Creative Commons Soundtracks: Even More Fun With 8Packs

I'm still sticking to my resolution to take the free 8Pack released by Sony each week, to turn it into something else and then release it under the creative commons licence. As long as it's fun I'll keep doing it.

I am working on a simple video tutorial on using Sony Acid to score video. Hopefully that will be available before I post my next bunch of 8Pack pieces.

I hadn't realized that it has been over a month since I last posted anything here so here's the last 6 weeks:

Voiceless Glottal Plosive by the other Martin Taylor

Rerolled Credits by the other Martin Taylor

Carried Away Again by the other Martin Taylor

Extensions Extended by the other Martin Taylor

Solar ReCycled by the other Martin Taylor

Simulcast Expressions by the other Martin Taylor

Windows 7 Sound Issue: Unwanted Reverb Stuck On

I had a strange problem with my little, Dell laptop (Inspiron 1318) the other day. I thought I'd put the issue and solution out there just in case anyone else encounters it. The issue was as if a reverb effect was stuck on.

I was about to work on a podcast that I edit in Audacity when I noticed that the source audio was dripping in reverb. If you have edited any audio yourself you'll know that you want the audio as dry as possible so that you can choose when and how to apply effects. At first I though the reverb had been added to source audio as it was recorded but then I noticed there was reverb applied to any audio I listened to - YouTube videos, MP3s in my music library, they all came through drenched in horrible reverb. Something was wrong with my machine.

The funny thing is that I wouldn't know how to add blanket reverb to all audio on my machine. I checked my audio driver from Dell and reinstalled it even through it was already up to date.That didn't make any difference.

To get rid of it I had to uninstall the audio driver and then reinstall it from scratch. To do this:

• "Start" button and select "Computer"
• Select "System properties" from the top menu bar of the "Computer" window
• Select "Device Manager" from the left-hand "Control Panel Home"
• Select "Sound, video, and game controllers" to show your audio device(s)
• Select the audio device you are currently using then right-click and select "uninstall."
• Reboot to complete the uninstall.
• On startup, Windows will detect the sound card and re-install drivers.
• It may require another reboot but your sound should now be clean

I hope this information is clear and useful to anyone else who encounters this weird problem.

Creative Commons Soundtracks: Fun With Acid

I'm still really enjoying messing around in Sony Acid Music Studio. I claim to be a photographer and a videographer so there is often a stress to perform in those roles. I make no such claims to be a musician so nothing is expected of me and I can just play. Acid is like finger painting with sound and it takes no time to be able to create something out of nothing and isn't that the appeal for many creative activities?

I've continued to take the free 8Pack downloads each week and make something of my own out of them. Hopefully I'm not remaking the same piece over and over but I have noticed  a signature in the way I work: I trawl through the loops until I find one that really appeals to me , usually a drone, or percussive sound (but not full drum loop) that I can use as the backbone of the piece and build everything else around. Perhaps I should challenge myself to write something that does not have one loop that runs through almost the whole thing? As that one constant is what holds everything else together in my head that may be tricky for me but I'll give it a go.

Tales To Be Retold by the other Martin Taylor

Duality Reexamined by the other Martin Taylor

Even More Dynamic Low Z by the other Martin Taylor


I've also entered a couple of challenges; the first Soundcloud Soundbites challenge:

Sound Bites: Soundtrack for Train, Utility Poles & a Sunset by the other Martin Taylor


and Frequent Traveller's East Croydon Remix Competition:

East Croydon Taylor-made Remix by the other Martin Taylor

Again, there's something very low-stress about entering a competition and putting your work out there in a field in which you're an absolute beginner. By contrast, I have started assembling my entry for the next Blurb Photography Now book contest. Last time I poured days of time and effort into my entry just to be ignored and it destroyed me. It's taken me two years to recover the strength to consider putting myself through that again. Ignoring my music is fine because that is just messing around - I'm serious about my photography through; if I put my photography work out there and it get's dissed or ignored it's a whole other ball of wax.

Creative Commons Soundtracks: 8 Pack Remix

If you happen to be in to Sony Acid Music Studio (or Pro) you'll know what the 8-Packs are. For the rest of the world the 8-Packs downloads are a song and all the source loops required to created that piece that Sony releases to the world, generally each week. You have one week to download the current 8-Pack and then it's gone forever. With the help of my handy RSS reader I've been religiously downloading the 8-Packs for a year ot more. The loops they contain are valuable. Deconstruction the songs is inspiring. The fact that it's all free, Royalty-free music that you can customize easily yourself makes them invaluable.

However, I've recently been thinking that I should be doing more with each 8-Pack than downloading it to my Acid resource repository on my PC, rendering out an MP3 and then forgetting about it. I should take advantage of these little collections of loops and see what I can come up with using them as opposed to the 'official' song that comes with them. I've done this for the past 2 weeks and I'll try to keep doing it for the next 50. It's a great way to learn how to score for your own movies - even if what I come up with is not as good as what a real musician would make at least I'm learning the techniques and language and that has to be worth something doesn't it?

I've looked around and I'm surprised that no one else is doing this but here are my first two efforts. In the future I'll post a month's worth at once. Of course, if you want to use anything they're all available under the creative commons licence from SoundCloud.

Post-Apocalypse Revisited by the other Martin Taylor

They Rise Again ... Again by the other Martin Taylor

Creative Commons Soundtracks: Part 3

I am having trouble finding much in the way of tutorials for Sony Music Studio. Not that there's a lot out there for the pro version either and what little there is largely works in the consumer version too. Luckily, if you're a Vegas user already, Acid is very intuitive but I thought there'd be a huge fan base especially among semi-musically literate film makers looking for royalty free scores they have control over. I'm still only playing with the looping part of the program but I am trying to find a midi controller keyboard on Craigslist to start playing with that third of the program and I'll look at the audio recording part of the program too. Until then here are my latest creative commons efforts:

Saturday Morning Drive by the other Martin Taylor

Nothin' to be Blue About (Acoustic Blues In E) by the other Martin Taylor