The small keyboard is Raymond Scott's Clavixox. The larger instrument is Raymond Scott's Electronium, video of it directly below (previously here).
Raymond Scott's Electronium
YouTube via DrRek
"As it remains in non working order in the Basement of Mark Motherbaugh's Mutato Music Offices in Hollywood, CA courtesy of http://absurdity.biz's circuit bending documentary"
Be sure to click on the labels at the bottom of this post for more. There are a lot of nuggets in there.
"Roger Mayer is the electrical engineer who developed several electric guitar effects, most notably the Octavia, an effects pedal which reproduced the input signal one octave higher, and mixes the two sounds with some added fuzz. The effect was popularized by Jimi Hendrix, and can be heard during the solos on the song 'Purple Haze'." via Boing Boing
If you import an EXE file into an audio program as audio data, you hear all kinds of cool stuff. The most awesome by far for me was MS Paint.
It's probably one of the coolest things I've ever heard form something like this. All I did to the audio was master it slightly to make it sound less harsh to the ears, as well as remove a long section of noise.
This is the Windows 7 x64 edition of mspaint.exe. I used Adobe Audition to import and edit the audio, but one could jsut as easily use Audacity's "import Raw Data" feature. I imported this as 8-bit, 22050hz stereo audio. I faded in the beginning, as well as removing a long section of noise part of the way through."
Electronic Computer Startup Noise recorded form an LED
Uploaded by r2blend on Mar 9, 2011
"This is of the sound that my computer's LED makes when its light is recorded as sound by connecting a CDS Cell to a handheld recorder's microphone input. Needless to say, it sounded awesome.
You can hear the disks spinning up, the PC Speaker (at 0:08), and all of the other devices that are drawing power. Even the background hiss is from the computer itself, as I had the recorder set to a relatively insensitive setting. Not to mention that the cell was literally pressed up against the light, effectively blocking out all other potential noise or hum sources."
"SI Neg. 83-14878. Date: na...Grace Murray Hopper at the UNIVAC keyboard, c. 1960. Grace Brewster Murray: American mathematician and rear admiral in the U.S. Navy who was a pioneer in developing computer technology, helping to devise UNIVAC I. the first commercial electronic computer, and naval applications for COBOL (common-business-oriented language). ..Credit: Unknown (Smithsonian Institution)"
via Boing Boing's post for Happy Sysadmin Day. Happy Sysadmin Day! :)
"Daphne Oram, founder of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, died in 2003 leaving a colossal archive of reel-to-reel tapes and documents behind. This important collection of material eventually made its way to Goldsmiths College, London, who have been administering it on behalf of the Daphne Oram Trust for the last few years. The collection holds over 400 tapes made by Oram during her lifetime, and 211 of those have been archived and catalogued by the college so far."
Enjoy Maui Media Lab's Jaw Harp for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The Jaw Harp, also known as a Mouth Harp or Jew's Harp, is one of the oldest musical instruments in the world. The Jaw Harp is also one of the most simple and fun musical instruments to play.
Just place the Jaw Harp near your mouth, and twang the tine with your finger. Use your open mouth as a modulated resonator and filter by changing the shape of your lips, cheeks and tongue as you twang away.
Everyone loves the Jaw Harp, especially Kids! Twang Twang Boing Boing!
Maui Media Lab LLC, a licensed Apple developer based out of Maui, Hawaii, has more than sixty applications available for sale in Apple's iTunes App Store for iPad, iPhone and the iPod Touch in more than eighty international markets. Maui Media Lab LLC applications for iPads, iPhones and iPod Touch devices include games, productivity tools, remote controls, musical instruments and much more.
Available exclusively in the iTunes App Store [click here]. Made in Maui Hawaii"
On Kickstarter.
This one in via Lorne Hammond aka kidtronic.
Snip for the archives:
"MECHANICAL MAN IS YOUR FREEDOM OF CHOICE :
This is the first ever DEVO App utilizing one of the most influential bands of the last 40 years. The App includes never-before-heard music and sounds remastered from the DEVO archives that you can use to create new music plus thousands of artistic assets that you can utilize to create your very own DEVOBOT Robot, digital or Vinyl. This is the DEVO App that fans have been waiting for.
KIT ROBOT in collaboration with DEVO:
DEVO Modular Synthesizer featuring unreleased Devo music & sounds from their archives, coupled with a Devo Robot Maker: A TWO in ONE App Available for your device...
"Electronic music equipment maker Behringer deleted a bizarre video (above) of a fake device called the Kirn CorkSniffer, named after tech journalist Peter Kirn, founder of CDM, a digital music magazine. The fake device has a caricature which depicts Kirn as having an unusually long nose."
YouTube Uploaded by favavideochannel on Jan 8, 2011
"Versione da "Discoring" RAI 1982"
Oberheim Four Voice System & KORG PS3300 on top of Polymoog.
In the following video it looks like they have a KORG PS3100 as well. Not sure what the Casio violin is. Update via Anon9 in the comments: "Spotted ARP 3620KBD atop the PS3100 in the 2nd video."
Future World Orchestra - I'm not afraid of the future.mpg
"To assist in the pangs of LCD withdrawal we watched an interview we shot with James Murphy back in the summer of 2006. It was a 30 minute interview which we’ve cut into 9 minutes for your viewing pleasure. Murphy shares his thoughts on musical discovery, the future of taste, artistic value in the face of technology and what he did with our plot device, something."
No synth talk, but some synth spotting here and there.
via BoingBoing TV. It's interesting how the keyboard is the chosen interface. It's somewhat symbolic to how MOOG chose the keyboard as the interface for his synthesizers all those years ago.
"Music legend David Byrne transforms an entire NYC building into a giant musical instrument, and Xeni joins him inside for a BBtv tour.
Playing the Building is Byrne's latest sonic innovation, and morphs the century-old Battery Maritime Building into a clanging, vibrating sound sculpture. In this installation, the former Talking Heads co-founder blurs the boundaries between the creators and consumers of culture. He explains:
Devices [have been] attached to the building's structure — to the metal beams and pillars, the heating pipes, the water pipes — and are used to make these things produce sound. The activations are of three types: wind, vibration, striking. The devices cause the building elements to vibrate, resonate and oscillate so that the building itself becomes a very large musical instrument.
Byrne sees music as deeply embedded within the natural sounds that surround us every day, and believes "anyone can be a writer, artist, or musician if they want to."
Playing the Building continues through August 10, 2008 at 10 South Street, New York, NY; open every Friday through Sunday, noon - 6pm. Admission is free of charge." Boing Boing
'Fantastic Man' (Full Length) - A Film About William Onyeabor
Published on Feb 25, 2014 Noisey
Video description: "'You Need To Hear This' is proud to present 'Fantastic Man' a documentary investigating Nigerian musician William Onyeabor, a man shrouded in mystery and myth. Directed by Jake Sumner (Alldayeveryday) the film tells the story of a label's attempt to track William down, speaking to fans such as Damon Albarn, Caribou and Femi Kuti and travelling to Nigeria to meet those who've worked with him in a bid to uncover the truth about his story. http://williamonyeabor.com/"
William Onyeabor was Nigeria's First Moog Dealer & Electronic Musician. He passed away this Monday, January 16, at the age of 70. Be sure to see the video further below for a taste of his music. To the left you can see him with an Octave Cat, Elka Rhapsody 610, and Moog Polymoog. MiniKorg 700s in back.
"It is with incredibly heavy hearts that we have to announce that the great Nigerian business leader and mythic music pioneer William Onyeabor has passed away at the age of 70. He died peacefully in his sleep following a brief illness, at his home in Enugu, Nigeria. An extraordinary artist, businessman and visionary, Mr. Onyeabor composed and self-released 9 brilliant albums of groundbreaking electronic-funk from 1977-1985, which he recorded, pressed and printed at Wilfilms Limited—his personal pressing plant in southeast Nigeria.
For people in his hometown of Enugu, Nigeria, Mr. Onyeabor was simply referred to as "The Chief”. He was known for having created many opportunities for the people in his community. In his early 30s, he traveled the world to study record manufacturing, so that he could build, "the greatest record manufacturing business in all of West Africa." After those successful years as an artist and record label President in the 1980's, he opened a flour mill and food processing business. In 1987 these new business ventures saw him awarded West African Industrialist of the Year—just two years after the release of his most successful song "When The Going is Smooth and Good", and what should have been the height of his musical career. He was given the honorary title "Justice of the Peace"—a local judicial position elected by the community to provide independent legal ruling. In the early 1990's, he became the President of Enugu's Musician's Union and Chairman of the city's local football team, The Enugu Rangers. Despite all of these extraordinary achievements, his biography was always shrouded in mystery—some claimed he had studied filmmaking in the Soviet Union, while others placed him in France or Great Britain. To his great amusement (and ours too for that matter), this mythic image was at times so deeply ingrained, that we often encountered people who were convinced that he didn't actually exist. Whenever we shared this with him, or would ask him a question about his past, he would just smile and say, "I only want to speak about God."
After five long years of painstaking waiting, negotiating and intense research, we were finally able to release “Who is William Onyeabor?” in 2013 and his music and story took the world by storm. The release was featured in major newspapers, radio and television stations around the world. Time Magazine listed him as number 4 on a shortlist of that year’s best albums. In 2014, the film documentary “Fantastic Man” followed, as well as the “Atomic Bomb! Who is William Onyeabor?” live shows, which travelled to the most regarded festivals and music venues worldwide-starring over 50 special guests from many diverse generations, genres and backgrounds.
Still, William Onyeabor would never speak about himself and for a long time refused any of the many interview requests that came his way. For an artist that had never performed live in his entire life, he repeatedly, and very sadly, would always decline our invitations to take part in any of the joyous celebrations that were created in his honor. Having become Born Again in the latter part of life, he had turned his back on the music from the earlier part of his life.
As one of the absolutely smartest people we ever encountered—William Onyeabor was always in charge, whatever the situation may be (and even though he was living in a fairly isolated part of rural West Africa). As can be heard in many of his songs, he looked at the world from a bird's eye view. He would watch American, Chinese and European news simultaneously, so he could learn about the different points of view from around the world. In his later years, he was still conducting business as usual. Whenever we visited him in Nigeria, he welcomed us warmly into his home. Whether it be at his palace outside of Enugu or via crackly phone lines to America, he always made us laugh. As is also very evident in his songwriting—another example of his true intellect and originality—he had the greatest sense of humor. His life and accomplishments will never cease to astonish us. More than anything, and still to this very day, his music continues to live on—nearly 40 years after it was originally released.
Chief William Ezechukwu Onyeabor is survived by his wife, children, and four grandchildren. We would like to send our deepest condolences to his family and thank each and every one of you who has helped share the love for his music around the world.
In the short and wonderfully intense nine years that we came to know him, he changed our lives in many ways. If he hasn't yet, we hope he will affect you too, one day."
Just saw this one on Boing Boing. Stephen Hawking is looking for a new technician. Sam Blackburn answered the following questions regarding Hawking's voice synthesizer:
"Stephen's voice is very distinctive, but you say there might be a problem retaining it?
'I guess the most interesting thing in my office is a little grey box, which contains the only copy we have of Stephen's hardware voice synthesizer. The card inside dates back to the 1980s and this particular one contains Stephen's voice. There's a processor on it which has a unique program that turns text into speech that sounds like Stephen's, and we have only two of these cards. The company that made them went bankrupt and nobody knows how it works any more. I am trying to reverse engineer it, which is quite tricky.'
Can't you update it with a new synthesizer?
'No. It has to sound exactly the same. The voice is one of the unique things that defines Stephen in my opinion. He could easily change to a voice that was clearer, perhaps more soothing to listen to – less robotic sounding – but it wouldn't be Stephen's voice any more.'"
"The DECtalk DTC01 voice synthesiser he uses, which has an American English accent, is no longer being produced. Asked why he has still kept it after so many years, Hawking mentioned that he has not heard a voice he likes better and that he identifies with it. Hawking is said to be looking for a replacement since, aside from being obsolete, the synthesiser is both large and fragile by current standards. As of mid 2009, he was said to be using NeoSpeech's VoiceText speech synthesiser.[37]
In Hawking's many media appearances, he appears to speak fluently through his synthesiser, but in reality, it is a tedious drawn-out process. Hawking's setup uses a predictive text entry system, which requires only the first few characters in order to auto-complete the word, but as he is only able to use his cheek for data entry, constructing complete sentences takes time. His speeches are prepared in advance, but having a live conversation with him provides insight as to the complexity and work involved. During a TED Conference talk, it took him seven minutes to answer a question."
According to this post on Boing Boing, this is a narration featuring early Moog employees from Trumansburg, NY.
"John discusses a particularly bizarre vinyl recording he happened upon during the local library sale, created by a man named Dr. Noving Jumand in collaboration with some early Moog employees from nearby Trumansburg, NY:
Jumand was something of an Ithaca legend back when I first moved here in the nineties, though he's mostly forgotten now. He'd come to town for a Cornell PhD in psychology, and was teaching as a lecturer, when he got approval for a controversial study involving the effect of narrative on human behavior. A few of his subjects—students, getting paid five dollars an hour—ended up hospitalized, and one was (and perhaps still is) committed to a mental institution. This created all kinds of paranoid rumors about Jumand's narratives—that they were in some way magical, or had been funded by the defense department—but it turned out that he'd given half of these students an experimental drug cocktail, derived from Phencyclidine, and this is what sent them on their dangerously dissociative journeys.
An investigation followed, during which it was revealed the the subjects knew they might be drugged and had signed release forms saying so; and the ones who were hospitalized already had histories of mental illness and drug addiction that could explain their reaction. As a result, no criminal charges were brought against Jumand—but the University cancelled his research and kicked him off campus.
[…]
One extant artifact of his brief period of notoriety is a series of rare recordings of his narratives, made in collaboration with some former Moog employees he met at a swap meet in Trumansburg."
"An electromagnetic style of skateboarding is being born in which we attached a barcode scanner to a skateboard and sounded the scanned electrical signals🛹
(We send the signals to a speaker, no a cash register. Here we added on a tremolo effector to try it out. He have no experience in skateboarding. He wants to improve┃┃┃┃)
ー
バーコードリーダーをスケートボードに取りつけ、スキャンした電気信号を滑り鳴らす謎のスタイルが生まれつつある🛹
（※信号をレジではなく、スピーカーに無線送信。ここでは試しにトレモロエフェクターをかけてみました。彼はスケボー経験一切無し。しかし扉が開かれつつあります┃┃┃┃）
