Dressage to music -Help!

[BenvardenRach2]

Hi All,

Thinking of trying something a bit different alongside the usual aff stuff.
A venue local to us is hosting a dressage to music class next month - nothing serious, it's unaffiliated and a bit of fun.
We have been given the list of what needs to be included in accordance with BD rules - i can mange that!

However putting the music together.. where do I start? Do people still burn their music to a disk? How on earth do you manage that?

Thank you!!!

 

[Denbob]

I've only done it once for a fun day so don't know if i'll be much help! But our yard let us use youtube videos or songs on spotify - this was great for us as I created our own music from bits of the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack and added sound effects for a giggle then uploaded it to youtube.

(I got a bit panicked and rushed so some of the transitions between bits of music aren't as clean as i'd like) Everywhere I've stewarded has been CD though!

If you want to do something different have a little look on youtube, there are plenty of dressage to music samples to play around with or compilation pieces of music you can download from youtube to MP3 and then chop and change to get the bits you want

Good luck!

 

[oldie48]

Denbob, I love your music do you have a video of you and your horse riding through it?

 

[Otherwise]

I've used audacity to edit before but I'm not musically inclined so now pay a friend to do it. Most places accept cds, don't forget to add either an extra track that's blank for a min or so or add silence to the end of your music otherwise after your final halt your music will start again.

 

[Denbob]

Denbob, I love your music do you have a video of you and your horse riding through it?

Thank you I have been playing around and want to make a few more for different films I love. I do have a video somewhere, not our proudest moment with napping and does have another horse/rider so will PM you if i can figure out how x

 

[AFB]

We had DTM at a yard fun day last year, I edited using Audacity (it's daunting software to start with but I think I had it figured out in an hour or so), we then had a bluetooth speaker so just connected my phone up and played it from there. Others used YouTube but I hadn't thought ahead!

 

[BenvardenRach2]

Thank you so much everyone for your replies - helpful as always
'Denbob' - love your music, i shall explore YouTube
'Otherwise' - very good point - i didn't think of that!!
'AFB' - Thank you i shall have to check with the venue whether it has to be on CD... bluetooth speaker sounds so much easier.

 

[spookypony]

Last time I did one was about 2 years ago, and the venue (which usually runs BD) wanted a CD. I was stewarding at another venue last year, and they also wanted a CD. It can be a bit tricky to find a burner these days. Worth contacting the venue, and seeing what formats they will accept. Most venues don't have great sound systems, or particularly modern ones.

If you do have to have it on CD, be careful that it's actually burned as an audio CD, and not just saved as a .wav or mp3 on a data CD. If they will accept an mp3, then that's ok too: although the sound quality is worse (because of the compression), it won't make an audible difference on the bad sound system you're likely to encounter.

For general amateur sound editing, Audacity is still a good, free option. The problem I have with the music that people assemble is that it tends to be fairly randomly chosen (W/T/C music not really connected in any way), and not very well assembled: bad splices, ending mid-phrase (either abruptly or with a non-subtle use of a fade), large gaps.

To be honest, though, in my experience, judges don't particularly care or even notice these things, because the judges themselves tend not to know anything about music or editing. They tend to like stark contrasts and lots of excitement. I've had it happen a few times that I put together something very subtle, for example where all the music was based on the same basic tune, with just tempo/metre shifts between sections, that just simply went over everyone's heads...and I'm sure that will happen to me again...

 

[AFB]

For general amateur sound editing, Audacity is still a good, free option. The problem I have with the music that people assemble is that it tends to be fairly randomly chosen (W/T/C music not really connected in any way), and not very well assembled: bad splices, ending mid-phrase (either abruptly or with a non-subtle use of a fade), large gaps.

Yes this is what I got particularly upset about! I made a real effort to splice together at the right points in songs and find music that matched my WTC. Some other people just used random songs/spliced together random bits and it sent me into real OCD mode.

 

[Vodkagirly]

I've just mixed some music using audacity. Wouldn't work on phone or tablet so I used work laptop. The venue was accepting memory sticks. What I failed to realise was that the laptop was encrypted so I couldn't download it total fail.

 

[spookypony]

What file format did you save it as? Be sure to export as wav, or mp3 if your venue will accept mp3 (may require a special plug-in for Audacity). By default, Audacity will save in its own format.

 

[Barry]

Hi All,

Thinking of trying something a bit different alongside the usual aff stuff.
A venue local to us is hosting a dressage to music class next month - nothing serious, it's unaffiliated and a bit of fun.
We have been given the list of what needs to be included in accordance with BD rules - i can mange that!

However putting the music together.. where do I start? Do people still burn their music to a disk? How on earth do you manage that?

Thank you!!!

Sadly, the huge effort required for making a Dressage2Music debut (and subsequent disappointment with how it is marked) often prove unrewarding for many riders and, more sadly, F2M identifies as a minority facet of a minority sport.
Having said that (and hoping readers don't lose sleep because I dissed their thang) the scientific benefits of riding and training horses with music are manyfold and well documented ... they're just not commonly witnessed (at all levels) and peeps give up on it.
If you would like to see what can happen when the maths, science, musicality, creativity, and humour are realised, have a peep at Shelly Francis riding her Acapella routine.
If you'd like to know how to do it, look at DancingWithYourHorse.com

 

[spookypony]

Suggestions of how to use specific music in training collection etc. within a pace go back to at least the 16th century. Cortez on here will know the sources I mean; I've references somewhere...