ConClave Schedule

[filkertom]

Jody sent me my schedule for ConClave:

• (Sat. 10:00 a.m. - Columbia) Recording Studio Done Cheap on a Laptop: Tom Smith will discuss and the programs you would need that are free or very cheap to have your own laptop studio.
• (Sat. 1:00 p.m. - Apollo) Iron Filking: Panelists (me, Mark Bernstein, Bill Roper, Michael "Moonwolf" Longcor") will be given a "Secret Ingredient" and they will need to write original lyric having to do with the "Secret Ingredient" within 30 minutes and then perform the song. The Panelist can choose to do the song in any style they wish to use. The audience will be the final judge on who has the most popular song.
• (Sat. 5:00 p.m. - Ballroom 7&8) Concert (90 min.)

Anyone got any cool stuff you're doing at 'Clave? I know Mark's running his vocal workshop (just my luck, the cheap recording panel will probably be up against it...).

ETA: Fair warning -- this thread has kinda turned into the introductory notes for that laptop music panel.... ;)

Comments

[jacob-day.livejournal.com]

Good sir,

For those who cannot possibly attend, would you be willing to post some notes about your 10:00 am class for the peanut gallery?

Thanks...

[jacob-day.livejournal.com]

(after the fact, I mean, of course)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Of course. And, to start you off, I highly recommend you do four things today:

• Go to your local Barnes & Noble or Borders and get the latest issue, #130, of the British magazine Computer Music. It's got some superb software this month, and a bunch of useful tutorials, including one I can't wait to dig into on using a spectrum analyzer (that they conveniently have on the disk). (They've also got an upcoming special issue on The Essentials Of Recording.)
• Download Reaper (www.reaper.fm).
• Peruse the Big Lists With Free Music Making Software at Making Music (http://making-music.blogspot.com/).
• Check out KVR Audio (http://www.kvraudio.com), a huge and superb community of music-makers. You will find links to a gazillion programs, plug-ins, samples, etc., etc., etc., as well as a whole bunch of good and helpful folks.

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

Before I go running off to Guitar Center to get the magazine, is there anything mentioned in it about the Mac platform that you recall?

Raven

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Oh, jeez, lotsa stuff. They're actually fairly nicely split on Mac and PC software, both in the mag and on the disk, with a strong Linux contingent as well. Let me look at the DVD: yeah, about half of the software in the CM Studio (an extensive list of sequencers and plugins they have with every issue) is both Mac and PC, and, except for the featured software for this ish, almost all of the full and demo software is either Mac/PC or just Mac. And most of the tutorials and articles, while using specific programs, are more than general enough for anyone using any platform to work with.

I find that keeping an eye on the magazine's upcoming features results in me buying about one issue per year, which gets me the latest versions of their on-disk regular stuff, a nice look at current paradigm shifts in computer audio, and a few tutorials I actually use.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Besides Reaper, which is PC and (beta) Mac: You might also want to try Ardour (http://ardour.org/) (Mac), Temper (http://www.angryredplanet.com/temper/) (PC), or Rosegarden (http://www.rosegardenmusic.com) (Linux).

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Waaaaaay cool on Rosegarden! I've messed a bit with Audacity (which runs on all three major platforms) as recording/mixing software, and of course mdlbear's Coffee, Computers, and Song was all done that way, but I had no idea there was a score editor out there! (And it does Audacity-esque stuff too!)

'scuse me, I gotta go make a post. But it's good to see you back up and at'em!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Thanks -- it's good to be back. :) Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) is an excellent program, and very useful for many tasks... but for arranging and mixing, it's just not as versatile as a true digital audio workstation (DAW). Damn fine for mastering your final audio, though. (I use Sound Forge, myself, but if Audacity had been out there when I first got it I'd have likely gone with that.)

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

Can I ask a newbie music creation question here?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

No. ;) Of course -- whatcha need?

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

I need to take a recording of text-to-speech and make it sing according to a midi or other type of note input. So far all I've found are text-to-speech options (many of which are quite good) and tutorials on how to mix them with music in various programs, but nothing that will let me manipulate the sound file to change pitch, duration, etc.

Any advice?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

What you're talking about is called pitch shifting, and it's tricky. Fortunately, I think I've got a brute-force method you can use that should be pretty easy and get what you want.

First, download the free Acid Xpress (http://dspcdn.acidplanet.com/acidxpress.exe) program from Sony/Sonic Foundry/Acid Planet. Acid has the best pitch-shifting tech I've found outside of dedicated hardware, and it's built into the tracks.

When you've got it running, open the .wav file you want to play with -- there should be an Explorer window at the bottom, click on it in Acid's View menu if you don't see it -- and then set the key and tempo to the same as your MIDI file. (I'm assuming the song is all one tempo.)

Now: To make the file "sing", you're going to have to change it word by word. Put a key/tempo change in by clicking on the .wav just before a word and then pressing K. If your song was "Do Re Mi", and it was in the key of C, you'd be clicking just before the word "Do" and entering C; then you'd click just before "Re" and enter D, and so on.

The nice things about Acid are that [a] it will do this non-destructively -- the original .wav file is not actually affected -- and [b] by default it should leave your .wav duration untouched. Shifting pitch involves changing the frequency, and that means changing the length of the .wav, which is why this is such a big deal.

If you need to change the duration of a section -- say, you want to lengthen a word -- click just before it, then press S, which will split the .wav. Then do the same just after it. Then select that little section, and choose the Edit menu option Fit To Time. (If it's not in Xpress, I'm sorry -- I've got Acid Pro.)

There are other programs you can get for free that will do this stuff as well, most notably Reaper. (Although you should pay for Reaper if you love it.)

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

Aw, man! I should have asked you two months ago!

My friend and I have been trying to figure out how to do this for a couple of months now, and no where did anybody tell us the term is "pitch shifting," so we were using the wrong words on our google searches. Now that I know what the secret word is, I'm finding lots of tutorials and instructions.

When your sponsorship program starts up, I'll be one of the first to sign on!

Acid is out, my friend and I use Macs. However Reaper looks good. We'll give the new beta a try this week. Now that we know what we're looking for and how to go about it we might actually get somewhere this time.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I bet Garageband has a similar function, as well. :)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I should point out something, which is likely in those tutorials -- my method above really only works if the vocal is in a monotone, everything the same key. You're basically going to have to, erm, play it by ear -- adjusting everything manually to what the true tone is. It's not gonna be automatic, i.e., you can't just say, "Make this word a 'C'." You have to tweak it. That said, it shouldn't be too tough, especially if you have a MIDI or other music file to use as a guide.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

I informed my friend and after several hours and a dozen emails we found ourselves on the right track. Now to play around with all the stuff we found and see what works best for us.

Garageband will only let you shift the pitch of the entire track (at least as far as we know) but we will still be looking into it. We're hoping we can do it in Garageband because my friend knows it quite well. When he got his first mac a few years ago he was like a kid on xmas, sending me emails about how much fun he was having playing with iMovie, iPhoto, etc. But the biggest thrill was Garageband. He couldn't stop talking about how much fun it was to assemble loops into a song. So I asked him to send me a couple of tunes he created, but he declined, saying "It's all crap, but its the most fun crap I've have had in a long time!"

As for the monotone, text-to-speech is usually monotone to begin with. As long as we avoid exciting punctuation it should be close enough to work with. We just hope we can find something where we can get a track of music then tell the program to match the speech tract to the music track. That would make it a lot easier to tinker with. The fine adjustments can come later when we settle on a tune.

Thanks again for your help!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Fantastic -- you're on the right track. But be careful -- text-to-speech is one thing, but you'd be surprised how much inflection can get into even a computer-generated voice. Regular vocal reading, of course, is filled with wondrous lilts and scales of pitch, unless you're listening to Gillian Anderson.

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

Warning: I haven't tried this for anything serious.

On PC, at least, Reaper comes with a plug-in called ReaTune. It has a "Manual Correction" mode that shows you your audio with time on the X-axis and scale notes on the Y-axis. You can draw a line to indicate the time segment you want to shift and then drag the line up or down to a note position.

Reaper has different algorithms you can choose for doing this kind of thing. I hear the Elastique ones are well-liked. (You can search for that name for docs.)

[jacob-day.livejournal.com]

THANK you for an amazingly helpful response!

[poltr1]

IMO, for those of us that don't do 'Clave, this would be a great workshop or panel to host at OVFF.

Sidenote: I strongly suspect there's a lot more to Cakewalk Home Studio than what I already know.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

I would love to see Seannan added to the Iron Filker competition. I'm sorry I'll miss you at 'Clave, but I'm looking forward to seeing you at OVFF!

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

If Seanan's going to be at Conclave, that's news to me.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

I was unclear. On my wish list of kewl things to see in the future, I would like to see an Iron Filker competition that included Seanan in it, along with the folks who are doing one at ConClave.

I did not mean to imply that Seannan was going to be at ConClave and ought to be included in this year's contest.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

30 minutes?? Well, I guess the others will need that long. But to be fair they should only give you 15, even out the field a little :-)

[pjhandley.livejournal.com]

I'll be in the dealer room, but I may have to sneak out for a bit for the Iron Filk, LOL.......

[laurel-potter.livejournal.com]

I was wibbling on even attending this year, but I saw Joey Shoji's name listed as one of the people that was going to be there. Is that true? I haven't seen Joey in years. Anyone know if he has LJ?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

trektone. I know -- I haven't seen Joey for a long time myself. It's gonna be great.

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Tom! Yes, I look forward to seeing you, too! And even more amusing, two nights after I return from the trip I'll be seeing Christine Lavin in concert!

[jss]

Be very careful if she asks you to join her on stage. :-)

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Hello! Hey, might you be formerly Laurel G, then Laurel M? If not, my apologies.

But hello anyway!

[laurel-potter.livejournal.com]

JOEY!!!! SQUEEEEE!!!!

Well, it would have been nice to know you had an LJ! I'm friending you!

Yes, it's Laurel of the changing last names, lol.

I really, really hope to see you at Conclave.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Nope, no conflicts from me. Here's my schedule:

Friday, 6 PM, Apollo: Evolution of Filk: What filk was before it became what it is today and how did it get that way. (me, Bob and Anne Passavoy, Howard Scrimgeour)

Saturday, 1 PM, Apollo: Iron Filking (see above)

Sunday, 10 AM, Apollo: Beginning Voice workshop

Sunday, 11 AM, Apollo: Concert

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

Oh please let there be a recording of your concert... :) (Edits out redundant "Missing at Anthrocon" items)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

At the very least, I'll be recording it.

[singingpatient.livejournal.com]

you're back!? is this your first outing?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Not quite. I have a house concert in the Dulles Airport area the weekend before. But, yeah, my first con -- and, best of all, it's a half-hour down the road, just north of Detroit Metro Airport.

[druidsfire.livejournal.com]

I'll be having an early birthday party at Clave if I go... it's a bit iffy, since my going is incumbent on someone else going, since he was hosting/throwing the party, and RL is cheerfully kicking his butt right now.

ETA: also, if I'm there, I can record your concert like I did at MarCon, if you want.

[sdelmonte]

Quite thrilled to see that you will be making your return to the con world.

And loving that the hotel seems to have rooms called Columbia and Apollo. Those the real names, or the names assigned by the concom?

[solarbird]

This is, by the way, the best Livejournal post evar. At least, you know, for me, right now. IF you include the comments. ^_^

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Thirty minutes to write a filk using a "secret ingredient" in the lyrics? They should probably make you do it with one hand tied behind your back, just to be fair to the others.

[que-sara-sara.livejournal.com]

Chocolate Ritual.
Friday night.
7p.
After that I'm off to Ohio again.

Here's mine...

[singlemaltsilk.livejournal.com]

Friday, 7pm (Apollo): Yours Truly in Concert, featuring extra-special guest guitarist Michael "Moonwulf" Longcor.

Friday, 9pm (Apollo): The Bill and "Barry" Show, in which I shall bravely attempt to play stunt-double for Barry Gehm to beamjockey's Bill.

Sunday, Noon (Columbia): Obi 101 -- Ladies, come and learn to tie your obi, plus tips on finding/making the right obi for you. Feel free to bring an obi if you have one, or use the fabric provided at the demo.

Sunday 1pm (Apollo): Tweaking Your Performance. If you've been to OVFF, think 'juried one-shot'; if you came to UFAN at Capricon, think 'Performance Master Class'. Prepare at least a verse/chorus of a song you'd like to polish, and our panel of Wise and Kindly Old Judges will offer their best advice.