UC Berkeley is generous enough with their time and resources to put course materials and lectures to its class, Musical Applications of CNMAT Technologies, online here.
Throbbing Gristle’s Chris Carter spills the beans on the device that TG used for processing – now with schematic.
Interesting article in Scientific American on how our cognitive apparatus tries to create sense from noise, even if there is no sense to be had.
06
Nov
08
Violin Subharmonics
Mari Kimura is a New York composer and virtuoso violinist whose music includes haunting low notes on the violin called “subharmonics.” …Problem is, these sounds aren’t supposed to be possible.
The tones she playes are in the register of a cello, and usually cannot be made from a violin. Even she is stumped about how it works. “I don’t really know what it is I do,” she said, because she learned it by “trial and error.”
I don’t know about impossible, but violin subharmonics are certainly gorgeous.
06
Nov
08
Tone Generation
Tone Generation is a radio/podcast series on the history of electronic music. Looks a bit more geared to the academic composers, but great stuff overall.
Amazing early guide to recording in the field – which basically consisted of cutting the recordings onto wax media.
BBC news claims to have a recording of the oldest computer music, from a Ferranti Mark I. Can that be true?
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop did a remarkable amount of exploration into sound synthesis and processing. Check out this article with video/audio clips.
The Rephlex compilation music from the bcc radiophonic workshop is a good place to start if you are interested in hearing more.
They spent five years studying noise levels across the city and concluded in a report issued this year that the average noise from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. is 85 decibels, a bit louder than a freight train 15 feet away, said Mustafa el Sayyid, an engineer who helped carry out the study.
But that 85 decibels, while “clearly unacceptable,” is only the average across the day and across the city. At other locations, it is far worse, he said. In Tahrir Square, or Ramsis Square, or the road leading to the pyramids, the noise often reaches 95 decibels, he said, which is only slightly quieter than standing next to a jackhammer.
Apparently Cairo has an insane urban noise problem.
