In 2010, “Northway” showed up like a young romanian music band, adressing to all dance-club music lovers; here they are now, releasing a perfect new track for radios and clubs too. They recently established a partnership with producers DeepCentral and Play&Win, so they expect only the best from their work. Sergiu Rusu and Adrian Rogojan (Northway) bet everything they had on a single card and soon after their arrival to Bucharest they released “Hello, Hello”, a new “musical experience”.
"One of the basic elements of music is called color, or timbre (pronounced "TAM-ber"). Timbre describes all of the aspects of a musical sound that do not have anything to do with the sound's pitch, loudness, or length. In other words, if a flute plays a note, and then an oboe plays the same note, for the same length of time, at the same loudness, you can still easily distinguish between the two sounds, because a flute sounds different from an oboe. This difference is in the timbre of the sounds.
Timbre is caused by the fact that each note from a musical instrument is a complex wave containing more than one frequency. For instruments that produce notes with a clear and specific pitch, the frequencies involved are part of a harmonic series. For other instruments (such as drums), the sound wave may have an even greater variety of frequencies. We hear each mixture of frequencies not as separate sounds, but as the color of the sound. Small differences in the balance of the frequencies - how many you can hear, their relationship to the fundamental pitch, and how loud they are compared to each other - create the many different musical colors.
The harmonics at the beginning of each note - the attack - are especially important for timbre, so it is actually easier to identify instruments that are playing short notes with strong articulations than it is to identify instruments playing long, smooth notes.
The human ear and brain are capable of hearing and appreciating very small variations in timbre. A listener can hear not only the difference between an oboe and a flute, but also the difference between two different oboes. The general sound that one would expect of a type of instrument - a trombone for example - is usually called its timbre or color. Variations in timbre between specific instruments - two different trombones, for example, or two different trombone players, or the same trombone player using different types of sound in different pieces - may be called differences in timbre or color, or may be called differences in tone or in tone quality. Tone quality may refer specifically to "quality", as when a young trombonist is encouraged to have a "fuller" or "more focussed" tone quality, or it can refer neutrally to differences in sound, as when an orchestral trombonist is asked to play with a "brassy" tone quality in one passage and a "mellow" tone quality in another.
Many words are used to describe timbre. Some are somewhat interchangeable, and some may have slightly different meanings for different musicians, so no attempt will be made to provide definitions. Here are a few words commonly used to describe either timbre or tone quality.
- Reedy
- Brassy
- Clear
- Focussed or unfocussed
- Breathy (pronounced "BRETH-ee")
- Rounded
- Piercing
- Strident
- Harsh
- Warm
- Mellow
- Resonant
- Dark or Bright
- Heavy or Light
- Flat
- Having much, little, or no vibrato (a controlled wavering in the sound); or narrow or wide, or slow or fast, vibrato."
"Sensation White is an indoor dance-event which originated in the Netherlands and organized by ID&T. The original event, which ran exclusively in the Amsterdam ArenA for a period of five years until 2005, is now located throughout Poland, Spain, Chile, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Czech Republic, Latvia, Russia, Denmark, Lithuania, Portugal and Brazil.
Sensation (White) is mostly a trance and house event. All the attendees are required to wear white and the Amsterdam ArenA itself is decorated to match. Sensation White’s slogan is “Be Part Of The Night – Dress in White”. Every event has around 40,000-45,000 tickets available. The Amsterdam ArenA event takes place every year on the first Saturday in July while the German event in the LTU Arena in Düsseldorf is held on New Year’s Eve. In 2009 it was organized for the first time on two subsequent nights on 3 and 4 July in the Amsterdam Arena where the opening of the Wicked Wonderland took place.
Notable DJ’s that have appeared at Sensation include Tiësto, André Tanneberger, Armin van Buuren, Darren Emerson (one of the Underworld members), David Guetta, Deadmau5, Erick E, Erick Morillo, Ferry Corsten, Marco V, Paul van Dyk, Johan Gielen, Sander Kleinenberg, Steve Angello, Fedde Le Grand, Sebastian Ingrosso, Sander van Doorn, Mason, Felix Da Housecat, Laidback Luke , Tocadisco and Rank 1.
The event has recently been criticized by trance fans who think there is too much house and electro and too few trance DJs in the recent events. However, in the eyes of the organizers, the popularity of trance has been receding in the past few years, and therefore Sensation White has adapted to this by altering its programming to add house and electro. Nonetheless, the popularity of trance and indeed the DJs associated with the genre still seem to be a major force in Europe. Trance Energy, with over 30,000 people, has been selling out faster than ever before. In the 2008 edition of Sensation, there was only one (former) trance DJ present in the line-up: Marco V. However, this year, trance was left out completely in favor of house (classics) and techno, however the music of the 2009 Amsterdam event turned out to be more trance like again." Source: www.bestmusicevents.com.
Sadly, what was supposed to be the biggest event in Romania on New Year's Eve was cancelled. Those who waited so long for "Sensation" to come to their mother country must now head to other Europe locations. "Unfortunately the edition scheduled for New Year’s Eve 2010 in Bucharest is cancelled. The local promoter in Romania is unable to meet the agreed financial and operational obligations. Therefore we are forced to withdraw Sensation Romania 2010/2011 from the event schedule", officials said.
"The oldest recording of the human voice - made 17 years before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph - has been discovered and played back by audio researchers.
The 10-second recording is of a person singing a snippet of a French folk song, 'Au clair de la lune', and was recorded on April 9, 1860 by Parisian inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, the historians say.
Scott de Martinville used a gadget he called a "phonautograph" that scratched sound waves onto a sheet of paper blackened by the smoke of an oil lamp. "It's magic," says David Giovannoni of First Sounds, a group of audio historians, recording engineers, sound archivists, scientists, others dedicated to preserving humankind's earliest sound recordings.
"It's like a ghost singing to you," he says. "It's like discovering the world's oldest photograph and learning that the photograph was taken 17 years before the invention of the camera."
Giovannoni says he learned of the recording's existence on 1 March in an archive at the French Academy of Sciences in Paris.
He and colleagues transformed took very high-resolution digital scans of the marks recorded on paper.
Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California then converted these scans into sound using technology developed to preserve and create access to a wide variety of early recordings.
Scott de Martinville's recording was made nearly 148 years ago, a whole 17 years before Thomas Edison made his historic message, 'Mary had a little lamb', on a phonograph, which is the landmark event in the history of recorded sound.
But unlike Edison, whose great achievement was to not only record but also play back the recording, Scott de Martinville was never able to hear what was traced on the smoked paper.
Edison's breakthrough, in 1877, was based on tinfoil wrapped around a cylinder. The foil was indented by a stylus which moved in response to vibrations from a mouthpiece.
In fact, Giovannoni says Scott de Martinville's phonautograph recordings were never intended to be played.
"What Scott [de Martinville] was trying to do was to write down some sort of image of the sound so that he could study it visually. That was his only intent," says Giovannoni.
He says there were several people, including Alexander Graham Bell, who tried to capture a visual representation of sound before Edison invented the idea of playing it back." Click here to listen the recording.
Article source: www.abc.net.eu (copyright AFP/Reuters). All rights reserved to the author(s) in the specified source.
"Being a DJ is now more common than ever and if you want to become a DJ, then there are quite a few things that you just should know about becoming a top professional DJ with a successful career. If you are lucky enough to have someone to teach you the way to DJ then you should make the most out of using that opportunity and understand as much as possible from them.
So, what’s the best way to grasp how to become a DJ?
Some great instruction for starters is to get onto a recognised DJ course, an online or ebook program, or watch DJ video tutorials. If you decide to buy DJ video tutorials, it’s very essential to ensure that it contains everything you need to get you started in your career as a DJ. It should additionally have top tips on buying and using modern dj gear and giving you insider help on the best dj gear deals.
We explain the many essential aspects and the required skills to learn to dj including beat mixing, beat matching, and free of charge expert techniques. A further dj skill set you will require to understand and master is dependable mixing techniques which incorporates pitch, tempo and styles of mixing records on the turntable.
You should understand that in order to grow to be a excellent DJ will take a deal of practice and difficult work. It’s really not something that you just can grasp overnight, that is why you have to allocate a bit of time practicing the right techniques in order for you get the right mix plus the right music, which your audience can truly enjoy.
Your skill will grow over time and give you an excellent advantage above occasional DJ’s but in the beginning you’ll need to try to begin in a smaller way Instead of trying to get yourself to play in big night clubs, you ought to consider performing at small venues to build your esteme. For instance, try to make a start with DJ ‘ing for your mates at a house party and think about organizing a party for them to showcase your budding skills and DJ talent. This way, you’ll get a reaction from your acquaintances on your style of DJ’ing.
Chances are you’ll need to have your own personal DJ equipment and this can call for you to invest a significant sum of money for it. Always bear in mind that DJ gear is likely to be quite expensive, particularly the equipment used by professional DJ’s and mobile discos.
Like in every other expert hobby or profession, you’ll need to keep in mind that in order for you to be a great DJ, it’s important to practice a lot. Plus, one of the greatest ways to test your skills is to host a party that your friends are invited to that will provide you a feedback on how you did as a DJ.
Always keep in mind that DJs are the life of the party. They should have the ability to get people on the dance floor and in addition get them excited through the music they play. If you are able to do this, then you have what it takes to become a great DJ."
"ROHM has recently announced the development of the BU7150NUV, a low power consumption headphone amplifier that supports low voltage operation from 0.93V, making it compatible with single-cell battery applications such as IC recorders and noise canceling headphones.
The continuing evolution of low-voltage technology has engendered a variety of portable devices that operate on a single dry cell (1.5V). However, most headphone amplifiers still require a minimum operating voltage above 1.5V, necessitating a step-up DC/DC converter. But this method results in conversion loss, typically around 10%.
Although there are headphone amplifiers that operate at voltages around 0.9V, when used in sets that operate from dry cell batteries the power supply startup time increases due to the increase in output resistance based on battery discharge, making it difficult to use in products with limited power supply voltage startup times.
The BU7150NUV alleviates these problems by ensuring stable operation from 0.93V, eliminating the need for a boost converter circuit in single-cell applications. In addition, an internal power ON reset function frees the IC from the effects of the power supply voltage startup time.
Other features include: Compatibility with both stereo headphone and monaural speaker amplifiers,
Highly realistic sound reproduction due to excellent crosstalk properties (85dB),
An integrated automatic ON/OFF sequence circuit that reduces microcontroller load, and
A built-in click and pop noise reduction circuit.
A wide operating voltage range is also offered (3.5V max.), making it ideal for dual-battery sets such as electronic dictionaries and electronic toys (no major modifications required).
Key Features
Wide operating power supply range - 0.93V–3.5V (from 0ºC to 85ºC), 1.03V–3.5V (from −40ºC to 85ºC)
Built-in power ON reset circuit eliminates restrictions based on the power supply voltage through rate
Integrated automatic sequencing corresponding to shutdown mode and mute mode
Variable startup completion time (via external components)
Selectable BTL mode for monaural speakers and single-end stereo headphone mode
Built-in click and pop noise reduction circuit
Equipped with a thermal shutdown protection circuit."
This is just a preview of the original article. Source: www.rohm.com. All credits reserved to the author(s) in the specified source.
"Bathroom decorating should do more than please the eye, it should soothe our senses. Soft, tinkling sounds and relaxing music make ideal musical bathroom decorating additions. So consider introducing a wind chime, fountain music box, or shower CD player radio to your bathroom decor. Then your soothing bath or shower after a long day will become all that more relaxing.
Musical Bathroom Decorating with Wind Chimes
For a whimsical musical bathroom decorating idea hang wind chimes over your shower or bathtub. The sound of the wind chimes will reverberate through your bathroom soothing your soul. Choose wind chimes that will enhance your bathroom decor with their glitter and beauty, such as glass wind chimes which will not rust overtime. And choose watery colors like blues and greens to enhance the beauty of your bathroom decor. Bathroom decorating with wind chimes is as easy as installing a hook in the ceiling. You can even hang the chimes low enough in your shower for the water to splash and move them, or low over your head where you like to rest in the tub, so you can look up and enjoy your new bathroom decorating idea.
Musical Bathroom Decorating with Music Boxes
For a charming musical bathroom decorating idea display a music box on a mantle shelf. Mantle shelves are easy to install and come in unfinished wood, black or white, to suit your bathroom decor. Install a mantle shelf over your toilet or towel rack, then enhance your bathroom decorating by choosing a music box with a soothing theme, like a fairy in a glass globe, or a fountain music box. Simply google the query: Fountain Music Boxes for a wide selection of musical bathroom decor.
Musical Bathroom Decorating with a Shower CD Player Radio
For a truly musical bathroom decorating idea choose a shower CD player radio with a sleek, modern look. There is a wide selection on the internet, so just google the query: Shower CD Player Radio and choose to look at images only. This way you are likely to find the shower CD player radio that fits in with your bathroom decor. And be sure to check out the Jensen shower CD player radio, which comes with a fog resistant mirror."
Article source: www.associatedcontent.com., written by Tal Boldo.All rights reserved to the specified author and website.
Underhood Sound Generator Is A Must For Toyots Prius
"The Toyota Prius is about to get a speaker system in Japan designed to alert pedestrians that the car, which can run near silently, is on the move.
The 12,600 yen (£96) device, which is mounted under the bonnet, emits a soft whirring that is "barely audible" in a noisy street, but loud enough in quieter roads to alert pedestrians - particularly the blind, young or incredibly stupid - that they should look left and right before crossing the road. It begins whirring from the moment the car is switched on, though it can be deactivated with a switch inside the cabin.
Toyota says the gadget has been released following Japanese government guidelines designed to address the dangers of silent cars. Japan's narrow, crowded streets have a high number of pedestrian deaths compared to many other nations, and with a million or so Priuses silently roaming the roads, there are fears that lives could be lost.
Currently, Toyota has no plans to release the speaker system outside of Japan, but says it is keeping its options open pending government regulations, or a sudden spate of Prius-related deaths.
This isn't the first time an auto-maker has attempted to make a silent car noisier. Back in June 2009 we shot some video of the Smart Brabus Electric Drive, which came with a noise generator that could either imitate the noise of an internal combustion engine or a space ship. Brabus also has an optional sound module for its modified Tesla Roadster, which imitates the noise of a high-performance sports car."
"Maria Callas - Born December 2, 1923 in the U.S.A., Maria Callas was an opera singer. She was named "La Divina" due to her outstanding vocal talent and versatility. Ms. Callas received her musical education in Athens and trained as a dramatic soprano but could also sing in any vocal register. She made her professional debut in 1942, and returned to America in 1945 where she sang for the Metropolitan Opera and various productions in Venice and in Chicago in the 1950s. She passed away in 1977 at the age of 53.
Aretha Franklin - Born March 25, 1942 in the U.S.A., Aretha Franklin is a singer and songwriter. Ms. Franklin was a child prodigy with a gifted voice and could also play piano. She released her first gospel album at 14 years old. She has a powerful vocal range which she uses in her gospel, pop and R&B recordings. She has won an incredible 20 Grammy Awards since she began her career in 1960. She has been named "The Queen of Soul" with one of her more famous songs being "Respect".
Whitney Houston - born August 9, 1963 in the U.S.A., Whitney Houston has a soprano voice who records in the genres of gospel and R&B. She comes from a musical family with her mother, Cissy Houston, being a gospel singer who toured with Aretha Franklin as a backup singer. Whitney also has a cousin in the music business, Dionne Warwick. Houston is famous for her powerful voice with a range of five octaves. She released her debut album in the 80's which became the largest selling debut album by a female. In the 90's she became a movie star as well, but then dropped out of the spotlight. She is currently working on releasing an album this year.
Celine Dion - born on March 30, 1968 in Quebec, Canada, she started her career as a French teen singer. She is now considered a soprano pop rock singer. She released her first English album in 1990 and since has become one of the most successful singers of all-time; also performing to sold-out crowds for five years in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is known for her technically skilled and strong vocals in the rock, classical, gospel and R&B genres and is truly an icon.
Patsy Cline - born September 8, 1932 as Virginia Patterson Hensley, in Virginia, U.S.A., Ms. Cline was a country music singer with crossover into pop music. She is best known for her expressive singing style and rich tones in her voice, and she has been an inspiration to many vocalists. In her early 20's in 1955 she was signed to Four Star Records. She released several albums but passed away prematurely in a 1963 plane crash at the age of 30. Since her death, she has sold millions of albums and been given many awards posthumously.
Patti LaBelle - born as Patricia Louise Holte on May 24, 1944 in the U.S.A., Patti LaBelle is a passionate singer with a wide vocal range who is also capable of singing in high octaves. She has recorded as an R&B and soul singer. In 1961 she was part of a group named 'The Ordettes' when they were signed to Blue Note Records. The president of Blue Note Records renamed them 'Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles'. The name was shortened to 'LaBelle' in 1970. In 1977, Patti released her debut solo album and continues to release albums and make guest appearances at various functions and on t.v. shows.
Mariah Carey - born on March 27, 1970 in New York, U.S.A., Mariah Carey is a soprano singer in the pop genre with more recent releases having a hip hop tone. Her voice is known for it's range and power. She is able to cover all notes from alto range up to soprano and her most known ability is the whistle register. She made her first album in 1990 and went on to become one of the most successful singers in the U.S.A. throughout the 90's. She continues to release and sell albums to a new generation of fans.
Pat Benatar - born January 10, 1953 as Patricia Mae Andrzejewski in New York, U.S.A., she has a strong mezzo-soprano vocal range. Pat started singing in Grade 4 and later attended The Juliard School. She was part of the band 'Rising Star' in 1975, and as well as recording commercial jingles, she played a part in the rock musical "The Zephyr" in 1976. In 1978 her band was signed to Chrysalis Records. She won four consecutive Grammy Awards for "Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female" from 1980 through 1983, and nominations in following years as well. Benatar has seven platinum albums to her credit and is scheduled to release an acoustic album in the Fall of 2008.
Christina Aguilera - born December 18, 1980 in the U.S.A., Christina Aguilera has a soprano, four-octave vocal range. She sings in the pop and R&B genres with influences in jazz, soul and blues on her more recent releases. She began her career on the New Mickey Mouse Club and then released her first album at the age of 18 years old; showing great talent for such a young singer. Since that release she has sold more than 37 million albums. She is a singer, songwriter and a record producer.
Judy Garland - born June 19, 1922 as Frances Ethel Gumm in the U.S.A., she became an actor and singer in the contralto range. She started out in vaudeville with her two sisters and then acted in movies as a teenager, including the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production "The Wizard of Oz" in which she sings her signature song "Over the Rainbow". Many movies and fifteen years later she made sold-out concert appearances, including Carnegie Hall and also appeared on television. Her two-record album "Judy at Carnegie Hall" won five Grammy Awards and continues to sell to this day. She died of an unintentional drug overdose in 1969 at the age of 47 years. She was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1997." Article source: www.destican.com.
"With rare exceptions, the brain has a deep affinity for music. As an example, one evening in 1995, a Montreal real estate agent and his wife went out for a romantic dinner. It was their wedding anniversary. They felt fortunate. The husband had suffered a minor stroke a few years earlier and had recovered. In neurological test after test, his reading, speech, memory and motor functions seemed to be normal. He had even returned to work and made some lucrative deals. During dinner, his wife noticed a violinist playing for restaurant patrons. "Let's get him to play our song," she suggested.
When the song ended, the agent's wife noticed a strange expression on her husband's face. The playing, he complained, had been awful. "The tune was so distorted I couldn't even recognize it," he said. "No, it was beautiful," she countered. After an argument, he realised that all music now sounded strange. The stroke had wiped out his capacity to comprehend the patterns of tone and tempo, pitch and rhythm we call music.
His case baffled doctors.
"It's not like this guy had gone deaf or he could no longer perceive sound, because he could hear other sounds just fine, particularly speech tones," says Robert Zatorre, a professor of neuroscience at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Quite simply, he had become amusical.
What is more remarkable, perhaps, is how seldom such a problem occurs. The human brain appears to come equipped with its own stereo receiver. No known human culture has ever lived without music. Ancient bone flutes have been found in France and Slovenia, some are as old as 53,000 years and they still make a beautiful sound. Long before our ancestors scrawled ochre images of buffaloes on cave walls, they sang. Music may even be older than speech. A mother's lullaby is among the first human experiences, and a familiar song is usually one of the last. "The last memories that we keep in our minds are for music," says Christo Pantev, a neuroscientist at the University of Toronto's Rotman Research Institute. "People with Alzheimer's disease may forget names and people and everything else, but they still recognise songs to the end. It's incredible."
A source of enduring mystery to scientists is why humans create and love music. Do our brains have a module - call it a music box - designed to process music? And if so, why did Mother Nature, ordinarily so frugal, equip us with the technology to recognise the Barney (the purple dinosaur) theme song when we hear it? "This is something our nervous system is predisposed to do," says Zatorre. "You don't have to teach a two-year-old to recognise his favourite song when it comes on TV. It will just come naturally."
Neuroscientists have spent decades probing how the brain understands words. Remarkably, only a handful of researchers are working on how we perceive and create music. "What we can say for certain is music and the brain have evolved together," says Dan Letivin, a former music producer who is now a professor of psychology at McGill University in Montreal.
Yet while music has evolved, human brains have not changed since the ancient flutes were first played. Mutations and adaptations take about 500 centuries to become encoded in our DNA, an interval known as evolutionary lag. "However our brains are now, they're that way because of the way life was 50,000 years ago," says Letivin. "So when you talk about how music might have shaped us, it's the music we were listening to 50,000 years ago. Beethoven and the Beatles haven't had enough time to influence the genetics of our brains. They have certainly influenced the development of our brains as we've listened to them over our lifetimes, but they haven't influenced the genome yet."
It seems almost all the researchers who study the brain's response to music play instruments themselves. A few even compose music for their experiments. In the early 1970s, Robert Zatorre was working his way through a music degree at Boston University, playing the organ at weddings and funerals in a local church. "I'd get $25 a shot," he laughs. "That was a lot of money back in 1974." Like many musicians, Zatorre had a fondness for numbers, so he also took some physics courses, later switching to psychology and biology. At graduation, with a psychology degree in one hand and a music degree in the other, he decided to pursue science. "Practically speaking, I thought I would earn a better living as a psychologist," he said. In the end, though, he combined his two loves, and found a laboratory that let him study how the brain recognises music. "People would say, why are you studying music?" he says. "That's not important. You should be studying speech, or memory or reasoning." For a while, he disguised his work in highfalutin jargon, calling it "auditory pattern processing."
But the tide has turned. Neuroscientists now recognise that music is a rich source of information on how the brain works. Music has many cognitive elements: emotion, patterns, motor aspects of performance. Jazz drummers, such as Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa, could keep four separate beats - both hands and feet - in time with a complex melody, improvising on the fly. Orchestral musicians must memorise enough notes to melt a tuning fork - Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture alone has 20,000 musical notes. Talk about brain work!
In the late 1970s, Zatorre came to the Montreal Neurological Institute to study subjects who had undergone surgery for epilepsy. The procedure, developed by the institute's founder, Wilder Penfield, involves removing part of the brain's temporal region, the site of the auditory cortex. "One of the first things we noticed was that when the [surgical] damage was on the right [brain hemisphere], the problems with tone perception were much greater than when the damage was on the left," Zatorre says. "And this is actually the reverse pattern that had been found ... with speech sounds. So although there are similarities between speech and music, they seem to depend on partly different brain regions." This shed light on some musical brain twisters. For example, in 1953, at the age of 51, Soviet composer and teacher Vissarion Shebalin suffered a stroke. A gifted and prolific musician, he found himself partly paralysed on one side. To his horror, the stroke damaged his ability to speak, although his vocal cords were not harmed. Yet Shebalin's "voice" didn't die. Before his death 10 years later, he composed more than 20 complex works, including his beautiful Fifth Symphony. Shebalin and the Montreal real estate man inhabited two solitudes of sound; words failed one, music died for the other.
The brain's ability to remember and produce music is often astonishingly resilient, even after the brain has been seriously damaged. "The Mendelssohn violin concerto was very, very important for my father because that's the piece ... that probably saved his life when he was in the camps, at Auschwitz," says Pinchas Zukerman, the brilliant violinist and conductor of Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra. The elder Zukerman, also a violinist, was forced to play for the Nazi camp commandante on Sundays. The performances may have spared him from the gas chambers. "So the Mendelssohn concerto was important to him in the survival sense, besides the fact that he loved it," says Zukerman, who was born in 1948. "I remember him talking about it and playing it with me when I was a kid." But in 1969, the elder Zukerman suffered a stroke that paralysed his right arm - his bow arm - and damaged his power of speech. One day, several years later, Zukerman was having lunch with his father in Israel, and happened to bring his violin.
"I said to him, in Yiddish, of course, 'Listen, do you want to play the Mendel concerto?' " recalls Zukerman. "He looked at me like I was crazy and said, 'I don't have the right hand.' But I said, 'Hey, I'll do the right hand.' " Gingerly, his father picked up the violin with his undamaged left hand. He hadn't held a violin in years, but the stroke had not diminished his musical memory. Pinchas stood behind him, holding his father and the bow. After two or three times, the elder Zukerman offered his son a look that said, Hmmmm, I can still do it. "It was unbelievable. I could not believe it. It shows how close we are, how connected we are to that stupid instrument." The image is vivid. Two generations, one using his right brain hemisphere, the other his left, neurons firing in harmony.
In the early 1990s, when Zatorre began using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan brains, his fellow Montreal neuroscientist - and guitarist - Isabelle Peretz approached him to look at her patients. Like the real estate man, these patients had suffered strokes and could no longer grasp music. Peretz called the disorder amusia. Zatorre, who had never heard of such a problem, was deeply skeptical. "I didn't think this could really be so," he recalls. "She said, 'Here, test them. Tell me what you think'." Sure enough, the patients were amusical. But instead of damage to just the left or right brain, MRI scans showed the amusical patients had damage to the auditory cortex on both sides of the brain. Was there a music box after all?
The findings got Zatorre and Peretz wondering. What about people with no stroke damage? Could you be born tone deaf? One of the most famous examples might be Florence Foster Jenkins, the unforgettable American singer of the early 20th century. The wealthy diva belted out Brahms and Vivaldi with great vigour and utter tunelessness, once renting out Carnegie Hall for a performance. Late in life, she remarked, "Some may say that I couldn't sing, but no one can say that I didn't sing."
The scientists placed an ad in a Montreal newspaper seeking people who considered themselves tone deaf. Of the 37 off-key respondents, the most clear-cut case was "Monica," a middle-aged nurse with an IQ of 111 and a solid tin ear. Poor Monica. She had tried her best. "In Quebec, it's rather common to be enrolled in church choirs, so she did participate in those choirs, and she was told, of course, not to sing," Peretz later remarked. The choir directors told Monica to open her mouth, but keep silent. Attempts to play in a band met with the same disheartening end. The experience was so dismal, she confessed, that music now just gave her a headache. In acoustic tests, Peretz found Monica could not recognise melodies or changes in rhythm or pitch. Most people - even babies - can do better. Yet despite careful MRI scans, Peretz and Zatorre could find nothing unusual about Monica's brain. Where was the missing music box? "We couldn't find anything," says Zatorre. "But that doesn't mean there's nothing there."
The MRI scanner can miss many subtle details, he explains, including how neurons are connected to one another. He is firmly convinced scientists will find out why Monica is tone deaf. "There must be something there," he says. "There has to be."
Ironically, people who cannot hear a thing may be better at perceiving music than Monica. The deaf have a remarkable affinity for music, and even losing one's hearing is no barrier to tapping into the neural signals in the brain where music is generated. In a 2001 study, researchers from the University of Washington showed deaf people have brain activity in the auditory cortex, suggesting their brains rewire themselves to process sound vibrations. Deaf people enjoy music and can sense melody and rhythm, often holding a balloon in their fingers to amplify the vibrations. "It's not clear what they can perceive, but it's clear that they enjoy it," said Dean Shibata, a University of Washington researcher.
Music is sound, but research has shown it might be light as well.
Herv Platel and Jean-Claude Baron of the University of Caen in France scanned the brains of volunteers with positron emission tomography (PET) to see how they responded to changes in musical pitch. To Baron's surprise, areas of the visual cortex known as the "mind's eye" lit up the computer screens. McGill University researchers found the same phenomenon in the mind's eye of pianists. Does the brain store music as images? Recently, Zatorre and his colleague, Anne Blood, showed that when people experience the "chills-up-the-spine" sensation that some music elicits, it fires up the same brain circuits as those associated with the intense pleasure of sex, chocolate or even opium. Yet the reasons why humans love music are unknown.
Some see it as critical to the survival of our species. "It's clear that humans wouldn't have made it if they didn't form tribes," says neuroscientist - and guitarist - Mark Jude Tramo of Harvard Medical School. "So how do you form a tribe? Where creativity and music come into play is to be human. To empathise with humans and share in the emotions of humans, to prepare to fight, to protect your territory, for procreation, you'll always find music. It's who we are."" Article source: www.flatrock.org.nz.
"Juanjo Martín was born in Madrid (Spain) in 1976. His interest on music started when he was only a child, as his father was a flamenco singer. When Juanjo was 6 years old his father won a flamenco contest, which award was singing with Camaron de la Isla himself. His father always instilled joined sounds on him, and he explored by himself till the age of 12, when he got hold of his first plates and mixer, and began his adventure in the world of vinyl. At 15 he already played spanish music and 90's house music in some pubs of his district. It was when he came into "Rivers 59", a famous club in Madrid, when he changed his musical aspect into Trance and Techo-House. He stayed there for some years, until he was 21, when he began in Madrid AfterClubs, playing what nowadays is called "Juanjo Martin..Sound", a fusion between House, Progressive House, Trance and Techno.
In 2001 Juanjo started taking part of one of the most important projects in Madrid, Pasapoga, which in soon became the Gay Temple of Spain. Since then, he has played in all spanish Dj booths, showing his own, funny style, reaching the dancefloor. "The only thing that motivates me when i go out to play is seeing what kind of audience i have and make them dance all the time. A Deejay is someone who..s there for the people, not the contrary. You have to make them have fun, always."
The most prestigious world trademarks enjoy the services of Juanjo Martín, like Supermartxé, Matineé Group, Queen (Paris), Fly (Toronto), The Week (Brazil), Space of Sound (Miami), Space of Sound (Ibiza), Privlege (Ibiza), Fire (London), Area (London), Byganz (Egypt), Miami Winter Music Conference, Mix (Paris), Mannumission (England), Pacha (Ibiza), Escape (Amsterdam), Love Parade (Berlin), Foxy (Copenhagen), Alpheus (Roma), Space of Sound (Madrid), and a great number of countries and cities all around the world.
In 2009 he has been voted as Second Best Deejay of Spain, and won two DeejayMags awards: Best Progressive House DJ and Best Ibiza DJ.
Most famous world Deejays play his releases. Carl Cox himself had "Skylight" by Juanjo Martín in his Top Ten for 10 weeks, and each year his productions have a great success in Ibiza and the rest of the world. Juanjo Martín is owner of "Set Me Free" Records, nominated, in only a year, to some awards for the quality of its productions and the high number of sales in Beatport and other Digital Downloading Websites.Juanjo Martín is actually resident of Supermartxé at Privilege (Ibiza) each friday, the biggest Club of the world, with a Guinness Record. He is also resident of the most funny and well-known session in Madrid every Sunday night, "Heaven Madrid", where one of the best audiences meet each week. In 2008 Juanjo Martín achieved, with Supermartxé, the Guinness Record of audience capacity in a Privilege Club, introducing them all over the world. This summer you can enjoy his sessions each friday at Privilege (Ibiza) and his particular World Tour, taking him to Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, New York, Toronto, Miami, Tel Aviv, Madrid, Barcelona, Marbella, London, Paris, Colonia, Amsterdam and Moscow." Article source: Juanjo Martin on MySpace.
"Since his summer 2007 hit "Space", Micha Moor beyond doubt belongs to the shooting stars of the international electro house scene. "Space" was #1 on the Beatport listing for weeks and was played worldwide by DJ's such as Bad Boy Bill, Moby, Tiesto or David Guetta. Moreover, Micha Moor succeeded to place "Space" as #1 in all relevant dance charts. This followed by remixes for "R.I.O. - R.I.O", "Culcha Candela - Ey DJ" (top 10 German Dance Charts) "MYPD - You're not allone", "Capilari&Salvavida – Oye Como Vas" or "Nils van Gogh - Dreamer". One also didn't have to wait long for singles. "Close Your Eyes" was ranked in the top 10 of the German Dance Charts during summer 2008 and created another summer club hit.
Beside from his production functions Micha Moor is also an international well known DJ who will always set new courses with his DJ sets with his distinctive technical skills. During the past years Micha toured Brazil, Portugal, Russia, Croatia, Indonesia, Israel, Columbia, France or Greece several times, amongst other places." Article source: www.michamoor.de.
"Treitl Hammond is a Romanian DJ,producer and remixer born in 29 of september 1981. His interest in music started as a kid with playing piano.Being a teenager he has wanted more. So, he released a project named Evolution, producing vocal trance tracks.He also was the producer of another Romanian dancefloor project,Atac,hiting the Romanian charts. With two dance projects behind and a lot of experience, Treitl Hammond has made up his mind to enlarge his horizons, being a DJ,and he's been behind the decks since 2003.
Beside his productions he started remixing artists and Dj from Romania and lately from all over the world. His reputation across Romania is on the rise as he play in many clubs. He also hosts his own weekly radio shows.And his production skills are earning him international success, his releases has already entered top sellers charts on several platforms. Without a doubt Treitl Hammond is a rising star in the progressive scene." Article source: Treitl Hammond on MySpace.
Awakenings Festival - 10 Year Anniversary at Spaarnwoude
"Amsterdam's seminal Awakenings festival celebrates the 10 year anniversary of its conception this year with a line up that it's fair to say, is simply breathtaking. Even by Awakenings high standards, they've really surpassed themselves here. A predominantly techno affair, the action kicks off on the 26th June at 10.30am and goes all day until 11pm, meaning Holland's capital city will doubtlessly play host to an array of epic after-parties for those left standing. Divided in to six arenas, simply called A, V, W, X, Y and Z, Awakenings patrons are left with an array of enviable choices. Such is the strength of the line up however, that inevitably, there'll be someone you'll miss.
The V and W line ups are both open air affairs. The V arena features techno of the tougher variety with Swede Adam Beyer, Spaniard Alex Under and an always worth catching Collabs session by Speedy J and Chris Liebing. Our tip however, is to catch Bart Skils and Anton Pieete - two Amsterdam natives who will be sure to want to impress on home turf.
That said, the W area is most likely to draw the biggest crowd. Reminiscent of an amazingly strong 'Cocoon at Amnesia' line up, it'll feature sets from Ar:pi:ar's Raresh, live sets from both Reboot and Tobias Lutzenkirchen, as well as appearances from Loco Dice, Luciano and Minus kingpin Richie Hawtin.
The X arena is another techno oriented stage. This time indoors, it'll once more cater to those who like their techno with added attitude, playing host to a number of old schoolers such as Ben Sims, Surgeon and Steve Rachmad. It's the Y arena however, which really has us excited. As if attendees weren't already spoilt for choice, here you'll catch Berghain residents Len Faki, Marcel Dettman and Ben Klock. An impressive trio in their own right, they'll be flanked by Jeff Mills and a special live performance from arguably the world's most impressive and constantly innovative Dj, Gallic deck charmer, Mr.Laurent Garnier.
The lowlands odd fascination with harder than hard 140 bpm techno brings the likes of Dj Rush, Pet Duo and Macro Remus to the Z arena. This kind of stuff is not for the feint hearted however, so consider yourself warned. Followers of lush electronica and smooth house grooves will be keen to check out Gui Boratto, James Holden, Mathias Kaden and Osunlade in the A area.
All in all, it's a pretty epic line up then, featuring an impressive majority of the worlds most renowned techno purveyors. The good news, is that tickets will set you back a more than reasonable €50. The bad news of course, is that it's already sold out. Beg, borrow, steal or get your ass on to eBay asap. If you're in the vicinity, you'd simply be a fool to miss it." Article source: www.ibiza-voice.com.
Excelent tune from Spank! Records, who would of thought an old song could be coming back to life and reach top positions in world's music charts? The video (Pink Louder Edit) also shows involvment and attention to details, making it very funny. Here's the Press Release: " Spank Records in conjunction with Sweat It Out! is proud to announce the second annual Spank! Records Remix Competition. The 2009 competition with Bang Gang 12Inches and Damn Arms was an enormous success with thousands of entries submitted from all over Australia. Spank! Records is hoping to top that with our 2010 competition, with a huge new track for remixing and a swag of prizes worth more than $5000. We are proud to have the Sweat It Out! label onboard this year. The label was set up by Australia’s leading DJ Ajax and Matt Handley and has gone onto release tracks from some of Australia’s best underground talent including Gameboy Gamegirl, Act Yo Age, KillaQueenz, Oh Snap, Pablo Calamari, Harris Robotis as well as releasing tracks from Brazil’s Edu K. This year’s competition track is collaboration between Sweat It Out! artists D-CUP and Yolanda Be Cool entitled ‘We No Speak Americano’. It has been riding high on the Aria Club Charts for a few weeks now and is garnering massive overseas reaction.
Yolando Be Cool had an enormous year in 2009 and is certainly amongst the rising stars of the ‘party-tech’ sound. With their first original release ‘Afro Nuts’ being licensed to Fabric 49 mixed by Buraka Som Sistema and signed as an exclusive license to Herve’s Cheap Thrills label, Yolanda Be Cool has quickly become a familiar name worldwide.It would seem that DCUP’s meteoric rise to the forefront of the world’s dance scene has happened in about the same time as a girl in LA can go from being a B cup to a D cup. If there was any doubt about where he’s now at, his remix of ‘Filterfreak’ hit number one on the ARIA club chart and his remix of KillaQueenz ‘My Boyfriend’ is getting huge radio airplay nationally. With an original EP coming soon, and constant requests for him to play at parties all around the world, the DCUP is no support act these days. He is the main event." Article source: www.neonhearts.com.
"Europeans from Spain, Portugal, France and England who colonized South America and the Caribbean all imported slaves from Africa to take over the hard labor of the local inhabitants. The Rumba combined African and Caribbean rhythms in a dance that in its original form was extremely erotic and uninhibited. The lady would perform sinuous movements of the hip, chest, and shoulders, while the man did his best to respond. Since not all Cubans possessed this uninhibited quality, a refined version of the rumba named the son emerged. The son was slower and more sentimental, with movements that were mere flirtation as opposed to the promise of the real thing. The son was the actual dance exported.
The name "Rumba" now includes many types of Latin American dances, including the son. The Rumba reached the United States in the late 1920's. In 1946, the British originally standardized the Rumba. They taught it using the United States technique (with couples dancing in a square or "rumba box" rather than moving around the whole floor)." Article source: www.ctkr.com.
Armin Van Buuren can be categorized as world's best trance music producer." Featuring Dutch singer VanVelzen , "Broken Tonight" managed to light the souls of thousands of dance lovers. Rocking beats, catchy loops and VanVelzen's strong voice make this a true highlight on the dancefloor. The feel-good trance track now received its visual translation, with the city of London as its playground". Article source: www.armionly.net.
The "Trance Master" figured out how to stay on top of music charts, he wisely choosed Van Venzel to represent the vocal trance release. Someone actually said " Vocal Trance Mixed Up With Progressive makes the 2010 music trend".
