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.

No matter how much the guitar has perforated today’s society and no matter how many singer-songwriters have taken to the streets, the staple instrument is always going to be novel to a newcomer. The guitar can be especially daunting to those who don’t play an instrument or don’t read music.

MoForte, a young Mountain View, CA incorporate, has unleashed the first of what will hopefully be many music-oriented products. Their inaugural idea takes on the very aforementioned premise — targeting “sonic and musical applications for mobile.” moForte’s first app models the actions and sounds of a guitar, and is designed so that anyone can approach and play without a single lesson.

The app emulates the timbre and strumming motions of guitar playing without requiring knowledge of chord finger patterns. Shown in action via the video below, individual chords can be selected and then strummed. A “teaching mode” helps users get accustomed to the rhythmic patterns of recognizable melodies. The app has a social aspect as well, in that these strummed performances can be shared with friends.

I spoke with CTO/acting CEO, Pat Scandalis, one of three main founders of moForte, along with founding consultant Dr. Julius O. Smith III,,  and chief scientist Nicholas J. Porcaro. We talked about what makes moforte’s Guitar app stand out, the potential for future collaborations, and where this multi-app company plans to take its ideas for the next round of projects.

SoundCtrl: Would you describe moForte’s guitar app, as one primarily for entertainment purposes as opposed to meticulous educational use?

Pat Scandalis: moForte Guitar is targeted for musicians/hobbyist musicians as an alternative musical instrument and for accompaniment.  Refer to slides 48-50 in the moForte Technical Deck. As it stands today, a user can create their own chart to either play directly from the performance surface or to use as accompaniment (see slide 74).  In a near term release we will offer an in-app upgrade for MIDI/OSC support so that keyboards or other controllers can play the modeled guitar. It’s a goal for moForte to enable keyboard players to “blow away” the guitar players that they play with

Since the app doesn’t encase your mobile device, it seems that the premise is to gain an aural, rather than physical experience of the guitar.

We are pushing toward a split of the app into two consumer products (Guitar-Inator, Guitaroake) and two products for musicians (moForte Guitar, PowerStomp) (Refer to slides 48-50)

Guitar-inator is a game-ification of the tablature notation system used by guitar players. This app has only two screens. A “Teaching” screen and a “Jam” screen. The teaching screen is used to teach how to play the chart using “Conduct and Express”. The user may slow down the performance in order to master the rhythm.  They are also scored on a number of metrics. Once the chart is mastered, the user can switch to the “Jam” screen to play the chart using “Conduct and Express” and interact with a visualizer.

With regard to an extended physical experience of playing a guitar-like enclosure, at some point we may offer an enclosure to be used in the context of Guitar-inator’s Jam mode.

Right now moForte Guitar’s strength seems to lie in the audio bank of chords that can be matched, which supports more of an ear-training capacity.  How else does moForte distinguish itself within the vein of such a popular instrument?

Yes, we see the value of the bank of chords as being accompaniment and ear-training as an aid for improvisation. That is, a user can quickly enter some chord changes, hit “perform” and have an accompanist. Our primary differentiator is that we are offering the emotional experience of playing feedback distortion guitar via “Conduct and Express,” to people who may never have a chance to have this experience. Further, the technology (audio physical modeling) is what is making it possible to actually realize this interactive experience. Until now, there have not been any products on mobile devices that can do this. A secondary differentiator is that moForte Guitar supports musicians as a tool for accompaniment.

Aside from entertainment, do you see this kind of approach to music making being well-suited for younger music fans? Would it possible be beneficial to music therapy or for fine motor skill rehabilitation applications? 

We believe that because so many younger music fans have mobile devices, that the moForte line of applications offer an easy “gateway” to having a “guitar” experience without pulling down a real guitar. That being said, we love the real guitar. If you had a fun experience with one of our apps, then please do consider playing a real guitar. [For the latter thoughts,] I do think that this is possible. At moForte we believe that “everybody’s got a right to rock”. At this year’s NAMM we were approached by a school for special needs individuals who would like to use moForte Guitar to enable their students to experience what its like to “thrash”.

What inspired moForte to go this route for its first app, and what informed the route of developing multiple music apps as opposed to strengthening just one? 

The founders of moForte have been working in this area of audio physical modeling for many years. Forms of the guitar model have been worked on for over 20 years. We saw it as an opportunity to take something that we’ve been working on for many years (the guitar model … really a passion work) and finally make it available in a form for a large audience, both musician and consumer. What makes these audio physical models [in general,] interesting, is that they have interactive controls. The proliferation of powerful mobile devices with interactive sensors as created an opportunity to bring these interactive sound models to a generally available platform.

[Regarding development of multiple apps,] initially, we set out to build [one] rich-multifunction app. We have since learned, that on the consumer side, users prefer single function apps. As a result, we will continue to support the rich-multifunction app (moForte Guitar) but, we will also offer a number of single function apps for specific consumer entertainment areas.

Are there any future plans to partner with pedal and effects companies to incorporate brand-specific sounds popular among the guitar community?

We’ve had initial discussions about brand licensing for modeled effects.  That is an ongoing discussion. It will become more relevant in the context of “PowerStomp” (which we demo-ed at NAMM/2014). PowerStomp is a breakout of the effects chain specifically for musicians.

We are also in ongoing discussions to license content, great guitar RIFFs, great Strumming songs.

Where do you see moForte in one year?

We will have fully rolled out Guitar-inator, Guitaraoke, PowerStomp and, we will have a number of our other ideas (percussion, synths) in products. [SC]

MoForte Guitar is available now, free from the iTunes App Store.

You can follow moForte on Twitter @moForteGuitar

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 Interview: Pat Scandalis, CEO of moForte 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.

In philosophy, a first principle is a basic, foundational proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption. In mathematics, first principles are referred to as axioms or postulates. In the mobile modular music processing app Audulus, first principles are the core of sound design.

Created and designed by software engineer W. Taylor Holliday, Audulus is a minimal, colorful, and downright attractive modular synthesis app for Mac, iPad, and now iPhone. 

Modularity is an age-old concept: combine two discrete elements to create a whole that is the sum of its parts. The functionality of a modular system is defined by the pieces that it comprises, and this concept need not be analog to be instilled with the same spirit that made such technologies so limitless and fun.

With Audulus on iPhone, modular audio is reinvented for musicians on the go, in an app that allows the user to create his or her sounds from the ground up. As with all technological innovations, especially those dealing with such “building block” structures, design is at the core of Audulus’s functionality. Easy to use and easier to look at, the app takes inspiration from the elements of programming applications such as Pure Data and Max, and outfits them to be quite appealing, even to an onlooker on the subway.

Audulus comes stocked with standard synth features, such as oscillators, ADSR, and filters; production tools including a 4-channel mixer, crossfade, and level meter; as well as MIDI control, preset saving, and integration with the new Audiobus 2. 

Audulus for iPhone and iPad is available on the iTunes store and an AudioUnit beta version has just been released for Mac.  

The post Audulus Brings Mobile Modular Synthesis to iPhone 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.

Aaron Shekey and Joseph Kuefler have created a much an easier way for songwriters to keep track of their ideas. With their new app Hum, lyrics and recorded melodies are combined in a single app,  a surprisingly simple feat that few other apps have tackled. In a minimal and navigable interface with few frills, Hum offers a unique and highly efficient option for quick songwriting, plus easy sharing opportunities to collaborate with fellow musicians. Though the app is still in its nascent stage, Hum’s flexibility and straightforwardness open possibilities for expansion and growth in the near future, possibly revolutionizing the way we write songs on our phones.

Hum sports a cool green and white screen, with a light font that’s easy to read. Opening the app will take you directly to your list of songs, and a variety of sort options from the drop-down menu will help you navigate your notebook. You can filter your songs by date, note type (lyrics or audio, or both), key, guitar tuning (of which there are many, many listed), capo position, and mood. There are also two sliders which denote mood and timbre or energy. Within each note, the filters can beadjusted to organize each song accordingly. Recording your voice is pretty straightforward — press the big record button and play back from within the note or from the quick player in list view.

We had a chance to catch up with Aaron Shekey, one of the Hum founders, to talk briefly about the app and its plans for the future.

1. Where is the Hum team from, and what are your backgrounds?

 Hum began and continues to be driven out of Minneapolis, MN, one of the country’s greatest music cities. Aaron cut his teeth designing websites for big brands. He later moved to San Francisco to work for Adobe. There he conceived of, designed and helped to build Edge Reflow, the first responsive web design application.  Joseph spent years working as Creative Lead at Zeus Jones, a modern brand agency. While there, he led creative and strategic efforts for brands like Google, Purina and General Mills. 

2. What sort of songwriting experiences informed the creation of Hum?

Hum began as way to scratch our own itches. We were sick of using the iPhone’s native VoiceMemos app to collect our ideas. We were tired of our lyrics sitting next to shopping lists and reminders.

3. You have filters for key and capo, is Hum made especially for acoustic singer-songwriters?

 No. We want Hum to appeal to as many genres and types of musical creators as possible. We’ve got metal guitarists, rappers, songwriters, jazz musicians and many other types of artists using Hum today. We’ll continue to polish Hum’s features to enable artists of all shapes create and organize more efficiently. 

4. Do you think you may integrate other sounds and/or instruments (like a mobile keyboard or drum sequencer) in the future to record melodies and rhythms on the fly?

We’re going to continue to introduce features that help artists capture ideas, but we have no plans to turn Hum into a full-featured digital audio workstation. Hum is much less about performance, and much more about capturing ideas. A melody can just as quickly be captured by singing into Hum as it could from a tiny iOS keyboard.

5. Hum’s interface is pleasantly minimal — are there limitations you’re imposing on the design and functionality to keep it simple?

 

We’re constantly challenging ourselves to maintain a simple and elegant interface. This requires us to question everything and include only what we need. 

 

Beyond that, the App Store is filled with thousands of apps packed with dozens of features each. This is especially true within the music category. There is no shortage of complex music production/editing apps out there. What musicians were missing was a simple tool focused solely on the initial spark of an idea, a tool that was tailor-made for capturing and organizing their ideas, a tool with as few steps between idea and finished recording as possible. In some ways, this makes it easy to keep Hum’s interface simple. Musicians don’t need another full-feature Garageband, so we get to forego many of the complexities there.

 

We don’t add features unless we can do it in a dead-simple manner.

6. Do you have any plans to build collaborative communities around Hum?

Absolutely. Without going into too much detail, I’ll leave it at “absolutely!”

7. What kind of syncing does Hum offer to back up songs?

 Hum doesn’t sync just yet. We had to start somewhere and wanted to get Hum in people’s hands as soon as possible. We have a working version of Dropbox syncing that we’re testing right now. It’ll be a minute before it’s released though, securing our user’s ideas and in-progress work is incredibly important—building the best damn songwriting app out there requires us to do whatever we can to ensure our users never lose an idea. 

8. Do you plan on partnering with any other platforms to expand the reach and functionality of the app (i.e. Audiobus, SoundCloud, etc.)?

 We’re always considering new and exciting ways to modernize songwriting. We haven’t established partnerships yet. As soon as a few critical feature additions are complete, we’ll more actively connect with like-minded apps and companies.

9. Any big names that have endorsed Hum?

While we haven’t yet established official endorsees, we do have a great list of influential users: members of Sugarland, Punch Brothers and OK Go; Jeremy Messersmith; Justin Lowe (After the Burial); Ben Kweller; members of Doomtree; Paul Baloche (one of Christian music’s biggest names). As important as the bigger names are, there are thousands of unknown songwriters from around the globe using Hum today.

Hum is available for download on the iTunes App store, and you can keep up with Hum’s progress on Twitter and on their blog.

The post Hum, An iPhone App for the Mobile Songwriter 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.

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.

Now that Audiobus has announced its newest update, allowing inter-app presets to be saved and recalled, soft and hardware instrument maker Arturia has adopted the new technology for its iSEM mobile synth. Made specifically for iPad, iSEM is an impressive digital reconstruction of Oberheim’s 1974 SEM synthesizer.

Praise for the device’s accurate replication comes from even the most discerning synth players, including Depeche Mode’s Alan Wilder, who is an owner of the original Oberheim instrument.

The post Arturia Brings Audiobus 2 to iSEM Synth App 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.

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.

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.

Native Instruments has released the newest, smallest device in its line of digital DJ hardware, the Traktor Audio 2. As “the world’s smallest audio interface,” the Audio 2 is an ultra-compact, high-quality sound card, processing audio at 24-bit/48 kHz.

Made for use with Traktor’s iOS app Traktor DJ, as well as the Traktor Pro software, the Audio 2 makes mobile DJing a breeze, with little setup and breakdown between DJs and sets. Furthermore, the size of the audio 2 makes it a viable option for audiophiles who want to listen to music in high quality from their iPhones. The device comes with connection cables for iPhone and laptop, and the 30 pin to USB cable for iPad is optional.

Native Instruments has been steadily developing iOS compatibility for its line of DJ devices, including the Kontrol S4, S2, and Z1 controllers. This expansion speaks to the growing number of mobile DJs and fans of electronic music, especially those who use laptop, iPads, and now iPhones for their sets. 

The Traktor Audio 2 works in a number of configurations integrating the mobile and desktop versions of its software.  Below, the setups for iPhone, iPad, external miser and MIDI controller MIDI are shown. With Audio 2′s dual-channel output, switching between these setups is quite simple.

Traktor Audio 2 comes with Traktor LE 2, the standard version of the desktop software, and comes at an affordable price of $99. Check out the Traktor section of the NI website for more information.

The post Traktor Audio 2: Tiny, Loud, and Portable appeared first on SoundCtrl.

You might wonder why a widely successful mobile-only app would expand to the stationary side of the technologic border. That’s what Soundwave has done with their most recent update, now available in the iTunes App and Google Play stores. However, the tagline for the update, “Soundwave moves to capture desktop music,” is assuredly exciting because of what it means for the reach of the app’s ever-growing community.

The global music tracker and more recently, buzzing social platform (thanks to their last update bringing in comments and hashtags), decided to develop and release this evolution as a means of directly responding to ground level input from users worldwide, as well as inferences drawn from user analytics and behavior. It is worth noting that while Soundwave continues to grow, their discernment of that growth has never involved letting go of contact and cohesion with their user base, despite its widely cast net and server-stretching volume. While capturing plays from outside mobile devices is not completely new to Soundwave (YouTube integration bestowed Soundwave’s app with the ability to track plays), maximizing inclusion of desktop plays to better match the adopted music players linkable through mobile gives Soundwave a bigger, more natural picture of what, where, and when their users are listening to songs.  Now there will be even fewer “steps” necessary to ensure song plays accumulate in your Soundwave activity feed.

Although expansion from mobile to desktop might seem strange, Soundwave’s team is trying to assemble a full and organic impression of one’s listening habits/preferences, and have found that many people still turn to their desktops often. University students are a global, perpetual, and active portion of the music-curating population who stand to provide Soundwave with much of its behavioral data, and Soundwave’s Chrome extension provides them a less awkward way to frequent the app. After all, would a student immersed in their studies reach for their phone to play music, or just pull up Spotify/SoundCloud/YouTube/Songza/etc. in their browser?

In addition to desktop inclusion, a fresh round of standalone players are now part of Soundwave’s world as well. The mobile side now takes plays from Pandora and SoundCloud, while the desktop-oriented full list now includes Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, 8tracks, Google Play Music, Gaana, VK, Songza, MySpace, Deezer, and Grooveshark. The only, very minor downside is that this upgrade will take just a bit more work on top of tapping the update button on the mobile app. Just follow these directions and accruing and sharing plays with people all over the world will be much easier!

1. Enter the settings menu in the Soundwave app and select “Connect music players”

2. Retrieve and record your unique seven digit pin from the app on your Android or iOS device

3. Click on the link on the Soundwave website to begin installation

4. Insert your unique seven digit pin and the install will start

5. Installation finished!

Soundwave is based in Dublin, Ireland and is backed by venture capitalist, Mark Cuban, as well as Apple Founder, Steve Wozniak. You can keep up with future developments and extra community chatter by following them on Twitter @Soundwave.

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 Soundwave Doubles Down with Desktop Music Capture Update appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Former Nokia and Skype product designer, Duncan Lamb, has launched fledgling San Francisco startup Aether with the goal of integrating hardware and software to deliver a simple music listening experience.  Branded as a ‘thinking player’, Cone is a new audio device that learns your likes and dislikes to a scary degree (though the company promises never to use data to serve anyone else but the customer’s benefit).  It then plays back audio from streaming music services, Internet radio stations and podcasts based on its knowledge of your tastes.

The lack of a screen can be seen either as a big plus (simplification to the nth degree) or a big drawback (as users tend to be comforted by visual controls).  Instead, Cone has voice recognition and a simple click wheel control scheme: Turn and it’ll automatically play what you enjoy; tap the center and it’ll pause; press the center button, then tell Cone what genre, artists or song you want to hear and it’ll obey; turn the dial again and it’ll play something random.

Cone will be available in two color schemes.  The black and copper version looks like a conical Duracell battery, while the classic white and gray looks like it was torn straight from the Apple assembly line.  Its minimalistic front-side center button and dial system design is rounded out with top-mounted + and – volume buttons, and a rear-mounted on/off switch and 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Designed to fit just about anywhere, the 6.3 H x 6.3 W x 6 L, 2.9 lb. Cone will sell for $399.  The first batch will be ready for shipment in early Summer 2014.  To use it you’ll need a device running iOS 7+ or Mac OSX 10.9+ “Mavericks.”  It’s not yet clear which specific music services will be compatible with Cone, but you will have the ability to play music from your iPhone or Mac.

Let’s get spec-tacular for a moment:  Cone features a fully digital I2S 2.1 channel 20w audio amplifier, 3” woofer plus dual tweeter design, a built-in rechargeable Li-on battery and dual-band (2.4 and 5GHz) Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n capability with up to 8 hours of continuous playback.

It’s an innovative design and even more inventive idea for hands-off music lovers, but we’ve gotta ask: Does it work with the iPad as well?  How’s the sound quality?  WHERE IS THE REMOTE CONTROL?  It seems like the perfect device to bring to a secluded outdoor spot, oh, except it only operates in a Wifi environment.  Would it be too difficult to include a port for iPod or iPhone insertion, so Cone could be used as a regular speaker in case there are no nearby hot-spots?  And one last question…what if you can’t think of the name of a song and you want to hear it.  Can Cone read your mind too?

Time will tell if users desire chic, high-end, hands-off, Internet- and Wifi-dependent devices like these to sate their appetites for current and immediate mood-serving music.  If not, maybe cassettes will make a comeback.

Reserve your Cone here.

The post Turn, Tap, Touch and Talk Your Way Through Internet Radio appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Life is full of bombarding sounds, and we tend to brush over the lot of them in the hustle of a busy day. What would it be like if such a common sound were presented in an unexpected way?  Enter: Mew, a sound piece recently developed by a team of students at the Royal College of Art in London, UK.

This piece of hardware was part of SoundObject, a collaborative effort in which Emily Groves, Paula Arntzen, Jacqueline Ford, and Jakub Pollág, students in the Information Experience Design and Visual Communication, and Design Products departments of RCA, worked together to “create a digital and physical object that responds sonically to people and its surroundings.”

Asking, “What is Mew, exactly?” is a perfect segue for an infomercial style motto:

All the character of a cat, without the messy litter box cleanup!

This may be a slightly juvenile and crude description, but even with a cute name and tagline to match, this university endeavor is actually quite complex — it is loaded with technology and is hardly a child’s toy. It may look innocent on the outside but this “kitty” is packing the support of tech familiar to SoundCtrl, such as Max MSP, lots of Arduino circuitry, several pressure sensors and even a Mac mini. (If you are interested in this kind of work, see also this piece highlighting the Skube, another project that utilizes MSP and Arduino.)

The team started out with an objective in the form of a question:

“How can we manipulate people’s expectations of sound through a responsive digital physical object?”

The answer came in the form of an object that presents onlookers and those who actively approach the device with distorted sound clips that emulate a cat, but are distorted enough not to be perceived as an animal likeness of any kind. Responsive actions include: walking toward Mew, petting/stroking the fur covered interface, and pushing down on the surface. Each of these will trigger sounds. The particular cat audio that is emitted when interacting with Mew is affected by variables like amount of pressure and directionality of touch and petting movement.

Mew invites a more intimate level of interaction once someone comes with a certain distance because motion sensors signal it to start purring. Touching the fur, covered in conductive thread, tells the Arduino platforms to playback the distorted meows and any amount of pressure that exceeds the predetermined amount of force programmed into the sensors put on Mew’s foam ”body,” will prompt a stern hiss. All of these sonic reactions are controlled, shaped and changed with the Max MSP software that runs off the built-in Mac mini previously mentioned.

The contradictory nature of a non-cat like object, being built to encourage the kind of behavior one would share with a cat, fits the purposes of this academic project well enough. Still, it does posit other questions and beneficial possibilities, should the project be modeled to more naturally and closely emulate an animal. If enough sonic variety and behavioral nuances were accounted for, and worked with, for example, perhaps something like Mew be of good use as a substitute for therapy animals.

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 Mew: The Purring, Hissing Sound Art Piece appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Each year, SXSW contributes to music and tech innovation, particularly through its Accelerator Competition. This year, more than 500 startups applied to participate in the competition, and these were then whittled down to 48 finalists. A panel of experts will then choose the 18 best startups to present their product or service to another panel of judges in addition to a live SXSW audience.

While SXSW is known by most as a music festival, this year’s finalists in the competitions are surprisingly non-music related. There are a few that can be applied to various aspects of music technology, and we’ve included those in our list of five SXSW music tech finalists, curated with the help of Hypebot.

Artiphon

If you’re looking for next-gen musical instruments, Artiphon is one of the latest to hit the music tech scene. The latest tech-savvy musical instruments are often made to be played by anyone of any level of skill, and Artiphon combines this ease  with appeal to the professional musician.

Armed with its “Touch Sound” philosophy, Artiphon is a multi-instrument that can be held in a variety of ergonomic positions and can produce a versatile wealth of sounds by being strummed, bowed, picked or plucked. It has a patent-pending fretboard interface with six virtual strings, six virtual frets and full fretless playability. It provides the subtle nuances of traditional stringed instruments while going beyond the capabilities of analog strings. Artiphon has multi-track recording capabilities with apps such as Garageband and Auria and direct control of computer software like Ableton, Traktor and Pro Tools. It is a high-tech answer to the modern string instrument, and it allows the player to create truly unique sounds.

Bionym

In our previous article about heartbeat music capabilities, we touched on various devices and programs that could eventually be used to create or curate music based on the human heartbeat. Bionym’s Nymi is a device with similar capabilities, though it was not specifically created with music in mind. Nymi is a form of wearable authentication technology which can allow you to wirelessly control your computer, smartphone, car and more.

This device interaction could easily include your music library and music preferences, which the device can learn from your very own heartbeat. Imagine being able to simply put on the wristband and access the appropriate playlist for your mood immediately based on your heartbeat at that time. This is yet another device that enables the power of the heartbeat outside of your body.

Kiwi Wearable Technologies

Small, easily clipped to your wardrobe and deemed fashionable, the multi-functional Kiwi Move allows wearers to “seamlessly interact with their environments, elegantly simplifying and optimizing their daily lives.” This one device has a variety of sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, thermometer and microphone, but its music capabilities come in with gesture control.

The device can read your motions to draw musical notes in the air and can identify the songs playing around you. It can change the way you interact with music by analyzing your entire environment and all of the music that is around you. From there, the Move’s potential will be determined when the device hits the market.

OP3Nvoice

Using API, SDKs, and plugins, OP3Nvoice users can “extract more knowledge from video and voice recordings.” It allows users to search recorded data, which can mean accomplishing anything from searching phone calls to find and verify data to helping users seek out specific moments in lectures, notes, and interviews.

In terms of music, this application could enable users to make music requests to their devices using their voices rather than their hands. This can be most helpfully applied to mobile devices and devices in a car, but it can also be integral to wearable music technology, allowing users to locate a particular lyric in a song or request their next song hands-free.

sonarDesign

In short, sonarDesign allows you to create micro-apps (mApps) on smartphones, tablets, and desktops that can suit a variety of purposes. You can either use one of the startup’s preconfigured templates or build your own from scratch. Once you create the mApp, sonarDesign will provide services for hosting, e-commerce, customer service, and analytics.

On its website, sonarDesign is advertised as a product for presentations, photo scrapbooks and instructional materials, but it has musical applications as well. Musicians and music industry professionals could create these mApps for purposes of promotion and distribution storefronts, such as for selling CDs, downloads, or other merchandise. Bands could also create mApps to find new and unique ways to connect with their fans on the mobile devices they are accustomed to using.

These are just a few of the many finalists from the 2014 SXSW Accelerator competition, but we are excited to see these music-enabled technologies rise to the top of the competition when the next round of 18 finalists is announced on March 8^th.

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Customers can request money directly from the Square Cash app or by simply composing an e-mail:

1) To: [one or more email addresses]

2) Cc: [email protected]

3) Subject: $ [amount]

Send!

The highlight of Square Cash’s functionality is that by using email, multiple payers can be contacted at once, especially helpful for organizing group activities and outings without the hassle of speaking to each member. Square Cash also enables customers to check in on the status of a requested payment at anytime, to keep track of outgoing and incoming payments for groups or individuals.  Funds are directly deposited into the recipient’s bank account, rather than held in a stored balance account — Venmo uses this balance system, unless paying “trusted” accounts.

Square Cash is available for Android and iOS and also works from any e-mail client. Square Cash is currently only available in the U.S. Visit www.square.com/cash for more information.

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Mogees has a number of options for creating sounds from otherwise mundane objects:

1. Sounds presets: Select different sound presets and associate them to the objects you play.
2. Free Mode : The free mode lets you improvise completely. Find new ways to produce different notes and timbres by exploring how to play physical objects using different gestures using bare hands or anything you can find around you. Through the app, you can also select the musical notes and timbres that you want the system to associate to your gestures.
3. Song Mode : You can also use Mogees to play and re-interpret your favorite tunes. Just use the app to load a MIDI file of the song you want to play and you are ready to go.
4. Capture : The Capture function allows you to capture the natural sound properties of your gestures and convert it to a sound preset. In this way, you can apply the sound properties from one object to another. You might like to play a tree with the acoustic properties of a glass, or a bicycle with the properties of an ice cube. The limits are only your imagination !
5. Backing track : Play along with a backing track. Use our pre-loaded loops or record/import your own audio files.

Mogees is also available in an upgraded pro version which enables customized sound synthesis, remote mode for controlling Ableton or other DAW devices, and DMX control which via Wi-Fi can control lighting systems and VJ software.

1. Acoustic properties : Achieve total control on the sounds you create by accessing the advanced Mogees synthesis parameters. Customise the sounds you capture or create brand new ones.
2. Remote Mode : Synchronise your Mogees performances to your computer remotely. Use Ableton Live or other computer software to send OSC messages to the app and control all the parameters in real time.
3. DMX control : Control lights remotely using Mogees! The Mogees app can generate ARTNET messages on the fly to control any DMX-compatible light system via WiFi.

Mogees is completely portable, and with simple modes as well as connectivity to more complex production situations, it’s an affordable way to diversify any musical endeavor. Mogees also has performance art applications for dance, theater, and improvisational music, and can be triggered by nearly any object in any environment. Also useful for classrooms, Mogees shows promise for early education applications.

The project has 15 days left on Kickstarter, and it’s one that seems worth getting behind if you’re always inspired on the go. Mogees will be available for iOS and Android once it is released.

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