Comments on: Musical jewel cases

Musical jewel cases

caddis — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 18:57:13 -0800

This jewel case makes its own music. One Bit Music is a project by composer and artist Tristan Perich. Merging his interests in physical computing and electronic music, Perich programs and packages electronics in a standard CD jewel case. The device plays minimal glitch/dance music when headphones are plugged in. You may remember him from such classics as the push button telephone to cellphone conversion.

By: es_de_bah

es_de_bah — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 20:19:37 -0800

that music is fucking ghastly in an uncanny valley type of way. it's almost listenable, but quite definitely not.

By: Jawn

Jawn — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 20:24:12 -0800

This music hurts my ears. Not to say I don't like it, but the tones are physically painful when played on big stereo speakers.

By: abcde

abcde — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 20:45:43 -0800

How about a cassette that generates its own music? I like the idea of a media that plays something new every time better than just a player in a CD case.

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 23:21:17 -0800

I like GameBoy based music and that sort of thing, but this seems a bit more harsh (and not in the way I like). Could easily have built a passive lowpass filter in there to round off the hard edges a little. Still... neat concept. :)

By: dingobully

dingobully — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 04:37:14 -0800

Can I get one? Can't find a way to purchase this anywhere!

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 05:34:33 -0800

I like it. Could someone please explain why this is called "one-bit"? I mean, it's not just binary on/off noise. Presumably the processor instructions consist of more than one bit. I don't get it.

By: Jairus

Jairus — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 05:41:10 -0800

It might be one bit. We'd have to hear it to be sure.

By: Jairus

Jairus — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 05:44:24 -0800

Clearly I'm a moron who doesn't know how to use the internet. Disregard my previous post.

By: djfiander

djfiander — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 06:43:21 -0800

The phone is kinda cute. It's definitely much more interesting than the Pokia. But the implementation leaves something to be desired. Using the phone's existing interface to provide all the necessary functionality would have been more "elegant", but would have required more complicated electronics in the body of the phone.

By: Jon Mitchell

Jon Mitchell — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 10:44:12 -0800

It certainly sounds like it's 1 bit - you wouldn't just get on/off noise with a 1-bit signal, you could generate different frequencies by varying the spaces between the on bits - but it would sound incredibly harsh and squarewavey. Which it does! To be honest,though, I don't much see the point of this as a piece of artwork, especially since the music is godawful, but then I am a modern art philistine. I could be wrong.

By: zsazsa

zsazsa — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 11:24:06 -0800

A better "portable desk phone". And it's rotary!

By: Jairus

Jairus — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 11:47:45 -0800

Jon Mitchell, one of the tracks has polyphony.

By: neustile

neustile — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 13:54:55 -0800

Much more on the theory and practice of the 1-bit synth by the founder of 1-bit rock here

By: Jon Mitchell

Jon Mitchell — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 16:14:51 -0800

Yes, but the number of bits in an audio file doesn't have anything to do with polyphony, as far as I know..you should still be able to mix together 1 bit waveforms by ANDing them together. Might sound a bit weird. I'm actually quite intrigued by the whole thing now, since I'm working on a DSP system at work. It'd be laughably easy to knock up a few 1 bit generators within a 16 bit framework, although totally useless for what we need it for. Hmmmm.