CasablancaExpert

Can You Use Some Stock (video) Footage or Music? Cyber Monday 40% Discount

Today as part of 'Cyber Monday' FootageFirm is offering a 40% discount on their products including the complimentary DVDs (dropping their price to only $5 each for Shipping & Handling).

Several folks in the Casablanca community have used and enjoyed both the stock backgrounds, video footage and royalty free music from Footage Firm - note the video files are not compatible with Disk Transfer, so for those editing on the Smart Edit OS you would need to convert the files...but if you're editing on the Bogart OS you will find you can load these directly into your editing project.

Check out their offerings on their webiste: FootageFirm.com

And to get the 40% savings, you must enter the Discount Code: CYBERMONDAY11 (Enter this code at checkout)

Royalty Free Music - at a Discounted Price!

I have mentioned before how I use Music 2 Hues music tracks for many of my personal and professional productions. I like their assortment of sounds and the fact that they use Acoustic instruments (real instruments rather than sampled electronics).

I wanted to share with you that Music 2 Hues is having a  "Summer Kick-Off Promotion" that runs now through June 30th.  With this sale you can purchase any 5 of their Flagship Series CD's for $99, and as part of the sale you can save up to 50% off complete download categories.

 
The Music 2 Hues Flagship Series is a collectin of production music on CD.  You select from their 14 categories from Acoustic (one of my favorite) thru Hot Grooves, Jazz, and Country.  Each CD comes with 2 or 3 versions of each song (a full length version and usually a 30 and 60-second version for commercials).  It's this series of CDs that is now on sale - normally $45 per CD, now 5 discs for $99. You can select from their collection here: Music 2 Hues Flagship Series

Need some production music in a hurry?

You can use the Music 2 Hues Download series

The Download collection is comprised of more than 2,000 songs. Single songs start at $19 (and include all versions, the different lengths) for the one price.  I have used this product before when I was working over the weekend on a project and wanted some new music, I found it on their website - paid and downloaded the file and imported it into my Casablanca in just a few minutes!

When you visit their website here: Music 2 Hues Downloads - you click on a category and will see a menu like this:

The sale for Music 2 Hues Downloads is that when you purchase two or more complete categories then you save up to 50%

4 Ways to Find Legal Music for Your YouTube Videos: Mashable blog

In addition to the music many of us use for our video projects destined for DVD, music for internet based videos is becoming increasingly important... not only for the impact and mood it creates for your presentation - but also with the increased attention to copyright laws. 

And with YouTube's aggressive music scanning technology, you do not want to be caught with an illegal music track as this can shut down your YouTube channel (after 3 'strikes') but can also prevent you from having the ability to upload longer videos on YouTube (see this article)

In addition to using royalty free music tracks from Music 2 Hues as well as the music tracks created with Sonic Fire Pro, I came across an informative on-line article suggesting music sources for your on-line videos.  Check out the article here: '4 Ways to Find Legal Music for Your YouTube Video' on the Mashable web-blog.

Holiday Special - Royalty Free Music from M2H

I heard from my contact at Music 2 Hues this morning and they have announced a Holiday special!

You can purchase any 5 of what they call their Flagship Audio CDs for $99.  That's five separate CDs of royalty free production music for $20 per disk.  If you're wondering why that's so special - each CD is normally $48 per disk... so during this special Holiday promotion you're paying less than half the normal price. You can check out their Flagship series here: Music 2 Hues Flagship Series .

The Holiday promotion also includes special pricing on their music downloads.  You can download their production music directly onto your computer and use that track right away. The Download promotion depends on how many selections you choose - you can read the details here: Download Discount

I used their music download this past summer and it worked great! I selected several tracks I wanted to use in a project, paid on-line and downloaded them. Then I burned onto a CD and had that music in my video project within a few minutes.

This special holiday music promotion/sale ends midnight December 31st, 2010. If you order, tell 'me Chet Davis sent you.  You'll find Music 2 Hues on the web here: www.music2hues.com

 

 

 

Royalty Free Music Special - 8 Tracks for $8

The Music 2 Hues company is offering an October special - you can purchase (and download) 8 music tracks for only $8.  I just checked them out myself, and played the demo version of the tracks and like them so much I purchased it for myself. I can see

using several of the tracks on some of my own tutorials as well as with some clients. 

Here is the info from their website:

Back by popular demand ! - here is another "8 Tracks for 8 Dollars" promotion. This Volume #02.  This 8-for-8 collection contains tracks that range from world percussion grooves, to soft solo piano beds.

These tracks are new, and not part of any of our Flagship Series titles.
They are only offered through this promo as online instant downloads in either Mp3 or WAV file format

Check out their website for yourself -- if you like even one of the tracks I find it an affordable way to add some new music to your production repertoire. Music 2 Hues - Special October Promo - 8 Tracks for 8 Dollars Vol #02

Getting Music from LaLa or any Computer Application into your Casablanca

In my post today at YourTechnologyTutor, I share my enthusiastic review about a new online music service:  LaLa Land - Where Online Music Plays Just For you

This is a very new and cool online music service with thousands of songs, and a potentially great asset to video producers who wish to embellish their work with appropriate music. Being that LaLa.com and a number of other music services/providers may be housed on your computer -- there is a great question looming "How do I get music/audio from my computer into my Casablanca?"

There are a couple of methods you can use:

1. The easiest is to simply run a cable between your computer and your Casablanca...  if your computer has a video board with line-level audio output you would go straight from those jacks to your Casablanca audio input with a paired RCA/Phono to RCA/Phono cable. 

If your computer does not have line level audio output, there is another method -- most every computer has a headphone/earphone jack.  Connect an audio adapter/cable (sub-mini plug to  phono paired plug) and go from the earphone output of the computer to the audio input of your Casablanca.  This same method allows you to connect an MP3 player (iPod, iPhone, Zune, San Disk Sansa, etc.) to your Casablanca by using the headphone jack of the player.

Now this direct cable method will not work if your Casablanca editor is not close enough to your computer set-up.

2. Burn your music onto a CD. Using an application on your computer, burn your music files onto a CD and then import those songs into your Casablanca via the CD Import feature in the Audio Record/Edit menu of your Casablanca.  You may benefit from this step by step tutorial on my website that details this procedure:  Importing audio CD into Casablanca

3. If you are running the Bogart 2 OS, and if your Casablanca Next Generation editor is connected to a Network where your computer is also connected, you could use the Network Function in the Casablanca Media Manager to import a song or songs into your Casablanca editor. Those files would need to be on a Windows PC (the Media Manager network function is not yet compatible with Mac OS) and the audio files would need to be in a folder that was set to sharing on the network. For a detailed tutorial on this process - see this article on my website:

Importing MP3 Files (audio) Into your Bogart OS Casablanca