Musics for Men

Contains about musics information

Author: blogger

Repairing A Music Box

One of the most beautiful gifts that someone can give another person, especially a wife or daughter, is a music box. Through the gift of music, they will be able to keep a persons memory alive through the music of the music box, which can play on for decades.

Music boxes, sadly, can also break down. So, to maintain the music that may mean so much to the person who received the musical gift, it may be required that you begin to learn about repairing a music box.

Most problems in music boxes are caused by a malfunction in the starter of the music box. Thankfully, this can often be repaired at home without having to get it repaired at a shop. There are three different types of starters for music boxes, and knowing how to fix each one will make you very versatile. As well, always remember to be very delicate as you could cause more damage to a music box in your attempt to repair it.
Wire Starter

This type of music box plays when the lid is opened and pressure is released on a metal stick, and stops when the lid is closed. When the pressure is released on the metal stick, a spring pushes the spring up and moves a connected wire down, which releases an air brake and causes the music box to play. These are the types of music box movements you need to be aware of to repair it.

You should try changing the angle of the spring with pliers. You may have to adjust it quite a bit, up and down, left and right, depending on if the music starts, doesnt start, or starts but wont stop.

You can also pull the metal stick, which may be caught on something or slightly bent. If bent, it should be replaced.
Button Starter

When a button is pushed on the box, a metal plate moves the starter mechanism, which releases a latch from the wheel of the cylinder in music boxes. This releases the air brake that allows the box to play.

In these, check to make sure that the button mechanism does not have a loose nut, and if it does, tighten it. This will hopefully allow it to connect with the metal plate to start the music. You can also adjust the plate and move it closer to the starter button.
Pin Starter

These are used in toy music boxes, where the pin blocks the air brake. When pulled, the music plays, when pushed, the music stops.

If the box does not play, make sure that the pin blocks the air brake and that when it is pulled, it releases the air brake. The pin should not be too long and if it is, it may need to be filed down. If it wont stop playing, then adjust the position of the movement and make sure that the pin is not too short. If it is, put some tape on the end to lengthen it.
Summary

Music boxes are wonderful gifts for someone you love, but like anything, they can break down and it is important that when you have a music box, you know how to repair it. Thankfully, many are easy to repair and all it takes is a basic knowledge of the inner-workings of music boxes and other types of musical gifts.

It is easy to do, people love them and you can really shine with a well-made music box, so why are you not making music boxes yet? You may find that when you give a musical gift like music boxes, that you have developed a love for putting music boxes together and it could turn into something you do a lot more. It could end up being one of your favorite hobbies in fact.

Everyone loves music, everyone loves the gift of music and there isnt a person on the planet who will not appreciate the gift you have given them when you take the time to put it together for them. Two centuries after they began to be mass produced, it is still a gift that warms the hearts of millions.

Music Box Movements, Springs and Stem Pins can be purchased from http://www.giftsonline.net/catalog/Music_Box_Movements.html

How Does Music Influence Our Daily Life

We cant deny that music can affect our state of mind, influencing our daily life, and the reason for this is mysterious. We always look for a music that is something livelier while doing some physical work or exercises or out socializing on a larger group and keep listening to relaxing music for a nice and quiet romantic dinner. An increased rate of car accidents ican be caused by listening to fast music while driving and based on recent studies the Mozart effects claim to increase intelligence. We might have heard of farmers who increase their production by playing music to their animals. Below are the main aspects of music and their facets in turn that influence our daily life.

Tempo & Rhythm

Pitch Melody and Harmony

Music suggests movement as it moves in time. Tempo and Rhythm is combined to have an immediate physical impact on our perceptions. The rhythm of an object suggest more or less frequent movement to qualify the repetitive nature of the underlying beat, even though the tempo of a piece of music might be slow and relaxed. The tempo of a piece of music roughly equates with the heartbeat associated with corresponding state or emotions that the music suggest. A high frequent of notes can suggest a degree of contained excitement within that relaxed state. Music tends to have a steady tempo to it, often measured in beats per minute “. Most of the music based on simple observation is in the range of 50-200 beats per minute, the same as the extreme range of our heartbeats.

Anything in the range 60-80 beats per minute is calm and relaxed, less than 60 often very relaxed, introspective or even depressed. 80-100 is moderately alert and interested. 100 upwards is increasingly lively, excited or agitated and, since we crave some degree of excitement from our entertainment, 80-120 is quite a common tempo, and even 120-160 is common in some energetic situations, since there is a strong degree of suggestion between the heartbeat and music tempo. Music moves in time and suggests movement, and we tend to associate music unconsciously with movements made by our bodies while talking, walking, running, dancing, riding, etc.

Pitch, Melody & Harmony

Pitch on its own affects our perception. It depends on how we perceived sounds and music providing a basic scale from high= light, happy, carefree” to low = dark, sad, ominous.” We must find a large thing more threatening than a smaller one as part of our evolutionary heritage. In general bigger objects make deeper noises whether long column of air or long strings in a musical instrument, big chest, large animal footsteps, or large objects banging together. Conversely smaller instruments, short columns of air, short strings, small animals or objects make higher pitch noises. A Melody can be preferred if sounds are reasonably close together with a variety of nice harmonious intervals between them and a rhythm is similar to that of speech. A good melody (even if it doesn’t have words) is often one that we could hum, sing or whistle. Generally melody consists of a linear sequence of tones. The notes should have durations which are not too short and not too long, and should not be in an extreme range or shouldn’t have large awkward jumps between them. Although instrumental musical can stretch those boundaries a little, melodies in its way are very similar to sentences that our brains are designed to speak and listen to.

Harmony is the combination of tones with different pitches, Even though some are seem to be close to the combination of notes is completely the natural set of different notes produced by something vibrating and easily demonstrated musically of brass instruments. Those natural (without keys) instruments such as bugle, octaves, fifths and thirds produced are a series of notes. That is so well together to make harmonious ” sounds like major chords. String instruments can be demonstrate the lowest notes of the harmonic series by playing the strongest ” harmonics” of the strings which divide the length into fractions like halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, etc. All that varies in degrees within all notes, and their proportions help to make sounds their unique color or tones, is always presented by harmonic.

Repetition is the simplest form of PATTERN. If we see something familiar, then it triggers memories and related thoughts are sometimes consciously and unconsciously. The repetition need not to be exact but “similar” enough to trigger familiarity. The aspects of our intelligence allowed us to adopt in so many different climates and conditions that make the best use of available shelter and resources, to build language and culture to communicate to each other in succeeding generations. It also allow us to appreciate and to create pattern for its own sake in the form of visual and aural arts which human brains particularly seem to have a highly developed and flexible pattern recognition capability.

From Musicians To Music Festival Organizers

In todays musical economy, youre lucky to be a band thats invited to join a music festival lineup. Festivals are blowing up in terms of popularity, so much so that nearly every major music festival in 2011 saw record attendance. To be on one of those bills could do a lot for your career, but to create an entire festival? Thats just crazy talk. Or is it? One band has been doing just that for 12 years.

Horror Rap duo Insane Clown Posse has unarguably the largest cult following of any similar sounding act in the entire country. The reasons for that are many, but its safe to say the fact that they have their own annual festival where fans (Juggalos) can meet up every year goes a long way in solidifying those fans loyalty. Of course, Im talking about the Gathering of the Juggalos!

Producing a Music Festival

Theres nothing easy about producing a music festival, especially one as involved as Gathering of the Juggalos. Location, artists, security, vendors, permits, scheduling, promotion, insurance, and stage setup are just some things that have to be taken into consideration by curators like Insane Clown Posse in planning. And if you dont sell as many tickets as you need to in order to make a profit, it can be a very expensive loss.

Insane Clown Posse hosted their first Gathering of the Juggalos music festival in 2000 after several years of talk and planning surrounding the event. Its hugely successful today, but even a band as large as Insane Clown Posse had to fight and endure trial and error over the years to bring Gathering of the Juggalos to its current level of success.

Music vs. Events

Of course, the artists playing the festival will be the most important selling point to potential festival-goers. This years Gathering of the Juggalos festival was loaded with talented horror rap acts, and enough Juggalos to satisfy your social desires until Insane Clown Posses next Gathering of the Juggalos festival rolls around. But what makes the Gathering more original than any other music festival around the country isnt the music; its the on-site activities.

Its essential that there are more activities on hand than those related to music. Insane Clown Posse knows their fans might get tired of non-stop music for four straight days, so they came up with the idea to provide them with fresh activities seen at no other music festival. While these events may only be attractive to the Insane Clown Posse fan demographic, they provide some great insight on the ingenuity needed to make fans happy at music festivals.

Helicopter Rides at Gathering of the Juggalos

To start, there are helicopter rides at the Gathering of the Juggalos. Why? Why not is a better question. For a little bit of money, customers already at Insane Clown Posses festival can take a ride in the helicopter and tour the festival grounds from birds eye view.

Artist Seminars

There are meet and greets or autograph signings at a lot of major music festivals, but very few offer attendees the opportunity to sit in on a seminar conducted by your favorite artists. The guys in Insane Clown Posse always make sure they release as much news about their careers as possible at their artist seminars.

Juggalo Championship Wrestling

Insane Clown Posse, their Juggalo followers, and everyone else somehow connected to the Psychopathic Records family have been immersed in the wrestling scene since it all began. Gathering of the Juggalos just wouldnt be Gathering of the Juggalos without Juggalo Championship Wrestling on hand!

Those events are all given, but some others that take place at the yearly festival are mud / oil wrestling and the Ms. Juggalette contest! It might not be your typical beauty pageant, but some lucky lady will still be headed home with the title of Ms. Juggalette at the end of the weekend!

Over the years, Insane Clown Posse has mastered the art of creating a festival thats pleasing to die hard music fans and the more casual customers who also enjoy alternate activities not related to music at all. This balance must be achieved if you ever wish to host your own music festival some day!

Running An Underground Death Metal Music Record Label

My first injection of Extreme Metal Music was back in 1985, i was 13 and a Metallica – “Ride The Lighning” cassette crossed my paths (Yes back then that was considered Extreme). I remember being at home alone with my crappy old “Ghetto Blaster” (that ‘ate tapes’) and fascinated at the cool “Electric Chair” cover art, it was at that moment within the first 30 seconds of “Fight Fire with fire” that my life would no doubt be set down a new path and Extreme Death Metal Music would be my fate. I remember being blown-away and scared shitless at the same time. The shear aggression and speed of the music was unlike anything i had ever heard (remember this was 1984 and i was 13 and Def Leppard was about the heaviest i had ever heard) and it was that very song that forever changed my life (thanx James) and led me to investigate this style of music even more. Bands like Slayer, Venom, Possessed and Death became the metal music that “Got me thru the day”

Well, the year is now 2008 and even though Metallica’s “Ride The Lighning” is still one of my top 20 favorite albums of all time, Extreme Metal Music is like drugs, one is too many and a thousand is not enough. The need for faster, heavier, more brutal and intense music dosages becomes the addiction. In today’s world of Extreme Metal Music – Metallica would probably be considered choir boys.

I guess it’s time to talk about what this article is actually about… running an underground Death Metal Record Label. First off, running an underground death metal label like this usually means running it from your parents basement, or if your a grown man who just can’t seem to grow up, your running it from your own basement and are constantly having to remind your wife, “would you rather me be here at home with you wasting all our money, or at the strip clubs wasting all our money). Truth be told probably 90% of Death Metal Record Labels that exist do it for the pure love of the music and do it on top of working 40 – 50 hours a week doing something that actually makes money, and to those who continue to do it while investing their own money and risking their marriages and relationships i raise my Corona and “Cheers You!”… But that’s just what Extreme Metal does to people, there is a devotion to it, there is just this undeniable force that encapsulates you… it’s likebeing in a gang… a really large gang!

I work for a small record label CDN Records, a basement run 2 person operation managing over 2000 Extreme titles in the genres of Death Metal, Brutal Death Metal, Melodic Death metal, Grindcore, Goregrind, Black Metal, Thrash Metal and more. The other person involved again and actually the one who started the label, a grown man like myself in his late 30’s obsessed with metal music in it’s most extreme form and probably the biggest “Death” (the band) fan you will ever meet. He started the label over 15 years ago, originally called “Civilian Death Network”, but after 9-11 it was apparent that we needed to change the name, hence (CDN Records). The label started out mostly as a “Tape Trading” network trading various Death metal bands demos with other Death Metal music fans around the world, and back then without the internet and low-cost’s of producing cd’s the cost involved could bankrupt most people. Most of us doing this tape trading stuff usually spent every last extra penny we had, we begged borrowed and stole just so we could pay for postage.But with the advent of the internet and the ability to manufacture “CD’s” cheap the label was able to evolve into a full-blown record label, signing and releasingbands.

Currently we have over 15 of our own titles, and what we do is trade our titles with other Extreme Labels around the world which increases our distro catalogue. It’s a great system, and its probably the only form a music in the world (that i know of) that operates like this… again reminding me of the bond and devotion to Extreme Music us “Metalheads” have. It’s like there is no competition between all Underground metal labels, we work together to create an even larger network. Its and even better deal for alot of the bands in the Death Metal, Extreme Music genre. We have taken bands who would never have been able to get their music on a cd let alone shipped out and into the hands of metalheads around the world… and that’s a great feeling and what fuels us to keep going.

Although, we first do this for the love of Death Metal music, we definitely work very hard at trying to get “Death Metal Music” to pay the bills. How much better could it get? promoting the music you love and making a living do it…

Tips for staring your own Death Metal Record label:
1. Find a band that you really like and has already recorded their own full-length cd (This saves you money)
2. Sign the band to a simple distribution deal, you press 1000 copies and give the band a few hundred copies (most death metal bands will jump at the chance for this)
3. Get yourself a simple web site and the ability to sell your product online.
4. Spend countless hours surfing the internet looking for other small Extreme Death Metal labels… create a long list
5. Contact all the labels you found online and ask if they do “Trades”, usually trades are based on a point system you’ll figure that out quick.
6. Most labels will trade 3-5 copies to start, trade with 100 labels you now have 300-500 titles to add to your web sites online catalogue
7. Don not take more than 10 copies of any one title… 3-5 at most
8. Promote online, Promote Online, Promote online… forums, blogs, myspace etc etc.
9. Repeat steps 1 thru 7 once you have no more of the original 1000 cd’s you pressed, of the cd traded well press the same release, if you struggled
to get other labels to take it on trade, search for a new band and try again.
10. You will be very lucky to sell more than a few thousand copies of any 1 Extreme Death metal cd, Grindcore cd or Black Metal CD (unless you happy to get lucky enough to sign the next Cannibal Corpse or Cradle of Filth) release so don’t get frustrated, the key is to
build your online catalogue with 1000’s of titles to chose from and enjoy the fact that you are now promoting and selling 100’s of Extreme Metal bands.

For all you Death Metal, Brutal Death metal, Melodic Death metal, Grindcore, Goregrind, Black Metal and Thrash Metal needs, stop on by www.cdnrecords.com

Review Of Whole House Fm Transmitter

I leave in a sunny country in Europe and my house has a big backyard where I, my wife and two kids spend a lot of time outside almost any season of the year. We are also music lovers and we have tons of CDs and MP3s stored on my computer. I was looking for a solution to somehow broadcast music to the backyard of my house from my music library. We all know the difficulties to stream audio and music from an electronic source (PC with MP3s for example) to an analog receiver (FM Radio for example). This is not a problem at all if you look at the Whole House FM Transmitter which can receive audio from almost any audio source and transmit it to any FM receiver.

At the beginning I was a little skeptical about getting an FM Transmitter for broadcasting music in my house and backyard. The reason was that most FM Transmitters are relatively weak in terms of coverage and they are mainly for use in your car. After testing the Whole House FM Transmitter 2.0 I was relieved to find out that their claims of 150 feet (50 meters) radius coverage are actually true.

Some Specifications

Before continuing with my review for the Whole House FM Transmitter 2.0, let us see some of the specs of this device below:

Use it anywhere you want (Home, Back Yard, Car, Office, Garage, Boat, exercise room, pool side etc).
Covers the entire FM Band Range from 88.1 to 107.9 MHz in steps of 0.1 MHz. This means that you can easily find any unoccupied frequency to transmit your signal.
Receives as input any audio source (MP3 players, iPod, Home Stereo, TV, DVD, DVR, Satellite Radio, Computers PC or MAC, Microphone etc).
Transmits to any FM Receiver.
Covers 150 feet distance but still satisfies the FCC part 15 regulations.
Compact Size and light weight (a little bit larger than the size of a deck of playing cards).
The new Whole House FM Transmitter version 2.0 is built from the ground up with better features, versatility and reliability.
Four ways to power the device (AC Outlet, 3 AA Batteries, Computer USB Port and 12V Car Adapter).
30-Day Money Back Guarantee.
It includes all necessary cables and adaptors to start using it immediately (AC adapter, 1/8 (3.5mm) stereo audio cable, USB power cable, 12V DC car power adapter, stereo Y cable, RCA Jack Stereo audio cable).
If you purchase, you will get also 4 Free Bonuses such as Lavalier Microphone, Free USPS Shipping within USA, 1 Year Warranty and Lifetime customer support.

In the box you will find the following items:

Whole House FM Transmitter 2.0
110/220V AC Wall Outlet Adapter
12V DC Car Adapter
1/83 (3.5mm) Stereo Audio Cable
RCA Jack Stereo Audio Adapter
Stereo Audio “Y” Cable
Computer USB Power Adapter

Testing done on Coverage

My first test on how long the unit can transmit was pretty simple. I just connected a CD player with the FM transmitter using the 1/8 stereo audio cable and selected an unused FM frequency in my area. Power for the transmitter was from the AC outlet. Now, because I live in Europe, we use the even numbered frequencies so I selected 104.6 MHz on my FM radio receiver. After setting up the same frequency on the FM Transmitter, I was able to receive the audio strong and clear on my radio from the living room of my house to the far side of my backyard (around 120 feet away).

My second testing was a little more demanding, but I will reveal this test on my website.

Conclusion

The reviewed Whole House FM Transmitter really stands up to its name as a “Whole House” coverage system. If you are in the same situation as me, that is you like to listen to streaming music from a CD player or from your laptop without being bound by distance from the music source, then the Whole House FM system is a great device to broadcast your music on any FM receiver within your home vicinity. Its price tag has also dropped considerably, so why don’t you take a look at the official website of the product to see if it fits your needs. And don’t forget the free shipping within USA and the 30-Day money back guarantee.