ToneMatrix

ToneMatrix is a fun little Flash sine wave synth + 16 step sequencer by Andre Michelle based on Hobnox Audiotool.

I like making it stutter by opening lots of web pages at the same time.

Thanks for the link, Mark.

Tomorrow Never Knows Daydream

The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows music video (fan-made) from Ryan Chibana.

Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream...

...and zone out to "Tomorrow Never Knows" by the Beatles.

Video produced at the Fraser Radio-TV Center at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Indiana.

The First DJ Battle in the World

Самая первая битва диджеев в мире

via droidbehavior

NIN + Alec Empire Europe 2009

Looks like Alec Empire will be opening for Nine Inch Nails in Europe in June + July.

ALEC_EMPIRE on twitter:

"@freemanpr we are in the middle of confirming support shows with NIN for next month & July!!!"

Awesome.

Clouds

Clouds (experimental film) from Saliha Wazirzada.

The Legend of the Man Eating Cloud.

Film by Saliha Wazirzada + Antonina Minenko using a Bolex camera. Edited in Avid. Audio processed in Sony Acid Pro.

Vintage Microphones Studio K

Vintage + modern microphones on the SSL console at Studio K in Gifu, Japan.

RCA - Telefunken - Neumann - Altec - Sennheiser - Rode - Shure + ...

ToneTune

ToneTune is a new iPhone app that helps you tune the strings on your guitar and other stringed instruments to the correct pitch by ear.

The interface is simple and comes with a variety of tunings for guitar, including standard and open tunings, Drop D and 12-string. ToneTune has over 60 tunings for stringed instruments: violin, cello, mandolin, ukulele, banjo, lute and a whole bunch more.

There's a handy Notes page that lets you hear single notes and lists them with their frequency [to 2 decimal places] and MIDI note number [0-127].

Listen to the tones through the iPhone's built-in speaker, headphones or an external amp or sound system.

Download Stanton Studio's ToneTune from the iPhone App Store for $2.99.

Ear Plugs

Ear Plugs from Douglas Pledger.

London Geek Community iPhone OSCestra

The London Geek Community iPhone OSCestra played the Doctor Who theme for their debut performance at Open Hack London.

They used the free app mrmr to create customized controllers which sent data wirelessly to OSCulator and then to synths in Ableton Live. The conductor used Wiimote controllers for drums.

Chris Vrenna Pro Tools 8

Chris Vrenna [Tweaker/Marilyn Manson/NIN] on Digidesign's Pro Tools 8.

Pour Sound

Pour Sound from Jen Cotton.

"This is using openFrameworks for the computer vision and Super Collider to generate the sound.

The CV reads the color values of the canvas and generates sound based on the amount of red (R), green (G), or blue (B) that is present. The paint itself is thinned out into washes so that creates layers of colors that create layers of sound."

Modern Ancient Music

Check out Binary Heap and listen to reaktorplayer's experimental/ambient interpretation of a song carved in stone circa 1400 B.C. It is one of the oldest known surviving pieces of music notation in the world.

Those crazy Syrians were way ahead of their time.

I wonder what future versions of this music will sound like 3400 years from now...

Touchplate Controllers

The Serge TKB is an awesome touch keyboard/sequencer. The capacitance touchplate controller lets you play notes, control a variety of other synth functions and use the plates to alter the playback of the sequencer.

Buchla's got some great touchplate controllers.

The Multi Dimensional Kinesthetic Input Port Model 222e has 27 velocity and pressure sensitive keys, 14 of which respond to location in one or two dimensions. User-programmed control voltages.

Buchla Kinesthetic Input Port Model 221

Multiple Touch Controlled Voltage Source Model 217

Touch Activated Voltage Source Model 218 in the Buchla Music Easel

BugBrand also recently introduced a cool touch interface [CTL1 Touch Panel] with banana jacks.

I'd love a touch plate controller in Eurorack format or at least one that integrates easily with mini-jack modular synths like the Arp 2600. What else is out there? Any touch plate controllers in the works?

MacBeth M5X + X-Factor

Ken MacBeth has announced the MacBeth M5X, the next generation of the M5/M5N semi-modular synth.

Also on the horizon:

X-Factor Analogue Synth

X-Series 5U modules

+ MacBeth 3U Eurorack modules ? ? ?

via muffwiggler

Ear Training White Noise

Ear Training With White Noise from Graham English.

Any good methods out there for ear training?

Fluid Sculpture

Fluid Sculpture by Charlie Bucket.

Look out for a more elaborate version of the Fluid Sculpture at the 2009 Maker Faire in San Mateo on May 30-31.

Music: "Imperials" by Ratatat.

The Beginning Is Coming

i am excited to announce my first ever solo concert in america:

tj milian

the beginning

2/10/2010

miami, florida, usa

this special night will double as the album release party celebrating the beginning, the first in a series of albums journeying through the story of my life and dreams.

plus, february 10, 2010 is my birthday! let's party!

so why am i announcing the concert and album 9 months in advance?

today marks the anniversary of my conception.

hi, mom. happy mother's day!

it was also on this same day, 21 years later, that the idea came to me to make this a reality. i have now been planning the beginning out on paper, on tape, on digital media and in my head for exactly 14 years, since 5/10/1995, the day i wrote the song "the beginning."

the seed has been planted. i've got a lot of work to do. the beginning is not recorded yet. so many bits and pieces, countless fragments of ideas... now it's time to put everything together and create something real and unreal.

how do you go about telling the story of your life? i'm still not exactly sure, but i've got 9 months to get it done. so often the hardest part about doing something is just deciding to actually do it.

i'm really looking forward to recording the beginning and sharing it with you. i hope you'll join me and my family and friends 9 months from today. see you in miami!

update: here are photos from the show!

EEG Sound Sample

EEG sound sample from nik:

"Human brainwaves from eeg data amplified to audible and converted into audible sound. The video is unrelated to the audio."

I underwent an EEG brain scan when I was a kid. Freaky.

Gakken Premium Theremin

Getting to know the Gakken Premium Theremin from make magazine.

Gakken Premium Theremin battery-powered theremin kit available in North America through Maker Shed.

Laser Audio

Laser audio TX/RX from Short Circuit.

Transmitting audio through the air via laser beam using simple laser pointer, iPod, batteries, McGhoan LT3-B transformer, photocell, magnifying glass and a 10k pot.

ciphernet.homelinux.org

Truce: Mosquito + Machine

Experiments in Mosquito / Machine Communication: Truce from khs frst.

Truce is an interactive sound installation created by Robin Meier and Ali Momeni at the Spark Festival 2009 in Minneapolis.

Male mosquitoes change their buzzing frequency to match that of the female mosquito during mating. Truce uses a computer to send a stimulus signal which the mosquito attempts to synchronize with and then another tone based on the mosquito's response. Each mosquito has a speaker and sensitive microphone, along with a light bulb to visually display the insect's activity.

Notes given to visitors:

We invite our visitors to interact with the mosquitoes. This interactions must be gentle; we request that you limit your interactions to one of two possibilities:

1. Offering a finger tip for the mosquito to land: slowly approach the mosquito from below and stop about 1/4 inche away from the mosquito. The mosquito will recognize the landing spot and extend his/her legs to reach you.
2. Exhaling on the mosquito: the carbon dioxide in our breath excites and entices the mosquitoes. Please avoid applying pressure to the mosquito, touching its wings, or touching the wire to which the mosquito is attached. These actions can hurt the mosquito, free the mosquito or produce undesirable sounds.

Ocean Noise Killing Whales

Lethal Sounds from Tiago Batista.

Man-made noise pollution in the ocean can be harmful, and even deadly, to whales, dolphins and other marine life. Military sonar systems operating at over 235 decibels produce sound waves that can travel hundreds of miles underwater.

Industrial marine noise from drilling, seismic surveys and pipeline and platform building impacts migration paths, feeding and breeding in the whales' habitat. The bleeding around the brain, ears and other tissues and large bubbles found in the organs of beached whales suggest the sea creatures behaved erratically to flee from hazardous sonar noise. These symptoms are similar to those in cases of the Bends, the illness that SCUBA divers suffer from when surfacing too quickly from deep water.

Listen the sounds of the sea at Sons de Mar.

More links:

nrdc.org

stopwhaling.org

earthdive.com

awionline.org

biologicaldiversity.org

cosmosmagazine.com

Voice Memos + iPhone 3.0 beta

Lots of new features in the iPhone 3.0 beta software. The Voice Memos audio recorder is easy to use. The sound quality isn't great, but for quick voice recordings, it does the job.

After recording your message, pick your voice memo from the list...

trim it to size...

...and share it via email or MMS text.

Other goodies which will hopefully make it to the final version of iPhone 3.0:

• Cut - copy + paste by double click then tap [or hold down for select - select all + paste]
• Search iPhone by pressing home button from home screen or swiping right to see the new left-most page of apps [the new Spotlight search page]
  
• Push notification ready to be integrated into apps. Lots of cool possibities there...
  
• Shake to undo
• Shake to shuffle to next track in iPod
• Notes syncing in Mail to your laptop/desktop
• Landscape typing in all apps

Noise #01 + NomadIC

Noise #01 - David Renault from aujourlejour.

Now all we need is someone to write the software that can translate the graffiti into sound.

"Noise #01
2009, DVD vidéo, 1 min 04 s

Action by
David Renault

Video by
Mathieu Tremblin

David Renault - 2009
signalfantome.eu"

+

"NomadIC (Nomad Integrated Circuits) is an electronic music label concept interested in relationship between art, sound, architecture and technology within a nomad aspect. This structure holds reflexion and analysis on scenes, medias, networks, tools, formats and datas transformations in today's electronic music."

Audio Dependent: Toenail

Audio Dependent - 'Toenail' from Tim Cowie.

Sound reactive experiment made as part of a live audio visual performance of the song "Toenail" by Audio Dependent.