style o phone

nice stylus interface on this thing. 70s era, from UK, I think.

check out movie (~6.2MB)

link

another reason kcrw is awesome

KCRW embraces podcasting -->

KCRW General Manager Ruth Seymour explains: “KCRW sees podcasting as a further extension of the radio station. The programs on our website have proven to be as popular as they are on the air; so it makes sense to allow more people to hear them, especially with the portability that podcasting offers – it’s KCRW To Go.”

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/003141.html

new yorker "mashups" article

just finished reading an article over at the new yorker site about the current white-hot-ness of mashups.

Where did this all come from. Why are these things so hot right now. The article makes a case for why mashups have become more mainstream, citing a few choice examples of good mixes. Perhaps most compelling is the following conclusion the author, Sasha Frere-Jones makes:

See mashups as piracy if you insist, but it is more useful, viewing them through the lens of the market, to see them as an expression of consumer dissatisfaction. Armed with free time and the right software, people are rifling through the lesser songs of pop music and, in frustration, choosing to make some of them as good as the great ones.

This is a new argument to me, and a resonant one. Pop music sucks. New stuff is terrible. Christina Aguliera, Jay-Z, Linkin Park. Listening to too much is enough to make anyone give up on popular music forever. So why fight the impulse to mess with it, to try and find some hidden brilliance in juxtaposition?

I have so many thoughts about this whole thing right now, especially as I'm prepraring my entry into the creative commons mashup contest. My ears hate most of these mashups, and I think most of them are pretty sad excuses for music. What they are however, is more important than my dislike of them, as they reflect a trend towards participatory consumption, especially in the entertainment business (interactive media...?).

So I'm trying to make my entry not just be one of the inevitable put-rap-lyrics-on-top-of-existing-music (yes, Kleptones, I'm looking in your direction), and it's hard.

It's a shame here that no one is talking about John Oswald, who I'm looking to for inspiration with this project.

Oswald's stuff is incredible.

Here are some references:

Link to his Plunderphonics article

Link to his website

Link to a 534 post I made last year with sound samples included.

sweet nokia plugins

Nokia made some VST plugins that turn any music stream emulate a ringtone. ha. going to try this out. brb.

*wicked* bad headphone items

Stumbled upon this today on we-make-money-not-art where our mobile presentation/projectCAR was blogged yesterday.

I really like the strange rethinking of the headphone. We tend to think about designing/redesigning the hardware of portable audio players while ignoring / accepting the design of headphones without much question. I think that Michelle's projects are more closely related to the initial fears that Sony and others had when designing the walkman -- that the idea of social listening would go away. There are a bunch of other images starting at this link.

The acoustic earphone is nice also.

hammond organ synthesis

so, everything amit pitaru does seems to be pretty wicked. I know aaron knows what I'm saying, but other should as well.

This is a recent piece he did using flash + audio synthesis to recreate the additive drawbar effect of the hammond B3 Organ. The B3, and organs in general, are great because you can just really play with the quality of the sound without having to worry about the notes. This is great for people like me who are sound geeks but can't really play piano that well. So like Amit, I like to hold down one note and just mess with the drawbars. This nice little interactive piece lets you do just that, using the petals of the flower to control individual drawbars.

It's really quite a nice effect, although the 3D goings-on in the middle are a little distracting...

elevator / hold music

so I'm trying to come up with a good method of handling "GPS free" zones (as I've been politely calling spaces like: buildings, dense forests, new york city, underwater) in my thesis project. (FYI: my thesis involves streaming audio to a PDA via wireless and in some form related to your current x,y position).

My current solution, and one I'm pretty happy with, is to keep a series of 'hold music' clips on the PDA. When a person is moving around, the system not only tracks which audio clip to stream, but also keeps tabs on the nearest 'hold music' node, such as a building, etc. If the GPS cuts out for some reason, or the wireless cuts out for a moment, the PDA will begin streaming the 'hold music.' I think maybe the GPS-loss sounds will be different than the wireless-broken sounds, as I see the former as more a part of the system (buildings are in fact part of campus, I've heard) than the latter, which I feel is similar in nature to the "technical difficulties" slides that TV networks broadcast when someone has totally blown it on air, or a feed has cut out or whatever.

Anyway, here's some clips. I think I like the idea of "broken" music right now, so I made a bunch of really slick background / elevator / hold music pieces, then broke them. These are all prototypes. I think I will describe them like I saw some of the real shit like this described on-line.

"Glistening Ocean" [.MP3]

"Glistening Ocean" [BROKEN .MP3]

Description: Light, airy guitar and keyboards are punctuated by soft background effects for an ethereal feel.

"Sunsets We No Longer Share" [.MP3]

"Sunsets We No Longer Share" [BROKEN .MP3]

Description: Sustaining, expressive orchestration provides a poignant and meditative base for romantic guitar. Minor elements of nature add hopeful note to this sentimental track.

also: is it just me, or does the title "sunsets we no longer share" title seem a little depressing. I can imagine some guy on hold for like, 3 hours listening to a track like that and jumping off a cliff or something.

here's a link to the "inspiration"

soundabout

Just read a really interesting article about sony's first generation of the walkman, then called the soundabout.

It didn't record or come with a speaker. But it was sociable: Two could listen at once through a pair of headphone jacks, and an orange button called the Hotline let you talk over the music.

It's pretty strange in retrospect to think about the concern sony execs had about the social impact of people walking around with headphones. (Makes you wonder what they would have said if someone told them that everyone and their mother would be walking around Tokyo with a phone pressed against their ear...)

"The Walkman was critical in altering the rules of being with other people," Schiffer says. "People thought it was rude to listen to music in public. Now our standards have eroded to the route we've gone down with cell phones, which is to sanction rudeness. We are losing sociability."

At least initially, sony was hip to this criticism, and equipped the soundabout with a hotline function, which reminds me a lot of the current trend in iPod land of sharing your music over rendevous -- letting people physically close to you listen in, share your experience. Certainly, there is something to be said about the power of synchronicity in these shared, social situations.

Anyway, it's kind of a shame Sony took the hotline function away after just a couple of years.

link to the bellville.com article.

Black on Black Album

just listening now to the next installment in the recent craze that is the 'black album remix.' I think the first thing I said when I heard about DJ Dangermouse's Grey Album was that he should've used Metallica's black album which is the best album ever to be named after the color black (next to Spinal Tap (how much blacker could it be)--with Jay-Z's black album coming in nowhere near the top -- think of all the other great albums with black in the title: fear of a black planet, black and white night (roy orbison), and let's not forget Back in Black --> the best AreCeDarCe album after the unfortunate booze related death of Bon Scott. Really, I think Jay Z might only list above the backstreet boys - black and blue. (I had to look that one up)). Anyway, back to the point --> the remix is ok, but what I realized when I listened to this, or the few parts of the Grey Album that I liked, is that it's basically the ruling-ness of the original albums: metallica's black album, the beatles white album. And really, all these remixes do is make me want to listen to the originals. So I'm going to go on record to say that these remixes aren't an incredibly creative (albeit still creative) use of the original source material, but a step in the right direction about educating the general public about the need to redefine the current copyright system, which doesn't allow stuff like this to be legally out there. I may not like these mixes that much, but that doesn't mean that at some point, someone won't create something great from bits and pieces of other records (cough, john oswald, cough).

mogwai: remix this album

was just looking at the liner notes for the Mogwai album happy songs for happy people and I noticed this interesting little insert:

Contained on this CD-ROM is a demo version of the music program Cubase SX by Steinberg. The parts of "Haunted by a Freak" are also on the CD so that the song can be remixed to your great satisfaction using the Cubase program. The demo is PC only, however Mac users can still use the individual parts if they already have a version of SX on their computer. More details can be found at www.mogwai.co.uk/hauntedremixcubase. Thanks to Steinberg for making this possible and enjoy your mixing. (www.steinberg.net)

Pretty damn good idea. clearly, no reference is made here as to what constitutes 'fair use,' but since mogwai are cool about recording live shows, it's probably fine to do just about anything as long as you don't try and sell it. Also interesting to note that this record was indeed released by Matador just last year.

pretty exotic?

There have been a few threads running around the blogsphere today about quote unquote sensor music:

This is what does a trio of Australian musicians from Canberra. The musicians of the group, named Hypersense Complex, create their digital music using sensors attached to their hands. This generates sounds through a laptop network of Apple PowerBooks running a Python script. Pretty exotic, isn't?

I can't tell if this guy is being facetious or what with the "pretty exotic" quote. I suppose using python to generate this stuff is somewhat novel, but c'mon, people have been doing this, and much more interesting stuff, since almost before the digital age. This is like reading the international computer music conference preceedings from the early 1980s. You'd think that people writing for tech blogs would have a bit more understanding of the context.

JSyn --> processing

as tatsu pointed out to me, amit pitau has developed a set of processing externals called that allows you to implement the JSyn libraries. This is great, as it immensely improves processing's previously limited audio capabilities.

sim slayer

fun(?) simulation project I did for 534:

Sim-Slayer is a simulation of slayer's musical style. I took a bunch of slayer tracks from the album "Skeletons of Society" and meticuluously cut brief samples from each track that are loaded in to the simulation engine. The system itself groups the clips by a metadata tag style, which is set as either solo, verse/chorus, or riff. Based on those attributes, the clips are selected randomly and played in a typical Slayer structure: start, riff, verse/chorus, riff, verse/chorus, solo, riff, verse/chorus, solo, riff, end

LISTEN

Environmental Feedback Instrument

Description of Project:

The idea is to build an instrument that is more than a single object. The proposed system would extend 3 individual instrument objects though the use of feedback loops. Each loop is based on the input and output of sound or light, each instrument object putting the others in a state of flux.

Instruments can be used independently of the others, by tangible interaction by the user. However, this interaction becomes a subset of the larger, environmental feedback instrument, as the output of the object will influence the others. This affect may be dramatic, or it may be subtler. Therefore, the user(s) presence is both implicitly and explicitly acknowledged by the system.

Object 1
Input: Light (color tracking via camera)
Description: Camera as human eye. Tangible interaction: candles.
Output: synthesized sound, the dynamic range of which is determined by the composite RGB of frames in the video matrix.

Object 2
Input: Sound (pitch analysis)
Description: Cellphone. A Microphone tracks the ambient pitch, and outputs light information when the phone rings. Tangible interaction: 4 other phones will be placed around the environment, each phone triggering a different response from the system.
Output: Colored light aimed in specific directions

Object 3
Input: Sound (dynamics tracking)
Description: If room gets loud enough, a phone number will become visible from a projection.
Output: Light from projector. Dark if low dynamics, Bright if high.

Technical Requirements:
Environment: MAX/MSP/JITTER
Machine: Power Mac G5 X3 (for each object)
Projection: 1 (or more) projector (depending on if I can figure out how to control multiple projectors in time).
Object 1: Apple iSight firewire Camera, G5, Speakers.
Object 2: Microphone, Basic Stamp, 3+ Solid State Relays, new and improved serial cable, G5.
Object 3: Microphone, projector, screen G5.

Timeline:

4-5 weeks:
1 object per week (starting around now)
1+ week for setting up and testing in environment (lab).

mobile audio development tools

Developer Tools: http://www.beatnik.com/products/tools.html

Mobile Sound Builder: http://www.beatnik.com/products/sound.html

DLS: http://www.beatnik.com/technology/dls.html

RMF White Paper: http://www.beatnik.com/pdf_files/rmf_whitepaper.pdf

Beatnik Article @ infoSync: http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/1312.html

Sonify.org Mobile Audio Developer threads: http://www.sonify.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

TAO ISS Whitepaper: http://withintent.biz/aux-files/intent%202%20Overview_2.pdf

TAO ISS Factsheet: http://withintent.biz/aux-files/issfactsheet.pdf

mp3 image tags

here's a question for all two or three of you that are *maybe* reading this. I have a feeling mark might know this, but I'd probably forget to ask him the next time I see him...

So I've gotten a little addicted to downloading albums (I'm still an album person -- singles are for no-talent ass clowns) on the iTunes music store. Apparently, a ton of other people have been afflicted in a similar fashion, although probably in a more singles-oriented way. The issue I'm having is that I want the art in some form. Give it to me digitally, even - that way I can at least see if it affects me in bit form.

So iTunes itself allows you to fix at least a bit of image information to the album - although at this point it appears that you have to locate an image file and affix it to the track manually.

So the question is, has anyone done anything about attaching either a image file, or a pointer to an image, as one of the tags. Then when I download an album, I've got this self contained digital version of the album, art and all. It might alter the way that mp3 players look, if they need to come up with a better way to deal with images, but it might be cool.

There's something to be said about the tangible, physical cd + jewel case + artwork, but more and more I find myself buying a cd, opening it, then slapping it in my cd drive and ripping it. I've definitely been ignoring the cd-art more than I did pre-mp3 ubiquity. And surprisingly, I've been pretty engaged by some of the web album-previewers out there, which typically try and integrate the artwork some how. Two examples are below.

http://www.flaminglips.com
http://www.zwan.com

sonic collaboration_1

As Plato says, music is in itself a moral law and it is within the creation of sound as a group that many of the finer themes of an advanced culture can be recognised... listening...blending... sharing... respecting... each person holding an awareness of the overall sound, consequently the sum is greater than the individual components.  The creation of a beautiful, uplifting experience.  One mythic sound legend says there were sound temples in which chanting never ceased, and this had such a powerful energetic effect on the community that no law enforcement was needed.  The vibration created was so fine that people naturally respected life and property and each persons birthright to fulfil their own destiny.

sonic collaborations are timeless and transcend cultural difference. wireless communications move towards a global culture. let's make these things work for each other. the question is not a technical one, but a social one - how best can we use sound and music over wireless networks to create and foster positive social networks?

still thinking.

sonic annotation, audio digression

http://www.mpi.nl/ISLE/documents/papers/Vollmann_paper.pdf

The above is a paper dealing with some aspects of how we might create annotation systems that include sound. While text and image annotation have been rather thoroughly explored, sound annotation is a sparsely documented area, but something I think could be incredibly important and meaningful. Why is this? One reason is perhaps that sound information is less tangible, less explicit. However, I don't see this as necessarily true. couldn't be leveraged.

a) There are specific kinds of Sound information that are culturally signficant to us, music being the most obvious. How can this be used in an annotation system?

b) I think that the very ambiguity and beauty present in many sounds could really create some interesting, if not annotative, experiences when used across a wireless network. Back to my fishing-in-idaho example from a previous post, I capture the sound of the stream and send it to my friend in new york with or without any image / text support. Does my friend realize I'm on a stream in idaho? Does he just like the sound and not care where it came from? Does he care at all? Does he send me back a sound of the subway stopping? I like the idea of this type of auditory feedback. Sound is an important cultural tool, and can be used in more compelling ways than ringtones.

steps:
- check specs on phone adc (I'm not sure if they exist)
- decide probably not use phone adc
- hack the phone to include a better adc / dac
- build (server side) software that records audio to a server and enables the user to send that stream information to others
- hack the phone to support a stereo audio signal, thereby enabling the user to use their own set of stereo headphones / buds

So, yeah- time to get to work, I guess. If anyone has any suggestions, comments, please...

sound | moblogging

sound.

I did this on my desktop. Nothing groundbreaking involved.

There need to be better applications for moblogging that incorporate sound - which could give life to really fascinating audio blogs. Audblog, as posted below, is an intriguing idea, but it seems to me that by using this software it is somehow the sound is becoming a controlled resource - you have to record it using the phone, which I think is a little regressive. I guess I think we need to make tools that are open and free. I want to be able to record a nice quality digital audio file, then send it to my blog automatically. The voice thing doesn't interest me that much because of the quality - it's more about voice than sound. The audblog is certainly an easy and relatively cheap system, but I think it could be done better.

Here are some examples of sites that employ the technology:
http://wackywacky.blogspot.com
http://www.kevinsites.net
http://www.thenewjazzthing.com/audblog

For more information: http://www.audblog.com/faq/
Also, PhoneBlogger is a free tool that does the same thing but for free (but less out-of-the-box)

24 bit recording...on a PDA

Core Audio has just released a piece of software and hardware components for PDA units that run Windows CE/PocketPC 2002 or, best of all - Linux. The recording hardware can also be used on Windows or Linux boxes, but that seems completely besides the point. The adc seems to be pretty nice, with a relatively consistent frequency response, so this could actually be pretty useful- a viable alternative to clunky dat or minidisc recorders. Unfortunately, it for some reason uses an S/PDIF interface (AES/EBU would be nicer). Records WAV files, and transfers data on solid-state memory cards. Why not firewire? I have no idea. Optical and Coaxial inputs.

More info here

vector audio

Koan is a relatively new technology that makes use of "Vector Audio"* designed primarily for use with mobile phones and web pages. I find it most interesting as a mobile technology, as it has a number of possibilities: ring tones, and mobile music creation being the most intriguing to me. The ringtone thing has become huge in Japan (or so I read), Europe, and is growing in the US - mostly because I think that people link having an individual ring tone to some aspect of who they think they are - in other words, like all consumer products, the ring tone becomes, or purports to become, a extension of your personality / individuality. I actually think this is a fascinating area - there have been many studies linking advertising to this sort of capitalist impulse of defining yourself and your social group by the products you buy (think coke person vs. pepsi person), and I'd imagine that similar currents run through the world of ringtones. So back to the point - I think that with the authoring tools provided by koan, people can actually create their own ring tones, and therefore I think, assert their own creativity and individuality better than simply being subject to a piece of music or sound that someone else has created. In addition, I'm excited by the possibilties of koan in respect to cooperative / collaborative mobile music creation. Think of being able to build a set of sounds / intstruments (i.e. turn your phone into your own personailzed instrument), and then play with a friend across the world, or a group of people, all who have built their own phone-instruments. Very cool possibilties.

* Vector audio is defined as:
A powerful new ultra-compact approach matched to minimum bandwidth utilisation, and generating an infinite variety of sounds, non-looping music and total interactivity, as required. A Koan audio vector contains note information like MIDI, but also information on how to create the sounds, which drives Koan's powerful inbuilt software synthesiser. No audio samples or audio sample set is required. As "open" text, it is easily added to a webpage, Flash movie or email and starts playing immediately. Koan audio vectors can be as small as 10 bytes.