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| U2 Downloads for Every Playlist |
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Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Thanks to digital technology, the music of U2 can be explored through single digital files instead of pouring through the cds in their extensive discography. Don’t know where to begin? Don’t fret. We’ve compiled a list of U2 downloads that every hipster simply must include on their digital playlist. “With or Without You” – From the critically acclaimed album, The Joshua Tree, this song was the first #1 single for the band in the United States. It reached #4 in the UK. The song has so far been featured on three TV series: Friends, The Office, and Cold Case. Considered an emotionally sad song, guitarist The Edge came up with a simple riff for the ending to affect a lifting of the spirits for listeners. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” – The second single from The Joshua Tree has become the most covered U2 song. A live recording of the song, featuring the New Voices of Freedom, was placed on 1988’s Rattle and Hum album. “Pride (In the Name of Love)” – A solid effort from The Unforgettable Fire, the song is the second most performed in the band’s tour history. The lyrical content reflects emotion and thought stemming from the civil rights movement and was inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders sang backup. “One” – Released in 2002 as the third single off of Achtung Baby, the title eventually became the inspiration ONE Campaign to fight poverty, which was launched by lead singer Bono. In 2006, it was voted Britain’s Best Lyric by the people of the UK. Recently, Mary J. Blige featured it on her Grammy Award-winning The Breakthrough, and featured the rockers for the recording. “Beautiful Day” – With the release of this single, U2 emerged back onto the national scene after largely experimental efforts during the mid to late 90s. The song garnered 3 Grammy Awards for the Irish quartet. Narrowing down to a selection of just five U2 downloads for a band of this caliber seems asinine. However, it’s a good place to start if you’re too young or otherwise unfamiliar with the historical success of the 22-time Grammy Award winners. It’s also a good stroll through memory lane, rendering curiosities of what’s to come as the band taunts fans with hints of a forthcoming album. Piano: Learn To Play Music In Time It is a good thing to be on the right place at the right time, is it not? Sometimes we call this ability timing. When you play piano this is a very important skill. The result will be music! To play the notes at your piano on the right keys and with timing does not mean that your notes will be played with mathematic precision. That would probably not be music. This is why a metronome will only help you halfway to this goal. You have to learn timing together with other people and by listening to good musicians. You learn timing when you learn to react musically upon other musicians playing. In music there is usually a pulse. To be able to discern this pulse and become a part of this groove is something we can develop. When you have acquired this skill your own playing will contribute to a good end result musically. Well, how then can you feel this pulse in music? You can dance or just move to music. When your whole body feels the pulse you are certainly on the right track. How the actual dancing is performed is no big deal, at least not as far as developing your pulse is concerned. I guess the most important matter is to cultivate the feeling of floating or surfing on the waves of music without any effort. Another important and effective way to develop timing in your piano playing is to play drums. I think this would be of great benefit to all musicians. To be able to create rhythmic patterns when drumming will help you a lot as a pianist. Actually, drums are not necessary! They can be quite expensive as we all know. You can improvise rhytmic patterns on you laps using you own hands. Quite cheap solution, really. Just one example, try to play eights by alternating between your hands and place the accent in different hands as you play. I feel that this is a very stimulating exercise for my mind. Maybe a form of meditation. Another way to develop your sense of pulse in your piano playing is to buy a metronome. This is nowadays a very little musical device that will give a 100% even pulse and it will help you learn to play in different tempos. As it is 100% accurate it is best not you use it all the time you play. Another more sophisticated rhythmic aid is a rhythm machine. Can also be bought as software to your computer and it has nearly unlimited possibilities. As before mentioned the art of timing is not the same as mathematically perfect piano playing. Well, in some music styles it might be appropriate to play piano in this way. When I use my recording software and for example take a look at the bass parts I produce I can see on the graphic representation on my computer screen that I often play before or after the beats on my bass guitar. As you probably know the notes can be quantisized with the help of the software to play exactly "accurate". Well, what mostly happens is that the whole production loses something very important. The music disappears. I usually play the bass guitar parts either ahead of the beat or a bit laid back to create energy in the music. My definition of pulse is something that is musical and a form of painting feelings with rhythm and notes. To be on time in music is to share your musical feelings with others. Article written by Peter Edvinsson. phil fischer - phil fischer - phil fischer Singing and recording : What has changed? The techniques used to record vocals these days are essentially the same as those used fifty years ago. Microphone technology has not really progressed; pre-amplifiers and compressors have not really changed either, though they might sport more features and controls. Even though the way we capture the sound has changed some people still prefer to record onto ferrous tape. Digital recording is no longer new either and dates back to the early nineteen eighties. So what has changed has changed? Well, software and accessibility. We are now able to manipulate what we record beyond our wildest dreams. When I started recording in the late nineteen eighties I was using an eight track tape machine which meant when you recorded a vocal it had to be a near to perfect as you could get it because timing and pitch could not be altered at all. Today with a few clicks of the mouse you can move every word around to your heart’s content in an audio sequencer. Auto-tune plug-ins can correct pitch issues in very near real time. To top it all most people with a pc, microphone, pre-amplifier and a modicum of interest in music and recording can have access to all the marvels of the making music in the digital world right there in their front room or bedroom. It does not, however, guarantee they will become the next George Martin or say, Freddy Mercury but it does mean they can record and edit to a pretty decent standard with limited means. For musicians these advantages are obvious as they no longer need to pay for expensive studio time to record their music. Perhaps they will record just the drums at a studio then edit the results to tighten the performance before laying down the other instruments in the comfort of their own home at their own leisure and speed. There is also so much information on the internet that if you do have a technical issue then someone, almost undoubtedly, will have posted a solution on the internet that you can find within minutes. Go back fifty years and you would have struggled to find someone who knew what phase cancellation was in your own city never mind find someone who knew how to correct or avoid it. Skills are therefore becoming less specialized as more information is available to us all. You would think that this technological revolution would mean there are more amazing singers being discovered. Sadly, the answer is probably no. Why? Well, software is making people lazy and blunting their performance skills. For instance, I record someone singing a vocal; the take is ok but slightly out of time and out of tune. I try to coax another take out of him but he is tired or needs to be somewhere else. “Come on John, a bit of auto tune and a nip and a tuck here and there and it will be fine” he might tell me. On one level he is right. If it is not too bad then it can be corrected using software and good judgment but that will not make him a better singer. These days everyone thinks they can sing. Probably half the singers in the top forty cannot sing properly and their careers rely on clever engineers and the latest software. Let us face it: you need to have talent or work very hard to become a good singer! If I can offer any advice laymen advice it would be as follows: It is important with vocals as with all REAL instruments to learn how to ''get them down". By that I mean how to get a good take down. Identify your weaknesses and work to work to overcome them rather than relying on software that can sometimes often cheapen the results. Always try to get a good signal recorded. You should not exceed -2 decibels. Try not to record with any equalization and if the performance does not need compression to control it then you can leave that until later too. Always use a pop shield. A good tip is too really practice singing your lines without the music and indentify where you are going wrong. Then break it down and focus on the bad bits. Let the microphone do the work, you do not need to shout or force it. Try to control your breathing from your diaphragm (this takes practice). Practice your vowels and mouth sounds too as this helps develop clearer execution. Good timing is essential but not difficult to master if you know you lines. Try to know your lines off by heart so that you are not distracted by reading at the same time as you are trying to sing. Most people tend to sing out of tune when they cannot hear what they are singing properly i.e. the mix is too loud in their headphones or the bass is too loud in their headphones. In fact headphones are difficult to use for many singers; some top producers have the mix coming out of the control room monitors with the singer and microphone in there in front of the monitors (you can use a noise gate to take out the spill later). Try it and see if works for you. Remember not to have the volume too loud or the microphone pointing at the monitors. It is essential, however, to always use a pop shield. The gap between mediocre and great music is narrower these days as more and more people are having a go at making music and in general we are getting used to hearing mediocre music while thinking it is something special. If you are serious about singing, recording, or making music then strive to improve continually in every area. Do not rely on software to make you sound good rather use it wisely to help nurture and express your music. I record royalty free music for whitebeetle.com and album for artists and I am constantly trying to improve what I do. To me it is an endless quest. |
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