MusicBox: Music Library Mapping + Visualization

MusicBox is an amazing new music visualization software project created by Anita Lillie for her Master's thesis [pdf] at the MIT Media Lab.

The software analyzes the songs in a music collection and categorizes them based on a number of attributes: tempo, genre, time signature stability, song length, various other metadata, spectral analysis... Using the map, you can grab a bunch of songs or draw a path for your musical journey. The smart shuffle features are really cool, too.

MusicBox looks like a great way to visualize your iTunes library, create playlists and listen to music. I like how it includes a colorful SoundSieve visualization of each song in the bottom right. The software was coded with Java and uses Processing for the visuals. Check out the youtube screencast above [or the high-quality version here] to get a feel for the visual music player.

MIT owns the MusicBox software so it may not be available publicly for a long time, if ever, but here's what Lillie has to say about the possibilities:

“I hope to make a simplified version of MusicBox for the Apple iPod/iPhone. With a platform designed to enable such easy map navigation and music playback, the iPhone begs for an innovative spatial music player like MusicBox. Users’ music libraries would be analyzed and stored on their personal computers, then synced to their iPod/iPhone. The MusicBox player on the iPod/iPhone would simply visualize the space and allow the user to move about inside it in order to find music of interest. Simple shuffle and filtering features would be included. To take even greater advantage of the connectedness of the iPhone, the view of a user’s personal library could also be enhanced by setting it against a backdrop of the iTunes Music Store, showing relevant recommendations and encouraging discovery with instant reward. MusicBox can also provide a way to navigate a social music space. A social network like MySpace, for example, could benefit greatly from having a geography by which to navigate its artists. Thus, MusicBox can act as a gateway to an ever-expanding social music experience.”

I hope MIT releases MusicBox soon. Hey Apple, how about giving the MIT Media Lab and Anita Lillie lots of money to incorporate this technology into iTunes?

For more info on MusicBox, visit thesis.flyingpudding.com and read Anita Lillie's comments here.

Califaudio One Year

I just noticed that today marks the one-year anniversary of Califaudio.

Cheers!

What is Califaudio?

I've been trying to figure that out over the past year. From the list of Califaudio posts in Blogger, it looks like I've posted 450 mini-articles on a variety of sound-related topics:

• musical instruments
• recording equipment
• sound gear
  
• software + plug-ins
• synths
• sound effects
• concert reviews
• news about my favorite bands
• the music industry
• museums
• circuit bending
• diy
  
• music visualizers

and a lot of other crazy stuff...

On Califaudio you'll find plenty of embedded videos from youtube, vimeo and blip.tv that highlight artists and projects which I think are pushing the envelope in terms of sound, science and art.

I've also documented some of my own experiments in sound here, many of which became my first [13th] solo album, One Hand Tied Behind My Back. I plan to post many more of my audio adventures in 2009. If you're into experimental noise, you can look forward to lots of modular analog synth voyages.

Here's a quick clip from a modular synth tweak session this morning:

califaudio-one-year by tj milian

Stay tuned for some new features coming soon. Subscribe to Califaudio here.

I want to thank all those who have helped spread the word about Califaudio over the past year, including matrixsynth, sequencer.de, rekkerd.org, synthtopia, analogsuicide, looknowhere, flyingpudding, wassonii, failed muso, comment gold, make, and many others, especially my friends and family. Thank you!

My thoughts now echo the ones I had a year ago today...

Thanks for visiting Califaudio.

The State of Music - Sound + Noise.

Update 12/29/08: Check out these pics of the one and only "One Hand" box and cast sent to me today by my #1 fan in celebration of Califaudio's first birthday:


Thanks so much!

Aphex Twin -> 3D Flim OpenGL + OpenFrameworks

Aphex Twin -> 3D from andrew mahon.

Andrew Mahon is an undergrad at Parsons School of Design in NYC studying design + technology. This Aphex Twin -> 3D video [featuring Aphex Twin's "Flim"] is Mahon's Algo final project using OpenFrameworks and OpenGL, incorporating additive blending, springs, a frame buffer, binning and FFT spectrum analysis.

Algo [algorithmic animation] is an advanced programming class taught by Zachary Lieberman + Ayah Bdeir at Parsons School of Design whose focus is the development of strategies for creating interesting, compelling and lifelike animation using C++, in both software and hardware.

Merry Christmas

To all my family, friends and Califaudio readers,

Merry Christmas!

Joy to the World!

-TJ

Buddyhead Holiday Party @ Hotel Cafe Hollywood

Went to the Buddyhead holiday party at the Hotel Cafe last night [12/21/08] in Hollywood. It was a night of weirdness and intoxication. The bands ranged from awful to awesome.

Here's the Buddyhead Holiday Ho Ho Hodeo lineup announced before the show:

Dead Meadow
The Entrance Band
Josh Homme (Screaming Trees, Kyuss)
Jeordie 'Twiggy' White (Marilyn Manson)
Sweethead (feat. Troy Van Leeuwen of QOTSA)
Aaron North, Troy 'Boy' Petrey & Fiends (Jubilee, Rob Gnarley)
Alain Johannes (Eleven)
Nick Jago (BRMC)
Xu Xu Fang
Dean Fertita (QOTSA, The Raconteurs)
Alessandro Cortini (NIN, Modwheelmood)
Wires On Fire
Dios Malos
HT Heartache
Sid Brown (feat. Bryan Brown of Bluebird)
Todd Congelliere (The Underground Railroad To Candyland, Toys That Kill, F.Y.P)
Tony Bevilacqua (Spinnerette, The Distillers, The Drips, Darker My Love, Har Mar Superstar)
Birthday Twin (feat. Fred Sablan of Goon Moon)
Brandon Intelligator & The Sheriffs
Tsk Tsk (The Breeders, Work Sucks, Balloon)
Ryan Ritchie (performing short stories, rantings, poetry, etc.)

The set of the night for me was definitely Alain Johannes [Eleven/QOTSA]. His solo 12-string acoustic set was awesome. The emotion in his voice and guitar playing were incredible. He only played 2 songs, but the energy was perfect.


Sweethead put on a good show, too. The band features Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens of the Stone Age on guitar and Serrina Sims on vocals.

Zander Schloss [Circle Jerks] and Sean Wheeler played a cool set. Dios Malos did a mostly acoustic cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." The sold out concert went downhill from there. There were a bunch of bands I didn't know. A few stoner acoustic jams brought yawns to the crowd. The book reading part was a real downer.

Nick Jago, the drummer from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, played his first solo show last night. His voice and acoustic guitar were too quiet because he wasn't standing close enough to the mic so much of the crowd stopped paying attention. He didn't take that too well and started talking shit to the audience in his drunken stupor. Painful.

Aaron North was pretty wrecked too. He played the last set of the night with a revolving cast of friends. Part cool. Part mess. He called up Alessandro Cortini to play on a song at one point, but he had already left. Aaron yelled out something to the effect of, "Alessandro, You Fuck! You made me bring your Buchla with all the patch cords sticking out! Did he leave? He's probably outside smoking." That bummed me out because I would have loved to have seen Alessandro rock the Buchla 200e.

Josh Homme was also there but didn't play. Jeordie White was a no-show. All in all, a night of highs and lows.

Update: Alain Johannes performance video on youtube:

Notes On Breakcore + People Who Do Noise

2 documentary trailers from Western Europe to the West Coast:


Notes on Breakcore documentary by Austrian directors Bert Könighofer + David Kleinl.


People Who Do Noise documentary by Portland director Adam Cornelius.

Fast Times Mark Stoermer Killers @ Busby's

Saw Fast Times at Busby's on Wilshire in LA last night. Fast Times is an 80s cover band with members who dress up like 80s icons: the singer is Spicoli, Sean Penn's character from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the guitar player wears a Slash top hat and wig, the bass player does a Devo thing and the drummer looks like Robert Smith from The Cure.

They played a bunch of 80s classics from Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Journey, Joan Jett, Guns N' Roses and the Ramones. Drunk girls jumped onstage, sang and flashed their boobies.

Mark Stroermer, the bassist in the Killers, played bass and sang on a few songs, including Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer." They also played the Killers' "Mr. Brightside."

NIN Logic Studio MainStage Video

Apple has posted a video of Trent Reznor, Alessandro Cortini and synth/sound tech Mat Mitchell talking about Nine Inch Nails' use of MainStage and Logic Studio in the studio and live onstage.

Cool shots of Trent's massive modular synth wall in the studio and Alessandro's Eurorack modular synth, French Connection controller and Monome in concert.

Trent's live MainStage system is running on 2 XServes. Alessandro’s rig is an Apogee Symphony Mobile + Rosetta 800 on a MacBook Pro. All the guitar amplification and effects are also done with plug-ins, including those from Native Instruments, SoundToys and Logic.

Apple MainStage NIN Video
Mix MainStage interview with Mat Mitchell

Pro Tools 8 Now Shipping

Digidesign's Pro Tools 8 is available now.

Gibson Dark Fire Guitar Launch Party

Went to the Gibson Dark Fire guitar launch party at the Gibson showroom in Beverly Hills last night.

The post-Metal Skool 80s Hollywood hair metal cover band Steel Panther took the stage, showcasing Gibson's 2nd-generation self-tuning "robot" guitar. Steel Panther played Bon Jovi and Van Halen super parody-style. The bassist broke out a mirror between songs and was spraying his glam hair with hairspray. Totally ridiculous stuff.

They invited Billy Ray Cyrus onstage to sing "Rebel Yell" along with Billy Idol's guitar player, Steve Stevens, for the guitar solo. The whole thing was kind of crazy, especially since I was standing next to Hannah Montana.

Then they brought up Paul Stanley to sing the KISS classic "Lick It Up."


Steel Panther played a raunchy original tune on acoustic guitar and closed with Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine" before opening up the stage for Sweet to play their hit "Ballroom Blitz."

After the show, I got to check out the Dark Fire guitar in a back room. The Gibson guys have been pretty secretive about it for a while. The guitar is awesome. The neck feels good, and it sounds great.

The tuners are smaller and way faster than the ones on the previous robots. The Dark Fire tunes all 6 strings at the same time. Pull up on the master control knob to select the various tunings and guitar sounds. The Chameleon Strat and Tele tones were really good. They're not digital models. The sounds are created through different EQ and pickup combinations (coil tap, series, parallel). The pickup switch can be turned like a knob to mix the piezo with the P90 and Burstbucker magnetic pickups. Very cool.

The Dark Fire will come with special versions of Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 and Ableton Live. There's an interface box that somehow decodes your various signals (the guitar's pickups plus 6 individual string outputs) all through a stereo TRS cable. You can sync your settings and charge the guitar's battery iPod-style. There are three banks (blue, green and red) for your sounds, and you can read the names on master control knob, one letter at a time.

It's amazing everything Gibson has managed to put into this guitar. Can't wait to get my hands on it again!

Check out Craig Anderton's "Inside Story" Dark Fire blog and gibson.com for more info.

BugBrand AudioWeevil08

Tom Bugs is offering the last of the AudioWeevil08 boxes right now. I finally ordered one! The Weevil synth rocks, and this version of the Weevil also processes audio! These things are so hard to get. He puts up a few at a time, and they're gone within minutes. They'll probably be sold out by the time you read this. If you want one, click here now! Only 2 left of the run of 60 units this year. Can't wait to check it out!

Update: They're all gone. Look out for new Weevil devices next month on bugbrand.blogspot.com.

NoiseAddicts NOISE New Digg-style Music News Site

Noise Addicts NOISE is a brand new Digg-style social bookmarking site for musicians and music lovers. I just signed up [profile = tjmilian], checked out some interesting links and submitted a story. If you know how to use Digg, you'll find the Pligg interface easy to use. Catch up on the latest music news or help promote your music-related blog. Very cool!

Spread the NOISE!

Kasio Kristmas

Last week I got an email from EMF & BOTO with info on their new Kasio Kristmas CD:

Imagine if Thomas Dolby, Santa Claus, Devo, and Pac-Man got into a snowball fight with Santa’s elves, Rudolph, and Brian Eno while at a disco while Frosty the snowman was getting abducted by retro loving Aliens who had been drinking eggnog all day... the soundtrack would be KASIO KRISTMAS!

So I finally just got around to checking out the Kasio Kristmas myspace. Awesome! If you're reading Califaudio, you've probably seen mention of this album on another synth/audio blog, but in case you haven't checked it out yet, do it!

100% CASIO INSTRUMENTS!
SK-1, VA-10, SK-5, VL-Tone, SK-8A, Rapman, Muppet, PT-87, CZ-1, TA-10, DH-100 Sax, Turbo Drive Calculator, Electronic Game (Karate Fight) CG-610, DG-20, PG-380, ECT. NO OTHER INSTRUMENTS WERE USED IN THE MAKING OF THIS Elf-A-Delic Casio Core Unstoppable Yuletide Joy Retro-Modern-Sci-Fi-5.1 Christmas experiment.

Reminds me of the one of the greatest Christmases ever... when I got a Casio SK-1 for Christmas! Thanks, Santa!

kasiokristmas.com
myspace.com/kasiokristmassong

NIN: Vegas Last Show - Cortini + Freese

The Nine Inch Nails concert in Las Vegas at Planet Hollywood last night [12/13/08] was incredible. The energy was intense, and the band played a great set for the last concert of the Lights in the Sky tour. The visuals were amazing, and I'm glad I got to see them from a distance instead of near the front, where I usually prefer to watch a show.

During the encore, Trent Reznor announced that both drummer Josh Freese and synth/guitar player Alessandro Cortini were playing their last NIN concert and leaving the band. The news about Josh Freese had already been announced a couple months ago, but the departure of Cortini was a surprise.

Both will be missed, but I'm looking forward to hearing what they do in their respective projects. Freese has no shortage of bands to play in. Cortini will likely record and tour with his band [Modwheelmood] and continue to experiment with his recent Buchla 200e project [Blindoldfreak].

Alessandro Cortini on modwheelmood.com - myspace + blindoldfreak.com:

"thank you.

It's been exactly 4 years since i joined Nine Inch Nails and the time has come for me to move onto new things.
I feel a need to explore other paths in music and life which leads me to leave the tour at this stage.
I am grateful of the chance i was given: it doesn't happen every day to be able to work next to some of the most talented people on this planet.

Trent & Co. have been aware of this decision of mine for a while now and are prepared to take the band to the next step.

Thanks to all the fans who welcomed me at the beginning of my journey and supported me through the years: I hope to see you around here or there.

Alessandro"

Reznor said that he will rebuild NIN as a 4-piece band. The Nine Inch Nails live touring lineup has been a 5-piece for years. The last time NIN played as a 4-piece was in 1991. Last month Reznor announced Ilan Rubin as the new drummer who will replace Freese. If guitarist Robin Finck and bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen remain in the group, who is going to play keyboards? Meldal-Johnsen has been playing keyboard on a few songs this tour, and Finck played a bit of keys on previous NIN tours. Will the synth element remain in the next incarnation of NIN?

NIN is scheduled to premiere the new band on February 17, 2009, in Auckland, New Zealand. The tour will go through Australia through the beginning of March and then back to the States in April. A European tour will follow and then "that's it... for now..."

Nine Inch Nails Las Vegas Planet Hollywood setlist 12/13/08:

999,999
1,000,000
letting you
discipline
march of the pigs
head down
the frail
closer
gave up
the warning
the great destroyer
21 ghosts III
28 ghosts IV
19 ghosts III
piggy [ghost]
the greater good
pinion
wish
terrible lie
survivalism
the big come down
31 ghosts IV
only
the hand that feeds
head like a hole

echoplex
reptile
the good soldier
hurt
in this twilight

Update: Check out the video interview with Trent Reznor at pink is the new blog recorded right before the Vegas show on Saturday. He talks about how the next NIN tour will be "the opposite of what we're doing, a kind of all-white light, just about the band playing" with radically different setlists from night to night. An amphitheater tour of the US with a surprise big band starts in mid-April, then after a European festival tour ends next summer, Reznor plans to record a new album and work on non-musical projects, including the Year Zero TV series and new software.

Otto Von Schirach + Venetian Snares @ Knitting Factory Hollywood

Venetian Snares, Otto Von Schirach, cyrusrex, NAHA, Baseck and anon joined forces for the Detrimental Disco Wibble tour stop at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood last night.

Great concert!

Chiptune artist Baseck masked singing and scratching with Otto. That first aid kit-looking delay box Otto used was cool. Anybody know what delay that was?

Banana Sloth and dancing girls with weirdo masks.

Otto and Cyrusrex alligator on the right.

Otto Von Schirach.

Otto and Venetian Snares.

Aaron Funk.

New Hollywood Drum Store Sunset Blvd.

I'm super excited about opening the new drum shop on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood.

The Grand Opening is tonight!

LUNATIK

LUNATIK from Oddfew - Tim Lovett.

We are all born mad.
Some remain so.

Animation: Tim Lovett
Sound design: Rees Sachse

oddfew.com

Open Reel Ensemble + Crab Feet

The Open Reel Ensemble scratches 4 reel-to-reel analog tape recorders to make some really cool music.


They hook up a keyboard, microphones, computers loaded with Max/MSP, USB interfaces, lights and solenoids to old-school reel-to-reel decks and mic the strange sounds of their voices, singing bowls and tabla.

Hacked reel-to-reel setup.


Open Reel Ensemble:

Ei Wada : Concepter, Circuit, Sound Composition
Kimitoshi Sato：Programing, Sound Design, Poster Design
Ren Yamashita：Circuit, Craft
Sayu Okano：Assistant
Takuya Asakura：Craft

More info - pics + mp3 audio of Open Reel Ensemble performances

Ei Wada [AKA Crab Feet] has a bunch of wacky musical experiments on his youtube [garudagroove] - blog [crabfeet.blogspot.com] + portfolio.


This Crab Feet "Coolas Haderach" video above looks like they're sucking and blowing water through tubes to manipulate the sound. Definitely PFU.

NIN Curtain Call

Trent Reznor on nin.com:

"File this one under lost opportunities.

I'm very proud of the show we've put together for this tour and have been working hard the last few months to find a way to capture it. I had an amazing situation lined up that would have allowed me to film the show in 3D with James Cameron's team for a theatrical release as well as DVD / BluRay, etc. We had an extra date added to the tour that we were going to give away all the tickets for and have a filming party / thank you show.

I made two critical mistakes. One was to approach a certain record company that owns some of the song rights about producing / funding. The second was to allow said company to fuck around as usual for months before saying um... no. We then achieved the impossible by finding alternate production / funding but the timetable is too rushed to get it filmed comfortably with the remaining time left on the tour. This tour and a lot of the personnel involved finish at the end of this leg, so we can't push filming into Jan / Feb.

Deep breath...
This was an amazing tour and production - certainly the best thing I've ever been involved with and likely the final tour for NIN on this scale. Thank you to those who came out to see it and forgive me for having a Kanye West moment, but this was FOR SURE the best show of the year and any bullshit end-of-the-year poll you may read in the next few weeks that says otherwise simply has it wrong. Those of you who saw it know I'm right.

The shows we have announced in 2009 and any more that may be announced will be a completely different approach with some different personnel and will likely be the last for the foreseeable future."

The NIN tour this year really is/was awesome. I hope they release some kind of high-quality video to capture it. Hey Trent, rent a bunch a HD cameras and let the fans film the Vegas show next week. I'd film it for free!

Catch the NIN live show while you can... or check out the beta NIN concert photo and video galleries at nin.com.

Update: Nine Inch Nails has been nominated for 2 Grammy's:

• Best Rock Instrumental Performance for 34 Ghosts IV
  
• Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package for Ghosts I-IV

Update 2: More info on NIN 2009 tour plans.