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Roboclarinet is a robotic clarinet player, designed by a team from UNSW and NICTA, that has won first prize at an international orchestra competition.

The robot, which performed The Flight of the Bumblebee and Bolero in the final, beat a Dutch developed guitar-picking robot and a Finnish piano-playing machine.

Staged in Athens, the goal of the Artemis Music Orchestra competition is to raise awareness about the growing capacity and applications of embedded computer systems.

Ueberschall has intoduced LoungeOrama, a sample library featuring 20 construction kit mix foundations.

All source material loops and samples used to make the full mix are included. Outro / Intros, Verses and Chorus provide the framework of all kits.

1.7 GB 880 Loops and Samples
Elastik Soundbank for Mac/PC/AU/VST/RTAS
Elastik Player included — no sampler required Read more…

Michel Waisvisz, leader of the STEIM foundation in Amsterdam since the early eighties, has died.

From the STEIM obituary:

Michel Waisvisz died peacefully in his home last night after fighting the mean cells in his body for the last eight months.

He was born on the 8th of July 1949 and lead STEIM as Director for 27 years. He left us on a day when artists and friends from around the world gathered downstairs to perform for a full-house season-closing concert.

Michel was a musician, visionary and occasional gardener - touched by sound and forever happy to be surprised. He was the source of an enormous surge of energy that continues to flow through STEIM into the world.

We will miss his touch, crackle, inspiration and constant improvisation of the now.

Read more…

This episode of the 1Up show - an online video game show - features a look at the new Korg DS-10 synthesizer, which runs on the Nintendo DS platform.

Timothy Renalto’s The Bad Hand is a sort of plasma theremin.

It doesn’t really improve on the idea of the theremin, but it does look pretty awesome.

via MusicThing

2008 Summer NAMM Show Update: Yamaha announced Audiogram 6 and Audiogram 3, two new Computer Recording Systems (aka digital mixers) designed to easily turn your computer into a tool for recording and editing audio from virtually any microphone, instrument or audio device.

The Audiogram Series bundle together a hardware interface with audio inputs and outputs, software for recording and producing music, and a USB cable for connection to a computer.

“The Audiogram Series has been carefully designed to make everything from set-up to recording as easy as possible,” said Yamaha’s Athan Billias.

The Audiogram Series will be available in August, 2008 for $139.99 retail (Audiogram 3) and $199.99 retail (Audiogram 6). Read more…

Frankenloop is a “step sequencer with a twist” — probability settings for each step so that it sounds different each time.

It’s created by Peter Dines, and it’s released a ShareAlike Creative Commons license. Download at the Noisepages site.

2008 Summer NAMM Show: Roland announced the new JUNO-Stage synthesizer.

Description:

The JUNO-Stage includes all the features needed for a streamlined live performance, such as simple split and layer functions, separate reverb and EQ knobs, an intuitive top panel and LED display, and the FAVORITE function. Made popular by the current JUNO series, this function allows for the quick recall of up to 100 unique sounds and keyboard setups.

The JUNO-Stage even includes a dedicated XLR microphone input with reverb and a vocoder, adding another unique possibility for a live performance.

The JUNO-Stage effortlessly translates to the studio as well. Using a single button, it is transformed into a MIDI master keyboard, enabling seamless integration with external sound sources and software recording applications. A USB memory port enables playback of .MP3, .WAV, .AIFF, or .SMF files from standard USB flash memory.

15 years ago, Kevin Kelly (Editor of Wired magazine) and Brian Eno (ambient music guru and super-producer) published a list of “unthinkable futures” - probabilities we tend to dismiss without thinking - in the Summer, 1993  issue of Whole Earth Review.

Their intent was less to correctly predict the future (thus the silliness) and more to predict how unpredictable the actual future would be.

According to Kelly:

Improbability is still a strong bias to overcome. Much that is happening today would have been dismissed as unbelievably bad science fiction only 15 years ago. The US with secret prisons torturing Muslims? Street sweepers in India with their own cell phones? Obesity a contagious disease? A trusted encyclopedia written by anyone? Yeah, right, give me a break.

They’re interesting to ponder, and probably more so today than when they were published. And anything that Eno writes is generally worth considering.

My favorite - “A new profession, meme-inspector, comes into being.”

Would that be bloggers? Read more…

Caught this via Lunchfood, who says: “Look, the New Kids on the Block are really old! And so are you!”

Damn! He’s right on both counts.

And if you know who the New Kids on the Block are, you’re old, too.

Thanks, Lunchfood, for ruining my day!

I think I’m going to have to skip this particular retro trend. I’m holding out for Mark Wahlberg to go back to being Marky Mark, with Donnie D on the backup.

Tony Amendolare at ElectroKraft has created a unique new music controller for the NES, the Sonic DrumAxe.

Tony’s always coming up with unusual instruments (see our previous ElectroKraft coverage), and the Sonic DrumAxe is no exception.

The Sonic DrumAxe is a controller that connects to the Nintendo NES video game system. Used with the Super Synth Drums cartridge, you can use the DrumAxe to create true 8-bit NES percussion/drum sounds.

You wear the Sonic DrumAxe like a guitar. There are 7 touch sensors which you tap to produce sounds.

The Sonic DrumAxe is a custom instrument, but Tony says this one is for sale and ready to ship. It includes the Super Synth Drums cartridge, cable to connect the DrumAxe to the NES, the Sonic DrumAxe controller, power adapter and one NES gamepad.

Tony’s looking for offers over $299. Inquiries to Tony at ElectroKraft (at) optonline.net

 

 Voice of Julio: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

David Byrne is keeping busy.

While he just opened his audio installation Playing the Building, he’s working on a new project, involving animatronic robots.

Byrne explains:

About a year ago, I was approached by some Spanish curators to participate in a show scheduled to open at the Museo de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid at the end of this month. I was told the show would be called “Machines and Souls: Digital Art,” so I suggested I work with David Hanson (of Hanson Robotics) to make a quasi-realistic singing robot. Animatronics date at least as far back as Disney’s Lincoln robot delivering part of the Gettysburg address, although Abraham’s delivery all but ignored any emotional fervor.

Having seen some of Hanson’s work at Wired Magazine’s Nextfest—and having heard about it for years before that—I thought it might be time to attempt a collaboration. I immediately thought the robot should perform an action with a weird emotional resonance, like singing. An impassioned speech, laughter, or tears, would have worked just as well, but I had an inkling I could write a short passionate song (in both English and Spanish) for Julio the robot to croon.

Byrne’s interested in exploring the strange effect of the almost-real robot.

“It’s still a work in progress—the movements will be more “natural,” as will his hair,” adds Byrne. “But this definitely demonstrates the creepiness factor at work!”

Numark has introduced the iDEC, a professional rack-mount solution offering playback and recording for iPod.

iDEC’s Universal Dock for iPod permits playback of audio and video from any docking iPod through integrated outputs. It can also record incoming audio in real time at CD-quality 44.1 kHz sampling rate, directly to the docked iPod.

The Numark iDec is expected to be available Q3, 2008. Pricing has not been announced. Read more…

2008 Summer NAMM Show: Alesis has introduced the ProTrack, a device that turns an iPod into a professional handheld digital stereo recorder.

Two high-quality condenser microphones are built-in, fixed in XY stereo configuration. ProTrack also offers users a pair of combination XLR - 1/4-inch inputs for connection for external microphones and line sources. When running on plug-in power using the included AC adapter, ProTrack supplies 48V phantom power so that it can power condenser microphones.

ProTrack’s exterior contains a Universal Dock for iPod, LED signal indicators, and controls for 48V phantom power, limiter, and volume. Four AAA alkaline batteries provide four to five hours of operation. A threaded mount is integrated for tabletop use on a camera tripod.

The Alesis ProTrack will be available Q3, 2008. No pricing has been announced. Read more…

Got $1,200?

Then maybe it’s time to get your Tenori-On.

Keyfax NewMedia has announced that it has Yamaha’s Tenori-On in stock.

With that in mind, here are five reasons to get your Tenori-On:

1. Ooh, the pretty lights.
2. It’s cheaper than a Monome.
3. You’ve got a better demo video in you than Yamaha’s boring demo Tenori-On videos.
4. You want to use it with Kyma to hypnotize synth bloggers.
5. You can’t convince your girlfriend to try bikini wrestling as an experimental music controller.

OK - maybe these aren’t five great reasons to get a Tenori-On. Call me skeptical about this pretty set of on-off switches.

But if you’re planning on getting a Tenori-On, I’d be interested in hearing why you like it. Let me know in the comments!