and ) : C

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Cute tiny robot plays drums, samples itself, plays again



This is the Yellow Drum Machine, a beautiful little homemade robot which finds surfaces to drum on, records it's own drumming (using one of these little £12 sampler modules) then sets off to find somewhere else to play. The videos are adorable, and strangely reminiscent of KT Tunstall doing a similar thing. (via Make)

Hedge fund looking for £55m to invest in vintage guitars

The FT reports that a small London bank called Anchorage Captial is seeking investment to buy vintage guitars, having noticed that the Vintage Guitar Magazine price index "averaged returns of 31.6 per cent for the past 17 years". Anchorage is run by guitar enthusiast Thomas Byrne, who is also behind BJ & Byrne Guitars, a new company hoping to build guitars in Britain (actually, in a workshop on Denmark Street in London) and sell them for £500-£900. If anyone out there has £55m to spend on vintage guitars, just send me the cheque and I'll pass it on. (Thanks, Fabio)

How Francis Bacon predicted the recording studio in 'New Atlantis' in 1626

Text not available
If you can get hold of a copy, I recommend the April 2008 issue of Sound on Sound, which includes Steve Marshall's epic 12 page history of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which was founded 50 years ago in April 1958.
His piece is full of goodness, but the thing that really amazed me was this "We have also sound-houses" quote from Francis Bacon's 1626 book 'The New Atlantis', which Workshop founder Daphne Oram had pinned on the wall of the Workshop. It's all there: "We represent small sounds as great and
deep" = Waves Ultramaximiser, "We represent and imitate all articulate sounds and letters" = a circuit-bend Speak'n'Spell, and "divers tremblings and warblings of sounds" pretty well describes my entire musical output.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Saturday, March 15, 2008

American Gangster (OST)


American Gangster (OST)

INFO:
01. Anthony Hamilton - Do You Feel Me
02. Lowell Fulson - Why Don't We Do It In The Road!
03. John Lee Hooker - No Shoes
04. Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street
05. Anthony Hamilton - Stone Cold
06. Sam & Dave - Hold On I'm Comin'
07. The Staples Singers - I'll Take You There
08. Public Enemy - Can't Truss It
09. Hank Shockiee - Checkin' Up On My Baby
10. Hank Shockiee - Club Jam
11. Hank Shockiee - Rail Road
12. Hank Shockiee - Nicky Barnes
13. Marc Streitenfeld - Hundred Percent Pure
14. Marc Streitenfeld - Frank Lucas


-download OST here-
American Gangster (OST)

Music Video - Kelly Clarkson(Miss Independent)


Music Video - Kelly Clarkson(Miss Independent)


-download MV here-
Music Video - Kelly Clarkson(Miss Independent)

Music Video - Evanescence(Lithium)


Music Video - Evanescence(Lithium)


-download MV here-
Music Video - Evanescence(Lithium)

Music Video - Evanescence(Call Me When You're Sober)


Music Video - Evanescence(Call Me When You're Sober)


-download Mv here-
MV - Evanescence(Call Me When You're Sober)

Music Video - Michael Jackson(They Don't Care About Us)


Music Video - Michael Jackson(They Don't Care About Us)


-download MV here-
Music Video - Michael Jackson(They Don't Care About Us)
Pass: goleech.org

Music Video - Jessica Simpson feat Lil Bow Wow(Irresistible)


Music Video - Jessica Simpson feat Lil Bow Wow(Irresistible)


-download MV here-
MV - Jessica Simpson feat Lil Bow Wow(Irresistible)
Pass: goleech.org

Friday, March 14, 2008

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Celemony Melodyne DNA: Has this man done the impossible?


This is Peter Neubäcker from Celemony. You've probably already seen this promo video of his new product, Direct Note Access. It's a new version of the autotune-type pitch correction software which - it appears - can work with polyphonic sound. Record a chord, and it lets you explode that chord and re-tune individual notes. I thought that this was impossible. Peter Neubäcker says "What doesn't work in theory can still work in reality."

Well, maybe. In May 2005, a startup called Zenph Studios claimed to have cracked the problem of polyphonic transcription. They analyse old piano recordings (i.e. Glenn Gould playing Goldberg Variations in 1955) and produce a high-resolution MIDI-type file with exact pedal movements and note/pressure data. They feed that into a Disklavier MIDI grand piano, and record the results. They've had good reviews (at least in audiophile mags) for the recordings.

The potential of this kind of polyphonic transcription is enormous - it would let you sample a performance, not just the recording of a performance. Zenph may be able to do it in a slow, precise, way - presumably with a considerable amount of human help, and they're just pulling out note data, not separating the actual sounds of the notes. Celemony are claiming a lot more. If it works, it's a revolution. It shouldn't be long before you can separate any mixed recording into unmixed tracks. You'll be able to turn any guitar into a guitar synth with no special hardware.

It's very exciting. Does it actually work? I can't imagine how it could, but I know almost nothing about signal processing or the theory of sound. That's where you come in... (More coverage at Create Digital Music)

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Music Video - Hayden Panettiere(I Still Believe)


Music Video - Hayden Panettiere(I Still Believe)



-download MV here-
Music Video - Hayden Panettiere(I Still Believe)

Music Video - Mariah Carey(Through The Rain)


Music Video - Mariah Carey(Through The Rain)


-download MV here-
Music Video - Mariah Carey(Through The Rain)

Music Video - Mariah Carey(Cry Baby)


Music Video - Mariah Carey(Cry Baby)


-download MV here-
Music Video - Mariah Carey(Cry Baby)

Korg DS-10 turns your Nintendo DS into a vintage MS-10

This looks fantastic: An official, Korg-sanctioned Japan-only MS-10 for the Nintendo DS. It has two synth engines, a drum machine, and a 6-track XOX sequencer, complete with little draggable patch cables. No sign of MIDI in, but you can link several systems wirelessly to play together. I think I need a DS... (Thanks, David)

MFB Synth 3: A semi-modular analog desktop synth for £440


I have a MFB Synth II, which I really enjoy - a little blue Minimoog with a sequencer. It's wonky, lo-fi thing (I have to tune it with a guitar tuner) but I really like it, so I'm intrigued by the MFB Synth 3, which is launching at MusikMesse this week. It's basically a bunch of their eurorack modules in a desktop box. No patch storage (which I never use on the Synth 2) and no sequencer (both of which I use a lot) - it comes with a built in MIDI-CV converter. It's got to be the most knobs and patch points ever sold for €580.