With everyone heading to or already at SXSW this week and next, I thought this would be a good time to post about the location aware music apps that Bluebrain has been doing. They’ve already done one for The National Mall and Central Park ( Listen To The Light ), the new one The Violet Crown is based around Austin and SXSW. Basically it’s, as Bluebrain describes it, “a musical composition, available exclusively as a free iPhone app, that uses the phone’s built-in GPS to alter the music as the listener traverses the area – each street and intersection is tagged with various pockets of sound, turning the festival grounds into a musical ‘choose-your-own-adventure’.”
You can download the free app here through iTunes.
It’s a really cool concept and as of yet, I haven’t been able to try out the other versions from The National Mall or Central Park ( Listen To The Light ), The Violet Crown will be the first.
For those that can’t make it out to SXSW this year, I dug a little further to get some more of the background on The Violent Crown app and some process. Ryan Holladay of Bluebrain went over the technical info and he sent me a few screen grabs and a map from the programming end of things. He also did a breakdown of how it works, which I think is really interesting.
“What you are looking at in these shots is the app simulator running running on our desktop — this is a way that we can remotely test the music without having to be in Austin and simulate the experience of, say, walking from one block to another and hearing how the music changes. As you can see, there are many in a single area, often with so many overlapping that it’s difficult to tell visually where each of them are located. The crosshairs in the middle represent the location of the listener, the various circles indicate the size of the audio track and the colors the state the audio is in: Blue, as you probably guessed, is playing, while yellow is cued and red is disengaged.
Because, by design, the app basically has to be ready for whichever direction you move, what we have is a system that prepares the audio to be dropped in at any given point and at the correct interval by preloading audio in every direction within a certain proximity. So, for instance, if you were to begin walking from Frontage Rd towards Congress Ave, halfway up 4th Street it will have prepared the tracks waiting for you when you arrive at Red River Street. But, when you reach an intersection, the audio to your left and right is also waiting for in case you chose that direction. Once it’s realized you’ve moved on, it drops those tracks to save processing power until you turn around and re-approach.”
To see what it’s all about check out the Making Of video below, which gives you a detailed explanation of what it does and how they actually built the one for Central Park ( Listen To The Light ).
I had a lot of fun making this years Top 50 songs of 2011, before you say anything lets all agree to disagree, these songs are all songs that are my go to for when I work, DJ, or share on mixtapes, they might not match up with ever other blogs lists which is a damn shame, oh well :) enjoy!
IN ORDER:
50. Sun Glitters – The Wind Caresses Her Hair
49. Poolside – Harvest Moon
48. Loscil – Fromme
47. Kolombo – Waiting For
46. Trouble Books & Mark McGuire – The Golden Waste
45. Dolphins Into The Future – On The HIgh Seas
44. Ford & Lopatin – Channel Pressure (Instrumental Version)
43. Dirty Beaches – Speedway King
42. Radiohead – Feral
41. Gatto Fritto – Hex
40. Implodes – Oxblood
39. Craft Spells – You Should Close The Door
38. Midnight Televison – All Night
37. Braille – Riverbed
36. Active Child – Playing House (Feat. How To Dress Well)
35. Tiger & Woods – Love In Cambodgia
34. Oneohtrix Point Never – Up
33. Tim Hecker – Hatred of Music I
32. Selebrities – Time
31. Nacho Patrol – Stratus Chant (Live @ Paradiso 2010)
30. Bibio – Mind Bokeh
29. Daphni – Mapfumo
28. Soft Metals – Psychic Driving
27. Washed Out – Eyes Be Closed
26. Machinedrum – Listen 2 Me
Those of you familiar with midi controller surfaces will know that, by in large, the product design associated with them leaves much to be desired. They are usually garish, overstated affairs seemingly designed to catch the eye of 18 year old ravers passing through Guitar Center. So I was pretty surprised when I saw the new line of Cubase control surfaces from Steinberg. The CMC line of modular controllers allow you to build a control surface using only the modules you deem necessary to your workflow. They even offer a frame to hold up to four modules of your choosing.
Of course, upon seeing these I was immediately reminded of the question I have been asking myself for years: why don’t we as Photoshop users have a system like this? There is something that comes close; the Avid Artist Color, but it isn’t compatible with Photoshop. Can you imagine having a modular system like the CMC that you could customize to run actions, edit color on the fly, manipulate images? Perhaps I’m being a little presumptuous, but I would think a lot of Photoshop users (and creatives in general) could benefit from an open standard for controlling software like Photoshop, Lightroom, and After Effects. The funny thing is that the standard exists already in MIDI, Adobe just needs to implement it and allow us to map controls to functions within their software. I guess after working with music software for so long and having hardware control surfaces as a given, it’s hard to understand why they’ve never made the leap to the world of visual production.
Would you use a hardware controller to work with Photoshop?
Also, here’s a pretty annoying video detailing the CMC system:
One of my favorite blogs that I go to is Get Off The Coast, they always have their hands full of new music that I need to own and see. Today they premiered my new mix Occupied Sleep which is really an honor since I trust their taste, so please feel free to download the mix below and visit their blog.
TRACKLIST
1. Casino Versus Japan – Names on Maps of Venus (Part 2)
2. Basic Channel – Radiance II Edit
3. Le Révélateur – Mirages
4. Mark Mcguire – The Marfa Lights
5. Fennesz – Happy Audio
6. John Maus – Do Your Best
7. Lawrence – Jill (Reprise)
8. Dettinger – Untitled
9. Popnoname – Nightliner
10. Bola – Glink
Scott’s trip to Graz for the recent Springfestival inspired me to take a walk through my hometown of San Mateo to see what visual inspiration I could find. One thing that’s always fascinated me is the beautiful mural decorating the front of the local Bank of America.
Consisting of 5 panels, 25′ high and approximately 90′ across, the mural was designed by Louis Macouillard and set by Alphonso Pardinas in glass tile. The panels tell the story of A. P. Giannini, the founder of the Bank of Italy (what would later become the Bank of America) who moved the bank’s records and cash to San Mateo after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
These pictures don’t really do it justice, so for the two of you who happen to pass through San Mateo it’s worth checking out. Anyone else have any cool hometown design gems to share?
Super 8 and 8mm have always been my favorites when shooting video. Although transferring the film to digital has posed problems mainly because of its expense and decline in locations to transfer. The video above by James Miller shows his method for transferring 8mm footage to digital using the beloved 5D Mark II and an Eumig Mark 501 (or the Eumig 610D & the Eumig Mark DL). The end result looks great, is much much faster and way less expensive. Now I just need to get a 1D Mark IV or 5D Mark II.
Hit the jump for more information on the process and the transfer results.
This is the video for Matta’s “Release the Freq“. The incredible cinematography and design is by Kim Holm. I really like how the visual complexity builds subtly over the course of the video. And of course it maps to the music nicely, though I’m not really a huge fan of the song. The color grading on this is terrific — I’m tempted to go off into the woods searching for domesticated deers to photograph.
Resident Advisor posted a great mix from Caribou which features his new project under the name Daphni that really made my ears happy. Check the mix out and listen for the Daphni tracks if you’re following along with the track order. He comes big right off the bat with Yes, I Know, I NEED that on vinyl.
TRACKLIST Barnt – What Is A Number, That A Man May Know It? Daphni – Yes, I Know The Jellies – Jive Baby On A Saturday Night Hounds of Hate – Purple Stuff Daphni – Deep Blue Colored Mushroom & The Medicine Rocks – The Route To The Medicine Rocks Daphni – Buck Dance Harmonious Thelonious – Verwobene Muziek Harmonious Thelonious – Mokambo Bakey Ustl – A Tender Place Daphni – Scratch DJ Elmoe – Whea Yo Ghost At, Whea Yo Dead Man Daphni – Ye Ye Kingdom – Fogs
[Voyager overdubs] Lone – Angel Brain Ricardo Villalobos – Peculiar Charanjit Singh – Raga Malkauns DJ Clap Pina – Unakunukulpan Thomas Mapfumo – Shumba (Daphni Edit) Edward Larry Gordon – All Pervading
