You see, later this week I’m attending TequilaCon 2009, and it’s my first TC.  It’s actually my first non-Blogography-specific blogger conference, but… you knew it… Dave is an integral part of TequilaCon.  So I might as well confess I’m having his baby.

“having his baby” is blog-speak for “I’m doing a lot of posts involving” a specific blogger.  Actually, I just made up that term, but it’s blog-speak anyway.  In fact, it’s the first reference ever for this particular term used in this way!

So I’m reading Dave’s recent post about Ticketmaster (warning: profanity and one-finger salutes abound) and the fact that he was planning on seeing Duran Duran while traveling.

Ahhh, Duran Duran.  (note to self: Isn’t it convenient that Dave refers to himself as “Dave2″ and Duran Duran can be, and often is, shortened to “D2″?  Coincidence?!?!??!?!?! NOT LIKELY!)

Back to topic.

First off, this band gets a lot of flak.  Often typecast or shunned / laughed at / dismissed solely because of the demographics of their once-largest-fanbase (screaming teenage girls), these chaps are incredibly talented writers, artists and performers.  And to top it off, they know business.  They connect with their fans (a la the VIP packages you could purchase for “meet and greets”) and continue to pump out quality trendsetting music.

I mixed together a couple of ring tones a couple years back because A) my wife is such a fan and B) I liked playing around with Adobe Audition and C) I like to show off.  So Duran Duran was the first band I mixed into a cell phone ringtone.  Check ‘em out:

Ringtone #1:

Ringtone #2:

You shoulda seen her face light up when her phone rang with that second one.  It’s one thing to have a song as a ringtone, but a custom mix?  Someone nominate me for best husband, please.

It’s easy to ignore the trends that D2 has set in their career.  D2 has actually added a lot of “firsts” to their repertoire.

They were the first to have live video cameras and videoscreens in their concerts.  What concert have you gone to lately that doesn’t do that?

They were first artists to make a song available for digital download (Electric Barbarella in 1997).

They were first band to make a pop video entirely using Macromedia Flash.

(I will point out that I snapped the above frame because my coworker was watching my computer screen as I was checking out the video and immediately commented “mmmmm. Silence of the Lambs.”  Creepy much?)

It rubs the lotion on it’s skin;
or else it gets the hose again.

Anyway.

Duran Duran were the first to become citizens and stage an in-world live concert in Second Life and perform a completely virtual concert.

I suspect (but aren’t sure) they were the first to do the widescreen 16:9 video format (think Hungry like the Wolf), and who knows – they may have been the first production-quality video to get banned (Girls on Film).  It’s at least the first one I heard about – once again portraying brilliant marketing.

For me personally, they were the first band I remember getting on my bike and ride ~3 miles to the record store to buy a 45 — their chart-topping single The Reflex.

This one is shorter, and is meant to just get your attention enough to notice the phone. It’s comprised of Seventh Stranger, Reflex, and Notorious. It’s right at 14 seconds long. I’m especially proud of splitting, timing and getting the “No- No-” part actually in rhythm with “Ta-na-na-na” and those of you who listen closely will even hear the woman inhale right at the correct times in the second part of Reflex.

There’s the mp3 version (for easier play on a PC/Mac) and then there’s the .wav format that you can load onto a cellphone that supports polyphonic ringtones.

So anyway, she recently got a new cellphone that could do polyphonic rings. I decided to make a custom ring tone with Adobe Audition 1.5. Anyone who’s a real D2 fan will be able to hear all the different pieces of songs I used in the ringtone.

My goal was to make it 1) contain effects and songs that she likes the most, 2) make it “ring-like” enough to get your attention — so many ringtones are too much like music that it doesn’t necessarily get your attention like a phone should and 3) be short enough that it would be useful as a ringtone. I chose to make the “mix” of different pieces just the first 15 seconds or so, and then the rest of it is one sound bite of one song.

So here it is: Custom Duran Duran ringtone.

Of course, on the phone, I made the file into a Windows PCM .wav file, and here I uploaded an mp3 version, which takes up less space and might be easier to hear on a PC or MAC.