Forget beaming radio signals into the void and don’t bother inscribing a message to space on your interplanetary probes. If you really want to impress alien explorers, easily transmogrifiable cardboard cutouts of Earth’s best musical instruments are the superior choice.
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In our electronic music age, it’s sometimes easy to forget how music is basically just a bunch of well-organized noise. It seems like over-produced pop albums have more in common with computer software than performance, so when musicians break the mold, things get interesting.
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In what is perhaps the most science-fiction worthy story of the week, scientists at Harvard have created a gel-based speaker that is both clear and stretchy, able to play music while demonstrating the abilities of ionic conductors. To show off its capabilities, the scientists used it to play the “Morning” prelude from Peer Gynt. You […]
It’s no secret that Nine Inch Nails’ frontman Trent Reznor likes to do things a bit differently. He and long-time art director Rob Sheridan have assembled a crew to make the group’s festival dates this year as visually stunning as the audio promises to be. Along with a slew of other high-tech gadgetry, there’s a Kinect that handles motion tracking with captured movements projected onto a handful of mobile video screens. Alongside thermal and regular ol’ video cameras, live video content is piped on-stage during specific parts of the set — with a hand from the folks at Moment Factory, a multimedia environment studio. Reznor also notes that much of the system is “a bunch of homemade software and hardware effects that they’ve tied together” with the goal of creating a film-like quality to an hour and a half performance. For a 13-minute, behind the scenes look at the prep work, head on past the break.
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals, Alt
Source: Nine Inch Nails (Tumblr)
Not everyone’s lucky enough to have a musician for a boyfriend or girlfriend. If you want a song that’s truly created for you, then you might want to check out IDNAtity.
It’s a fun musical app that composes a song for you based on your genetic code. Of course, the app doesn’t require a DNA sample – it starts off by asking you to upload a picture of yourself and answer a series of questions regarding your appearance, like your eye, hair, and skin color. IDNAtity will then generate your genetic code and create a song that you can listen to and maybe even share with others.
The app provides several instruments for your song, from orchestra instruments to bird tweets.
IDNAtity is available on the iTunes App Store for $0.99(USD).
[via C|NET]
Shazam’s Android app has needed a makeover for a while; even with tablet support, the sound identification tool has felt more at home in 2011 than 2013. The company is delivering that overdue redesign today with the launch of Shazam 4.0. The new app gives Android users a modern, Holo-inspired interface that scales to all Android devices, including a wider variety of tablets. It also brings the iOS version’s faster sound scans and more dynamic listening screen. While there aren’t many other changes, there’s more than enough here to justify grabbing the update through Google Play.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, HD, Mobile
Source: Google Play
Facebook’s Android offerings just got a little livelier through a pair of updates. If you’re using Facebook Home, you now have music controls on the lock screen during playback. Everyone using the regular Facebook app, meanwhile, should see animated stickers in messages. Neither upgrade is dramatic, but they’re both enough to justify a quick visit to Google Play.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Facebook
Source: Google Play (1), (2)
Many audiophiles will tell you that modern albums are too “loud” — that the mastering process emphasizes bass and volume over subtlety. Nine Inch Nails will soon cater to these more demanding listeners with a special Audiophile Mastering Edition of its upcoming Hesitation Marks album. The additional mix will be truer to what Trent Reznor and crew heard in the studio, and should sound best on high-end audio equipment that can reproduce a wide audio range. The band warns that most fans won’t notice the difference with this new version. However, there’s no penalty for giving it a try — anyone who buys Hesitation Marks from NIN’s site will get to download the Audiophile cut for free when the album launches on September 3rd.
[Image credit: Nine Inch Nails, Flickr]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video, Alt
Source: Nine Inch Nails (Tumblr)
Synesthesia—a condition in which you confuse one sense for another, like "hearing" the color blue—has inspired some amazing art over the centuries, including works from Wassily Kandinsky and David Hockney. But the latest synesthetic art isn’t made by humans at all. A London audio artist has programmed these five robots to make noise when they run across colors—and the result is electronic symphony base on hue.
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Trent Reznor has a treat for audio nerds. When Nine Inch Nails’ new record Hesitation Marks drops next week, it’ll be available in regular and audiophile versions. The two sonic flavors will be mixed differently—One mix for the headphone clutching masses who demand "loudness," and one mix for the nerds who want to hear every frequency the way it sounded in the studio.
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