lonely fire

Just wanted to touch base with a somewhat related post to the Soundseer post I made last summer. Today two articles came to my attention related to the visual aspect/properties of sound. First, by using modern technologies, sound engineers and researchers have managed to “play” a phonautograph of a person singing made in 1860, as the NYTimes and LATimes report. This is significant, because this “recording” predates Edison’s work with wax cylinders by nearly 30 years. I say “recording” because phonautographs were never intended to be heard- they were merely supposed to be a visualization of a voice or sound, an aural autograph or signature, if you will. Here’s a rendition of the device:

Not surprisingly, the sound that the audio historians managed to elicit from the recording is not impressive by today’s sound quality standards (read this article about overcompression in CD’s/mainstream recordings, or this blog post for more info about the volume wars in the music industry). Nonetheless, the fact that this aural document exists, and may be the first such document created by humans, is quite significant. The latest example of this significance being the music software/digital audio workstation Melodyne, which updates the 19th century concept of sound visualization with 21st century perspective/technological advancements.

If you watch the Melodyne video on the Celemony homepage, you’ll find out what advancements I’m referring to- namely, the ability to pick out the different notes that occupy a static waveform/chunk of polyphonous recorded sound, and being able to manipulate each note however you like- change pitch, rhythm, etc. Pretty neat, huh?

Who knows what kind of implications this will have for composition of music. No doubt, professional recording engineers have been using fancy recording technology (esp MIDI) to polish thousands of turds for years now; but software like this may even preclude the need for studio musicians. I don’t know, its a double-edged sword- the implications of this kind of technology (if it becomes widespread), used in conjunction with MIDI instruments, etc, seem to remove the necessity of people playing instruments at all. At least in my most simplistic and backwards of minds. But on the other hand, the compositional possibilities this software enables are kind of endless, and utterly fascinating. I’d like to get my hands on it someday, that’s for sure.

Hey all-

Long time, no type, eh? Well, I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things with this here blog. What better way to do so than by sharing a mix of music I made, yes? If you want more info on how Muxtape works, you can check out Schleep’s blog post (and mix); though get in soon, because as this article indicates, there may not be a substantial legal footing for sites like Muxtape and Mixwit to stick around…. (which kind of doesn’t surprise me, even if you’re not able to download songs from either of these sites…) Seems like Mixwit may be the winner of the two, as that news article explains, since it doesn’t require users to upload songs from their hard disks to their servers, but instead takes advantage of an mp3 search engine to find songs that are already out there on the internet to pull from to create your mix; though, of course, this means that the ultra-rare Wicked Sceptre b-side that you need to make your mix perfect may not be so readily available with such a set-up. (CAUTION- Wicked Sceptre link is NSFW).

All this talk of mixtapes brings two things to mind: the book Mix Tape that was compiled by Thurston Moore a few years ago (more info on it here and here), and the short-lived Gentleman’s Dining Club of Southwestern Pennsylvania (a mixtape & supper club some folks put together), which I managed to wrangle my way into, and made some pretty outlandish tape “cases” for- including some weird box for Q and a crucifix for Rick Gribenas; a creative streak that led me to make an epic 4-tape, 8-sided, travel photograph-hot glue-gunned, hinged wooden triangle contraption for someone I had feelings for at the time.

While Muxtape, et al, is a pretty amazing idea/design, infinitely fascinating in the possibilities of sharing and discovering, you still miss that human element that goes into writing out the setlist, choosing a photo or making a collage (or carved, painted wooden triangles) to accompany the music; just that lack of personalization that the giver goes into great detail for the receiver. But, if you’re sharing the music with the whole internet anyway, how personal can you really get? Hm?

Anywho, more posts soon, I promise