As a rocker at heart, I was never much interested in music theory. I picked it up as a matter of requirement throughout my education in bits and dribbles, though it seemed at the end of the day all I could do was read notes off a staff—a musical technology that’s not even really used in my genre.
The problem with the prevailing ideas about music theory and how supposedly useless it is, is that they lump a whole bunch of knowledge under one small label. Some of what we call “music theory” is mind-numbingly boring, some is plain useless for many popular musicians, and some is just hard to get a handle on. But there is a wealth of knowledge there that musicians can use to improve their work.
It wasn’t until about six months ago that I saw the value of interval ear training, something often lumped under that “useless music theory” banner, and started applying myself to it. And all my rocker friends said, “Why bother with all that theoretical stuff when we don’t even use it?”
But ear training isn’t theory. It’s practical. When you take a mere ten minutes out of your day, every day, to master this aspect of the musical field, you’ll find you’re better able to transcribe and dissect riffs that inspire you, and better yet, turn the tunes in your head into tunes you can play without spending hours guessing the notes. Even if you’re a rocker.
If you want to unlock these benefits, then you’re reading the right piece. I’m going to get you off to a head start by providing you with song associations for all the intervals in an octave, and next week I’m going to point you towards some great applications and Web sites that will help you get the training done. (more…)
Even the most hardened veteran benefits from updating skills and experimenting with new ideas. And as someone who learnt most of their profession from online tutorials I can testify to the utility of a good tutorials site! So it’s with a lot of pleasure that I announce our latest member of the TUTS family of sites – AUDIOTUTS!
The site is being managed and edited by the talented Skellie who has a whole array of writers who will be writing on everything from DJ’ing to production. The first tutorial went up a few hours ago by the illustrious Mo Volans and is titled:
Create a Reverse Reverb Effect
So head over, bookmark the site, add it to your feed list and if you’re into stumbling, give it the thumbs up!
Like most of us when we’re in the studio, it’s hard to get me to work with anything other than the industry standards; Pro Tools, Reason, Logic (which sort of falls into that category), and so on. But given the rising prices of just about everything under the sun, not to mention the chronic emptiness of the musician’s wallet, it’s worth taking a look at the alternatives out there that can be had for free.
The price is not the only great thing about free, cross-platform apps. They don’t require you to stick a damn dongle in your computer and use up a precious USB slot. And knowing that you can get on almost any computer in the world, download an app and work on your project is always reassuring.
I’m not saying that these apps can replace Pro Tools or Reason as the apps of choice, but they are totally free. It’s hard to complain about that! The main thing is that they will let you get the job done. If I could just find a free DAW that opens Pro Tools sessions…
Traverso
Traverso is a lightweight but powerful DAW that works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Professionals who’ve tried this software comment that despite some strange interface decisions (such as having to hold shift and click to move the playhead), it’s a viable option for those looking for a free alternative. (more…)
Editor’s Note: This competition has now closed. Winners will be announced shortly—subscribe to the blog to find out if it was you!
Are you an AudioJungle referrer (or are thinking about it)? Then do we have a competition for you!
Every referral to AudioJungle until August 1st will go in the draw to win one of two US$500 gift vouchers to ThinkGeek.com. ThinkGeek has every cool gizmo and gadget you could imagine, as well as clothes, bags, watches, astronaut icecream and much more. Sound good? Here’s how you enter…
If you’re already signed up as a referrer, just keep on doing what you’re doing and get your referrer link out there. Every new sign-up will mean one entry into the competition!
If you are not yet a referrer, never fear, you can still enter. All you need to do is log in, click here, and you’ll see your referrer link. You can use it anywhere you like (outside of the FlashDen/AudioJungle sites), and every time someone clicks through then deposits cash you’ll not only earn half that cash but will go into the draw to win one of the ThinkGeek US$500 gift vouchers!
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Okay, so that’s a Daft Punk song. Really the title should be bigger, better, and um… more musical?
This is just a quick post to update everyone on what’s happening over here. We’ve got some great stats and news to share:
- Audio sales have grown by over 40% since AudioJungle launched! For those of you that are new here, audio used to be on FlashDen so that is how we can compare. A 40% growth in 3 weeks is really, really exciting, and we’re doing everything we can to keep sales growing.
- We have received over 55,000 visitors in the three weeks since launch – not too shabby.
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500 new people signed up to AudioJungle since launch! Welcome new members
- The AudioJungle authors competition is going strong, with plenty of new authors uploading some fantastic work!
- There are some insanely fabulous AudioJungle wallpapers being submitted for the PSDTUTS and AudioJungle competition. Check them out at Flickr.
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We have launched an aggressive ad campaign and have been having particular success with Adwords. We’re experimenting and looking for new ways to keep that traffic coming.
So there you have it. I think we can conclusively say that AJ is on the up and up! We’ll keep you posted with stats and updates in the coming months.
One of the coolest things about our new site has to be the name. Whenever I hear it I think huge, booming speakers in the amazon or of frogs with headphones. With such an awesome name, we’ve decided we need some awesome wallpapers to go with.
So in a moment of clever, cross-promotion, we’ve just launched a contest to design AudioJungle wallpapers over at our photoshop community PSDTUTS. The site has over a million visitors a month and some of them are scarily good at photoshop, so we can expect some serious visual goodness!
If audio isn’t your only game, and you fancy yourself a bit of a photoshopper as well, be sure to enter, there’s in excess of $1500 worth of cash and prizes on offer, making it the biggest PSDTUTS contest ever.
I’ll be posting the best entries back here on AudioJungle when it’s all said and done, so look out!
AudioJungle is overflowing with amazing loops, but there are some that are so good that they just sell again and again and again. I thought today I’d profile our ten highest selling files for your enjoyment and their uber-talented authors…
Author: Butters
Butters has been with us a long time, and this tune doesn’t fail to disappoint…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Author: Solidbeats
Solidbeats is the king of ambient, and one of our most popular audio authors. You can hear more of his work below, too…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
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In the tradition of the FlashDen referral program, the AudioJungle referral program is now available. Just like the FlashDen referral program, referrers earn a 50% commission on new users first deposits!
The AudioJungle referral system is very easy to use. Just check out the referral page and if you’re logged on it will include your link already. You can also link to specific products or pages using this link.
We’ve also provided a series of banner ads in various sizes for you to use if you wish. See the full collection here, but here is what they look like:
You can get all the details on the Referral Program page, and feel free to contact Support if you need any help or further information!
With AudioJungle out in the wild, we here at Eden HQ are working hard to begin promotions and marketing. Since after all, traffic = users = buyers = everyone wins! So it’s been press releases and emails and submissions every which way.
We’ll be launching a double site referral program very shortly so that members can generate income in the same way as they do referring users to FlashDen. But in the meantime if you’ve got a spare moment to help get the AudioJungle word out, pay a visit to these social networking pages:
- Stumble:
http://audiojungle.net
- Digg:
http://digg.com/music/Microstock_Sound_AudioJungle_Launches
- Reddit:
http://reddit.com/info/6l1f3/comments/
- Mixx:
http://www.mixx.com/stories/336638/sound_and_audio_stock_audiojungle
- Propeller:
http://music.propeller.com/story/2008/05/27/audiojungle-launches/
- DesignFloat:
http://www.designfloat.com/WebDesign/audiojungle-launches/
Editor’s Note: This competition has now closed. Winners will be announced shortly—subscribe to the blog to find out if it was you!
There’s nothing better to launch a new website than a competition! To celebrate the launch of AudioJungle we are giving an awesome prize to one lucky author. It’s super easy to enter – here’s how it works…
From now until August 1st 2008, every audio loop that is accepted into the library will go into the running to win this fantastic prize – the Axiom 61 Advanced 61-Key Semi-Weighted USB MIDI Controller. (more…)
