Shockwave-Sound blog

This blog has moved

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:03:00 +0000

This blog is now located at http://blog.shockwave-sound.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://blog.shockwave-sound.com/feeds/posts/default.

When music tracks are removed from our catalogue

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:06:00 +0000

I wanted to write a little note about what happens when we remove a track, or several tracks, from our catalog of royalty-free music and why this is sometimes done.

We like to try to keep our catalog fresh and current. When we started Shockwave-Sound.com back in March of 2000, there were some stock music companies out there still selling music from the 1980's. This really gave us an edge over them, because while they were selling music that sounded dated, we sold fresh, new, contemporary and up to date music. It's fair to say we were a breath of fresh air.

It is now 10 years on, and we are acutely aware of the dangers of going into the same trap as those guys with royalty free music from the 80's. In another 10 years, we don't want to be selling music that's 20 years old. For this reason, we will always "prune" our catalog and we will occasionally remove tracks that are either getting old, and/or haven't made any sales for a long time.

From time to time, the composer himself may choose to have his music removed from our site. Most of the music we have online is signed to us on a non-exclusive basis, which basically just means that the composer is "lending" us the tracks and we pay the composer a royalty for each time the track is sold through our site. This non-exclusive contract has a minimum term of one year, after which either party can decide to end the contract.

Although it's pretty rare, it has happened that a composer decides to have his music withdrawn from our site and do something else with the music instead. For example, he may have received an offer to sell the tracks completely to a production company, or been offered a contract to release the music on a CD album through a music publishing company. If a composer asks to have his music removed from our site, we obviously comply with this, so long as the one-year minimum term has been fulfilled. For example, this week we removed all stock music tracks by David Leckenby on his request - which is what prompted me to write this article.

But what happens to the lifetime license if you're already licensed a track from us, that we or the composer decided to withdraw from sale? Don't worry: Your lifetime license is safe. As part of the written contract that we have with all our composers/contributors it is specifically stated that all licenses that we sell through our site shall last in perpetuity, even if either party decides to end the relationship and withdraw the tracks from sale. So if you've licensed a track from us last year, and that track has now been removed from sale, the license you already purchased is still good, and it will be so, in perpetuity.

GoDigital Media Group music ownership claims

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:49:00 +0000

Last fall around October/November, we here at Shockwave-Sound.com started to receive emails from worried customers who had licensed music from our site, used the music in YouTube videos, and received notifications from YouTube stating that the music "contains music owned by GoDigital Media Group".

We were unprepared for this and very much puzzled, because this was music actually owned by our own company, Lynne Publishing, and some of it composed by Shockwave-Sound.com manager Bjorn Lynne, personally.

After a bit to and from, it turned out that this situation was set in motion by a stock music distributor called Audiosparx having set up a "Ad Sharing Program", in which composers were supposed to receive micro payments from YouTube after YouTube had put advertising on vidoes that contained this music, and that this program by default included all music that was listed at AudioSparx.

Audiosparx has submitted 15,000 music tracks to GoDigital and GoDigital are using "fingerprinting" recognition on music playing on YouTube. When a match is found, YouTube sends out a notice to the video uploader claiming that the video contains music "owned by GoDigital" (although the wording has lately been tweaked to "owned or licensed by.."). YouTube puts advertisements on the video, and pays money to GoDigital Media Group -- all of which is happening without the permissions of the composers or publishers who actually own the music.

AudioSparx, to their credit, when they found out the kind of serious problem this setup was causing, they pulled the plug on the whole program, apologized, and withdrew from the deal with GoDigital. This happened in early January, but, unfortunately, as of February 12, the problem has not been solved. GoDigital are currently monetizing royalty-free music without permission from the composers or publishers. Apparently there is some technical problem with getting the music removed from their databases, and this has been their line since January.

We here at Shockwave-Sound.com would like to apologize to any customer who has legally licensed music from us, only to receive disturbing copyright dispute emails from YouTube. Let me assure you that all music licensed through Shockwave-Sound.com is 100% legally licensed to you and that GoDigital Media Group have no genuine rights to claim any ownership over the music.

On a personal note, I have to say that it's disturbing for me to actually compose and produce a piece of music myself, play all the instruments myself, mix and record everything, publish the music through my own company.... only to be told that some company I had never even heard of is claiming ownership over the music and making money on it -- and at the same time sending disturbing copyright messages to my customers who licensed the music from my own site. And all the while, without a penny coming my way.

We will keep asking GoDigital Media Group to stay off our music, and we hope that the problem will clear up very soon. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion caused to our customers.

Shockwave-Sound.com goes High Definition for stock music

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:31:00 +0000

It's not 1985 any more.

It has actually been around 30 years since the Compact Disc came on the market, we all went out and bought Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" on CD and were amazed at the crystal clarity of the sound. And with the invention of the CD came the digital audio standard: 16-bit sample depth, and 44100 Hz sample rate. This "standard" has stuck with us for an incredible amount of time.

Since then, the professional audio- and video production community has more or less made the move up to High Definition, High Resolution sound. Studios now generally work in 24-bit and at sample rates of either 44100, 48000 (probably the most common these days), and sometimes even 96000 or, to be extreme, 192000 Hz.

Here at Shockwave-Sound.com this January, you'll more and more often be seeing this symbol:

When you see this symbol attached to a product (be it an individual track or a ready-made collection), it means that this product is available in High Definition, 24-bit audio.

We don't charge more for the High Definition, 24-bit WAV files than we do for the normal, CD-quality, 16-bit WAV files.

Every purchase of a 24-bit WAV file also includes the 16-bit "normal CD-quality" file. We mark these products as (wav24) in our product listings. For example, you may see a track that looks like this:

You'll notice the "HD" logo showing as part of the track description, and you'll notice that some (or all) of the WAV versions are now called (wav24) instead of just (wav). The (wav24) description means that with this purchase you will be able to download a .zip file that contains the chosen music track/version in two files: One high definition 24-bit file, and another file with the same music in "normal" CD-quality, 16-bit sound. Just in case some of our customers are still working with editing equipment or media players that cannot handle 24-bit sound.

We do not upsample 16-bit to 24-bit:

Though some, in their eager to supply customers with fancy 24-bit files, might be tempted to simply convert existing 16-bit files up to 24-bit, we never do this. Converting a file from 16-bit to 24-bit ("upsampling" it) does no good at all. It does not improve the sound quality over the 16-bit version. It merely increases the filesize.

It's important for us to stay honest about this and be transparent about what music was actually produced, recorded, mixed and mastered in 24-bit, and what music was not. Whenever you see the "HD" logo on our site and you see music offered in 24-bit High Definition audio, that music was always created (recorded, mixed, mastered) in 24-bit resolution.

We have asked all our contributors to "get with the times" and to work in 24-bit format as much as possible from now on.

Royalty Free Christmas music round-up...

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:01:00 +0000

Dear reader,

Every year around late September / early October, we see the same pattern -- our customers start to buy royalty free Christmas music from our online stock music catalog. This keeps on pretty much until the 24th of December, when all goes quiet and hardly any Christmas tracks are sold until the next late-September again.

With the Christmas season now upon us, at least as far as stock music production goes, we thought we'd take a quick overview of the different types of Christmas production music on offer here at Shockwave-Sound.com. Since 2000 we have added some new fresh Christmas material each and every year, so the selection is getting pretty varied and we should have something to cater for just about any type of media production -- be it something simple like an online interactive Christmas card, photo gallery, a Christmas themed casual game, a holiday film or music for a Flash presentation for the x-mas season.

Here at Shockwave-Sound.com we have divided our seasonal music library into three different main genres:

Traditional Christmas music: This is where you'll find old favorites such as Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, O Come All Ye Faithful, Silent Night and other classics that everybody knows and loves.
Choir singing Christmas hymns: Our arrangements and recordings of classical and traditional hymns, such as Ave Maria, Bach's Christmas Mass, The Angel Gabriel, Hark the Herald Angels Sing and many, many more. These are real live choral recordings, no computerized fiddlery. :-)
New and Fun Christmas music: My personal favorite section, this ever growing collection contains tracks that aren't actually famous or traditional Christmas themes, but instead, original tracks composed and arranged in a Christmas music style by our contracted composers and producers. These tracks are really great if you're going for a Christmas mood, but you want something a bit fresher, funkier, and more original, rather than the same old traditional melodies.

Which ever style you go for, you can be sure that we have some great music for you, and as with all of our music, a one-time purchase gives you a lifetime license to use the music commercially within your projects, as much, and for as long, as you want. And as with our entire production music library, all the Christmas tracks can be downloaded instantly in MP3 or WAV format.

Remember that, in addition to our individual music track downloads, we also have ready-made Christmas music collections, where you can typically get 10 tracks, including all versions, edits, cuts and loops, as a pre-packaged product, at a greatly discounted price. Try these royalty-free Christmas CD's (Click on the covers for more details and audio previews):

Merry Christmas! from all of us here at Shockwave-Sound.com

Article writing opportunities at Shockwave-Sound.com

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:45:00 +0000

Shockwave-Sound.com are looking for talented people to write articles on the subject of media production, video production, post production, audio production and music composition, for our website.

We will pay US$ 150.00 for each published article. Plus, each published article contains an "About the author" blurb at the bottom including a permanent link to any website of your choice. Shockwave-Sound.com gets almost 4,000 unique visitors per day, and frankly, that web link is probably worth more than the $150 cash payment, if you look at it that way.

Articles must be in well written English, should preferably be somewhere between 1,000 and 2,500 words in length, and each article must include a few illustrations or photos -- just to make the page look more interesting, not just text, text, text.

We can also publish video articles, video tutorials, video reviews etc. We can make the video play in a window on our website. If we do this, we need to also print a transcript of the video on the webpage, underneath the video player. So if you want to make a video article, be sure to also type out the words spoken in the video and hand in this text along with your video.

Subjects for the articles can be anything to do with video production, media production, post production, audio production, mixing, composing, editing, etc. It can be about music use, music composition, sound development, etc. but also, it doesn't necessarily have to be about music or sound. It can be about other video- or media production aspects. Filming, film editing, dubbing, video effects, etc. It can be a tutorial of some sort, a review of a product, or anything else that may be of genuine interest for people who work in media production.

A couple of examples of existing articles:

Should you be interested in this opportunity, please get in touch with Shockwave-Sound.com through the contact us page.

Feel free to forward this page, or a link to it, to mailing lists, forums, groups, twitters, or anywhere else where you feel somebody could be interested in it. Thank you.

New tracks from Dan Phillipson

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:16:00 +0000

Dan Phillipson has been a "signed-on" Shockwave-Sound.com composer/producer (which means that his music is always exclusive to Shockwave-Sound.com for a minimum of one year, before being made available anywhere else) for a couple of years now.

Hailing from the outskirts of Manchester, England, Dan is a popular producer whose music is some of the best selling stock music here in our royalty-free music library. His no-nonsense approach to composition seems to produce music that is rich on melody and emotion, rather than a million clever production tricks. His music goes straight to the heart and works extremely well as background music, or theme music, for film, video and other visual presentation.

This month we have added another 12 brand new tracks by Dan Phillipson to our catalogue, so we thought it would be a good time to conduct an interview with Dan for our website, so you can get to know this young, talented musician a little better.

What is your musical background? Did you just grow up playing in bands like the rest of us, or do you have a musical education?

A bit of both really. I went through a quite conventional musical education through school, college and university but also learnt an awful lot from playing in bands and with other good musicians. I find it useful having the balance of both backgrounds really - I think it gives me a bit more to ammunition and variety when writing music.

Is writing and producing Stock Music your only source of income from your music right now, or are you also doing other things like bespoke music composition “to order”, writing pop songs for mainstream release, or anything else?

Yeah the majority of stuff that I do at the moment is for music libraries/stock music but I do occasionally do custom projects when they come along. Lately I have been working with a singer on some pop songs which has been fun. I am concentrating on writing stock music at the moment, I suppose with the aim of maximising what I can do in this part of the industry and then hopefully moving on to new things in the future.

It seems to me that your music has a quintessentially British sound. Is this something you’re aiming for, on purpose, or is it something that just turned out that way?

I definitely haven’t consciously tried to create a British sound, maybe it’s just because I’m British! I think it’s fair to say that I have definitely been influenced by British bands which does have some effect on what my music sounds like.

Dan, with Shockwave-Sound.com founder/CEO, Bjorn Lynne

Who would you say are your major influences, now and in the past?

I definitely can’t mention them all, but some of the most prominent influences are bands like Coldplay, U2, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Mogwai just to name a small handful.

Listening to your music, it’s obvious that you are a competent guitarist as well as keyboard player and programmer/producer. Which instrument would you say that you master the best, and do you have a favourite instrument in your arsenal?

I would definitely say that I am a pianist/keyboard player and not really a guitarist, however in the last 18 months or so I have come to use the guitar a lot more in my music, which naturally helps in become a more proficient player.

On what hardware/software do you record, and do you have any particular, or peculiar, methods or processes that you do when you record, mix and produce your music?

I use a Mac/Logic Pro setup with various other software instruments and effects. I’m not sure if I do anything peculiar other than tapping my fingers on my desk an awful lot! I would say I’m definitely not ‘Old School’ when it comes to production in general – I do everything ‘In the box’ so no big analog mixers or racks and racks of outboard stuff for me – although it would be cool to have a play with that kind of gear!

Do you always work entirely by yourself, or do you sometimes bring in other musicians to participate or to co-write with you?

I’m a bit of a loner when it comes to my work and tend to do everything myself really, but sometimes it would be great to use other musicians to get a sound that software doesn’t always emulate that well. I definitely hope to use more musicians and hopefully even co-write some music in the future.

Of course, the music you produce for Shockwave-Sound.com is all instrumental, but did you ever work with vocalists, singers? If so, how did that go?

As I mentioned previously, I have been doing some work with a singer lately, which has been good fun and a nice change. I think it’s gone pretty well so I may be doing more of that in the future.

Is there another style or type of music that you’d like the chance to work with, in the future?

I hope that I always try new things throughout my career but one thing that does excite me is the thought of working with a full orchestra. Composing music for film is something that I would like and aim to get into more in the future .

What do you like to do when you’re not working?

I like to walk with my wife, usually to take our 10 month old son to the park but it’s nice to get out as a family and just wander around. Eating out is another pastime that I enjoy and enjoying a nice bottle of red wine with a meal. I play football occasionally (that's soccer to the rest of you) – in an attempt to keep fit and I’m also a bit of a Formula 1 fanatic!

------

And that's where we left it off for now. We hope you'll take the time to check out some of Dan's music. Here are direct links to his 12 latest tracks, just added this week:

Back to nature -- Ellett & Montgomery touch wood

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:05:00 +0000

We've just added a whole new collection of royalty free tunes by Gayle Ellett and Todd Montgomery, so it seemed like a good time for us to conduct an interview with this rather special musical duo. Through their "Fernwood" music project, Todd & Gayle writes and plays instrumental music 100% by hand - exclusively on instruments made out of wood!

As you can imagine, this gives their music a very "earthly" tone. It has something of the ancient, of the mysterious, of the true, natural and homely about it - that you could probably never reproduce with more modern instruments or electronics.

We are happy to be able to offer 9 brand new tracks by Gayle Ellett & Todd Montgomery (aka Fernwood) on our site this week, so we decided to speak to them about their music and their methods:

Can you tell us a little bit about your musical backgrounds? And how the two of you got together?

(Gayle): I started with piano lessons when I was about 5 years old, and then I learned electric guitar and joined a band when I was 13. For the past 35 years I’ve been playing and composing music for bands and ensembles, TV and film, corporate applications, and other uses. I met Todd a few years ago when we were in a 10-piece improvisational psychedelic band here in Topanga. Todd played sitar, and I played monophonic analog synth. Then the band imploded. But Todd and I remained friends, and awhile ago we started working together, and we formed Fernwood.

(Todd): I began with guitar lessons at age nine learning radio rock tunes of the 70’s. When I got an electric guitar I started performing in a band at school functions around age 12. In High School my focus drifted toward playing psychedelic rock covering songs by Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix. My musical direction changed in college when I first came into contact with a mandolin. This began a long journey in which new instruments pulled me along into learning various cultural styles. The mandolin led me to bluegrass, the Irish bouzouki led me to traditional Irish music, and the sitar led me to classical Indian music. I wanted to work more with Gayle when I realized how much he was helping our large improvisational band by playing a supportive role on the synth- gluing all the chaos together. And then I learned that he had already recorded and released 16 or 17 records with another band. (At that point I didn’t even know he was a guitar hero!) I had never met another musician who was able to see so many projects through to the end. We were lucky because we both like to work hard. We both can play lots of instruments. And we enjoy hanging out and creating cool tunes!

How did you get the idea to license your music through Shockwave-Sound.com as stock music?

(Gayle): I’ve been composing traditional World music, and licensing it through Shockwave-Sound.com for many years. So it seemed like a great idea to submit it to Shockwave-Sound and see if it was right for the royalty-free music collection.

(Todd): I didn’t know anything about Shockwave-Sound or any other music libraries until I met Gayle!

The concept of playing only by hand on instruments made out of wood, is an original and interesting one. Are really all the instruments you use on all your recordings entirely made of wood?

(Gayle): Its not really an “original” idea, it’s more of a “tradtional” idea. For me, it is about coming full-circle, from learning on acoustic piano as a kid, then spending decades playing electrified music like Rock, Jazz and Electronic styles, and now finally coming back to our roots, with a huge appreciation of the natural goodness and warm sounds of real acoustic instruments. I believe that using modern technology to help you make better recordings is a great idea. But I think that using technology, such as computers and samplers, to play your music, is a bad idea. And no, not all of the instruments are made entirely out of wood…some have strings made of steel! Just kidding. Basically they are all made out of wood, except the Indian jaltarag which is a set of small clay bowls that are filled with water to tune, and then struck with felt-covered sticks. And there is a small amount of rhodes piano and B3 organ on some of the tunes (but even these have cabinets made out of wood!)

(Todd): My tenor banjo and Gayle’s dilruba also have goat skin, but otherwise everything I play is made of wood. In Fernwood, we are trying to stay out of the way of the instruments. We often let notes and strums ring for a long time in order allow the beautiful tones to shine. It’s a natural sound. Nature is good. This is the main pleasure for me with Fernwood. Listening to how all the various tones merge, meld and harmonize.

Where do you get all these cool instruments, and who made them? Do you actually make some instruments yourselves, or make modifications to them?

(Gayle): I’ve been composing and performing traditional World music for many decades. My brother gave me my Japanese koto thirty years ago. When we formed Fernwood, I knew I’d need a few more instruments to help fully realize our compositions, so I used the internet to help me find luthiers from around the world. My Indian dilruba was made for me by a nice guy in New Delhi, and then shipped to me here. I don’t make any of them, and I only rarely modify them.

(Todd): I had my Irish bouzouki made for me by an excellent maker from Canada named Lawrence Nyberg. My mandolin is an old Martin from 1922. My sitar was made by Hiren Roy who was during his lifetime (or so I hear) the best sitar maker in India. I am presently trying to make my first instrument, which will combine elements of an African Gimbri, banjo, and have sympathetic strings like a sarod.

I notice a lot of location names in your track titles. Are these track titles mostly “random” or are the tracks actually written specifically for that location, i.e. “Helen Island”, “McKenna Beach”, etc?

(Todd): When I make up a new tune it’s often out somewhere either around my house in Malibu or while on a trip. For example, Makena was created when I was at Makena beach in Maui using a Hawaiian tuning on my guitar. Sometimes I feel like the tune came out of how I was feeling while being in these beautiful places. Other times we listen to how a tune sounds when it’s finished and then find a place or image that seems to match. Although, we must admit that a few titles are random.

Do you guys play this stuff live? And if so, how do you manage to cope with all these different instruments on stage, changing instruments all the time? It must be difficult if it’s only the two of you up there on stage?

(Gayle): When we play live, we perform as a 7-piece. I’d be even happier if we could perform as a 10 or 12 piece ensemble. Our first Fernwood release, “Almeria”, was the “#4 album of the year” on John Diliberto’s Echoes Radio, and we did a special performance for his show.

(Todd): Gayle lives in Topanga which is a town full of musicians, and we are lucky because many of our friends are excellent musicians. So, on the rare occasion when we do play live we gratefully get the help of our talented friends.

Can you tell us a little bit about your composition process/method? Is it based a lot on jamming and improvisation?

(Gayle): Not for me. My method is very deliberate. Before I start I usually think about what qualities I want the composition to have, what instruments will play, what key and rhythm I’ll use. And there are things I am trying to avoid in Fernwood, like playing fast solos over everything, or playing in too much of a Pop or Blues style. I try to write only about one half of a composition, so that there is room for Todd to contribute to the composition and arrangements. That way, we can work together to make music that is much better then we could write on our own.

(Todd): One of us will start a tune with a foundational picking or chord pattern, and then we build upon it. The only improvisational aspect is that I don’t know what Gayle is going to add, or how it will change through the recording process. However, our tunes always come out much better than I imagine they will be at the beginning. It’s also really fun to know that whatever part I come up with Gayle is going to add something amazing that I wouldn’t think of myself. The whole of Fernwood is greater than its parts.

What would you say is your most “different” or “unusual” instrument that you have in your arsenal?

(Gayle): My Indian dilruba is a very unusual instrument. It is somewhat like a sitar, but it is bowed like a cello, not plucked. The bulbul tarang is an odd little instrument, somewhat like a weird autoharp. And the jaltarang is also rather unusual. Basically, the Indians make a lot of unusual and interestin instruments!

(Todd): I would say that my sitar is the most unusual instrument that I have only because it’s rare. We can all identify it, but it’s hard to find a sitar player if you need one! In Fernwood, the way our instruments blend it can often sound like we are using a new and unidentifiable instrument, but it really is the result of layering sometimes up to 20 instruments at one time!

Are any of them particularly difficult to play?

(Gayle): The dilruba is, for me, a very difficult instrument to play. All of the rest are fairly easy.

(Todd): The sitar is by far the hardest to play for me due to the practice it takes to bend the string accurately to pitch and to play ornaments that are semi-authentic to the classical Indian style. Not to mention, it’s really hard to sit on the floor for long periods of time with your legs folded under you!

You are both still involved with other musical acts, besides Fernwood?

(Gayle): Yes, I just got back from performing in France with my progressive rock group Djam Karet where I played organ and synths. I also play electric guitar in a blues band, piano in an improvised jazz ensemble, Greek bouzouki in a Americana bluegrass band, and electric guitar & keyboards in an Electronic synth band.

(Todd): Other than Fernwood, I am often recording and arranging traditional Irish music in new ways.

What is your best selling track through Shockwave-Sound.com? Or do you even keep track of that kind of stuff?

(Gayle): I don’t follow it too closely. But I also think that, oddly, it changes over time.

(Todd): I don’t know, but I probably should pay more attention to that!

And with that, we thank this authentically acoustic musical duo for their time and recommend you all have a listen to some of their tunes! The best selling tracks here at Shockwave-Sound.com are probably McKenna Beach and Crane, whilst their 9 brand new tracks they have just added to our catalog are:

Interview with Jeremy Sherman

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:31:00 +0000

Jeremy Sherman was one of the first composers who joined up with the Shockwave-Sound.com team back in 2001 or so. We immediately took to his music because it was so acoustic, so natural, so real. In the world of online stock music, there is a lot of electronic and loop based music, but Jeremy's music was all guitars, all played by hand - and it made his music stand out.

Today, many years later, we have a lot of acoustic and played-by-hand music in our catalogue, but Jeremy's tunes still have that special sound. He can do Americana, folk, country, blues, retro rock, jazz and more. He is completely self-taught on guitar and other stringed instruments, and he lives near Brighton on the south coast of England.

Jeremy Sherman is a "signed-on" composer here at Shockwave-Sound.com, which means that his tracks are always exclusive to Shockwave-Sound.com for a minimum period of one year, before they are made available on any other sites.

This week we've had the pleasure of adding 19 new tracks by Jeremy Sherman to our catalogue, and we thought it would be a good idea to conduct an interview with Jeremy for the benefit of our visitors -- so we gave him a call...:

You’ve been a musician for a while. What made you decide to start composing for library music / stock music?

I had been writing material for years but I realised that I was hopeless at lyrics and because I like so many different types of music the material was too diverse. So, library music seemed the ideal solution... no lyrics and I could do whatever style I liked.

Your music has a very earthly, acoustic tone, heavily based on stringed instruments. Which ones are your favourites among these instruments?

An acoustic guitar with a new set of strings is hard to beat but my favourite stringed instrument is the pedal steel or the non-pedal steel guitar. I love the harmony of chords and a lot of steel playing is just that.

How many different stringed instruments have you got? Any of them particularly interesting or unique sounding?

2 Fender Strats (one for slide), Fender Tele, Ibanez AR300, pedal steel, 2 acoustics (one for slide), dobro, classical guitar, 5 String banjo, mandolin and an ESP bass.

Do you ever compose music “to order”, i.e. get hired by a company to produce bespoke music especially for their project?

Apart from a few requests for a particular style to fill a niche in a library I have'nt had any commissions yet.

Would you take a commission for bespoke music composition, if it was offered to you?

Certainly... I think it would be good sometimes to see If I could successfully write to a client's brief and deadline.

Can you tell us, in short terms, a little bit about your recording setup and techniques?

I use Sonar Studio 7 on a PC with another slave PC handling the VST's - BFD Drums & Percussion, Native Instruments Classic Keyboard bundle & Sample Modelling's Trumpet and Mr Sax. I use an M-Audio Pro 88 controller keyboard and my trusty old Korg X3 synth. Microphone wise I use a Rode K2 tube mic and an Audio Technica AT4033. The various electric guitars and pedal steel go through a Line 6 Pod. Everything goes to Sonar via a Yamaha 01v96 VCM mixer and 24 Channels of ADAT and comes back to be mixed on the Yamaha. I know one can mix on the PC but being old school I wanted to have the hands on feeling of real faders rather than mix with a mouse. It's all monitored on a pair of Alesis MK II active speakers.

As far as techniques go I know there's a hell of a lot of features on Sonar and the Yamaha that I haven't used. Basically I just treat it like an old tape recorder with the added benefits of cut and paste and settings memory. I usually start with an idea on guitar or keyboard and record a guide track then add drums which I play in real time with seperate passes for kick , hi hat and then snare and toms. I never use grooves or patterns as doing it in real time accidents/mistakes happen on fills etc that turn out be great, and besides I haven't the patience to write or program in step time. Given the type of stuff I do a fairly loose, haphazard approach to the drums is probably best.

Then it's just a case of bass and other overdubs and sometimes going back and changing the feel on the drums as the track progresses.

Do you ever experiment with mixing down different versions of your tracks, say, a “bass and guitar only” version or “version with banjo instead of guitar”, something like that?

Occassionally. I should do it more to perhaps give tracks a different slant or take them off in a different direction to that originally intended but I have a tendency to impatience so as soon as the main mix is done I'm raring to go on the next composition. I should slow down a bit and make sure I've got as much out of a track as I can.

How many tracks have you composed in your lifetime?

Around 400, I guess

Listening to your music, I’ve always felt that your music has something quintessentially American to it – even though you’re in fact British yourself. It kind of makes me think about when the British director Sam Mendes directed “American Beauty” to such critic and public acclaim. Any idea where this comes from? Why the “All-American” sound from a British composer such as yourself?

When I started off I was listening to all the UK bands around at that time (and here I'm showing my age!). Cream, Led Zeppelin, Free etc. But then I heard the brilliant Steely Dan and that pointed me across the Atlantic. Whilst they were mostly sophisticated "pop jazz" they sometimes used pedal steel and the sound of that took me off in search off other bands who used it and that lead me into Western Swing & Country which lead onto Bluegrass, Appalachian, Cajun etc. Taking in the modern exponents on the way such as Ry Cooder and the Band. I love the complexities of jazz but equally I love the raw simplicity of the American "roots" music. I do like the UK's and Ireland's own roots music but it is mostly set tunes whereas the American music to me is looser and more open to improvisation.

Speaking about Ireland – I really love your Irish track “Lanagan’s Ball”, with Irish flute. I assume you got a chance to work with a flute player on that occasion, and did you ever consider doing more of that Irish, Celtic stuff? We’d love to feature some more of that in our catalogue.

Yes... we have intended to do more but never got around to it, but we shall put that right and get some more going. We do gigs together so we know plenty of tunes.

Apart from the obvious – royalty payments from Shockwave-Sound.com – what would you say that composing stock music for Shockwave-Sound.com has meant for you?

Having it accepted and appreciated in the first place was great... One is never sure at the start whether it's good enough. And then to see it sell and get used all over the world , especially if it's been on TV, is like a shot in the arm... a confidence booster.

Have you ever stumbled across your music playing in a TV program, unexpectedly?

Yes ..quite a few times and it's a real buzz. It always takes a few seconds to sink in, I'll think I know that from somewhere... oh yes, it's one of mine.

If you had to pick only two tracks that you’ve composed for Shockwave-Sound.com that are your two favorites… which two tracks would that be?

Difficult question but I think it would have to be Lonesome Cowboy and Mayfly. both have that simple earthiness but coupled with wistful melodies

I’ve heard that you’re about to get married. Congratulations! Is she a fan of your music? Does she play any instruments herself?

Thank you... yes she is very encouraging but she doesn't play herself which perhaps is just as well as she'd probably be telling me how to play something or do I need that much boost at 500 hz! (Laughing)

What are your plans for the future, with regards to your music? Just keep on producing more quality stuff and enjoying the ride?

Yep, just keep on going I reckon. I love recording... though having written so many tracks and delved into lots of styles it is sometimes difficult to come up with something new and not to go back one self too much, but if I am struggling I'll usually leave it alone for a week and then when I pick up the guitar or sit at the keyboard something usually comes out. My ultimate hope is that the income from music allows me to give up the day job. We have to wait and see, but even if it doesn't it is still so satisfying and allows me to buy nice equipment etc.

Ah yes, equipment shopping is nice, and can be very inspiring for making new tracks, too. What nice equipment is next on your shopping list?

From a practical viewpoint, a 12 string guitar and some lesser known instruments such as Bajo Sexto, Balalaika, Mandola, to add more colours to the pallette and open up new avenues of composition. On the luxury side, I have hankering for a Neumann mic and I can't seem to get a cherry red Gibson 335 out of my mind!

And that's where we left it off. We hope you'll enjoy Jeremy's music here on Shockwave-Sound.com. For your reference, here are Jeremy's 5 most frequently licensed tracks from our stock music catalog:

And here is a link to all Jeremy Sherman tracks.

We hope you enjoyed this special artist feature here on our blog. If you did, let us know. We'll probably continue with more artist special features in the future.

Shockwave-Sound.com supports Camp Laurel

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:10:00 +0000

This week, Shockwave-Sound.com was asked to donate some royalty-free music for the charity Camp Laurel, and we were happy to do so. Based in Pasadena, California, and credited by the American Camp Association, Camp Laurel helps children, youths and their families living with HIV/AIDS. They arrange summer- and winter camps, education and various forms of support.

We are only too pleased to donate some of our stock music for charities, so if you have a registered non-profit charity with credentials, feel free to contact us if you need royalty-free music for non-profit charity work.

11 new exclusive tracks from Dan Gautreau

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:07:00 +0000

Dan Gautreau is one of the most popular artists here at Shockwave-Sound.com. His crisp, open sound combined with touching melodies and catchy hooks make some of his tracks extremely suitable for use in film, tv, web, presentations and other media.

This week we have just added 11 new tracks of his to our catalog, so we thought it was a good time to showcase his tracks and point out some of the best of Dan Gautreau.

Dan has been with Shockwave-Sound.com for about 3 years since back in 2006 and we currently have 133 of his tracks in our catalog. He spends half his time writing library music for us, and the other half of the time writing, producing and recording pop, rock and R&B music with established pop artists in the UK and other countries. Among other things, Dan co-wrote a number 1 hit in Italy, for the winner of the Italian "Pop Idol".

Dan is a Shockwave-Sound "Signed-on" composer, which means that his music is always exclusive to Shockwave-Sound.com for minimum 1 year before it can be found on any other websites.

Dan's 5 best-selling royalty free music tracks:

Life is for Living - Melodic pop/rock
Get Up & Go - Slick, understated, background groove
Brighter Day - Uplifting, feelgood pop
Acoustic Escape - Smooth, breezy pop ballad
Take Out - Upbeat, positive pop/rock

This week we have added the following 11 new tracks by Dan:

All Alone - Melodic/emotional pop/rock
Cloudless Day - Chilled-out pop grooves
Days Like These - Easy going pop/rock
Drop That Beat - Rough mix of urban pop and guitar rock
Fantastique - Plasticky pop/disco
Freedom Wheels - Cruising, mid-tempo rock
Growing Strong - Warm, mellow ambient/pop
I Love College - Upfront, brash U.S. teen rock
In My Own Time - Chilled-out R&B Grooves
Lost and Found - Easy, relaxation
Orbit - In your face electronic

Dan's full name is Daniel Alan Gautreau (PRS) and he is published by Lynne Publishing (PRS) - the company that owns www.Shockwave-Sound.com

We love Dan's music here and we're looking forward to bringing you more of his music in the future.

Getting discounts on royalty-free music

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:15:00 +0000

Here at Shockwave-Sound.com we regularly get asked this question: "Do you offer bulk discounts or educational discounts on your royalty-free music?" -- or variations on that subject. So I thought I'd post our answer to this here in the blog.

Affiliates get 10% off everything:

First, there is the 10% affiliate discount, that anybody with a website can get. Basically, you sign up with our Affiliate Program under which we pay you 10% of the value of all orders placed by anybody who has followed a special affiliate link from your website to ours -- including your own orders! When you sign up, we will give you a unique link that you place on your website. If somebody follows that link and ends up buying a product on our site -- no matter how small or large the order -- we will pay you 10% of the order value. Many of our regular customers use this program to basically earn themselves a 10% discount on all their orders. Before placing an order on our site, they arrive at our site by following their own affiliate link - thus effectively getting back 10% of their order value, with the added bonus of also getting 10% of any orders placed by anybody else who might follow that link and end up placing an order with us.

I should add at this point, that whilst you are welcome to use our affiliate program for your own orders to earn yourself the 10% discount, we do require that you actually place the link on a public page on your website, so that other people can use the link, too. You can't just keep the link only for your own use.

To become a Shockwave-Sound.com affiliate, just go to our Affiliate sign-up page and fill in the form there.

Bulk discounts on ready-made collections:

Now, as for larger discounts and bulk discounts. What is "Bulk order"? Unfortunately, we don't consider 3 tracks to be bulk. Nor 5 tracks, really. Nor even 10 tracks. If you're placing those kinds of orders, please consider using the affiliate program described above, to get yourself 10% discount on everything.

However, if you buy 5 or more ready-made collections, we would accept that this is a bulk order and we are prepared to give the following discounts:

Number of collections
with Standard License:
with Mass Market License
* Any 5 collections:
US$ 439.00
US$ 999.00
* Any 10 collections:
US$ 799.00
US$ 1999.00
* Any 15 collections:
US$ 1049.00
US$ 2499.00
* Any 20 collections:
US$ 1299.00
US$ 2999.00
* More than 20 collections:
contact us
contact us

These collections are normally either $99/$129 each with Standard License, or $249/325 each with Mass Market License. Each collection typically contains 10-15 tracks, plus all the different edits/versions/cuts of every track, to give you options in editing (such as 60-secs version, 30-secs version, Loops, Stingers etc.) You can see a complete list of our ready-made collections here: http://www.shockwave-sound.com/collections.html

The collections can be delivered to you as physical CDROM/DVDROM’s, on an external USB hard drive or a USB memory stick – whichever you prefer.

Should you be interested in taking us up on either of these offers, please get in touch with us. These "bulk orders" of 10-15-20 or more ready-made collections are not available to buy through the shopping cart on the site. You'll have to talk with, us or email with us, to discuss your selections and arrange payment.

We welcome Ori Vidislavski to Shockwave-Sound.com

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:42:00 +0000

We have been fortunate to work with many talented composers and musicians here at Shockwave-Sound.com over the years, and this month we have the pleasure of announcing the release of 103 tracks by Israeli master composer, Ori Vidislavski.

Like the other 8 or so composers who are "signed-on" to Shockwave-Sound, all of Ori's music is always exclusive to Shockwave-Sound.com for a minimum period of one year before it is made available anywhere else.

Ori is probably the most sought after drama composer in Israel. He has composed for more than 150 different film, theater and dance projects. Hailing from a religious family, he was influenced early on by religious and classical music, while inspiring him to compose music to heal and comfort the world around him throgh music.

Ori has composed for a huge number of theater productions, including "Richard III" and "The Merchant of Venice". In film, he has composed for "Angels in America", "A View from the Bridge", "The Cucible" and many, many others. His work also spans childrens plays , dance choreography, TV shows, commercials, installations and events.

Unknown to most, Ori is the composer of the song "Winter of 73", a number one hit in Israel and one of the most influential songs in Israeli culture. In 1980 he was awarded the "Israeli Oscar" for his compositions in the films "Sheure" and "Aretz Hadasha". In 1993 the Israeli Composer Association honored Ori with the "Composer of the Year" award and throughout the years 2003-2009 he continues to compose for a number of film and media projects, and now, for the Shockwave-Sound.com stock music catalogue.

Ori Vidislavski has always tried to tie people together through his music. In 1995 he founded the live band "Deiwan", an ensemble consisting of five Arab and four Jewish musicians. He likes to blend various aspects of life in Israel, Jewish and oriental motifs, eastern, american and European influences in his music. We're glad to have him. :-)

Look for more of Ori Vidislavski's music to show up in the Shockwave-Sound.com royalty free music catalogue over the next months and years.

Article that explains the copyright situation with Public Domain music and Classical music

noreply@blogger.com (Bjorn Lynne) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:26:00 +0000

Many users of our stock music library have been somewhat confused about the copyright situation with regards to Classical music and Traditional music. Many know that a musical composition becomes Public Domain 75 years after the death of the composer -- or indeed if the composer is unknown, like in traditional music -- but few understand why these are still under copyright and can't be exploited at will, without buying a license from the copyright holder, usually the Publisher. We have tried to explain this in our latest article: Copyrights in Classical music and Public Domain music. We hope it's useful to some of you. Comments are welcome.

Number of collections	with Standard License:	with Mass Market License
* Any 5 collections:	US$ 439.00	US$ 999.00
* Any 10 collections:	US$ 799.00	US$ 1999.00
* Any 15 collections:	US$ 1049.00	US$ 2499.00
* Any 20 collections:	US$ 1299.00	US$ 2999.00
* More than 20 collections:	contact us	contact us