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Crystal Castles - Courtship Dating vs 50 Cent - Ayo Technology (Who sampled who?)
May 13th, 2008I saw this video where it is claimed that Timbaland (And in the extension 50 Cent) stole the riff for Ayo Technology from Crystal Castles’ Courtship Dating. An interesting assertion, but allow me to demonstrate why this is most likely not the case. I’ve already written a previous post about CC and the copyright controversy, and I’ve got a few search enginge hits with queries like “Crystal Castles Timbaland” so why not sort this out once for all?
Quick Lesson: Sampling vs Sequencing of arpeggios
Time to analyze the sound. First a quick lesson about what the sound consists of. The characteristic chip effect heard in both song is a fast arpeggio, ie a number of notes played in quick succession. This technique was used to play chords on old sound chips because they only had a limited number of channels. (Often 3 or 4) Arpeggios were (and are) so widely used in classic video game music that they have become reminiscent of that era. (And they are still being used in today’s chip music, of course)
In essence, an arpeggio is nothing but a melody, although a fast one. Usually arpeggios in old-style trackers (which is what these music sequencers are called) the arpeggio are in sync with the general tempo of the song. This is design choice was not made for estethical reasons, but for practical ones. It’s simply hard to program software that plays an arpeggio out of sync with the global tempo of the song. (When targetting a low spec computer platform)
The main point is that a sequenced arpeggio will keep its tempo regardless of the key the chord is played in.
If you sample something (Anything, not a just arpeggios) the situation is different. If you pitch something up or down, not only the pitch will be changed, but also the tempo*. Think of it as a vinyl record on a record player. If you slow the record down a bit you can lower the pitch by, say, a semitone, but in the same time the record will play about 6% slower.
The main point here is that when chaing the pitch of something you’ve sampled (without using special techniques) you’ll also change the tempo.
*There are ways around this, using so called time-streching, but that’s not relevant to this argument.
Who sampled and who sequenced?
What does this mean for the comparison between these tracks?
Let’s have a listen at a clip from Crystal Castles - Courtship Dating.
Download Crystal Castles - Courtship Dating
It’s a 5 bar loop, where the last bar is a repetition of the first one. As you can hear, the speed of the arpeggio is different, depending on which key it’s played in. Apart from that, the arpeggio is (grossly) out of sync with the overall tempo. This clearly indicates that CC took a sample of an arpeggio from somewhere, looped it, loaded it into a sampler and played it at different keys.
Let’s listen to a clip of 50 Cent - Ayo Technology instead.
Download 50 Cent - Ayo Technology
This is a 2 bar loop (Or possibly 4 bar, depending on which tempo you think it is) The arpeggio is in sync with the overall tempo, and the it remains the same tempo no matter which key it’s played in. This indicates that this is either an original creation by Timbaland, or if it is ripped from a C64 tune, at least he took the effort to record it in sync with the rest of the song. Pay special attention to the transition between D#m and C#m in Timbaland’s version. (See the chord notation below) It’s smooth and keeps in tempo even during that fast transition.
If he sampled it from CC, he would’ve needed to apply a lot of micro-editing in order to get it in sync with the overall tempo.
The Chord Progressions
What about the chords?
According to the comments for this video, the chord progression in Ayo Technology could be either G#m, D#m, C#m or G#m, F#, E. (D#m and F# are similar to each other, and so are C#m and E.)
CC’s version has about the same progression of chords, but the chords are played in a slightly flatter key. It’s about one semitone flat compared to Timbaland’s, but not exactly. CC’s arpeggio is slightly out of tune with regard to the standard 12-tone scale, whereas Timballand’s arpeggio is perfectly in tune with the 12-tone scale.
So, the chord progression is the same, but different in timing. Both play the brightest chord first, the middle chord in the middle, and the flattest chord last.
CC plays the brightest chord during one bar, (Corresponding to G#m above) the middle one for one bar (Corr. to D#m/F#) and then the dimmest chord for two bars(Corr. to C#m/E)
Timba on the other hand plays the G#m for the whole first bar, then a D#m/F# for the most of the second bar, and finally C#m/E for a short portion of the second bar.
Or to put it graphically:
| Bar | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Ayo Technology | G#m | G#m | D#m | D#m,C#m |
| Courtship Dating | G#m (-1 semitone) | D#m (-1 semitone) | C#m (-1 semitone) | C#m (-1 semitone) |
All in all, CC’s production is far worse than that of Timbaland. It would’ve taken alot of work in order to shape up it up to how it sounds in Ayo Tech. Considering the things CC did “wrong” (Their arpeggio is out of sync and out tune) and the things Timbaland did “right” (His arpeggio is in sync and in tune) it’s highly unlikely that Timbaland sampled CC’s arpeggio.
It might very well be that he listened to their song and decided to mimic the sound of it, but did he sample it, no, most likely not!
The Rest of the Story / the Verdict
Let’s look at the things surrounding the story. The video in the beginning of the post mentions a lawsuit where CC won over Timbaland. I’ve googled for this lawsuit and I haven’t found anything substantial. I’ve found a couple of references to the video linked in the beginning of the post, but nothing more than that. (Edit: Ooops, the video just says “Timbaland Loses”, without a reference to any lawsuit. My bad.)
The video also mentions the year for Courtship Dating is 2006, and then says “Fast forward one year to 2007″. This is a bit of a stretch. The first public appearance for this song was in December 2006 (link to video) and still a bit into 2007 they said they still hadn’t recorded the songs in a studio. I don’t remember where I read that, but if I find it again, I’ll post it here. Ayo Technology was released in July 2007. (Source) So 6 months is a better estimate I think.
Anyway, here’s my take on it: The chord progression is actually pretty generic. I think the two songs were created independently of each other, and that CC decided to jump on the train and spread a rumour when they heard Ayo Technology, to receive attention after Timbaland’s recent sampling of Janne Suni’s (Tempest’s) Acidjazzed Evening.
We might never know for sure.
Crystal Castles and Chip Music Copyright Infringements
May 6th, 2008Introduction
Here’s a little rant about Crystal Castles and their recently revealed copyright violations. First off I think I should explain why I care at all. I generally do support copyright violation, and I willingly take part in downloading as well as uploading copyrighted material to various P2P networks. However, I draw a line between the act of personally copying and sharing material for no other gain than the material itself, and using copyright violation as a means of generating a monetary profit. The previous is inevitable in today’s age of information while the latter, at least from case to case, can be seen as morally wrong.
Rant about CC and Copyright in General
Another argument that needs to be acknowledged is that sampling is an integral part of today’s electronic music scene. The story about the Amen break comes into mind. The Amen was a breakbeat from a 1969 record that was sampled and quickly grew popular in the early 90’s. It was highly influencial to at least these genres of music: Jungle, Rave, Drum and Bass, Hiphop, and probably others too. Why do I bring up the Amen here? Because it’s an example of where sampling led to innovation. It is also an example of where underground producers sampled mainstream material and turned it into something original.
Crystal Castles’ use of sampling, however, is quite the opposite: It’s an example of a mainstream producer sampling underground musicians. And it’s also an example of, should we call it anti-innovation, where something quote original is taken and being adapted to the mainstream. You end up in a situation where the newly created work is less innovative than the works being sampled.
This is not something that is unique to CC though. A number of less known artists have outright stolen materials from others, claiming it to be their own. However, more notably, hip-hop producer Timbaland sampled the song Acidjazzed Evening by finnish Amiga musician Janne Suni, and used it in Nelly Furtado’s song Do It, without any attribution to Janne. It has come to a point where “Being Timbalanded” is a common expression on the scene to describe when someone’s work is used in the mainstream without permission.
It seems like people like Timbaland and Crystal Castles think that just because the chip music scene is mostly based on altruism and non-profit sharing of one’s music, it means that the chip music is in the public domain, being free for anyone to use as they see fit.
I’m wondering if the unauthorized sampling of chiptunes is a very conscious move from CC’s side. They know they’ve got enough money to pay expensive lawyers, and in the end the sampled artists might not care about their rights. And even if the original artist does care, files a law suit and wins, a major record label has enough money to pay the damages, and in the same time CC gets attention. In the end most listeners don’t care about whether their idols sampled someone else. “All attention is good attention” , as the saying goes.
I’m even starting to wonder whether Crystal Castles as a concept is based on stealing other’s materials without permission. The new kind of punk, copyright infringement for money.
In the same time they’ve managed to popularize their music in a way the chip musicians have not been able to. Could it be that most people can not appreciate pure chip sounds, but need something else, more mainstreamed, more polished, or in other words, party music that is danceable and not too abstract. From that point of view they’re definitely filling a need, be it at the expense of others.
Claims of Unauthorized Use of Copyrighted Materials by Crystal Castles
Their album Crystal Castles and Trevor Brown
It turned out that the original Crystal Castles’ album with the same name had a cover using the artwork of the graphical artist Trevor Brown, a picture of Madonna with a black eye. (Top image) The same picture had previously been used for a cassette cover released about 1999 by the Japanese label Beast 666 Records. (Bottom image)
Here’s his story in brief:
Crystal Castles used his artwork for their debut 7″ record, and T-shirts without asking Trevor Brown for permission. A friend of his notified him. He contacted CC’s lawyers to get compensation. They sent him a contract with ridiculous terms that they wanted him to sign.
You can read his full story here
“Love and Caring” <-> Covox - Sunday
I heard CC’s song Love and Caring and I immediately recognized beats from Covox’ Sunday. But what if, for the sake of argument, CC managed to produce a sound which was just quite similar to that of Covox’ song. Or heck, if they even tried to emulate the sound that he managed to achieve in Sunday.
Well, here’s the funny part. Apart from on a rare demo CD (Which I btw happen to own) it was only ever released to the public as a demo MP3 on his website. The said MP3 file is encoded with a low bitrate, which gives the sound defects that are very easy to spot with some spectral analysis. Not only could I determine that CC are using the beats from Sunday, but the patterns were so significant that I could determine that CC was using the first and second beat from Covox’ song.
These images shows the two first beats from both the songs, CC at the top, Covox at the bottom. The first thing you can notice is the overall similarity between the two. There’s a large gap between 9 kHz and 12 kHz, because of the MP3 compression. There are also some little quirks that I’ve especially pointed out. (Green circles) They are everywhere of course, since it’s the same sound, but the ones pointed out are easy to see.
Also, the hits in Covox’ song look different for each hit, because the MP3 compression takes a little differently on each hit. On the other hand in CC’s song every hit of the same type has the same quirks, meaning it’s the same beat user over and over, and this happens to be the first and second beat, coressponding a kick and hihat.
I’ll also take the opportunity to point to things with CC’s mastering. Notice the vertical lines (Marked with blue arrows) these indicate clipping of the waveform, aka distortion. Also notice the horizontal line, also marked with a blue arrow. This is an artefact from when Sunday was recorded. It’s a form of high pitched tone which I actually hear as a separate sound because of the boosting of those frequencies. (Ouch) Btw, since this tone is at a little below 16 kHz, I can tell Sunday was probably recorded off of a Super Gameboy rather than a DMG.
Covox - Sunday can be downloaded here: http://www.covox.net/?audio
Right now I don’t know a place to listen to the song in full for free, but you can listen to a portion of it here:
Download
I deem this as ok from a copyright point of view since most of the quoted material doesn’t belong to them anyway.
“Insecticon” <-> Lo-Bat - My Little Droid Needs A Hand and Covox - Sunday
Basically the same song with different pitch. Insecticon can be downloaded from their MySpace. The original song can be downloaded from Lo-Bat’s front page:http://www.lo-bat.be/. They’re using the same drum samples from Sunday.
The sampling of Lo-Bat breaks the Creative Commons license, ironically also abbreviated CC.
Here’s a comparison between the two. (Updated video)
“TV Babies” <-> X-agon - Lamerina
This one is blatantly obvious.
TV Babies: (Skip to 00:50)
X-agon - Lamerina:
X-agon - Lamerina
TV Babies is unreleased.
Everybody! I need your help! If you know of other songs which have been or might have been ripped off by CC, please leave a comment here if you find something.
More infos:
Discussion on 8bitcollective
Article on Create Digital Music
Creative Commons
Update 1
This was dug up from the thread on 8bc:
Andy, representing Crystal Castles, sent this to Lameboy, one of the admins on 8bc.
Andy:
I’m not sure if I was clear in my message to you that songs with Lo-Bat samples were left off the CC album because we didn’t have the sample clearance. Many songs were left off the CD because we needed more time to clear the samples. We are hoping to have the songs on a future release (maybe a rarities/demos/remixes compilation) and would love to clear this with Lo-Bat. If you can get a contact for him through the 8bit forum that would be great and we can finally release these tracks.
It’s a sign of courtesy, but there are still things to be sorted out. More later.
Update 2
“xxzxczx me” <-> Eat Rabbit - ???
Quoted here as being stolen from an Eat Rabbit tune. Still need details on which one.
Mr Rabbit says he can’t hear traces of his own tracks in xxzxczx me. So I’ll strike that one out.
Update 3
It has come to my attention that the track Mother Knows Best samples Lo-Bat’s track Tizzy almost off the shelf. And Covox’ drums are there in the background as usual too.
This track was released on a 7″ vinyl, and is still for sale through iTunes.
Listen to TizzyTizzy
Listen to Mother knows best on last.fm
There used to be an official video for the track on Youtube, but it was removed.
Update 4
Added this video to the section about insecticon .
Update 5
Added TV Babies to the list.
Update 6
Check out my new article Crystal Castles - Courtship Dating vs 50 Cent - Ayo Technology (Who sampled who?) which investigates the similarities between Ayo Technology and Courtship Dating.
There’s also a new Myspace profile called Crystal Theft with the purpose of spreading the word about this. Show your support by adding them to your top friends list.
Update 7
The song description for the song Insecticon on their Myspace now says “CC vs. Lo-Bat unreleased demo 2004″. Now I’m just waiting for an official announcement saying that the song will be relased under a Creative Commons license.
