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One American Second by Norman Fairbanks
December 4th, 2007One American Second (The Great American Radio Play) is a sort of mixtape about American culture. It consists of three episodes of about 50 minutes, of carefully arranged snippets of sound, most of it presumably all of it is from the radio. I think it represents American culture well in the sense that it touches the taboos, fears as well as the pride and values I think many Americans have about their nation. I like the playfulness of this work by Fairbanks - he has a way of playing with sounds and what they express in a way that I haven’t seen many other do. (Perhaps I’ve looked in the wrong places)
I also like how he’s able apply a different mood from what was inended in the original recordings, to each clip. This is done by changing the context by choosing the order he puts the clips in, and also by mood-creating music.
Much of the work consists of talk, and there’s also alot of music. I imagine some of it (The electro music) was produced by himself, but most of it is probably sampled radio material, and those parts, I think, is a good representation for the USA in different ways.
I imagine some proud Americans would be genuinely insulted by hearing this work. But for us other people, this is a recommended piece of art!
Pocketnoise by Christoph Kummerer - A Gameboy music program I never heard of!
December 3rd, 2007I discovered the program Pocketnoise by Christoph Kummerer today, in this video:
A quick google gave me that the ROM is not available. Does anyone know more about this program or have valid contact information for Christoph Kummerer? From what I found on the net, it seems like the guy made this program and then disappeared from the surface of the planet. Or is perhaps Christoph someone I know from the GB music community, just not under that name?
Shuffle game
July 12th, 2007I was invited by Optimus to play this little net game. You open a load of song you like in a music player of your choice, and play with shuffle on.
Then you answer how well each song fits each question, one at a time.
My problem is that I don’t use playlists, so I don’t have a playlist with favourites. I almost always handpick songs or albums. And I decided doing so would take away much of the randomness that makes this game fun.
So my last resort was to drop local HD music collection into the playlist. (14.4 GB, 3820 files, I’ve got plenty more in other dirs and on other drives)
I randomized the playlist a couple of times, set shuffle on, and clicked next…
If someone says “is this ok” then you say:
047 - Falsäljing - Jolly happy like only 047 can. Sure it is ok!
What would best describe your personality?
Gijs Gieskes - huiu_alla_hakkuh - A very chaotic chiptune. Is that me? Chaos and chip music? Makes sense…
What do you look in a guy/girl?
Tobias Bernstrup feat. Mai Ueda - Pirates Of The Internet - Actually, I don’t think I could be together with a girl who’s not a pirate.
How do you feel today?
Mortimer Twang - Fellow Mellow - A happy chippie mod by Mortima T. Fits my mood surpringly well.
What is your life’s purpose?
The dark knight (TDK) - Russian Theme - Another chipmod… (I have too many :p ) I don’t if it’s right… It changes mood over time, maybe that’s right?
What is your life motto?
Clipz - Forever Feat. Tali - A dnb tune about eternal love, (I think) which I don’t believe in. Or maybe the vocals were just shallowly placed there for no real reason. Although a great tune, I don’t think it reflects my motto.
What do your friends think of you?
Paza - Arabläkaren (Translation: The Arab Doctor) - More chip music, with weird arabic chants in top! Making stange noises, coming from another planet?
What do you think of your parents?
Jamiroquai - Main vein
What are you going to do to make me hate me
I can’t see how you can this time
A fistful of lies and a verbal decimation
It’s so sad but baby keep on trying
I got no chains or fancy aspirations
But I’ve still got a losing streak
I don’t need praise or instant admiration No no no
It takes more than you to make me weak
A funky house tune. Although the lyrics are written in a totally different context, they’re at least partially correct.
What is 2+2
Random - Give Me Your Day (Psilodump Remix Beta 1) - Makes no sense. I was actually hoping for Bud Melvin’s 1+1 = 1+1 here. 
What do you think of your best friend?
Mortimer T - Chip jungle - More chippy music. Who could’ve guessed? My best friend is into both chip and jungle music, but I don’t think he’d like this one. I was hoping for something with more of a message.
What do you think of the person you like?
Astral Projection - Sativa (Deep atmosphere sfx remix) - An AP tune about sitting in the studio smoking weed, or something like that. Hmmm, no nothing like her. (Or me for that matter)
What is your life’s story
Trance Control - In Trance we Trust - A part of my musical story longing for about 3 years, otherwise pretty inaccurate.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Aphex Twin - Avril 14th - No relationship. \:
What do you think when you see the person you like?
Ikuma Morata - Fami 2 Step - No \:
What will they play at your funeral?
Psilodump - Senki Otus Part 1 - Probably not \: Perhaps a piece of classical style musical based on the main lead…
What is your hobby/interest?
Herbert Weixelbaum - Tanzmusik - A Gameboy tune, other than that not giving too many hints.
What is your biggest fear?
Psilodump - rescue.mp3 - Seems to be about drowning (Perhaps from a mental point of view)
What is your biggest secret?
Jega - Syntax Tree - Neh…
What do you think of your friends?
Benny B - Dont Touch Too Much (Sfaction mix) - About my need for intimacy and being alone?
This didn’t really work out as expected, so I’ll just start over from the question where it started to go havoc. I’ll randomize the playlist two more times and press next…
What is 2+2
Psilodump - Pocket Calculator - There we go!
What do you think of your best friend?
Acidwolf - MMM - Nah
What do you think of the person you like?
Heavens Cry - Til’ Tears Do Us Part [Flash Harry Mix] - Why not?
What is your life’s story
Norah Jones - Don’t Know Why
Don’t Know Why
I waited till I saw the sun
I don’t know why I didn’t come
I left you by the house of fun
I don’t know why I didn’t come
I don’t know why I didn’t come
When I saw the break of day
I wished that I could fly away
Instead of kneeling in the sand
Catching teardrops in my hand
My heart is drenched in wine
Hmm…
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Dave Koz - Together Again - Nope…
What do you think when you see the person you like?
Psilodump - The Somnambulist (Din Stalker Remix) - She’s a somnambulist and I’m her stalker. 
What will they play at your funeral?
Astral Projection - Black & White - Nope.
What is your hobby/interest?
Goblin Sound - Tetris (NES version) - Yay!
What is your biggest fear?
Nintendo - Donkey Kong (NES version) - Hahaha! No!
What is your biggest secret?
seVeneleVen - Rings Of Medusa - The Last Crusade ReMIX - Yes!
What do you think of your friends?
Ninteno - Cluclu Land - What’s up with winamp’s shuffle function?? So many nsf’s in such a short time?
So who to invite? I don’t know how many people actually read my blog, less how many people would like to participate in a game like this.
But anyway, here are my invitations: Vickei, omniuwo, pepino, Andrew Nesbitt, Elmindreda.
Alternative speakers made of flames, Tesla coils, fans and air!
June 20th, 2007Did you think that a speaker must consist of a vibrating membrane? Wrong! There are various other methods of creating sound. All it takes is something that makes the air vibrate. Or rather strictly speaking, anything that makes your eardrum vibrate. It’s possible to create an audible sound by vibrating the skullbone, and in turn the eardrum and the rest of your ear’s hearing mechanisms. Such headphones do exist and are being sold primarily to swimmers.
But even on land there are various more or less weird ways of making the air vibrate. The reason I decided to finally write this post is because of a cool link that Tiago (xernobyl) sent me. And with or without his knowledge, I’m a sucker for Tesla coils.
It’s a video of a speaker consisting of a Tesla coil. Tesla coils are generally used to produce high voltages that create sparks in the air, mad scientist style. A tesla coil should be feeded with an AC current in order for it to do its job, and this guy came up with the idea of modulating the carrier frequency to produce sound.
(Click the image to see the video)
It seems like the sound has a bit-depth of 1-bit, making it ideal for chiptunes, and sure enough in the video showcase he played both music from Super Mario Bros (The underground theme) and Gameboy Tetris Type A music. There was also a first tune in the video that I don’t recognize. If you readers have a suggestion, tell me.
As a side note. The Super Mario Bros underground music seems to be very much inspired by a riff from George Duke’s 1979 record Brazilian Love Affair (From the first song, which shares its name with the album) I haven’t listened through the whole album for more possible sources of inspiration for Koji Kondo.
However… I’d like to have on of these! I’d hook it up with MIDI or something and make it a full fledged synth. One of the first things that I’d try to do is to add polyphony. Since the modulation in question is probably only a simple PCM, I’d try to increase the virtual bit depth, so to speak. Two or four square waves isn’t too much to ask for, right?
The Tesla coil link also reminded me of another thing I’ve been planning to post for some time. I’ve found a 1970 magazine about technology, and one article caught my attention. It was about one of those crazy inventions that never left the drawing board because for reason or other.
What I found was an article about a so called flame speaker. In some weird way it uses a speaker to amplify a sound. The scanned article is in Swedish, but Google has (at least) two more useful links, with scans from English magazines from the time.
http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/PopularElectronics/May1968/Flame_Amplification.htm
http://www.4×4pride.org/Flame/Docs/FlameAmp/FlameAmp.html
Click images for full article scans (in Swedish)
I’d like to build a flame amplifier/speaker at some point. But a fair guess is that the bass response is pretty bad. What to do about that? Just go buy a sub woofer?
Not me! I’d complete it with a Rotary Woofer. In simple terms you could say that this is a fan that pushes the air back and forth, and so creating the sound.
So for the last onconventional type of speaker. It’s called a bumbimagi… No it isn’t, RastaMahn, STFU and get a life. It’s the directional type of speaker. It works not by producing any audible sound itself. Instead it produces a beam of ultrasound, which is inaudible to humans. (But is audible and even painful for dogs, and can still damage human ears, but that’s another story) The ultrasound then gets distorted in the air which produces audible frequencies.
The effect is similar to what happens when you play two notes on an instrument with a certain interval. (I don’t remember which interval now) the tones create a subharmonic. This is a technique used primarily by xylophonists. In a more controlled form the effect can, as mentioned, be used to create directed sound. The sound audible to humans is only audible within the pillar of air, defined by the direction of the speaker.
The product is being sold by the company HoloSonics, and they also have a little more information on the technology.
This post also comes with a couple of bonuses, things that I happened to find or do during the research for the post.
Here are some more scans from the Swedish 1970 magazine with article about flame amplification. (Flamhögtalare in Swedish)
The magazine is called “Tekniken idag” (Technology Today) which seems to be a special issue of “Tekniskt magasin” (The Technology Magazine)
Cover (Omslag)
The Computer, quickwitted, but dumb, spread 1 (Datamaskinen, snabbtänkt men dum, uppslag 1) - An article from back then about computers.
The Computer, quickwitted, but dumb, spread 2 (Datamaskinen, snabbtänkt men dum, uppslag 2) - Contains an image of a 1970 light pen and big big memory grid from the same year.
“Elmar” has the first artificial brain (”Elmar” har den första konstgjorda hjärnan) - An article about father of today’s robotic vacuum cleaners. However, “Elmar” is very stupid, it only uses one photocell to back off it comes to close to something… And that’s all it does, I think.
There are also a few more retrospective articles about astronomy, satellite spionage, supraconduction, the Loch Ness monster, PCMI microfilm, Hikari, (ひかり, the world’s fastest train at the time) an article about the future of television, (Amazingly mentioning flat TV’s) a test of a car PA, an article about Jules Vernes, and a collection of articles about space, which was the theme of the issue in question. There were also a few articles about cars and motor cycles that I didn’t find interesting enough to mention. (And whose contents are probably outdated, even from a retrospective point of view)
I can scan any of the articles mentioned, at request.
The other bonus is an album containing the complete sound track of Super Mario World, played on (mostly) acoustic instruments. Normally I tend to think that video game covers on traditional instruments tend to sound like shit, but this guy manages to do it in a proper way. The album has a professional touch to it, kind of like how Nintendo would do it to paraphrase the classic game in one of their newer titles.
So, check it out.
Zelda theme on a theremin
June 7th, 2007
This the theme for The Legend of Zelda, played on a theremin. (If you don’t know, it’s an instrument which is controlled by how your hands interfere with radio waves)
Makes me think… I want a theremin, but at the time being I don’t have enough time and money to buy one, let alone build one. So whenever I get some free time, I’m planning to build an optomin, which uses the same principle, but is based on light. In a typical optomin, you have a LED, whose light is reflected by the user’s hand onto an LDR, which in turn is part of an oscillation circuit. Maybe if I succeed in doing so, I’ll do an oscillator where I use the combo LED, hand, LDR, as the feedback loop in the oscillator. That’s an idea I got from watching a sketchup of a brushless DC motor. On a related note, DC motors tend to produce a kind of static when used, which can be a problem in practical application, because the surrounding electronics may suffer from the interference. However, I think that the square wave being produced could be musically useful. The square wave that it generates has a spike at every cycle, that I think will give very nice overtones. A synth based on DC engines? Eat that!
Where was I? Oh yeah, the optomin! I’ve already build two things with LDR’s in them, both of which were APC clones. The first one was this dual Atari Punk Console, and the second was the Gameboy Ounk Console, viciously built in a small Gameboy box, as promised to Dj Scotch Egg, during his visit to Sweden.
Also, I’d like to give a shout to nerdarts.com which is a newly opened blog about geek and net culture, where one of my posts is featured on the front page. Unfortunately not with one my own projects, but there’ll be more of them coming. Also, maybe the tag chiptune is not suitable for that post?
However, despite being only one day old, the site already looks promising, I found some interesting stuff to read, and I’m eagerly waiting for more. RSS feed added, for sure!
Interview finished
May 4th, 2007We just finished the interview, and it went pretty well. I’ll do a checkup on the right for the music played in conjunction, and when that’s finished, I’ll upload the stream and maybe do a transcript to English.
Minimalizm locked groove vinyl released to the public
April 15th, 2007
The Minimalizm Noise Vinyl v3 is a locked groove vinyl project. A locked groove vinyl is a vinyl disc where every track keeps looping. The disc has a number of circles, one for each loop, rather than a long spiral.
The aim of the project is to do community pressings, where every artist makes a loop for the vinyl and orders a few copies to pay their share of the production. My contribution to the project is a Gameboy loop. As a bonus, you get a house track by LeAndre from Paris, and the 53 loops from minimalizm v2 on the B side.
The original minializm v2 pressing was pressed in 100 copies which were quickly sold out. Because of this high interest minimalizm v3 is now available to the public. By buying one or more copies of the vinyl, you support the project and ensure there will be a 4th vinyl when the time comes.
