An algorithm that'll predict a song's "hitability"? As if top 40 wasn't manufactured enough....
I used to listen to Steve Reich and a lot of minimalist stuff while programming to get my brain juices flowing, but I'm finding that kinda makes me daydreamy. Now I've been listening to old electronica and junk (as mentioned in a previous post) but aside from chemical brothers, orbital, goldie, and juno reactor, I've run a bit short. I'm thinking I should check out Paul Oakenfold cause I hear he's got some great trance, but I don't know where to begin with him.
There aren't many hackers who read my page, but should you happen to actually program (particular the marathon sort) and listen to specific music while doing so, I've got a question for you:
What do you listen to when you program?
i can't stop listening to 311's new album, evolver. especially the single, creatures, and it seems uncertain.
Damn you, Michael Britt.
Wow, this is a REALLY awesome interview with Paul B. Davis of 8-bit construction set. Really something everyone should read. While a lot of what he says is, in my opinion, a bunch of wanker purist bullshit, he's also says a lot of really interesting things about the philosophy of computing, obsolesence, the ease of making music (and why that's a bad thing) in the digital age, aural and visual aesthetics, and a whole slew of great stuff. Read this shit, it's great!:
a lot of people have said to him "Hey, have you played around with Reason?" Nobody has ever said to him "Hey, I just made this CD that I'm really proud of with Reason."
These days, everything you see on computers, especially on the web, is just appropriated from print and television aesthetics. It completely ignores the computer's own identity and the computing process is hidden behind flash plug-ins and bloated corporate interfaces--and as a result artists fail to understand the aesthetics of the very medium within which they work.
Early home computers had a different approach to the mass market--they believed that the average Joe could learn to use computers both as a delivery system for commercial applications and as a platform for tool development. Today you only see that in the Linux community, which is great but not at all widespread and still seen as relatively hard-core and sort of isolated-- moms aren't out buying their 8-year-old kids books on how to port C++ applications to Linux like they were out buying them books on how to program BASIC with an apple IIe 15 years ago.
http://www.select-media.com/html/article.php?sid=1
Look! I made wishlists so you can let me know how much you love me by purchasing me all kinds of useless toys and gadgets.
thinkgeek.com wishlist
amazon.com wishlist
http://www.msnbc.com/news/972272.asp
You don’t need to be a hacker to create 8-bit music. Game Boy musicians, for example, have the option of two software programs — LittleSoundDJ and Nanoloop — that open up the Game Boy’s four channels to a non-technical audience. Using the keypad, musicians can construct loops, add instruments and drums and tweak a number of Game Boy variables.Haeyoung Kim is a classically trained pianist who just happens to appreciate what she calls a “warm 8-bit sound.” “When I make music, it’s about the music itself and not the idea of using a Game Boy,” she said.
So i'm starting a project. a REAL project, not one of those "yeah, i'm gonna do this... someday..." kinda things. i already ordered some books. I'm going to create a gameboy cartridge and nintendo cartridge to write music on.
But i need help.
Mostly, i'll need hardware people to help me learn and understand the architectures and machine languages of the systems, but i'll also need tech-savvy musicians willing to learn a new music interface (and deal with whatever bugs occur during it's creation) and to use and test the software to find bugs, it's limitations, and suggest new features. I may make this my rowan senior project which i really have to start thinking about cause i need to start working on it in just a little over a semester... For those of you looking for a more substantial reason to work on such a project.. the current favorite program/cartridge for hardware-based music is Little Sound Dj, a cartridge for the gameboy. It's no longer being produced and the cartridges are going for no cheaper than $800. So there's some hardcore money to be made here if something worthwhile is produced.
so... any takers?
it's called "captured by robots." A guy, and his robot band, play zappa-esq metal/rock/disco.
Watch the videos. Be amazed. Be amused.
i have a new obsession: chip music. it's actually an old obsession, but i just recently found out that there's a lot more out there than i'd known. i've been heavily into 8-bit construction set (link goes to label site with free mp3s) for a couple of years, but i thought they were one of a kind. apparently, there's a pretty good number of people deconstructing gameboys, atari's, nintendos, speak-and-spells, old casio keyboards, and the like. people who spit on pro-tools. people who put tin-foil on their heads and rant about the warmth of vinyl.
for what it's worth, i love this music. maybe it's just that i'm happy being able to listen to what is essentially video game music, which i've always loved and adored despite it's geeky stigma, but with the bonus of being into a super-cool, indie/punk rock kitchyness sans irony type thing to inflate my pop culture ego.
so i went in search of bit shifter, a lo-fi artist who was mentioned in the latest issue of wired. which led me to his label 555 recordings. who are apparently situated right over in philly. which is rad. i was disappointed to find that bit shifter's album isn't out yet, but then i went to the mp3 section of the site and found sunday morning by mmfan316. then i bought mmfan316. and now it is on it's way to my house. and i am happy.
so go listen to some chip music. or don't. i'll gladly keep my super-coolness in all it's unknownnessness.
The national programming contest is tommorow! well, today, cause by the time i'm done writing this it'll be saturday. We, some rowan profs and students, are taking a rowan tart cart down to DC to some other school to engage in mortal combat using boolean logic, complex mathematical pattern recognition, and CODE! It's even cooler than it sounds! (no, i'm not joking). They give us a bunch of logic and math problems and we have to code them all up right quick, make 'em work, and make 'em fast. i did one before in high school and it was awesome, even though we lost horribly. this'll be even more awesome. my code is gonna be so kick-ass it's gonna fly out of my eyeballs and castrate all the nerds. Then they'll beg and plead with me to be teach them the way of awesome, but i'll just say "no" and kick them in the knee-caps.
I have Power-Playlists. i've been loading up my iPod with music i associate with hacking. In actuality, it's all just trashy techno, but i got into trashy techno and hacking at the same time, so i find my coding skills jump a bit when i'm listening to orbital or goldie or something. i got a whole playlist of it. i will destroy everyone.
currently downloading via bittorrent with torrent files found at supernova.org:
Mathematica 5.0
MatLab 6
Sounforge 7
MS Office 2003
Norton Systemworks 2004
2 Videos from the last DefCon Hacking convention in NY
NextStep 3.3, the unix/window manager suite apple bought 'nam ago and modeled OS X after
The Matrix: Revolutions (cause i know i'll hate it and will be mad if i actually pay money to see it)
American Splendor (cause i can't get anyone to go to the ritz with me to see it)
I got all the carnivale episodes the other night and Kill Bill. I think i might actually have gotten gosia to agree to see kill bill with me in the theaters tommorow night after i get back from the contest, so if you want to head out with us, give either of us a call.
I love technology...
oh. my. god. my. head. HURTS. and no amount of aspirin, advil, excedrin, or tylenol seems to be helping. and i have to stick around here for 2 and a half hours waiting for my physics lab class. which is another 2 and a half hours.
someone help me.
I am posting from the boys and girls club of glassboro (bgca.org cause i'm here with Luna and Jess creating a computer network for all the kiddies. Part of a community service project for the ACM. We'll be teaching them how to do fun things like write/record/produce music, graphics, web pages, programming, all kinds of computer junk. Normally I wouldn't be all that into such a thing cause... well... most kids already know more about computers than I do. But these are mostly projects kids without computers who have to wait an hour at the glassboro library just to use one, so it's a pretty neat thing.
Climbing mount fuji in a snow storm? can't see? just climb up and maybe you'll get there. or maybe you'll just hit a nearby peak that's not quite as high. GREEEDY algorithms. that's what baliga's got me researching now.