Category Archives: Audio News

Audio news stories and sound technology in general

Radiolab Numbers

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numbersWNYC‘s Radio Lab with Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich is one of my favorite radio programs and podcasts of all time. Their latest program explores the world of numbers. According to interviewees on the program all babies think logarithmically until the abstract concept of integers has been systematically drilled into their heads.

It’s a fascinating story, and as usual, permeated with beautifully done sound design. For more on Radiolab checkout “Sound is Kind of Touch at a Distance”, or visit their site for more podcasts of the program.

Radiolab: Numbers

Ableton Live Users Group

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abletonI will be presenting and performing at the Minneapolis Ableton Live Users Group on December 8, 2009, 7:00pm at the Nomad in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In my presentation I’ll be showing what I do with custom built applications and Ableton Live, including the GMS and my new Wavetable Glitch Machine. Currently I interface my custom built applications with Live, using MIDI via the IAC drivers in Mac OS X, and Soundflower for audio. Soon I’ll be converting my audio based Max patches over to Max for Live, so I can use them in Live directly.

Also appearing is Ali Momeni who’ll be showing some of his Max for Live patches, and JP Hungelmann who also organizes the event. Last time the group met it was held at IPR and there was an excellent turn out. The speakers were terrific and they gave away Ableton demo discs and t-shirts at the end of the event. If you use Live, have any interest in it, or electronic music in general, I highly recommend attending.

WPaudio and SoundManager 2

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sm2visualWhile redesigning my portfolio site at johnkeston.com I decided to research some of the latest audio plugins for WordPress. Prior to today I was using a fork of Audio Player called Anarchy Media Player (AMP), which was nice for several reasons. One being that it automatically converts MP3 links to the player in posts. Unfortunately the player has not been updated in sometime and after upgrading the the most recent version of WordPress the admin panel for AMP stopped working properly, forcing me to hack my wp-options table.

The alternative that I have put in place is called WPaudio. Wpaudio uses the SoundManager 2 sound library that works by wrapping and extending the Flash Sound API, and exposing it to Javascript. This technique allows the Flash component to be hidden and transparent to both developers and end users.

SoundManager 2 is what’s used by mix sharing sites like SoundCloud and 8tracks. I have yet to find any difficulties, other than some alignment issues that I was able to resolve via CSS. Here’s an example of the player in use. Please comment on how it works for you.

Panopticon
– One Day to Save All Life, Keston and Westdal (Unearthed Music, 2009)

Donate $10 Get a Free Download

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unearthed-musicACB partner and sponsor Unearthed Music has agreed to offer a free download of your choice to readers who donate $10 or more to AudioCookbook.org. Previously the amount to receive a free download was $20. Now it’s more affordable to be rewarded for supporting ACB. In fact $10 is the exact price of their music downloads.

The albums available include my recent solo release, Precambrian Resonance. If you already have Precambrian Resonance, everything else on the label is also available in the offer, including albums by Keston and Westdal, and ten72. If you can’t donate, please consider visiting the Google ads. It’s amazing what a few clicks can do to help. Thanks and happy holidays!

Snyderphonics Manta

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Recently I read an article in Future Music on the Snyderphonics Manta OSC controller. I’m getting more and more into OSC (Open Sound Control), so this is a really fascinating device that I can see replacing and expanding upon what I’m building for the iPod Touch. The Manta has forty-eight touch sensors on a six by eight pad. Each sensor can handle note on/off and velocity information, which you can’t do on the iPod Touch. It also has two touch sliders and four touch buttons, all assignable via OSC, or MIDI with a free application that’s available on synderphonics.com. The device also accepts input in order to provide feedback via LEDs that back light the controls. I have been researching and experimenting with multitouch devices to do music and sound design for a while now, and the Manta seems to solve a lot of shortcomings of other devices. Congratulations to Jeff Snyder for designing a unique and intriguing instrument.