Results for Atari

Puremagnetik has released Blip, a unique collection of instruments, kits and looped beats sourced from the original Atari 2600 sound chip.

Blip doesn’t contain the prettiest sounds. But then again 1980 wasn’t the prettiest year! What Blip does contain is the full palette of the Atari 2600 sound chip that generated the classic themes for games such as Space Invaders and Pong. All sounds have been fully mapped and are ready for rejuvenation in your favorite DAW. So if 1980 was a bad year for you, redeem yourself and make some cool music with this unique and quirky sound set!

Blip features

• Each sample program contains raw waveforms from the Atari 2600 sound chip that have been layered and processed for use in a modern software sampler.
• The Ableton Live version of Blip comes in Ableton’s multisample mode so that any Live user can take advantage of this colection. This Live Pack has been categorized into raw “Multisample Programs”, extensively tailored “Performance Racks” and 6 “Atari Percussion Banks” that utilize Ableton Drum Racks. Blip for Ableton Live also contains a collection of percussive MIDI clips complete with Macro controls and extensive rack programming.
• Customized for Kontakt & Logic. Each Blip multisample instrument and loop program comes loaded with effects, modulation routings and a custom KSP GUI for instant tweaking. The Apple Logic version includes a collection of EXS channel strips and advanced SIAL lo-fi percussion loops.

Visit Puremagnetik for more information and audio demos.

Some interesting things I found on April 17th, 2008:

# TouchPad Midi – Started from a scavenged Cirque Glidepoint resistive touchpad (PS/2 compatible), 2×8 LCD (in 4 bit mode), two buttons and a serial Arduino board.

TouchPad Midi – the Arduino code is available here

The buttons when pressed allow to set the Continuous Controller number by gliding the finger on the touchpad. Left for CC# linked to X and right for Y. The LCD displays the value sent in MIDI. Some custom characters where coded into the CGRAM in order to have a sort of bar graph. The first line is for X and the second for Y.

# Leon Berry’s Beast In The Basement – This organ was once used to accompany silent movies at the Lake Theater in Crystal Lake Illinois.

# Build a Pocket Theremin on the Cheap – Throw together this pint-sized light-sensitive Theremin for spooky sci-fi sound effects on the cheap.

# visual scratch :: turntablism visualized – Visual Scratch is a visualization system designed and implemented by Jesse Kriss.

# Eroktronix MidiTron – A MIDI to real-world interface designed to simplify the process of creating sensor and robotics based electronic art projects. It is easily user configurable and provides 20 terminals of digital and analog inputs and outputs in any combination.

# Hørselstest – Cool interactive hearing test. A few weeks I did a little test of my own with a frequency sweep on my dad’s cellphone. It’s scary to see what the years (and perhaps loud music) do to your ears. My uncle could only hear the sound almost 5 seconds after me and my wife heard it. Eeks!

# Super Genintari – This 4-in-1 Atari 2600/NES/Genesis/Super NES combo system actually began its life sometime circa early 2002, and at the time it only consisted of a Sega Genesis/32X and Super NES.

# Robot that listens then repeats drum beats made from lego NXT! – The program is written in NBC/NXC using BrickCC. A drum pattern is played by the user then after one second of silence the robot repeats the pattern played.

Some interesting things I bookmarked on del.icio.us on October 17th, 2007:

• Atari 2600 Joystick Remote Control – Turn an old Atari 2600 joystick into a TV remote control.
• 15 Most Ill-Advised Career Reinventions in Rock Music History – The artists that do a good job of reinvention are allowed to hang around (like Radiohead and even Madonna, brief reign of terror as a rapper notwithstanding). But sometimes reinvention goes horribly, hilariously wrong, and none were worse than these.
• A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods – I love the dilemma diagram.
• mandolux – Pretty images for you desktop (also for dual screen setups) by Mando Gomez.
• The Talkbox FAQ – Make your own – Yes, you can make your own if you’re relatively handy with your hands. Only the most basic electrical knowledge is necessary and the parts are readily available if you have a hardware store nearby.

Some interesting things I bookmarked on del.icio.us on October 2nd, 2007:

• 40+ Media Players That Aren’t iTunes – Mashable lists over 40 players for those who don’t want to use iTunes.
• McLaggan Smith Mugs – Lovely mugs, sweet mugs, cool mugs, and… more mugs.
• The Atari 2600 celebrates 30 years of low-rez fun – Retro Thing takes a trip down memory lane.
• Using CCTV for low-budget filmmaking – Mediashed involved a group of kids who usually hang around in the streets to engage in Video sniffin’ activities and turn CCTV into a free broadcasting system for their own use.
• Microsoft bows to pressure on XP – Customer demand has forced Microsoft to extend the shelf life of Windows XP by five months.
• rsizr – With rsizr, in addition to normal image rescaling and cropping, you can also resize images using a new image resizing algorithm called seam carving (a method of image retargeting) that tries to keep intact areas in your image that are richer in detail.
• Ronald’s Crisis – On September 15, 2007 Ronald McDonald, who had fallen in love with the food of New York and become frustrated with the corporate agenda of McDonald’s, stepped into action closing every McDonald’s store in Manhattan.
• M.T.A. Makes Deal for Cellphones in Stations – All 277 underground stations in the subway system are to be wired for cellphone use.
• New AT&T terms of service – From now on, AT&T can terminate your connection for conduct that “tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries”.