May 18, 2012
Donna Summer

So very sad to hear of the passing of Donna Summer yesterday… :(

Unimaginative ad-agencies take note this is how you do a cover song; sung with passion and feeling… Quincy Jones did a wonderful job producing this track with backing vox provided by his “impossible choir” featuring Dionne Warwick, Michael Jackson, James Ingram, Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Brenda Russell, Dyan Cannon, Kenny Loggins, Lionel Richie AND Stevie Wonder:


Quincy jones - (making of) state of independence by mickeynold

Puts the current crop of stage-school-girls singing terrible covers in tiled rooms for adverts to shame doesnt it… -sigh-

-Andy

4:01am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZXz51yLhiDaL
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: donna summer state of independence quincy jones making of blog jon and vangelis 
May 4, 2012
Daphne Oram - A Documentary

A wonderful documentary on Daphne Oram; Co-Founder of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and inventor / creator of the Oramics machine… 

“We have also sound-houses, where we practise and demonstrate all sounds and their generation. We have harmonies which you have not, of quarter-sounds and lesser slides of sounds; diverse instruments of music likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have, with bells and rings that are dainty and sweet. We represent small sounds as great and deep, likewise great sounds extenuate and sharp. We make diverse tremblings and warblings of sounds, which in their original are entire. We represent and imitate all articulate sounds and letters, and the voices and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps, which set to the ear, do further the hearing greatly. We have also diverse and strange artificial echoes reflecting the voice many times, and as it were tossing it, and some that give back the voice louder than it came, some shriller, and some deeper, yea, some rendering the voice differing in the letters or articulate sound from that they receive. We have all means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes in strange lines and distances.”

Sir Francis Bacon, New Atlantis, 1624.

Quote pinned on the wall of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop by Daphne Oram, 1958.

http://daphneoram.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bacon_sound_houses.jpg

http://daphneoram.org/2012/02/27/waveshapes-on-transparent-slides/

For even more information - see see; http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ORAMICS 

She really is one of my audio hero’s » There were pioneers of sound - and then there were people like Daphne Oram, genius ♥

-Andy

PS - thx to lowbroweye for the quote text for this one - saved me having to type it in *grin* ta m8 :)

9:20am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZXz51yKr-XBB
Filed under: Daphne Oram synthesizer pioneer legend radiophonic workshop documentary sound synthesis oramics visual synthesis 
May 4, 2012
The Secret of the Musical Box

Mind-bendingly wonderful psychedelic Russian children’s musical animation inspired by the animation of Yellow Submarine.

I have a special little place in my heart reserved for this, it’s absolutely brill; from the wonderful analog synth splurges, hits and sound effects to the lovely rock opera-esque vocals at the start and end coupled with the bonkers clacking keyboard samples to the excellent musical number in the middle right through to the moral of the story - its perfect ♥

-Andy

9:06am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZXz51yKr_0x_
Filed under: russian musical animation short translated sound analogue analog 1970's 
May 2, 2012
Red Beans and Rice - Vol2 - Audio Vibes

Lovely sequel to the original Red Beans and Rice vinyl digging documentary - full of little nuggets of information and nice /heartwarming stories from the world of dusty breaks hunting :)

-Andy

9:31am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZXz51yKkSKr8
Filed under: vinyl digging documentary music record collecting hunting 
May 2, 2012
Norman McLaren - Pen Point Percussion

Wonderful NFBC movie on Norman McLaren’s innovative sound2film audio painting technique whereby he would draw directly onto the audio area of blank film stock to produce tones and percussive sounds to accompany his hand drawn direct2film-animations. 

<3
-Andy

9:25am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZXz51yKkRlba
Filed under: Norman McLaren Sound2Film direct synthesis sound painting art short film NFBC 
May 2, 2012
The History of the Boombox

A wicked mini-documentary on the history of the boombox and its influence on music and sound featuring Fab 5 Freddy, Lyle Owerko, and more <3

More info here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103363836.

-Andy

9:20am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZXz51yKkRCKF
Filed under: Documentary Boombox History GhettoBlaster Collecting Music Fab 5 Freddy NPR Short Film 
May 2, 2012
Jean Laurendeau and the Ondes Martenot

A wonderful overview of the rarely seen Ondes Martenot synthesizer/keyboard instrument, you can hear this little beauty on the soundtracks to Ghostbusters (it’s rather prominent throughout this one) and of course Star Trek ;) similar in tone and play to the Tannerin (the ribbon based Theremin) it’s a really interesting beast and frankly its mind boggling that this device was created back in 1928 especially when you take into account that even back then it was capable of producing a wide range of tones…

More information at Wikipedia;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondes_Martenot

-Andy

9:09am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZXz51yKkQ5hs
Filed under: Ondes Martenot keyboard synth 1928 synthesizer analogue analog jean laurendeau ondes martenot 
August 6, 2011
Android Sound Tools

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update here (been a tad busy making beep beeps for people :) but just couldn’t resist posting some quick info on some really cool portable music/synth/sound design apps that you can grab for the Android O/S I’ve not ordered these at all – they are all very useful in their own way.

The reason I’ve put this together is that I’ve noticed quite a few blogs posting ‘best music apps’ lists for android and they are pretty much without exception terribly out of date or poorly informed to the point of being eye watering *Grin*

PS - this isn’t a ‘best of’ list - these are just some of the things I’ve found and thought were rather brill -

Andy

SFXr / price £FREE

A port of the wonderful SFXr by DrPetter (http://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html) for android – very nice thing to have in your pocket if you need a few retro bleeps on the move *Grin* also make sure you hit the options button on your phone to go to the tweak / create new sounds page, several people who I would describe as barely sentient (ed - sorry for sounding heavy handed but its 5am here and I’ve only just finished some work :) seem to have not discovered this based on the reviews on the android market *sigh* :)

Grab it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=be.minimal.sfxr

SyntheFree / price £FREE
A fab and rather powerful tactile synthesizer which is similarish to a kaossilator – fantastic for making bee / insect sounds :) but also rather good for making big dirty bass root sounds for further processing!

Grab it here:https://market.android.com/details?id=thisismyrobot.android.sythe.free

GrainSynth / price £FREE

Ace granular synthesizer, highly usable and even lets you use the accelerometer to make really whacky noises :)

Grab it here:https://market.android.com/details?id=jp.kshoji.grainsynth

Jasuto / price £3.06

Absolutely bonkers modular synthesizer – quite hard to explain, but essentially one places synth objects on a playfield and then you can interact with them via the touch screen and make connections between them – creating new sounds or sequences, its seriously processor hungry tho – not for slow devices! But LOADS of fun.

Grab it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.jasuto.droid

RD3 / price £3.03 (hoho) :)

Excellent TB303 and drum machine emulator – does what it says on the tin, rather nice drum machine that lets you select from a variety of oldskool drum machine sound sets – the default kick on the 909 is a bit lacking tho (but jump into the editor and you can make it much more beefy! =) all in all really solid and awesome fun.

Grab it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mikrosonic.RD3

Ethereal Dialpad / price £FREE

Lovely little pentatonic touchable synth – with a variety of selectable (and downloadable) eyecandy <3 really rather relaxing

Grab it here:https://market.android.com/details?id=as.adamsmith.etherealdialpad

Beat Dialer / Price £1.99

16 step circular drum sequencer, free version available, but the pay one has oodles more sounds – I LOVE THIS. It’s so simple and the circular layout just forces old curmudgeons like me to approach sequencing the beat in an entirely different way. Downside is it doesn’t save your beat layouts or export audio, but actually the transient nature of what you create is part of its simple charm, just hook it up to a sampler and go :)

Grab it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=thisismyrobot.android.beatdialer

SPC / Price £3.47

Nice sample sequencing and triggering program from the makers of RD3 in the vein of a AKAI MPC – downloadable packs are available in different themes from the makers website and it can import RD3 sequences/exports natively – great fun

Grab it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mikrosonic.SPC

Synthoid / Price £1.49

Excellent analog synth implementation on the Android – all sorts of nice sounds are possible. Frankly a ridiculously great thing to have hanging around if you need a quick tone or two.

Grab it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.fleetway76.audio.synthoid

BlipSynth / Price £FREE

Cute little thing for making ring tone sounds, which can be repurposed for creating fun bleeps n bloops for sound design. Also features basic FM synthesizer :)

Grab it here:https://market.android.com/details?id=com.tak.blip

Nanoloop / Price £1.79

My personal favourite, nanoloop started out in life as a native gameboy sound sequencer and synth – its BLAZINGLY fast and features almost zero latency. FM and squarewave synthesis are available as are various filters and noise waveforms, it can also record via the mic and use external samples. Absolutely fantastic and worth 5 times the money that its currently going for!

Grab it here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nanoloop

12:50am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZXz51y7zNae1
(Notes: 15)
  
Filed under: android sound design tools music sequencers free paid 303 nanoloop sfxr synthoid 
January 31, 2011

PR8 is a drum synthesizer running natively on the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) created by Neil Baldwin, check it out :) It’s not out yet, but just felt I should really hype it up a bit :P Check out Neil’s site here http://ntrq.net/ you can already download 2 native NES music tools, NTRQ (a nes music tracker) and Pulstar (a more complex tracker variant) - enjoy

- Andy

6:04pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZXz51y2r3ssZ
Filed under: NES PR8 
January 31, 2011
That blooming orchestra hit :)

Great posting at Motherboard TV on that sound from the CMI :) Just made me smile…

-Andy

5:59pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZXz51y2r3XJV
Filed under: Fairlight CMI motherboard tv