you guys. If anyone is looking for experience of running an indie label this could be the ticket: GOOD LUCK!

- New! - INTERNSHIP RUFFA LANE RECORDS

Label, music publisher and management company with international success and rapidly expanding roster in indie pop / alt-country genres seeks bright spark with a thirst for knowledge and a great sense of humour. Get your hands dirty and in return you'll learn about every aspect of the music industry and we'll get your travel / lunch. SE London near New Cross.

Hours to suit minimum 16 p/w. In 100 words, tell Nathaniel why it should be you at nat@ruffalane.com.

Its All in the BEAT!

I have heard some crazy things about music but this one has to be one of the more bizarre ideas. Apparently the beat stability of hit records can predict market crashes and according to Phil Mayim (an expert in the study of this) the Beyonce record "Single Ladies - Put a Ring On It" spells economic doom as it has a very constant beat with little variation.

You can read more on the Guardian site here

So Prime minister Gordon Brown listen to the charts - it seems the Phat lady has sung.

Analyse Your Musical Taste

This is a bit of a funny one, signal patterns have a web test that will tell you about your musical personality. Its a bit of a laugh to take part, what you do is rate a series of short clips then you get an interactive chart that details the results in categories to tell you about yourself!

Well curiosity got the better of me, you can view my results from the widget posted on the left!

Give it a go, see if you really are into the music you think you are into!

here's the link

musical taste test

FREE PROTEUS INSTRUMENT!!!

Its been a while since I sold my Proteus module and I still lament its departure, it had some seriously heavyweight production sounds many of which you can hear on records from the 80s, 90s and early 00s. I've just seen the EMU are giving a software version of the proteus for FREE yes FREE!!! I spent nearly a grand on mine back in the day. For anyone who is new to the EMU brand let me fill you in. In the early 80s EMU (aka Emulator) created the first consumer samplers that instead of costing the price of a small house instead cost the price of a small car or motor bike! Well they proved to be very popular and as the technology became cheaper they created a diverse range of samplers and sample playback modules. One of their classic pieces is the sp1200 which was rivaled by the Akai/Linn MPC, Hip Hop heads will know the sound from early Tribe Called Quest records to name a few!

Eventually though the sampler/sample player became redundant as the computer took over as the production tool of choice. So now EMU make software instruments and bundle their sample libraries with the instruments.

Click through to get your free proteus, you will need to fill a short webform and subscribe to the email list. A small price to pay I think. Watch out this is a PC only app and won't run on MAC OS (Being a MAC user I too look on with envy).

Let me know how you get on, heres the link:

PROTEUS DOWNLOAD