The international and instantaneous connectivity of the Internet is ubiquitous, and there are but a few breakthroughs on the web that ever cause a newsworthy fuss. Speaking of ubiquity, we’ve seen as many audio-visual applications as can possibly fill the inflated music tech sector — it’s been done to death. But what if these two commonplace technological foundations were combined, refreshed, and simplified in an app that embraced change through simplicity and minimalism?

This is precisely what makes the recently launched Listen to Wikipedia iOS app so appealing—there is little more than sight, sound, and interconnectivity. Yet, as Wikipedia grows in its ongoing quest to compile the information of the world, so does the app itself.

So how exactly can we listen to Wikipedia beyond uploaded audio samples on individual entries?

Listen to Wikipedia is a mobilized version of a desktop-based page of the same name, which is one part of the blog Hatnote.” Run by Stephen LaPorte and Mahmoud Hashemi, Hatnote is devoted to cultivating “a collection of perspectives on wiki life.”

The project is fairly straightforward and enjoyable from the moment the page or app loads. Right away, users hear sounds and sustained notes that represent different changes to the collective Wikipedia database. Visually, the screen is awash with circles of varying colors and sizes. Recent changes to entries for Wikipedia databases in multiple languages (33 in desktop and 32 in mobile) can be checked off, and simultaneously shown and heard. Additionally, when circles appear on the screen, the title and respective language typography of the Wikipedia entry is displayed and can be clicked, taking the user right to the exact page with the given edit(s).

Here is a breakdown of the main color size and sound scheme:

Audio

Bell tones: Entry additions

Plucked strings: Entry Subtractions:

Pitch variation: Edit size (The higher the pitch, the smaller the edit)

Sustained string swells: A new contributor has joined

Visual

Green circles: Unregistered Wikipedia contributors

Purple circles: Automated bots

White: Registered Wikipedia contributors

Circumference: Edit size

Blue banner at page top: Information on new contributor that has just joined

This app runs in real-time and the tones that play seem to revolve around a pentatonic scale. While the experience might initially feel very passive, it can be a fascinating way for onlookers to both observe and make sense of shared knowledge without being overloaded by a rapidly moving stream of words. The presentation of these changes as sound actually provides quite the opposite experience; despite the continuously occurring edits, the music does not result in severe clashing or jarring cacophony, but a melodically pleasant, infinite stream of tones. The act of passively observing while actively listening suddenly makes “web-based audio/visual” feel intriguing all over again.

Listen to Wikipedia‘s iOS app was built by Brooklyn-based programmer, Bryan Oltman and holds some similarities to Maximillian Laumeister’s Listen to Bitcoin project.

Listen to Wikipedia is available to download for free from the iTunes App store.

Anyone who develops for Android can also get in touch with LaPorte and Hashemi, as they are interested in working with anyone who wants to create a similar app for the platform. You can also see another example of “audiolyzing” Wikipedia entries in our recent profile of the Seattle-based band Netcat.

Note: A previous version of this article stated that Listen to Wikipedia was based on the Listen to Bitcoin project. While the two share some common elements, Listen to Wikipedia is not based directly on the latter.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post Listen to Wikipedia: The World’s Information as Minimalist Music and Visuals appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Brian Parker

In trying to introduce an album that combines elements of ambient, experimental, jazz, and classical music, all of the verbal options seemed esoteric at best. Music that exists in this realm often has an unfortunate “intellectual” air that deters even the most enthusiastic of self-proclaimed music lovers. But for netcat, a three-piece experimental/improvisational outfit based in Seattle, complex composition, customized technologies, and sharp musicianship culminates in compositions that shoot down the preconceived notions of such styles, with music that is strikingly approachable and emotional.

David Balatero, Brandon Lucia, and Andrew Olmstead began playing together at The Racer Sessions, a series of improvisational performances organized weekly by a collective of explorative musicians. Balatero and Lucia actually met years earlier through the same computer science program at the University of Washington, where the musical concept for netcat was first born. The philosophy seems deceptively simple, “What if we could take network traffic and turn it into sound?” This concept evolved into a performance piece featuring a setup of eight laptops communicating simultaneously on stage, with the musicians configuring the network, pulling cables, and finding new ways of refining and curating the sound — hardly simple.

The refined performance piece would become netcat’s first song of the same name, appearing on their debut album Cycles Per Instruction. The album combines each member’s computer programming acumen with their skill on conventional instruments: Balatero on cello, Lucia on drums, and Olmstead on synths. The result is a human, natural expression, seemingly devoid but full of electronic and computerized elements. The atmospheric qualities of many of the sounds — pads, drones, noises — seem perfectly harmonious with the rawness of tactile instrumentation.

Cycles Per Instruction comprises code developed by the band, each informing a different mode of performance by the members. Some code are set off and continue generating sounds infinitely, while others respond generatively to their environments. For example, “The Internet is an Apt Motherfucker” features a code that interprets the syllables of a chosen text (in this case Wikipedia articles) that creates a sonic gibberish that sounds like eerie, chattering human voices.  Lucia explained that the details of the code were fine-tuned extensively to achieve convincing familiarity. “The stat model has nuance and we iterated on it to make it sound more and more convincing, and we processed the sound to vocode it. There’s a component that helps us understand the sentiment of what people are saying.”

netcat relies heavily on their classical and jazz backgrounds, and part of the creation of Cycles Per Instruction involved improvisation sessions that challenged the musicians to create structure amidst the programming on the album. Balatero posed the question, “If we’re going to have a 20 minute piece, how do we create contour?” which provides the basis for netcat’s critical level of musicianship on cello, synth, and Chango, a playable, light-controlled computer synth developed by Lucia. This approach to improvisation allows the band to harness the computers’ randomness thoughtfully, creating a futuristic and emotive conversation between man and machine. “We give it a framework, and it makes choices as data flies by. And so do we as human improvisers,” says Balatero. “It’s a theme that comes up throughout the pieces — the computer and humans are playing at the same time,” says Lucia.

While netcat’s Cycles Per Instruction is available on the popular digital avenues, the band wanted to democratize the release format in an entirely novel way. The band put the code for the album on GitHub, the online software development collaboration platform, which programmers can build out and re-create the album piece by piece. For non-coding musicians, many of the synths on the album are available for download as well, which can be used as standalone instruments or integrated into DAWs. The complexity of recreating the code is a point of enthusiasm for the band. “We were thinking about complex ways of releasing the music that would complement the amount of complexity in the music…You have to  do a bit of work, and you can feel a bit of the work that we put in when we were doing the hacking up to getting it built,” says Lucia. “You can feel the process.”

There are multiple philosophies and concepts woven together in Cycles Per Instruction: improvisation, computerization, democracy of software, building and breaking technological barriers between artist, art, and audience. But through the mystified intricacy of computer programming, netcat creates a really solid, beautiful piece of music. As the band says, “netcat is an accessible, familiar approach to the complexity of computers.” netcat shows us that computers can reflect of our own dedication to organizing thoughts and ideas, and the result, if successful, leaves behind a product that transcends the medium altogether.

Check out netcat’s Cycles Per Instruction on BandCamp, take a stab at the code on GitHub, and dig in to the other artists on their record label, Tables & Chairs.

 

The post The Organic, Computerized Complexity of netcat’s “Cycles Per Instruction” appeared first on SoundCtrl.

New social network Dropp.fm was created by founder Parker Lieberman in an effort to help people discover, collect, curate, and share new music. The service eliminates reliance on license services to experience and share with friends, while making it simple to collect custom record collections via third-party hosts such as YouTube and SoundCloud.

The social network features a news feed, much like Facebook, but is described by Lieberman as “Pinterest for music lovers, making organizational sense out of vast music collections amasses all over the web while introducing users to a host of new music they would never ordinarily discover.” Dropp.fm’s beta version hits today, so we exchanged emails with Parker to talk the new service’s functionality, who it’s for, and what’s next just in time for its release.

SoundCtrl: What type of person is dropp.fm tailor-made for? Who else will find that the platform aligns with their love of music and technology?

Parker Lieberman: One of the main challenges when developing dropp.fm was designing a system that would be useful for every type of music listener, not just the heavy or light listener. The final design of the site allows any type of music listener to experience great new music. The heavy user can utilize all the features that dropp.fm has to offer and the light listener can simply log on and click play.

What genres of music and/or artists are most extensively catered to, covered, or loved by users and the platform itself?

Dropp.fm bucks the tradition of classifying music by genre or artist and this really opens the system up for discovery. Dropp.fm is all about trusting the people you follow to share great music with you regardless of genre or artist.

Can you define the words “lasting musical experience” from your mission statement: “The mission of Dropp.fm is to enable lasting musical experience among our users, clients, and coworkers.”

A ‘lasting musical experience’ is one that goes past just the initial experience of listening to a great piece of new music. Its taking that initial listening experience and growing it into a conversation with the person who shared it with you and then maybe even to seeing that artist or band with that friend and having all of that be possible because a song was shared on dropp.fm.

How much does trending play into what a user has the fastest, easiest access to? Are non-trending tracks also easy to be exposed to?

Trending is a tertiary component of dropp.fm. The first part is the newsfeed which, just as in any other social network, shows you all the new music that your friends have dropped. The second component to dropp.fm is profiles, where you can view your own playlists of dropps or go and check out anybody else’s playlists. And finally, the last component is the popular page which shows users what is trending across the network, but even more so shows users who is dropping music that the whole dropp.fm community is enjoying.

What’s next for Dropp.fm?

I have big plans for dropp.fm, but right now the only thing I am focusing on is building the best user base of music fans in the world and thats enough of a challenge.

The post Interview: Parker Lieberman, Founder of Dropp.fm appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Bop’s embeddable playlists are optimized for a variety of blogs and social network formats, including WordPress, Tumblr, Medium, and Squarespace. As Bop links to any existing instances of a song across YouTube, SoundCloud, and other streaming services, the playlists never run the risk of broken links or missing tracks if content is removed from its hosting site.

While bop is in the works to create a native iOS app, they’ve created a mobile web version of the service that fits within the dimensions and functionality of the iPhone screen. Simply navigate to bop.fm on your phone, and use the service as you would on the web.

Finally, in a collaboration with Apptui, bop has a proprietary wireless remote function that allows operation of the web player with a unique interface. This allows you to control bop over a Wi-Fi signal in your home or office without running between the computer and other spaces.

Visit bop.fm to stream music on the web or on your phone, and visit Apptui to download the remote control app.

The post Bop.fm Adds New Features, Embeddable Playlists appeared first on SoundCtrl.

We’re already familiar with designer and developer Jono Brandel‘s exciting new work — the spritely, sample-based Patatap web instrument made in collaboration with Lullatone was one of the most unique music applications on the internet for quite some time. Now for a more focused application, Brandel has teamed up with UK electronic music duo Plaid to create “Tether,” a remixable, recodable, and reworkable interactive song.

While Patatap comprises multiple environments in which the user can play different sounds, Tether is more linear in arrangement, with identifiable melodic and chordal information. By “playing” Tether via the web app, you are effectively remixing the record with your mouse, clicking and dragging to trigger a series of visual and audible effects. Click and/or drag the mouse anywhere along the window, and Tether comes to life in responsive geometric shapes and patterns that accompany audio effects. The production has a recognizable arrangement and rhythm, but the user can augment the sounds with an infinite combination of delays, splices, and glitches.

Remixing Tether is hardly limited to using the interactive web song. Because Tether is coded, Brandel and Plaid offer the scripts and codes that run the song’s application. Savvy, musical (or non-musical) coders can download the codes and rework Tether from an entirely different foundational perspective.

For those producers with a more traditional workflow, Plaid has uploaded the Tether stems to SoundCloud. The entire remix contest, whether you’re a musician, developer, or simply a technology lover, is unique in that is open-source in the way the song is consumed and reimagined. Tether, like Patatap, is more than a fun way to promote a musical project; it’s an entirely new and hardly tapped method of releasing music, challenging artists of all disciplines to collaborate and fully use the power of the internet beyond playback.

Get the stems or code to remix Tether, and enter for a chance to win prizes from Warp records, including a QuNeo controller. Altertnatively, you can simply enjoy the multimedia composition by clicking anywhere below:

The post Remix, Recode, and Rework “Tether,” an Interactive Song by Plaid appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Technology has been pivotal in forging relationships between many aspiring musicians; the internet acting as a meeting place for a collaborators, remixers, and DJs, and the laptop computer the obvious point of entry. But web collabs bring with them a slew of complications — limited storage space, data corruption, unorganized session files, and not to mention the risk of a record leak. To aid the process of remote collaboration while fostering a new engine for discovery, the creators of Blend.io have invented a tool that harnesses the collective powers of the internet, powerful DAWs, and the spirit of the music community.

Equally social as it is functional, Blend.io introduces new artists to a community of producers and listeners, who are in turn invited to remix, refigure, and provide feedback on songs, productions, and works in progress.

Users upload bounces of their tracks to a unique project page, which states the DAW and version used to create the record, as well as a download link to “pull” the project’s session files. Each time a new user pulls the project, the update is listed in the project’s feed with links to the other artists’ collaborations. Blend requires a Dropbox account to use, as all of the user’s files are hosted by the storage service. On the social end, users can follow each other within the Blend platform.When publishing a new project, users can save versions and upload the various stages of their work to get feedback on projects. Projects remain in a user’s profile and are viewable by the Blend community.

Besides being a tool for collaboration and connection, Blend is shedding light on a creative issue unique to this era of music production, particularly on account of our access to technology. Artists of all backgrounds are often hesitant to share new work, with the fear that is hasn’t been perfected or isn’t up to a popular standard — a bar continually raised by engineering and production prowess across the board. However, music production as a discipline often lacks the mentorship that comes along with traditional instrumental performance, and Blend is a great avenue for getting in touch with other musicians of lesser, equal, or greater experience for providing or gleaning insight. Plus, the journey of a musician supported by a community of welcoming individuals (especially those who will promote new artists through remixes) is an endearing one, and could be a great backdrop for a larger artistic story.

Blend has already featured projects and contests by musicians including Moby, Prefuse 73, Erin Barra, plus/minus, and Mad Zach, who have hosted albums, stems, and sound packs on Blend, offering other musicians an opportunity to “blend” their own ideas. Blend shows promise as new tool for record labels as well, as production skills do carry value within the framework of the platform, and A&Rs could very well use Blend to source new talent.

As an added treat, here’s a special invitation to Blend.io for the SoundCtrl readers. We hope you enjoy exploring and interacting with the steadily growing community of collaborators!

The post Blend: An Online Tool for Music Collaboration and Discovery appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Launched on the App Store just last night, the social music network AAMPP is finally officially open to the music-loving masses. We’ve excitedly watched AAMPP leading up to this launch, and now it’s time to turn AAMPP over to you, with the newest update to their iOS mobile app.

After opening AAMPP®, a swipe-able banner features various artists on the site, followed by rows that reveal categories of artists and their albums. Clicking on an artist’s Music Identity™ brings up an album’s track list, along with a green follow button at the top, and a bar along the bottom for Music, Pulse™, and Account.

Following an artist’s Music Identity will populate your Pulse with posts from that artist. The Pulse collects social media updates from all of the artists you’re following; similar to a Twitter stream or Facebook Newsfeed.

In the Pulse, users can now Shout™ directly in the app, to post images, music and text in real time from their phones.  The ability to Shout Out™, or otherwise share Shouts from the Pulse is especially valuable source of music discovery for app users. If, by some chance, users should Shout something but then wish to remove it, a simple tap of the “X”  available on updates now brings up a prompt allowing the content to be deleted.

In addition to the Music Identity and Pulse screens, swiping to the right pulls up a list of  genres. Choosing a genre prompts a screen similar to the home page but is catered to the genre you have chosen. This makes browsing for new artists even easier, as artists are filtered by particular genres or moods.

The star at the top of every genre and artist page allows users to access their “Favorites” list, which also functions as a playlist of selected songs.

Browsing is enabled during playback, and a small player and transport panel is revealed with a simple swipe.

AAMPP has combined the best aspects of social media and online musician presence, into one user-friendly app. Their slogan, “Connecting the World to Music,” clarifies AAMPP’s mission: to interactively connect users, whether fan or professional in the industry, to both music and artists they love.

You can download AAMPP for free on the iTunes App Store.

The post AAMPP’s App Update Connects More Fans with More Music appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The music for the meditation sessions, which can last from 1 minute to an infinite duration, was created by past Red Bull Music Academy attendees, including Nightwave, Suzanne Kraft, and James Pants. Each track is tuned to the mystically hypnotic pitch of 432 Hz, the preferred tuning for the key of A for new age aficionados.

If you’re planning on catching the full marathon month of Red Bull’s festival, be sure to take a few relaxing breaks and sink into an image of a bearded man meditating beneath a waterfall.

The post Eternal Bliss™, The Internet’s Most Relaxing Website appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The phrase “There’s an app for that.” used to be funny. Then it became as insufferable as “Can you hear me now?!” during the early days of cell reception. However, the former rings true on those special and rare occasions, when the lightest finger tap suddenly opens a possibility previously only imaginable.

The last time we covered Loudie for iOS, the burden of text messages rates was still relevant.  Now in 2014, Loudie has upgraded far beyond the singular function of feed-based and self-contained commentary on concerts. The app’s biggest feature additions are unique within the context of social interaction and live music, but to the same end, the app development and creative team shrewdly avoided solely navigating new waters. If the live-music recap and notification power of Set.fm or Turntable Live were mashed together with the real time, global access power of Soundwave along with Facebook-derived, data synchronicity-recommendation integration ability, that’s Loudie’s newest incarnation.

Core updates for Loudie’s main functionalities include the following:

• Easily track artists with simplified artists and venue profiles.

• Clean and straightforward activity stream for viewing recently uploaded videos for artists they are following, as well as future concerts have been recommended to one’s profile.

• Watch videos of artists’ concerts or watch any videos from concerts, uploaded by users, from anywhere around the world, brought to you, in real time.

• Post comments about concerts and tag other users.

• Ping friends (a la Snapchat) with an invite or, share videos/concerts.

This slew of new capabilities in addition to a push of free passes, promotions, and in-app ticket purchases cements the cumulative package in a solid self-containment — fans of live music will certainly want to add or update Loudie in their music app arsenal.

The only tricky piece of this fan-focused formula is the footage itself. Ubiquity and real time access to content “for the people, by the people” is stellar. However, where Loudie excels in a genuinely connective and social user experience, it falls a little short on video quality. As expected, users aren’t going to be allowed to upload or view entire sets. The available clips of past shows are limited to the length of Instagram videos, or 15 seconds (multiple clips from the same concert might show in your feed, thus capturing different angles or parts of the same song/set). Add to that the unavoidable limitations of extremely loud audio recorded to a mobile device and it becomes obvious that clips are not uploaded for the pristine character of their digital capture.

Nonetheless, considering that live performances typically lack perfect execution and come with loud volume, mic feedback, belted vocals and the like, this single pair of shortcomings is easy enough to overlook.  The app can still be enjoyed through a lens of social memory and with the collective energy of fellow fans.

You can download Loudie from the iTunes App Store.

Find Loudie on Facebook and or follow them on Instagram or Twitter @Loudieapp.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post Loudie is Making Lots of Noise with its New Update appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Owners of Sonos wireless speakers are typically a proud bunch who tout its excellent sound quality and app-integration.  And there’s good news for them – Google Play and Sonos are finally starting to play nice with each other.  Now you can open Google Play Music and stream it to your Sonos speaker or access the Google Play Music library in the Sonos app.  Sonos’ Android app is fine, but it’s not quite like having native support.  Plus, it seems that Google is catching up with Apple on wireless playback.  Google Play Music can now be added to Sonos’ list of streaming options, so you can access your Google cloud music or stream directly within the Google app to your WiFi enabled Sonos speakers.  And it can be done without the use of Apple’s AirPort — that’s one less layer of transmission from device to sound source.  

Hopefully this opens the door to more proprietary device pairings.  Because let’s be honest; wouldn’t the world be a better place if devices, OS’, cables, connectors, ports, patches, updates and every other piece of hardware and software under the sun just worked together seamlessly?  Well, we can wish, but as long as custom connections, subscription services and promotional pairings make companies ungodly sums of money, we’re just gonna have to get used to it.

As technology evolves, don’t we expect it to get faster, cheaper, easier and more seamless?  We do.  But the fact that this Sonos story is even news shows how backward technology can be.  As for now, Sonos hasn’t yet struck a deal with Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, Beats Music or any other streaming services.  So while 360-degree seamless integration is still as much a myth as unicorns (and increasingly so the more services, software and hardware that pop up), at least the idea of it is gaining some ground, and we can be thankful for that.

The post Sonos and Google Play Nice appeared first on SoundCtrl.

German electronic composer and co-founder of Ableton Live will be performing a light, music, and art show with The Haxan Cloak on his debut U.S. tour at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple.

An evening of every heavy noise from various metal,jazz and hip hop at the Knockdown Center in Queens, artists like Tim Hecker, Gunplay, Clipping, and Wolf Eyes are scheduled to perform.

This is sold out already but if you find a way to go, do it. This is a public lecture with the one and only D’Angelo as he talks about his career at the Brooklyn Museum Cantor Auditorium.

As one of Brooklyn’s most underground and upcoming dance labels, Lit City Trax will be delivering a steamy night of grime and filth at The Westway with producers within the family.

Fifteen artists and three different stages, RBMA will be closing the festival at Abrons Arts Center with Nightwave. Robot Koch, Dj NiRe and many more artist to be announced!

You can visit the Red Bull Music Academy’s website for more details and the full calendar.  Look forward to seeing all of you out there!

(Check out the installation of the RBMA calendar mural in Greenpoint, by Sky High Murals)

The post Red Bull Music Academy Festival 2014 Preview appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Coachella has announced that it will bring some of the latest in Apple technology to its festival attendees: iBeacon. The iBeacon is a small device that communicates with iPhones via Bluetooth to deliver proximity-based information, navigation, and notifications.

On the official Coachella app, an update on April 9^th says, “Enable On-site iBeacon notifications by enabling Location and Bluetooth!” The Coachella website more vaguely confirms iBeacon, saying, “Use Bluetooth to interact with beacons placed around the grounds.”

In short, just a couple of days before the festival, Coachella has announced that it will join other events and companies that have implemented the iBeacon technology to improve the event’s infrastructure. Success at this event could mean big things for iBeacon and Apple as it strives to promote the new technology as a viable upgrade to events and eventually day-to-day use as well.

How iBeacon Has Already Been Used

Few details have been released concerning exactly how Coachella will employ the iBeacon technology for its users, but guesses can be made based on its past uses.

This season is the first in which MLB teams and stadiums (20 in all thus far with additional installations this spring) are using the technology to engage with their fans. According to the San Francisco Giants’ Chief Information Officer Bill Schlough, who works with one of the most technologically progressive organizations in baseball, “Mobile and digital experiences are paramount to our fan experience, and they have played a role in the fact that we’ve have 246 straight sellouts.”

At the Giants’ ballpark, 19 iBeacons have been installed at all fan entry and exit points, though that number will vary at other stadiums, such as 65 reportedly installed in Dodger Stadium since there are more ways to get in and out.

In conjunction with the MLB At the Ballpark app and enabled Bluetooth on a mobile device, the iBeacons will allow fans to check-in upon entry, upload and share personal photos from ballpark visits, view team stats and watch highlights from games attended. They will also provide maps (through a recent upgrade that includes a partnership with MapQuest), concession info, video clips and the ability to upgrade their seats (MyTickets Mobile), among many other features.

Teams can use the technology to push customized notifications and relevant offers, though Schlough has not yet released any specific information about these offers for his team. All in all, the technology will allow teams to get more creative when it comes to interacting with fans during the games.

Even before the MLB adopted the technology, Apple stores had already used the technology since December of last year. Depending on which of the beacons in the store that customers are near, they will received notifications from Apple based on that specific beacon. Customers will receive in-store notifications pertaining to information about how to pick up their online orders quickly, what’s happening in the store that day, product reviews, their iPhone upgrade eligibility and how to buy accessories right from their iPhones. Released just before Christmas, this technology was especially helpful for allowing customers to more easily purchase and check out from the store.

Even before that, Macy’s used the technology in its stores. Not long after, Shopkick announced in January 2014 that it would be starting an iBeacon trial at 100 U.S.-based American Eagle stores, and in the same month, InMarket announced that it would also begin using iBeacons in more than 200 Safeway and Giant Eagle grocery stores in markets across the country. Clearly this is a new wave of technology catching on with major retailers, and its innovative uses are evolving with time.

How iBeacon Might Be Used at Coachella

So how might Coachella use the iBeacon technology at its festival over the next two weekends? Maps would be a valuable addition to the Coachella experience, particularly ones that not only share where the stages, concessions, bathrooms and so on are, but possibly even which artists are performing on which stage at any one time on the same map.

Coachella will likely enable check-in abilities so that festival attendees can know when their friends have gotten to the festival and could potentially help them find each other. The technology could also connect attendees via social media updates shared across the iBeacon network. Along with the maps and social media, interactive lineups can help attendees schedule their day and send them notifications when it’s almost time for a particular set to start as well as messages to help friends meet up at those sets as well.

As attendees pass by merch booths, any featured products or special promotions might pop up on their iPhones, enticing them to buy products. They could even complete the purchase from afar and then pick up their merch at the end of the night without carrying it around the festival.

As sets are going on or end, Coachella could upload photos and videos of the performances so attendees could see artists that they didn’t get to catch, or re-watch some of their favorite moments. Attendees could also upload their own photos and videos to share with the rest of the Coachella community.

Coachella is the next of major events/retailers who are using the iBeacon technology to increase engagement and interactivity with visitors, and it will be interesting to see how Coachella employs this technology and takes it to the next level.

The post Coachella Upgrades with Apple’s iBeacon Technology appeared first on SoundCtrl.

It’s almost ironic that the touchscreen device, a modern day tool so devoid of physical direction or instruction, has become such a well of potential for changing human perception. This flat, innocent-looking machine has prompted a wave of hybrid artistic formats that combine mediums nearly as old as life itself. We have seen and explored examples of such endeavors with the likes of Roundware, Thicket, Tender Metal and others.

The effort to change our perception, interaction and definition of music and other art forms continues on, with a fascinating combo-concept presented in the form of an iOS app dubbed the “Gralbum,” which officially launched last night at Soho Arthouse.

“Can you touch music? Get lost in a world of sound and light, immersed in the artist’s creation? Feel the story the music tells, privately, only to you? Of course you can, now. This was the future of music, but we’re here now.”

–Gralbum Collective

The series of questions posed by Brooklyn-based, Gralbum Collective, the company behind the Gralbum app, (both founded by Sarth Calhoun, a soundscape producer and electronic musician who has performed alongside Lou Reed in the Metal Machine Trio,) poetically summarize what the Gralbum app is out to show and provide. Gralbum is a new outlet for creatives to generate uncommon artistic, musical and literary experiences. Still, what does it mean to “check out a Gralbum”?

Think:

Narrative with words,

Graphic novel

Music comprising a concept album

the result is a Gralbum.

The app itself is deemed a multimedia publishing platform and functions like a self-contained “shop” for Gralbums; some free and some offered as in-app purchases. The inaugural Gralbum, known as “The Book of Sarth” is both in the Gralbum store and is a separate app unto itself, packing 30 minutes of direct-able content, two music videos, an eight song album (available for isolated listening through email export) and a graphic novel component amounting to 100 pages.

Artists offer various media, from photography to sketch drawings, paintings, animations and film-esque clips; collaborating with storytellers and musicians with intriguing compositions that often stray from the mainstream path. These separate but related and imagination-fueled elements are melded together as a Gralbum and what readers/listeners/explorers are given, is an immersive work of art that is neither wholly passive, nor entirely manual from start to finish. If this explanation seems vague, it’s due to the fact that each Gralbum is vastly different from the next—how they play out is partially determined by the style of music that informs the imagery, and also by how the reader/listener traverses between the audio and the visual.

The music offered by some of the first Gralbums include works from Leah Coloff, Bora Yoon, and Adam Matta among others still to come.

When Calhoun asks, “Can you touch music?” he is not being sardonic. The touchscreen aspect comes to the forefront once a person examines the imagery presented, as music plays in the background.  Users can pinch, grab, zoom, and swipe all in typical i-device fashion and for some Gralbums, this has a direct affect on the artwork that comes in and out of view. Gralbums are far from just a story with flat pictures set to music. Conversely, simply tap an image once and the view smoothly transitions to a full screen orientation, referred to as the “director’s view,” which is all the more visually enjoyable, when viewing the mixed mediums on an iPad.

You can follow Gralbum Collective on Twitter and find them on Facebook.

Below is a video highlighting the beauty of The Book of Sarth in full audio and motion view, as no words can entirely describe: 

BOOK OF SARTH from Jacob McCoy on Vimeo.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post Grab A Gralbum: A Combinative Format Of Music, Media, and Stories appeared first on SoundCtrl.

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If the financial and logistical cost of outfitting every audible alarm with a visual detector for the deaf (and vice versa for the blind) wasn’t somewhere beyond astronomical and impossible, the world would be doing right by our disabled brothers and sisters. But until that happens, we turn to apps that automatically lend a helping hand. The $0.99 app Deafalarm is meant to be kept active at all times, tuning in to sounds and alerting the user of alarms through vibration and an on-screen notification. The app also vibrates if it’s accidentally shut down, or if the iPhone’s battery is so low that it can’t function. According to some reviews, it also goes off all the freaking time, regardless of whether or not the sound is an alarm. Now, just for fun I’m going to list a few songs that have sirens in them, and keep in mind that none of these are even touching the genres of hip-hop or pop:

“Warning” by Green Day

“Paranoid” by Black Sabbath

“A Nightmare to Remember” by Dream Theater

“White Riot” by The Clash

Not far off from the features of Deafalarm is Shazam’s Auto-Shazam function for the iPad that’s always keeping an ear out for music, auto-grabbing music data and draining your battery like crazy in the process. Super cool, but just what are the implications of opt-in detection for personal space, environment and privacy? And would it be creepy for the guy with his windows down and the radio on if he knew your app was displaying information on his chosen track?

Know what’s even creepier? A San Francisco-based startup called Expect Labs is creating an app called MindMeld that listens to a phone conversation and interprets what is being said in real-time, coming up with what it believes is relevant information. It’s like asking Siri a question, except in this case Siri butts in before you even address her. Could be useful. Could be hilarious. Could become completely self-aware and destroy all of humanity. They call it ‘anticipatory computing.’ We call it T2: Judgment Day.

The post Automatic Apps Could Save Lives, But Are Still Kind of Creepy appeared first on SoundCtrl.

A coast-to-coast duet using the latest in holographic technology? Surely it must be the 21^st century.

In celebration of the launch of the Audi A3, M.I.A. and Janelle Monae teamed up to bring audiences in both Los Angeles and New York City just that. While M.I.A. performed for a private event in New York City, she was joined at the end of the performance for a high-tech duet with a live-action hologram of Monae, who collaborated with her to sing a verse of M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls.” Vice versa, an M.I.A. hologram joined Monae in Los Angeles with an original addition to her song “Q.U.E.E.N.”

Holographic Projections vs. Holographic Illusions

These holographic projections hark back to one of the most famous projections in recent years, that of Tupac onstage with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre at Coachella in 2012. This time around though, the duet used more advanced 3D projection and video mapping technology. According to a press release from Audi, “The set utilizes 3D projection mapping to add layered depth of field perception with animated graphic content, the result of which will be an electric never-before-seen 3D bicoastal performance.”

Holographic projections in the realm of music have become more common in recent years. Since Tupac’s Coachella “appearance,” Wu Tang Clan also resurrected Ol’ Dirty Bastard as a hologram on the Rock the Bells tour last summer, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony “brought out” Eazy-E. Plus, in 2013, R&B group TLC were rumored to be bringing back Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes as a virtual performer as well, though those rumors have since fizzled.

In addition, holographic projections—more accurately called holographic illusions—had been used even before Tupac, using a method called Pepper’s Ghost illusion, which has actually been around and used in theatre since the middle of the 19^th century. Al Gore used the technology in 2007, Madonna and the Gorillaz in 2006 and Richard Branson in 2005. The Pepper’s Ghost illusion is what brought Tupac’s performance to life in 2012.

What? Not a true hologram? It’s a fact—while widely considered to be a hologram, Tupac’s performance was technically a holographic illusion. The way it works is that on the main stage is usually a piece of glass that the projection is bounced off of while the projector itself is off to the side and behind the glass. But instead of glass, the traditional method, they actually used a proprietary Mylar foil called Musion Eyeliner to deliver “uncompressed media for three stacked 1920 x 1080 images, delivering 54,000 lumens of incredibly clear projected imagery.”

While the technology used for M.I.A. and Monae’s holograms was different, it’s important to make this distinction between holographic projections and holographic illusions when considering future uses of this ground-breaking technology.

What Holograms Mean for the Music Industry

Musical endeavors like those of M.I.A., Monae and resurrected Tupac performances demonstrate just how powerful holograms can be in revolutionizing the capabilities of live performances. Not only can previously recorded presentations, like that of Tupac, be displayed at concerts and festivals, but live holograms can be produced and collaborated on as well, like that of M.I.A. and Janelle Monae.

Imagine what this could do for a live concert or festival. Any one artist could potentially be joined onstage by several musicians, creating an enriched performance for the audience regardless of where those musicians are actually located. Because musicians are often on tour and recording all over the world, the collaborations this could offer are astounding and could bring together artists of all types, including those who may have never previously been able to work together due to distance and time constraints.

If more projections could be created like Tupac, imagine the possibilities of all of the deceased artists that could be resurrected for performances with both their former bands and collaborations that never had a chance to happen. What if you could combine the talents of John Lennon with those of some of the bigger singer-songwriters or rock bands today? Musicians would have the invaluable experience of showing how their music could fit in with those of musicians past, and concert and festival-goers would have the one-of-a-kind chance to experience it live.

As hologram technology progresses, it will be exciting to see what the music industry continues to do with it. M.I.A. and Monae’s live duet was just the beginning in what is likely to be a new trend among some of the bigger, established musicians (as the technology is not financially accessible to most). That could eventually trickle down to the hands of indie musicians the world over, and we could see a resurgence in worldwide collaborations—the next evolution in live performance.

The post Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: Holograms in the Music Industry, Feat. M.I.A. and Janelle Monae appeared first on SoundCtrl.

December 2012 was the last time the Audiobus app made a big splash on the iOS scene, when this amazing, connective tool first appeared in the iTunes App Store. Amateur and experienced musicians alike benefitted from the app, which changed mobile music creation on a fundamental but significant level. Audiobus was recently presented with the honor of Electronic Musician Editor’s Choice for 2014. Now with the release of its successor, Audiobus 2, praise for this Australian-based team stands to continue.

To give some context on Audiobus, let’s start with the app’s name, which illuminates a surprising amount about what Audiobus 2 primarily does for musicians:

“A mixing board has a type of component, referred to as a “bus,” which in the most minimal of terms, functions as a path for signals to move through. They can condense the number of signals to give simultaneous control while mixing or route audio to outside effects or devices, (among other functions) depending on the type of bus being utilized.”

That action of routing and directing signals is the chief function of Audiobus, allowing for signal path adjustments between audio apps and their respective audio routing. Audiobus 2 retains and improves that key functionality and is redesigned to have a more user-intuitive structure.

The primary enhancements offered by Audiobus 2 span three major feature additions:

• Multi-Routing
• State-Saving
• Presets

As the name might suggest, the Multi-Routing feature allows for users to have as many inter-app link-ups as their iOS device can physically handle running. This lack of confinement is the cornerstone building block to what is a highly customizable and efficient app experience, thanks to the other two enhancements.

The Presets and State-Saving features are very similar and build on one another, much like the Multi-Routing feature. For example, if a user has five apps to choose from when using Audiobus 2 and each of those five apps has the ability to be finely adjusted with proprietary, in-app sliders or knobs, the State-Saving feature is the champion to call upon here.

After adjusting specific parameters in an app, the need to re-configure settings in the future would be frustrating. That redundancy is eliminated with State-Saving, which restores those placements with a quick, single reload tap during the next use. Then, once those individual numbers are locked in on one app, Audiobus 2 Presets do the work of State-Saving on a larger scale, preserving entire inter-app connection chains rather than just the settings for single apps.

Audiobus 2′s SDK will eventually be available to any developer who wants to make their specific app compatible but, even on just the first day of public availability, over a dozen apps are already prepared to take advantage of the aforementioned State-Saving capability, showcasing the app’s programming potential.

Audiobus 2 itself is a sleek, high quality app but, what makes it stand out is not a fancy aesthetic or a bait-and-switch gimmick. The app simply addresses every possible angle of what it means to be a “highly effective support tool.” Michael Tyson, developer of Audiobus, explains it best:

“[Audiobus 2 is] an app that makes all your other apps better, more versatile, more creative…and [I] think it’s going to help people get even more out of their apps and their iOS devices.”

Audiobus 2 is $4.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Keep an eye out for the ongoing announcements of new Audiobus 2-compatible apps, sure to be appearing in droves once the SDK is more openly shared.

You can follow Audiobus on Twitter, as well as find them on Facebook.

Below are demonstrations of Audiobus 2′s Presets and Multi-Routing features in action:

Presets

Multi-Routing

*Note that the Multi-Routing functionality is accessed after a $4.99 USD in-app purchase.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post All Aboard Audiobus 2 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The New York edition of Unsound will bring a week of experimentation, interactivity, and a good bit of dancing to the city, with several events that promise to be intriguing for musicians and music-lovers alike. The festival unofficially began last night with the premiere of Ephemera, an installation merging the scent artistry of Geza Schoen with the music of Ben Frost, Tim Hecker, and Steve Goodman (aka Kode9). Issue Project Room, the art research and performance institution, will host the official opening event tomorrow April 2nd with performances by sound art duo Evol and composer Oren Ambarchi.

On Thursday, American electronic music innovator Suzanne Ciani will perform with Neonantrik at Lincoln Center’s Rubenstein Atrium. On Friday, UK duo Demdike Stare will present their commissioned project Concealed alongside minimalism pioneer Phill Niblock and Polish artist Stara Rzeka, performing his unique sound of “magical brutalism.” On Saturday, Unsound meets the infamous Bunker of New York, bringing together Porter Ricks, Vladislav Delay, Ital & Halal, Miles (of Demdike Stare), and Leisure Muffin, whose newest EP was released on The Bunker’s own label.  Sunday’s closing events will feature Kapital, Paal Nilssen-Love, and James Rushford & Joe Talia, from Poland’s experimental Bocian label.

These are just a few highlights from the week’s performances, many of which are free of charge to attend. However, space is typically limited as several events are at intimate smaller venues (especially helpful to controlling acoustics), so arrive early and stay late. Check out the full schedule and artist listing here.

The post Unsound Festival Opens Tomorrow in New York appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Billboard and Twitter have joined forces to create “Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts.”  The ranking system will join Billboard’s 200+ Official Billboard Charts to track the top Tweeted songs and artists.  Though there’s no solid release date, the charts are due to launch within the coming weeks on Billboard.com.

Twitter’s blog announcement provides some insight on their aim: “Our goal with these efforts is to give artists who share songs and engage with their audience on Twitter a way to get noticed by even more fans, other musicians, and industry decision-makers in real time.”  But will trending data really support the discovery of up-and-coming artists in a meaningful way, or will it just bolster already successful artists?  Is the data really for music fans, or is it consolidated into neatly packaged charts for record executives to peruse as they search for the next artist who proves to be a lucrative investment?

Lyor Cohen’s new “300” label will be using similar algorithms to find new artists on Twitter as well, supplanting talent scouting at clubs, hearing the music live, and seeing the fan base first-hand.  The music industry may have chosen to learn from its mistakes and embrace new technologies, but possibly at the cost of a more organic method of finding talent and doing business.

Data mining seems to be the preferred method of gauging, conglomerating, and analyzing the technological and musical ephemera of the age.  So, one last question: is there any use resisting it?

The post Billboard and Twitter Join Forces appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Yes, we have yet another streaming music service infiltrating the online listening landscape. Will this one be any different, and will if offer new features that the other services haven’t already?

Samsung set out to specifically “address consumer pain points” with its new music streaming service, Milk Music: a “fresh” take on music. These pain points include a longer and more involved music setup, such as creating usernames and passwords, dealing with too many ads and interruptions, and hearing repetead songs from a a limited catalog.

To assuage these consumer frustrations, Samsung has created a sign-up-free, ad-free music streaming service that has partnered with Slacker Radio (rather than dealing with getting record labels on board) to bring Samsung consumers a viable alternative to other streaming services.

However, like iTunes Radio, Milk Music is exclusively available to Samsung customers, specifically users of Galaxy S-series and Note devices. The service is not currently available on tablets, as Samsung is working on optimizing the mobile phone experience for now. Users can download Milk Music from Google Play, but it’s unknown whether or not the service will eventually come built in to Samsung devices.

So what makes Samsung’s Milk Music comparable to, or even better than its competitors?

Milk Music’s Selection

Through a partnership with Slacker Radio, Milk Music provides access to about 13 million songs on 200 genre stations. Nine of the most popular stations will be made immediately available on the Milk Music wheel, but you can change them to any of the 15 options available. These stations include Spotlight, which appears on the dial at all times, and is curated via the Slacker partnership to bring listeners “what’s trending” and Milk-exclusive content, such as first listens of new albums. They also include My Stations, which is based on the stations you’ve created yourself. You can also tap the circle next to a station to scroll through a list of sub-stations to create a still more personalized experience.

Similar to other existing music services, you can create a customized playlist based on a genre, artist, or song, and the service will pull up similar tracks to match your taste. To customize these further, you can swipe upward from the bottom to reveal additional personalization features that determine which songs to play next based on your preferences for (or against) Popular, New, and Favorite songs. That for-or-against selection will be based on the favorites list you’ve created over time, so if you’d rather listen to songs you’ve never heard, you would position the circle on the Favorites bar. You can skip songs 6 times per hour and select “Never Play Song” from the menu, so the song will never come up again in the playlist.

To change stations, you’ll have the experience of a traditional radio tuner as you swipe the dial, or wheel, across the different station selections. One of the most interesting music features is that when you swipe through, you won’t have any lag time, and the songs will start playing right away. This is because Samsung pre-caches each first song in a station by eight seconds so that they are ready as soon as you tune in. When you rotate the dial closer to the center of the circle, the station-changing speed is slower, while rotating from the outer edge makes the stations change at “nitro speed.”

Other Features

Milk Music offers a few other nice features such as play history, which contains the last 500 songs played. As for audio settings, Milk Music offers two audio quality options: Standard (50 kbps) and High (90 kbps).

You can turn the explicit content feature on or off. Also, Milk Music has a location feature, and though the service currently doesn’t do anything specific, Samsung says that it may develop an option for integrating local content into playlists.

You can also choose to forgo the no-sign-in-required feature of Milk Music and hook up Milk Music to your Samsung account to share your Favorites, History,  and stations settings across multiple Samsung devices.

The fact that Samsung is ad-free for now doesn’t mean that it will be ad-free forever, and Samsung is indeed looking into such a business model for the future. As this is probably one of the main reasons why many users out of the 200 million Galaxy owners will download and use the service in the first place, it will be interesting to see where Milk Music ends up as it grows and adapts to the music streaming landscape in the future.

The post Samsung Milks the Streaming Market appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Not long into the Music Tech Fest’s final day in Cambridge, all serious work came to a temporary standstill with a single presentation, and not just due to sound cutting through a silent room.

“Thicket,” an interactive app for iPod, iPhone, and iPad, is the brainchild of “creative technologist and artist,” Joshue Ott. This app, which is part of a family of apps that are promoted through his web development company, Interval Studios, not only makes music, but is also an enthralling audio-visual creation that lets users make original creations of their own. During the presentation, Ott invited fellow MTF presenter and classically trained violinist Dr. Anthony De Ritis, to spontaneously take a crack at making some catchy beats, loops and blends of visual patterns with the app. (Check the Music Tech Fest website for eventual upload of video from this presentation.)

Beyond Thicket’s ability to generate colors, lines, repeating and morphing shapes, there is little definitive structure behind the use of the app. Despite performance art being one of the first associations brought to Ott’s attention, he very clearly explained that Thicket is not so much about concentrating on the audience as it is about the user.

This isn’t to say that an artist wouldn’t be inspired to use Thicket in a live application. Nevertheless, from Ott’s point of view, Thicket is about the connection and reaction of, the person actively tinkering with the app. An audience watching and enjoying Thicket in action (like all of us watching De Ritis’s inaugural trial) is more of a positive by-product. This personal experience also has implications in industries in which a self-directed app like Thicket could be helpful, such as music or chromotherapy.

Thicket contains a variety of modes that depict different primary sets of colors, shapes and sounds. The modes’ titles, such as “love,” “scary ugly” and “grass,” pair with the designated sets, and, do predispose users to some associations, like color/mood and color/object.  (All except the first mode, “sinemorph,” are acquired through separate, in-app purchase) However, as an app also described as “an audiovisual playground,” the only confinement is one’s own ingenuity with tactile composition.

Thicket is free for download and available from the iTunes App Store. Thicket is also compatible with Audiobus, the inter-app audio routing hub, previously covered here.

Below is a video showing Thicket being explored in “Cathedral” mode:

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post Thicket Transforms Your Apple Device into an Abstract Instrument and Visualizer appeared first on SoundCtrl.

We like instructions like this, but little did we know the next 15 minutes would be a captivating sensory overload of sound, color, and graphics. Patatap is a visual music browser application controlled by pressing alphabetical characters on a computer keyboard, which trigger audio samples and corresponding graphics. In various combinations, the the keys trigger chopped samples of drums, vocals, synths, and glitches, while creating an array of minimal graphic lines, dots, shapes, strobing colors, and other visual effects. It’s simply fun to use, and a perfect distraction from the stresses of a tiresome workday.

Patatap is a collaboration between designer and programmer Jono Brandel and musician duo Lullatone. The project is an innovative take on visual music applications, and is functional on computers, tablets, and mobile devices. Patatap evokes the sensations of synesthesia, a condition in which the brain interprets one sensory input as another, like “hearing” colors. There are several sound and color palettes that comprise Patatap, which can be toggled by pressing the space bar.

Give Patatap a try with the embed above, you’ll certainly want to blow this up to full screen. Disclaimer: your boss and coworkers may be leery of your digital respite; be sure to send them the link as well.

The post Patatap Brings Joyous Visual Music to Your Browser appeared first on SoundCtrl.

This past weekend, on a single floor of the Microsoft New England Research and Development Labs, the Music Tech Fest, Boston edition, crammed in three full and continuous days of presentations, demos, questions and answers. One of many laudable presentations from the festival was Roundware, presented by sound artist and musician Halsey Burgund.

An idea conceived back in 2009, Halsey Burgund told stories; not only of Roundware’s origins but of many different geographic places that were also being used as locations for things like sound installations, art exhibitions or just for everyday exploration. Burgund described Roundware as “a flexible, geographically sensitive, distributed framework, which collects, stores, organizes and re-presents audio content.”This open source platform lets its users collect audio from anyone with an iOS or Android smartphone or web access, upload the audio to a central repository along with chosen metadata, and then filter it and play it back collectively, in continuous audio streams within a designated space. Imagine a large, open park full of temporary sculptures highlighting a local artist.

Users are given headsets and walk around the area looking at the various pieces. Music plays back while you’re walking through the space and at any moment, spoken word from previous viewers comes in through the headset, layered over the musical components. The audio often describes what the speaker is seeing, what they are reminded of when viewing the sculpture, and their general sentiments about the art. The commentary and musical elements play back simultaneously, helping the current explorers experience someone else’s perspective and frame of mind from a past moment.

This “past moment” can denote another user’s descriptions from a few minutes prior, should multiple people be wandering in close proximity and observing the same set of objects, or, it can span longer periods of time, depending on how long the collective repository of audio data is kept active. One poignant example shown during Burgund’s presentation was audio of a heavy rainstorm that someone recorded and uploaded, that was then heard in the headset while wandering in that same area -on a beautiful, non-rainy day.

One of the first applications of Roundware, called the “Scapes” installation, created by Burgund for the Massachusetts deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, is outlined the video below, from Burgund’s point of view. Playing the video will reveal what he’s hearing through Roundware, from the first-person perspective. Burgund also highlights some of the supplemental intrigue of hearing about past observations. For example, he hears about a chipmunk someone saw and mentions that it’s interesting to think where that chipmunk might be now. Keeping track of from who, what, and where audio is derived in the video can be mildly confusing but, is undoubtedly fascinating.

As mentioned before, Roundware has more than sound art applications, and has been eyed by museums and schools for unconventional learning experiences. The Smithsonian is even interested in how Roundware might be used to benefit visually impaired attendees, who could glean descriptions of exhibitions through the eyes of patrons who have visited prior, giving thorough and widely imaginative ideas beyond a single, limited explanation. In addition to this application, during Q&A, it was proposed that Roundware could have great potential for something mimicking geocaching but in an audio-centric format. Plans are in the works for Roundware to eventually support other forms of media, including text, photos and video, which will be part of a Version 2.0 release coming soon.

If you are interested in including Roundware in a work or project of your own, a first version of the platform’s code can be downloaded here.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post Roundware: Connecting Spaces, People, and Sensory Experiences appeared first on SoundCtrl.

“WE’RE NOT CHANGING MUSIC. WE’RE LETTING MUSIC CHANGE YOU”, is the message emblazoned across Pono’s landing page. PonoMusic promises to take artist-approved master recordings and put them in the listener’s hands, with fidelity anywhere from 6 to 30 times that of a regular MP3 file. This is Neil Young’s (a man who is worth $65M according to celebritynetworth.com) Kickstarter baby, and every rocker from Flea to Sting has endorsed it.

The Player will cost $399 and comes with 128GB of storage, which can house 100 to 500 high-resolution digital-music albums, according to Pono. Won’t music-lovers likely have a collection larger than that? It may not be an issue now (the service only has about 8,000 artists on their roster) could become important as the service expands and owners find an increasingly large percentage of their music collection ballooning to Pono-grade HD-sizes.

The PonoPlayer uses zero-feedback circuitry, a digital filter, and a high-quality digital-to-analog converter to create a warm sound reminiscent of a brand new vinyl record. They promise no distortion or distance, and no lack of subtlety – just rich audio as it was meant to be played.

The question is, will you notice? Made by a musician and endorsed by musicians, this seems like a dream come true. And yet, to the average music listener who is perfectly at ease with 192 kbps Spotify streams, static-ey radio, variable YouTube audio quality, robotic digital recordings, and low-end Apple ear buds, the increase in audio fidelity may not be discernable past the general placebo effect of believing it is. That brings us to another point: just like an HDTV only works well with HD channels and a good HDMI cable, the PonoPlayer is likely limited by the headphones or speakers in use.

Yet, there likely is a sustainable market, if limited in size, willing to shell out for lossless digital audio. Musicians and true music lovers know well the full-body and mind sensation that can be achieved while awash in a pure ‘wall of music’ from a device that captures everything from the most subtle accent to the most powerful center-speaker drive.

Though the PonoPlayer works with any MP3, it works best with PonoMusic. Unfortunately, Pono files won’t play on your iPhone or Android device. Why go proprietary? The price of PonoPlayer is unclear, but the fact that it will have its own branded (though not compulsory-use) music library smacks of a meeting where terms like “subscription service revenue stream” were probably thrown around to get investors excited. Case-in-point, the PonoMusic online store will also sell headphones and other products suitable for use with the PonoPlayer. A PonoMusic App will accompany a desktop computer media-management system, allowing customers to download and sync music to their player. According to Digital Music News’ Why Pono Is the Worst Audio Player I Have EVER Seen, albums will be available between $14.99 and $24.99 at PonoMusic.com.

The Pono Kickstarter seems more like a free publicity campaign than a measure of financial risk-mitigation. After all, would 800K really get an expensive piece of audio equipment made over the course of 2 years with a prominent musician, the renowned Ayre Acoustics labs, and a supply chain that spans San Francisco, Ireland and China?

An iPod and iTunes enemy, this is not. But a revolution in bringing high-fidelity audio to the mainstream…it could be.

Check out Pono’s Kickstarter here, where at the time of writing they’ve raised almost 4.5M of their $800,000 goal.

The post Can Pono Change the Face of Mainstream Audio Quality? appeared first on SoundCtrl.

With a plethora of digital devices and music players perforating modern life, you’d think that the relationship between music and technology would be a more widely discussed topic. Despite the many startups that merge tech and music, a dedicated platform that brings together the growing, lucrative music technology sector is still quite rare.

This is where London’s Music Tech Fest swoops in and fills an oddly under-attended void, at least as far as an indsutry-specialized crowd is concerned. Founded in April 2012 by Michela Magas, co-founder of design research lab Stromatolite,  Music Tech Fest is just that: a gathering devoted to the convergence of music and tech, regardless of the industry sector. Researchers, performers, hackers, business innovators, and technology aficionados — any angle of industry profession steeped in music tech can be found at this event. During the nascent two years of the event, Music Tech Fest has already garnered the time and attention of many companies and influencers alike. (We’ve previously featured Synesthesia, an app which was developed by Stromatolite and is a sort of signature to Music Tech Fest.)

Coming into its third year, Music Tech Fest is going strong,  expanding the event to new locations outside of London and even outside of the EU. In late February, a branch of Music Tech Fest was hosted in Wellington, New Zealand at the local Microsoft Research Labs, and its next stop will be hosted this weekend at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Labs (referred to as the NERD labs!) in Boston, MA. Following Boston, the flagship festival will be held in London in May, with other “tour stops” scheduled for Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris and Brazil.

Thus far, Music Tech Fest: Boston is already shaping up to host an impressive lineup. Some confirmed attendees include:

Dave Haynes (fmr. SoundCloud)

Paul Lamere (Echo Nest)

Berklee’s Rethink Music Initiative

Paris’s IRCAM-Centre Pompidou

The Music Technology Group of UPF Barcelona

…with many more companies, as well as newly developed instruments and digital projects set for presenting demonstrations. A live link-up with the British Library is also on the agenda, along with the expectedly exciting hackathon, hosted by Jonathan Marmor (also of The Echo Nest).

You can follow along with all the Music Tech Fest activities on Twitter and get involved with the conversation with the hastag, #mtfboston.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

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