With the A3E conference in Boston this year – and our own Joe Berkovitz highlighted as a speaker on the future of web audio, we decided to sit down with Conference Chairman, Doug DeAngelis to talk about his experience as a composer and how he views the role of technology in his work.
What makes Noteflight appealing to you?
I make my living in music for television, both as a composer and as a musical director. I often have several pieces of music to work on each day, and often I need to involve other musicians, in other cities in order to get the job done. Noteflight offers solutions that solve all of those problems.
The task of searching for a chart is finally made easy, whether it’s one of my own compositions or an evergreen song in the public domain. I get so frustrated when I need sheet music and I find myself searching through a stack of paper, or being taken from Website to Website by companies trying to sell other products and services. I also don’t want to risk installing software into my music computer when I am in the middle of a recording session or on stage shooting a show. Noteflight is the first service I have found that bypasses all of those issues and within a few keystrokes you have all the sheet music you need, and all of the options you need to circulate the information to your musicians.
What makes the technology special?
Noteflight is browser based, which is something we are seeing in many others fields, but in music notation it is really a first that I have seen. No software to download, and with over a million users generating sheet music and posting it there is a constant influx of content to explore in almost any genre of music you need. As a musician who works in all different environments, on all different computer platforms, the browser based technology means I can log in from any computer and get the music charts I need.
If your reading skills are rusty, like mine, Noteflight translates the notation to audio for you so you can get a quick reference on a melody line, or hear the rhythmic figures and relationships. For anyone who plays by ear, you now have a bridge between the world of notated music and playing by ear. I highly suggest the upgrade to Noteflight Crescendo for serious users. The audio engine is more sophisticated, and it offers additional file management features for sharing your music. I can see myself relying on both of these features for my work.
Where do you see Noteflight in the future of music technology?
As Conference Chair of A3E – The Advanced Audio & Applications Exchange, I am seeing the latest innovations in music technology, and constantly challenging myself to explore them beyond my own personal needs. I think Noteflight is something that different people will use for different reasons, which in itself says a lot about the technology – it is far more than just a method of notating your music. Noteflight is a community, and in modern music technology, community has become the foundation of a great product. We see this in everything from music production tools to entertainment and gaming products. The ability to work or play in a crowd sourced environment opens the door to the creativity and vision of the user, which can often take it in directions that the developer or company never intended.
I can see Noteflight becoming a method for artists to run contests for crowd sourced arrangements of their songs. I can also see music publishers and record labels using it as a resource to find new writers, or seek out hit songs from people who write instrumental music, or don’t have the ability to make professional sounding demos. With collaboration as part of Noteflight’s DNA, I think it will take on many new dimensions over the coming years. I am thrilled to have it as a solution in my personal work, and I am excited to see how others use it on different creative levels.
Meet Doug and Noteflight CEO Joe Berkovitz in person at the A3E conference. These discount codes are available for the Noteflight Community to anyone who wants to attend!
A3E AUDIO DEVELOPER’S PASS – 10% DISCOUNT: NFADC
A3E P2 PRODUCTION + PERFORMANCE PASS – 10% DISCOUNT: NFP2
A3E PRODUCT, MARKET + BUSINESS STRATEGIES SUMMIT PASS 10% DISCOUNT: NFMBS
A3E GUEST PASS – 2 DAYS – COMPLIMENTARY: NFGP
Doug DeAngelis is a composer/producer/musical director who began his career working at The Cars recording studio in Boston while attending Berklee College of Music. At age nineteen, he recorded the Nine Inch Nails hit “Head Like A Hole” with world-renowned producer Flood. In 1989, DeAngelis left Boston on a world tour with the Detroit Techno crossover dance artist Inner City. After the tour, he spent a year in Detroit with these early pioneers of what would quickly become ‘house music’, a main stay in dance clubs all over the world. In 1991 he moved to New York City where he amassed over 300 album & remix credits including 31 #1 Billboard Chart singles with artists like New Order, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Chaka Khan, Love and Rockets, Alicia Keyes, and No Doubt.
In 1998, DeAngelis moved to Los Angeles and began writing music for independent films, video games, and television shows. His music has appeared in contemporary television shows including CSI, 90210, Samantha Who, Ugly Betty, Studio 60 Live On The Sunset Strip, Dirty Sexy Money, Bones, What About Brian, Ghost Whisperer, Men In Trees, Alias, Cold Case, CSI Miami, ER, as well as dozens of reality television programs. He has written main title themes for Chelsea Lately, True Hollywood Stories Investigates, The NASCAR franchise on SPEED, Fly Girls, Trick It Out, Show Me The Money, Sex Love & Secrets, Runaway, World Series Of Blackjack, Ultimate Style, The Fast Track To Fame, 12 Sexiest Vegas Dancers, and many other shows. As a dramatic composer, Doug’s clients include Michael Mann, Brian Grazer, John Wells, and Bob Yari.
In 2009, Doug won a BMI Music Award for his underscore to the FOX series ‘Lie To Me’, wrote main title song to the Dreamworks’ film Blades Of Glory starring Will Ferrell, and composed the score for an Academy Award nominated film entitled The Garden. Recent credits include the ABC Family series The Nine Lives Of Chloe King, and Baby Daddy.