Skater Tony Hawks in talks with Trent Reznor
Youtube goes mobile with HTML5
The mobile version of Google’s video-sharing website received an upgrade Thursday. The new m.youtube.com has a bunch of new features, including high-quality video playback in the browser using HTML5.
Surf to YouTube’s mobile site with any modern mobile with a browser that supports HTML5’s <video> tag (works great on iPhones, iPads and Android phones) and you’ll notice that when you click on a video thumbnail, the video loads inside a new browser-based player.
The old site on an iPhone used to launch the YouTube native app, taking you out of the browser. In fact, the first time you visit the site on an iPhone, you’ll be prompted to “install” a bookmark on your home screen. This is likely a step to move people away from the YouTube iPhone app and toward the web-based app.
The switch to an HTML5-based mobile experience comes only a week after YouTube published a public memo stating several places where HTML5 falls short when compared to Flash for delivering video. But Flash currently isn’t an option on mobiles. So, while HTML5-based video playback may not be YouTube’s first choice on the desktop (even though the company has been experimenting with it), it makes perfect sense on mobiles.
Getting the grips on Gestural Music Sequencing
Chromatic Textures, by Unearthed Music, is “a study on the synesthetic nature of our senses of sound and sight.”
Video input is used to produce generative musical phrases. The visual media is analyzed by the GMS (Gestural Music Sequencer) to create the musical forms in real-time.
http://www.vimeo.com/13114656
The software includes adjustable probability distribution maps for the scale and rhythm. Adjusting these settings allows familiar structures to emerge. The settings chosen for this piece cause notes within a particular scale to play more frequently, however, it is still possible for any note within the twelve-tone chromatic system to occur. As a result, dissonant or blue notes can be heard at rare instances throughout the piece.
The Gestural Music Sequencer is a free app for Mac & Windows.
new collection of free instruments for Kontakt
If you were Steve Bates, you’d create a new collection of free instruments for Kontakt, the Sample78 collection. You can preview one of the instruments, Solid Bass, below.
Solid Bass by sample78
Other free instruments include:
- Grain Pad – a fuzzy granular type instrument;
- Robot Pad – Fuzzy bitcrushed wavetable goodness with a space invader;
- Gongs – a gong instrument. based on some samples from KVR’s Genetic Junk; and
- Rainbow Pad, a lush pad based on samples from the Ensoniq VFX-SD and DSI TETR4.
Pricing and Availability
Sample78 instruments are available as free downloads for Kontakt, but donations are welcomed via the site.
Link:
Brett Domino offers perspective on the Roland’s Lucina AX-09
In this review, The Brett Domino Trio’s Brett Domino offers his unique perspective on the Roland’s Lucina AX-09 keytar strap-on shoulder synthesizer. Brett Domino reviews Roland’s Lucina AX-09 keytar exclusively for MusicRadar, taking inspiration from Herbie Hancock and Gerry Rafferty along the way.
Enjoy
First glimpse of a new instrument – the AirPiano
Jo Hamilton, an acclaimed up-and-coming artist from the UK, is really integrating the new AirPiano into her performance. Nor is she waiting for production: she’s got the only prototype outside of Berlin.
Who’s Jo Hamilton? From her press release:
Stemming from a nomadic family with roots in both Kenya and Jamaica, Jo Hamilton was brought up in a house two miles from the nearest neighbour in the wilds of northern Scotland. Her parents moved constantly in her youth, which saw her spending periods in Turkey, UAE, Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
Jo’s debut album Gown was produced by Jon Cotton (producer of Scott Matthew’s Ivor Novello Award-winning debut album) in her current hometown of Birmingham, and has received a sweeping range of
accolades including 3 awards at London’s recent Recharged Radio awards and a tip from US tastemaker/DJ Nic Harcourt as one of his picks for 2010.
If you’d like to know more about her music or you have questions about playing the instrument, I’ll follow up.
http://airpiano.de/
Jo pioneers new instrument – video out now! [johamilton.com]
Reason 5 will be released on August 25th
Here’s what they have to say:
OK, so we have finally made Golden Masters of Reason 5 and Record 1.5. These were sent over to Austria for duplication yesterday. Things are looking good and the Stampfer machine is rolling along in true Austrian fashion. My guess is that we manage to give the good people over there a new emotional connotation to the word “checksum”.
I would like to thank all the stars that were aligned in zenith and the goat whose intestine are now spread around my keyboard as scarifies to the gods.
25th August is when the official release will take place for Reason 5 and Record 1.5. This is also when you will be able to download the demo of these precious babies. Or to quote every single release in the musical instrument industry “This will change everything” (again).
Introducing the BOOM Library
Sound Designer Axel Rohrbach sent to me some information about his new SFX Label called BOOM Library and created with his partners at Dynamedion Sound Design & Music Company.
They are releasing the first title of the library, called Cinematic Metal. This is what Axel said:
The concept is to provide creative sound designers source material to work with (called a Construction Kit), similar to a color palette. In addition there is a common designed edition using just the corresponding Construction Kit. There are pretty cool things in the pipeline.
About the company
The BOOM Library was founded in 2010 by award winning audio guys from Dynamedion, the biggest European game audio studio based in Mainz, Germany.
The BOOM Library prides itself on providing high end, ultimate sound effects for all media and audio professionals. Our products have this specific edge you will not find anywhere else: every collection comes with a 96 KHz high definition, huge source library of our original recordings + a great variety of designed SFX, ready to use.
All BOOM Library products are royalty free – which means you get unlimited synch rights with every purchase.
Our mission is to provide top notch sound effects and source recordings in high definition. All treated with great Sound Miner metadata, fast to use, easy to access and epic sounding: BOOM!
About the “Cinematic Metal”
- Cinematic Metal – Impacts – 200 final designed sounds. From deep booms and high sweeteners, to huge cinematic impact and epic crashes – everything you need to really make an impression! All of these sounds were uniquely designed with the Cinematic Metal – Construction Kit.
- Cinematic Metal – Construction Kit – This brings all the original recordings to your hard disc, giving you a huge selection of source material. Be creative and innovative in designing completely unique metal hits the world has not heard yet. Check out our tutorials section to learn more about the Construction Kit and how to use it.
Both libraries ship in 96 kHz 24-bit High Definition audio (recorded in 192 kHz 24-bit), including well-grounded Soundminer Metada
There is a special discount code for all Designing Sound readers. Just include this number in your purchase and you’ll get a 5% discount. The coupon code is: DESS-BL10-20100717 (will be valid until July 17th)
Vince and the Fairlight computer
Vince, Erasure fame, showing off the Fairlight Computer. This taken from a free tape that came with UK magazine, ‘Electronic Sound Maker and Computer Music’, from the mid 1980s. Nice track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz08V5slZ1Y&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrRsAOCG32s&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK-iS_Fwg8Q&feature=player_embedded
Vince Clarke, Erasure, taken from his analogue synth sample CD
The Electro Wars Final Trailer
Can a documentary finally tell the story of the electronic music scene? Primus Luta has become a scholar of electronic sounds himself, and joins us in a guest post to examine a film that, like the music itself, is a work in progress. Electro Wars premieres in its current form in New York Friday, but you can get a first glimpse at the movie and the state of music in the Internet – whether wishful thinking might imagine the Web’s age is over or not.
DATAMASKIN
