Results for Music Thing

Some interesting things I found recently:

# First look at the Zoom H4N digital audio recorder

Brad Linder takes a look at the Zoom H4N, a digital pocket recorder.

I got a chance to stop by the Samson booth at CES yesterday and check out the new Zoom H4N digital audio recorder. This flash recorder is an upgraded version of the Zoom H4, but Zoom and Samson don't plan to phase out the older model. Rather, they'll now offer flash recorders in three price ranges, $199 for the Zoom H2, $249 to $299 for the Zoom H4, and $349 for the zoom H4N, which is a bit closer to being a pro audio device. The new recorder should begin shipping in February.

# Stanwood craftsman puts human touch on factory-made pianos – Darrell Fandrich is a micromaker of pianos, importing instruments from China and parts from Europe and the U.S. and rebuilding them as Fandrich & Sons pianos. A craftsman in an assembly-line world, Fandrich hopes that human touch can turn back the clock on pianos built by conveyor belt.

# Interview With Smule’s Dr. Ge Wang (Maker of iPhone Ocarina)

Mark Mosher interviews Dr. Ge Wang, CTO and Co-founder of Smule.com.

Smule are the makers of extremely popular and innovative iPhone applications such as Sonic Lighter and Ocarina. Dr. Wang is also an assistant professor at Stanford University, at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Princeton University and a BS in Computer Science from Duke University. Ge is the creator and chief architect of the ChucK audio programming language, and the founding director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk).

I asked a wide variety of questions in this interview – so – whether you are a musician, a developer, an iPhone user, or an entrepreneur, I hope you find this interview interesting and enlightening.

The interview is available in YouTube and mp3 formats.

# Music Thing: The end of Music Thing, for now. – I’m sure you’ve heard the news… Thanks Music Thing for all the great posts over the years.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Wearable Toy Piano – A Toy Piano embedded on a T-shirt.

Instructables member mikamika explains:

It has 8 keys from Do to Do (1 octave). You can play simple music by wearing the shirt and pushing the fabric button on the shirt. All the components from the toy piano (batteries, speaker, circuit board) are placed on the shirt and connected with poppers. All these hard components are detachable so that you can wash it if you wish.

# 8-Bit Jesus: New Christmas Chip-tune Album | Doctor Octoroc

Doctor Octoroc writes:

I’ve been working on a new album for the past few months and am releasing a free MP3 download of the first half – sort of a preview, I suppose. The album is entitled 8-Bit Jesus and contains 9 tracks thus far. Each one is a chip-tune version of a classic Christmas song done in the style of a different NES game.

Songs include Silent Knight Man, Little Drummer Nemo and Super Jingle Bros. Download the album (or individual tracks) here.

# 25 Awesome things I’ve failed to post on Music Thing over the last couple of months – Nice list by Tom Whitwell @ Music thing.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# YouTube – “Monkey Jazz” : BEARDYMAN & mr_hopkinson™

Fantastic video of Beardyman doing the jazz thing.

Combining the talents of 2 times UK Beatbox Champion Beardyman and master of the edit mr_hopkinson, this is a one take performance by Beardyman using live looping technology that has been visually explained and augmented by mr_hopkinson's edit and animation.

More here: http://www.monkeyjazz.co.uk

# elastic~ – the ultimate pitch-shifting time-stretching looping MaxMSP object – Incorporating the same algorhythm as software giants Cubase, Ableton Live, and Kontakt, elastic~ is a powerful and intuitive tool for looping, pitch-bending and time-stretching audio within MaxMSP.

# For Life – Free DJ Magazine From Stanton (pdf)

Stanton is thrilled to announce the first issue of our new hybrid magazine/lifestyle catalog, “For Life”! This new e-zine will be issued periodically to bring our DJs interesting articles, all our latest gear, and even a special “city guide” that focuses on a different city each issue and highlights all our favorite spots. We’re excited about this new venture, and hope that you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed creating it! This issue features the new SCS.3d controller, artist Richard Devine, an insider guide to Seattle, and more! Check it out!

You can subscribe to For Life Magalog and Stanton News here.

# LP 2 FLASH – LP 2 FLASH is the fastest and easiest way to convert your vinyl recordings directly to an SD card or USB thumb drive* without the need for a computer. LP 2 FLASH listens for the silence between songs on your recordings and automatically breaks up album into individual tracks. Once converted, you can listen to your music on any audio player with a standard SD card slot, or on your computer. Converting your records is a snap with LP 2 FLASH!

# Touch the Wave – Objective-Audio – Free iPhone app for looping and scratching. More info over at CDM.

# Music Thing: Review: Arturia Origin
Tom Whitwell: It’s big, it’s expensive, it’s sexy. Why don’t I want one?

Why am I writing this, rather than playing with the thing? How come I've already taken the top off to have a look inside and see how it all works? Because the Origin has crossed that line – it's not a hardware synth, it's a computer in a box covered in knobs.

# Noise.io – iPhone Synth – iPhone Synthesizer – Noise.io is one of the most intriguing applications for iPhone/iPod Touch which is available exclusively on the AppStore. It is a unique, new-generation sound synthesizer for iPhone / iPod Touch featuring revolutionary user interface and technologies: ESFM, ControlSurface, SoftRibbon and many more. Noise.io has hit the AppStore on the 30th of October 2008 and is available for purchase for $9.99

# Software Programmer Dreams of New, Small Music Machines – Belgian musician Marc Resibois talk about little music machines.

Peter Kirn writes:

Marc “Nostromo” Resibois, aka “m.-.n,” lives the digital life of computers. The Belgian musician and hacker [@MySpace] is renowned as a Game Boy musician, as the inventor of legendary Nintendo tracker LittleGPTracker, and even has a day job as a programmer for VJ software maker Arkaos. But lately, his thoughts have turned to more traditional synthesis hardware – hardware that acts as tiny computers. Nothing is going to shake me from my love of computers, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in having what he describes sitting next to mine. Here’s what he imagines – and it’s a variation on a theme I think we’ll see a lot in the coming weeks and months here on CDM. And without giving away the punchline, that Nintendo DS is going to make another appearance.

Tom Whitwell of Music Thing has released free samples of a Fisher Price Music Box Record Player.

Tom writes:

A pleasant evening at Music Thing towers, spent fixing up and sampling this ancient Fisher Price record player from my parent’s attic. The Swiss-made music box mechanism was rusted solid and the tiny clockwork motor doesn’t really give enough juice to push the records round at the right speed, but a generous application of 3-in-1 got the music box part working well enough to sample a few notes.

You can find the random notes, motor noise and winding sounds of this Fisher Price Sample Pack at Freesound.