Typewriter synth, what’s next?
TOPLAPapp is a free application for the Apple iPad that uses a sonic puzzle as the interface for a virtual machine for sound synthesis.
Description:
This machine accepts a few valid instructions represented by the letters T, O, P, L, A, and p. You control TOPLAPapp by placing each command letter within a grid, along with setting some associated parameter sliders.
The machine rushes through the instruction set to create output sounds, which are usually of a somewhat noisy character, hopefully interestingly so.
The historical antecedents include instruction synthesis as pioneered at the Institute of Sonology in the 1970s, and the live coding movement, of modifying a running program as it acts.
Note: Developers warn “This app is intended for those interested in more experimental sound art: don’t download unless you are open to stranger computer music sounds”.
Pricing and Availability
TOPLAPP app is a free app and is available now for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.
Link:
The HEX Harmonic keyboard
Hex Series is musical keyboard software for iPhone / iPad / iPod touch, which has substantial 98 keys. The keyboard layout can be changed in order to extend tone range by a single shake while you play in iPhone / iPod touch. Hexagonal keys have certain note relationships like guitar chords. When you know the patterns, you can transpose smoothly. Furthermore, both Hex OSC and Hex OSC Full transmit OSC(Open Sound Control), so you can control software and hardware ,which can deal with OSC. You can also control MIDI software and hardware by converting OSC to MIDI.
Kinetik Festival takes place May 12-16 in Montreal
Montreal, Canada’s Kinetik Festival is scheduled to begin in less than two weeks. Starting May 12 and held at the refurbished factory turned performance venue Usine C, the festival features five days of electro/industrial, power noise and more, with performances by such artists as Fixmer/McCarthy, Chemlab, Leaether Strip, Combichrist, Komor Kommando, Terrorfakt, Hocico, Rotersand, Covenant and more.
Visit the links for a complete schedule, ticketing information and more.
HTML based synths, the next thing?
CDM has an interesting article out right now on browser based synthesizers.
Pioneers like Max Mathews’ Bell Labs team taught the computer to hum, sing, and speak, before even the development of primitive graphical user interfaces. So it’s fitting that the standards that chart the Web’s future would again turn to the basics of electronic sound synthesis.
A group of intrepid hackers and Mozilla developers and community leaders are working to make an audio API a standard part of this generation of Web browsers. (Note: not some unspecified future browsers – they’re making it work right now.)
We’ve already seen some pretty amazing experiments with Flash and Java. This would go further, opening buffer-level access to new, faster, just-in-time compiled JavaScript engines. The upshot: you get to code your own synthesizers and real-time audio processing in a way that works right in any browser, on any platform. Standardize the API by which this works, and adding an FM synth to a page could be as easy as assembling a table or inserting a picture.
There’s no plug-in, and thanks to faster JavaScript engines, JavaScript can be the language. To the end user, you just get a Web page that automatically loads the audio goodness.
I’m in touch with the developers, and hope to have a full-blown Q&A session with them. On the agenda: what this is, what it means, how it works, how people can get involved, and how to get started with these early builds. I’m going to start out with some of my own thoughts, though, because I’ve found myself thinking about this a lot. I’ve been a slow convert to the gospel of the browser and JavaScript, but I’m beginning to “get” it, I think. (If I’m off-base or missing something, we’ll get to cover that, too.)
http://vimeo.com/11345262
Read the full article here, with many more video clips >>
Propellerhead Rebirth appears again on iPhone
Surprise! The software that made Propellerhead famous has returned: ReBirth for the iPhone. Who wasn’t amazed to have Roland TB-303s, 808s and 909s on their 1990’s computers? Now we can have it on our phones. It’s $6.99 and you can download it now: click here
“ReBirth is back…In your iPhone! Propellerhead Software’s legendary Techno Micro Composer has been reincarnated. This time around, ReBirth takes the form of a seriously block rocking iPhone music app. Released in 1997 and discontinued in 2005, Propellerhead ReBirth was the first music software to reproduce the sound and behavior of those three classic Roland devices that defined the sound of early Techno and Acid House: the TB-303 Bassline Synth and the TR-808 and TR-909 Rhythm Composers.” – rebirthapp.com
For more info: rebirthapp.com
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