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Funded! This project successfully raised its funding goal on September 14, 2010.

The End is Near - In a Good Way

Update #20 · May 22, 2012 · 16 comments

Good news. Editing is complete, we are now mixing the music and adding finishing touches. I am spending all of my time listening through everything very carefully. We are close enough that I'm going to be submitting an order for t-shirts this week, and begin preparing everyone's gifts. 

I will send an update before everything is mailed, in the meantime I am figuring out a way to get the original ProTool files online so donors can download them and mix things themselves

Thanks for your patience and for sticking through this with me, hopefully you will all be as pleased as I am with the final result.

16 Comments

Recordings Done - Editing Begins

Update #19 · Feb 6, 2012 · 21 comments

The recordings are all complete - whew. For those that requested it, I have 560gb of protools files, the originals made in the recording studio. I am thinking about ways to make this accessible, possibly using a torrent. 

The next several weeks will be editing all the sessions into a final set of recordings, then everything will go online. The studio where the music was recorded was too busy to edit everything locally (as they play and edit it all in real time). If anyone knows a good ProTools audio person that would be interested in helping to edit, please feel free to connect me.

Hoping to deliver everything shortly.

Aaron

21 Comments

Silence on the set - Recording in Progress

Update #18 · Jan 9, 2012 · 10 comments

I am currently listening to a very nice performance of the Brahms 2nd symphony. One of the Musopen donors is in Prague in the recording studio, and anyone else in the area is welcome to join. It took a long time, but its happening!

Aaron

10 Comments

Some long overdue good news

Update #17 · Dec 8, 2011 · 9 comments
Hello donors,

Great news. After much too long, we have finally scheduled our recording sessions for the following dates this January: Jan 9, 10, 11, 12, 17 (2x)

To calculate the total number of recording hours we can pay on each day, I will now need to know who, of those that won prizes, actually want their DVD's or T-shirts mailed, as this will of course effect the total number of hours we can record in the studio. 

** Prizes **

We will not be mailing for some time, so you will have an opportunity to update your address info, but I need to know who wants which prizes, if any. For those who won a DVD/CD, all music and videos will permanently be hosted on multiple sources including: YouTube, Archive.org, Musopen.org, and Box (www.box.com/musopen). So those of you indifferent to receiving a CD or DVD in the mail, please consider these digital options instead. I will be using the Kickstarter site to verify who is eligible for which prizes, but i will largely be working off of your preferences listed in this survey: http://goo.gl/b1St0

** T Shirts **
Other good news, I was able to convince a well known t-shirt designer to create a couple awesome designs for the t-shirt prize with our theme "Set music free." We now have the difficult choice of picking only one winning design, please follow the link above to vote. If you didn't win a shirt and want to buy one, let me know!

** More Good News **

Despite the fact we haven't yet gotten the orchestra recordings, I have been able to acquire music from individual musicians and chamber groups, recording some great smaller-scale music for us. Everything will be online and delivered by the end of January, this additional music included. Some are real gems, one of which another Kickstarter project paid over 20k for alone, whereas here its just one small part.

Finally, for those of you who happen to be visiting or who live in Prague on our recording dates, you are welcome to come visit the studio, and possibly help out if there is a need. Just let me know in advance. The studios are in the heart of Prague, one of the largest and newest ones there.

Aaron



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9 Comments

Sep Update

Update #16 · Sep 27, 2011 · 9 comments
Some mixed news to report. First, the recordings were not able to take place as I had hoped. The orchestra pushed back their availability to a time when my conductor was not available, and we have been waiting to see if there was a cancellation, but they have remained booked.

Secondly, Musopen has heard back from several schools interested in selling us their recordings. Two of the schools I am in contact with have recordings as good as what we are looking for from a professional orchestra, with the benefit of lower costs and zero risk of a bad recording. I tried this approach very early on and only recently heard anything. This seems promising but the bad news is more delays in checking with administration for approval.

Given that it has now been a year and I doubt anyone wants to keep waiting, what I'd like to do now is ask the Prague orchestra for a small test recording while we wait to hear back from these schools. If the recordings go well and the school's are still delaying things, we can proceed immediately and finish the recordings entirely in Prague. If we do hear back soon, we can save some money and mix the project with some pre-recorded music.

Regardless, things will proceed and will be complete in the next few months, one way or another. Thanks for your patience and for hanging in there.

Aaron

9 Comments
1,276
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Funding period
Aug 15, 2010 - Sep 14, 2010 (30 days)

  • Pledge $10 or more

    346 backers

    Get early access to the music online before its released publicly

  • Pledge $25 or more

    169 backers

    Get a master copy of the CD before its released to the public

  • Pledge $50 or more

    463 backers

    All the previous + the entire Musopen library on DVD (lossless quality) + a Musopen Pro account for 1 year (normally $45 a year, unlimited downloads, music before its released publicly and more)

  • Pledge $75 or more

    101 backers

    All of the previous + a Musopen t-shirt

  • Pledge $250 or more

    40 backers

    All of the previous + Receive a printed copy of the Musopen music theory textbook + be added to a list of benefactors on Musopen.com + DVD of the music recording and behind the scenes

  • Pledge $450 or more

    3 backers

    All of the previous + a signed copy of a cd by the conductor + pick the piece of music this purchases (separate from the voting system)

  • Pledge $1,000 or more

    11 backers

    All the previous + Be named as a permanent benefactor to a particular piece of music (Beethoven Symphony 5 thanks to a generous donation by:John Doe) + choice of iPod pre-loaded with all the music we record or Shure headphones (high quality music requires a good set of headphones).

  • Pledge $3,500 or more

    0 backers Limited (5 of 5 left)

    All the previous + you get to pick at least one of the pieces guaranteed to be recorded.