And we have envelope follower. #eurorack #modular #synthesizer
Cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt.
via instagram.com/dsqt
An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt
Disquiet Book Club: Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Memory of Whiteness
The discussion begins at disquiet.com/forums on July 15
As I’ve mentioned here on occasion, there’s ongoing discussion of Disquet Junto projects and other sound/art/technology topics over at the recently introduced [disquiet.com/forums](https://disquiet.com/forums). We’re going to have another book discussion club coming up. The first such discussion group, about [Daphne Oram’s *An Individual Note of Music, Sound and Electronics*](https://disquiet.com/forums/discussion/15/book-club-june-2014-daphne-oram-s-an-individual-note#latest), went nicely, though I think participation was limited in part due to time — I only gave one week’s notice. This time I announced on the Disquiet Junto email list on the first of the month that on July 15 the Disquiet book club is going to read Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel *The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance*. It’s about music in the far future. Here is the description as it appears on [Amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/The-Memory-Whiteness-Scientific-Romance/dp/0312861435/):
>In 3229 A.D., human civilization is scattered among the planets, moons, and asteroids of the solar system. Billions of lives depend on the technology derived from the breakthroughs of the greatest physicist of the age, Arthur Holywelkin. But in the last years of his life, Holywelkin devoted himself to building a strange, beautiful, and complex musical instrument that he called The Orchestra.
>
>Johannes Wright has earned the honor of becoming the Ninth Master of Holywelkin’s Orchestra. Follow him on his Grand Tour of the Solar System, as he journeys down the gravity well toward the sun, impelled by a destiny he can scarcely understand, and is pursued by mysterious foes who will tell him anything except the reason for their enmity.
Thanks for considering joining in. There will be more such discussion groups in the future.
SOUND RESEARCH LOG: Sub Pop and Other Micro Streams
One of my long-standing discontents with iTunes is the absence of a metadata field for record label. Small labels in particular are now looking at private membership and specialized streaming systems to emphasize their curatorial role, [the New York Times reports]( http://ift.tt/1ktZDFC ):
> Last month, Sub Pop Records, an independent label that introduced artists including Nirvana and the Shins, announced a partnership with Drip.fm, a subscription streaming and download service. Fans who sign up for the Sub Pop feed on Drip.fm will pay $10 a month in exchange for albums, singles and special exclusives from the label.
> [O]ther younger, digitally savvy musicians are starting their own services to appeal directly to their fans, like Nicolas Jaar’s Other People and Ryan Hemsworth’s Secret Songs.
This entry cross-posted from the Disquiet linkblog project sound.tumblr.com.
SOUND RESEARCH LOG: Always On: Rainforests, Sleep Disorders, More
Nick Shchetko at blogs.wsj.com/digits surveys recent app developments related to “always on” microphones.
There’s Rainforest, a chainsaw-detection tool halfway through its Kickstarter campaign.
He also lists examples that “assess the quality of sleep, explain why a baby is crying, tell you when you’re stressed, identify mental disorder, track gunshots and even help to crowd-monitor endangered cicada species.”
And then there’s BodyBeat, prototype pictured above:
A crude prototype of BodyBeat, revealed in mid-June, uses an external custom-made microphone to track body sounds, such as breath or cough, with the ambitious aim to detect illnesses or record food consumption.
The microphone is placed on the neck with a 3D-printed neckpiece, which is plugged into a small audio processing device that is wirelessly connected to a smartphone. BodyBeat authors plan to redesign the system for better usability in commercial applications.
It may sound far-fetched. But there could be plenty of market opportunities for systems like BodyBeat. Breathing sounds are indicative of lung conditions, and data on what users consume ”“ say, how often do they drink or eat certain products ”“ can provide important data for diet tracking apps.
There are certainly limitations to sound-detection technology. The quality of embedded microphones remains a concern, for one. “The problem is you can’t create a robust app because everyone is using different microphones,”said Alexander Adams, who helped develop BodyBeat.
Found thanks to Alexis Madrigal’s http://ift.tt/1lPwWYp.
This entry cross-posted from the Disquiet linkblog project sound.tumblr.com.
When a Remix Is a Rearrangement
The Herbie Hancock catalog gets a reworking courtesy of two Philadelphia beatcraftsmen
The eight-song *Hancock* by Small Professor and Arcka, two great Philadelphia-based beatcraftsmen, is several things. It’s a tremendous cache of off-kilter instrumental hip-hop. It’s the result of serious crate digging into the deep recesses of Herbie Hancock’s back catalog, in service of a remix-powered survey of the great keyboardist’s range. And it’s exactly the sort of record that I manage to play repeatedly and yet never get around to writing about. So, a short note here in the interest of that last matter not going any further. Released back in April, the album is some of the best work either the Professor or Arcka has uploaded yet for public consumption. Each track takes tantalizingly familiar items from individual Hancock songs and forms new things from them. A personal favorite is “New Loupe,” by Arcka, because it never loses sight of the all-acoustic nature of the source material. Rather than contemporize the material with synthetic additions, it restricts itself to the trad jazz original. The result is as as much a re-arrangement as it is a remix:
And here is the full set of eight tracks, half by Small Professor and half by Arcka:
Get the full set at [smallarchitect.bandcamp.com](http://smallarchitect.bandcamp.com/album/hancock).
More from Small Professor at [smallprofessor.bandcamp.com](http://smallprofessor.bandcamp.com/) and [twitter.com/smallpro](https://twitter.com/smallpro), and from Arcka at [arckatron.us](http://arckatron.us/) and [twitter.com/arckatron](https://twitter.com/arckatron).