Ol Pros

Archive for August, 2011

Music Production Software is properly in most studios the home of the studio, if it wasnt for Fruity Loops, Reason, Logic Pro or even Pro Tools many studios could not function. If your thinking of becoming a producer or starting a music production studio, the software is very important. Don’t pick a software you feel is going to slow down your studio or is too much for your studio, pick what you feel is right and what you are comfortable with.

The most popular music production software out there right now is Fruity Loops, it is used by almost every new producer out there. It is very easily accessible and can be found floating about on the internet or bought from a local PC store. Reason 3/4 or even Logic Pro 8 made by Apple for mac are amazing and give your music amazing results, they are very popular choices made by producers as sequencers because of the amount of things that come with the software to enhance your music.

You should pick something that works well for you. You should sit down for a week and test of the demo versions. Be comfortable within what ever software you use to produce music, it will show in your music production. You should pick something to suit your level and skills too, i wouldn’t recommend a newbie producer to start with logic pro if they have never made a beat before. Do you research before you make the purchase of any music production software, watch tutorials and read reviews on the software you think would be best for you.

So you want to be a song writer. You’ve got all these tunes in your head and can write just about anything as long as there’s a tape recorder around to capture it. But then your publisher says he wants a lead sheet, or worse, a full blown score of your masterpiece. What do you do?

Play Music to the rescue.

If there’s a simpler piece of software to use nobody is talking about it. Play Music, by Notation Technologies, makes creating sheet music a breeze. If you have just a basic knowledge of music notation, then this software will do the rest so that your score has the professional look of store bought sheet music.

Play Music handles all the things that you will need in order to create a musical score. It can print every type of note there is from 32nd notes to whole notes. You can put together music in any time signature such as 3/4. 4/4 and even odd time signatures.

But Play Music goes way beyond the basics to all the subtleties of music. You can designate places to retard and accelerate the tempo. You can designate areas to play softer and louder. You can tie notes together. You can set up scores for multiple instruments including piano, violin, brass, just about anything, even voice.

Yes, the music software comes equipped with the ability to print lyrics, each of which can be placed under the corresponding note where they need to be sung, just like in the song books we all love to sing to during the holidays.

But, if all that isn’t enough, Play Music goes even farther.

Suppose you have a song that you’ve recorded on a MIDI recording device and you want to transfer that music to sheet music. No problem. Just copy your MIDI file to a disk, take it over to your computer and copy the disk file into the Play Music software. The software will then read the MIDI file and translate it into the corresponding sheet music, exactly as you played it. So if the music looks a little off, that’s because your timing is off. Yes, this software is that exact. And, if you have the ability to hook up your MIDI device to your computer then you can do a straight transfer directly to the Play Music software.

Play Music can also read standard MIDI files that you download off the Internet. This way you can play some of your favorite songs without having to buy the sheet music for it, just as long as the MIDI download itself is done legally. And if you have sheet music that you want to store as a MIDI file, Play Music can do the reverse process as well.

Considering the small price tag that comes with this software, it is probably one of the best bargains you’re going to find on the Internet. It isn’t as powerful as something like Passport, which costs five times as much, but for most people, Play Music will be all they’ll ever need to print sheet music that is good enough for any occasion.

Bill Belichick is said to be one of the greatest defensive strategists of the modern era. While we’re not going to pick apart Bill’s game plan to try to figure out why he’s so good at what he does, we are going to take a very basic look at defensive strategy and how to make your defense as effective as possible.

Unlike the offense, which essentially dictates how the play is going to go down, the defense is more reactionary, not that it can’t take an aggressive stance. We’ll get into that later. But for the most part, the defense has to react and react quickly to what the offense is doing. A split second can mean the difference between a stop and a score.

The offense basically has only two play options if you simplify this game. They are pass and run. Depending on which one the offense chooses, the defense must react accordingly.

Most pass plays are pretty obvious. The quarterback will take the ball from center and drop back in the pocket about 2 or 3 yards to pass. This is something that the defense will spot immediately and can react to by having their secondary go into proper coverage, since they now don’t have to worry about a run breaking into the secondary. They can give all their attention to the receivers.

But with some pass plays, they are not so obvious. The quarterback may take the ball from center and fake a handoff to a running back. The defense must not allow itself to be faked out by this. They need to keep their eye on the quarterback to see if he still has the ball. There is only so long that he can hide it. In the meantime, the front line of the defense can still stop the running back, even if he doesn’t have the ball.

In many cases, the play that is coming is going to be pretty obvious. In a third down and inches to go, the offense is going to look to run the ball. The defense will pretty much jam the box in this scenario in an attempt to keep the running back from making the first down. The same is true with long yardage plays. If it’s third down and 20 to go, you can pretty much have your front line blitz the quarterback and maybe even a strong safety along with it. The chances of a run here are pretty slim.

In all these instances, however, the defense is reacting. Well, the defense can also take a proactive stance. It can change its looks for each play, thus trying to confuse the offense with its coverage. This is something that Bill Belichick did so well as a defensive coordinator and even today as a head coach. The key to this game is to always keep your opponent guessing. Once he knows what’s coming all the time, your chances of stopping him on defense become much more slim.