Too Much Music
Alison and Greg Wilder
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Two music know-it-alls talk about making music in a world that already has too much music in it. This ex-husband-and-wife pair spout knowledge on all things music, including computational creativity, music production, human creativity, composition, songwriting, music business, music education, music-making culture, and machine learning/AI topics.
Available episodes
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Oldest first
3 days ago
How Do Computers Match Musical Sounds?
Today we take a look back at the music technology underpinning a startup co-founded by our hosts in the early 2010s. With the motto "Use Music to Find Music" , Clio Music was perhaps the first commercially available search engine to speak the language of music and has been a part of TiVo since 2012.
Listen in as our intrepid hosts share insights from that experience as well as ways they see this technology playing an important role in the future of music AI.
Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or check us out at https://www.toomuchmusicpodcast.com/
More from your lovely hosts:
Greg: https://gregwilder.com
Alison: https://alisonwilder.net/
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Sep 8, 2023
Music as Information: What Gets Lost?
Where does music live? Is it the sound in the room? Is it in your brain? Or maybe it lives on paper? In order to repeat it, we need to create systems to write it down, and ultimately represent music as information or data. But what gets lost when we do this?
Writing music down seems straightforward enough. But as we’ll see, the process of reducing the rich experience of music to dots on paper isn’t as simple as jotting down a grocery list or even writing down your innermost thoughts about last night’s dreams.
Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or check us out at https://www.toomuchmusicpodcast.com/
More from your lovely hosts:
Greg: https://gregwilder.com
Alison: https://alisonwilder.net/
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Jun 23, 2023
Art vs. Pop Music Smackdown - Pt. 2
The first sign that the Wilder marriage might be in trouble happened before the wedding: it was a knock-down, drag-out fight about whether there's a fundamental difference between music in the European art music tradition and music in the American blues tradition. (We can all agree that this is a severely nerdy topic to fight about.)
Eventually, after years of testy conversation, Alison conceded on this one -- Greg and Alison now agree, they're different. But how?
This two (maybe three?!)-part episode delves into the specific traits and characteristics that make art music and pop music different from each other. Part one focused on the musical characteristics, while part two dives into culturally-driven differences.
Greg's website: https://gregwilder.com
Alison's website: https://alisonwilder.net
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Jun 4, 2023
Art vs. Pop Music Smackdown - Pt. 1
The first sign that the Wilder marriage might be in trouble happened before the wedding: it was a knock-down, drag-out fight about whether there's a fundamental difference between music in the European art music tradition and music in the American blues tradition. (We can all agree that this is a severely nerdy topic to fight about.)
Eventually, after years of testy conversation, Alison conceded on this one -- Greg and Alison now agree, they're different. But how?
This two (maybe three?!)-part episode delves into the specific traits and characteristics that make art music and pop music different from each other. Part one focuses on the musical characteristics, while part two will dive into culturally-driven differences.
Greg's website: https://gregwilder.com
Alison's website: https://alisonwilder.net
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Mar 27, 2022
Greg Tells Alison What to Do - Composition Challenge Pt. 2
Since Alison and Greg are a formerly-married couple, they know each other's strengths and weaknesses. In this two-part series, they're using that knowledge for good, and creating challenges tailor-made to help the other person become a better musician -- and who knows, maybe a better person along the way!
This episode covers Greg's challenge to Alison: to craft a drum sound for her upcoming Blix Byrd album by testing out a few different sounds. This is opposed to her usual gut-instinct way of just going with it...what will this ultra-crafty approach yield for her music?!
In this episode, we talk about the Dave Smith Instruments Tempest drum machine, as well as the Roland 606, 707, 808, and CR78 drum machines.
Greg's website: https://gregwilder.com
Alison's website: https://alisonwilder.net
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Mar 3, 2022
Alison Tells Greg What to Do - Composition Challenge Pt. 1
Since Alison and Greg are a formerly married couple, they know each other's strengths and weaknesses. In this two-part series, they're using that knowledge for good, and creating challenges tailor-made to help the other person become a better musician -- and who knows, maybe a better person along the way!
This episode covers Alison's challenge to Greg: to create a piece of music without using his composer craftiness. He's not allowed to think about what he's going to make, but has to abandon his training and use only his intuition to create music.
Check out the episode to learn why this was a challenge for Greg, and how it went!
Greg's website: https://gregwilder.com
Alison's website: https://alisonwilder.net
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Feb 4, 2022
Two Nerds Talk About What Music is Worth
It's official: the internet has been a game-changer for music. Alison and Greg dive into how music is and isn't valuable today, both monetarily and culturally.
As usual, their conversation is far-reaching. They talk about the usual suspects: Spotify, major labels, Napster, machine learning algorithms, and music for media. Of course, it doesn't stop there. You'll also hear about the desensitization of listeners by reality TV danger music, the Faustian deal we make as musicians, the sheer brilliance and stupidity of Hans Zimmer's music, making beats for Drake, Lawrence Kramer's defense of classical music as still relevant, and music's current value as your mood for sale.
Greg's website: https://gregwilder.com
Alison's website: https://alisonwilder.net
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Jan 21, 2022
To Music School, or Not to Music School?
Greg and Alison want to tell you why you should (or shouldn't) go to music school. In this episode, they explore what it's like to take a traditional path through music school, including how music school might be beneficial or detrimental depending on your own musical goals.
It's a magical mystery tour through a diverse set of of topics, including the differences between composers and songwriters, learning how to music on YouTube, Greg's mentor George Rochberg, the creative process in general, Stephen King, Thom Yorke, start-ups, Vangelis, musical embodiment, why Modest Mouse kinda sucks, and production music libraries.
Greg is a Doctor of Music in piano and composition from the Eastman School of Music (ooh la la!) and Alison has a master's degree in music theory and quit a doctoral program in music theory and cognition at McGill University, so they're well versed in the ins and outs of music school. They've both been students and professors, but each decided to leave the academic path years ago, and have been making it on their own in the rough world ever since.
Greg's website: https://gregwilder.com
Alison's website: https://alisonwilder.net
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