Music Insights With Niclas Jeppsson

My guest today is musician and inventor of experimental musical instruments and musical robots, Gil Weinberg. Weinberg is a professor of musical technology at Georgia Tech and founding director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology.

In this interview, we spoke about:

• Shimon, the incredible robot that can sing, improvise, write music and more

• How algorithms are implemented in Shimon

• Working with drummer Jason Barnes to develop his prosthetic hand that allowed him to play the drums again • Finding patterns in music

• Defining rules over data to allow it to be meaningful

• How Gil resets his mind to allow for a fresh perspective on problems

• How Machine Learning is used to train, for example, Shimon

• The Game of Life and how it can be used to create music

Listen to Shimon Sings on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/49mqgxoLXFGP5NnBB5PQAU?si=QXBCoWCrQJaCX8WmIZ-skA

Live interview with music composer Tom Salta (Deathloop, Halo, Prince of Persia, Ghost Recon)

In this interview, we spoke about:

• The importance of playing the long game

• Significance vs fulfilment

• Tom's process of writing music for games

• Being a keyboard tech in the '90s

• How Tom got into writing music for games

• Favourite failure

And much more

Check out Tony's Masterclasses here: https://www.tomsalta.com/masterclass

Preorder Tom Salta's Deathloop Masterclass for $160 off using the code "audiosolutions-dl160"

Get $30 off of Tony's Game Music Essentials with code "audiosolutions-GME30"

On the show today, we have jazz and fusion saxophonist and keyboardist, Gary Meek.

As a session musician, Gary has played with artists such as Dave Weckl Band, Fourth World, Green Day, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira and many others.

It was a real pleasure talking to Gary and I hope you will enjoy our conversation too.

In this interview, we spoke about:

• How Gary started out playing saxophone and piano

• The support from his father

• How to not think about what you are playing

• The mechanics of the saxophone

• How Gary supports himself as a musician

• How many streams do you need on Spotify to get $100?

• Learning how to record and mix during the pandemic

And much more

Connect with Gary Meek On:

https://garymeek.net

https://facebook.com/garymeekmusic/about

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On the show today, we have the record producer and mixing engineer, Jack Joseph Puig.

JJP has worked with bands such as The Black Crowes, John Mayer, Weezer, Green Day, U2, Stone Temple Pilots, and many others.

It was a real pleasure talking to JJP and I hope you will enjoy our conversation as well.

In this interview, we spoke about:

• How the music industry is thinking about AI and what it can be used for

• The difference between experienced and less experienced bands in the studio

• The importance of staying true to your aesthetics

• How insecurity is driving JJP to get better

• How JJP communicates with bands in the studio

• The best reaction JJP got from his work with Sheryl Crow

• Having a clear vision of your project

• Do we need anything else than stereo?

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On the show today, we have the musician, programmer, and spatial interactive audio researcher Frederic Robinson.

It was super cool talking to Frederic about his work in spatial audio which he uses to enrich our interactions with robots. He also makes really cool musical interfaces in Unity which you can check out on his Instagram. Link below.

If you are into audio, music, programming, and technology, I’m sure you will enjoy this conversation as well.

In this interview, we spoke about:

• How to create interactive sounds for robots

• Making gesture-based instruments

• Using Unity to create cool synthesizers and musical interfaces

• The sound of Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant

• How Frederic approaches new challenges

• How Frederic solidifies his learning

• Music

And much more

Check out Frederic’s synthesizer made in Unity here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQLD3Nql3Hv/

Connect With Frederic

https://www.robinson.audio

https://www.instagram.com/mrfredrob/

https://www.facebook.com/fredericrobinsonmusic

►► Join The Audio Tribe To Get Exclusive Access To Interviews And More: https://www.niclasjeppsson.com/exclusive-access

On the show today, I’m really excited to welcome back the incredible recording and mixing engineer, Andrew Scheps.

If you are not familiar with Andrew Scheps, he has mixed records for bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Hozier, Adele, Black Sabbath, and the list goes on.

It was a huge pleasure talking to Andrew again and I hope you will enjoy our conversation!

If you are interested in checking out our first interview, which we did back in 2018, there’s a link below!

In this interview, we spoke about:

• The added experience for the listener of mixing in Dolby Atmos

• Why it’s good to start your mix on headphones when mixing in atmos

• If Andrew uses speaker simulation plugins

• Is mixing in Dolby Atmos just a trend?

• Being able to express yourself and your feelings when mixing

• Working with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rick Rubin

• Using modular synthesizers

• How Andrew’s curiosity keeps him on the top of his game

• His experience moving to the UK

• Mono Valley closing down and selling all his gear

• The band Low Roar being on the video game Death Stranding

Check out our previous interview from 2018 on mixing on headphones, character vs clarity, and more: https://bit.ly/3igLyTN

Connect With Andrew Scheps:

Management: http://www.mcdman.com/scheps

Watch and Listen to Andrew Scheps Podcast on Puremix here: https://youtu.be/2jV_P8qzGt0

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On the show today, we have producer, engineer, audio programmer, and author, Peter Dowsett.

I met Peter because we were both doing Graham Cochrane’s Six Figure Coaching course (which I have some opinions on but I’ll get into that more in the interview) so it was great catching up with him again.

Peter is also doing his Ph.D. in machine learning for audio applications, which I found super fascinating, so it was a real pleasure talking to Peter and I hope you will enjoy this conversation as well.

In this interview, we spoke about:

• Our experience of having done Graham Cochrane’s Six Figure Course

• Audio programming and making plugins

• What machine learning is and how it can be used for plugins

• How to solve problems

• Why C++ is the preferred language for working with plugins and audio

• The audio framework, JUCE

• How Peter batches his work to be productive

• How feeling like an imposter can make you work harder

• Book recommendations on audio programming

Connect with Peter Dowsett:

https://www.petedowsett.co.uk

http://www.facebook.com/dowsed

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On the show today, we have the founder and CEO of SingleMusic, Tommy Stalknecht.

SingleMusic is a direct to consumer brand, which helps artists and bands sell digital music, live stream events, and more, directly to their fans.

Their 400+ livestream events since April 2020 have sold more than 800,000 tickets and generated more than $20 Million in revenue for artists like Jimmy Eat World, Young The Giant, Maren Morris, Underoath, Ben Rector, Needtobreathe, All Time Low and more.

It was a pleasure talking to Tommy to learn more about his taste in music, our favourite rock bands, hip hop, life after the pandemic and much more.

In this interview, we spoke about:

• Playing in rock bands

• Favourite bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Mars Volta

• Swedish Hockey players

• Hip-Hop Appreciation

• My frustration with current hip hop music

• How everything has opened up and life is back to normal in the U.S.

• How artists can better identify who their best fans are

• Why you need and how to get people to sign up to your email list

• If you need a record label these days

And much more

►► Join The Audio Tribe To Get Exclusive Access To Interviews And More: https://www.niclasjeppsson.com/exclusive-access

On the show today, we have the singer-songwriter, Grayson Capps. You might have heard his music from the film, A Love Song For Bobby Long, for which he wrote the title song.

Grayson is a great songwriter so if you haven’t heard his music, go check it out. The Scarlett Roses record is probably my favourite of his.

It was a real pleasure talking to Grayson, and in this interview, we spoke about:

• The current state of music and the quality of today's songwriting

• Making a living from Facebook streams during the pandemic

• Why social media can be toxic

• Cooking

• How Grayson approaches songwriting and what he considers a good day’s work

• Finding his own voice as a songwriter

• The pivotal moment that led Grayson to pursue music for a living

• Utilising the who, what and when, when writing songs

And much more

►► Join The Audio Tribe To Get Exclusive Access To Interviews And More: https://www.niclasjeppsson.com/exclusive-access

On the show today, we have the CEO of the music technology startup, SyncFloor, and founder of Brick Lane Records in Seattle, Kirt Debique.

Kirt comes from a background of having worked at Microsoft for 20 years as an engineer and manager. Kirt is also an accomplished inventor with 37 technology patents.

It was a big pleasure talking to Kirt and I hope you will enjoy our conversation too!

In this interview, we spoke about:

• If library/production music is a numbers game

• The difference between production music and library music

• How you can pitch your music to SyncFloor

• If Artificial Intelligence poses any threat to sync music

• Using natural language processing to help search for the correct music

• If it’s worth signing to a major label

• If working at Microsoft is very “corporate” compared to Apple or Google

• Why you need empathy when exploring new problems and unknown areas

• Having the guts to ask embarrassing questions

Connect With Kirt Debique Here:

Website:

http://syncfloor.com

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/katewayo

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirtdebique/

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