Where to find music artist?

[Ehtyar]

Hi all.

I'm known among my friends for having rather eclectic/unusual music tastes, mostly because I listen when I'm doing something else (coding usually) so I prefer not to have voices in my music because I find it distracting. I often find clips of music I'd like to hear in odd places, and it's often uncredited which makes it hard to track down the artist. Basically I'm looking for a site which can help me identify the artist of a random piece of music and/or make suggestions for music I'd like.

As an example, I was watching a video demo of the new HTC Hero yesterday, and the background music was really very nice^[1][2]. I've scoured the internet and found several comments asking for the song's details, but none have answers (one reply said he had tried Shazam on it but was unsuccessful). It's likely the song was made specifically for the commercials, which is why it would also be good if i could get recommendations for similar music (though the original piece must still have an artist, uncredited or otherwise). Even just a genre would be helpful.

Thanks all, Ehtyar.

[40hz]

Even just a genre would be helpful.

-Ehtyar (June 26, 2009, 08:21 PM)

Try Electronica, Ambient, Trance, Loop, Groove, and Techno.

---------

The two examples you pointed to sound like they were composed specifically for the commercials. I'm guessing they used Ableton Live to do them. Pop over to this link and listen to the opening video: www.ableton.com  and see if you agree.

Since this style of music is heavily loop/pattern based, you could also brew up some of your own compositions with very little effort.

Ableton Live is fairly expensive (and worth it IMHO), but you can get similar results from less expensive alternatives. The Ableton website offers a free 14-day evaluation of Live for download if you want to play with it.

Sony Acid is another good tool for loop composition. You can get a free 10-track version at this link if you want to give it a go:

http://www.acidplane...om/downloads/xpress/

Open Source musical apps can be found here: http://linux-sound.org/

 

[app103]

After our discussion in the IRC channel, it seems we have similar tastes in music.

I have a few things that I have put together, without lyrics (I gave you a few of these links in the IRC channel):

If you ever hear anything with voices in this, just thumb it down to ban it: http://www.pandora.c...sh158340063934416871

I started this one with a friend on Last.fm that has similar taste to mine: http://www.last.fm/t...amn%20voices%20radio

and it has a free downloads RSS you can load in any podcast downloader, because I seeded it with a lot of freebies I discovered: http://ws.audioscrob...es+Radio/podcast.rss

And then there is the free download feed for the Rock Instrumentals genre at garageband.com: http://www.garageban...ock/podcast/totw.xml

Might also want to check out the genre of post-rock which contains a lot of instrumental stuff.

One particular net label that deals with a lot of post-rock and experimental music is Lost Children, which gives away full albums under a Creative Commons license. The archive.org links they provide have a player on the page so you can listen a bit before deciding if you want to download the album or you can just pick & choose the tracks you want instead of downloading the whole thing.

Some other stuff:

Some of Matti Paalanen's projects: Frozen Silence, Celestial Aeon Project, Project Divinity, Roomful of Emptiness, Warehouse of Distant Dreams (download links at the top of the pages gets you everything in one .zip file)

And a lot of stuff on the T-Sonic site. And one of the guys from T-Sonic (Loomeer) has some of his newer works on his own site.

Tryad is another one where you might find some good stuff.

[Ehtyar]

Hi guys, thanks for all the suggestions

40hz:
To give things a try, I downloaded (shhh) the highest seeded compilation album in each of the genres you mentioned. I found a few pieces I liked, but nothing that really gave me a kick like the Hero music did. Thank you though

I've been a fan of tracked/loop music for some time, and have quite the collection of chiptunes/modules. For nostalgic purposes, I dredged up my collection, here are my two best favorites. I think the looping and uniformity of the Hero music was part of what made it so enjoyable.

I tried my hand at composition with a couple of the more popular trackers at the time and ended up just getting more and more embarrassed as time wore on.

App:
Thanks for all the linkage m'dear, still working my way through them all. I'll post back if I find some stuff that strikes my fancy

Ehtyar.

[40hz]

I tried my hand at composition with a couple of the more popular trackers at the time and ended up just getting more and more embarrassed as time wore on. For nostalgic purposes, I dredged up my collection, here are my two best favorites.

-Ehtyar (June 30, 2009, 08:01 PM)

I'm impressed.

Maybe you can do up a theme for DoCo's podcast if they ever start it up again.

[app103]

I've been a fan of tracked/loop music for some time, and have quite the collection of chiptunes/modules. I think the looping and uniformity of the Hero music was part of what made it so enjoyable.

I tried my hand at composition with a couple of the more popular trackers at the time and ended up just getting more and more embarrassed as time wore on. For nostalgic purposes, I dredged up my collection, here are my two best favorites.

-Ehtyar (June 30, 2009, 08:01 PM)

Forgot to share one of my "guilty pleasures"....Bjørn Lynne, most famous for having composed the music for Worms Armageddon.

2 tracks available as free download on last.fm:

http://www.last.fm/m.../Methydias+Cloudship
http://www.last.fm/m...tenment+Through+Fear

He has a website that you might enjoy too, with midi files, free ringtone mp3's and some free 5.1 surround tracks. http://www.lynnemusic.com

[Ehtyar]

I'm impressed.

Maybe you can do up a theme for DoCo's podcast if they ever start it up again.

-40hz (June 30, 2009, 08:59 PM)

Oh good lord no Hertz Man, those aren't mine, those are just my favorite tunes :S Was just spreading the chip love, sorry for the confusion. Like I said, my attempts at tracking were just embarrassing. I can certainly see where you got that impression, so I edited the post.

Thanks for the links April, will check em out

Ehtyar.

P.S. We need to start DC Podcast up again, but have it like a regular chat thing, like TWiT. Would be so awesome 

[Ehtyar]

Someone posted on YouTube that the artist who composed the background music for the HTC ads was bethurum. After having been through the samples for every one of his tracks (ugh) I think this might be correct as I can hear similarities, but alas I don't believe the track I'm after has been released.

Oh well, I'll keep my eye out.

Ehtyar.