HUMTOO's first Podcast is up on our Youtube page. Meet Neokitsch.humtoo.com in his North London studio, complete with handmade synth, Omnichord o300 and Theremin.
We'll be getting our Podcasts up on itunes soon, but for now you can check them out on our youtube page or here on our blog.
HUMTOO is pleased to announce the winning film for HUMFEST is AdamR's ENFANT. The winning music track, Waltz Enfant, was pitched by EntropiK.
On hearing that his film had won the competition, AdamR said "I'm so pleased that Enfant was chosen for HUMFEST. HUMTOO is a fantastic resource for producers to find music for their projects..."
The EntropiK team were similarly pleased on hearing the news: "We're genuinely very surprised and delighted! We have to say that the film is such a little work of art; it was an absolute joy to add music to."
So for your enjoyment, here is the winning film. It's a wonderful union of pictures and music and a testament to the talent of the HUMTOO community. Oh, and don't forget, HUMTOO is currently has a Macbook Pro up for grabs for the best use of our music, more info at macbook.humtoo.com
Here's a quick update on the progress of the HUMTOO mixtapes.
There are currently 7 mixtapes open on the site looking for music, and below is a short explanation of the music we're looking for. We are currently sorting the closed mixtapes and we'll be in touch shortly regarding the successful tracks pitched.
Stay tuned for the announcement of the HUMFEST prize shortly!
60's The Beat Poets - Closing December 31 We're looking for 60's pop classics. Tunes that take you straight back to flares, lavalamps and psychedelia. Tunes without vocals are preferred.
Acoutic Guitar - Hardwood - Closing December 31 Acoustic tunes that take you to a place. We're looking for songs with a softer pallet, that float and take the listener on a journey.
The Box - Closing December 31 Where energy meets finesse. The Box is music that sells the brand. We're looking for high end orchestral music with driving beats.
Skinny Jeans and Pointy Shoes - Closing December 31 Attitude meets attitude. Think Punk, think rock, think cutting edge tracks that are going grab you by the ears and get you movin'.
Mr Kringle - Closing October 31 Christmas tunes, both classic and modern.
Disco Retropolis - Closing October 31 Foot tapping, hip swinging funky tunes that are going to make you want to get up and boogie...
Piano Inbetween keys - Closing October 31 We are seeking an original mix of piano tunes, through various genres and moods. Solo piano only.
Remember, you can create projects to get your tracks remixed! More information in the How It Works section.
NeoKitsch is a music studio in the heart of trendy Crouch End, London, which specialises in producing original musical scores, sound design, voiceover and foley for film and TV. Five albums have been released under NeoKitsch, some classical music, and some fusion electronic music, and they can be downloaded from iTunes and other leading stores.
NeoKitsch has been active in composing music for filmmakers worldwide including productions in LA, Milan, Berlin, Zurich, Hamburg and London, collaborating with names such as UK Film Council, The League Of Gentlemen, Arts Council England, Sky One and MTV, with works presented at BAFTA screenings and film festivals. The NeoKitsch Blog is regularly updated with reviews and articles on unusual musical instruments, films and new music. You can check out all the serious and silly things NeoKitsch gets up to at: www.neokitsch.com
Current projects NeoKitsch is involved in includes the full score for the stage production of Frankenstein which will be performed in March (date and venues TBC). The lead instruments will be the Violin and Etherwave Theremin.
NeoKitsch is a huge collector of unusual and vintage instruments, and the studio often uses acoustic stringed instruments such as the violin, mandolin, and cello. Some of the more far out instruments include the Omnichord, Micro Garden, Theremin, Circuit Bent Synths, and Stylophone. Among the hard to find, vintage gear NeoKitsch collects, are the Moog Rogue, Yamaha CS10, Korg MS2000B, Roland JV1080, and the famous Roland TB-303. NeoKitsch also uses more modern synths, although arguably, they tend to lean towards the nostalgic 70's and 80's sounds. Some of these modern machines include the Elektron Monomachine and Machinedrum, and the Sid Station.
NeoKitsch is familiar with composing music for a wide range of different genres, but the speciality genre seems to lean in the direction of classical music for violin and piano, fused with electronic glitch and experimental music.
The NeoKitsch studio is run by one person, Danny Hahn, but he often collaborates with classical musicians and specialists in fields which help broaden the possibilities of composing music.
When NeoKitsch is composing with computer software such as ProTools, Max MSP, Logic and Sibelius, novelty Midi controllers are often used such as the Monome. Interesting videos of some of the weird instruments NeoKitsch uses, including the Monome, can be found on YouTube. Here are a few examples:
The HUM system is a vote-style rating system for music on HUMTOO. There is no number rating (e.g. four out of five), and no negative votes.
Every 24hrs every member of HUMTOO gets one HUM which they can use to show their appreciation of a track. Nobody can HUM their own tracks.
To HUM a track simply press the HUM button on the player for that track.
Tracks with more HUMs go to the top of projects and library searches.
So next time you hear a great track on the site, do the community a favour and HUM it.
You can see the total HUMs a track has on the display above the button and the total of all the HUMs on all your tracks on the HUM display above your profile picture on your profile.
To level the playing field as each new project comes onto the site, tracks have a separate number of HUMs on each project they are pitched for.
These HUMs display in red and add to the total HUMs that a track and music maker has received.
This means that old and new tracks start from the same spot and have the same chance of rising to the top on each new project.
We love the sound of our production music, and we think you will too.
We’re offering a MacBook Pro for the best use of our music (there’s loads of other great prizes to be announced shortly).
It’s simple and easy to enter; simply go to www.humtoo.com and sign-up for FREE. Then, search our production music library or create a project in the project marketplace.
HUMTOO’s music is FREE to use on broadcast productions, and each track has an individual price for non-broadcast productions.
Once you’ve found the perfect piece of music for your production, send us a link, ftp or yousendit.com us a quicktime of the result. Please include your email address, humtoo username and the name of the music track you used with your entry.
We’ll review all the entries and our judging panel will choose the best use of our music.
While updating our Youtube page, we came across this, created by one of HUMTOO's members, check it out:
We contacted Neokitsch, and this is what he has to say:
This video is part of a project I call Neon Quiche (which is a play on words from NeoKitsch). This project and the video I uploaded is inspired by 1970's cooking shows. I am very much influenced by kitsch food and cookery. Where the "Neo" part of "Kitsch" comes in, is where I involve serious and experimental contemporary music.I made the video in one take in my kitchen.
If you're making something cool, that's in any way related to music, we want to know about it - email Mike@humtoo.com and we'll get it up here on the blog.
Peter Godfrey is HUMTOO's featured music maker for September. With over 220 tracks on HUMTOO, Godfreymusic is a prolific composer who has been successful in numerous projects posted on HUMTOO.
Since completing his degree in music at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and advanced composition at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Peters musical experience is vast and some of his accomplishments include;
Musical Director for a number of youth theatre shows, including Wizard of Oz, Narnia, Fame, Disco Inferno and The Wiz
One time member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
National Semi Finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year
Performer: flute (my principal instrument), keyboards, drums, saxophone
Performed mainly in and around Stafford and Oxford areas, as a semi-professional (in orchestras, bands, shows and as a soloist) and for amateur gigs
Stage Musical writing partnership with lyricist Arran Potts – to date have 4 musicals for school/youth theatre performances
Composed extensive amounts of incidental music for plays, including the premiere of David Calcutt’s “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”.
Full time music teacher and Head of Year 10 at Weston Road High School, Stafford since 1991.
For more information and to listen to some of his great tracks, check out: godfreymusic.humtoo.com
We've been busy, busy adding a few features to the site over the past couple of weeks...and we're excited to announce that there is a new feature on our homepage.
Here in the HUMTOO office we can see what's happening on the site, who's uploading new music to the site, who is joining the HUMTOO community and so on. But we felt that it was harder for the community to keep up with what was going on. So we decided to create the humming along box...it gives you updates as to exactly what's new on the site and what's going down.
We've a bunch of new features we'll be releasing in the near future so stay tuned...
HUMTOO is a global meeting place for Music Makers and Content Creators.
It is an internation music marketplace and user-generated music library.
www.humtoo.com
