Category: Audio

Instrumenti Takes A Lo-Fi Approach To Sound Visualization

September 21st, 2011 · · Art/Performance, Audio No comments

Making of TRU. Vol. 1. from Instrumenti on Vimeo.

Latvian electro-pop band Instrumenti is known for their eccentric stage presence—the duo first turned heads forwearing oversized panda heads while performing at SXSW in 2010. Now Shipsi and Reynsi, the talents behind this outfit, are taking us behind the scenes to show they can be equally offbeat and experimental offstage.

While visually imagining their album TRU, which dropped last month, Instrumenti worked with design houseAsketic to hatch a concept that would let their music speak for itself. Watch the video above to see the team pour paint onto speakers blasting their tracks. As the membranes pulsated, the paint splashed upward, and Instrumenti caught the patterns on paper to create the lo-fi sound visualizations that would comprise their album artwork.

Read the complete article at The Creators Project.

ARTIST CREATES SONIC GRAFFITI [VIDEO]

August 10th, 2011 · · Art/Performance, Audio No comments

Benjamin Gaulon, of Recyclism, has come up with the concept for an L.S.D. (light-to-sound) device, which ‘invites its users to engage in a new perception of their daily environment.’

L.S.D Sonic Graffiti (Testing on 7 Avenue, 54th Street, New York) from recyclism on Vimeo.

Read the complete article and watch another video at psfk.

Create Alternative Street Art With “Sound Tossing” [Instructables How-To]

July 27th, 2011 · · Art/Performance, Audio No comments

Sound Tossing in Mumbai from Soundfiti on Vimeo.

Much like James Powderly and the Graffiti Research Lab‘s LED throwies and electronic laser vandalism, Soundfiti’s idea of “Sound Tossing” works on a similar principle. Described as “an alternative type of electronic street art” and a resistance movement for activists, artists and all around rabble-rousers, its intent is to draw attention to the concept of acoustic overstimulation and raise awareness about our natural acoustic environment. (For a project that analyzes the different sound environments around North America, click here.)

Soundfiti’s prototype, Urban Cricket, is a solar powered audio device that releases cricket sounds. It’s made from free-formed circuitry, meaning all the components are soldered together instead of using a circuit board. The brighter the light, the louder chirps you’ll hear. It requires a lot of soldering, but Soundfiti says this project can be constructed in only one hour.

Read the complete article at The Creators Project.

Dial-up Modem Sound 700% Slower

June 30th, 2011 · · Art/Performance, Audio, Video No comments

Sonic Graffiti: Trading In The Spray Paint For Sound Waves

June 23rd, 2011 · · Art/Performance, Audio No comments

Benjamin Gaulon, aka Recyclism, gives us Sonic Graffiti—a playful critique of the city’s sensory assault. Using the light off video screens strewn about the city streets, Gaulon transforms the light input into sound, attacking passers-by with a high pitched squeal that can’t help but turn heads. Its dissonance makes it more difficult to tune out, forcing people to pay more attention to their surroundings as they walk down the sidewalk. Since it feeds off the light of video screens and advertisements, its perpetual wail also serves to accentuate how intrusive and omnipresent ads can be in our everyday lives, even when we aren’t paying direct attention to them.

Read the complete article at The Creators Project.

USB Turntable Puts a Digital Spin on Your Vinyl Collection

June 17th, 2011 · · Audio No comments

When the Sony Walkman burst onto the scene decades ago, personal, portable tunes became viable for the first time.

Audio-Technica, a well-known producer of quality, vinyl-centric hi-fi gear, responded to the shift in our listening habits with the AT-727 “Sound Burger,” a strange-looking, pint-sized, battery-powered turntable that made the vinyl experience portable. It was small enough that you could take your records to the late-night party at the Moontower. Needless to say, it didn’t catch on.

Now, in the age of iPods, MP3s, and digital, well, everything, Audio-Technica has taken another swing at making vinyl portable. This one’s a solution much more suited for the 21st century — a USB record player.

The Audio-Technica AT-LP240-USB direct-drive turntable bridges the analog/digital gap by plugging directly into your computer via USB. Using the included free audio editing software Audacity, you can encode all those vinyl tunes to MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WAV or AIFF audio files. If you’ve amassed a sizable record collection, you gain the luxury of enjoying those wax-ensconced sounds not just when you’re lounging in front of your Bang & Olufsen speakers, but anywhere.

Read the complete article at Wired.

Converting Cityscapes To Soundscapes

May 18th, 2011 · · Art/Performance, Audio No comments

If someone asked you: what does your city sound like? Your answer would probably tend towards the noises you hear each day as you walk around—the bustling of traffic, the chatter of crowds, the hum of activity that makes up any urban setting. We doubt the first thing to come to mind would be actualizing the musical score implicit in your city’s skyline, but that’s exactly what Dutch artist Akko Goldenbeld did with the city of Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

Read the complete article at The Creators Project.

Quayola Sets A New Standard For Visualizing Sound

May 10th, 2011 · · Art/Performance, Audio, Video No comments

Visual artist Quayola recently released Partitura 001, a real-time generative sound visualization made in collaboration with visual music artists Abstract Birds, the first work in an ongoing series. Quayola’s work can typically be split into two types: audiovisual installations that deconstruct classic architecture and paintings, exploring the ambiguity of realism in digital art, or audiovisual performances. Both look at the relationship between music and sound, with the latter more geared towards exploring sound as abstract visuals.

This newest work, created using programming tool VVVV, falls under the latter category and is a continuation of Quayola’s previous experiments inspired by the writings of painter Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky’s abstract paintings, especially his Composition series, looked at ways geometric shapes and color could represent the oscillating waveforms of sound. He said he could hear chords and tones when he painted, which in turn informed his works, and popularized the concept of synesthesia, which looks at how certain stimulations can cause one sensory experience to be represented as another, like seeing music as colors.

Read the complete article at The Creators Project.

Sniper Detecting Microphones Becoming More Popular for US Soldiers (video)

February 23rd, 2011 · · Audio No comments

Shoulder mounted sniper detectorShoulder mounted mics help US soldiers detect snipers quickly. Thousands more of these devices are headed to Afghanistan.

Small lightweight microphones are saving the lives of US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shoulder Worn Acoustic Targeting Systems (SWATS), developed by defense company QinetiQ, use shockwave and muzzle blast noise to locate enemy gunfire . A single shot is all it takes to give the soldier the bearing and distance to the sniper trying to take his life. A tactical display or audio alert from the device tells the soldier where to look so they can return fire or take cover. With SWATS, you go from sitting duck to well-informed angry defender in less than a second. QinetiQ recently announced that the US Army had ordered 13,500 SWATS units, with the option to pick up 30,000 more. The Marine Corps placed an order for 900. According to the MC Times, these branches already have roughly 4000 and 150 of the units in the field, respectively. Watch SWATS in action with real gunfire in the videos below. Sensors like these are just some of the many devices that are augmenting human soldiers for modern warfare.

Read the complete article at Singularity Hub.

Yamaha Unveils 3D ‘Sound Projector’ Soundbar System

December 13th, 2010 · · Audio No comments

Yamaha on Friday announced a new high-end audio system, the $999.95 YSP-2200 Digital Sound Projector. The YSP-2200 is an all-in-one soundbar, packing 16 speaker beam drivers into a single 3.5-inch, height-adjustable enclosure that can be placed below anHDTV. To round out the low end of the system, it comes with a separate bass-reflex subwoofer.

The YSP-2200 simulates 7.1-channel surround sound with Yamaha’s YSP technology, a method for bouncing sounds from a soundbar off of flat surfaces, using the reflected sound to make it seem like audio sources surround the listener.

Read the complete article here.