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Posts Tagged “

Music

apple

Music Video Is Complete Mac OS X Leopard Tour

Whether you like the song or not—Addy says technically this is called Wimp-Pop, but it sounds more to me like Foux Da Fa Fa*—I've got to say that this music video made using The Bird and the Bee's Again and Again is mesmerizing. Or at the very least, a really cool musical tour through 40 Mac OS X features and applications: it starts slow and boring with Word, but it ends being a complete explosion of synchronized eye candy using everything from Photo Booth to Stickies to Spotlight to Dashboard widgets to Stacks. See if you can distinguish each and every one of the features and apps featured, then compare it to the list after the jump (I think we are missing a few.) More »

recycling

CDs Get Into the Groove, Do Music the 45RPM Way

This is a story of a not so environmentally friendly, but rather groovy repurposing idea: reusing CDs as records (remember them?) At the UK's Futuresonic festival last week, a guy named Aleks Kolkowski had his vintage record-cutting machine ready to carve sound tracks into old CDs and DVDs. People simply had to turn up with an old disc and a sound file and he'd "overwrite" the CD with a track ready to be played on a turntable. Neat! I'd have been there asking Aleks for a copy of my first ever record (that'll be the theme to Watership Down— I know, I know) on a crappy old AOL CD I found recently. [Futuresonic via DIYDaily via ] More »

riaa

RIAA Tech Chief: DRM Not Dead, Will Become More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine

As CNET points out, when Sony BMG became the last major label to sell DRM-free tracks, we pretty much declared DRM deader than HD DVD or Tony Stark if he got in a fight with Batman (at least for the music industry; movies are another story). But RIAA tech chief David Hughes told a panel yesterday that DRM is tech's Obi-Wan Kenobi: It's coming back and will be powerful than we can possibly imagine, but it won't be giving sage advice to budding Jedi. More »

green with envy

Radiohead's Latest Tour Features LED Stage (As Well As Radiohead)

Radiohead, wishing to alleviate the guilt of being a rich and famous semi-wielding touring band, has opted to use LED stage lights for their current tour. LED for such purposes is a relatively new phenomenon, as it's only recently that they've become bright enough to have any sort of eye-burning factor. The band is pleased to be wasting less power every performance, but bass player Colin Greenwood pointed out, "It's very exciting, but without the big Rock Lights it's going to be fucking freezing onstage." Though as we understand the rock world, that's what they make groupies for. [Word] Thanks Mike! More »

music gadgets

Tenori-On Makers Interviewed, Neither Can Play Music

PingMag did an interview with the creators of the Tenori-on that was overlooked when published, but there are a few interesting tidbits from the interview, like the fact that neither of the creators are musicians.
More »

tunewiki

TuneWiki Music App Gets Ported to Android

The fantastic TuneWiki app, which was previously seen on iPhone/iPod Touch, just got a port to the not-yet-released Android. The idea is the same: play back songs and it'll automatically download lyrics and album art if you don't already have it. More »

clips

Robot Turns Your Voice Into Musical Score


In our endless coverage of robots with extremely specific functions, here's a model that analyzes the cadence of human voice and transforms the speech into a multi-instrument song—providing a sort of hyper-personalized soundtrack, the ultimate mix tape, if you will. Unfortunately, the robot lacks a mixer, synthesizer and whoopee cushion, so it's not getting all that close to reproducing our mad-melodious vocals. [via BBGadgets] More »

microsoft

Microsoft Making Ford Sync-like Music, Info System for Hyundai in 2010

Hyundai and Microsoft have just agreed for the latter to develop software for the former's cars, shoving in a "music and information system" by the year 2010. No details yet, but from the sound of things it seems like Microsoft's taking advantage of their experience with the Ford Sync system and making voice-control systems to manage stereos and cellphones. The new system is also interesting because it's software-updatable, allowing nerds to bring up that old joke about what would happen if Microsoft built cars. The whole thing is aimed at bringing more young people into Hyundais, something Ford Sync was surprisingly good at doing. [Reuters]

silly

BodyBeat Metronome Keeps Beat Silently, Forgets Musicians Need Their Fingers

The Peterson BB-1 BodyBeat attaches to your finger/random appendage, sending tiny rhythmic pulses that you can feel on your skin. The non-aural stimulation will give you a silent way to count measures while playing the piano... and since you have to use your fingers to do that, you will have to clamp this to somewhere else. The question is where? More »

radiohead

Radiohead Tells Freebie-Loving Music Fans: 'That's Yer Lot'

Any hope that the pay-what-you-want release of In Rainbows would set a precedent for Radiohead albums of the future has been dashed. Tortured treehugger and all-round good bloke Thom Yorke set the record straight yesterday, calling the band's decision to let their fans agree on a price on their last release a "one-off." More »

concept

Yamaha Keyboard-Notebook Combo Concept For On-the-Go Ivory-Ticklers

Milan's Salone di Mobile always has a bunch of concept gadgets designed by tech companies, and this is one of Yamaha's efforts. It's a keyboard-in-a-folder, and is the perfect tool for busy musicians and composers. Travellers stuck in the same train carriage as someone carrying this should thank their lucky stars that Yamaha didn't make a version for drummers. [Yamaha Global Gateway via Yanko]

drm

Five Stores That Hosed Customers With DRM

Sure, it's easy to blithely state that DRM is annoying and sucks. But the fact is, it really can leave you holding vaporous media that you paid real money for, like when a vendor closes up shop or switches to new DRM. Last 100 rounds up five stores that have done just that: Major League Baseball (switched DRM, nuking any video bought pre-2006); Google (killed video store, and any vids you bought); Sony (ditched ATRAC and shut down Sony Connect); Virgin Digital (closed store, told customers to burn tracks to CDs and re-import as MP3); and most recently, Microsoft, which is shuttering MSN Music and its PlaysForSure (now officially worst DRM name ever) authentication servers in August. More »

robots

ASIMO to Conduct Yo-Yo Ma and Detroit Symphony Orchestra

It looks like there's no end to ASIMO's skills: the smart, cute robot will pick up the baton and conduct cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on May 13th. A robot conducting an orchestra? That's pretty amazing, we think. Honda's ASIMO and the 15-times Grammy winner musician will be performing a piece titled "Impossible Dream" to draw attention to the orchestra's nationally acclaimed music programs for Detroit youngsters. And the following day ASIMO will be doing a show for hundreds of school kids, and Yo-Yo will be leading a masterclass. We're just glad stepping up to the podium won't be a problem for ASIMO these days. [Akihabaranews]

iphone

First Music Video Featuring iPhone Interface Has the Unfortunate Title of "Smell Yo D*ck" (NSFW)

After nearly a year, the iPhone has finally received its first [Questionably the first, but definitely the worst - Ed.] starring role in a music video. Unfortunately, the video is "Smell Yo Dick", by sassy rapper Riskay. In the self-explanatory guide to detecting cheaters, the phone is featured in a variety of situations both good (a friend takes pictures of Riskay's man with another woman) and evil (Riskay's boyfriend declines her call). By the end, Riskay sends her man's beloved JesusPhone flying off the balcony, but it's the phone that gets the last laugh—it still works. We can only imagine what Steve Jobs will say when he finds out about this. The video, filled with NSFW language, below. [via Jezebel] More »

cloud computing

EMI Says You Can't Backup Your Music Online

Cloud computing is supposed to be the next big tech revolution. One of the basic ideas, for the uninitiated, is that all of your apps and files (docs, pictures, music) are stored online in a digital locker, and you can access them from anywhere, no matter what computer you're using, thus heralding the end of the localized desktop, Windows, etc. MP3Tunes provides a digital locker for backing up music files—it's not a covert file-sharing thing, you can't share a locker with someone, so it's really only for personal backup/place-shifting. The record label EMI says it's illegal and is suing them to turn over all the music stored by the site's users. More »

question of the day

Question of the Day: How Big is Your Digital Music Collection?

I get tired of music quick, and I'm not much of an archiver, so I don't need a lot of hard drive space or a high capacity MP3 player to store my music. However, there are plenty of folks out there that have taken to collecting digital music with the same voracity as people once did with CDs and vinyl. Fortunately, these days a music collection doesn't require you to add on to your home. So, the question is: how big is your digital music collection? More »

retromodo

WABOT-2, An '80s Robot that Rocked the Synth

In the '80s, the only things bigger than man-perms were robots and synthesizers. Waseda University's WABOT-2 combined both of these trends in to what may be considered the ultimate '80s icon. Extremely advanced for the day, the WABOT-2 could not only read music to play the electronic organ, but accompany a singer with a dynamic tempo and then hold a conversation after the performance. It's good to know that over 20 years later with all the advancements in microprocessors, Man was able to realize the vision. [Waseda University via MAKE]

retromodo

The Neumann Microphone: Approved By the Beatles and Hitler

NPR has this fascinating piece on the custom microphone building threaded with history of Neumann Microphones. Neumann made the smooth-sounding U47 that the Beatles recorded on almost exclusively on from 1962 to 1970, as did Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and others. When I say others, I mean Hitler. More »