Michael Patrick Hogan

over 30 days ago

Hey, Kenney.

In that case, nevermind! Your piece is perfect as it is. I wish I had your talents of just picking up and instrument and creating music. It takes me a LOT longer! If you think there's something you've got that you'd like me to take a shot at, let me know. Take it easy and keep up the great work. -Mike

Uncle Spider & The Electric Dirt Clods

over 30 days ago

Hi Michael,

I listened to some of your work. No wonder it takes you time to complete a piece. Your work is polished and wonderful. I love soundtracks, that is probably my favorite music. I listen to all kinds of music but only a soundtrack can bring me to tears. I drive my wife nuts sometimes when were watching a movie and I keep rewinding to hear a section of a score over and over again. I reach for my heart and say Oh man that's just beautiful.

You have a unique style and that's hard to do. You don't sound like anyone, just you. How cool is that?
I hope you are having success in marketing your work. You deserve to be recognized. Best of luck......... kenney

Michael Patrick Hogan

over 30 days ago

Hi, Kenney.

I'm glad you like my work. You've given me the greatest compliment I think a composer can receive--that his/her music is unique. So, I thank you very much for that, and it says a lot about your own sensibilities. I think it may also explain why it is you can compose so quickly--you're composing from your heart and not trying to mimic the styles of others.

I, too, love soundtracks and am always pointing out the score to folk I'm watching a movie with. The score is so important for the visuals. (I know of only one film that has no soundtrack: Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". But then, Hitchcock was a true genius.

I did listen to your brother's working of your piece "Once Upon A Time". That makes at least two of you in your family who are very talented. Nice team! My brother plays keyboard "by ear"--something I wish I could do--but he and I have never teamed up on a song. You and your bother are very lucky to have been able to do so.

I'll check out more of your music as time goes on, so I hope this is just the beginning of our story of enjoying each other's music and wishing each other fulfillment through our music!

With much faith and hope, -Mike

Uncle Spider & The Electric Dirt Clods

over 30 days ago

Hey Michael,

I was gonna send over some stuff but thought I should explain the ground rules. The main rule revolves around the fact that you will most certainly not like everything I send you. That's okay. The rule being "You don't have to respond" No response tells me all I need to know about your level of interest. Once again it's okay, I get it. This rule saves a lot of time and and eliminates that uncomfortable awkwardness.

As you'll hear, most of my rough cuts are a collection of chord changes and some maybe/sorta melodies. If you find something you feel you can build on, feel free to go into attack mode. Just wanna use a phrase or you only like the hook? No problemo. I won't take it personal. Some times the more produced tracks that I get back from my brother and others only remotely resemble the rough cut I sent them. And when that happens, I really enjoy it when I find myself thinking "why didn't I think of that?"

Some years ago I was working as a a limo driver. This one year I was awarded "Employee of the Year' They called my brother and asked him about getting me a musical instrument as a reward for my service. He told them how I used to go to Guitar Center and play on this Triton workstation. I of course couldn't afford one but Guitar Center didn't seem to mind me toying with theirs. Anyhow that's what they gave me. Whew!

So the first day I had it, I set it up and punched in this unusual oriental sounding patch. I plugged it into a 4track cassette recorder pressed record and started to play. This is what came out. http://www.broadjam.com/search/songs.php?media=emperor 1 %20of%20China
Once again and as usual One take done. The hesitation between some parts is just because I didn't know what I was going to do next.

"Emperor of China" has received some really nice reviews on Bjam from Classical composers and Soundtrack guys like yourself. They almost all unequivocally hate the recording quality but they did enjoy the work. I recently had a Classical guy tell me he was considering redoing and rerecording this piece. Hmmm.

Anyway, at eight and a half minutes it's kinda over the top and could use some serious editing. Thought I'd run it by you. My other brother tells me that the hook sounds like the music they play at the Academy Awards when they announce the movie that won. Maybe? I dunno.

If ya get a minute or nine maybe give it a listen. Might be something or some part you can work with.......................... kenney

Michael Patrick Hogan

over 30 days ago

Hey, Kenney.

Great ground rules---exactly the kind of understanding I like to have with people !

OK, I'm listening to "Emperor of China" now. Sounds like something I'd enjoy working on. It has a "story-line" quality to it, and the title provides the all-important "image" I always need to have in mind when I'm composing. What is your "story-line" for the song? What's the Emperor doing? What "scene" is the music describing?

In what "form" can you send it to me? Would it be audio or MIDI? Obviously, MIDI is preferred. Working with just the audio would take a lot longer to transcribe, but do-able. Could be fun!

--Mike

Uncle Spider & The Electric Dirt Clods

over 30 days ago

Hi Mike,

Unfortunately I have no idea where the cassette tape with the tracks ended up. There were 2 tracks on this piece. The first is the Triton Patch which has the violins on my right hand and that gong and kettle drum thing on my left hand up to about the middle of the keyboard. When I first played it back I kept hearing a french horn at the section near the very end of the piece so I pressed record on the french horn patch and tossed that in as well. It's kinda hard to hear but it's there.

Anyhow the only recording of Emperor is the one on BroadJam. If you think it's gonna be to much just send me an email with the word NEXT. We'll move on and I'll send ya different one. kenneyn@msn.com

I googled the word transcribe and found companies that do audio transcription. I sent one of em an email and asked that they explain what they would do with the URL file for Emperor. Don't know if that will help.

We'll see.............. kenney

PS: I listened to more of your work and have a better understanding of what it is you do. I get it. I get it!! I can visualize movements and emotions happening with your scores supporting them. I tend to be more of a theme kinda guy.

Zimmers score on The Last Samurai is an interesting example. A work called "A Way of Life" The beginning is supporting work. He's got a lot of musical movement stuff goin on (that'd be you) and then @ 3:22 the theme/love song of the movie shows up. (that'd be me) It's really wonderful and then at 3:53 he rips my heart out. It's supporting the two actors in an incredibly emotional scene which has no dialog. Didn't need any. Just the two them looking at each other and that music playing. Yikes!!

"A Way Of Life" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1M rZUmMpZM


It's one of those lump in your throat moments.

Michael Patrick Hogan

over 30 days ago

Hey, Kenney,

In a nutshell, "transcribe" would be to create a score from audio. A transcriber would listen to the audio (melody, chords, rhythms, tempo, etc.) and then "write" all that down. Before computers, the transcriber would have written all that down on staves on paper, note by note. It's done the same way today, except it's "written down" using music composition programs (like Logic, Cubase, Sibelius, and many more) on a computer. Then, the computer can be told what to do with those notes: which instrument sounds to use, how hard to hit the notes, when to get louder or softer, how fast/slow, when to speed up/slow down. I can even change to a different instrument if I don't like the one I chose first. I can choose the kind of space I want to pretend the music will be played in (a car, a cathedral, a stadium, a forest, etc.). I can change my mind about anything at all and the computer will do it. Then I record it. And, if I don't like the result, I can make changes and re-record it.

I can then print out the score and real musicians can read from it for a live performance or recording.

As you can imagine, that's mainly why it takes me so long to write a piece. But, the other reason is that I'm usually writing for a lot of instruments (orchestra) in a single piece.

There are some computer programs that claim to be able to take an audio file and turn it into a score (transcribe it), but I've found none that do anything close to a satisfactory job. And the file usually needs to be mono and have no more than 2 or 3 instruments playing at once.

Musicians/composers like yourself are capable of hearing what you want, figuring it out as you go, remembering it, and have the ability to play and record it live! I find that absolutely amazing--it's something I can't do.

So our methods are sort of "opposites". My method can't produce a recording without scoring the music first. Your method doesn't produce a score. We both end up with recordings, however.

With all that said, I am still very much interested in working on "Emperor", even though it only exists as audio. I can listen to it on Broadjam and try to "write" it all down. That'll create the ability to change it in any way we like and then I hit a button and it re-records it with the changes. And it would produce a score that musicians who read music can play from. Hey, you'll even be able to turn pages of the score into posters for your walls!

I'm assuming you'd like the instrumentation to be that of orchestral instruments since you've assigned "Emperor" the "Classical-Contemporary" genre. Again, the instrumentation can be changed to almost anything once I've got it all scored in my computer software. No telling how long that will take, but with New England winter approaching, I'll likely be spending a lot of time in front of my computer.

As you said, "A Way of Life" really pulls at the heart.

-Mike

Michael Patrick Hogan

over 30 days ago

Me again, Kenney.

Here's a great article to read on music audio transcription: http://www.notation.com/Articles-AudioToSheetMusic.php 1

Ideally, you'd send me the same .mp3 file of "Emperor" that you have uploaded at Broadjam. That way I can load it into my composition software (as audio) and I can slow down the tempo so I can hear all the notes better while I'm transcribing. If you choose to do that, you can use the "Transmit My Songs" feature in Broadjam to give me permission to download "Emperor" to my computer.

-Mike

Uncle Spider & The Electric Dirt Clods

over 30 days ago

Hey Mike,

I went to my song list and made Emperor free for downloading. That should do the trick. It's on the second page of my song list about a third of the way down.

As far as the instrumentation, you don't have to assume anything. You can do anything ya want. It is what it is because that was the button I pressed and Emperor came out. Remember I can't read or write, my timing sucks and my guitars are usually out of tune. So if you go in another direction that's okay with me.

As I mentioned, my rough cuts often come back much differently than what I send over. For example...

I wrote this "I'm in love with that girl"
http://www.broadjam.com/artists/medialists.php?artistID=561&mediaID=80699 1


Alan Trickett of Barbwire Tourniquet in Scotland liked what he heard and turned it into "Let The Stars Decide"
http://www.broadjam.com/player/player.php?play_file=561_647466 2

I got a bit of airplay over in Europe and the UK. Enough to get me a percentage of the royalties sent a few times to my Paypal account. Too cool for me.

So do whatever comes into your heart. I've heard enough of your work to know you've got plenty of heart and certainly know how to express what you feel.................... kenney

Michael Patrick Hogan

over 30 days ago

Hey, Kenney.

OK--I downloaded "Emperor" and will load it up into my software, likely tomorrow, and get started. I'll keep you updated and am sure I'll have questions. Feel free to check in with me to see how things are going.

Very, very cool getting airtime and royalties! I'm still waitin' for some! I did win a contest about a year and a half ago and got a lot of cash. It's called "Haywire" in my BJam song list. Written in homage to those psychological thrillers decades ago (like Hitchcock's "Psycho"). Had it performed by the Flux Quartet out of Brooklyn.

Trickett did a great job honoring your original song. The lyrics also "neutralize" the object of one's affection in the song, giving it broad appeal ("marketing") to folks in lots of different kinds of relationships.

I'm going to try to honor what I think you want in "Emperor" and what I loved about it from the first listen, but we'll see---I sometimes get carried away !

-Mike

Uncle Spider & The Electric Dirt Clods

over 30 days ago

Carried away is a good thing.

Michael Patrick Hogan

over 30 days ago

Hi, Randy. Wow--thank you so much for your wonderful comments about my music! They are very, VERY much appreciated and inspire me to keep going. Warm Regards, -Mike