Inspired by Alva Noto’s unitxt album, in which tracks are “generated from converting pure data of programs, jpgs or other digital files into sound material,” Leico’s ray.sniff~ converts the pure data of a network into signal data, which is encoded as audio. Essentially as infinite as your deepest Wikipedia session, all of the sonified data transmitted from an internet joyride is noisy, glitchy, and unsettling. ray.sniff~ seems to serve as a larger metaphor about our erratic and addictive online habits. 

Leico invites us “to [a] new relationship with the Web as [an] amazing sound source.” Be sure to open a new window. 

The post Leico’s ray.sniff~ Max Device Converts Your Web Browsing Data to Audio appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The post Pharrell’s “Happy,” Stripped of Music appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Check out the finalists below — each video demonstrates the hacks the engineers used for the challenge, ranging from toy keyboards to scrap wood and barbecue grills.

Stephen Barnwell

The primary motivation for and function of the Cataritone is video synthesis. The goal was to create a module that could take audio and control signals from an analog synthesizer and use them in a consistent and predictable fashion to add a unique visual element to a musical performance.

Mike Sisk

This device is built from a toy Kawasaki/Remco electric guitar, a toy voice changer, a kid’s cassette player, and a PT2399 delay kit. The case was built from a recycled BBQ grill kit, sheet metal from old audio equipment and some scrape wood.

George Gleixner

The device is a Hing Hon EK-001, a small Chinese-built children’s keyboard based on squarewave synthesis. It has been converted into an upright synth with wooden side panels, and a large plexiglass control panel containing a series of bends including distortions, glitches, various modulations, three additional LFOs, optic theremins, video inputs/outputs and more.

C. Freddi

The artist has employed the exquisite sequencing and synthesis capabilities of the Yamaha QY-10to convert any sound source into a state-of-the-art glitch collage via the easy-to-use circuit bending interface mounted on the anterior of the helmet’s crest.

The post The Four Finalists of the Moogfest Circuit Bending Challenge appeared first on SoundCtrl.

On May 6th, “Become Ocean” will make its New York debut at Carnegie Hall’s Spring for Music series. You can preview the composition below.

John Luther Adams is perhaps most famously known for “Inuksuit,” an outdoor composition and performance of  70 moving percussionists, inspired by the monolithic stone landmarks of native people of the Arctic.

The post John Luther Adams Wins Pulitzer Prize for Music 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.

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.

Watching music videos in science class? Sign me up!

While their teachers may not play videos from the latest hip-hop or pop star, students may start seeing educational music videos appear in their daily lessons, particularly in the realm of science. As the U.S. places a greater emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, researchers are looking for new ways to improve the learning process for students in these subjects.As part of that effort, researchers Kate Davis and Greg Cowther from the University of Washington might be onto something. They posit that while music may be one answer to improving learning for some students, videos to accompany that music could have an even greater effect. Davis says, “It makes sense that we shouldn’t teach all kids the same way; we should individualize. We need to provide multiple entry points in all subject matters. Music is a different entry point into scientific concepts.”

The Study and Its Results

According to University Herald, “For the study, researchers set up laptop computers at five science-related outreach events in Washington State. Most targeted students in grades K-12, but adults also participated. Participants in the study ranged from 3 to 76 years old, with a median age of 12. Each person sat in front of a laptop and selected a science-based music video to watch.”

One such video, entitled “Fossil Rock Anthem,” is a parody of the hip-hop song “Party Rock Anthem,” and depicted graphics of fossils and ground striations, drifting continental plates, and even a dancing archaeologist in fun, vibrant graphics set to a catchy tune. The video combined media—music and images—that were not only fun and memorable but that had an educational backbone to them as well.

Before watching the video, study participants took a quiz with four questions related to information in the video in addition to a bonus question not covered by the video. After watching the video, they took the same quiz plus confidence questions.

University Herald reports, “In two-thirds of the music videos (10 out of 15), participants had more correct answers after watching the videos. Quiz scores rose by an average of one more correct answer after watching the videos. The lyrics-only music videos were as beneficial to improving quiz scores as the visually-rich videos.”

Davis and Cowther presented their research, “Sing About Science: Leveraging the Power of Music to Improve Science Education,” at the American Educational Research Association’s annual conference last week.

What These Findings Mean

It is already widely known that music can help students improve memory, boost fact memorization, and aid in the assessment of complex questions as well. Since the days of early civilization and oral tradition, students from preschool to medical school have used rhymes and songs to help them remember pieces of information, sometimes even in vast amounts. This has been proven by many research studies to be an effective way to learn and retain new information of all kinds, science-related or otherwise.

Besides simply remembering facts, music can also play an important role in memory by triggering emotional responses, which music inherently does. By triggering an emotional response, it is likely that a person will have an easier time remembering what the music was talking about when he or she felt that emotion, thus improving both memorization and comprehension.

Now, with this research, it has been proven that not only can music be applied in the classroom to bolster learning, but music videos have their own value as well—and for some students, particularly those more geared toward visual learning, they could improve their memory and learning even more. Even lyric-only videos improved quiz scores in this study, so this is a viable method that teachers can apply in the classroom to enhance the educational experience for their students.

What to Expect in the Future

As these findings are shared and reproduced, it is likely that more educational music videos will be released by teachers, students and organizations the world over, creating a massive library of music videos for teachers and students to use. These videos will foster further innovation, and they will only get better and more interesting for students with time.

In addition to teachers, students and organizations releasing these videos, you can expect to see musicians themselves contributing to the cause. Many musicians are looking for ways to use their talents for the better good, and this is a perfect way to give back and improve education for others. As musicians are already adept at songwriting and possibly even music video organization, this too could improve the quality of the videos made available to others.

Another application for these music videos is to make a special project out of the creation of a music video for students themselves. This would give the student a chance to immerse him or herself in the subject matter while creating a song and possibly accompanying images that illustrate the concept to be shared with other students. Students or groups of students could present these to the class, and the whole class would be able to benefit from the presenters’ immersion in that subject matter.

Educational music videos have been around for some time, but with research like this, more videos are destined to gain momentum in the educational sphere. In or out of school, expect to see videos like these popping up on YouTube, educational sites and beyond over the next few years. Who knew science could be so fun?

The post Fossil Rock Anthem? How Music Videos Can Improve Science Education 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.

As part of a major restructuring of the magazine and brand, Billboard has appointed former executive editor of Hearst Magazines International, Tony Gervino, as editor-in-chief. Janice Min, the new co-president and chief creative officer of Guggenheim Media Entertainment Group which owns Billboard, has praised Gervino for his editorial vision and drive.

Billboard also recently named Mike Bruno (Entertainment Weekly) as VP of Digital Content & Programming and Shirley Halperin (Hollywood Reporter) as Music Editor. Current Billboard editor Joe Levy will become editor-at-large.

In addition to overseeing all editorial decisions for Hearst and its Home Design, Men’s Enthusiast, and Womens Network magazines, Tony Gervino has also contributed to New York Times, New York Times Magazine, and launched the award-winning Antenna Magazine. Gervino is poised to bring a bit of class to the charts.

The post Tony Gervino is Billboard’s New Editor-In-Chief appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Twitter is beginning to unveil a new redesign of user profiles. Much more similar to the profile pages of Facebook and Google+, the new design will include a large header image of the user’s choosing, as well as a left-oriented avatar image and information.

“Best Tweets,” which include your most relevant posts, will appear larger on your timeline, and you’ll have the option of pinning Tweets to the top. Users can filter others’ timelines to see Tweets with pictures, links, and replies.

Below are examples of some of the first redesigned profiles, featuring John Legend and Weezer. The redesign will be rolled out to all users in the coming weeks.

The post Twitter Gets A Makeover appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The post Watch SK Telecom’s Telephone Orchestra appeared first on SoundCtrl.

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.

Sometimes a whole record label isn’t quite as great as the sum of its parts. Case in point for Island Def Jam, the Universal Music Group subsidiary comprising the Island, Def Jam, and Motown record labels. The layers of sublabels belonging to the various companies are deep, but Island Def Jam’s daughter labels are known as home to Kanye West, Drake, Erykah Badu, Bon Jovi, and other huge pop acts.  The move comes after Barry Weiss, CEO of Island Def Jam and Universal Motown Republic Group resigned from his position, spurring a drastic adjustment that allows Island, Def Jam, and Motown to handle their own publicity and A&R.

Though the label claims to be giving each subsidiary its own independence, the move seems to reflect a shift back from labels being corporate giants to being brands that carry their own aesthetics and artistic values. As independent labels and artists become more successful from visible online presences and organic outreach (and making better music on smaller budgets), major labels are less attractive to artists who can maintain their artistic integrity without the looming dollar signs of the corporate music machines.

What’s more, it seems the industry is retracting from its decade of compression, when the “Big Six” turned into the “Big Three,” made of Universal, Sony, and Warner.  From a business perspective, majors are better off breaking large struggling assets such as Island Def Jam into parts that are more easily managed without an extra line of command. Yes, letting the individual labels function on their own will hopefully ensure focused creative direction for their respective artists, but it also helps Universal address each label’s interests appropriately. The industry is long overdue for a corporate restructuring effort, but that effort is merely speculative without a philosophic overhaul that values music over money —and it’s unlikely that it will come from the top down.

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This is no April Fool’s joke. Today marks the first full day of activity for newly launched collaborative endeavor, MusicMark. But what is MusicMark and why would someone possibly think of its existence as a prank?

It might have something to do with the idea that multiple performing rights organizations (PROs) are teaming up as one entity. While it is true that PROs have common goals and business objectives in support of the respective songwriters, artists and publishers they collectively represent, the individual working structure and overall framework for each PRO is slightly different. This is what allows for a healthy amount of variety and choice to best suit every person’s needs within the music industry.

MusicMark is nothing to be feared, nor is it something that will merge every PRO under a single umbrella of procedures and benefits. Publisher members of ASCAP, BMI, and SOCAN, the three current collaborators that comprise MusicMark, will retain their identities as members of their chosen groups. The crux of benefits is in the pooling of knowledge, staff, and effective work methods, as well as the massive simplification of Common Work Registration (CWR) within the three PROs down to a single process.

As stated in the starter document uploaded to MusicMark’s website, the goal of this new project is to:

“…make the works registration process more efficient and create a unified copyright picture in North America for the works we represent.The first phase of this collaboration will enable publishers to submit/receive files to/from one FTP [file transfer protocol] site (rather than three) and to receive one common first acknowledgment (as opposed to one from each PRO).”

It is a bit surprising to see a PRO like SOCAN in this announcement, rather than SESAC, the PRO so often attached with mention of ASCAP and BMI. However, the volume of works and creators to be supported is quite notable, as the separate databases of these three will bring together a massive number of publishers and songwriters. Furthermore, there is the possibility of other organizations  integrating sometime in the future. Right now, the organizations are aiming for an overall boost in data accuracy for their copyrighted works and, for any errors that do occur, a quicker resolution thereof, through the use of a uniform data registry. The forefront of this whole collaboration will positively affect PRO members with a trimming of the complex paper trail, and can be tested out as soon as their next work is ready for registration.

As explained on MusicMark’s website,

“Publishers will be able to submit a single registration file simultaneously to all three performing rights organizations (PROs), even if the work was co-written by members of different societies. Each PRO will then integrate the registration data into its respective repertory of works.”

 Given the number of artists who are also songwriters, and the number of artists who collaborate with other artists who are also songwriters, the appropriate naming and featuring jargon for writing credit can be severely confusing — to say nothing of the legal navigations when starting the registration for a co-write involving two, three or even more people. Collaboration has been the “it” strategy for some time now in songs and business models and, that spirit has translated over to a sector of the music business that could seriously benefit from a de-tangling of red tape. What impact and influence it may or may not have on other PROs and related services (song tracking, audio fingerprinting) will be a question worth following closely in the next few months as MusicMark makes its mark on the business.

You can read more about MusicMark’s initial process for CWR registration 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 ASCAP, BMI, and SOCAN Unify Publisher Registration as MusicMark 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.

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BandPage, the online presence management platform for musicians, has announced another successful investment series. Now up to $28 million in funding, BandPage will use the capital to continue fostering relationships with the foremost music services, while creating and solidifying new revenue streams for musicians.

BandPage is used by more than 500,000 musicians to reach billions of fans worldwide, and is popular with managers for its social media and brand partnership integration. Though the landing page of the site displays links to the profiles of major pop acts, the platform is praised by many of the most innovative, independent artists as well.  Brian Message, manager of PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, and co-manager of Radiohead” says BandPage is playing a critical role in empowering musicians to further their careers in the digital age.”

Check out BandPage’s site to learn more about the company and its services.

The post BandPage Is on Its Way to Being the Largest Musician’s Platform 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?

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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.

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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.

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For those that don’t know, convolution reverb simulates the characteristics of a real space by sampling the acoustic response of a room. By popping these impulse responses into a convolution plugin in a DAW, like Ableton Live’s Convolution Reverb, Logic Pro’s Space Designer, or Pro Tools’ Space, the output of a mix can be tested as if were being played through Funktion-One speakers. With this particular set of IR’s, you can get a better sense of how your records will sound when played on a standard nightclub system.

Of course, IR’s aren’t completely accurate, since it’s impossible to replicate the various physical inconsistencies of speakers and spaces, but the Balance team is very confident in the result. “We spent a large amount of time tweaking and shaping these impulse responses in the time and frequency domain whilst on site by ear, so they sound as close as possible to the real thing.” When tested on open-back headphones, you can remove your mix from your own room acoustics and get a fairly accurate sense of your mix on the Funktion-One system.

Download the impulse responses here, and check out Balance Mastering’s professional engineering services as well.

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