Hello, this is Terry Ewell and in this video I am presenting to you ways in which to copy and remix music. So I begin with this question, “ What if I wanted to copy or remix portions of ColdPlay’s ‘Viva La Vida?’” What would be the ways that I as a musician could do this? What are the technologies that would allow me to do this? Please note that I am not discussing in this video whether it is ethical or legal for me to do so. Rather, I am providing you the context, the understanding of what tools are available nowadays that could be used to do so.
First understand that in music software and music programs there are three basic different types. There are programs that largely deal with notation, which is writing down music so that it can be printed out or inputted as notation. There are programs that deal with MIDI. MIDI means “Musical Instrument Digital Interface.” Last of all there are programs that edit the audio of a portion of music (that is the sounds that are recorded). So we are going to look at all three types of these programs.
Now to begin with, let’s take a brief overview of history and how technology has changed the way in which music can be copied, remixed, or sampled. If we start in the 1800s or earlier, what we find is that there is a composer who would write down the music—this would be written, there would be a printed form of the music—and then from this notation performers would then play the music. At that time the only way to hear music would be to hear it live. You would need the musician there in the proximity of the listener.
When we get to the 1920s or 30s by this time broadcasted music, that is over radio, is quite popular and is making its way certainly throughout America as a means in which music is enjoyed. In addition, we find the beginning of the phonograph. This recorded music is becoming more and more popular. So a consumer could purchase what we now call a record player (but at that time a phonograph player) and then hear the selection that they wished at their own convenience. In addition we find, of course, movies and film that are quite popular in theaters.
After World War II we find the television becoming quite widespread in America throughout households. In the 50s and 60s and even through the 70s we find that more and more households have television. Naturally through television you see musicians perform and their music is heard.
By the 1970s there is an important innovation that comes about: the tape recorder is available to consumers. Consumers could then buy a machine that could then record music and sounds. In fact when I was in high school and college in the 70s I do recall taking my tape recorder and recording music off of the radio so that I could hear it at my leisure.
When we get to the 1980s there was an important innovation, which occurred in the gaming industry: musical instrument digital interface, MIDI. This was used in many of the games produced at that time. This became a wonderful tool for musicians in the future and still remains an interesting tool that is used even today. What is so unusual about MIDI is that here we find an encoding of music instructions in a digital format. That is one of the first times we have seen this. Please understand that MIDI is not sound, MIDI is a file that contains instructions for how music is to be played by what is called a “MIDI player.”
In the 1990s we find the rise of the CD player. Obviously a few years later we get the DVD player. So we find now that there are products available for the consumer by which they can listen to music at their own convenience and even their own location.
When we “fast forward” now to our current year we find with digital media that music can be shared, music can be created, music can be captured all through computers and software. This is an important change. Prior to let’s say 2005 or so you didn’t find that music or musical sounds were easily put into zeros and ones that could be transported by computers and shared over the Internet. But when we get to our year (now), and obviously a few years prior, we have this innovation. Everything that is music whether it is notation, whether it is music sounds, whether it is music instructions such as MIDI, they can all be in files with zeros and ones that can be read by computers with programs. Now everything is portable.
OK, so in summary, we start with the 1800s where there has to be a physical copy of the music. Music cannot be enjoyed without a physical copy or a musician presenting it. As we begin to move through the ages we find then that music is broadcast. It can be received and enjoyed without a physical copy at hand. However, it is the industry that has the ability to do so. In order to have a radio station in the 1920s or a television station in the 1950s, [you had to have money] they were expensive. Consumers couldn’t own those.
When we get to the 1970s consumers then have access to music. They can control when and where they hear music. Here again it is through a physical copy. When we get to the 80s and 90s we are again seeing the consumer interact with either machines or physical copies of the music encrypted in some fashion.
When we move to 2012 we find a huge difference. That difference being that the digital format of music, the way in which the music can be shared through zeros and ones, through computers, has dramatically changed “the game.” So we will be looking at how software has changed the game for the way in which music can be shared, mixed, and captured.