Music of Sound

Jan
31
2010

1

The Cocostuber

The Cocostuber is an 8bit sampling delay, resonant filters, and press-barre control for a total mangler solution. In the video Bartlebooth “taps out some sounds on a sidrassi and mangles them with cocostuber.”

Written by tim in: SOUND DESIGN: |

Jan
30
2010

6

Film Scores – only five?

From an INVISIBLE JUKEBOX with Jim Jarmusch in the November 2009 issue of The Wire:

Alan Licht: “Dennis Hopper’s film Easy Rider was the first narrative feature film that used pre-existing songs on the soundtrack. You’ve done that a lot, and professed a dislike for standard film music?”

Jim Jarmusch: “Well it’s such a formula – I get so bored, it’s like they have five scores, they may as well just pass them around and reuse them, I can’t tell the difference, really, it’s all the same. With the world of music so varied, it’s just mind-boggling that they use the same formulaic thing. There are people doing some interesting things, like T-Bone Burnett, he tries to bring something in here. I’m glad his hand is in film scoring, somewhere, somehow, but… I don’t know. I just love music so much it’s dismaying to me to see it reduced to wallpaper.”

While it is entertaining (& I am sure hugely frustrating for the composer) to read of directors rejecting scores because they have fallen in love with the temp score, I also suspect Mr Jarmusch is being slightly disingenuous/fascetious by his statements, although I know what he means… But I’m also intrigued if Easy Rider actually was the first soundtrack to use pre-existing music as score – anyone know any different? I don’t think they mean source music, after all people have been using music from radios etc for a very long time to reinforce the acoustic world onscreen. But a score using pre-existing music as score? It seems so common now, it would be great if it was such a great indie film as Easy Rider that started it all…..

Written by tim in: SOUND DESIGN: |

Jan
29
2010

14

Apps for your iPad?

If you can bypass the hypebole the iPad looks great: “Andre the Giant has an iPod.” (from a Mefi comment) But watching the promo video on the apple site yesterday I laughed when one of the guys describes it as: “the best movie viewing experience” – you think? So where’s the surround sound, subwoofer, 30m wide screen? In fact it is obviously not designed to watch movies on when you check out the aspect ratio which is 4×3 ie the old CRT TV format – a long way from 16×9 or the truly cinematic 2.35 aspect ratio…. When was the last time you saw a new TV that was 4×3? But apart from sitting on planes why would you want to watch a movie on a small screen anyway? And I won’t miss any iPhone features on the iPad because I don’t have an iPhone – I’m happy with my little iPod Touch & at least people can’t call me on it!
But what are the apps that you can’t wait to see re-versioned for the iPad? It obviously has huge potential as a wireless controller for music, and I don’t imagine it will be long before there is a virtual Monome controller/emulator as well as program specific remotes akin to the LaunchPad. I can also easily imagine something akin to the Lemur appearing on the app store, which to a small degree already exists with the iTouch MIDI apps…

But also the Dexter, which is a more DAW specific remote based on the same technology as the Lemur. In fact for ProTools it already exists as the ProRemote but expanding it for a larger screen will have a huge impact on its usability.

And a comparison of the physical size of the iPad:

I think one aspect of the iPod Touch/iPhone and iPad that needs to be resolved is wireless audio. There are lots of great little music apps – synths, drum machines etc but it seems crazy that you have to be tethered via an audio cable to use them! Now maybe I am confused but doesnt airtunes make this possible? The Airport Express has an audio out mini-jack & it will receive audio via wifi from any iTunes in the area, so surely it can’t be too difficult to employ the same technology?

As far as using the iPad as a reading device I never had any plans to buy a kindle, but I definitely see the merits of the iPad as Kindle-killer. A simple example, whenever I have to read a script; unless I print it out it takes me 3-5 hours of staring at a screen to read it. it will be excellent to be able to do that sitting away from my usual work environment.. But same for the many valuable PDFs, manuals & virtual books… I use the excellent FileMagnet app on my iPod Touch to transfer documents (PDF, word, text etc) from my desktop Mac and the theory is great but the iPod Touch screen is too small for doing very much reading… problem solved!

And apart from a brilliant device for storing & displaying photos, the new iPad will also be excellent for displaying & interacting with QTVRs. I currently use the PangeaVR app and the touch interface is perfect for it, but on a bigger screen it will really do justice to the immersive nature of VR panoramas….

Lastly, for engaging with music the iPad could make a great start back to the days of vinyl in terms of displaying artwork & liner notes….. well…. realistically back to 7″ single territory at least…. the 12″ LP still reigns supreme in that respect!

So what are the app/s that will make you part with hard earned cash for an iPad?

Written by tim in: SOUND DESIGN: |

Jan
28
2010

0

Animated Poetry

The poem Forgetfulness is written & read by Billy Collins former US Poet Laureate…
Animation is by Julian Grey of Headgear

Country by Billy Collins, animated by Brady Baltezor of Radium

Budapest by Billy Collins, animated by Julian Grey of Headgear

Written by tim in: SOUND DESIGN: |

Jan
25
2010

15

Synaesthesia 4