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University professor Jason Brown took six months and some advanced mathematical analytical techniques to establish how the "prraaaaaangg" sound at the beginning of the Beatles' "Hard Day's Night" was made. If you haven't yet had a look at Melodyne and Direct Note Access, this might be a good time. Outstanding!
Listen to the underwater sound of the Antarctic Ocean with a delay of just a few seconds here
What would a music video look like if it were purely directed by the music? Designer Jakob Trollback shares the results of his experiment. The song is Moonlight in Glory, from David Byrne and Brian Eno's album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.
Not at all related to audio, but seriously cool! Using the infrared camera inside the Wii remote and a head mounted sensor bar (two infrared LEDs), Johnny Chung Lee has developed a way to track the location of the head and generate images which correlate to the users viewing angle. The results are stunning. Johnny also gave a presentation @ TED2008 where, aside from the outstanding research, he remarked on the value of online video distribution, particularly for researchers.
Sensimetrics provide this presentation (free of charge) which highlights the importance of protecting your hearing with examples of degrees of hearing loss and tinnitus. Audio folk take note!
Shipping in February 2008, the Pacemaker is a portable music player with a real difference; it features two independent channels and incorporates audio maniuplation tools for mixing between the two. So, in effect a portable DJ tool, with a twist. Could be a lot of fun! Check the demo here and more detailed information here. You can pre-book a unit here cost = €520 ex VAT & Delivery
SSL have announced an addition to the Duende platform with the Duende PCIe (PCI Express), an expansion card which will provide 32 channels of SSL EQ and Dynamics within your host application. Up to two of the cards can be combined within the same computer (Mac/PC) giving up to 64 channels of processing. Processing ability can be further increased by partnering the Duende PCIe with the Duende Classic and Mini. Also announced is the MADI Xtreme, a new multichannel PCIe audio card.
Festo specialise in industrial process automation with pneumatic and electronic components and systems. Stage set designer and robot artist Roland Olbeter, incorporating pneumatics from Festo, developed and realised an automatically operated, electric string quartet and drum machine. The Sound Machines were first seen by the public in Novemebr 2005. More information here
US developers (all about them here) of a highly innovative range of music control interfaces including the 40h and soon to be released two fifty six (pictured above). Selection of 40h demo videos here and the two fifty six here
Multi-touch sensing - got to get hold of one!
Crazy mod from Michael Una! More info on the Beat Bike here plus other work here
Propellerheads have posted video tutorials for the new sequencer in Reason 4. Produced by ASK Video.
The multifaceted Polyfractus (Dragan Petrovic) offers much of his programming work as freeware; there's a variety of (really interesting) software tools available - Mac only. What interests me most however is the research into movement, sensors + sound/music generation. Several movies provide a glimpse of his endeavours; they appear to all date from 2003/04 with no indication if this work is still going on. Nevertheless, the possibilities here are exciting.
Now almost a classic, this rather good collection of 8 articles from Darwin Grosse written in 2002 guides you through building a synthesiser from scratch in Max/MSP.
From the University of Oregon New Media Center, EMI was established as a resource for music students interested in electronic music. It forms a good introduction to sound and synthesis principles from a musicians perspective.
Developed by Phil Burk of Softsynth, JSyn is a real-time synthesis API for Java. In simpler terms it allows the user to develop interactive music programs in Java which can be run as either stand alone applications or as applets in a web page. The latter requires the installation of the (free) JSyn plugin. Following the installation of the plugin you can toy with some JSyn examples here. Even if you're not interested in application programming I'd highly recommend time spent playing with the various applications.
You can experiment and visualise the basics of a number of sound synthesis and processing techniques: WaveMaker FMLab FilterFun SawFader
It's not all synthesis either: The Mozart Dice Game Computer Phase PinWheel