Nifty little hardware idea

This is super cool....

http://pianocade.com/

Nifty little hardware idea

This is super cool....

http://pianocade.com/

Really cool face tracking needed?

Then check out this nifty piece of FREE software. It sticks to your face like magic then you can use the numbers spat out to control all sorts of things! Wild.

http://www.seeingmachines.com/product/faceapi/

Drawing sound again!

Check out this nifty little video!

http://vimeo.com/51700038

Touch screen anywhere!

This amazing demo of a set-up produced as a student project has endless possibilities and is just generally full of awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoAslMiukAQ&feature=share

Listening Techniques!

This might just improve your ears a bit and get you into the critical listening experience. Its surprising what you can spot when you take the time to have a good old listen!!

http://www.goingto11.com/?p=1913

Institute for the Musical Arts!

I am currently residing at the Institute for the Musical Arts in Goshen, Massachusetts! What an awesome and fantastic place for fostering new young female talent, and helping women and girls in the industry connect and express themselves in a glorious environment! This place is great with amazing equipment and over 60 instruments all housed in a converted barn full of musical history from the co-creator June Millington of the original all girls rock band Fanny and partner in crime Ann Hackler!

Here are links for the site:-

www.ima.org

And for anyone wanting to know more about June and Fanny:-

http://www.junemillington.com/Welcome.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_(band)

I will return to the U.K on the 23rd October 2012 and so my blogs are gonna be sparse at best until then :)

Learn the 6502 programming language

A site for the learning of the 6502 programming language...sweeeet freeeness.

http://skilldrick.github.com/easy6502/index.html

Sorting Algorithms Explained (a bit)

A webpage that shows how some sorting algorithms work with a simple layout and easy to digest format. A bit of light reading :)

http://www.sorting-algorithms.com/

Pure Data PD very excellent free book!

Learning about PD then check out this book! Its great and free.

http://aspress.co.uk/ds/pdf/pd_intro.pdf

Analysing chord progressions

A guy has done some in depth research  into chord progressions and here is the link to what he found.

http://blog.hooktheory.com/2012/06/06/i-analyzed-the-chords-of-1300-popular-songs-for-patterns-this-is-what-i-found/

Science plus music

A little bit of science when combined with music can lead to interesting effects as this article explains. The evolution of music through natural selection.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/341560/title/The_descent_of_music

QWERKI game updates!

2nd UPDATE:

The game has been released on iTunes App store and I am in the creditsas a Minimar voice!!! Whoop whoop.

Here is the link and its FREE!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/min-a-space-adventure/id517200231?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2

Also a new trailer :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whEO2ZAyCeQ

UPDATE:
I have received a link from the game developers to the trailer which I think has a little of my vocal work in there, I'm looking forward to the main release and hope they can get the funding together.

http://www.indiegogo.com/Min-A-Space-adventure?a=302563&i=addr

So I did a little bit of voice work that may possibly be put onto a game, which is cool. The game is currently in development and after a call for contributions through the sound design facebook group I am part of, I undertook the recordings and put them forward for the delectation of the creators. Heres to hoping I'm lucky enough to feature. Anyhoo I recorded myself using a Shure SM58 running through my new Focusrite Saffire 6 USB into Cubase exporting a wave file at 96kHz and 24-bit for the final track which ran through a set a various cartoon like expressions. It was fun and good times!

Here's the game developers website:-

 www.cwerki.com

Google Blockly

Use this funky new bit of Google to play with block based coding and see its other language equivalents. Helpful thing and fun to do.

http://code.google.com/p/google-blockly/

Makey Makey!

Make anything into a controller and let your mind run wild!


http://www.wimp.com/makeymakey/

Awesomnessssss!

Making music in extraordinary ways

Just awesome and cool and all that jazz.

Klirrfaktor is the guy that runs this coolness. Here is his website.

http://www.klirrfaktor.com

Capturing movement and making it digital

Some software has come to my attention that just looks awesome! Very affordable too and by the looks of it very accurate.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYgsAMKLu7s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Leap motion brings the future to today.

Oramics Max/MSP patch - ORA-MAX

I created a Max/MSP patch that I wanted to, as closely as I could, replicate Daphne Oram's Oramics Machine.

Below is a picture of the final patch with some settings and parameters changed. The patch was a real learning curve and has given me a lot of food for thought on what I could improve.

In the link below is the patch itself and also the written report on the development of the patch.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B35bC9A17eq_VlpjU0ZlZTVZQUk

Sometimes technology astonishes me

http://www.shanghai-272-gigapixels.com/

This is so ridiculous and amazing. That resolution hurts!

Awesome peripherals

Wow, some stunning designs for keyboards that are glorious.

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/popularis/

MIDI robots that play music!

I read MIDI robot and found a few things that are robotic that make music.... fricken awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlGAqa7ZtTU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y66-KiC_Qro&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMFUqMApfnY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0qR0Ksiwyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C_4Zr6MT_w&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLdB0WEixjM
my favorite:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2JChnwv2Ws

Tsume-Go film UPDATE

So I worked on the sound for this film with Mr Andrei Leskovski and it has achieved entrance to Cannes. This is great news and a real achievement for me and the whole team I believe. Here is the link:-

http://registration.cannescourtmetrage.com/filmfiche2.Aspx?id=55074041

Washing Machine!

I came across a really cute project that aims to capture a washing machine for every country and I am pleased to announce that my humble washing machine now represents England! I recorded a full 40 degree cycle on my Zoom H4N in the highest quality mp3 it could capture.

http://planktone.dyndns.org/WASHING/

My machine

http://planktone.dyndns.org/WASHING/england.html

Almighty Doodles

I am so excited right now because I have my first ever name in credits! Foley artist on this lovely little animation by Simone Giampaolo. Thank-you to Andrei Leskovski for letting me join his team! :) :)

This is the video link:-

http://vimeo.com/38309779

Whoooop

A useful blog for Max/MSP

A new patch each week.

http://audiocookbook.org/category/one-max-patch-per-week/

Circuit Bending

I have taken a new hobby in the form of circuit bending! Upon first cracking open that toy case and stabbing at the circuit board I became hooked and have bent two toys in a couple of weeks, I am going to put up videos of the toys in all their bendy glory. The process for me was actually relatively easy to get into, just open a toy, and short the circuit til you get some interesting noise then pop a pot or a body contact or a switch there and voila!

My second attempt the VTech Alphabet Apple

So I put four body contacts on the side and added a pot which is not yet connected cus the connection made everything go hoo hoo. Looks a bit like shakey cam but good fun! I did put a 1/4 jack input in but didnt have anything to hook it up to at hand so its the inbuild speaker playing. I am gonna connect that pot to control the playback speed hopefully to make it speed right up!

The first toy was a Fisherprice mobile phone and to this I did attach a pot to control the playback speed of the sample.

New blog to follow

Helped me out with a Max/MSP patch but has a thorough sprinkling of other fairy dust-esque content.

http://little-scale.blogspot.com/

Digital Signal Processing Book freeeee

http://www.dspguide.com/ch1/1.htm

Excellent and free information on digital signal processing by Steven. W. Smith online book.

Found a new blog to follow

Interesting and informative stuff for your ears and mind.

http://thegangisound.blogspot.com/

Tsume-Go film

I have been doing some audio editing and Foley work on a film called Tsume-go. When the process is complete I will update all the deets but so far I have been having fun overdubbing dialog, squishing up coats and pillowcases, and taking fake footsteps, all in the name of a good sound. My first dip into real Foley work is proving to be epic-ally good. My name will be in credits as I have always wished!

Blam Sounds!

The project has begun, the domain name has been purchased, and locks and squeaks have been recorded. Yes this is the beginning of a new era for me and sound, to combine what I know with what I love, and create a product that can be sold. Me and Simon Small are now in discussion in the formation of Blam Sounds. The place for all your sound fx needs or wants. Early stages but the excitement rages and the blog will be updated with well....updates on progress.

Moar Max

Another quick link to tutorial videos:-

http://wn.com/Max_MSP_Tutorial__Basic_granular_synthesis

Learning Max 5

So I found this little resource of vids on Max MSP and it looked super useful so I thought I would post it on up!

http://www.tutorgig.com/v/max+msp+synth

Wwise for audio in games.

I am trying to learn Wwise but it is a little bit a minefield of whats going ons, here is a handy pdf download that is free and takes you through the basics.

http://www.audiokinetic.com/download/documents/Wwise_GetStartedGuide.pdf

Musical cheat-sheet

So if you wanna cheat your way to a song then here is the link ;)

http://i.imgur.com/Z7gPG.jpg

Gamasutra

Really good site on the art of making games with some super useful info.

http://www.gamasutra.com/

Arduino Uno

The project has been set to create and LED display using an Arduino to run the system. So tonight work began to try and understand the Arduino board by using it to run a servo sweep, this was initially done to try a new David lazer scanner. The events went well after some initial inevitable hiccups and the following pictures show the board in action (statically). Wires and code ahoy-hoy.

And then there was light

Can you hear like an audio engineer?

A website to test you on your audio engineers ear.

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2010/03/can-you-hear-like-an-audio-engineer/

Abbey Road List of Microphones

The list of microphones that abbey road uses for those interested!

http://www.abbeyroad.com/Page/21/Microphones

Entering OraMix Competition

I have entered the OraMix competition! Very excited but mainly because I had a lot of fun doing the remix! We shall see how it goes.

 The competition:-
 http://oramics.herokuapp.com/

My entry:-
http://soundcloud.com/ashka-blueski/quality-lab

Oramics to Electronica at the Science Museum in London

Celebrating the work of Daphne Oram, one of the pioneers of electronic sound this exhibition looks ace. The original machine she used is on display as well as an interactive software version. Daphne Oram is an inspiration to women in this industry and indeed the field of sound.

The science music page on the exhibition can be found here
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ORAMICS

as well as a BBC short review
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9671950.stm

And more info on Daphne Oram herself
http://daphneoram.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_Oram

Game Audio Podcast

A great little podcast to give you a little behind the scenes insight into the game audio world. :)

http://www.gameaudiopodcast.com/?p=319

5 favorite sounds of 2011

Started by blogger and audio dude Jez Riley French, a list of favorite sounds can be emailed to him and he will publish them in his blog, its worth a look just to click on some peoples recording and hear some beautiful noise.

The website is:
http://jezrileyfrench-inplace.blogspot.com/2010/11/its-that-time-of-year-again-time-for.html

and the email is:
tempjez@hotmail.com

Speech Synthesis

We are now getting closer to being able to listen to voices of long gone singers with vocal synthesis.

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/12/ueki-loid-speech-synthesizer/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29