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My New Video: How World Music Can Change Your Life

Reid Rosefelt

By Reid Rosefelt
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Reid Rosefelt

Reid Rosefelt

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Anybody who has read me at all on this forum knows that I have a passion for world music and world virtual instrument. There are a lot of things I hear often on the internet about world virtual instruments that don't sit well with me. This is my reaction to those things, and that's why it's so personal to me.

I consider this my first video. It's also the first one not signed by Tiger, but by Reid.

Oh, and if anybody thinks the title is clickbait, please watch the video before you make that claim. I believe the video earns its title.

At the beginning of the video, there is a story I tell about the adventures I had working on Ridley Scott's "1492:Conquest of Paradise." When I was editing it, for fun I tried some music by my friend Tatiana Gordeeva, "The Legend of Edward B.," to play underneath it and I liked the way it sounded a lot.

So I wrote her, showed her the sequence and asked if she would grant me permission to use "Edward B." in the video. Instead she offered to write original music--and that's what you will hear.

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JoeGBradford

JoeGBradford

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I'm a huge fan of music from across the world - though I struggle a bit with music from east Asia and Japan - the scales just don't work for me. Particularly love Eastern European, African (most of it), Scandinavian, Iberian, Middle Eastern and British & Irish folk music. Oh and I love the duduk! Looking forward to watching the video ?

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Reid Rosefelt

Reid Rosefelt

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2 hours ago, JoeGBradford said:

I'm a huge fan of music from across the world - though I struggle a bit with music from east Asia and Japan - the scales just don't work for me. Particularly love Eastern European, African (most of it), Scandinavian, Iberian, Middle Eastern and British & Irish folk music. Oh and I love the duduk! Looking forward to watching the video ?

I agree completely.

I do say in the video that in my opinion, it's good to focus. Explore a lot, using free instruments or something like EthnoWorld or World Suite, and then stick with the ones you like the most.  I don't understand people who are interested in all the thousands of instruments in the world.  I started out with Middle Eastern instruments and then I started getting interested in Chinese instruments.  And within those things there are particular instruments I love more than others.  I agree with you about the Dudu too.  I even bought one!   They are not easy to play.

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JoeGBradford

JoeGBradford

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Just watched the video and smiled ironically (is that possible ? )  when I saw it was the NI Yangqin - despite my comment above I agree that it is an inspirational instrument. I imagine you are very red in the face playing the duduk. I've been very tempted by Tarrilonte's Desert Winds - I've not yet heard anything better but have never yet been able to justify the price to myself as I spend so little time composing

Great advice and inspiration in the video. One day I may get my fusion of English Morris Dance Music and Algerian Rai off the ground but it may be a while. Seriously I need to look at the issues around cultural appropriation and see how that may affect future development. Any thoughts?

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Reid Rosefelt

Reid Rosefelt

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1 hour ago, JoeGBradford said:

Just watched the video and smiled ironically (is that possible ? )  when I saw it was the NI Yangqin - despite my comment above I agree that it is an inspirational instrument. I imagine you are very red in the face playing the duduk. I've been very tempted by Tarrilonte's Desert Winds - I've not yet heard anything better but have never yet been able to justify the price to myself as I spend so little time composing

Great advice and inspiration in the video. One day I may get my fusion of English Morris Dance Music and Algerian Rai off the ground but it may be a while. Seriously I need to look at the issues around cultural appropriation and see how that may affect future development. Any thoughts?

I feel like politics are about what keeps us apart.    I think music has the power to bring us together. It doesn't care about borders.    Everything is a blend of influences.  The more fusion the better, in my book.

But I'm glad you brought up this issue of "cultural appropriation," because it will fit in well with the video I'm writing now.  

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JoeGBradford

JoeGBradford

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My favourite weekend of the year is the one we spend at Musicport Festival, Whitby, England. A wide range of music from across the world and a wonderful atmosphere. They cannot book as many artists based outside the UK now as they once did as our xenophobic government has increased visa charges for bands and there are now the obstacles of the Brexit debacle. Fortunately there are a good many artists based in the UK who perform music from their cultural heritage so we still get lots of variety. Highly recommended!

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Reid Rosefelt

Reid Rosefelt

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Thank you all so much.  My heart and soul went into this one.  I used Reid Rosefelt instead of Tiger and I didn't blow myself up once.

When I started making YouTube videos I was ALWAYS worried that people would get bored and lose interest.  So I jammed every kind of baloney into them that I'd seen other YouTubers do. 

So with this one, I just said, "if they don't like it, fine."  Click off, it's okay. 

What matters is that there are a few people like you who it meant something to. 

This is what I want to do going forward.  Probably won't be doing much in the future with software-on-the-screen unless it is something I'm passionate about.

I love that Simeon feels about the young student, Lee Xhi Xuan, the same way I do.  Yes, her performance is to show people a glimpse of how the instrument is played and to hear a bit of Chinese music.  But I had access to performances from her teacher and many other students.  There's something special about her.  She has the artist's look.  At 15 years old, she's got whatever it is that music should be.  There's so much precision and focus in what she does. And the joy.  I had to jump through some hoops to get the ending. Where she stops and takes a moment.   On the posted version, other videos come up on the screen and block that beautiful last moment.  The teacher erased the original video because he needed more space on his iPhone!   So I talked him into removing the videos at the end for a day so I could record the screen without them.

I was really hoping that I could transmit my love of this instrument through her.  I was hoping people would fall in love with her.  What a great kid.

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Zo

Zo

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Exact guyz , i was talking today with a friend, friend from Brazil , about culture (witch is attaked by new president by the way so the impact is positif for people , not the system ...but another debate) and how culture is the first elemnt of contact with "others" and how it is the most accessible and the more efficient to create contact and brother ship !!! 

Culture and art tells so much with needing to speak ....

 

by the way i saw east west having a new engine witch seems exellent features wise !!!  and you get if for free for any new purcahse , so next sale i might get me one : Reid , Silk or Ra for ethnic stuff (i own UVI worldsuite already witch i do love also) .? 

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Reid Rosefelt

Reid Rosefelt

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I only own SILK, but I did spend a lot of time looking at the other ones.  RA is very old and the consenus is it shows its age.  There's just better world libraries than that. 

But SILK is still great.  There are still things you can do with SILK that you can't do with any other world library.  I love the performance patches. You can get some really interesting results. 

And its authentic.  The Yangqin in SILK sounds like a real Yangqin.  The one in EAST ASIA is way too bright.  I love the NI Spotlight Libraries, but they are way too bright.  I guess they think that's what the customers want.  So you have to go into Kontakt and turn the EQ down, or else use your own EQ to roll off the highs.

To compare SILK to RA:    RA covers the whole world and it's 14 GB.  SILK is just Silk Road (China, Persia, India)  and it is 25 GB.

 

I used to spend a lot of time in Rio when I was married to a Brazilian woman. Talk about a rich musical culture.  You really learn about a culture's music when you're there. 

I know a lot about Brazilian music, but I've never made any because I don't like to think about my crazy ex-wife.

 

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Reid Rosefelt

Reid Rosefelt

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56 minutes ago, abacab said:

I haven't done anything yet, other than ask myself what instruments might orchestrate well with the NI Yangquin that I have...

Perhaps a flute and some percussion... from other lands?

A flute works well.  The little piece I did at the beginning was Yangqin, flute, Guzheng and percussion.

When the instrument started it was just an accompaniment instrument like a piano.  But they kept adding bridges and octaves, until it became a solo instrument that you can also accompany yourself on like a piano.   

I think anything that works with a piano will work with a Yangqin. 

The piece that the girl plays is actually an orchestral piece which was rearranged for the Yangqin. The damper pedal was a big addition, because the notes used to keep ringing.  Also it's a super-quiet instrument--generally they put it in front of the orchestra, in front of the conductor.   So there are electrified versions. 

There's all kinds of stuff I didn't get into in the video.  There are sticks with two hammers, so you can play in thirds and fourths.  There's also a ring-like thing that lets you play it like a slide guitar. 

A pet peeve for me is that Orchestral Tools, Strezov Sampling call the Yangqin a plucked instrument.  Yes you can pluck it, but I don't think that's accurate.  You can pluck a violin too and you often do, but I wouldn't call the violin a plucked instrument.    There are a lot of instruments hit with hammers, including pianos and most percussion instruments--that's how it should be categorized, I think. 

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Zo

Zo

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3 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

I only own SILK, but I did spend a lot of time looking at the other ones.  RA is very old and the consenus is it shows its age.  There's just better world libraries than that. 

But SILK is still great.  There are still things you can do with SILK that you can't do with any other world library.  I love the performance patches. You can get some really interesting results. 

And its authentic.  The Yangqin in SILK sounds like a real Yangqin.  The one in EAST ASIA is way too bright.  I love the NI Spotlight Libraries, but they are way too bright.  I guess they think that's what the customers want.  So you have to go into Kontakt and turn the EQ down, or else use your own EQ to roll off the highs.

To compare SILK to RA:    RA covers the whole world and it's 14 GB.  SILK is just Silk Road (China, Persia, India)  and it is 25 GB.

 

I used to spend a lot of time in Rio when I was married to a Brazilian woman. Talk about a rich musical culture.  You really learn about a culture's music when you're there. 

I know a lot about Brazilian music, but I've never made any because I don't like to think about my crazy ex-wife.

 

Thks , yep i remember Ra was pretty old, the perfomance in silk might be similar to the one in world suite , pretty efficiant (i used to own ethno also and sold it when world suite went out , witch was basically the same out of motu thing) 

I rather have few but superb sounding stuff than a lot just ok stuff ...it's all about emotion , i watched a video from rick beato where he was compalining about how the music is crappy today , lol but it's aexactly because people study and analyse music (the same usually) while artist learn how to transfert feelings and emotion , they don't give a f... about notes , but it's sounds , notes , articualtions , ect are a way not a finality , anyway a superb aspect that we should def discuss around here ....

 

Thks for your input and your fresh videos , always a pleasure .In fact it reminded that it's been a while we don't news from Vastman who was deep in world music !!  Really bothered about its silence , hope he's doing well .....

Edited by Zo
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