Posts (page 2)
MIDI Navigator, below, is a Mac OS X MIDI driver for the 3dconnexion Space Navigator, right.
Usage is simple: download the application, launch it and select SpaceNavigator in your favorite MIDI application as input device.
MIDI Navigator can send relative and absolute CC commands. You can adjust the CC number, mode and sensitivity for each of the six degrees of freedom.
Rui Gato has created a demo video of this in action.
Requires Mac OS X 10.4 and a 3dconnexion Space Navigator.
Michael S. Schneider, author of A Beginner’s Guide To Constructing The Universe, has published an interesting analysis of the Amen Break (probably the most important sample ever). In his analysis, the Amen Break may be popular because of the way the Golden Ratio is found it the break’s timing: Having looked at the geometry of the Golden Ratio a great deal, and its expressions in worldwide art, I have a decent sense of its place along a line. The Amen Break had that feel. For a quick check I used homemade Golden Ratio calipers to examine the peaks. Indeed, peaks pop up at Golden Ratio intervals, as do smaller peaks within them, reminsicent of the fractal structures in nature. For more exact visual analysis I examined the wave image in my computer, in which I have a palatte of geometric forms and proportions for quickly identifying an object’s ratios. Sure enough, Golden Ratio relationships were indicated among the different peaks. Am I seeing things? You decide. But the appearance of the Golden Ratio may help explain its popularity. The major wave peaks of the Amen Break, and many of its smaller ones, seem reasonably close to being an expression of the fractal nature of the wonderful Golden Ratio. I wonder what it would sound like if it was more precisely proportioned to the ideal, but I also know that slight differences are what make it human and alive. What do you think? Is the Golden Ration behind the popularity of the Amen Break, or is this a bunch of intellectual wankery? This fascinating, brilliant 20-minute video narrates the history of the "Amen Break," a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music -- a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures. Nate Harrison's 2004 video is a meditation on the ownership of culture, the nature of art and creativity, and the history of a remarkable music clip.
Amazingly enough, this cat plays theremin about as well as most people.
Architect Nikola Basic has recently received the European Prize for Urban Public Space for the very cool Sea Organ project, an architectural and experimental musical object located in Zadar, Croatia.
“The Sea Organ is a pipe organ that has a set of 35 musically tuned tubes located underneath a set of large marble steps played by the sea waves. The movement of the sea pushes air through, and depending on the size and force of the wave, it produces a somewhat random but harmonic sound.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nISG7iBk-AThe awesome Pamelia Kurstin performing at TED!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-ywH1Vj8_U
She discusses the theremin and performs Autumn Leaves, Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life and a composition by David Mash, Listen: the Words Are Gone. Piano: Makoto Ozone
Born in Los Angeles, Kurstin currently resides in Vienna, and performs with acclaimed eccentric rockers Barbez, among many others. Her latest solo CD, Thinking Out Loud, was released in 2007 on John Zorn’s Tzadik label.
Kurstin is delightful in person and a bit goofy/freaky, too. If you’re brave, she’ll teach you the theremin and cut your hair.
Terje Isungset makes instruments out of ice and performs at nordic ice festivals.
Most of the information on him and his music seems to be in Norwegian, but here’s the official blurb on it from his label:
The instruments are made from top quality ice. It must be free of any air bubbles. The instruments are carved using saws and knives. So far these instruments have been created and recorded: Iceofon, Ice Harp, Ice Horn, Ice trumpet, Ice percussion, Ice bass drum carved from one block of ice. In addition, all stands, supports and tables are also made from ice. Only the bass drum pedal, fish line for suspension, and the strings on the Ice Harp are made from materials other than pure frozen water.
Here’s a video, Ice Fuzion, that is a collaboration between ice artist Peter Wasilewski & Isungset:
Korg is introducing a Japan-only cartridge for the DS that turns it into a simulation of the classic Korg MS-10 synth. It actually looks kinda cool, too.
No word on global availability. We can hope, though.
Wolfram Research Labs has created a new site, WolframTones, that explores applying Stephen Wolfram’s mathematical theories to the creation of music.
The site is based on ideas from Wolfram’s book, A New Kind of Science.
At the core of A New Kind of Science is the idea of exploring a new abstract universe: a “computational universe” of simple programs. In A New Kind of Science, Wolfram shows how remarkably simple programs can capture the essence of the complexity and beauty of many systems in nature.
WolframTones works by taking simple programs from Wolfram’s computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them as music. Each program in effect defines a virtual world, and WolframTones captures it as a musical composition.
It’s all original music, created dynamically. And, as you might imagine, most of it sounds terrible :)
But some of it sounds interesting - so check it out and let me know what you think.
