MetaFilter posts tagged with technology and music

10 Magnificently Modern Musical Instruments

Joe Beese — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:58:14 -0800

10 Magnificently Modern Musical Instruments

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

Artw — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:13:08 -0800

Home taping didn’t kill music, says Ben Goldacre - but where did all the money go?

Oldest recorded voice

stbalbach — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:34:55 -0800

Last year we discussed a recently discovered 10-second audio recording from 1860 that was thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice, a girl or woman singing the 18th century French folk song “Au Clair de la Lune”. Turns out, it was being played too fast - slow it down and it's the voice of the inventor himself. As well, a number of other recordings have been found, pushing back the oldest recording to 1857. Hear it all on NPR (5-min). “Au Clair de la Lune” various renditions. *France Gall - Au clair de la lune (1964) *Café Crème 2 *au claire de la lune *Au Clair de la Lune

People doing strange things with electricity

funkiwan — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:59:04 -0800

Dorkbot is a "monthly meeting of artists (sound/image/movement/whatever), designers, engineers, students, scientists, and other interested parties who are involved in the creative use of electricity." Started in NYC in 2000 by Douglas Repetto, Director of Research at the Columbia University Computer Music Center as well as one of Wired's 10 Sexiest Geeks, there are now dozens all over the world. Past presenters have been featured here on the blue. For instance Jeff Han presented his multi-touch interface at dorkbot-nyc in April of 2006. Miru Kim presented her naked city spleen at dorkbot-nyc in October of 2006. Bummed that there's not one in your own city? Start your own! The NYC meetings (first Wednesday of the month) are very casual and draw an eclectic range of presenters. A great mix of software and hardware mixed with various artistic influences. Would love to hear how they are run in other cities if anyone's been.

reality jockey

nickyskye — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:45:20 -0800

RjDj "is a music application for the iPhone. It uses sensory input to generate and control the music you are listening to. RjDj is mainly listened to with headphones. Think of it as the next generation of walkman or mp3 player." l Michael Breidenbruecker initiated the project, now joined by a team of musical and technological thinkers and coders l "What it’s really about is a new approach to how to listen to music, how to develop musical tools, and how communities own and share that work." The application is difficult to describe and on paper it sounds sort of silly (see the video below for a convincing demonstration). Using the iPhone’s built in microphone, the application listens for ambient noise which it then modifies and infuses into an automatically generated dynamic soundtrack. You can download the full version for $2.99 here, or you can try out the free version (which only has one ’scene’). How to Create Scenes (And incidentally, you can work on scenes with a laptop even if you don’t own an iPhone.) Mentioned previously here and in AskMe.

Tubular bells?

arcanecrowbar — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:31:46 -0800

"Next-generation loudspeakers could be as thin as paper, as clear as glass, and as stretchable as rubber." Making sound from heat and vice versa is nothing new, but a flat loudspeaker sure would be cool, provided nothing goes wrong. [previously.]

Ambient

Artw — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:29:02 -0800

Brian Eno brings generative music to the iPhone.

"No, Miss Vega. Consider the Black Box theory!"

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:04:09 -0800

"So, that’s my long and winding history of a little postcard from the Upper West Side of Manhattan!" Suzanne Vega writes about writing the hit song Tom's Diner, coping with its numerous remixes, and its part in the birth of the MP3 music compression format.

File under 'futility'

mattholomew — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:39:13 -0800

Having seen their profits eroded to filesharing networks and Itunes, the major labels have a new plan: Go back to physical media.

Click click victorious, buzz buzz glorious, Long to reign over us, buzz buzz click click.

Artw — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:49:44 -0800

The first known recording of a digital computer playing music, recorded by the BBC in 1951. The music played on a Ferantti Mark 1, one of the first commercial general-use computers, and was entered via punchtape and played on a speaker usually used for making clicks and tones to indicate program progress.

Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison See also Phonoautograph

y2karl — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:49:18 -0800

Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison
The Phonoautograph
The history of the Phonoautograph. A technology in which you can still buy stock.

Edward Samuel's Illustrated History of Copyright

carter — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:49:00 -0800

Edward Samuel's Illustrated History of Copyright A fascinating illustrated historical tour, looking at how different technologies have shaped how we think about copyright and intellectual property.

Stainless Steel Ondine

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 02:18:18 -0800

Steve Mann's hydraulophone with sculpture gallery and performance video snippets: [1] [2] [3]

Freedom of Sights and Sounds

terrapin — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 10:57:27 -0800

The Digital Freedom Campaign believes that new technologies are essential to the creativity and innovation, and that digital technology enables anyone and everyone to be an artist and an innovator. The DFC is dedicated to defending the rights of artists, innovators, creators and consumers to use lawful technology free of unreasonable government restrictions and without fear of costly lawsuits.

The New Style

pwedza — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 22:13:43 -0800

A new type of synth. Straight from Barcelona.

electric music

madamjujujive — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 12:08:08 -0800

Tesla coil music system (YouTube alert) and five other musical gadgets you didn't know about.

10 great beat-making videos

nthdegx — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:09:10 -0800

10 greatest beat-making videos ever* "*Or, you know, today." A Music thing thing.

Arik Shapira: instrumentalists linked by earphones to an electronic soundtrack

matteo — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 09:17:09 -0800

"It doesn't even need a conductor, and there is not even any need for rehearsals together. Each instrumentalist receives sheet music and a disc with the sound track to which he will be linked during the concert, and that way he can practice at home, by himself; and then they come straight to the concert and play freely, whatever they want. A sound that is random as opposed to planned, a precise pitch for a note, as opposed to a false note, that's what leads the work. And here, toward the end, order gradually prevails".
Arik Shapira talks about his new concerto for piano and orchestra.

Last Night an LJ saved my life.

empath — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 10:32:16 -0800

Traditionally, (video) a DJ uses two turntables, but recently a series of new products has challenged the primacy of vinyl. While local record shops have been closing left and right, online stores have begun offering digital downloads. One digital-only outlet recently sold their 1,000,000th mp3. And now, a new store has taken the DJ completely out of the equation by making mix cds on demand.

iPod Coffee Table

haasim — Tue, 24 May 2005 09:47:02 -0800

iPod Coffee Table created by a Toronto design student

Tim Gracyk's amazing American Popular Music site

mediareport — Tue, 17 May 2005 21:55:41 -0800

Buying Rare Race Records in the South. Music That Americans Loved 100 Years Ago. The Cheney Talking Machine. Just three among dozens of amazing articles about early recording machines and American popular music at the astonishingly detailed site of Tim Gracyk, author of Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895-1925. Scroll down for bios of forgotten stars, including Nora Bayes - who performed in the Follies of 1907, before Flo Ziegfeld's name became part of the title, George W. Johnson - "the most important African-American recording artist of the 1890s," and piano player Zez Confrey, whose sheet music for the 1921 hit "Kitten on the Keys" sold over a million copies and became "the third most-frequently recorded rag in history."

Hitch-Hiker's guide to iTunes

Mwongozi — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 15:03:09 -0800

iTunes Music Store users can listen to the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to, Blogging, Deadlines, How to be cool, and Technology. And various other cash-in tracks.

Meet the New Walkman

jpoulos — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 07:02:48 -0800

Meet the new Walkman. 20GB HD, 25 minutes of cache for skip-free playing. Works with Sony's Connect music service. Sharp-looking little player.

iPods, Pro and Con

Slagman — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 22:42:43 -0800

Pro and con arguments about the iPod. The Pro argument: It changes our relationship to music. It creates an in-group marked by instantly recognizable white earbuds. The Con argument: It changes our relationship to music. It creates an in-group marked by instantly recognizable white earbuds.

treewave

cody — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 22:32:08 -0800

"The Band uses unique instrumentation: the music is performed using obsolete computer equipment for instruments. Currently they are using a 1977 Atari 2600 game console, a 1986 portable 286 PC, a 1983 Commodore 64 computer, and a 1985 Epson dot matrix printer."