Posts for 'Free Sounds and Music ' Category

“Goods From The Woods” is the focus of the Fifth Annual Festival of Wood at Grey Towers National Historic Site in Milford, PA on Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9.  This family-friendly and mostly free event offers a variety of activities and events that demonstrate the many ways we use and enjoy wood in our everyday lives.

Unique wood crafts, children’s activities with wood, chainsaw carvings, educational exhibits, wood in building, films and lectures about wood, wood demonstrations, music created with wood and much more will be presented on the grounds of the historic estate throughout the weekend. All are offered for free by the US Forest Service, the Grey Towers Heritage Association, the Pocono Arts Council and numerous partners, participants and collaborators.

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On the ladder of starving artists, where musicians already perch on a splintered rung, this nasty blues we call the recession only adds insult to melody. How's a guy or gal supposed to take lessons to hone their craft when, to borrow from a certain soul smash, money's too tight to mention?

The musical answer could well be this: The best things in life are free. Thanks to the Internet, abbreviated music lessons have become easier to spot than dolts yelling "Free Bird!" at a rock concert. Trawl YouTube and you'll soon hit on video after video of music tutorials. Name an instrument and someone has posted a lesson for it, be it the banjo, bassoon, harp or tuba (the YouTuba, if you will). Want more cowbell? You can even find a cowbell primer.

And although music pros agree that instruction on the Internet can't replace what you absorb with a live teacher, it's not a bad stopgap. What's more, some instructors use YouTube to supplement their lessons, often in creative ways.

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Music sites just keep on coming on strong, and the latest resource to come along goes by the name of Moshable. In this particular case, you can have access to free music files, lyrics and assorted media. These can be browsed through using the provided navigation menu, which also gives you access to the latest news appertaining to the world of music.

A band search is likewise part of the site, and new artists that have been added to the online database are prominently showcased on the main page. This way, you can always know what is going on at a mere glance, and put names and faces to new tunes that are doing the rounds.

The site also has a strong community aspect, as fans and bands can connect through it. Sections that cater both to bands and supporters are consequently provided, and artists and punters can log in easily through the main page.

There is already a large number of music sites to choose from, but I think it is always good to have new sites coming along so that you can compare the existing ones and pick these that reflect your music tastes more faithfully. Head to Moshable.com if you want to try this one for yourself.

Why do people illegally download music? Because they can. The Government recently announced that it has persuaded the internet service providers (ISPs) to sit down with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and thrash out measures to curb illegal downloads by creating a voluntary framework that might work within anticipated tighter legislation.

This has been welcomed by most musicians, industry organisations and fair-minded consumers. Reasonable people agree that musicians should be paid for their work. I declare an interest, as deputy chairman of the BPI, although I am writing this in my private capacity as a songwriter, performer and label owner.

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I swear I didn't mean to, it's just impossible to not laugh as you're hitting drums by shaking your hands like an idiot while somebody is playing air guitar with a Wiimote next to you.

Wii Music is one of the titles that Nintendo talked up at its press conference Tuesday. While we weren't quite sure exactly how it was played before today, we finally have some details now: Rather than challenging players to keep a rhythm or play the correct notes, it's a four-player, free-for-all jam that doesn't penalize anyone for messing up. So it's more like "play," less like a "game."

Does it work? From my hands-on time, it was certainly fun, but I don't know if this particular mode of the game will appeal to serious music gamers. Fortunately, there's a few more modes that look interesting.

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Gloucester: Cape Ann Historical Museum, 27 Pleasant St., presents an exhibition of photographs by Leslie D. Bartlett, "Chapters on a Quarry Wall," featuring 40 vertical images displayed as unmounted scrolls, through Jan. 31. There are hands-on activities for children relating to the exhibition. Free. An exhibition of paintings and drawings by Cape Ann artist Jeff Weaver continues through Jan. 31. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 1-4 p.m. $6.50 adults, seniors $6, students $4.50, children younger than 6 free. 978-283-0455, capeannhistoricalmuseum.org.

Haverhill: Positive Images Gallery 61, 61 Wingate St., presents a holiday exhibit with fine art photography, tiles, pottery, and jewelry by local artisans, through Jan. 31. Open Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sunday, noon-4 p.m. 978-556-9366.

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A superb freeware radio player that allows you to listen to online Webcasts. This player contains more than 700 international pre-programmed radio stations, which you can listen whilst working on your PC. With the integrated MP3 recorder you can easily record music or your favourite program from the station of your choice. XstreamRadio is approximately 2MB in size.\

Visit this site:XstreamRadio

Our favourite free audio player, Nullsoft Winamp is undoubtedly a classic. It supports MP3, CD, WMA, Audiosoft, Mjuice, MOD, WAV and tons of other audio formats. You can even customise your Winamp player with a variety of freeware skins. The program is easy-to-use and offers: drag and drop files, CD ripping and burning, graphic equalisers, extra plug-ins, etc. A powerful media library allows users to organise multiple playlists.A "classic" version of the program can be selected for users of slower computers. However, fans of the "old" versions of Winamp will likely select this skin purely for nostalgic purposes! The classic version of the program is stripped of advanced features, but once installed, you may switch between the classic and modern versions as you see fit.

Visit this site: Nullsoft Winamp

This site offers a huge database of free karaoke MIDI files. Over a hundred MIDI versions of songs performed by the top artists and bands are featured here, along with reviews of free karaoke software. A list of the most requested artists are featured on their homepage, although additional MIDI files can be downloaded by completing a simple and free registration. Karaoke-Best.net is also completely free of spam and pop-ups.

Visit this site: Karaoke-Best.net 

This free and popular P2P file sharing program is one of the best we've seen with its simple setup process and number of features. Using LimeWire, you can search public folders for MP3s, documents, software, videos and more. Some of the features offered here include: unlimited simultaneous searches, "swarm downloads" from multiple hosts, family filters, integrated chat and advanced search options (e.g. by artist, title or genre).> Although LimeWire is free from spyware, adware and other bundled software, we still recommend caution with programs of this nature since publicly "shared" files are not guaranteed to be safe. You should ensure your computer has adequate anti-virus protection before attempting to download files from a P2P network.

Visit this site: LimeWire