Vimeo have rolled out a shiny new mobile site – and yes it looks at gorgeous as website. All videos are served in H.264 goodness. I like the little touches, like the fact Vimeo removes the Safari “browser” shell. You’ll have to see what I mean for yourself.
The choice of H.264 encoding is significant because it means another prominent site is making video available in a non-Flash format. In a similar vein Vimeo also launched a beta of their new HTML5 player, and Google is now testing an HTML5 version of YouTube.
–No, not the iTunes store, but it can be in your iTunes for free. Download it from my website, djearworm.com. You don’t need to pay the iTunes store to put free mp3s in your iTunes software, you just download the mp3 and then double-click on it (or drag it into your iTunes if that doesn’t work).
2. Why is that artist I hate in your list, and why isn’t that artist I love in your list?
–This is based on the Top 25 songs of Billboard’s 2009 year-end list. I didn’t choose the songs. The complete list is here: http://www.billboard.com/charts-year-…
3. Why is that song from last year in the list? Why isn’t that song which was so popular toward the end of the year on the list?
–Billboard’s cutoff date is Dec 1st, to give them time to calculate the results and publish them well before New Years Day, which is good for me, since I need a little time to put this together and release it before the end of the year!
4. How long did this take you?
–If you add it up, about a month. About two weeks earlier in the year using educated guesswork, and then two weeks between when Billboard released the list and when I put it out.
5. What software did you use?
–Ableton Live for arranging the music. It’s AWESOME, and it’s what I use to DJ live with as well. Final Cut Pro for the video. For acapella extraction, see the next question.
6. How did you get the vocals without the instruments?
–if you search for “acapella” with the name of your song, you might find an isolated vocal. In some cases, I use a bit of Adobe Audition (the Center Channel Extractor effect) for vocal isolation. This removes instruments that are to the left or right in your stereo, and leaves only the sound that’s in the center. You can also use this effect to take an instrumental and a full track to create an acapella. Check out my book “Audio Mashup Construction Kit” for more details on this technique, there’s a whole chapter on it. In a few instances I used Melodyne Studio for vocal isolation.
7. What are the lyrics? Who sang that one part? I didn’t hear that one artist!
–I’ve posted the complete lyrics as well as a guide to where each of the lyrics and instruments came from.
8. I want to make mashups, do you have any tips?
–Learn as much music theory as possible! Get ACID or Ableton Live, and learn it well. Make sure you understand key and tempo, so you can sync everything and get the parts to harmonize correctly. If you’re of a technical mindset, my book “Audio Mashup Construction Kit” covers my techniques in great detail.
9. Can I repost this video?
–PLEASE, NO, and thanks for asking! You can use the MUSIC if you want (please credit me), but don’t simply repost the video in its entirety. I don’t get paid for this and I like to keep the views, comments, and ratings on my video, not some leecher’s channel. I can’t seem to get some people to remove the video no matter how nicely I ask, and youtube can’t seem to help, even though I flag them. I think there’s like half a million views that I’m not getting. I like to be all about positivity, but it is frustrating! Feel free to leave appropriate feedback and ratings on any leechers videos or channels!
10. Doesn’t this prove how much pop music sucks nowadays and is basically interchangeable?
–Not at all. If you alter the tempo and pitch of any music enough, you could get anything to fit together, whether it’s Bach or the Black Eyed Peas. What it does prove is how far technology has come to make these alterations sound convincing. I’ve manipulated some of these vocals HEAVILY.
Love this campaign site SVT – a Swedish TV iPhone app.
Everything on a single page – campaign idea, open letter to steve job, video product demo, selection of screenshots, pre-filled twitter message and feed, twingly and facebook feeds, live video streaming from Apple HQ (I’m assuming it’s spoofed), click “Ya” to announce approval if you’re Steve Jobs, “Ya” ticker and Youtube webcam “Ya” uploads.
Sounds like a lot but it works really well for this.
The kicker is that it turns out that the approval campaign is a PR stunt – the app was only submitted the day before it all broke. Not many people will know that. But Apple will.
Wonder if SVT might find themselves having a few ‘approval difficulties’ for this one.
Update: Apple has just released the following statement:
The SVT app was just submitted for App Store approval today. We look forward to reviewing it as part of the normal review process in hopes that it may soon join the more than 100,000 apps already on the App Store.”