Pacarana in action

Edmund Eagan demonstrating the Continuum at the Haken Audio booth at Winter NAMM 2009.

The new Pacarana connected to a TC Electronic via konnekt24D, which handles Audio and MIDI I/O. Here is the current list of supported converters.

[see miroc.co.jp - via 8th Nerve Kyma News]

Inside the RAI Musical Phonology Studio

The Phonology Studio, a musical instrument of the twentieth century, an extension of human thought, has now found its ideal home in the Museo degli Strumenti Musicali of Castello Sforzesco, Milan.

RACK 1

• Patchbay (made by RAI)

RACK 2

• Brüel & Kjær 1011 beat oscillator
• 6 Wavetek 110 oscillators
• 2 Wavetek 115 oscillators
• Heathkit AG 10 oscillator
• General Radio 1398-A tone burst generator

RACK 3

• Brüel & Kjær 1402 white-noise generator
• SIAE 431A oscillator
• Elit MOD 201/D millivoltmeter amplifier
• Nine-input mixer (made by RAI)
• Comparator (made by RAI)
• 2 continuous-loop Appel 311 cassette players

RACK 4

• Unit with 7 slots:

• 2 ring modulators (made by RAI)
• 1 amplitude selector (made by RAI)
• 2 ring modulators for the frequency transposer (made by RAI)
• 1 electronic selector switch (made by RAI)
• 1 empty

• Dynamic modulator (made by RAI)
• Amplitude selector (made by RAI)
• Frequency transposer (made by RAI)

RACK 5

• Unit with 7 slots:

• 1 amplifier Auso Siemens ELA 75-0 for 8-input mixer (made by RAI)
• 5 empty
• 1 power supply Auso Siemens ELA 23-03

• Hewlett-Packard 3591 selective voltmeter + Hewlett-Packard 3594A oscillator with frequency meter
• Patchbay (made by RAI)
• Eight-input mixer (made by RAI)
• Band-pass frequency filter Krohn-Hite 310-A
• Band-pass frequency filter Krohn-Hite 310-AB

RACK 6

• Octave filter bank (made by RAI)
• Bass-pass filter bank (made by RAI)
• Treble-pass filter bank (made by RAI)

RACK 7

• For future improvements

RACK 8

• 5 OSAE P20 T amplifiers
• Patchbay
• 2 OSAE P20 T amplifiers

[view the complete photo set]

The Murder of Crows: a sound installation

Sound and mixed-media installation with audio speakers, amplifiers, computer, electronics.

Since the 1990s, the experimental art of Canadians Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller has been a fascinating exploration of how sound affects and shapes our experience. World-premiering at the 2008 Biennale is their largest installation to date, The Murder of Crows – an astounding 100-speaker artwork that envelops the viewer/listener in the experience of the sculptural and physical qualities of sound. The large and cavernous space of Pier 2/3 is filled with speakers mounted on stands, chairs and walls, creating a minimalist ‘flock’. The installation is structured like a play or film, but with images created only by voice, music and sound effects. Inspired by Goya’s The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters – from the series of etchings called ‘Caprichos’ (c. 1799), which was a denunciation of the evils of society in Spain in his day – the artists have placed a lone megaphone horn on a table in the middle of the space. Out of this horn comes Cardiff’s voice reciting dreams and thoughts as if, like Goya’s sleeper, she is absorbed in her own nightmares. Using multiple soundscapes, as well as compositions by Freida Abtan, Tilman Ritter and Titus Maderlechner, the artists create a ‘sound play’ that physically envelops the listener in a moving field of sound and music.

(This artwork has a 30-minute duration. Seating provided.)



[cityofsound.com]
[www.bos2008.com]
[vimeo.com]

Pic: Ben Burtt at Skywalker Ranch

[click to enlarge]

 

Sound designer Ben Burtt hears the buzzing from a parking lot lamp post at Skywalker Ranch. He used the sound for the skull characters in the new Indiana Jones movie. [via sfgate.com]

Gary Rydstrom's first feature film

The Walt Disney Studios unveiled a diverse and ambitious slate of 10 new animated feature films from Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios to be released through the year 2012.


In the summer of 2011, Pixar’s “newt” marks the directing debut of multiple Oscar® winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom.

NEWT (Disney Digital 3-D™)
Pixar Animation Studios
Director: Gary Rydstrom
Producer: Richard Hollander
Writers: Gary Rydstrom, Leslie Caveny

What happens when the last remaining male and female blue-footed newts on the planet are forced together by science to save the species, and they can’t stand each other? That's the problem facing Newt and Brooke, heroes of ”newt,” the Pixar film by seven-time Academy Award® winner for sound Gary Rydstrom, and director of Pixar's Oscar nominated short, "Lifted." Newt and Brooke embark on a perilous, unpredictable adventure and discover that finding a mate never goes as planned, even when you only have one choice. Love, it turns out, is not a science.

[more photos]

CTM.08 Opening Concert: Pierre Henry

[via pablosanz]

Happy Holidays

[via rebelscum.com]

Cedric Delsaux

[cedricdelsaux.com]

Chris Kern: FDDM

Evolution of the landscape series. Sound: Jan Truetzschler.



[via cckern]

U.S.O. Project @ Giardino Sonoro, Florence

U.S.O. Project (Unidentified Sound Object)
Matteo Milani / Federico Placidi

Giardino Sonoro La Limonaia dell'Imperialino, Sonic Garden Lab -
set up 2007

Research at GSLI:
archetypical abstractions and noise transfiguration.

[related topic]
[video source file available here]
[download the original sound composition]

U.S.O. @ Giardino Sonoro, Florence

[The new photoset is available here]

...more photos coming soon...

Maker Faire 2007: On the Floor

OpenSoundControl wizard Adrian Freed had this roundup of fun interfaces for music and motion plugged into Max/MSP/Jitter. More coverage of alternative controllers for music from Make and elsewhere at Create Digital Music.

Multiphonies GRM 2007: Akousma

In 1958, Pierre Schaeffer, with Francois Bayle, Luc Ferrari, Iannis Xenakis, and others, organized the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). In 1966, Bayle was appointed director. In 1974, he created the Acousmonium, a loudspeaker orchestra designed to project sound in space through multiple loudspeakers. It contained eighty speakers of different sizes placed across a stage at varying heights and distances. Their placement was based on their range, their power, their quality, and their directional characteristics. In his words, "It puts you inside the sound. It's like the interior of a sound universe."

During our stay @ CCMIX, thanks to his director Gérard Pape, Sunday 6th May 2007 we went to Radio France (home of the GRM) for 'Akousma'. We listened to the following artists, where they performed live 'spatialisation' of their tapes:

Jean-Louis Dhermy, Affleurements,
Philippe Jubard, Ecouter, création,
Jacques Stibler, Champs d'ombre, création,
André Dion, Symphonie Indo-européenne : 3e mouvement Cuchulain, création,
Alexandre Yterce, Soleils d'abymes, création.

(These pieces will be available soon on GRM Webradio)

In the photo, François Bayle (seen from behind) seated at the Acousmonium control panel in the Salle Olivier Messiaen, Maison de Radio France, Paris, in 1980.
[via arts-electric.org]

Maison de Radio France
116 Avenue du Président Kennedy
75220 Paris Cedex 16

[Listen to GRM Webradio]
[Ina-GRM on Last.fm]
[Pictures of Acousmonium via flickr]

Dream Home Theater Takes Cues from Skywalker Ranch

After visiting Lucas's Skywalker Ranch theater seven years ago, home theater installer Johann Peters decided to pick and choose some of its best ideas for his own theater, spending $100,000 to build a 16-seat demo theater with a dozen speakers, 12,740 watts of amplification, a high-end JVC 1080p projector and even a mixing console. More…

[via gizmodo.com]
[take a tour of the original Stag Theater]

USO Performance @ Live!iXem 06

Check out the video of USO's live performance in Rome at LiveiXem (title link takes you there).
Live synthesis under keyboard and tablet control, live processing of acoustic bass, plus a pair of baby-blue LEDs staring out at you from the dual Capybaras.

[Flickr: Photos from U.S.O. Project]

Skywalker Ranch Tour

A beautiful photoset of the best post production facility in the world, home of the Star Wars saga by George Lucas.
via Flickr. Thanks to Phil Eager.