This varied album has been described as a cross between Joni Mitchell, Townes van Zandt and James Taylor, with a healthy dollop of blues and soul. Produced by artist/songwriter Neilson Hubbard, the CD will be available from CD Baby, Amazon.com, and from Gabe via Bandcamp (gabehizer.bandcamp.com ).

“Persistence of Memory” features complex guitar arrangements, moving lyrics and soulful vocals which capture the listener and delivers from start to finish. The track “Memory,” is a melancholy ballad with a dark side and powerful orchestration. On “Some Things Never Change,” Hizer is accompanied by cellist Jonathan Yudkin, a first-call string player in Nashville who both wrote and performed all the string parts for the last few Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts CDs. This minor ballad describes the plight of an elderly parent with Alzheimer’s and has been described as “a real tear-jerker with a gorgeous melody.”

Look out, though, because the album throws you a curve with the catchy and upbeat song “The Ballad of Joey and the Bottle of Booze.” To celebrate the release of this first single, Gabe hired a team of animators to visually express this amusing story. It tells the story of Joey, who steals a diamond ring and a bottle of booze, and tries to use an “insanity defense” to avoid getting tossed in jail. Enjoy. The video is available on YouTube at: www.youtube.com/v/A0azaI8yS_Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&hd=1 .

After many years of putting his love of music on the side in favor of his law career, Gabe’s music has only gotten stronger. One fan said, “In a world where people get sucked into boring desk jobs, it’s refreshing to see someone not only pursue their passion, but succeed at it.” Another commented, “With his three-octave vocal range, sophisticated guitar arrangements, and well-crafted songs, Gabe puts on a great one-man show!”

It’s almost as if all the years of not spending 24/7 on his music has instilled it with a sense of urgency, only making his songs all the more powerful and exciting.

For additional information about “Persistence of Memory” please contact Laurena Marrone Campos at Grit PR & Consulting, +1-503.887.2644.

“I am truly delighted to have Maria Forte on board because I know that she will make a substantial contribution to our business and will prove an invaluable asset to our Music department,” says Fintage House Co-CEO Niels Teves. “Maria will continue to operate from the UK and can offer up her extensive knowledge and understanding of the music industry. Maria has a wide range of contacts and a real instinct for where Fintage needs to be moving forward. I have no doubt that Maria will help take Fintage Music to even higher levels.”

Maria Forte adds: “I have always believed in the importance of a good, solid, accurate, transparent and bespoke administration service for music industry artists and writers. Fintage Music accomplishes all of that and continually strives to give that certain edge that an artist or writer deserves to have in relation to the management of their copyrights and the service they receive. This effort is endemic throughout their company, resulting in the provision of truly exceptional services. I am really very pleased and excited to be working with Fintage Music and to be able to offer our combined experience and skill sets in the UK.”

In July 2006 she created her own company, Maria Forte Music Services Ltd., offering consultancy and management services to music firms, artists, writers and music related business. She specializes in rights management and her clients, past and present, include a diverse mix of organizations, businesses and artists. From Warner Chappell Music for the PEDL initiative and also the Radiohead digital release campaign for “In Rainbows” to Amnesty International for their “Secret Policeman’s Ball” and other music related projects, including more recently, Omnifone, the b2b digital music subscription service and Sandbag, a UK based ethical bespoke manufacturer of quality merchandise.

Forte has worked with many artists including Jazzie B, a relationship that has continued since her days at Virgin and The Wedding Present and their label Scopitones. She has just completed clearance work for the forthcoming Dreadzone album “Eye On The Horizon,” having done the same for the Damian Lazarus album last year. Her consultancy has now grown to include representation of Fintage Music in the UK.

Fintage Music (www.fintagemusic.com) is a division of Fintage House (www.fintagehouse.com), the world’s leading entertainment asset administration company. Fintage Music represents artists, songwriters, publishers and production companies and maximizes their royalties through efficient and transparent administration. Clients range from artists such as The Black Eyed Peas, The Killers, Beck, Katy Perry and Frank Zappa Estate to companies such as Nettwerk Music, Downtown Records, Lionsgate Music and MTV Networks.

As the latest addition in Heavyocity’s widely acclaimed “Evolve” series, EVOLVE MUTATIONS 2 contains over 300 new sounds based on 2 GByte of exclusive high-quality samples. The material is organized into four categories that provide the crucial elements for powerful scores: “Rhythmic Suites” include stirring percussive and tonal loops complete with individual slices and keymapping; “Percussive Kits” allow the creation of original percussive beds; “Stings & Transitions” support a composition with striking and suspenseful transitional elements; “Tonality & FX” provide a range of highly expressive, evocative instruments and pads.

EVOLVE MUTATIONS 2 also introduces the new “Trigger FX” feature, a versatile and intuitive sound processing section that takes advantage of KONTAKT’s comprehensive effects capabilities. With “Trigger FX”, the keys within a certain octave on the keyboard activate different specific sound treatments including saturation, panning, delay effects and more, which can be intuitively layered and combined to create spectacular special effects and transformations on the fly.

EVOLVE MUTATIONS 2 offers intuitive playback and sound shaping functionality within the free KONTAKT PLAYER software, and can also be loaded into the full version of the KONTAKT 4 sampler for advanced sound editing.

EVOLVE MUTATIONS 2 is available for download purchase in the NI Online Shop for $119 / 99 EUR. A DVD bundle that combines both EVOLVE MUTATIONS products is also available for $169 / 149 EUR.

Alchemy Player includes 150 presets and 360 MB of samples taken from the full factory library, including evolving soundscapes, lush pads, and pulsing arpeggios. With your first soundbank from Camel Audio you get 300 flexible presets for the modest price of $59.

Also, All registered Alchemy users can save 50% on any soundbank until 31 March. Why not pick up one of the recently released Cinematic, Dance & Trance, Biolabs: Alchemy Labs or Junkie XL soundbanks.

The Alchemy demo has been updated to v1.12 to include all of the new features available in the full version. The demo is fully functional for three weeks, and even if you’ve tried previous versions of the demo, this version will function for another 3 weeks. The latest demo also includes new content, representing a diverse range of 150 presets and over 360 MB of samples from the Factory library. If you purchase Alchemy Player, it includes 3 weeks of full Alchemy functionality – just select ‘Try Full Version’ from the File menu.

Anyone who purchases Alchemy during the month of March will qualify for a free sound bank, as well as a coupon to purchase another soundbank at half price.

“The OptiTron Expansion Pack for M-Tron Pro takes these nostalgic tones into completely new sonic territory and we look forward to hearing them in your compositions in the future. And for fun we’ve included a few new user iinterfaces along with the custom OptiTron UI.”

OptiTron is only available to existing registered users of M-Tron Pro and is priced at $39.00.

By connecting a Paca or Pacarana to the Ethernet, sound designers, musicians, and researchers using Kyma on Windows or Macintosh computers can establish bi-directional communication with OSC-enabled devices and software on the network to control parameters of Kyma sound synthesis and processing algorithms. Open Sound Control (opensoundcontrol.org/introduction-osc) is an open communications protocol that delivers higher speeds, greater resolution, and more flexibility than is afforded by the standard MIDI protocol. (For a partial list of software and hardware currently supporting the OSC protocol, please see opensoundcontrol.org/implementations).

Doug Kraul, CEO of Harmony Systems, Inc. is enthusiastic about Kyma’s new OSC technology. “OSC is a brilliant addition to the already stellar Kyma sound design workstation”, said Kraul. “It immediately enables exciting new ways to use Kyma on stage or in the studio. But the true impact of this forward looking technology is the new, innovative controllers and applications that OSC makes possible for the Kyma platform”.

Plus Bidirectional MIDI Streams Over OSC
Don’t have any OSC-enabled devices or software yet? Not to worry! You, too, can benefit from the faster speeds, higher resolution, and reduced cable-count of OSC by using Symbolic Sound’s protocol for sending bi-directional MIDI streams over OSC. Symbolic Sound is happy to announce that several third-party development partners are concurrently announcing new software that supports bi-directional communication with Kyma over OSC:

OSCulator: Known as the Rosetta Stone of music controllers, Camille Troillard’s Mac OS X application OSCulator (osculator.net) is already familiar to Kyma users who utilize it for sending individual MIDI controls, OSC, and HID control data over FireWire to Kyma. Now, in OSCulator 2.9.2, you can also send OSC messages directly to the Paca(rana) over the network. OSCulator 2.9.2 also implements Symbolic Sound’s Bi-Directional-MIDI-streams-over-OSC protocol, enabling you to send streams of MIDI events from your software directly to Kyma without need for a MIDI interface on your computer and without having to map each controller individually in OSCulator.

vM2 and PacaMidi: Harmony Systems, Inc. is offering two new Mac OS X applications in its Delora product line, vM2 and PacaMidi, that incorporate Kyma’s new “MIDI-over-OSC” technology to further enhance and facilitate real-time interaction with Kyma. vM2, a “virtual MotorMix”, enables JazzMutant Lemur owners to enjoy automatic, fully integrated tactile control over Kyma’s Virtual Control Surface. Recently updated to include several exciting new features, vM2 2.0 employs “MIDI-over-OSC” to eliminate the complication of physical MIDI cables and interfaces. PacaMidi, Harmony’s newest product, uses “MIDI-over-OSC” to create a “virtual MIDI interface and patchbay” that adds three merged MIDI inputs and one MIDI output to a Paca(rana). This expands Kyma’s connectivity options, while saving you the expense and complexity of using physical MIDI interfaces, hardware mergers, and numerous cables. For more information see www.delora.com.

Max & M4L: If you are one of the many artists using Kyma in conjunction with Ableton’s Live and/or Cycling74’s Max, you’ll be happy to hear that Andrew Capon has written a Max external for bidirectional MIDI communication over OSC that works with both Max and Max For Live.

Pricing & Availability
OSC-enabled Kyma X.74 is a free software update for registered Kyma X owners. OSC communication requires the Paca or Pacarana sound engine. Kyma X.74 also comes with additional features, including an 11-times speedup in the Virtual Control Surface, support for the MOTU UltraLite Hybrid mk3, TC Electronic Impact Twin, and Prism Audio Orpheus converters, track-pad compatible menus, refinements to the Tau resynthesis, and more.

Symbolic Sound’s innovative Kyma X environment features a unique set of sound synthesis and processing algorithms and a powerful way to easily re-combine these algorithms to create sounds that have never been heard before.

For more information: www.symbolicsound.com .

“We left milk and cookies out for him, just like for Santa Claus,” G stated. “He ate and drank everything, but the cleaning crew says the empty milk glass always smelled like scotch, whiskey or rye.”

About the Songs:
“Explosive Chill” combines laid-back electronica with eerie melodies that would be more at home in an experimental art movie. “Bright Sun at Midnight at the Top of the World” is pretty psychedelia. “Snakeneck” is an evil dance tune. “88 Gates of Knowledge” is an ethereal and contemplative track that composer G says is “drenched in reverie for the good times shared while two lovers are in an altered state of mind.”

All songs are on iTunes and videos for ten of the songs are on YouTube and FookMovie.com. The artistic industrial-erotic album cover photo is by Snook with art direction by Phil Hatten Design.

About Jonny Harmonic:
This is the written statement supplied by Jonny Harmonic in a request for a bio: “Mr. Harmonic has no comment on rumors linking him to Salvador Dali or anyone mentioned in the tabloids.”

About Golosio Publishing:
In addition to Scott G, songwriters working with Golosio include Doug Colosio and Scott Joss (country, Texas swing), James Sotelo (rock and electronica), and DJ Insane (trance), as well as many country writers. Doug Colosio has written with Merle Haggard and is featured on the Sony Acid “American Piano” recording. Scott Joss has collaborated with both Haggard and Dwight Yoakam.

Golosio music has been heard in commercials for many national and regional brands, including Verizon Wireless and General Dynamics.

More information: www.golosio.com/ .

Designed as a comprehensive digital recreation of Alicia Key’s own custom Yamaha “C3 Neo” grand piano, and based on Native Instruments’ industry-leading KONTAKT 4 sampler platform, ALICIA’S KEYS provides a soulful and intimate piano sound that perfectly accommodates R&B, soul and pop styles. The instrument was meticulously recorded in Alicia’s personal studio by her engineer Ann Mincieli and renowned sampling expert Thomas Scarbee over the course of two years, using vintage microphones and high-end outboard studio gear that produced an exquisite piano tone with supreme sonic fidelity.

“I love this software so much that I used it on my entire new album. Not once did I record a live piano because there was just no need”, says Alicia Keys. “I plan to tour with this sound and use it all around the world. I love how it gives those who may not be able to buy an acoustic piano a true piano experience.”

Utilizing 17 GB of high-resolution samples with 12 discrete velocity layers per note, and sophisticated emulation of crucial sonic aspects like key release, sustain pedal functionality and sympathetic resonance, ALICIA’S KEYS sets a benchmark in the digital recreation of acoustic instruments. The convenient user interface of the software gives intuitive control over the sound to further adjust it to the specific musical context and personal playing style, and also includes a studio-quality convolution reverb that provides various authentic room ambiences ranging from a small piano chamber to a large stage or concert hall.

ALICIA’S KEYS can be used on any Windows and Macintosh computer with the included free KONTAKT PLAYER, and can also be loaded into the full-featured professional KONTAKT 4 sampler for additional in-depth sound editing.

ALICIA’S KEYS will be available in April 2010 for a suggested retail price of $119 / 99 EUR.

SCARBEE VINTAGE KEYS features the most revered electric pianos of the 60s and 70s, dubbed MARK I, A-200, CLAVINET and PIANET, all based on carefully recorded 24-bit sample material. The instruments utilize up to 16 velocity layers per key as well as special “Horizontal Release Technology” to recreate the complex dynamic behavior of each instrument with maximum precision and authenticity. Each instrument also offers an integrated multi-effect section with up to 10 algorithms, including phaser, chorus, reverb and various other classic effect types, which add further depth and variety to the vintage electric piano tones.

All four instrument emulations contained in SCARBEE VINTAGE KEYS are also available as separate download purchases, and can be used both in the full-featured KONTAKT 4 sampler as well as in the free KONTAKT PLAYER.

SCARBEE VINTAGE KEYS is available in DVD format in the NI Online Shop for $169 / 149 EUR. The individual instruments are available for download purchase for $79 / 69 EUR.

As a creator or artist, you may be thrilled by this exposure; but as someone trying to make a living from your music, you have very real questions and concerns: is the song being used for free or will there be legal compensation for your work?

Artists, songwriters, music publishers, managers, agents and others share this concern. The only people who are not bothered by this state of affairs are fools and thieves.

Among the firms that are extremely interested in tracking the playing of songs are the three North American performing rights organizations (PROs), ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, and the Production Music Association.

Audio Recognition
A promising development in this area is known as real-time audio recognition. One such technology, called BlueArrow, is owned by Landmark Digital Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). Using a patented algorithm acquired from Shazam Entertainment Ltd. in Great Britain, any song entered into Landmark’s system has its unique identifying features mapped and stored with the attached metadata in their database.

From that point on, BlueArrow only has to capture a digital sample from an audio source to identify it. The audio may originate anywhere: radio, TV, internet, satellite or cable broadcasts, even a mobile phone.

If your song has been detected by the monitoring system and has been fingerprinted in Landmark’s database, it can be identified from even a short segment from almost anywhere in the song. Background noise can be at nearly oppressive levels and the BlueArrow technology can still I.D. your song.

“Audio recognition for the purpose of identifying music is a reality for millions of people around the world every day,” said David De Busk, Vice President, Business Development, Landmark Digital Services, LLC. “We are beyond the point of determining whether it is viable.”

Fingerprinting vs. Watermarking
The BlueArrow approach is what is called fingerprinting. This is opposed to watermarking, which involves imbedding some sort of identification code into the song, an idea that seems workable but which has a number of problems. One is that a remix of the song, or sometimes even just a digital copy of the song file, may jumble the watermark. Another problem is that anything that can be added to a file can also be stripped out of the file if someone wishes to do so. But the sonic shape of your song, or what you might call its digital fingerprint, remains constant despite copying, file-sharing, or all but the most radical remixing.

Data You Can Use
Best of all, when a match is made by the system, BlueArrow provides not only the title of your composition but also the date, time and source of the audio. A music publisher, for example, can compare that data with the reporting – or the checks – from whoever licensed the song (or contact the user if there isn’t a contractual use of the song already arranged).

Landmark Digital states that their testing has shown BlueArrow to achieve 99% accuracy for song samples within two seconds of playing time. Even allowing for music industry hyperbole, they are making a bold statement and one that bodes well for everyone concerned with a career in music.

“BMI embraced the significance of audio recognition because it is a core function of BMI’s business,” De Busk noted. “BMI established Landmark Digital Services LLC to be the home of the BlueArrow technology. Landmark’s continued strategic development of BlueArrow ensures that the accuracy and quality of music identification expected by BMI will well serve the needs of the affiliates in the future.”

Mediaguide
Created through a partnership between ASCAP and ConneXus Corporation, Mediaguide has been in business since October, 2002. Mediaguide accurately identifies music and advertising in broadcast, cable and the Internet. Now monitoring more than 2,500 U.S. radio stations in real-time, 24/7 across all commercial and non-commercial formats, MediaGuide utilizes patent-pending fingerprinting and patented watermarking technologies.

The result is valuable data for performing rights organizations, record labels, promoters, publishers, advertisers, agencies, media buyers, market research companies and broadcasters. Best of all, individual artists, composers and songwriters can subscribe to the data and get instant airplay detail on their copyrighted works.

Their fingerprinting methodology doesn’t rely on meta-data nor require copyright owners to modify the digital content of songs. And the company acquired audio watermarking technology (from UK-based Ishce Ltd.) to further extend their monitoring capabilities. Mediaguide has an international capability and is being used to monitor radio stations in Italy, the Caribbean and South Africa.

Over 200 customers use Mediaguide data everyday, including ASCAP, who uses the data to deliver the most timely, accurate monitoring of radio performances for its 375,000 members. The range of Mediaguide products include MusicMonitor, ArtistMonitor, StationMonitor and SeeSpotRun. Mediaguide also powers Blackberry and iPhone applications, including the award winning Radio Companion on Blackberry.

As summarized by Mediaguide’s CEO, Steve Lubin, “Mediaguide is delivering today what others are simply promising. We’re leading the field because we’re fully deployed. And the comprehensive and accurate business intelligence our technologies provide are of measurable value to all involved, whether they be creators, publishers, broadcasters or advertisers.”

Broadcast Data Systems
A part of The Nielsen Company, BDS utilizes digital-pattern-recognition technology. SESAC is one of the clients of this firm, which claims to monitor more than 100 million song performances on radio (satellite and network) and music video channels in North America. As you might expect from a Nielsen firm, BDS supplies chart data to Billboard Magazine.

SESAC was the first PRO in the US, and perhaps the world, to utilize audio recognition technology. “Starting in 1994, we did a deal with BDS to create the first PRO dedicated to Latin music (SESAC Latina) and the first PRO to use pattern recognition technology to track performances,” states Hunter Williams, Sr. VP, Strategic Development, SESAC. “In 1996, we expanded the use of BDS to include all formats of music being monitored at the time.”

In 1998, SESAC began using the Aris watermarking technology with the hopes of tracking music on television. Aris had become Verance by the time they launched their monitoring network and SESAC subsequently became the first to accept and pay royalties on Verance tracking reports. In 2003, they contracted with Audible Magic for digital fingerprinting to expand radio coverage to include formats not monitored by BDS. That led BDS to monitor about 150 stations in formats including Black Gospel, Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Americana, and College. “Today, through BDS, we monitor about 1,600 radio stations 24/7/365,” Williams points out.

SESAC isn’t stopping there; they are experimenting with other technologies. “Last year we entered developmental relationships with BMAT, Activated Content, and DigSound for the purposes of expanding our monitoring coverage into television,” Williams continues. “BMAT offers advanced fingerprinting solutions, while Activated and DigSound focus on watermarking. Ultimately we believe that a combination of multiple technologies (fingerprinting and watermarking) will win the day. Fingerprinting is easier to apply, but doesn’t solve all the issues. In the digital space, watermarking can provide significant advantages like proving ownership, facilitating forensic monitoring, and tracking re-titled works.”

The goal is providing copyright owners and music users “greater accuracy, efficiency, and transparency. We at SESAC are proud to have pioneered the use of audio-recognition technology in the U.S. through our outstanding relationship with BDS,” says Williams.

TuneSat
Also moving forward in the area of audio tracking is TuneSat. Currently monitoring music use on more than 100 TV broadcasts in the USA and more than 65 in the EU, the TuneSat methodology involves clients providing metadata for each song. The metadata identifies artist, album, composer, publisher, PRO, percentage splits on ownership of the song, song title, and custom ID. Clients also provide a hard drive containing the music files.

TuneSat’s approach also involves fingerprinting instead of watermarking. As their site puts it, “Fingerprinting is a passive technology in that it does not embed an external file into the master recording.” The music is analyzed along with the metadata to create a unique identifier, a musical DNA, if you will.

Everybody Wins
Who benefits from audio recognition and song tracking technology? Songwriters, music publishers, and PROs, obviously, but the gains go beyond that. Advertisers, ad agencies, and media buying agencies can verify when material is aired. Radio and TV broadcasters can use this technology to track programming on a 24/7 basis. Production music libraries will have a new tool for monitoring use of their catalog. Carriers of all types need to know when and where copyrighted content is used because non-reporting can lead to legal action.

“The new fingerprint technologies from companies such as Landmark, Tunesat and others, are exciting for the PMA (Production Music Association) members because for the first time in history we’re getting a more complete idea of where our music is performed,” says PMA Chairman, Randy Wachtler. “I applaud ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for getting behind this technology and bringing even betters ways to track their members’ music.”

As was mentioned in an earlier column, the PMA has pushed for breakthroughs in the metadata that can be embedded or encoded into music tracks. As Wachtler noted, “The PMA, with the help of the PROs, has developed a metadata standard to help new production music libraries encode in a way that is acceptable to the PROs and help establish a standard for the industry.” You can view the standard at the PMA’s site, pmamusic.com.