Gizmodo: orchestra

Geeky Maestro Conducts Belkin-Connected Gadget Orchestra

Jack Loftus — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:00:00 EDT

Here's an oldie but goodie to start your morning. Seems that with a little bit of time, a duffel bag's worth of gadgets, and a Belkin headphone splitter, one could create a satisfying little hook.

If one were so inclined anyway.

The setup features various music apps (like the quirky Elektroplankton) playing on a Nintendo DS, DSi, iPhone, iPod Touch and a Kaossilator.

The beat begins with some tribal drum action, before what sounds like the NBC theme kicks in alongside some spacey beeps and bloops. Soothing holiday-esque bells take us out, and the whole thing is played by what appears to be the giant hand final boss from Super Smash Bros. Did I mention I play video games? [YouTube via Gearcrave via Wired]

Sympho Canvas Orchestra Replaces Musicians With Speakers

Wilson Rothman — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:30:00 EDT

Whoever said recorded music doesn't have the same intensity as a live performance should meet Lead Sound, the Japanese company behind the Sympho Canvas virtual orchestra. Forty-six speakers are arrayed in a concert hall similar to the placement of instruments in a real orchestra and each speaker "plays" a discrete track. Four more fill in human voices and the rest add extra audio to improve the sonic facade. While this seems like an obvious experiment, it's actually really really creepy, too, a totally still room brought to life with the music of ghosts.

This could technically be considered 64-channel surround sound, and in that spirit Lead Sound, staging Sympho Canvas this week at the Kanagawa Science Park in Kawasaki, Japan, placed seats all throughout the speaker array for people to experience immersion from many vantage points. Besides the 50 speakers assigned to strings, percussions, brass, woodwinds and voice, six subwoofers drop the bass, and eight additional speakers—four on the ceiling and four more on side walls—create "reverberant sounds."

I know you're wondering, Where do all the discrete sounds come from? If you're thinking it would take a lot of money, headphones and soundproof glass cubicles to make a decent recording of 46 distinct instruments with no bleed, you're right. Which is why Lead Sound took the easy way out, and scored sheet music by computer instead. Well, not totally easy—once the basic tones are generated, they need to be processed extensively to get the harmonic characteristics of each distinct instrument. (The voices are from actual humans.)

The more I learn about this, the more freaked out I get. I don't know what it is, but all I can imagine is some Dr. Who episode where humans are endangered, but classical music concerts are given every night, with unwavering virtuosity. [TechOn]

Absolut Quartet Makes an Orchestra Out of Ping-Pong Ball Cannons, Robots and You

Haroon Malik — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:45:00 EST

The Absolut Quartet is an impressive electromechanical sculpture, which was put together by Dan Paluska and Jeff Lieberman. Using ping-pong ball cannons to play a marimba, robot fingers to tinker wine glasses and a central computer to control, well, the whole lot, the two creative minds have created the first—to our knowledge—ping-pong ball based orchestra, which is controlled by you using a web based interface. It may not be our music of choice to chill out to, but we can't helped but be dazzled by the majestic union of technology and music, once again. Check out the video above for some ping-ponging, ding-donging, da la la la, ting ting musical madness. Be sure to pop down to 186 Orchard st. in NYC to see it in the flesh. [Absolut machines viaMAKE]