As promised, I have some new work to show off. I recently wrote music for a series of New Balance videos called New Balance 365. The ad campaign involves a flash website as well as an iPhone app, showcasing 1 video per day for a year (hence, 365). You can go to www.newbalance365.com and browse all of the videos, or you can watch just the ones I wrote by visiting the links below.

http://www.newbalance365.com/#/archive/2010-01-28
http://www.newbalance365.com/#/archive/2010-02-04
http://www.newbalance365.com/#/archive/2010-02-08

If you feel inclined to do so, please share the videos on Facebook, “like” the videos on the official newbalance365 site, retweet this post, comment, etc.

I’ve been writing a lot of music for commercials and film/TV lately, and I realized that I should be more careful about collecting performance royalties from these jobs. After doing a little research online and asking some of my other composer friends, I decided to go with The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (otherwise known as ASCAP). Joining ASCAP was much easier than I had expected, and took me only ten minutes to fill out an electronic application on their website. $35 later, and I can now start collecting royalties on my music for life. Or wait, that means I actually have to write music and get it broadcast before I can start collecting money!

All kidding aside, I may be a big proponent for open source technology and new creative potentials in the media industry, but there is something to be said for benefiting from your own intellectual property.

I’ll have more updates on my new work very soon, with audio/video examples to follow.

I’m always looking for creative new music-making apps to play on my iPod touch, and today I discovered Bebot Robot Synth. The iPhone app is developed by Normalware. Bebot features 4-note polyphony (you can play up to 4 different notes at once) and sports some cool effects like echo, overdrive, and chorus. You can even play along with music from your iTunes library. One of the most interesting features of Bebot, however, is the singing robot that appears in the background. Check out the YouTube demo video above, or go to www.normalware.com for more details. It’s only $2, which is a pretty good deal for a powerful little synth like this! I wonder when this app will come to the Android Market. Aesthetically, It seems like a perfect match for the new Google phones.

For the past few months I have been designing my official website, www.kevinsiwoff.com, and today the website is finally launched. Hopefully this website will give a little insight into my professional world. My main goal has been to present a cross section of my work in a unique way, combining elements of what I do into the framework of both a portfolio and a blog. The blog will serve not only as a “news” page, but also as a journal for my creative process.

I hope you enjoy my new website, and please bookmark or subscribe to my blog’s RSS feed if you are interested in seeing/hearing the newest developments in my professional life as they happen.

Sincerely,
Kevin

Purpose

Last year I wrote and produced a podcast series for the New Jersey Repertory Company. The goal of the project was multifaceted. The folks at NJ Rep wanted to develop online content that would work in conjunction with “traditional” marketing initiatives, driving traffic to NJ Rep’s main website and more importantly to their box office. I was excited by the opportunity to create an online identity for their company. I was using sound as my main tool for ushering in the new marketing initiative, but I wasn’t just looking at the project in terms of its marketing potential. This was a chance for creative content to augment - not replace, the theater experience.

We decided that the podcast should exist in monthly installments, consisting of interviews with directors, playwrights, and actors. Before production commenced, I started researching what other repertory companies were doing with their online resources. However, I realized that there wasn’t really any precedence in the theater world for what we were trying to do online. Instead, my models of inspiration came from both The Metropolitan Museum of Art and WNYC’s podcasts. I liked that you could either listen to the podcast by itself - before, or after an event, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the show’s production.

Anatomy of the podcast

The podcast structure involves a clear introduction by the executive producers at NJ Rep, an interview portion, and a brief conclusion layered over music.

In the introduction, we developed a couple slogans that could be used in other marketing materials at a later time - Repetition being the key to establishing a consistent campaign.

In this example above, SuzAnne Barabas, artistic director, introduced herself and emphasized the series title, “NJ Rep Online”.

Musically, rather than composing a single theme song for the podcast series, my goal for each podcast was to compose short cues that shared similar instrumentation, genre, etc., but also (and more importantly) related to the mood of the individual play. I wanted the music to be an auditory preview of the play, but I didn’t want the message to overshadow the content of the podcast interview.

Music from podcast episode #2 - bass and piano jazz riff, contemplative and somber.

Music from podcast episode #6 - drums, bass, piano, saxophone jazz riff, excitement and change, post WWII America.

Music from podcast episode #3 - violin, bass, drums remix of a Franz Schubert lieder, ominous and manic, a contemporary update to 19th century music.

For the interview portion of the podcast, I sat down with playwrights, a director, and various actors, and we talked about their creative inspirations and work flow. Armed with a Sony handheld recorder and a pair of headphones, I conducted interviews on the rehearsal stage as well as less ideal locations. For one interview I sat in the lobby of The Julliard School with playwright Zayd Dohrn, balancing the “ding” of the building’s elevator while trying to maintain a well recorded conversation.

My main goal for the interviews was to edit them down to two and a half minute pieces, so that we could captivate listeners attention, but also leave them wanting more information.

At the end of each podcast, SuzAnne Barabas (artistic director) elicited a call to action from listeners by detailing NJ Rep’s subscription plan, layered over background music.

The New Jersey Rep podcast received a lot of great feedback, and helped start an experimental marketing campaign for an experimental theater company. If you are interested in listening to some of the podcasts, you can stream them from the podcast site here: NJ Rep Online

Podcast Episode #2 Ames Adamson
Share and Enjoy:

]]> http://www.kevinsiwoff.com/blog/2009/11/project-spotlight-the-new-jersey-rep-podcasts/feed/ http://www.kevinsiwoff.com/blog/2009/11/mobile-compatibility-added-to-my-blog/ http://www.kevinsiwoff.com/blog/2009/11/mobile-compatibility-added-to-my-blog/#comments Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:19:28 +0000 admin http://www.kevinsiwoff.com/blog/?p=115 Ever since I got an iPod Touch a couple of months ago, I’ve been looking at websites in a new way. That is to say, I’ve become increasingly frustrated by having to zoom in and out, scroll side to side, just to read a few paragraphs of text on the Touch. Well luckily I found a plugin for Wordpress (the platform used to power this blog) called WPtouch. WPtouch automatically formats my blog posts for iPhone/iPod Touch, Blackberry Storm, Palm Pre, and Android users. No more unnecessary zooming or scrolling just to read a paragraph.

Unfortunately, when it comes to graphical design customization, WPtouch is slightly limited (it would be cool if I could use some of the graphical elements from the web designed blog in the mobile design). But though it lacks in style, WPtouch makes up for this in its ease of use and cross compatibility with most mobile platforms.

Now if only I posted to this blog more often, you’d have more content to read on your mobile…

If you have a blog running on Wordpress and are interested in mobile compatibility, check out the WPtouch plugin here: http://www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch/

Scrabble - Good With Words? from Joey Dello Russo on Vimeo.

Short Form Sound Design/Mix Reel 11/09 from Kevin Siwoff on Vimeo.

Today some friends and I drove to New Haven, Connecticut, to attend a record fair and eat some famous New Haven pizza. It had been quite some time since I was at a record fair, and I had a great time digging through the crates again. I happily walked away with a few good reggae and 60s R&B records.

As for the pizza, I was a bit incredulous about the hype surrounding New Haven’s Frank Pepe pizza, especially after finally making it to Brooklyn’s amazing Di Fara Pizza a few weeks back (those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know what I’m talking about). But nevertheless, Frank Pepe lived up to its reputation and made for a pretty serious competitor to the New York pizza titans. Note the line outside of Frank Pepe. Doesn’t this remind you of the pizza madness we are used to seeing in New York? I won’t say which pizza is better, but at least here’s some pictures for your enjoyment.


DJ Mike McGill digs for obscure boogie.

Cheese Pizza.

Clam pizza. Note: unorthodox slicing method

I received news today that an album I edited for the guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima will be released in November on ZOHO Music.

You can go to to: http://www.zohomusic.com/cds_detail.php?cds_id=82 for official release info. Or if you don’t want to click on the link to see the credits, I’ve reproduced them here:

tracks:
1. Xango - gt. trio, bass, perc (5)
2. Merengue - gt., cuatro (3)
3. Veleiro - gt. Trio (5)
4. Modinha - gt., harmonica (3)
5. Batuque – solo (1)
6. Caminho de Pedra - gt., harmonica (1)
7. El Marabino - gt., cuatro (3)
8. Seis Por Derecho - gt., cuatro (3)
9. Prelude No. 2 – solo (1)
10. Seis Milonga – solo (1)
11. Danza del Altiplano – solo (1)
12. Guarija Criolla – solo (1)
13. Cajita de Música – solo (1)
14. Canhoto - gt., mandolin, perc. (4)
15. Implicante - gt., mandolin, perc. (4)
16. Cancion Caroreña – solo (1)
17. Pais de Abanico – solo (2)
18. Nunca te olvido – solo (2)
19. Escorregando - gt. trio, perc. (5)
20. Fantasy on a Hawaiian Lullaby – solo (1)

(1) Solo Guitar
recorded by Pedro Rivera Toledo at PRT STUDIO, Puerto Nuevo, Puerto Rico, June 2008.

(2) Additional solo guitar
recorded by Malcolm Addey at MALCOLM ADDEY STUDIO B, New York, NY, April 2009.

Further recordings:
(3) by Allen Farmelo at MAVERICK RECORDING, New York, NY, April and June 2008.

(4) by Ricardo Calafate at ESTUDIO UMUARAMA, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, March 2008.

(5) by Gerald Jones at ACOUSTIC PLUS, Dallas, Texas, May 2008.

Digital editing by Kevin Siwoff, May 2009.

Remixed and mastered by Malcolm Addey at MALCOLM ADDEY STUDIOS, New York NY, April, May, June 2009.