"I'll Pick up the Tab"

By: Reid Mene

     Its been a great run but unfortunately this will be my last blog;at least for the time being.  So I want to leave you all with something special I recently came across that caught my eye in particular.  For those of you who are in my class you saw that I did my presentation on the iPod V. Zune understands the war between Apple and Microsoft. Now a new competitor has just come into the ranks and with their product their going to give the two a fight for what Santa will be packing in his bag this year.

 
Samsung brings us their version of the IPad, known as the Galaxy Tab. We can call this the Android V. Apple battle. The Tab is very similar to the iPad but what makes it special is that its much sleeker and lighter while still having the same speed processor as the iPad.  Unlike the iPad this puppy comes with different options for internal storage while also containing a 32GB of expandable storage, so for those of you who love to really fill up space this is the product for you.  With two cameras, video recorder as well, holding up to 7 hours of video playback this thing multitasks in ways never thought possible.  It brings a full-featured multitasking support for Adobe Flash.  In todays society something that can multitask is our best friend.
   I hope those of you who have read my blog over the last few months enjoyed my posts.  Happy holidays!

Did Auto-tune Ruin the Music Industry?

By: Reid Mene 

    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw

   Music has been around since the beginning of time and up until recently to be a successful musician or singer you have to be talented.  Now what sounds wrong about that sentence?  Today some of the most popular artists on the radio are some of the most unskilled singers while talented voices go to waist.  Auto-tune, something we have all heard of has changed the music industry, as we know it.  It all started about four or five years ago a man by the name of Andy Hildebrand created the technology. This device was not initially intended for music purposes but actually for interpreting seismic data.  If your wondering what that is, it measures earthquake frequencies but soon after he created the device he realized it could be used for correcting the pitch of a singer making the quality of the pitch much better and on point.

   Some of the most popular artists today have become very accustom with the use of auto-tune and it actually has made their carriers.  Artists such as T-Pain, Akon, Natasha Beingfield, Tim McGraw, New Found Glory and Cher are just to name a few, but all have used the device to drastically improve their carrier.  Singing sensation Cher was the first artist to use auto-tone on one of her most famous songs, “Believe”.  The device uses a phase vocoder to correct the pitch of the person singings voice.  This machine is supposed to disguise off tone notes that people make when singing making the human voice meets perfection. 

    Many people feel this actually takes away the appeal of music because with this device anyone can sound good.  I feel that it is a disgrace to singers everywhere because singing is something people are either born with or not and now anyone can be a hit singer.  Singing is just like any other form of art it requires hard work and talent and this devise takes away from that.  That would be like if someone made a device that made someone’s painting better or for him or her.  Its not their actual work so why should they be getting credit over it especially over thousands of people out there who having amazing voices who are dying for the chance to show the world of their talents.

    Recently on the news they gave a story on a bed intruder where a rapist climbed into a girls bedroom in the ghetto and attempted to attack her.  Although she went unharmed the new team interviewed the females brother and he said some pretty hilarious things.  This video became extremely popular and some kids made the interview into a song using auto-tone and now this video is being nominated for a Grammy.  This person was not even singing but with the help of auto-tone it tuned this interview into an actually pretty catchy song proving that auto-tone can make literally anyone sound good.  

    Auto-tone has received mixed reviews, some people like the sound it makes while others such as singer Jay-Z feel its ruining music.  He is so opposed to it he went to the lengths of making a song called, "Death of Auto-tone."  There was lots of controversy over this song, but frankly I think it was a great song because it really reminded people of how fake auto-tune is and that it disrespects talented singers everywhere.