Results for movies

Some interesting things I found recently:

# NAMM Oddities 2010

Barry is back with the NAMM Oddities of 2010:

My NAMM experience went really quite smoothly this year. I didn't have to deal with any injuries or camera failures.

The show was a little smaller than last year, which was most apparent in my favorite haunt, Hall E. There were some open areas where there weren't any booths set up at all. That being said, there was no shortage of invention and innovation at the show. Because of that, I think the great unsung heroes of the Oddities need their own motto: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor global economic collapse stays the mad genius from the swift creation of strange musical devices."

# Use the WiiMote as a musical instrument

Winko Erades van den Berg on making music using a computer and a Wiimote:

An article that appeared on the Create Digital Music website, about making music using the WiiMote and a computer, drew my attention. Several hints were given on the how to, but as always in doing new things the information was scattered everywhere and nowhere.

After reading many articles and watching many videos I found out how to realize a working setup for myself. In this article I’ll try to explain the steps needed to create a working setup for yourself.

# Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie

Mellodrama, a documentary by Dianna Dilworth, explores the rising and falling fortunes of the Mellotron – the first musical keyboard to "sample" the sounds of other instruments – from its birth in a California garage in the 1950s, through its dominance on concert stages in the 1970s, through its almost religious cult of followers in the 2000s. From the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" to Black Sabbath to Kanye West, Mellodrama is a 50-year odyssey of musical invention, revolution, betrayal, and rediscovery.

Includes 8-page booklet with essay by Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues, Mellotron and Chamberlin production timelines, and more.

# Drum machine shootout

Plughugger has a comprehensive review of Audio Damage Tattoo, Audiorealism ADM and Sonic Charge Microtonic.

This review compares three software drum machines and how they stand against each other. Three audioguns, twenty one sonic bullets. Two swedes and one american. Drum roll, please…

While there are a whole bunch of drum synthesizers on the market and many of them are very competent – my selection ended up with Audio Damage Tattoo, Audiorealism ADM and Sonic Charge Microtonic. My primary criteria was that they should be available for both PC and Mac – and they should be able to create more than one type of overall sound. I chose not to include any of the drum machines from the polish developer D16, as each and every drum machine is locked to a specific model and besides – I don’t own licenses for any of them.
Waldorf Attack is a classic that I seriously considered to include, but decided against as it doesn’t contain a sequencer. Also, three products against each other is clear as a german sausage soup. But the Waldorf Attack is a fantastic drum synthesizer, especially for creating weird electronic percussion noises.

I love Microtonic (and the D16 drum machines), but I think it’s inevitable I’ll end up getting Tattoo at some point.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Arduino Piano Squealer Synth

Marc Nostromo developed the Arduino Piano Squealer Synth for the Arduino Pocket Piano, an arduino shield produced by Critters and Guitari.

The engine implements a small monosynth with a few waveforms, a HP/BP/LP continuous resonant filter, decay and a few little own tricks that generate a LOT of aliases, making a great dirty digital synth. Since the Pocket Piano has only 3 potentiometers available for control (the 4th one being hardwired to the volume), I use a “page” system to implement series of 3 parameters to fiddle with. To switch “page”, use the rightmost note of the A.P (NOT the one under the led, the one left to to it). To help you know which page you are at, you can use the led: it will flash a number of time equivalent to the current page you are at.

The source code of the Arduino Piano Squealer synth is available under GPL License V3.

… read more

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

# N-Tune — Tuning where you need it…in your guitar

N-Tune is the world's most convenient solution for fast, accurate onboard guitar tuning. It installs under your electric guitar's existing volume knob, and provides a bright, LED-based tuning ring with true-bypass circuitry for perfect tone.

N-Tune features

• Fast, accurate tuning, built right into your guitar.
• Pull your volume knob to tune up silently; push knob back down to play.
• True bypass design preserves your instrument’s original tone.
• Installs in your guitar in 30 minutes – no drilling or permanent modification required.
• Includes white, black, cream and parchment-colored tuning rings.

N-tune is available for single-coil guitars with 250k Ohm volume pot, and humbucker-equipped guitars with 500k Ohm volume pot.

# FOUND ELECTRONICS » Projects » Circuit Bent – Found Electronics has, over the years, produced a wide variety of circuit bent instruments: devices whose original function has been mangled and transformed into weird and wonderful creators of noise.

# Hacking Toys into Tangible Controllers – Here are some recent projects from year 2 of the Creative Media course at DKIT. The student groups were each given a toy and assigned the task of hacking it together with a keyboard to create a controller for an original interactive experience made in flash and/or director.

# Javascript Super Mario Kart – A prototype of a Javascript Mario Kart-like racing game, just 11kb!

# 1-star review of The Incredible Hulk in Hulk-speak

Peter Bradshaw wrote his 1-star review of The Incredible Hulk in Hulk-speak:

“Hulk. Smash!” Yes. Hulk. Smash. Yes. Smash. Big Hulk smash. Smash cars. Buildings. Army tanks. Hulk not just smash. Hulk also go rarrr! Then smash again. Smash important, obviously. Smash Hulk’s USP. What Hulk smash most? Hulk smash all hope of interesting time in cinema. Hulk take all effort of cinema, effort getting babysitter, effort finding parking, and Hulk put great green fist right through it. Hulk crush all hopes of entertainment. Hulk in boring film. Film co-written by star. Edward Norton. Norton in it. Norton write it. Norton not need gamma-radiation poisoning to get big head.

Some interesting things I bookmarked on del.icio.us on February 27th, 2008:

• The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986 – 2007 – Here’s a look at how movies have fared at the box office, after adjusting for inflation.

Gorgeous infograph shows which movies are bringing in the cash

• Overcoming Bias: My Favorite Liar – recounts of an exceptionally powerful teaching technique employed by an economics professor; teaching fact-checking and skepticism by salting it into the content of his delivery.
• Fecal Face – Mike Rea – Interview with Mike Rea, who creates amazing wooden sculptures