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Fran Guidry
Ha`aha`a
USA
1579 Posts |
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
 Posted - 08/14/2002 : 12:44:32 PM
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Hi Fran,
I've juggled the idea of creating a slack key only equivalent of the RMMGA CD, but I'm not sure if we have the necessary volunteers and equipment to pull it off. Your comment, "showing and raise the consciousness of the other participants" makes a really valid point of what we're trying to do for the tradition. Thanks for encouraging people to contribute. Last year's project resulted in a 6 CD set which showcased some really good music. It would be very cool to have strong slack key representation.
I'd like to record a song. I just need to figure out how and where I will record it.
Aloha,
Andy |
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RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2002 : 2:53:43 PM
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Fran,
Looks interesting to me.
What is RMMGA?
Is someone going to try to coordinate a slack key disk?
Raymond
San Jose
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2002 : 3:12:01 PM
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RMMGA is an acronym for the Usenet group rec.music.makers.guitars.acoustic
The group has done a couple compilation projects where their posters contributed a song (original or cover). I think the first project was on cassette. The second project was a 6 CD set. Submissions for CDIII are being currently being accepted through October (?) I think.
We could discuss doing our own slack key CD independent of RMMGA, but RMMGA submissions would certainly have better distribution. I think 500 sets were pressed with the cost of duplication and copyright fees(for covers) are shared by all contributors by purchasing sets at $15 including postage. $15 for 6 CDs = great deal.
Andy |
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Fran Guidry
Ha`aha`a
USA
1579 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2002 : 4:27:07 PM
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quote:
What is RMMGA?
Is someone going to try to coordinate a slack key disk?
Raymond
San Jose
Before the Internet became the Web, a discussion medium was created that used distributed servers to store and forward text messages organized in discussion topics. It was called the Usenet, and became an amazing resource covering many topics. Traditionally a special program called a newsreader would be required, and it was configured to connect to a specific news server. This whole process can be a bit problematic, but fortunately the good folks at Google have created a web based interface to Usenet with archives going back several years.
The first link in my message above will take you to the Google presentation of rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic. If you start at the top of http://groups.google.com you will see that topics are categorized at the top level as "rec" for recreation, "comp" for computers, "biz" for business, and so on.
If we can generate enough submissions, I would be willing to enter into negotiations with Jim McCrain and the people doing the work, to see if they like the idea of using one CD for a specific genre. It's obviously a little tricky, because they need to use all the space on all their CDs to keep costs down. For instance, the last set cost only $15.00 for a 6 CD set, and that covered the costs of performance rights, mastering, art and media reproduction, and US mailing. These folks work their butts off for nothing on this wonderful community-building project, and I would never want to add any stress to their task, but it might just work out well to have one CD of slack key.
Even if we don't have just the right number of submissions to fill exactly one CD, I encourage everyone to consider submitting one or two pieces. One little shot at immortality, ya know (or at least 90 years or so for the average CD!).
Here are some more links to RMMGA CD info:
the rmmga.org page with artwork and liner notes for previous CDs:
http://www.rmmga.org/index_g.htm
the rmmga.org page for CDIII
http://www.rmmga.org/CDIII/cdiii_info.htm
a CDIII FAQ
http://www.geocities.com/musicaddict47/rmmga/cd3faq.html
Fran
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2002 : 5:10:12 PM
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quote:
Even if we don't have just the right number of submissions to fill exactly one CD, I encourage everyone to consider submitting one or two pieces. One little shot at immortality, ya know (or at least 90 years or so for the average CD!).
I think they can jam quite a few songs on a single CD so I doubt we slack key players could fill one up. *Does that sound like a dare?* This is a fun project and gives you an opportunity to share your music will about 500 people. All in good fun with all kinds of acoustic genres represented. There was some slack key on it last year, but this year we could really make an immpression, yeah?
Depending on the level of interest, we could talk about trying to do our own slack key compilation. It's all open for discussion.
Andy |
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RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2002 : 01:14:57 AM
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This sounds great to me. I could easily see myself contributing one original and one cover. $15.00 is cheap, I could easily go $30.
One of the things that interests me about this kind of project is that slack key players in scattered parts of the globe who can't afford to get to one of the workshops in HI could hear each other play. I would hope this also results in a diversity of styles, with people contributing their own work and not just trying to play like "XXX" does.
If we get working on our own, I would be willing to contact different vendors/distributors to see if we can get some wider exposure than just ourselves.
I also have a friend I jam with who doesn't use a computer who would be interested. Also, Neil Hogan at the Los Gatos guitar gallery plays and teaches slack key, and I would be happy to talk with Neil and see if he or any of his students would be interested.
Raymond
San Jose
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2002 : 11:12:06 AM
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Please don't hurt me, but let me tell you a few true things about the production of the last set of RMMGA CDs, since we were involved in it, a bit, and Sarah had a song on it (that is a part of the story I'll get into in a while). If you look at the cover art of the 3 CDs you will notice that two are Sarah's McCollum and Mauel and one is my Leach. It took days to make the pix in the first place and it took months for Tim Wampler to turn them into appropriate art.
That was the least of the efforts involved.
One person spent nearly full-time for months running down the royalty and legality issues and paying off to agencies. That was complicated by some of the "artists" failures to understand who wrote what they covered. So, searches had to be instituted and mistakes were made. Sarah took months, with lots of correspondence, to get permission to use Lili`uokalani's lyrics, even though the musical arrangement was completely hers. Larry Pattis fronted the reproduction of 500 copies and was involved with all sorts of wrangles over production and pricing. Jan Friedman spent over a year on mastering and leveling and tinkering with all the submissions, using her computer with lots of software. Still, several of the songs were transfered badly, notably David Kilpatrick's and Sarah's. This was almost certainly a result of funky A/D converters or sampling rate problems. David publicly complained on rmmga, and even though we did not, I can't blame him - he put in tons of work and it was trashed in front of his rmmga associates. Another guy worked on collecting the money - and several (around 20 or 30, if I recall) sterling netizens, who ordered copies, reneged and disappeared, even after dunning. He also had the problems of international exchange rate conversions. There was all sorts of bickering about how to pay - check, Paypal, whatever. It was decided that $1.00 of each fee would go to a charity (thus making sure that there was no $$ left over so that the effort would remain a non-profit in the eyes of everyone, including the IRS. The guy who took over packaging and mailing had something like a Boy Scout Troop or Little League team, or something, to help him - there had to be the special mailer boxers and addressing. You were supposed to send him a self addressed label, but many people did not. They worked weekends over several weeks as the money trickled in, even though there were constant reminders on rmmga.
There were probably things I left out, but I am most likely suppressing them. There is a Google or Yahoo Group that is probably still left out there in which all this (and more scrapping and whingeing) is documented. It might be the same one that Fran mentioned, but I can't bring myself to look.
Yes, the overall effort and much of the result was estimable, but never underestimate the overall effort. I truly wish it were easier.
BTW, I have a few copies, still shrinkwrapped, that I would give away if I didn't have to go through any hassles.
...Reid
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Pauline Leland
`Olu`olu
USA
783 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2002 : 2:38:59 PM
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Reid - Sheesh, are you saying the evil, bloated music industry that overcharges for CD's and underpays the artists may have a reason for the pricing on CD's? I prefer them as villians.
For those thinking of contributing to this project - please do! I cannot, but would love to hear more slack key from my betters.
Pauline |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2002 : 9:11:07 PM
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Aloha e Pauline,
No, I would never say that the music industry is not evil :-)
The retail pricing of CDs *is* reasonable. If you are as old as I am, you remember what LPs used to cost and, accounting for inflation, the price to the consumer is cheap. OTW, we wouldn't buy.
However, they have economies of scale that amateurs like us (and rmmga) don't have, and their overhead (except for their stupid advertising mechanisms for certain age and demographic groups) is very low. If we (on taro patch) were to undertake such a project, it would be killer, even for what seems, on the surface, to be a small home production - we would still have to act like a full fledged production facility and be able to prove that we did the right thing at every step. And if you piggyback on rmmga's latest effort, really work to be pono. Also, send them your pieces on a CD, all mastered, except maybe for level setting (give them max S/N) - don't trust them to be able to do what a pro studio would do if you were a star.
What is bad in "the industry" is that the artists,except for a few blockbusters, don't get what they ought to. Read rmmga archives for Adrian Legg's and Rick Ruskin's posts about this issue. Also, since I happen to have a luthier friend in Nashville, I get to hear about the tanking of the music industry (especially the musicians) there. It sounds pretty apocalyptic.
Nothing I want to get involved in again, except as a spectator.
...Reid
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RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2002 : 12:44:46 AM
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Reid,
Thanks for the voice of experience.
By the way -- if you want an insider's view of the recording execs, check out Janis Ian's recent article. She put in words stuff I had suspicions of for a long time. I found it at nehenahe.net
Raymond
San Jose, CA
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