Timbaland Interview ReMix Project

[17:24] <@zircon> Remix magazine interviewed Timbaland
[17:24] <@zircon> front page feature
[17:24] <@Ramaniscence> LOL
[17:24] <+Suzumebachi> fuck
[17:24] oh dear god
[17:25] <@Ramaniscence> Did that ask him about THE ISSUE?
[17:25] <+Suzumebachi> did they mention the fact that he’s a dirty thief?
[17:25] <@zircon> nope
[17:25] <+Suzumebachi> fucking terrible
[17:25] <@zircon> lots of ego pictures of him
[17:25] * +Suzumebachi loses respect for remix magazine
[17:25] <@zircon> like “I’m a genius producer”
[17:25] <@zircon> “no one appreciates Timbaland’s genius”
[17:25] <@zircon> “the #1 producer in hip hop”
[17:26] “omg u r teh awesum, wut r ur secruts?” type interview?
So Timbaland’s head is growing to gargantuan proportions of late…and people just keep feeding him.

In an interview on the local morning show a month or so ago he had THIS to say:

“I read a lot of magazines say umm… timbaland a hip hop producer, i’m
like NO. wrong. i’m a music COMPOSER. like uhh, uhh, amadeus or
something. like a mozart. you see i’m just… one of the greats.”

I’m not kidding you, here’s the audio:

http://ramaserv.thasauce.net/Misc/Ti…fTheGreats.mp3

This has GOT to be one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard,
especially on the heels of a controversy like this. I think it’s time
someone takes him down a peg.

WHICH is why I propose we have a remix contest. Remixing the above
provided quote. When it’s all said and done we can make an album out of
it =P.

Here are some of the contributions we’ve gotten already:
http://hosting.thasauce.net/suzumebachi/sz_timbamix.mp3
http://apmatthe.ws/random/timbaland%20mozart.mp3
The Greatest

Copyright Board substantially increases royalty rates for internet radio

On March 2nd, the Copyright Board, under advisement from the RIAA, increased royalty rates for internet radio stations to nearly 100% of small-broadcasters’ revenue. Traditionally, these rates were as low as 1-10%. Several small broadcasters have created a formal petition, complaint, and Congress-writing site at http://www.savenetradio.org. Just listening to Club977 80s radio right now, I’ve heard a message from their DJ asking fans to please write representatives of senators to annul this rate hike. So add your name to the petition, file a complaint with your Congressional representatives, and cast off on the Black Pearl for ye mythical pipes of bandwidth. Arrr!

Ubisoft considers introductory Music Composition for Games course

Ubisoft’s Ubisoft Campus endeavor in the Montreal, Quebec, has over the past year been seeking to add VG Music Composition as a course. Ubisoft Campus is not a traditional campus, but a network of existing local schools networked together by funding from the game company. The company is looking to expand it’s educational program which primarily focuses on design and development.
The big hitch, however, is that the college with whom Ubisoft is talking with, McGill University, has stated that they will not fund the program, that all of the funds must come from the company, or possibly the Computer Science department should pony up some money. The basis for this is that the students coming into the courses will not be students in the music program, money spent on it would drain the department without putting anything back into it. Many of the details at this point are sketchy at this point, though it does look like the company is going to try to get the program going. The Associate Dean of the music program, Bruce Minorgan stated “We may be reviewing the contract…[but] I cannot give a definite schedule.”

From the McGill University Student Paper, The McGill Daily
Ubisoft

FX3 released on 8bitpeoples.com

Our good friend and composer extraordinaire Jake “virt” Kaufman has recently released his long atincipated FX3 on 8bitpeoples.com.

For those who don’t know, virt is an extreme chiptune
enthusiast, having already released two releases on monotonik called FX
and FX2, which were his first two releases of original chiptune music.
FX3 is beyond awesome. You HAVE to download it and listen for yourself… otherwise the world will end and all of your childhood dreams will fade.

Moment of Truth: the 3:45 mark of Survivors, Jake phrases a famous song by a very famous left handed guitarist.

FX3 on 8bitpeoples
FX2 on Monotonik
FX on Monotonik

Lost Levels interview with Gamesblog on Guardian Unltd. AKA Call To Arms!

Lost Levels is a nerd-rock band that is being hailed as the Pink Floyd for the Nintendo generation, and, after sending a copy of their EP to Keith Stuart of the Gamesblog on Guardian.co.uk, are beginning to be noticed as a player of video game influenced music.
While short, the interview is a good example of outside media taking attention to Nerdcore culture, and while I haven’t heard Lost Levels, the fact that a lesser known band can send out their EP and get noticed bodes well for the more hardcore acts that perform at shows like blipfest and MAGfest.

So! Do your part for our community! get an account at guardian.co.uk and post a comment about OCReMix, RKO, VGMusic.com, R:TS, 8bitpeoples, Hellven, VGMix, the SID music archive (the HVSC), and anything else you can think of!

The gamesblog on the Gaurdian
The Lost Levels’ MySpace

RPM Challenge: Make an album in February

It’s a bit late in the month to be posting this, but I just found it myself. The RPM (“Record Production Month”) Challenge isn’t a competiton, but “[the] point is they get busy and stop waiting around for the muse to appear. Get the gears moving. Do something.”
There are a few restrictions: the album has to be completely recorded in February (of this year), there’s a minimum of 35 minutes or 10 tracks, and entries must be put on CD and mailed in (postmarked by March 1st). You can read the full details here.

RIAA Claims CDs Priced Unfairly Cheap

Apparently, the RIAA thinks that we (the consumers) are paying too little for CDs from their representative artists/labels. (Brought to my attention thanks to Slashdot, thanks guys).
The original article is by Ben Woods of Whas11.com, targetting a webpage set up nearly four years ago attempting to mislead consumers into believing that CDs should have cost 33 dollars in 1996. Unfortunately, this is an arbitrary number that is meant to loom large because the RIAA thinks we are dumb. Thankfully, mathematics were an integral part of my education and with a little digging, I found the initial MSRP of the compact disc in 1983 was $16.98 [1], and with a 60% increase in price over the next thirteen years, would come to nearly $27 dollars, a difference which definitely leads one to question even more the validity of the RIAA’s argument. Mr. Woods comes to a similar deduction, simply guessing at initial prices and shoving them through the CPI (Consumer Price Index) calculator until he got the answer he was looking for.

Original Article on Whas11.com by Ben Woods
Slashdot
Techdirt
RIAA’s “Cost of a CD page”
Bureau of Labour Statistical Data (with the CPI Calculator)
[1] Early History of Oldies CDs

Timbaland Visits Scene.org, Ripping Ensues

Here is the Digg.com entry.

It’s all explained there, even a few posts from Tempest himself, but basically here’s the lowdown:

Timbaland used about 15 seconds of a song by Demoscener “Tempest” as the base for a Nelly Furtado song, which he “produced.” Tempest’s material is clearly audible when you listen to the Furtado track. You can hear the chip sounds and the distinct arpeggios. Tempest’s song is also quite popular, and he writes: “Acidjazzed Evening competed in Oldschool Music Compo at Assembly 2000
in Helsinki, infront of more than 4000 people (voters) and won the
competition. There are good documents on this. You can of course
believe that the whole event never took place, but would require heavy
dose of self-deluding and not doing your research properly.”

Here’s the original, in .mod format. Use VLC or Modplug to play back the file.

Here’s a YouTube video of the Nelly Furtado version.

It’s unclear whether Tempest will go through the courts at this point in time, since he states he doesn’t have the time or the money to take on a major music label. He says much more in his Digg post, which I linked above.

I haven’t heard Timbaland’s or Nelly’s response to all this, and I’m unsure if they’ll even respond at all, but if they do, please comment on this article and let me know [or I will post it, if I find it first].

Games in Concert – Today in the Netherlands

On the thread @ OCR, Smoke writes:

At 8:15 PM CET(2:15 PM EST) today there’s a
video game music concert taking place in Utrecht, in The Netherlands.
The entire concert can be listened to for free online through this
stream:

http://www.3fm.nl/page/3fm_smallliveplayer/breedband


It’s the first game concert in The Netherlands ever as far as I know, and there’s quite a few popular tracks being played.

Here’s the full tracklist:

* Legend of Zelda

* Super Mario Bros.

* Halo

* Metal Gear Solid 2

* Final Fantasy 7

* Battlefield 2

* World of Warcraft

* Kingdom Hearts

* Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

* Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles – by Floor Jansen

* Killzone

* Metroid Prime

* Fable

* Shenmue

* Monkey Island 3

* God of War

* James Bond: From Russia With Love

* Civilization 4

* Medal of Honor: European Assault

* Gun

* Fifa 07 – with The Sheer

For those that are able to read Dutch, here’s a link to the site:

www.gamesinconcert.nl