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Maurice Ali Becomes A Musician!

 
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:02 am    Post subject: Maurice Ali Becomes A Musician! Reply with quote

Maurice Ali Becomes A Musician!


By Maurice Ali, Musician



Maurice Ali: Cooler, Hip President and CEO!


I am personally excited to announce that I have finally become a musician at the tender age of 49! It happened unexpectedly as we were applying for royalties at SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) related to Donald Brasseur's show which aired on CTV's A Channel last month. It appears that my little composition in the intro can qualify for royalties. To make it happen I also had to become a member and was told to do so immediately by the staff there when I visited their offices on August 24, 2009 in Toronto.


Well Socan wasted no time approving my request for membership. From their request that I apply immediately at four thirty the day before, I was e-mailed my acceptance at 8:55am the next morning.....Some of our guys waited six months for approval. Anyway the membership was needed to get the most royalties from the show. SOCAN is the Canadian copyright collective for the public and publicly performed musical works. As for me I wasted no time hamming it up about the fact I was a musician. People congratulated me about the fact as I gave them the "honky handshake" back. That handshake never seems to get stale with the hip crowd. Anyway, I am as square as it comes and I will never be Jerry Goldsmith. But it is nice to be endorsed as a fellow musician, like all the others at FOF, it breaks the ice a wee bit even if I am still the "straight man" of the organization.

I know it is going to irk some that a man of my feeble talents on the keyboard may get royalties for TV show theme intro music but there it is..... I had some people in the music business listen to my composition and they felt it worked with the show as a composition and was rather unique having nothing but various bursts of gunfire to bring that midi composition to life. So the verdict was that it passed the sniff test and I was now officially a musician.



The photo above is my little audio booth where I created the intro music called "Battlefield" (and yes the file was actually titled "Battlefield"). That keyboard in the fore-ground was used to create what we call "midi files" which are just digital files of music that do not have sounds attached to the beat of the file. When I created this midi file I then selected a virtual sound of gunshots to create the intro music. I could have changed it to harmonica sounds if I liked but the gunshots introduced the war segment so I went that way.



This is the closeup of that actual file. Just 11 seconds long and so simple yet that is a composition nevertheless. I just wanted to show you the actual original files as created. That program was a simple program I used to learn on before we moved up to industry standard programs. We currently use Pro Tools/Ableton Live (which I really like)/Cubase at FOF. Anyway that is enough on my new career as a musician. Most would rather I just return to doing what I do best - Because I do it well.....

On Friday I recieved this in the mail:




And inside was this:



All I have to do is sign the documents and return one copy to SOCAN and that is it. Roud trip for the whole process being four days! Wow, when SOCAN puts a wiggle in it they are really fast.....

I will continue to produce background music for our productions as well as Foley work and jingles for advertising, but now it is a bit more formal because I am acknowledged as a musician by the usual industry standards. With my new found status I also promise to my fellow FOF musicians that I will endeavor to use the proper handshake, wear more trendy clothing when not on official duties and talk the talk and walk the walk of creative musicians.....

So there we have it. I am now a musician. Now I definitely have seen everything!




FOF RECORDS: CUTTING EDGE MUSIC!
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