OpenStomp: Open Source Guitar Pedal?

 OpenStomp: Open Source Guitar Pedal

Now here is an interesting concept that I thought we would have seen sooner. Take some standard off the shelf hardware, add some open source hardware, throw in a custom interface and you have yourself a great musical instrument at a fraction of the price of proprietary hardware. The Open Stomp is an open source stomp pedal that I presume basically takes software effects and puts them in a box. It uses the Coyote-1 sound effects processor and includes a Windows-based workbench for making sounds. No more details on the hardware specs, but it does have 1MB of storage (1MB? That is all?). 

Lets see how this turns out.

via Crunchgear.com

Futuristic Design Challenge Gets Going

In the prior entry covering the Kromatron, I made a passing reference (with linkage) to the fact that it was being entered in a control surface design challenge being put on by Yuri and company of Create Digital Media. Well, the entrants have been registered and assembled, and likewise the judging roster has been released. Included on the panel are the venerable Roger Linn, synthpop maven Liz Enthusiasm of Freezepop, Create Digital Music progenitor Peter Kirn, and sound design instructor Matt Ganucheau of Expression College for Digital Arts.

Included among the entrants are the Kromatron, a whacked-out sawblade, an audio device made from a deconstructed bicycle and a tape player, and more. In addition to Komega's device, Evan Morris of LivePA.org fame has also entered "The Box", a visually reactive custom device built to control Reaktor, while also eliminating the need to look at the computer screen. Another exciting entrant is Ammo Box, the brainchild of Nathan Ramella, also known as the guy who hacked Ableton Live-- an under-described turntable/midi hybrid setup that's short on specs, but has an impressive youtube video. An altogether ecclectic mix of homebrew hardware, each of these devices seems to explore and exploit answers to fundamental questions about how music is controlled, and how it could be controlled. To put it simply, the manufacturers of music hardware simply never exhibit the kind of raw creativity seen among the entrants of this contest. Built by a mix of established semi-pros and previously unheard of garage wunderkinds, none of them are "safe" enough in terms of marketability to ever see the light of day under any other circumstances.

Robert Henke Describing Monodeck & Ableton

COSM has films a great video presentation by Robert Henke describing the Monodeck along with Ableton live. The presentation is a little long and dry for a net-video, but well worth it if you are into this sort of academic or conceptual sort of thing.

via COSM.co.nz

BeatBearing: Beautiful Drum Sequencer Design Has Balls

.:BeatBearing: Beautiful Drum Sequencer Design Has Balls:.

This one has been going around the net for a couple of weeks now so I have to post it. It is a beautiful experimental drum sequencer using acrylic and ball bearings. I can only presume that it is probably using the balling bearings as a way to complete a circuit, sending the midi information to a drum-machine.

The lighting touches make the device all the cooler though.

via .:Gizmodo.com:.

BBC Radiophonic Workshop documentary

Long before slick dance clubs began to shake all night to the sound of electronically created music, the reclusive elite of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was pioneering the art of sound design. While the art of Live PA evolved long after the Workshop ceased production, its role in the history of sound synthesis and electronic music cannot be denied. While most associate the Workshop with the classic British sci fi series Doctor Who, its history is much deeper and complex than the mere production of the series' strange sound effects. The documentary, which is actually in three parts, follows the evolution of the Workshop, and illustrates thecrucial role the Workshop played in history of electronic music. The section regarding the production methods used for the Doctor Who theme really are worth a watch, and the footage of the ancient hardware really tickles my vintage gear fetish.

Part 2

Part 3

Live Performance in the Age of Super Computing

.:Live Performance in the Age of Super Computing:.

Now here is an interesting read. Artist and producer Robert Henske Henke has written an interesting article. In this article he talks about the impact that computers, mainly the laptop have had on performance. It is an interesting comparison discussing the subtle and not so subtle issues that make computers debatable musical instruments.

Quote:

A classical non-electronic musical instrument relies on a constant user-interaction in order to produce a sound. The instrument has specific physical properties, defining its sound and the way it wants to be played. The music is a result of the properties of the instrument and the skills of the player...Now, explain to someone why pressing a space bar on a computer sounds like Bruce Springsteen one time and, the next time you try, it makes no sound at all. With ‘real' instruments, it is also obvious that precision, speed, volume, dynamics, richness, and variation in sound are the result of hard work, and that becoming a master demands training, education, and talent. Without the player doing something, there is nothing but silence.

Keyboard Magazine - Electronica Unplugged

.:Keyboard Magazine - Electronica Unplugged:.

Peter Kirn at Keyboard magazine has a nice article where he covers live laptop performance recordings, and in the process breaks away from the mold that most of us are thinking, and instead interviews several laptop orchestras including PLOrk, The Moscow Laptop Cyber Orchestra, and Share.

The whole concept of a laptop orchestra is an interesting one, and one I would like to see more off. I sort of see the logical progression in it from drum circle, to jam session to full on orchestra.

if you are interested in some more livePA orchestra related stuff check out some of our other blogs on the topic. .:LivePA Orchestra:.

via Createdigitalmusic.com

Mastering engineer John Dent on the art of mastering

While obviously part of a larger corporate marketing effort, the videos hosted on this page are actually worth having a look at-- a two part lecture by mastering engineer John Dent on the subject of what he does, and how it affects the ultimate outcome of our productions, courtesy of the Red Bull Music Academy. A good primer for those who might not grasp the scope of a mastering engineer's role in the overall success of the tunes we release. The information is delivered lecture style along with examples of the subjects discussed, with rather decent audio quality.

.:Check it out here:.

MIT Electronics Flea Market!!! Today June 17th and Every 3rd Sunday!!!

.:Flea Market Flyer (.PDF):.

Short notice on this one. Super short, but I just learned that MIT is having an electronics flea market for all of your circuit benders, radio junkies and the like. If you are in the area, head on over today and get a good deal on a 1,000 pack of resistors or a circuit bent Furby.

If you happen to miss today's market, fear not. This is going to be a monthly event from now until October, occurring on the third Sunday of every month.

Quote:

The MIT Radio Society, in conjunction with the MIT UHF Repeater Association, the MIT Electronics Research Society, and the Harvard Wireless Club, sponsors a Swapfest on the third Sunday of each month, April through October. This is a place to buy, sell, and swap amateur radio, electronic, and computer equipment. Hams and non-hams alike are welcome.

via EM411.com

BARCamp Chicago 2007: June 23-24

.:BARCampChicago.org:.

Hey everyone out there. BARCamp, the uber tech and geek get together is happening in Chicago on June 23-24. I will be attending myself with any luck, doing some recording to podcast the event.

If you are unfamiliar with BARCamp, BARcamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants.

Generally the topics focus on technology, the web and things along that nature, but general geeks are welcome.

For more information head on over to the website. I hope to see everyone there.

EndDRM.info

DRM is one of the hottest internet topics out right now, and it is certainly applicable to musicians. On the one hand musicians and writers of all types have the right to protect their creative properties. On the other hand, DRM certainly alienates the music fans, and in some cases the artists themselves.

.:EndDRM.info:. is a nice site that was started to dish out info on the bad side of DRM. With that is also links to learning more about DRM, its purpose, as well as music storess (that we can sell our music at) which will sell DRM free music

loopArena MTC performance @ c-base with bruda

Live video of an experimental interface from somewhere. Unfortunately all I have is the Youtube link so if anyone can provide some more info please let me know.

PENNSound: Live Poetry Readings for Download

.:PENNSound: Live Poetry Readings for Download:.

The University of Pennsylvania has opened up a new sound library/repository for spoken word and poetry recordings. The delivery here is to present these recordings as you would for podcasts or for audiobooks. However, since the market is so small for poetry recordings, and the culture different, there are not royalty fanatics crying bloody murder. Because of this all of the poems are available for free download to your computer or mp3 player.

Quote:

PennSound is an ongoing project, committed to producing new audio recordings and preserving existing audio archives. We intend to provide as much documentation about individual recordings as possible; new bibliographic information will be added over time (please contact us if you can supplement the information already provided). As part of the PennSound project, the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image (SCETI) in collaboration with the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Collection at the University of Pennsylvania is developing a sophisticated cataloguing tool for all our sound files; this should be available in about one year. Click on "search," in the header to any PennSound page, for a demonstration.

Stanford: Take a Course on Live Programming

.:Course on Live Programming:.

Hanging around Stanford this summer? Looking for a new course to add onto some of those Gen Eds? Well consider taking one of the classes being put on by Stanford University.

The Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics offers intensive programs where top educators and researchers from the fields of music, engineering, and computer science will present a detailed study of specialized subjects. The workshops are one or two week programs and this year are offered in 6 different locations worldwide. The workshops are open to the public. Each day begins at 9:00 am and ends at 5:00 pm with an hour for lunch on your own.

The Music of Proteins

.:Gene2music Project:.

Microbiologists from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have converted DNA sequences of human proteins into music. The Gene2Music project has been led by Rie Takahashi and Jeffrey Miller who work at the department of Microbiology, and have found a way to "cram the 20 standard amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) into just 13 notes. The duo focus on codons sets of three adjacent bases that code for particular amino acids.

Hrmmm.....yeah......Anyways this is all a very cool music project and is an interesting new twist on the generative music approach.

You can here some examples of the midi files .:Here:.

via ZDnet

You knew it was coming....Computers that understand music.

Christopher Raphael of Indiana University demonstrated computer software that has the ability to understand and playback music in realtime with other musicians. The software has the ability to transcribe and playback music in realtime, potentially making our new overloads not only efficient killers, but also great artisans as well. Who would have thought it.

quote:

Technology is changing our sense of what music can be," Raphael says. "The effect is profound." The new software was not easy to develop, however. Raphael compares it to the slow progress in effective speech recognition. "There's been a veritable army of people who've worked on speech recognition for several decades, and [the problem] still remains open," he says. "Any time you deal with real data, there is a huge amount of variation that you have to understand."

via ArsTechnica.com

Photos from the 2007 Bent Festival

Make magazine has pictures as well as some information and links about this past weekend's Bent Festival in New York.

The Bent Festival is a festival held in New York, Los Angeles, and Minneanapolis. Each year circuit benders from across the country are invited to conduct workshops on circuitbending and also setup performances for musicians using circuit bent gear.

For more information, and details about the next Bent Festival head on over to .:bentfestival.org:.

Finding & Fixing Hum

.:Finding & Fixing Hum:.

This article gives some good tips on how you can find and fix hum related issues in your audio system.

Very few audio or video systems are dead quiet. There are usually always a few hum related problems. If your system has a bit of hum, is it the transformer or not? How do you determine the source of hum and what can you do about it?

Sometimes hums and buzzes are quite obvious, sometimes not. The 'hum noise' usually comes in two flavors, a low non-irritating drone (50 or 60 Hz) or a slightly higher pitched buzz or raspy/irritating 'angry insect' sound (100 or 120 Hz). Video hum is usually seen as diagonal bars across the TV or screen of a projector.

Wikirecording.org: Online Resource for Recording Information

.:Wikirecording.org:.

Wikirecording.org is an online open community for information regarding recording. Information reanges from simple definitions of terms and gear, to more complex recording concepts. As is standard with any Wiki, this one is open to community editing to help improve and expand upon the content.

If you looking for some information regarding recording, or have a little bit of advice to share you should go and check it out. It is a very nice site for recording information.

Sneakthief's Custom Built Midi Sequencer

.:DIY MIDI Sequencer:.

Livepa.org member Sneakthief has been building himself a custom midi sequencer for use at his live shows. The basic build design is taken from the Ucapps.de site, but he has designed custom code for the sequencer. You may be thinking that the sequencer's design is a little unorthodox, but he has designed it not to write his music out on, but rather just perform it. Sneakthief states that all of the composition will actually be done on other modules and he will then load all of the midi sequences on to the box for performance. He has some great ideas in here that I am surprised no other sequencers have used these, such as two independent yet syncable sequencers. They can work together, yet if one goes down the show is not over!!!

The complete build discussion, as well as tons of pictures can be found at the link above.

Quote's from Sneakthief on the idea:

I'm in the process of developing a very simple pattern sequencer that supports up to 256-measure long tracks. I'm going to use the Midibox as my platform and write everything in C (no I can't use the Midibox Sequencer because it's much easier to start from scratch).......I'm not going to write music with this - at the moment it's strictly for live performance so I'll be loading sequences from my other boxes...... As time goes by, I'll be able to program new features.......what's nice about the dual lcd's is that they're 2 totally independant hardware sequencers that can either run separately or in sync. more importantly, if one ever dies (highly unlikely), i won't be screwed over!

Specs:
Here are the specifications:
1. 2 independent sequencers, one of which can be slaved to the other.
2. Each sequencer will be able to load one "song" at a time. A song is chosen by the push-button rotary encoder.
3. 16 sections per song
4. 6 tracks per section that can be muted or unmuted with the track-mute buttons (more than 6 tracks could be implemented, but that's all I need)
5. 256 measures per track - this is where this really differs from the Midibox Seq
4. Components

Midibox modules:
2x Cores
2x AIN
2x DIN
2x DOUT