:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Friday, December 25, 2009 ::

MP3 Christmas

Merry Christmas y'all!

Tophee Cheesecake's Christmas Mash-Up Mix
"1-hour crazy Christmas mash-up medley !
It's mellow, it's heavy, it's straight, it's gay, it's cheerful, it's depressive - but mainly, it's Christmassy !^^
Download for free at http://www.topher.fr
Playlist to follow soon."
Direct link [126MB zip]

Little Boots - have yourself a merry little boots christmas funtimes


And as I'm posting Boots stuff here's the Trailer to the Laser Harp doc that you can see in the user area of Little Boots Music.co.uk:

Labels: MP3, Synths

:: Dan 25.12.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Babble by Alex McLean

"Babble is a system for authoring mechanistic sound poetry. It occupies a space between speech and music, allowing play with the structure and form of simplified phonetics. The visitor is encouraged to enter nonsense verse, which is then immediately played back as synthesised sound. Although babble's phonetic system is quite unlike that of any natural language, when faced with the text that generates the sound, the listener has the sensation of 'hearing' speech.

"Babble is written in the open source HaXe language, which compiles to javascript and flash. The source code for babble is available under the GNU Public License version 3 or later."

This makes some fun noises and I like the rhythms it generates when given large sets of input data. However, the "simplified phonetics" are simplified to the point they bare little relation to what you put in.

Babble by Alex McLean is a project.arnolfini commission (produced for the exhibition 'Supertoys'.
[development blog]

"Alex McLean is a programmer and live coding musician. He is co-founder of the dorkbotlondon meetings on electronic art, the TOPLAP organisation for the proliferation of live algorithm programming and the runme software art repository. He is also a PhD student at Goldsmiths College, within the Intelligent Sound and Music Systems group."

I had a wander around the Supertoys exhibition last week. There is some interesting stuff, but as I've complained about previous technology based exhibitions at the Arnolfini, half of it wasn't working or was only a prototype. I may go back sometime to see if things gets fixed.

"mechanistic sound poetry. It occupies a space between speech and music"
Sometimes I think people might appreciate art more if the artists didn't write a load of balls about everything they do. That would raise the bar such that the art had to be good enough to stand on its own, rather than need to be justified by some pseudo-intellectual twaddle or gibberish manifesto.
[/end rant]

Labels: Art, Audio, Robots, Speech, Synths

:: Dan 3.12.08 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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This has appeared everywhere this week but how can I not post a story about a Korg MS-10 clone running on a Nintendo DS?

The KORG DS-10 is a music-creation software for the Nintendo DS that combines the superior interface of the Nintendo DS and the design concept of the famous MS-10 synthesizer.

The sound sources in the KORG DS-10 come from KORG - one of the world's top musical instrument producers - and no effort was spared in creating these ultra-high-quality sounds. The Nintendo DS's dual-screen touch panel is used to the fullest to provide a feel and operability that is unsurpassed, and combined with the sensory input mode at the touch-control screen, this unit can be appreciated by the complete novice as well as the seasoned professional.

In addition to the two analog synth simulators and drum module, a 6-track/16-step sequencer enables precise control and provides a wide range of musical possibilities. Several units can be connected and played together through a wireless link, and this and other features make the Nintendo DS and KORG DS-10 almost limitless in their application - they can take you places that no single synthesizer can.

The KORG DS-10 will introduce “stylus music” to the world at the International Musikmesse Frankfurt (Germany).

Sound sample: demo song01 (02:08) [4.9MB MP3]

Release date July 2008
Price 4,800 YEN (tax included) [<25GBP!)
Distributor AQ Interactive, Inc.
*FOR JAPAN ONLY [theoretically]

Labels: Electronic Music, Gaming, Seqeuncers, Synths

:: Dan 15.3.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"Two artists [Rob Meek (any relation to Joe?) and Frank Müller] have created a device for manipulating fonts as one would synthesiser sounds. The Meek FM Typographic Synthesizer consists of a box of synth-like knobs connected to a Mac running software which allows the user to tweak aspects of a font using the knobs. (The font is stored in a higher-level representation, consisting of strokes, though it's said to be able to import standard PostScript fonts.)"



[via null device]

Labels: Fonts, Synths

:: Dan 12.3.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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James Binray gave me a copy of his Dave Smith Evolver VSTi editor some time ago, and to my embarrassment I've not really got around to using it despite his requests for comments. He demoed it to me when I dropped by one time and I have to say that it looks amazing and seems to piss on both of the commercially available editors [Sound Tower and Vyzor].

Driving home after the January Goatlab radio show I was talking to him about possibly making it available to other users. He was hesitant as he didn't want to have to provide technical support. However, he has done so now, on this blog page and, cheekily, on the Vyzor yahoo group.

If you have an Evolver and are considering buying one of the commercial editors I’d strongly advise you to test this one out first.

Good work, James!

Labels: Evolver, FOSS, Synths, VST

:: Dan 4.2.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"We asked one of the few lucky musician using both these devices, Ashley Brown from England, to review them in a side-by-side comparison. Ashley also talks about his setup and shares some of his "secrets"..."
Techy types should read the interview

Labels: Controllers, Electronic Music, Synths

:: Dan 23.12.07 [Arc] [2 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"Due to Relocation...
Vince Clarke from Erasure is Auctioning over 160 items of Audio Equipment from his UK Studio.
All have been regularily serviced. Most have documentation.
Five items a day will be Auctioned starting from Wednesday 24th October.
Happy Bidding."



Funny, just found out about this sale this morning, and only yesterday I was lecturing Mrs P about Clarke's use of BBC Micros as we were driving along listening to some awlful charity shop mix tape that Erasure popped up on. You can see his BBC Master in this fantastic picture...



...not to mention all of the other cool stuff. Mmm, dbx compressors, Fairlight C.M.I(!), Erasure MIDI/Gate System(?), etc.

"Behringer Composer Pro 2ch Compresser" - I sold mine for 20 quid. Will be interesting to see what he gets for his.

Labels: eBay, Synths

:: Dan 29.10.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Synth Rumour ahoy! Prophet 8: Prophet 5 reborn by Dave Smith Industries?

Labels: Synths

:: Dan 14.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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NordLead Modular in Lego by Avro
[via Music Thing]

I'm still waiting for Lego to make a working modular synth kit. I can dream.

Labels: Lego, Synths

:: Dan 19.6.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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