(via CreativeApplications.net)

In the beginning I wanted to create a digital toy to record and play sound, with some creative controls like scratching. After playing the prototype for a while, I added more functions. In edit mode I can adjust the volume, attack, release, playing speed. Also there are some utility tools like copy, paste and trim, helps you to manage the clips. In play mode, I can tap to play a clip, or I can drag in circles to scratch the clip. If I wind the clip and drag away, it will loop the clip at the speed it was dragged.

Sound Yeah from Henry Chu on Vimeo.

Rock Fans Outraged As Bob Dylan Goes Electronica
July 12, 2010 | ISSUE 46•28

NEWPORT, RI—Audience members at the Newport Rock Festival were “outraged” Monday when rock icon Bob Dylan followed up such classic hits as “Like A Rolling Stone” and “Maggie’s Farm” with an electronica set composed of atonal drones, hyperactive drumbeats, and the repeated mechanized lyric “Dance to the club life!” “We came here to see the authentic Dylan, the one with the Stratocaster guitar and signature wild blues-rock band behind him,” audience member Robert Hochschild said. “Then he walks out with these puffy headphones, some turntables, and a laptop? The guy’s a Judas.” When asked later about his musical transformation by reporters, Dylan said he had nothing to say about the beats he programs, he just programs them.

Thanks for passing on, Joe.

There’s an interesting perspective on this technology over at Boing Boing in a post titled Why I won’t buy an iPad (and think you shouldn’t, either), though his argument falls on deaf ears since I’m not too familiar or that interested in opening one up and learning what the innards do. Though it’s not easy to edit or customize, there doesn’t seem to me to be a reason to dislike something because it’s easy to use. And plenty of people in line down the street at the Mac store are on that side of the coin.

One of the cooler things that I’ve seen comes from the Electronica Blips blog. Check out the vid below.

More instruments like that will be popping up soon I’m sure. Check out a good list of what’s to come over at Create Digital Music’s blog.

Before and after the show, our trumpet player was working on charts for a different band (while we lazily enjoyed our pizza). His on-the-road setup really inspired me to get one together for myself.

Though I’ve always been a huge fan of hand-written charts — something about the process of inking up paper with a pen has always helped me internalize what I was writing since it’s driven by what’s in my head rather than a synth — I’m going to get a new copy of Finale or Sibelius (which do you prefer?). And I’m going to get the little USB keyboard that trumpet player was using — the Akai LPK25 (in pic). It’s the exact width of the laptop so it’s able to fit in any bag. Seemed pretty sturdy, too.

For all you road warriors out there working on tunes in the van, on the train or plane, what’s your setup? Would like some more options before pulling the trigger.

Happy weekend.

The Electronic Didgeridoo. From MAKE Mag via Popular Science.

Kyle Evans, a 24-year-old artist, bought his first didgeridoo in a small shop in Cairns, Australia, three years ago. The owner helped him pick out one of his handmade Aboriginal instruments, and after Evans taught himself to play, he decided to build an enhanced version: an electronically modified, Bluetooth-enhanced PVC pipe that cranks out didgeridoo-like sound with added digital flourishes.

He cut a length of PVC pipe to form the body of the instrument and then mounted several square sections of a larger-diameter pipe to the outside. These platforms hide the wiring for the Bluetooth board and the control knobs that let him tweak the instrument’s steady drone.

When Evans plays, he blows through a beeswax-coated mouthpiece on one end, as with a traditional didgeridoo, and a wireless microphone positioned inside the far end relays the sound to his computer, which outputs sound to a speaker. At the same time, he can adjust the knobs, wirelessly signaling his computer to modulate the notes.

And this…

PRODUCED AND MANAGED BY: Scott Haines

COMPOSED AND CONDUCTED BY: Eric Whitacre

Representing 12 Countries:
Austria, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, The Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America

It’s amazing what reverb sounds like in the hallways of space.

One of the reasons I stopped was because of the schizophrenic nature of such a playlist jumping from one tune to a completely disparate one. As much as I tout my multi-genre appreciation, trying to hear order in an orderless list — even if the common denominator is that it begins with “Everybody”– is tough. Things do pop out though. Putting on a full album while working usually brings me to eventually tune out a lot if my mind is on something else rendering it background music. This list is a jarring punch in the face at times. It wakes me up — ex. European Son by Velvet Underground into European Trip from Woody Allen’s Standup Comic album.

I have found so many hidden gems in my library. Tunes I didn’t know where there or had never even heard or heard of making me wonder how they even got on my computer. Pieces in the Steve Reich boxset that I hadn’t gone all the way through popped out immediately. Guitar instrumentals by the fuzz guitar inventor Link Wray. And tunes from my past, things I hadn’t listened to since high school or college. How interesting it is to know that after almost 8 years, I can still sing all the words to Asleep On A Sunbeam by Belle and Sebastian. It’s crazy sometimes what the mind retains.

On the other side, I have deleted 30 to 40 albums. I mentioned a Metallica album (note: I kept all albums before the Black Album). Other deletions: songs and albums without complete ID3 info, mislabeled Faces albums, some of The Frogs catalog, some later AC/DC albums sans Bon Scott, Roky Erikson & The Aliens, etc etc. I could name more, but I don’t want to start a fight. I feel like deleting as I go helps the list move along. And it’s making room for new purchases and vinyl rips.

Anyway, onwards and downwards through the list. Here’s what I have to look forward to as I finish with the E’s…

Sampletoy looks much like the Korg Kaos pad, a really cool tool for any instrument. Gonna be downloading this one soon.

From CreativeApplications.Net:

At it’s core, Sampletoy is a simple sampler. It lets you record audio using the iPhone microphone and play it back at different pitches. You can set the loop points for the recording and play multiple copies of it at the same time using the multitouch note area. You have control over the pitch range, filter and delay effects and looping parameters. The interface is easy to use and the important parameters are up front at your fingertips. Settings can be saved and you can email yourself recordings of your ‘performances’.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0.0
Cost: $1.99
Developer: Marek Bereza

An excerpt from the story of how Reich’s Double Sextet came to be:

Upon hanging up the phone [with Bilfield], Reich thought back to his ’60s pieces like Violin Phase, written for instruments being played live against recordings of themselves. He realized that he could do the same thing for eighth blackbird if the group would agree to pre-record a piece, then play a second sextet performance live against that recording—thus, Double Sextet. He called Bilfield back the next day and proposed the idea, and she took it to the group members, who said they would love to do it.

“And the piece won the Pulitzer Prize, and it is really one of the best pieces I’ve ever written,” says Reich. “But I would never have thought in a million years to write for eighth blackbird. It was Jenny Bilfield, whose basic subtext is ‘I’m not taking no for an answer.’”

And later in the article, some words about the Dave Douglas/Bill Morrison collaboration Spark Of Being [world premiere next month].

“Jenny called me and said, ‘What would you like to do that you couldn’t do anywhere else?” remembers Douglas. “It’s not every day that you get asked that question.”

The basis of the piece is matching Morrison’s talent for shaping films made from a collage of archival footage—his similarly constructed Decasia was named by the Village Voice as one of the 10 best films of 2003—with Douglas’ composition work. It has gone by many different titles over time; for a while, it was known as Frankenstein: The First 100 Years, in reference to Thomas Edison’s 1910 film.

“Before that, it was called The History of Gadgetry,” Douglas says. “For us, it’s all been about this conversation between technology and art, humanity and invention—what our inventions mean to us and how science has affected humanity. We went to Frankenstein because that seemed like a good metaphor for the whole thing. Bill works with older films, creating something new out of them, and I work a lot with samples and various disparate elements of music.”

“The Frankenstein monster is a collage of pieces in and of itself, so we’re referencing our process,” says Morrison. Finally, though, they settled on Spark of Being.

Read the full article here.

The project? Listening to all the songs in my library in alphabetical order.

I started at the beginning yesterday: “¶ª” from the Trap Door International Psychedelic Mystery Mix (special characters are sorted first). I made it all the way through “Achilles Last Stand” by Led Zeppelin. Today, I started with “Acorda amor” from Joyce’s killer Passarinho Urbano album, and while I write, I went from “Adagio for Strings, Op 11″ to Springsteen’s “Adam Raised A Cain.” Next up: “Adam’s Apple.”

Given the diversity of my library, some of the transitions are pretty rough — the aforementioned Barber to Springsteen is a great example of that. But I am discovering and rediscovering some great tunes from people that have been lost in the massiveness of the library.

I pointed to an interview for the New Yorker awhile back in which Jonny Greenwood said:

SFJ: What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of the MP3 age?

JG: The downside is that people are encouraged to own far more music than they can ever give their full attention to. People will have MP3s of every Miles Davis’ record but never think of hearing any of them twice in a row—there’s just too much to get through. You’re thinking, “I’ve got ‘Sketches of Spain and ‘Bitches Brew’—let’s zip through those while I’m finishing that e-mail.” That abundance can push any music into background music, furniture music.

Read more.

I will admit, I fall into that a lot. I own far more than I can digest. That’s one reason why I like vinyl. 20 minutes, switch, 20 minutes, done. That’s also one reason why I’m doing this. I want at least 1 legitimate play count on every tune, and I want to delete the things I don’t like. Not that play counts are proof I digested everything, but it’s a start in dealing with my library.

It will take me 88 days, 18 hours, 16 minutes, and 56 seconds to get through this. Wish me luck.