Meanspeed® Music Review

Cubase®, the mediocre company, was looking at the post contained on this site on the Led Zeppelin song called STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN.  Unable to recreate anything I did by computer exposes Cubase®’s severe limits and over-representations of its quality.

stairway to heaven gtr solo - NJ Free School - image symmetry

I received an email from same Cubase® asking in angry envy: “oh yeah, what is the speed of the SOLO?”

Only after a phone call from same company told me to PUT UP OR SHUTUP did I decide to put the solo up, all 20 measures, beat by beat.  Eat it, Cubase®.  For the rest of y’all: do not look at it if you want to keep your “mystery” element of the song.  Anyone wanting to see the solo: the admission is priceless, therefore, FREE.

stairway to heaven gtr solo - NJ Free School - LOVE

This is the solo, recreated by a YouTube guitarist, in question:

James Manningsan and new intern OLIVIA STRAIGHT worked days, days and many days to make sure our measurements of tempo correct, because it is not every day one can talk back at the bold-yet-irrelevant arrogance at Cubase®, America’s biggest advertiser of tempo software that DOES NOT HAVE THE REQUISITE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO “DISCERN” exactly where the beat is.  If such software existed, robots would have been outdancing humans for over a decade.  CUBASE: how ya doing ay those silent beat algorithms?  Be real, Cubase: I love you all, but I would appreciate candor and a STOPPING OF HYPERBOLE AND FSALSE PROMISES!  Look what happened to the Stanford fraud.  Look at how MixMeister is being exposed for that which they can do well – same as you – and that which they cannot, same as you.  Who is buying this?  As the Beatles said, “THINK FOR YOURSELF.”

/Mariano Carlton/

/James Manningsan/

/Oliva the intern/

march 29. 2009

NEW JERSEY FREE SCHOOL/meanspeed®-carlton time measurement

"The Best Of What's Around" / Dave Matthews band / mood and tempo map

The Dave Matthews Band have a ‘greatest hits’ double album that was released in 2007 called The Best of What’s Around, Volume One.

iTunes denoted every song on this album as being in the “Rock” genre of music. A usual, iTunes does not fill in the tempo information in at all. Nowhere is there a BPM indication for the sitting there waiting for something (cough) BPM column – why – speed is difficult to survey. Freeware abounds – and it’s all freeware, because non of it works – not that I have a personal problem with the savage extenders of what they call ‘truth’ – as that of a disreputable [we all know who they are]. Garbage, because not only are the speeds absurd, they’ll overwrite the files you have going now. To insert these numbers, highlight the song, press [Command + I] go to Option, ten tabs down will be a huge fat empty BPM frame. You can only use whole numbers, but for those of you that use 1/10ths of beats per minute, as you can see you’re all set.

The Spencer-Carlton Speed Summary of Each album track:

song= “The Best Of What’s Around”
original album=Under The Table And Dreaming
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=96.5 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=enthusiasm,
c) average beat length in time=0.622 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=411.60 hertz, 89 cents above G4=391.995 hertz, 11 cents below G#4/Ab4=415.305 hertz.

"The Best Of What's Around" / Dave Matthews band / mood and tempo map 2

song= “Don’t Drink The Water”
original album=Before These Crowded Streets
Concert venue=Sound Advice Ampitheater, West Palm Beach, Florida
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=95.2 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=enthusiasm,
c) average beat length in time=0.631 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=406.00 hertz, 40 cents above G4=391.995 hertz, 60 cents below G#4/Ab4=415.305 hertz.

song= “What Would You Say”
original album=Remember Two Things
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=119.6 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=victory,
c) average beat length in time=0.502 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=510.41 hertz, 56 cents above B4=493.883 hertz, 44 cents below C5=523.251 hertz.

song= “Crash Into Me”
original album=Crash
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=101.1 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=natural,
c) average beat length in time=0.594 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=431.30 hertz, 65 cents above G#4/Ab4=415.305 hertz, 35 cents below A4=440.000 hertz.

"The Best Of What's Around" / Dave Matthews band / mood and tempo map 3

song= “Too Much”
original album=Crash
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=114.6 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=foreboding,
c) average beat length in time=0.523 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=489.07 hertz, 83cents above A#4/Bb4=466.164 hertz, 17 cents below B4=493.883 hertz.

song= “Stay (Wasting Time)”
original album=Before These Crowded Streets
concert venue=Verizon Wireless Ampitheater, Selma, Texas
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=105.7 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=lust,
c) average beat length in time=0.568 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=450.99 hertz, 42 cents above A4=440.000 hertz, 58 cents below A#4/Bb4=466.164 hertz.

song= “Everyday”
original album=Everyday
concert venue=The Saratoga Performing Arts Center, known as SPACE by anyone who knows someone else, in Saratoga Springs, in my home state of New York
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=90.7 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=enthusiasm,
c) average beat length in time=0.661 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=387.17 hertz, 78 cents above F#4/Gb4=369.994 hertz, 22 cents below G4=391.995 hertz.

song= “Crush”
original album=Before These Crowded Streets
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=94.2 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=enthusiasm,
c) average beat length in time=0.637 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=402.01 hertz, 43 cents above G4=391.995 hertz, 57 cents below G#4/Ab4=415.305 hertz.

song= “So Right”
original album=Everyday
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=111.6 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=lust,
c) average beat length in time=0.538 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=476.16 hertz, 36 cents above A#4/Bb4=466.164 hertz, 64 cents below B4=493.883 hertz.

song= “Ants Marching”
concert venue=Giants Stadium, East Rutherford in my parents’ home state of New Jersey-how else would I have the contacts to pull off Mission Springsteen this summer?
original album=Remember Two Things
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=113.2 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=lust,
c) average beat length in time=0.530 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=483.61 hertz, 61 cents above A#4/Bb4=466.164 hertz, 39 cents below B4=493.883 hertz.

song= “The Space Between”
album=Everyday
a) mean speed/average expected tempomeanspeed=84.9 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=renewal,
c) average beat length in time=0.707 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=362.24 hertz, 63 cents above F4=349.228 hertz, 37 cents below F#4/Gb4=369.994 hertz.

song= “Two Step”
original album=Crash
fast parts:
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=209.6 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=fast, 3.5 beats per second,
c) average beat length in timee=0.286 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=894.09 hertz, 27 cents above A5=880.000 hertz, 73 cents below A#5/Bb5=932.328 hertz,
slower parts:
a) meanspeed=104.8 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=natural,
c) average beat length in time=0.572 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=447.05 hertz, 27 cents above A#4/Bb4=466.164 hertz, 73 cents below B4=493.883 hertz.

song= “Grey Street”
album=Busted Stuff
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=99.6 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=natural,
c) average beat length in time=0.602 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=424.96 hertz, 39 cents above G#4/Ab4=415.305 hertz, 61 cents below A4=440.000 hertz.

song= “Grace Is Gone”
album=The Best Of What’s Around, Volume One
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=95.0 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=enthusiasm,
c) maverage beat length in time=0.632 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=405.18 hertz, 57 cents above G4=391.995 hertz, 43 cents below G#4/Ab4=415.305 hertz.

song= “Hunger For The Great Light”
album=Busted Stuff
a) mean speed/average expected tempomeanspeed=120.0 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=victory,
c) average beat length in time=0.500 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=511.85 hertz, 61 cents above B4=493.883 hertz, 39 cents below C5=523.251 hertz.

song= “American Baby”
album=Stand Up!
a) mean speed/average expected tempomeanspeed=121.8 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=victory,
c) average beat length in timee=0.497 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=515.45 hertz, 73 cents above B4=493.883 hertz, 27 cents below C5=523.251 hertz.

song= “Louisiana Bayou”
concert venue=Nissan Pavillion at Stoneridge, Bristol, Virginia
a) mean speed/average expected tempo=101.4 beats per minute,
b) mood expressed/mean-emotion=natural,
c) average beat length in time=0.597 seconds per beat,
d) meanpitch=428.58 hertz, 54 cents above G#4/Ab4=415.305 hertz, 46 cents below A4=440.000 hertz.

"The Best Of What's Around" / Dave Matthews band / mood and tempo map 7

Ian Andrew Schneider
James St. James Neumann

The Meanspeed® Music School

September 15, 2009