Category Archives: Music

Zoom ARQ

ZOOM ARQ

10th June 2016

The ZOOM ARQ Aero RhythmTrak is an all-in-one production and live performance instrument which includes an integrated drum machine, sequencer, synthesizer, looper, and MIDI controller with a built-in accelerometer.

One trend in music instruments development is getting away from linear interfaces based on knobs and keys, and instead creating devices that allow physical intuitive interaction and designed for live performances. That is where Zoom ARQ comes in, one of the most amazing music instruments of the year. Zoom ARQ is a circular device with a lighted ring that lets you visualize music as a true loop and it functions as a drum machine, sequencer, synthesizer, looper and MIDI controller at the same time. ARQ is completely wireless and can be used as a standalone instrument or connected to a computer. It is a show in itself and a one-of-a-kind live music experience.

Just wait until Kieran Hebden gets his hands on it!

via sonarplusd.com and zoom-na.com

McTrax: A Paper Placemat Music Production Studio

McDonald’s McTrax: Play the Placemat

1st June 2016

Creating music can really trigger creativity in (young) people. That’s why McDonald’s in the Netherlands introduced McTrax: a paper placemat turned into a full music production station.

By the use of conductive ink on a piece of paper you can connect your smartphone to the placemat via Bluetooth.

via thefwa.com

Bob Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone

27th April 2016

This interactive video (from 2013) is the song’s first official video. It allows viewers to use their keyboards or cursors to flip through 16 channels that mimic TV formats such as games shows, shopping networks and reality series. People on each channel, no matter what TV trope they represent, are seen lip-syncing the lyrics.

“I’m using the medium of television to look back right at us,” director Vania Heymann told Mashable. “You’re flipping yourself to death with switching channels [in real life].” Adds Interlude CEO Yoni Bloch: “You’ll always miss something because you can’t watch everything at the same time.”

The stations you can flip through include a cooking show, The Price Is Right, Pawn Stars, local news, a tennis match, a children’s cartoon, BBC News and a live video of Dylan and the Hawks playing “Like a Rolling Stone” in 1966.

via mashable.com and bobdylan.com

Eric Prydz - Hologram

Eric Prydz – EPIC 4.0 Tour Visuals

5th April 2016

Coming off the very successful campaign for Eric Prydz’s Generate music video, our friend Michael Sershall hired the team back to design the visuals for his EPIC 4.0 tour. The setup for the live show was fairly insane, with content screen forming a cube with a 28mm see-through LED in front, a Holo Gauze through the middle for a mesmerizing hologram projection, and finally a 12mm 4:1 wide-screen LED in the back enclosing the cube and playing back the key content.

For the gig, Munkowitz tapped his favorite collaborators, the great Conor Grebel and Michael Rigley, both ridiculously talented Cinema4D Artists and Animators, who brought their A-Game for this throwdown. All the content was rendered with the amazing Octane Renderer which meant the team bought two superComputers and a fuckLoad of graphics cards to render all the wetness. In the end, the project was about making art for entertainment, and these kinds of paying gigs are what we love.

via gmunk.com and bedtimes.xxx

ACPAD – the wireless electronic orchestra for your guitar

15th February 2016

ACPAD is the world’s first wireless MIDI controller for acoustic guitar. Play thousands of instruments, trigger unlimited sound samples and effects, live record loops… without taking your hand off your guitar!

  • 8x Touch Pads: ACPAD has eight pressure sensitive touch pads that can be assigned to any MIDI intrument, Sound effect or sample that you can imagine
  • 10x Preset Buttons: You can also customize and save up to 25 presets for quick access during and between songs
  • 2x Looper Channels: There are two looper channels that you can use to live record, trigger or stop loops from your guitar
  • 2x Slider Faders: ACPAD also has two sliders to modulate the intensity of your sounds and effects while playing.

via acpad.com

Amon Tobin: V Squared Labs and TouchDesigner

15th November 2011

Gizmodo called it “The Concert of the Future, Today” and CHARTattack said that “it was a live show one might have said could only be created and performed by a cybernetic organism.” where “groundbreaking modeling and mapping techniques were used to take the audience at the Metropolis on a trip to dozens of worlds. … it felt like one was transported into deep space or, alternately, inside the Tron grid, a game of Tetris, an M.C. Escher painting, the fiery pits of Mordor, an acid-coloured kaleidoscope, a Splinter Cell video game…” Wired got straight to the point: “ISAM’s live show looks like a mindfuck of the highest order” with “little in the way of precedent.”

via derivative.ca

Tempo and typography

21st August 2011

This is a short song by Moondog called “Fog On The Hudson (425 West 57th Street)”. Moondog was a blind American composer, musician, poet, and inventor of several musical instruments. He lived on the streets of New York for 20 years, and recorded over 18 albums.
via jango.com and Wikipedia

The Creators Project – Intel & Vice at Coachella 2011

20th July 2011

The Orchestrion – UVA’s standalone light and sound sculpture with experimental music provided by fellow Creator Mira Calix.

via thecreatorsproject.com

Summer Into Dust by Arcade Fire (Dir. Chris Milk) – during Arcade Fires last song “Wake Up,” cascades of beachballs were released into the crowd. With the help of ESKI and Moment Factory, Milk was able to control the LEDs and IR transmitters, embedded in each ball (provided by Tangible Interaction), to light paint kaleidoscopic patterns all over the unsuspecting audience.

via thecreatorsproject.com

miditoflash

16th June 2011

This project provides a bi-directional midibridge that enables Flash or Javascript apps to send midi events to, and to receive midi events from the midi system of your computer. This means for instance that you can control a Flash or Javascript app via your midi controller, and vice versa that can control a midi device from Flash. The term ‘midibridge’ includes all Java and Actionscript code, and all Javascript, HTML and XML files that make this possible.

via code.google.com and abumarkub.net

Daydreaming with… St Michael’s

28th April 2011

Doug Fosters film installation The Heretics Gate, with music by UNKLE
Daydreaming with… St Michaels is open to the public from Weds 27 April — Thurs 5 May, every day from 12—6pm. Entry is free. St Michaels Church, Camden Road, London NW1.

via daydreamingwith.com

Emergency Broadcast Network (EBN)

20th April 2011

Josh Pearson, EBN’s charismatic front man and principal performance artist, was also EBN’s music composer and main video editor. The music and video editing techniques he personally developed and refined have been hugely influential on a generation of advertising and music video editors.

The first EBN video project was a musical remix of the Gulf War, created in 1991 as the war was still ongoing. The VHS tape of the remix project, which contained the George H.W. Bush “We Will Rock You” cover, became a viral underground hit, and was distributed widely by fans as bootleg copies. In the summer of 1991, EBN traveled with the first Lollapalooza tour, distributing tapes and showing their videos on a modified station wagon with TVs on the roof. The group also became well known for their media sculptures and stage props which were created by Gardner Post.

via EBN Official Site

Quayola – PTA 10

26th October 2010

PTA is a live audio-visual performance focusing on precise synchronisations between sound and image. It is a result of multiple collaborations with various musicians worldwide.
via quayola.com