In our megadigest we talk about the intricacies of working in the audio industry, tell the history of unusual musical instruments, plus remember fairy tales and radio plays of the Soviet Union.
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Money, career and that's all
It's never too late to change your life, but it's better to know some nuances in advance. We tell you how to get a job on the radio. The algorithm of actions is as follows: record a good “demo”, pass an interview, and be ready to learn a lot. Bonus advice for those who are already doing an internship somewhere: go to corporate events at your radio station - you never know who from the management you will meet.
Continuation of the previous material - this time we analyze the features of the work of beginning musicians. Why you shouldn’t strive to get into an already “ready-made” group, when to update your music library and what tools will help you get comfortable with a DJ console and turntables.
Our material is about the competencies that a DJ, radio host, as well as a sound engineer who wants to get into the gaming or film industry must have. In addition, we’ll talk about the work of “noisemakers”—specialists who record individual and composite sounds for dubbing films and TV series. Often, in order to create full-fledged images and “revive” technological elements (like the drop-down doors of the Enterprise bridge), they have to achieve a completely new sound that cannot be easily picked up and met anywhere with a microphone in hand.
Albums are the backbone of the 1960th century music industry. In 1980–XNUMX, the proceeds from their sales could exceed the earnings from the tours of the average musical group twice. But everything changed with the advent of streaming services. They dealt a serious blow to the value of physical media and disrupted the plans of aspiring musicians to make any kind of serious income, usual for this industry.
During the first decade of the XNUMXst century, revenue from music sales fell by half. In the article we talk about alternative sources of income for performers: from merch and side projects to combining creativity with regular work. We will also tell you why touring is not a profitable activity, contrary to the expectations of beginners.
Using examples, we look at three ways to make alternative money in the music industry: advertising, commercial music and crowdfunding - hip-hop legends De La Soul raised $600 thousand in this way.
The pay what you want model means that artists sell their album or track without a fixed price. In general, the approach proved to be ambiguous. We talk about the experiences of bands such as Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead.
Musical Instruments
This is our historical overview of instruments such as the theremin, omnichord and hang: how they work, why they did not gain popularity and where to find them today. In we're talking about niche instruments from the XNUMXth to XNUMXth centuries: the hurdy-gurdy, the jew's harp, the cajon and the saw - now used by ethnic groups and performers.
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Historical information about unique keyboard instruments and the people who played them. In the article: the progenitor of synthesizers is the Hammond organ, the full-featured Synclavier music studio and the Vako Orchestron optical organ. For each of them we found a video recording of the sound.
A selection of groups and performers playing musical instruments made from scrap materials: a seashell instead of a trombone, flutes made from vegetables and a guitar made from a tennis racket. There are a lot of videos in the article.
We tell the story of “Continuum,” whose character and nuances of sound production depend entirely on the performer. Let's figure out how the tool was invented and why a whole community formed around it. By the way, it is still used today - composer Derek Duke wrote soundtracks for Diablo III and World of Warcraft on Continuum.
Trautonium appeared in the XNUMXth century - during the period between the two world wars. The instrument was never able to go beyond a narrow circle of enthusiasts, but it still left its mark on world culture. We talk about the structure and history of Trautonium, which was used by Richard Strauss and Oscar Sala.
We're talking about devices that helped twentieth-century composers experiment with sound. We recall the various optical instruments of the 1920–1930s, electromechanical synthesizers and samplers, which are still popular with modern musicians. In particular, we will talk about “Nivoton” by Nikolai Voinov, “Vibroexponent” by Boris Yankovsky and a sampler for home music playing Optigan.
This instrument was used for progressive rock by both musicians of the nineties (Oasis, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and modern pop performers (Daido, Nelly Furtado). But its history began much earlier - back in the mid-twentieth century. In the material we tell you why composers loved him.
Not forgotten old
Records are once again gaining popularity among music lovers and collectors. Vinyl isn't just making a comeback, new technologies are emerging in this area, like HD vinyl. We analyze the reasons for the “renaissance” of the retro format and other nuances.
Not only vinyl, but also flexible records are finding their way into the hands of enthusiasts. For example, in 2017, the Australian rock band Tame Impala album on them. We invite you to learn about the history of this medium - why it was loved in the world and the USSR.
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The era of children's audio plays began in the middle of the last century, and Soviet actors and musicians were involved in recording. We remember famous musicals and fairy tales on records. For example, we talk about the fate of Alice in Wonderland.
The radio drama genre originated in the thirties, but even today radio dramas continue to appear on the air of Russian and Western stations. We discuss popular audio plays of the last century: “War of the Worlds”, “Archers”, “Doctor Who”.
Today, bobinniks are “hunted” by collectors and audio enthusiasts. The article recalled ten popular models and their technical characteristics: from the Soviet Mayak-001 to the Japanese Pioneer RT-909.
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Source: habr.com