Kinda cool. Kinda gross.
http://www.vimeo.com/12251154This video illustrates real-time MRI of vocal performance. It includes examples from a soprano and an emcee/beatboxer. This video was featured at the Sounds and Visions Session, of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Scientific Sessions, May 2006, Seattle.
According to Billboard, iTunes’ share of all US music sales for 2009 was at 26%, up more than 5% from 2008. This gives it an even bigger lead over the number 2 seller, Walmart (iTunes knocked Walmart out of the top spot in 2008). Walmart’s sales are now at 12.5%, down from 15%. Walmart and Best Buy combined don’t add up to iTunes’ share.
One factor in this, obviously, is the shift away from physical formats like CDs. In 2009, all digital sales accounted for 50.7% of music sales (up from 42.5% in 2008). If the other music download companies don’t get a major share of new accounts, Apple will completely dominate the music industry like no one else ever has. In a few more years digital sales will be the sales that matter, and iTunes accounts for more of those than all other companies combined.
Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser, founder of Sennheiser and one of the true pioneers of audio, died Monday at 98 years of age.
Late during the evening of 17 May 2010, only a few days after his 98th birthday, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Fritz Sennheiser, audio pioneer and founder of today’s Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG, passed away. The audio industry has lost a huge figure, not only in terms of his technical expertise but also in terms of his humanity.
Through his company Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser had a crucial influence on the development of sound transmission technologies and was instrumental in forging many ground-breaking developments in electroacoustics and transmission technologies. Under his guidance the first shotgun microphones and open headphones were created and he oversaw important developments in wireless radio and infra-red transmission. It was completely natural for Fritz Sennheiser to give his developers the “creative and technical freedom” they required. His humanity also shone through when – considering the significant workload involved in running an expanding company – he took time to share his knowledge with students, inspiring them with an enthusiasm for audio technology. In 1982 he retired from the management of the company, handing over to his son, Prof. Dr. sc. techn. Jörg Sennheiser.
Fritz Sennheiser continued to take a vivid interest in the company he founded in summer 1945. His enthusiasm for audio technology, his creative curiosity, coupled with a modesty that is all too rare these days, his self-discipline, sincerity and generosity in his dealings with people, will remain an example to follow for all those who knew him.
The history of the European audio industry will forever remain inextricably linked with the name of Fritz Sennheiser.
The Sennheiser Group, with its headquarters in Wedemark near Hanover, Germany, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of microphones, headphones and wireless transmission systems. The family-owned company, which was established in 1945, recorded sales of over €385 million in 2008. Sennheiser employs over 2,100 people worldwide, around 55% of whom are in Germany. Sennheiser has manufacturing plants in Germany, Ireland and the USA, and is represented worldwide by subsidiaries in France, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark (Nordic), Russia, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Japan, China, Canada, Mexico and the USA, as well as by long-term trading partners in many other countries. Also part of the Sennheiser Group are Georg Neumann GmbH, Berlin (studio microphones) and the joint venture Sennheiser Communications A/S (headsets for PCs, offices and call centres).
You can find all the latest information on Sennheiser by visiting our website at www.sennheiser.com
[via sennheiserusa.com]
By making the stairs into piano keys, these guys got 66% more people to choose the stairs over the escalator. Well, done, Volkswagen. You got me to show your ad for free.
I’m always on the lookout for impressive, extremely time-consuming ways to make a case or envelope for a newly burned CD.
Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.
I sent the music to the photographer, Paulo Pinto, who I Googled on the internet. He told his editor, who told a reporter and the story ended up as an interview in the very same newspaper.
Here I’ve posted a short video made with the photo, the music and the score (composed by the birds).
Now I know I’m not the only one that thinks about sheet music when seeing birds on telephone wires. This is Birds on the Wires, by Jarbas Agnelli.
http://www.vimeo.com/6428069When Apple announced the iPad, a lot of people were horribly disappointed. Most of my friends tore their hair out and screamed, “It’s just an iPod Touch with a huge screen! The rumor sites promised me a 17GHz, 35 inch iMac that fits in my pocket – with 5 cameras, a 26 hour battery, and a built-in printer that spits out pure chocolate-covered awesomeness. Apple sucks!” or something similar. I saw it and said “An iPod Touch with a screen that’s 4 times as big? Sweet! I can’t wait to see what music apps come out for that!”
Mixr is, hopefully, the first of many iPad music apps that aren’t just basically a higher resolution version of existing iPhone/iPod Touch apps. It begins to show what’s really possible on Apple’s new platform.
Mixrs turntables look and feel just like the real thing. To mix your music, all you have to do is touch the vinyl records with your fingers. You can play it, stop it, run it backwards and even control the pitch and scratch! To manipulate the sound, simply rotate the vinyl with your fingers, it’s that easy!
[From ipadmixr.com]
OK, I don’t quite believe them when they say it FEELS real, but it does look great. In addition to the turntables, Mixr has a 3D “DJ Crate” view for your music library, the ability to record your mixes, and a variety of effects.
Even though it’s bound to be used primarily by douchebags at college parties, it’s still pretty cool.
When Apple first began offering web-based previews, I was thrilled. Finally, I could click a link to a song preview without having iTunes jump in and take over! I’d just open the program if and when I decided to buy the song. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that the web preview STILL opens iTunes.
It’s really my own fault; I had sent an email to Steve Jobs asking if there was any way he could make iTunes links more annoying, and I clearly should have explained that I was being sarcastic.
But there’s good news! The Apple Blog has posted this handy guide to stop links from opening iTunes. There are detailed instructions for Firefox, Safari and Chrome (Although the Chrome solution also prevents you from easily opening it in iTunes when you want make the purchase).
[http://theappleblog.com/2010/03/15/how-to-stop-itunes-web-links-from-opening-itunes/]
If they did this a year or two ago, I’d say it’s long overdue. Now, it just seems like a desperate move to save a dying format. Universal says it’s a test, and they’re calling it the Velocity program. All CDs will be priced somewhere between $6 and $10, which is a pretty big price drop from the $10 to $12 usually seen in stores. There’s a chance that the lower prices will increase sales enough that they make significantly more money, but it’s basically just life support for the format. Expect the other major labels to do the same if it works, making physical media less expensive than digital!
| 1 | Position Last Week: 4 | SongTitle: Rude Boy |
| Weeks on Chart: 5 | Artist: Rihanna | |
| Peak Position: 1 | Album: Rated R |
| 2 | Position Last Week: 2 | Song Title: Need You Now |
| Weeks on Chart: 31 | Artist: Lady Antebellum |
|
| Peak Position: 2 | Album: Need You Now |
| 3 | Position Last Week: 1 | Song Title: Break Your Heart |
| Weeks on Chart: 3 | Artist: Taio Cruz Featuring Ludacris | |
| Peak Position: 1 | Album: Rokstarr |
| 4 | Position Last Week: 5 | Song Title: Imma Be |
| Weeks on Chart: 15 | Artist: The Black Eyed Peas | |
| Peak Position: 1 | Album: The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies) |
| 5 | Position Last Week: 16 | Song Title: Nothin\’ On You |
| Weeks on Chart: 7 | Artist: B.o.B. Featuring Bruno Mars | |
| Peak Position: 5 | Album: Nothin\’ On You [feat. Bruno Mars] |
| 6 | Position Last Week: 7 | Song Title: Hey, Soul Sister |
| Weeks on Chart: 24 | Artist: Train | |
| Peak Position: 6 | Album: Save Me, San Francisco |
| 7 | Position Last Week: 3 | Song Title: BedRock |
| Weeks on Chart: 16 | Artist: Young Money Featuring Lloyd | |
| Peak Position: 2 | Album: We Are Young Money [Clean] |
| 8 | Position Last Week: 6 | Song Title: TiK ToK |
| Weeks on Chart: 23 | Artist: Ke$ha | |
| Peak Position: 1 | Album: Animal |
| 9 | Position Last Week: 11 | Song Title: Telephone |
| Weeks on Chart: 16 | Artist: Lady Gaga Featuring Beyonce | |
| Peak Position: 9 | Album: The Fame Monster |
| 10 | Position Last Week: 8 | Song Title: In My Head |
| Weeks on Chart: 14 | Artist: Jason Derulo | |
| Peak Position: 8 | Album: Jason Derulo |
Audio company GGRP (Gordon, Gibson & Ramsay Productions) put together this beautiful little promotional mailer. It’s a cardboard envelope that unfolds to become a record player with a 100% cardboard amplifier.
Once assembled, the record can be spun on the player with a pencil. The vibrations go through the needle and are amplified in the cardboard material. The players were sent out to creative directors across North America as a creative demonstration of GGRP’s sound engineering capabilities.
- (From Ads of the World)
“It’s actually shocking how good the sound quality is,” said Geoff Dawson, associate director at Grey Vancouver, the marketing company that helped to develop the piece for direct mailing. He added that it took a long time to play with different materials and designs to get the audio just right. Dawson says they hit on the idea while creating a website and new brand identity with GGRP earlier this year.
If GGRP can do this with cardboard, I can only imagine what they can do at, you know, their actual working studios with real equipment.
I’ve run sound at a wide variety of live shows, and one of the 2 things that bothers me the most about inexperienced bands is that they frequently have slightly out-of-tune guitars (the other is that they all crank their amps up to 11, but that’s an issue for another day). One reason for this is that it’s a bitch to tune a guitar in a noisy room.
Thankfully, that is no longer an excuse! With the Stimmmoped, you can use light instead of sound to check your tuning. Utilizing the stroboscopic effect, with 2 lights flashing out of sync in specific patterns, the tuner makes the string you pluck appear to be completely still – but only if it’s perfectly tuned. Otherwise, you will see movement and/or the light dancing along the string.
You can build the Stimmmoped yourself, with a little bit of basic electronics knowledge. Fortunately, there are several pre-made options for the same thing – my favorite is the Planet Waves SOS Tuner, in a nifty little guitar pick shape.
| 1 | Position Last Week: 53 | SongTitle: Break Your Heart |
| Weeks on Chart: 2 | Artist: Taio Cruz Featuring Ludacris | |
| Peak Position: 1 | Album: Rokstarr |
| 2 | Position Last Week: 3 | Song Title: Need You Now |
| Weeks on Chart: 30 | Artist: Lady Antebellum |
|
| Peak Position: 2 | Album: Need You Now |
| 3 | Position Last Week: 2 | Song Title: Bed Rock |
| Weeks on Chart: 15 | Artist: Young Money Featuring Lloyd | |
| Peak Position: 2 | Album: We Are Young Money |
| 4 | Position Last Week: 8 | Song Title: Rude Boy |
| Weeks on Chart: 4 | Artist: Rihanna | |
| Peak Position: 4 | Album: Rated R |
| 5 | Position Last Week: 1 | Song Title: Imma Be |
| Weeks on Chart: 14 | Artist: The Black Eyed Peas | |
| Peak Position: 1 | Album: The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies) |
| 6 | Position Last Week: 4 | Song Title: TiK ToK |
| Weeks on Chart: 22 | Artist: Ke$ha | |
| Peak Position: 1 | Album: Animal |
| 7 | Position Last Week: 6 | Song Title: Hey, Soul Sister |
| Weeks on Chart: 23 | Artist: Train | |
| Peak Position: 6 | Album: Save Me, San Francisco |
| 8 | Position Last Week: 10 | Song Title: In My Head |
| Weeks on Chart: 13 | Artist: Jason Derulo | |
| Peak Position: 8 | Album: Jason Derulo |
| 9 | Position Last Week: 5 | Song Title: Bad Romance |
| Weeks on Chart: 19 | Artist: Lady Gaga | |
| Peak Position: 2 | Album: The Fame Monster |
| 10 | Position Last Week: 7 | Song Title: How Low |
| Weeks on Chart: 13 | Artist: Ludacris | |
| Peak Position: 6 | Album: Battle of the Sexes (Clean) |
Our Top 10 songs are based on data from Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
Status: Actual working product, available for purchase.
Cost: About $30.00
Availability: Your best bet is to do a quick search for “guitarbud” on musiciansfriend.com
The Guitarbud lets you plug your guitar, bass or keyboard directly into your iPhone or iPod Touch (2nd Gen), along with headphones. Basically, it lets you use the direct output of your guitar, rather than the your iPhone’s built-in mic. Use your guitar with any app that your mic works with.
Some iPhone apps that will let you record or jam with effects: Voice Memos™, StompVox™, Riff Raters™, GigDaddy™, iStrobosoft™, Rectools Pro™, and Guitar FX Deluxe™.
This must-have accessory allows you to plug your guitar directly into your iPhone and 2nd Gen iPod Touch (simultaneously with your headphones) for use with all guitar applications.
The guitarist’s interface fuses your instrument with your iPhone – Now the possibilities are as endless as the apps on your phone. With the Guitarbud even the simple Voice Memos™ app (that comes with your phone) can be used to record riffs or songs anywhere – instantly email your track to your friends. All your apps become more powerful – use your iPod tuner in a noisy crowded bar, record your next tune on the 4-track recorder that’s as close as your iPhone.
I got to play around with one, and it worked great for me – it was a little quiet, so it wouldn’t hurt to add a pre-amp of some kind. Although I didn’t experience this myself, I’ve seen some complaints about occasional drop-outs in the sound.
I wouldn’t recommend recording an album on it, but a lot of musicians I’ve worked with would certainly find it very useful for making sure they don’t forget that cool song idea they have on the subway.
| 1 | Position Last Week: 1 | Song Title: Imma Be |
| Weeks on Chart: 13 | Artist: The Black Eyed Peas | |
| Peak Position: 1 | Album: The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies) | |
| 2 | Position Last Week: 3 | Song Title: BedRock |
| Weeks on Chart: 14 | Artist: Young Money Feat. Lloyd | |
| Peak Position: 2 | Album: We Are Young Money [Clean] | |
| 3 | Position Last Week: 5 | Song Title: Need You Now |
| Weeks on Chart: 29 | Artist: Lady Antebellum | |
| Peak Position: 3 | Album: Need You Now | |
| 4 | Position Last Week: 2 | Song Title: TiK ToK |
| Weeks on Chart: 21 | Artist: Ke$ha | |
| Peak Position: 1 | Album: Animal | |
| 5 | Position Last Week: 4 | Song Title: Bad Romance |
| Weeks on Chart: 18 | Artist: Lady Gaga | |
| Peak Position: 2 | Album: The Fame Monster | |
| 6 | Position Last Week: 7 | Song Title: Hey, Soul Sister |
| Weeks on Chart: 22 | Artist: Train | |
| Peak Position: 6 | Album: Save Me, San Francisco | |
| 7 | Position Last Week: 8 | Song Title: How Low |
| Weeks on Chart: 12 | Artist: Ludacris | |
| Peak Position: 6 | Album: Battle of the Sexes [Clean] | |
| 8 | Position Last Week: 23 | Song Title: Rude Boy |
| Weeks on Chart: 3 | Artist: Rihanna | |
| Peak Position: 8 | Album: Rated R | |
| 9 | Position Last Week: 10 | Song Title: Say Aah |
| Weeks on Chart: 16 | Artist: Trey Songz Feat. Fabolous | |
| Peak Position: 9 | Album: Ready | |
| 10 | Position Last Week: 9 | Song Title: In My Head |
| Weeks on Chart: 12 | Artist Jason Derülo | |
| Peak Position: 9 | Album: Jason Derülo | |
Status: Concept design. Not available for purchase anywhere.
The Linos, from Pyott Design, is a concept design for a portable vinyl record player. It has a usb power source which could double as a digital output to your computer. It also has an analog output in the form of a standard 1/8th inch audio jack, so you could plug in your headphones or send the audio to your home stereo system.
While I’m not sure how many people have the need for a portable vinyl player, this design is too beautiful and elegant for me to ignore. If only it were real.
Boy Eats Drum Machine is singer, producer, visual artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jon Ragel. Boy Eats Drum Machine is a special breed of multi-disciplined solo artist, enthusiastically interactive in his approach to his craft. Ragel prolifically chronicles his writing and recording process on his website. He takes the stage as Boy Eats Drum Machine with a saxophone, turntable, microphone, sampler and green tom drum. Ragel’s clear voice sails over his expert jams, often causing show-goers to dance, sway and otherwise become transfixed.
That he has been met with near-universal acclaim, called “grievously underrated” by the Washington Post, “fresh and unexpected” by NPR, and just plain “awesome” by Music For Robots, is only part of the story. Because right there at the merch booth after the show every night is Ragel, showing you the vintage LP covers he repurposes by hand-screening his own artwork on. If there were ever such a thing as a one-man musical army, a virtual volcano of creativity and seemingly endless musical excitement, Boy Eats Drum Machine is that army, that volcano.
Vampire Weekend are on top the world right now. Their sophomore album Contra debuted number 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart (Their self-titled debut peaked at number 17). And now, they bring us a video for “Giving Up The Gun” directed by the Malloys (Jonas Brothers, Weezer, N.E.R.D., White Stripes). The video boasts appearances by RZA, Joe Jonas, Lil Jon, and a drunk Jake Gyllenhaal.
Check out the video below:
Cover to Cover is a weekly ufonyx exclusive feature, where we take a look at two versions of the same song.
This week we’re taking a look at two different covers of “White Riot”, originally by The Clash: The first by Dropkick Murphys, and the second by Audioslave. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the song, take note: After first listen, many people have thought the song advocates a race war. In fact, it is about class economics and race – lyricist Joe Strummer was trying to appeal to white youths to find a worthy cause to riot, as he felt blacks in the UK already had. Its message is exemplified in the lines “Are you taking over / Or are you taking orders? / Are you going backwards / Or are you going forwards?”
First, let’s look at Dropkick Murphys
Now, Audioslave
The Audioslave rendering is, in my opinion, actually better from a purely musical standpoint, even though I don’t like Chris Cornell’s vocals here. I like the Dropkick Murphys version a lot, and I think it’s much closer to the original – but in the end, what’s the point of doing a cover if you’re just going to do it the same? I’m giving this one to Audioslave – what do you think?
Although this probably goes without saying, I do just want to say I’d rather hear Joe Strummer on this any day.
1. TiK ToK by Ke$ha – Once again Ke$ha has taken the #1 spot. Though I’m not one to listen to this on a regular basis, I must admit it is a catchy tune. (Editor’s Note: Obviously, Mike disagrees with our friend Jordan Meyer, who sometimes reports on the billboard charts for us.)
2. Ima Be by The Black Eyed Peas – This I am baffled by… How can a song that primarily consists of its own title being repeated over and over land the #2 spot?
3. Need You Now by Lady Antebellum – A little bit country, a little bit pop; Lady A deserves the #3 ranking this week.
4. Bed Rock by Young Money feat. Llyod – The song that really puts it all on the table. What is he trying to say? Haha, right.
5. Bad Romance by Lady Gaga – Bad Romance? How about Horribly Irritating… Though enjoyable when first premiered, now it’s just an over played song.
6. Sexy Chick by David Guetta feat. Akon – For all you “Jersey Shore” fans out there, this is a perfect song for you to unleash your fist pumping to.
7. Hey, Soul Sister by Train – May not be the best song, but it’s a good one to pass the time when there’s nothing else on the radio.
8. How Low by Ludacris – Where do the chipmunks come into play here?? ALVIIIIIIINNN!!!
9. I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyes Peas – Good job B.E.P. Two songs in the Top 10, congrats. This is the perfect “Pre-Gaming” song for some.
10. Replay by Iyaz – Ever have a song stuck in your head all day? Well it might be this one.
Internal Microsoft e-mails in 2003 show that they knew Apple had beaten them to the punch in digital music services with the release of iTunes.
—– Original Message —–
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wed 4/30/2003 10:46 PM
To: Amir Majidimehr; Dave Fester
Cc: Will Poole; Christopher Payne; Yusuf Mehdi; David Cole; Hank Vigil
Subject: Apple’s Jobs again.., and time to have a great Windows download service…Steve Jobs ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right and market things as revolutionary are amazing things.
This time somehow he has applied his talents in getting a better Licensing deal than anyone else has gotten for music.
This is very strange to me. The music companies own operations offer a service that is truly unfriendly to the user and has been reviewed that way consistently.
Somehow they decide to give Apple the ability to do something pretty good.
I remember discussing EMusic and us saying that model was better than subscription because you would know what you are getting.
With the subscription who can promise you that the cool new stuff you want (or old stuff) will be there?
I am not saying this strangeness means we messed up – at least if we did so did Real and Pressplay and Musicnet and basically everyone else.
Now that Jobs has done it we need to move fast to get something where the UI and Rights are as good.
I am not sure whether we should do this through one of these JVs or not. I am not sure what the problems are.
However I think we need some plan to prove that even though Jobs has us a bit flat footed again we move quick and both match and do stuff better.
I’m sure people have a lot of thoughts on this. If the plan is clear no meeting is needed. I want to make sure we are coordinated between Windows DMD, MSN and other groups.
…. Original Message ….
From: Jim Allchin
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 4:58 PM
To: Amir Majidimehr; Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Will Poole; David Cole
Subject: Apple’s music store1. How did they get the music companies to go along?
2. We were smoked.
jim
The 2010 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival takes place June 10-13 in Manchester, Tennessee. Instead of releasing the lineup all at once, the Bonnaroo website and MySpace page are unveiling artists from noon to 9 p.m. Eastern time today.
Already confirmed: Jay-Z, Flaming Lips playing Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Phoenix, Weezer, Neon Indian, LCD Soundsystem, Stevie Wonder, Kid Cudi, the Dead Weather, Kings of Leon, Damien Marley and Nas, Chromeo with Daryl Hall, GWAR, and Tokyo Police Club.
Lil Wayne was supposed to start his year-long prison term yesterday after pleading guilty to an attempted weapons possession in 2007. According to MTV News, Wayne’s sentence has been delayed has been delayed to March 2 because of a cracked tooth that requires dental surgery. Pitchfork recalled a Blender article from 2008 that goes into further detail of the rapper’s dental history.
Wayne’s dental troubles are pretty well documented. A Blender cover story from 2008 featured a scene in which Wayne is hit with a righteous toothache in the studio, causing him to freestyle: “I got a toothache/ The size o’ Virginia/ I got a tooothaaache/ And it hurts like a muh-fucka!” The article goes on to describe Wayne’s kitchen thusly: “There is no food in sight besides candy. The counter is crowded with Blow Pops, Sour Patch Kids, Snickers, Milky Ways, Dots, Skittles.” (And that grill can’t make flossing any easier.)
Toothaches or not, Lil Wayne still had enough strength to attend his going away party that was on February 7. Guests included everyone in Young Money, Wale, Trae, Sean Garrett, Chris Johnson and even former Hot Boys co-member B.G.
(photos courtesy of OzoneMag)
