Our planet fizzes and crackles with a rich cacophony of sounds—but it constantly changes over time. Now, a team of scientists want to record the noises that surround us each and every Earth Day—which just happens to be today—to see exactly how it alters over time.
Imagine a place with no noise whatsoever: no sound, no light, no radio—hell, no Wi-Fi. How on Earth would you go about creating it?
Theremins are super fun production lines of weird squeeps and bloops, the de rigueur sound of kitschy black-and-white sci-fi movies and DJ rave parties alike. Anyone with an appreciation of music, or just noise, should play with one given the chance—and now you can do so from the comfort of your computer, thanks to Femur Design’s Theremin webpage.
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This is genius. Mario Wienerroither replaces the music from popular music videos
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You unlock this post with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension—a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a collection of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas.
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This might shock you, but for over a century scientists have been pondering why kettles whistle—and completely failed to find an answer. That’s all changed now, though, thanks to two scientists from the University of Cambridge who have worked out how it happens.
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We all know the telltale hum of a computer’s fan kicking on, or the barely-there buzz of flourescent lights. But even the most whisper-quiet devices are singing their little songs of daily life; you just can’t hear them. At least not without some help. More »
This is how it sounds inside the International Space Station as recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield inside the United States module of the ISS. [Soundcloud via Twitter] More »
Ironically, leaving a silenced phone set to vibrate on a hard surface like a table can actually create more of a disturbance when it rings and bounces around. So Apple has patented a system that uses the iPhone’s mic and accelerometer to listen for vibrations and scale back its intensity when it gets too loud. More »
In case you haven’t noticed, everything is a remix. Good artists and inventors stock up on influences and material from other sources. If you’re a musician or if you want to make your own sound effects or if you just want something to listen to when you’re wasted, you can compile sounds wherever you go with the Kaleidoloop.
The Kaleidoloop was invented by Critter & Guitari, maker of the popular Pocket Piano synthesizer. The Kaleidoloop lets you record sounds and then manipulate those sounds on the fly. The sounds are recorded as .wav files on an SD card (the Kaleidoloop comes with a 256MB SD card). It also has a 3W speaker so you can listen and tweak the sounds you recorded on the go.
Here’s a trippy explanation of the Kaleidoloop:
You can order the Kaleidoloop directly from Critter & Guitari for $299 (USD). I wish they’d come up with a cheaper version; I’ll only use it to record my friends’ favorite expressions and a laugh track so we can pretend we’re in a sitcom.
[via DudeIWantThat]
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