Tricky drum

"Drum kit I made on the beach in Panama, the snare drum is bottle tops taped onto a tray and the bass drum pedal is sprung with boxer shorts...don't suppose it's still there?..."



Genial!

Animusic

Animusic is an American company specializing in the 3D visualization of MIDI-based music. Founded by Wayne Lytle, it is incorporated in New York and has offices in Texas and California. The initial name of the company was Visual Music, changed to Animusic in 1995.

The company is known for its Animusic compilations of computer-generated animations, based on MIDI events processed to simultaneously drive the music and on-screen action, leading to and corresponding to every sound.

Unlike many other music animations, the music drives the animation. Other animations animate figures or characters to the music, while the animations here are created first, then will follow and play what the music tells them to play. 'Solo cams' in the Animusic DVD shows how each instrument actually plays through a piece of music from the beginning to end.

Many of the instruments appear to be robotic or play themselves using curious methods to produce and visualize the original compositions. The animations typically feature dramatically-lit rooms or landscapes.

The music of Animusic is principally pop-rock based, consisting of straightforward sequences of triggered samples and digital patches mostly played "dry"; i.e., with few effects. There are no lyrics or voices, save for the occasional chorus synthesizer. According to the director's comments on DVD 2, most instrument sounds are generated with software synthesizers on a music workstation. Many sounds resemble stock patches available on digital keyboards, subjected to some manipulation, e.g. pitch / playback speed, to enhance their timbre.
As of 2006, two video compilations have been released:

* Animusic: A Computer Animation Video Album
* Animusic 2: A New Computer Animation Video Album

Animusic was re-released in 2004 in a special edition DVD. Animusic 2 was released in 2005. The Animusic website has announced that the company is making Animusic 3, and 8 new animations are planned, the dvd will be released in 2010.

Animusic has been promoted at SIGGRAPH since 1990, and has been promoted on Public Broadcasting Service and other television networks such as Tech TV's "Eye Drops". Wayne Lytle and his works have also been featured on Fox News and over 30 other local stations in January 2007. Animusic's 'Pipe Dream' was released as a real-time demo for ATI's Radeon 9700 series graphics cards. Animusic also rendered 'Resonant Chamber' and 'Starship Groove' in HD resolution for Apple's Quicktime HD Gallery. There was an internet rumor that the "Pipe Dream" video was recreated at the University of Iowa from farm machinery parts.

According to the company's FAQ, animation is created procedurally with their own proprietary MIDImotion software, Discreet 3D Studio Max was used for modeling, lighting, cameras, and rendering. Maps were painted with Corel Painter, Deep Paint 3D, and Photoshop. They have also created their own software called AnimusicStudio.

Resonant Chamber from Animusic 1.



Harmonic Voltage from Animusic 1.



Beyond the walls from Animusic 1.



Acoustic Curves from Animusic 1.



Pipe Dream from Animusic 1.



Drum Machine from Animusic 1.



Aqua Harp from Animusic 1.



Stick Figures from Animusic 1.



Future Retro from Animusic 1.



Laser Show from Animusic 1.



Starship Groove from Animusic 2.



Pogo Sticks from Animusic 2.



Cathedral Pictures from Animusic 2.



Pipe Dream 2 from Animusic 2.



Fiber Bundles from Animusic 2.



Gyro Drums from Animusic 2.



Heavy Light from Animusic 2.

Didgeridoo

Wambana is Bruce Burrngupurrngu Wunungmurra's eldest son whose mother is from Groote Eylandt. He enjoys a reputation in eastern Arnhem Land as a red hot yidaki (didgeridoo) player, a skill undoubtedly passed on from father to son.



The didgeridoo (or didjeridu) is a wind instrument of the Indigenous Australians of northern Australia. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe". Musicologists classify it as an aerophone.

A didgeridoo is usually cylindrical or conical in shape and can measure anywhere from 1 to 3 metres (3.2 Feet to 9.8 Feet) in length with most instruments measuring around 1.2 metres. Generally, the longer the instrument, the lower the pitch or key of the instrument. Keys from D to F♯ are the preferred pitch of traditional Aboriginal players.

There are no reliable sources stating the didgeridoo's exact age, though it is commonly claimed to be the world's oldest wind instrument. Archaeological studies of rock art in Northern Australia suggests that the Aboriginal people of the Kakadu region of the Northern Territory have been using the didgeridoo for about 1500 years, based on the dating of paintings on cave walls and shelters from this period. A clear rock painting in Ginga Wardelirrhmeng from the freshwater period (1500 years ago until the present) shows a didjeridu player and two songmen.

"Didgeridoo" is considered to be an onomatopoetic word of Western invention, but it has been said that it may be derived from the Irish words dúdaire or dúidire, meaning variously 'trumpeter; constant smoker, puffer; long-necked person, eavesdropper; hummer, crooner' and dubh, meaning "black" (or duth, meaning "native"). It is alleged that upon seeing the instrument played for the first time, a British army Officer turned to his Gaelic aide and asked "What's that?", to which the aide bemusedly replied, "dúdaire dubh," meaning 'black piper.' However, this is unlikely as the Irish word for a black person is actually fear gorm (literally "blue man").

The earliest occurrences of the word in print include the Australian National Dictionary 1919, The Bulletin in 1924 and the writings of Herbert Basedow in 1926. There are numerous names for this instrument among the Aboriginal people of northern Australia, with yirdaki one of the better known words in modern Western society. Yirdaki, also sometimes spelled yidaki, refers to the specific type of instrument made and used by the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land. In Western Arnhem Land, mago is used, although it refers specifically to the local version. Many believe that it is a matter of etiquette to reserve tribal names for tribal instruments, though retailers and businesses have been quick to exploit these special names for generic tourist-oriented instruments.

Construction and play

Authentic Aboriginal didgeridoos are produced in traditionally-oriented communities in Northern Australia and are usually made from hardwoods, especially the various eucalyptus species that are endemic to the region. (Here are the most often used eucalyptus species by region and some ranking.) The main trunk of the tree is often harvested, though branches are sometimes used as well. Aboriginal craftsmen spend considerable time searching for a suitable tree to make into a didgeridoo. The difficult part is in finding a tree that has been suitably hollowed out by termites. If the hollow is too big or too small, it will make a poor quality instrument. Sometimes a native bamboo or pandanus are used as well.

When a suitable tree is found and cut down, a length of the main trunk or a segment of a branch is removed that will become the didgeridoo. The bark is taken off, the ends trimmed, and some shaping of the exterior then results in a finished instrument. This instrument may be painted or left undecorated. A rim of beeswax may be applied to the mouthpiece end. Traditional instruments made by Aboriginal craftsmen in Arnhem Land are sometimes fitted with a 'sugarbag' wax mouthpiece. This comes from wild bees and is black in appearance, with a distinctive aroma.

Didgeridoos are also made from PVC piping. These generally have a 1.5" to 2" inside diameter, and have a length corresponding to the desired key. The mouthpiece is often made of the traditional beeswax, or duct tape.



The didgeridoo is played with continuously vibrating lips to produce the drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. This requires breathing in through the nose whilst simultaneously expelling air out of the mouth using the tongue and cheeks. By use of this technique, a skilled player can replenish the air in their lungs, and with practice can sustain a note for as long as desired. Recordings exist of modern didgeridoo players playing continuously for more than forty minutes (Mark Atkins on Didgeridoo Concerto (1994) plays for over 50 minutes continuously), and some currently unsubstantiated claims peg times over one hour.

Physics and operation

A termite-bored didgeridoo has an irregular shape that, overall, usually increases in diameter towards the lower end. This shape means that its resonances occur at frequencies that are not harmonically spaced in frequency. This contrasts with the harmonic spacing of the resonances in a cylindrical plastic pipe, whose resonant frequencies fall in the ratio 1:3:5 etc. The second resonance of a didgeridoo (the note sounded by overblowing) is usually around an 11th higher than the fundamental frequency (a frequency ratio somewhat less than 3:1).



The vibration produced by the player's lips has harmonics - i.e., it has frequency components falling exactly in the ratio 1:2:3 etc. However, the non-harmonic spacing of the instrument's resonances means that the harmonics of the fundamental note are not systematically assisted by instrument resonances, as is usually the case for Western wind instruments (e.g., in a clarinet, the 1st 3rd and 5th harmonics of the reed are assisted by resonances of the bore, at least for notes in the low range).

Sufficiently strong resonances of the vocal tract can strongly influence the timbre of the instrument. At some frequencies, whose values depend on the position of the player's tongue, resonances of the vocal tract inhibit the oscillatory flow of air into the instrument. Bands of frequencies that are not thus inhibited produce formants in the output sound. These formants, and especially their variation during the inhalation and exhalation phases of circular breathing, give the instrument its readily recognisable sound.



Other variations in the didgeridoo's sound can be made with "screeches". Most of the "screeches" are related to sounds emitted by Australian animals, such as the dingo or the kookaburra. To produce these "screeches", the player simply has to cry out (in the didgeridoo of course) whilst continuing to blow air through it. The results range from very high-pitched sounds to much lower guttural vibrations.

Cultural significance

The didgeridoo is sometimes played as a solo instrument for recreational purposes, though more usually it accompanies dancing and singing in ceremonial rituals. For Aboriginal groups of northern Australia, the didgeridoo is an integral part of ceremonial life, as it accompanies singers and dancers in religious rituals. Pair sticks, sometimes called clapsticks or bilma, establish the beat for the songs during ceremonies. The rhythm of the didgeridoo and the beat of the clapsticks are precise, and these patterns have been handed down for many generations. Only men play the didgeridoo and sing during ceremonial occasions, whilst both men and women may dance. The taboo against women playing the instrument is not absolute; female Aboriginal didgeridoo players did exist, although their playing generally took place in an informal context and was not specifically encouraged. Linda Barwick, an ethnomusicologist, says that traditionally women have not played the didgeridoo in ceremony, but in informal situations there is no prohibition in the Dreaming Law. Some sources state that the didgeridoo had other uses in ancient times. The instrument made a decent weapon because of its length and light weight and it was used for war calls to intimidate the opposing side (much like the bagpipes of Scotland). It is also suggested that the instrument was used as a large smoking pipe, where local, hallucinogenic cacti were crushed and placed in the larger opening and smoked through the smaller end by the local elders after ceremonies.

The didgeridoo was also used as a means of communication across far distances. Some of the sound waves from the instrument can be perceived through the ground or heard in an echo. Each player usually has his own base rhythm which enables others to identify the source of the message. These secondary uses of the instrument have ceased in modern times as there is no more warring between tribes, and the illegalization of drugs in Australia.

There are sacred and even secret versions of the didgeridoo in Aboriginal communities in parts of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, and the surrounding areas. These sorts of instruments have specific names and functions and some of these are played like typical didgeridoos whereas others are not.

In the 20th century, several "modernized" versions of the didgeridoo have been developed. The didjeribone (also called "slideridoo" or "slidgeridoo"), a sliding didgeridoo made of plastic, was invented in the second half of the 20th century by Australian didgeridoo player Charlie McMahon. It is constructed of two lengths of plastic tube, one of which is slightly narrower in diameter than the other, and which slides inside the wider tube in the manner of a slide trombone (hence the instrument's name). This allows players to achieve fundamental tones within the compass of a major sixth, ranging from low B♭ to high G.

The Didgeridoo has also found a place in modern Celtic music. It can be seen played side by side with a set of Great Highland Bagpipes, in groups such as The Wicked Tinkers and Brother.

A keyed didgeridoo (having keys somewhat like those of a saxophone, allowing the performer to play melodically) was developed in the late 20th century by the U.S. didgeridoo player Graham Wiggins (stage name Dr. Didg) and used on his CDs Out of the Woods (1995) (in the track "Sun Tan") and Dust Devils (2002) (in the tracks "T'Boli" and "Sub-Aqua"). Wiggins built the unique and somewhat unwieldy instrument at the physics workshop of Oxford University, from which he earlier obtained his Ph.D.

In 1996 the Aboriginal Australia Art & Culture Centre - Alice Springs created the world's first online interactive didgeridoo "university" and was featured by Bill Gates when he launched Windows 98.

A 2005 study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that learning and practicing the didgeridoo helped reduce snoring and sleep apnea, as well as daytime sleepiness This appears to work by strengthening muscles in the upper airway, thus reducing their tendency to collapse during sleep.

'One Man Band' by Kunal Sen

A music video for Kunal Sen's song 'The Crazy Dice' which invloves a combination of real time staging and compositing. Inspired by Michel Gondry, this piece was recorded and the video shot and composited in the span of 10 days.



"The first part was recording the song, then i did a rough layout sketch/animatic to time out the various actions. The projected video was shot and edited... And then, the actual shoot, which was shot 3 times (from the same camera angle) and the final image stitched together on Combustion. That was the tricky part, and the most work!!!"

Dude, congratulations...

Interesting instruments: The hydraulophone

The term hydraulophone refers to a musical instrument that is played by direct physical contact with hydraulic fluid (typically water) in which sound is generated or affected hydraulically. Typically the sound is produced by the same hydraulic fluid that is in direct contact with the player's fingers.

Two people playing "House of the Rising Sun" on the hydraulophone (water pipe organ flute which is the fountain outside the Ontario Science Centre).



Ryan Janzen's Suite for Hydraulophone, Movement II, played in the Great Hall, as recorded by an underwater video camera (gets in close to the water sprays near the end)



Dangerous use of the hydraulophone... Playing the George Gershwin lullaby "Summertime", on hydraulophone, in a canoe :)



The invention of musical instruments that make sound from vibrating water has created a category of musical instruments that do not fit into any of the previously existing classification schemes. Therefore a physics-based organology was introduced, in which the top-level category is the state-of-matter of that which initially produces the sound in the instrument.

This system includes the possibility of instruments that make sound in all three states-of-matter: solid, liquid, and gas. A fourth category for instruments that make sound from high-energy states such as plasma, is also included.

The first three-categories of the Hornbostel Sachs system fall under the first category of the physical organology system, as they all produce sound from matter in its solid state.

This physical organology is as follows:

1 Gaiaphones (Earth/Solid), instruments in which the initial sound-production medium is by matter in its solid-state, e.g. the piano.
1.1 Chordophones: sound produced by solids that are essentially 1-dimensional (having a cross-section much smaller than their length, i.e. strings), e.g. violin, guitar, electric guitar, electric bass, etc.;
1.2 Membranophones: sound produced by solids that are essentially 2-dimensional (much thinner than their surface area) membranes, e.g. drums;
1.3 Idiophones: sound produced by bulk 3-dimensional solid matter, e.g. crystallophone, glass harmonica, xylophone, metallophone, etc., regardless of whether the instrument is operated underwater or in air;

2 Hydraulophones (Water/Liquid): sound produced by matter in its liquid state; instrument itself may be played underwater or played in a surrounding medium of air, with water supplied only to the internal workings of the instrument:

3 Aerophones (Air/Gas): sound produced by matter in its gaseous state, e.g. woodwind instruments and "brass" instruments;

4 Plasmaphones/Ionophones (Fire/Plasma): sound produced by matter in a high-energy state such as plasma, e.g. plasmaphone, etc.;

5 Quintephones (Quintessence/Idea): sound produced informatically, by electrical, optical, mechanical, or other computational/algorithmic means

ReacTable

The reacTable is a round translucent table, used in a darkened room, and appears as a backlit display. By placing blocks called tangibles on the table, and interfacing with the visual display via the tangibles or fingertips, a virtual modular synthesizer is operated, creating music or sound effects.



There are various types of tangibles representing different modules of an analog sythesizer. Audio frequency VCOs, LFOs, VCFs, and sequencers are some of the commonly-used tangibles. There are also tangibles that affect other modules: one called radar is a periodic trigger, and another limits a VCO to the notes of a musical scale.

The table itself is the display. As a tangible is placed on the table, various animated symbols appear, such as waveforms, circles, circular grids, or sweeping lines. Some symbols merely show what the particular tangible is doing, others can be used by fingertip to control the respective module.



If a VCO tangible is placed on the table, a VCO module is added to the virtual synthesizer. In the display, a waveform will appear between the tangible and the "output" (a bright spot at the center of the table), and a circle appears around the tangible which allows fingertip control of the amplitude of the waveform. Additionally, in this example the tangible can be rotated by hand to change the frequency.

Placing a filter tangible between the VCO and the output causes the VCO's waveform to connect to the filter, and the filter waveform to connect to the output. If an LFO tangible is placed near the VCO, a waveform will then appear connecting those two, and the LFO will modulate the VCO.

The reacTable's main user interface consists of a translucent table. Underneath the table is situated a video camera, aimed at the underside of the table and inputing video to a personal computer. There is also a video projector under the table, also connected to the computer, projecting video onto the underside of the table top that can be seen from the upper side as well.

Placed onto the table are the tangibles that have fiducials attached to their underside which are seen through the table by the camera. Fiducials are printed black and white images, consisting of circles and dots in varying patterns, optimized for use by reacTIVision. reacTIVision then uses the fiducials to understand the function of a particular tangible.

Most of the tangibles are flat, with one fiducial on the underside. Some other tangibles are cubes, with fiducials attached to several sides, allowing those tangibles to serve multiple functions.

The video received from the video camera into the computer is processed by open-source computer vision software called reacTIVision originally developed by Ross Bencina and Martin Kaltenbrunner. reacTIVision detects cartesian and rotational placement of fiducials in video images, then outputs OpenSound Control messages for music synthesizer software, either using MIDI or a specially designed packet based network protocol TUIO. reacTivision also tracks fingertip placement.

reacTIVision also communicates to the TUI software that outputs to the video projector.

The reacTable has been presented and performed with at various festivals and conferences such as Ars Electronica, Sónar, NIME and SIGGRAPH.

Icelandic songstress Björk is perhaps the first musician outside of the select presentations and demonstrations to use a reacTable in live performance. Björk's 2007 world tour supporting her 2007 release Volta use the instrument in several songs including "Declare Independence"; Björk's live inaugural use of the instrument took place at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 27, 2007.

Glass music

What is the good use of glasses?



Vera Meyer plays the Glass Harmonica in Harvard Square, Boston, July, 2005. The instrument, an invention of Benjamin Franklin, was quickly banned after its inception. It was said to provoke insanity. The unique harmonics have also been said to import theraputic powers. It is also known as the "Glass Armonica".



Professional concert played just on wine glasses. The instrument is called glass harp or musical glasses. Glass duo ensemble:



And the best glass musician, Hannah:

Funny instruments: the daxophone

The daxophone, invented by Hans Reichel, is a custom made musical instrument of the friction idiophone category.



It consists of a thin wooden blade fixed in a wooden block (often attached to a tripod), which holds one or more contact microphones. Normally, it is played by bowing the free end, but it can also be struck or plucked, which propagates sound in the same way a ruler halfway off a table does. These vibrations then continue to the wooden-block bass, which in turn is amplified by the contact microphone(s) therein. A wide range of voice-like timbres can be produced, depending on the shape of the instrument, the type of wood, where it is bowed, and where along its length it is stopped with a separate block of wood (fretted on one side) called the "dax."



Reichel has documented the construction of the instrument in a way that a skilled woodworker could build his own. Plans are downloadable from his website, with the nice twist that a collection of proven shapes for the blade is delivered in the file format of a font, thus playing on Reichel's other profession as a typeface designer.



Daxophone is one of the stupidest instrument i have ever seen! Congratulations!

Stringfever, humour with great musical skills

Stringfever's show is a musical entertainment combining humour and audience interaction with great musical skills.

The history of music in 5 minutes:



Their very own version of Ravel's Bolero:



I congratulate that individual British string quartet on their interesting ideas!

Musician robots

A trumpet-playing robot has been developed by Japanese car maker Toyota.



It showed off its musical creation at a Tokyo hotel, where the robot played When You Wish Upon a Star on a trumpet.

The machine is the latest in a series of robots developed by Japanese companies to showcase their prowess in humanoid robotics.

Sony and Honda have both used humanoid robots to as a platform to demonstrate their computing power and engineering know-how.

The Toyota robot stands 120 cm (48 inches) tall and does not yet have a cute name yet, unlike some of its rivals.

The company has provided few specific details about the technology used for the machine and did not reveal how much it spent developing the robot.

The robot has yet to be given a cute name. For now, it has no plans to sell or rent it. Instead it hopes to form a robot band to play at the 2005 World Exposition, being held in Aichi in central Japan.

"I'm confident that this will be a symbol of Toyota Group's technology," said Toyota President Fujio Cho.

The robot development race is highly competitive in Japan, with the market for bots estimated to be worth around $4.5bn.

Companies often use the humanoid models to generate publicity and highlight a company's technical abilities.

Rival car maker Honda has a walking robot called Asimo which has visited the UK, Germany, the Czech Republic, France and Ireland as part of a world tour.

For its part, Sony has the all-singing and all-dancing Qrio, which can jog at a top speed of 14 metres per minute.



Toyota Motor Corp.'s new violin robot performs during a press unveiling in Tokyo Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007. Compared to a virtuoso, its rendition was a trifle stilted and, well, robotic. But Toyota's new robot plays a pretty solid "Pomp and Circumstance" on the violin. The 152-centimeter (five-foot)-tall all-white robot used its mechanical fingers to push the strings correctly and bowed with its other arm, coordinating the movements well.



It seems to have musical bent, having recently appeared for a photo opportunity conducting the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Whether it will be leading Toyota's robot musicians in the future is unknown.

Gerry Phillips

At age 47, Gerry Phillips is becoming an overnight sensation . . . and it’s only taken 38 years.



People are simply amazed at his jaw dropping ability to play virtually any song with only his hands. His performances are both astounding and, at times, hilarious.

Why does he play songs with his hands? Because he can!

Gerry has been called everything from a “hand musician”, “gunecologist”, “hand farter”, “hand flatulator”, and a “manualist”.

In 1969, when he was 9 years old, Gerry went to a party, and the photographer (to keep the kids quiet) made a single squeak with his hands. Within minutes Gerry went back to him and showed him that he could also do it.

Gerry continued to practice at home. Soon he could produce musical notes, then simple songs. After more practice, Gerry could “hand fart” songs with his new and unique technique better than with the musical instruments he was learning to play. So he dumped the 4 musical instruments.

In the high school talent show, Gerry played Beethoven’s 5th, the Can Can, and the Blue Waltz to a raucous standing ovation.

The following year he played Black Magic Woman and You Make Me Fee Like Dancing. In his last year it was Sir Duke.

When Gerry was 16 he was taken to a bar in Dearborn, Michigan where Bobby Lewis was playing. Gerry was asked to perform, and he was an immediate hit with the crowd. No one had seen or heard anything like it before.

Soon Gerry was sitting in with top local acts such as the Teen Angels who refer to Gerry as the 8th Wonder of the World!

Once Gerry began posting his videos on You Tube, he became an overnight sensation. Soon the emails started pouring in with requests for more videos and DVD’s. Not just from America, but the entire world. With commercials and television requests coming in, Gerry is now getting the recognition this unique and gifted artist deserves.

People recognize Gerry for the serious musician he is. Sure it’s hysterical, but his talent is even more amazing than it is funny.

Jozin z Bazin

Cool song with an interesting fart instrument and idiot dance. Bravo!