Big-name CD manufacturers are distorting sounds to make them seem louder. Sound quality suffers.
Video posted to YouTube by LoudnessWar.
Monthly Archives: April 2007
Poor Little Robot
“Poor Little Robot” is a piece of music orchestrated for Banjo and Csound Theremin. And I absolutely love it!!
Composer Joseph Sanger wrote the following description to the Csound mailing list:
I have just posted an mp3 on my myspace site which uses Csound in a small way and wanted to share it. It’s not particularly highbrow but you might find it amusing, it’s a rather poignant duet for Banjo and Theremin. I modelled the theremin in Csound (not complicated) and played it with a MIDI keyboard, recording it live into Ardour via Jack, so no Csound score exists.
A Micro Intro to Macros
“I’m continuing with what I started in the last blog ‘Adding Zak to the Mix.’ As promised, I’m breaking down the zak mixer into its respective modular components, beginning with Csound macros.”
Topics covered:
- Macros
- #define
- #include
More at The Csound Blog. For more information about Csound, please visit cSounds.com.
Patch Jungle
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles Video
Uploaded to YouTube by ConsolewarsBecks
I’m sort of a nut for anything zombie related. Which is weird since I’m not really into violent/horror films. However, I play a lot of video games. Which, I guess, are loaded with the ultra violence.
One of favorite franchises is Capcom’s Resident Evil series. In particular, I love the Resident Evil 1 remake and Resident Evil 4.
The next title in the series, Umbrella Chronicles, mixes things up a bit, as it is going to be an on-rails shooter that utilizes the wiimote for placing the undead into your cross hairs. More shooting, less adventure. There is plenty of message board outcry over this new format. However, I couldn’t be more pleased for a couple of reasons. One, it’s nice to see older franchises taken into new territory. Two, Resident Evil 5 is in the works, so we’ll still be getting a true sequel.
If you’re interested, you should read IGN.com’s initial hands-on impressions of Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles.
Future Crew – Second Reality
Uploaded to YouTube by stormblast0891.
The PC demo “Second Reality” by Future Crew, one of the most well-known demos ever.1st place at Assembly 1993.
Though today’s tech can easily render similar styled graphics without blinking an eye, Second Reality still holds up after all of these years thanks to Future Crew’s outstanding art direction and hypnotic soundtrack.
Not only is Future Crew responsible for the definitive demo, they also had their hands in developing one of the most historically important pieces of music software, Scream Tracker.
“Scream Tracker supports up to 100 8-bit samples, 32 channels, 100 patterns & 256 order positions. It can also handle up to nine FM-synthesis channels on sound cards using the popular OPL2/3/4 chipsets, and, unusually, can play digital and FM instruments at the same time.” – source @ wikipedia
To this day, it still boggles my mind that this demo ran in real-time on a 386. The music has secured a permanent spot on my ipod.
Adding Zak to the Mix
“It has been too long since the last Csound Blog. This is why I’m personally excited to announce this newest edition, ‘Adding Zak to the Mix.’Today’s topic is how to model a studio mixer in Csound using Robin Whittle’s zak opcodes.[1] I will actually be stretching this subject over an unspecified number of blog entries, as I couldn’t possibly cover every significant nuance in one write-up. What I’m presenting here today is merely an overview, while in the following issues I will break down everything into its respective modular components. Not only will I cover the design of this zak mixer, I will present new ways in which you can organize your orchestras, along with how to unlock the potential of your patches using control instruments.”
Topics covered:
- Zak
- Model of a Studio Mixer
- Macros
- Signal Routing
- Organization
More at The Csound Blog. For more information about Csound, please visit cSounds.com.
Thumbuki Presents: A Night Out with Guys From Blip
“Hi. I don’t vlog, but I might someday.”This is thumbuki.com’s premiere episode, where Jake visits with his buddies, Eric and Justin, at blip.tv headquarters. And then they all go play video games.
Filmed April 4th, 2007.
Edgard Varêse and Le Corbusier – Poême électronique
Posted to YouTube by ZimmerFrei
First presented at the 1958 Brussels Worlds Fair with 425 speakers placed throughout the famous Philips pavilion, the placement of the speakers and design of the building gave the spectators a feeling of being housed within a concrete, silver seashell. A giant model of the atom hung from the ceiling and the sound & imagery premiered to standing room only crowds and I can only imagine was a complete mind-blower to all who witnessed the spectacle. Varese is considered to be the “father of electronic music”, Henry Miller described him as the “stratospheric colossus of sound.” When Philips (Philips electronic company) approached Le Corbusier to design a building for the fair, Le Corbusier said, “I will not make a pavilion for you (Philips) but an Electronic Poem and a vessel containing the poem; light, color, image, rhythm and sound joined together in an organic synthesis.”
I’ve enjoyed Poême électronique for years. Yet, I never knew this film existed until my friend Jean-Luc played it for me while visiting NYC this past week.
Added a new feature to thumbuki that was highly recommended by some of my friends at blip.tv. It’s called Twitter. I guess the best way to describe it is “microblogging.” One writes a very brief description, no more that 140 characters, of what they are doing at any given moment. The best part is that people can twitter directly from their cell phones. So while I may not be the most reliable person at updating a blog, at least I have a way to keep some information up-to-date.