randform

Just an update update about Pianist Nasseri’s last concert. Part of it -namely the Waltzes by Johannes Brahms– are now on youtube.

Since the recording is authorized by the artist, it wont probably be taken off like the video in this post (see the current discussion)

->Brahms 16 Waltzes, Op. 39. (Waltzes 1-5)
->Brahms 16 Waltzes, Op. 39. (Waltzes 6-11)

spaceborne apes is a music project of Niko Lai and this is a new song and video:
“Urban State Of Mind” (music, lyrics, and animation by Niko Lai).
enjoy.

This is a mobile music edition of underestimated instruments:
we start this with a yellow drum machine (here is a description of this charming robot)
next we have of course the iphone / ipod touch:
iphone music using
iPhone Synth, BeatPhone, pianist, and the incredible
Pocket Guitar
(here is an even older one where the drum part is taken by a nintendo ds)
then there is the anouncement of a nice virtual Korg MS10 (I had the joy of playing with one of them once) for DS:
DS10 (video)

as a sideremark (since here the devices don’t make a sound but controll it):
iphone controls protools
and ableton live controlled by a PSP.
this is an update to underestimated instruments 4

Mixing musical styles can have interesting results. Here is a classic rock song with traditional japanese instruments and a little help of a classical (western european style) orthestra: we will rock you. (And there is smoke on the water as well.)
via japan probe.

Sideremark: We once performed Bizets Habanera from the Carmen opera on three chinese Shengs a cello and a clarinet.

In theory it should be impossible to separate the notes in a chord. If you play a sine wave and add say a perfect 5th one perceives this either as a single note (now with a different timbre than the single sine wave) or as an interval – namely the perfect 5th. what one hears depends on several things. If for example both sine waves are given a slight vibrato of the same phase and rate one is more likely to hear this a one note. However in general it should be impossible to tell (algorithmically) whether the audiosignal is a chord or a timbre. Theoretically. In practice chords are allmost never tuned perfectly, the notes in a chord are likely to start with tiny (or even big) offsets, the instruments / strings / sources usually have their own characteristics. So it might be possible in practice to separate the notes in a chord. Still it should be a difficult task.
Now celemony – the company that makes the incredible Melodyne – anounced that they have takled the problem.
Here is a promo video that shows the possibilities (they use the slightly overused DNA acronym for their technology (this time as “direct note access”)) .
Impressive and somewhat scary.

Yesterday I was at pianist Soheil Nasseri’s debut in the Berlin Philharmonie. I saw an earlier concert of him lately and thus I was curious how his performance would be this time.

(more…)

the band tonrand, which was already fetured in this randform post with their song “not me” has now a website on last.fm, where they published their latest song: hallusions (lyrics, vocals, music: Cat Caspari, music, arrangement: Niko Lai).

addition 26.02.13: The tonrand profile on last.fm had been erased. The music is no more available.

This time we have only one entry in the series of underestimated instruments (see here, here, and here): a car.
The car music project makes fantastic instruments out of a car. In this ad it is a
ford focus – the instruments are indeed real and strictily speaking it is not one instrument but a Transmission Case Cello-Dulcimer, Clutch Guitar, Rear Suspension Spike Fiddle, Fender Bass, Hatchback Kick Drum, Handheld Gear Tambourine, Door Harp …

here . A collection of strange instruments and other sightings at winter NAMM show. This years top oddity is the square drum. Browsing through the past years is interesting as well.

side remark: when I still was a student I attended (but didn’t really understand) a talk at a global analysis conference that addressed the question wether two different (shaped) drums can sound the same (can you hear the shape of a drum), that is wether there are different 2dimensional shapes that have exactly the same modes of resonance, so that you could not tell them apart by just listening to them (or looking at their spectra). It turns out there are (but the shapes do not look drum like at all…)

Toyota revealed a roboter violonist yesterday. I wonder wether he is able to do position shifts, though …
via pink tentacle