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more onyx effects
Jul 17th
Use onyx-vj to put yourself into an image. Want to look like a billboard ad? How about showing inside the screen of your favorite portable game console? With 5 layers to mix and match video Onyx-vj can be used for almost any type of effect for your webcam,
Drumssette, Brilliantly Insane Tascam Tape-Based Drum Machine, More from Mike Walters
Jul 12th
Sometimes, DIY music boxes reach moments of mad genius. To me, they’re almost a kind of compositional conceptual art, executed as a set of circuitry and disguised as a piece of music gear. They assemble in series a set of solutions to design problems, but result in something – through the combination of invention and throwback, simplicity and absurdity – insane and wonderful.
At least that’s how I feel when I look at the Drumssette, the latest invention from musical instrument engineer Mike Walters. It’s a combination of the innards of a Tascam four-track cassette recorder with a push-button, gated sequencer, making a tape-based drum machine. (It makes sense coming from Mike Walters, who in the past demonstrated a Mellotron made from Sony Walkmans. The Drumssette is the drum machine equivalent of the earlier Melloman.)
The Drumssette, by Mike Walters
The trick to making a cassette tape into a drum machine is twofold: loop the drum sounds onto the tape itself, then route that audio output as the clock signal that drives the sequencer. With that done, you only have to push the buttons to turn the sounds on and off on the beats you want. There’s a bonus, too: what Walters calls the “focus” knob controls a delay line, allowing you to shift the position of the played-back sound forward or backward to control the sound’s attack.
In a way, it’s a reinvention of what the Tascam tape deck was – or, to look at from the opposite angle, a re-imagining of drum machines in a world in which digital recording was never invented. Its bright color scheme and throwback light-and-knob design underline the alternative-universe vision.
Tricks are treats
It’s the details of the path to this design solution that are daftly elegant.
For instance, there’s the “focus” knob, and the idea of using the delay line to control attacks:
Since the trigger for the sequencer clock is audio used in parallel with the actual sounds of the instrument, the triggered audio from each track might lose a bit of its attack when it gets to the output, especially if the sound has a slower attack. To solve this, I built a delay stage before the parallel audio gets to the sequencer. This audio does not go to the output of the Drumssette. Using a PT2399 digital delay chip, the parallel audio signal is treated with a simple, adjustable delay, with no feedback (repeat stages) and a clean output. Delaying the audio signal before it becomes the clock signal allows the the operator to apply an adjustable delay parameter to the sequencer, which allows the gating to scoot over and focus on the next drum sound on the tape before the loss of attack. This happens because the audio on the cassette is time constant, and the delayed signal is variable. The momentary unmuting (gating) is dictated by the delay signal. You can also focus between sounds, to create double time beats.
The innards of the Drumssette, and its cassette tape soul. (And they say drum machines have no soul.)
Then there’s the efficient, unexpected use of optocouplers and light sensitivity to produce a time-synced echo:
The analog method is different. When this mode is selected, the audio from the tape is passed through a photo-resistive circuit using optocouplers. Optocouplers are little capsules with photoresistors and LEDs inside. Photoresitors become less resistive with more light, so when the LED is on, they suddenly drop to a few ohms. When the LED is off, they go back to a couple mega ohms. The photo resistive material, Cadmium Sulfide, retains some light energy between stages. So, as opposed to a switch, the optocoupler fades in and out the signal much slower. This gives the sounds a synchronized echo (you can hear the next four or so drum steps on the tape as it fades out). This mode actually uses two optocouplers, and an inverter. These are wired in parallel to pass the signal when triggered, and then ground the signal when the gate is low. When the gate is low, the inverter changes the logic, switching optocoupler LED 1 on. When the gate is high, LED 1 turns off, and optocoupler LED 2 turns on. So, the signal is always passed or grounded in this configuration. If the signal is not grounded, there will be a little bit of signal bleeding to the output.
In Action
These videos really demonstrate that, aside from being a crazy design, the Drumssette is eminently usable as an electronic instrument. (It isn’t hard to imagine switching this on for a dancefloor, even.)
First, a look at how you can gate an external source using the sequencer for rhythmic external textures, in place of the “installed” drum sounds:
In this demo, I bypassed tracks 1 and 2 of the cassette by plugging in external sources – a Yamaha CS01 synth, and a turntable. The bass and snare come from the cassette tape. The rhythmic keyboard phrasing is completely controlled by the Drumssette. I was just holding notes down on the keyboard, and the states of the switches turned on and off the audio as the sequencer clocked. Same thing with the record on the other track.
Here’s a similar example, this time using a lovely sound from the Polymoog:
In this demo, I bypassed track one and two of the cassette tape audio, and replaced track one with the output of my Polymoog 280A on Vox Humana. The bass drum and snare sounds are from the cassette tape, which is also clocking the sequencer (snare sound, track 4). I’m simply holding down chords on the Polymoog, and the Drumssette is chopping them up according to Track One’s switch mapping on the front panel.
More Mystery Circuits Creations
The Drumssette is the self-proclaimed sequel to the earlier Melloman, a series of Walkmans connected to a keyboard for Mellotron-style cassette tape sampling. It’s now a five-year-old project, but no less stunning today as a benchmark of bizarre, fantastic design. The wonderful Analog Suicide (Tara Busch) took a tour of the Mellotron in 2008:
And these are just two among many, many creations. The full list:
Mystery Circuits
Retro Thing: Mike Walters Does It Again: Yamaha Keyboard + Heathkit = Mike-O-Wave
GetLoFi: Mike Walters’ Blue Boing (for a more compact creation)
View full post on Create Digital Music
Free Weekend: Creative Commons Workout, Moby, Samples, Inspiration, More
Jul 3rd
Yeah, for a lot of the northern hemisphere, one of these kinds of weekends. Photo (CC-BY) Frenchman Julien Haler. (Oh yeah, we really don’t say it enough – thanks, France! In fact, jeez, double thanks!)
Summer days and evenings for a lot of us are a perfect time for buying new records, listening to new mixes, exploring new sounds and samples and production techniques. And yes, while pundits worry about the failing value of music, I personally manage to stock up on free downloads and wind up overspending my budget on records, too. It’s good to be an enthusiast.
Here’s just the latest of what’s hit my inbox, for your enjoyment.
Moby recalls the 90s in his “old-school rave mix” for our friends over at XLR8R. It’s good, clean fun, a musical beach book perfect for a retro-tinged, rave-recalling holiday weekend here in the US.
Percussion Lab is a source of endless, fantastic musical mixes, so it’s hard to know whether to begin. For an Atlanta-style take on what summer is about, Sorted prepares an electro/club-style mix. Concept Audio’s Scafolder goes on a headier, ambient-er journey called “Rain Man,” tinged with pianos and Idhren and Lusine textures – good stuff, as well. And if it’s techno you want, that’s covered, too. Check out the full set lineup on Percussion Lab’s immaculately-designed site.
If certain shirtless werewolfs are starting to make you feel like you need to hit the gym, there’s good news. After Australia decided to hike fitness class music licensing by a whopping 1500%, the good folks at WFMU’s Beware of the Blog prepared a nicely-curated set of Creative Commons-licensed, indie music from Dan Deacon to Mochipet. It’s nice listening, too, perhaps as much of a cure to bad music allergies at the gym as it is bad licensing policy.
Speaking of the Free Music Archive, if you’re in the mood for something a little synthy and dreamy, there’s an excellent mix by Tori y Moi live on dublab.
From Spain, various sonic goodies. Want to catch up on what you missed at SONAR? BBC has a graphical, clickable map of all the artists. Need a little dancefloor-friendly techno, and want it from a high-quality netlabel founder? Thomas Raukamp notes the latest work from Madrid-based Dessben and his Offaudio netlabel, and celebrates their move to SoundCloud.
Downloads for Producers
So, that’s some good poolside barbecue and workout fodder for you… but what if you’re looking for tracks to inspire your producer side? (Working on tracks can be a great way to cool off.)
Ambienteer, whose excellent work I covered last month, has been experimenting with contact mics. Learn about how he made music with an electric toothbrush and plastic wrap and hear the results:
Ambienteer blog
Explore some nice new ambient and minimal tracks from East Peoria, USA-based John Koch-Northrup.
SoundCloud has become a hive of free and Creative Commons-licensed samples, from musical tidbits to hardware and software. You could use it to grab new content and decide whether you really need ElecTribe on an iPad, all at the same time. (Make friends! Grab samples!)
SoundCloud themselves have a nice guide to what’s out there – a badly-needed reference, given that SoundCloud has become so busy, it can be downright overwhelming to the uninitiated.
Sample time! [SoundCloud blog]
Via groups and users, there are full, oddball sample collections, like this pool:
Sample Collections / Instruments / Loops
Tim Exile, working the mic live, (CC-BY) Keylight Photography / Jonathon Dow.
And there are artists like the wonderful Tim Exile, who live samples his crowds at his shows and uses SoundCloud to gather snippets from fans in advance of gigs. I think it’s my favorite set of this post; have a listen to some of his interactive, sample-generated work:
2006 – Tim Exile’s Nuisance Gabbaret Lounge by timexile
What are you listening to / sampling this weekend? Let us know in comments.
And since far be it from me to be accused of saying all music wants to be free, I hope to follow up soon with albums worth buying this summer. Nominations open … now.
Have a great weekend, and happy 4th of July, USA. (Hey, England’s over it, too — the Queen is visiting my neighborhood this week, celebrating the long history of the English here in NYC, and the great ties between our countries.)
View full post on Create Digital Music
Few more apps are standing out in Android Application platform!
Jul 2nd
Photo editing was so far a matter of Photoshop and a few related software. But Android came up with camera feature that can heat up the photo and movie editing skill of any user.
Earlier Android had camera features. But this time new version of Android’s camera is just better than previous one along with some must-have applications. Most importantly, mega pixels of the camera are larger than ever before with each new android device. And it really hits the market.
Some time user may need a little bit LOMO touch on your snap which you might have taken in a party, or you want to crop a stranger part of the snap. There are few must have Android apps for taking and editing perfect photos.
PicSay is an interesting photo editing app that let users correct color, crop images and add texting in word balloons. And feature like applying special effects on the images are added to this app. Adding sticker-like graphics to the photos is another interesting feature for the users. This app helps users apply more sophisticated effects such as cross-processing and color splashes etc.
FxCamera is for a bunch of fun, cool effects to photographs. It offers few effects including ToyCam, Polandroid, Fisheye, SymmetriCam and Warhol etc. One can compare this app with several popular iPhone camera apps like CameraBag, Picoli or PhotoBox etc. Photoshop.com Mobile lets users crop and rotate images, adjust color and apply effects, although this app is little slow. It lacks some important features photo filters and a wide range of visual effects.
Vignette app adds film and flash effects to the Android camera’s arsenal. It has 15 frames, crop features and a self-timer and zoom. It also offers 46 Effects including Lomo and ToyCam filters, Polaroid-style effects, cross-processing and tilt-shift. Camera ZOOM FX packs a slew of useful features. It offers 40 photo effects, zoom functions, photo bursts, timers, stable shot, white balance, grids and sound activation.
Finger Paint is basically a version of MS Paint for Android. It’s a touchscreen interface that allows the user to color and draw over photos. Snap Photo Pro offers multi-shot bursts, a timer, brightness and contrast adjustment, stability mode, zoom features and photo filters etc. Camera Illusion lets users add effects, masks and filters to their photos in real-time. User can apply ASCII filter if he or she wants to get truly nerdy.
Apart from these applications and features, there are ample ranges of third party applications available in app market. In this regard, third party Android Application Developers are also playing the lively role in the thriving epoch of Google’s Android.
Contact Rapidsoft Technologies for more details on Google android application development
Two More Loop Packs From AOT – Check em Out
Jun 13th
| Architects of Tomorrow is pleased to announce two more new loops packs ready for immediate download. Be sure to check out other low cost loops in our loop shop. These loops are of the highest quality.
Click the video below to watch the preview.
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Clouds & Terrains - $10.00 USD
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TRAFFIC - $10.00 USD
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View full post on Inside The Vault
Emulator, Multitouch PC Software, Makes Tablets into Controllers for Traktor, More
Jun 7th
The Apple iPad has terrific, responsive multi-touch input, but for many, using it to control music would mean carrying an iPad and a computer. That’s a cheaper combination than using a JazzMutant Lemur with a computer, but it’s still two pieces. With a number of PCs gradually adding touch capabilities, it seems inevitable that integrated touch for music will become at least a compelling option. These machines also have some features the iPad lacks, such as USB and other conventional I/O, and true pen input, which can be more precise for arts applications …and they’re traditional computers, with all the flexibility that entails.
Argentina-based DJ Pablo Martin gives CDM the scoop on his new Emulator software. The descendant of the Lemur-style MonotouchLive control, Emulator looks more mature, and adds multi-touch support. It’s ready to run Traktor out of the box, but other tools are possible, too. With a revision of HP’s TM2 expected this summer, we could have an interesting, more powerful alternative to the more limited tablets about to follow in the iPad’s footsteps. (I’ll say this – it would have been a better machine on the trip I’m on currently, both for the touch/tablet capabilities and longer battery life than my more conventional Asus laptop.)
I’ll let Pablo explain the rest. I’m in touch with HP and others, so I hope to offer some information on what these solutions are like, alongside the iPad, of course.
This are the first images i make public of my new touchscreen MIDI controller (now with mulitouch support). The older Monotouchlive is now discontinued and the new software born is called EMULATOR.
The first version i plan to launch very soon, including control for traktor on internal mode; the other interfaces are under development (traktor external ableton etc etc)
This software is designed to work with tablet PCs, the model i suggest for use with my software is the wonderful HP TM2, or the older model TM2Z. It also can be used with lenovo multitouch tablet and DELL XT tablet. All these tablets support multitouch, have capacitive digitizers, but again i suggest the HP TM2, due to it having a wonderful capacitive digitizer from WACOM; it’s really good quality tablet.
The CPU power of TM2 is perfect to run Traktor; I tested with Ableton without any troubles. Some guys think the CPU on HP TM2 doesn’t have enough power, but that is wrong.The major problem with present touchscreen controllers is that you don’t have tactile feedback (you can’t feel with your fingers knobs, buttons, sliders etc etc), for that reason you need put your eyes all time on the touchscreen device for use the controller, and lose the focus over music software.
Emulator is a software where you have all what you need on same screen and combine the power of multitouch, the useful standard mouse and the native interface of software to be controlled all in one nice and useful GUI.
This software runs under windows 7; the first version I plan to launch only works on tablet PCs with 12.1 inch screen (1280×800). I decided to do this because the big LCD multitouch screens available on the market aren’t really accurate and enough for pro usage; [optical sensors can] generate false touch, ghost touches, etc. and you lose portability [on larger screens].
No pricing or release yet – Pablo is looking for a sponsor (HP?) – but I’ll keep you posted. Let us know what you think of the design.
View full post on Create Digital Music
More About Android Smartphones
Jun 2nd
The cat is out of the bag. Lifestyle gadget enthusiasts are whispering to one another the prospects of Google Android – a new OS that looks to be a strong contender against Apple’s iPhone. For years, Apple has had very little competition. The iPhone appeared to have dominated the mobile community, and to date, it’s still the most popular mobile gadget around.
One of the main reasons why the iPhone is so popular is because Apple allows third party developers to develop applications for the iPhone. The applications are then distributed through Apple’s website. This is a highly strategic business move adopted by Apple, and one that has proven to work very well.
This concept is not new. Other non mobile platforms have adopted a similar concept, and have achieved great success as well. For example, both MySpace and Facebook, 2 immensely popular social community sites, have launched their own developer platform. Like the iPhone, developers can develop third party applications on these platforms.
The trend is rather obvious – user generated application based on an open concept is in. The iPhone’s success didn’t go unnoticed. Google is a strong player looking to compete in this sphere.
Recently, lots of buzz has been generated on Google Android – a brand new mobile OS. The key difference between Google Android and the iPhone OS is that the Android is an open OS. That means the OS can be used on any phone, not just the iPhone. By limiting the OS to the iPhone, Apple had isolated the rest of the phone manufacturers.
For years now, Apple had the upper hand. They can charge whatever price they wish to charge, and fans will still pay because they can’t get a similar system anywhere else. Google Android is looking to change all that. By leveling the playing field, consumers now have more choices. For sure, the prices for mobile gadgets (i.e. smartphones), will plummet once the Android gets adopted by other smartphone manufacturers. Already, major brand names like HTC, Motorola, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson are working closely with the Open Handset Alliance (the company now running Google Android) to realize this goal.
Being such a new technology, and with limited developers, enthusiasts will have to bear with a great number of useless mobile apps that will be released in the first few years. This is a common trend because developers are mostly experimenting with the system to see what works and what doesn’t.
As the OS matures, and more and more developers jump on the band wagon to release applications, there will be more and more useful applications. Consumers may then enjoy the full benefits of having an open mobile OS.
T-Mobile’s G1, based on Google Android, is already enjoying a fair amount of success. For sure, a G2 looks set to be launched in the near future. Lenovo is also looking for a piece of the pie with its very own Lenovo oPhone. Mobile enthusiasts have a lot to look forward to.
For more information on Android Smartphones and Google Android, please visit our website.
More Browser Notation: Type Notes Quickly, Store Scores Online
May 23rd
Music scores remain one of the best ways to record or share many musical ideas. If you’ve done even casual notation, you’ve likely had the experience of scrawling something down on a scrap piece of paper, manuscript or otherwise.
Imagine, instead, quickly scrawling something in the now-ubiquitous web browser window.
Gregory Dyke writes with a notation project he’s built with Paul Rosen; he says that it’s further along in its development than the notation project we saw last week. As before, it employs JavaScript and HTML5, and the Canvas element SVG support, rendering quickly in any modern browser right inside a web page. (Correction: it’s SVG, not Canvas, that makes this work, thanks to the raphaeljs library.)
Abcjs is an open source parsing and rendering tool for ABC written entirely in javascript, so it allows sheet music to be rendered as both standard notation and MIDI entirely with the browser.
Here are a couple ways to use this:
For rendering any ABC notation found on a web page as standard notation,
see http://drawthedots.com/abcjsFor a free on-line editor and tune storage website, see
http://drawthedots.comEnjoy! And we’d appreciate feedback of all kinds.
Notes:
1) ABC 1.6 is mostly done, and many parts of ABC 2.0 are supported. We are actively working on improving the rendering.2) We know that the rendering in IE is not as pretty as Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, but we’re working it!
Here, the ABC notation format is a standard, so you can simply type in or copy and paste any ABC-encoded text and render it right away.
It looks ideal for dropping musical excerpts or examples into a page, but this project even in its early stage offers another idea: why not quickly type in your notes in simple text characters, then store and share that score with others? There’s even instant music rendering.
Simple, lightweight examples do have a way of opening the door to more technically-involved discussions, and this is no exception.
ABC is nifty and easy, but it isn’t capable of representing more sophisticated scores in the way that the free Lilypond format is. I noted last week that Lilypond is nonetheless readable and easy for basic entry, even as it adds sophisticated features with a little more work. I think even having a web window with ABC is nice enough, and it should be possible to go from the simpler format (ABC) to other, more complex formats (MusicXML or Lilypond). But this question of how to interchange files remains one of interest. After the post last week, the project we saw spawned a long discussion in its blog’s comments on how interchange might work. Greg, for his part, concedes that “abc is quite powerful, but stops at complex multivoice scores where voices move across staves (simple multivoice and multistave is possible).” That could make putting Lilypond in the browser a useful activity, and since it is possible to go from MusicXML to Lilypond, it should enable MusicXML, as well.
As with sound synthesis, putting notation in the browser demonstrates how both the “desktop” app and the “browser” app can differentiate themselves. The browser focuses on quick, simple entry and sharing. The desktop app remains the tool for connecting to MIDI hardware, performing more sophisticated entry and layout, and project management. Far from competing, each gives the other greater purpose and a clearer sense of how the two design approaches can differ. Because a Web rendering engine like WebKit is also embeddable, the line doesn’t even need to be absolutely clear. I can imagine, for instance, Lilypond editors that use WebKit for lower-quality, real-time notation previews, prior to doing a full Lilypond render in PDF. (There are real-time PDF rendering libraries like Cairo, too, so I have no idea whether that makes sense, but the array of options open to developers is nonetheless expanded.)
The project is free and open, so let us know if you modify it somehow. (JavaScript-controlled, 3D-produced generative scores, perhaps?)
http://code.google.com/p/abcjs/
Updated: Gregory replies with an email, and it was useful enough to me that I’m reprinting it in full. He notes most importantly that ABCjs is capable of more sophisticated rendering than seen here, even if it doesn’t yet do as much as, say, the Lilypond renderer does.
Thanks a lot. You’re spot on with the note taking idea – I wonder whether this would be a good way to create a mobile browser app – still runs a bit slow on mobile safari though – about 8seconds for rendering on my 3g. Nice to see you discuss abcjs as a full blog post.
Just a note: we don’t use canvas, but svg, using raphaeljs to bridge across browsers.
In hindsight, we should probably put a more sophisticated example on the landing page. For example, the tunes below render quite nicely (although not with complete midi playback). We should probably finds ourselves a demo score which runs the whole gamut of several voices, ornamentation, chords, guitar chords, dynamics, etc.
Thanks again for the heads up
Greg
X:3
T: TEST: Erev Ba % —
C: from Israel
M: C|
L: 1/4
K:G
V:1
“G”dgf g/b/ | “Am”a3z | “D7″ab c’/d’/ b | “G”b3z | dgf g/b/ | “Am”a3z |
“D7″ab c’/d’/ b | “B7″b3z | “C”ceg>g | f/g/f/e/ e2 | “Am”Ace>e | “D”d>c B/A/G/F/ |
“Em”G2 E2 | “Am”A2 “D7″A/B/ G | (“G”G4|G2) z2 | dgf g/b/ | “Am”a3z |
“D7″ab c’/d’/ b | “G”b3z | dgf g/b/ | “Am”a3z | “D7″ab c’/d’/ b | “B7″b3z |
“C”ceg>g | f/g/ f/e/ e2 | “Am”Ace>e | “D”d>c B/A/G/F/ | “Em”G2 E2 | “Am”A2 “D7″A/B/ G |
“G”G>A B c/A/ | “G7″d>e =f/d/B/A/ [K:C] ||”C”G2z2| “Dm7″d/e/f/e/ d/c/B/A/ |\
“G7″G2z2 | “C”z/ G/c/B/ c/d/e/f/ |
g g/a/ g2 | “Dm7″f/g/a/g/ f/e/d/c/ | “G7″B/c/d/c/ B/A/ G| “E”^G>B e/d/c/B/|\
“F”c2 a>a | g/a/g/f/ .f .e |
“Dm”d2f>f | “G”e>d c/B/A/B/ | “Am”c/d/c/B/ A/G/F/E/ | “Dm”D/E/F/D/ “G7″G A/B/ |\
“C”c3 e| .g.a.g e/d/ |
GcBc/e/ | “Dm7″d3z | “G7″def/g/e| “C”e3z | GcBc/e/ | “Dm7″d3z |
“G7″def/g/e| “E”e3z | “F”FAc>c| B/c/B/A/ A2| “Dm”DFA>A| “G”G>F E/D/C/E/ |
“Am”c2A2 | “Dm”d2 “G7″d/e/c | (“C”c4|”Dm”c2) “G7″d/e/c| (“C”c4| c2) z2 |]
%
V:2 gch=0
“G”z4 | “Am”z4 | “D7″z4 | “G”z4 | z4 | “Am”z4 |
“D7″z4 | “B7″z4 | “C”z4 | z4 | “Am”z4 | “D”z4 |
“Em”G2Bd | “Am”c2 “D7″c/d/ B | “G”B>ABd | B>A G/A/ B| d2 z2 | “Am”A/B/c/B/ A/G/F/E/ |
“D7″D2 z2 | “G”z/D/G/F/ G/A/B/c/ | d d/e/ d2| “Am”c/d/e/d/ c/B/A/G/ |\
“D7″F/G/A/G/ F/E/D/C/ | “B7″^D/B,/D/F/ B/A/G/F/ |
“C”c2 e>e | d/e/d/c/ cB| “Am”A2 c>c| “D”B>A G/F/E/F/ |\
“Em”G/A/G/F/ E/D/C/E/ | “Am”A/B/c/^c/ “D7″d e/f/ |
(“G”g4|”G7″g2)z2 [K:C] || “C”GcB c/e/ | “Dm7″d3z | “G7″de f/g/ e| “C”e3z |
GcB c/e/ | “Dm7″d3z | “G7″de f/g/ e| “E”e3z | “F”FAc>c | B/c/B/A/ Az |
“Dm”DFA>A | “G”G>F E/D/C/D/ | “Am”c2 A2 | “Dm”d2 “G7″d/e/c | (“C”c4|c2) z2 |
Gede/g/ | “Dm7″f>e f/e/d/c/ | “G7″Bcd/e/c| “C”c c/B/ c/B/c/d/ |\
e e/f/ ee | “Dm7″f>e f/e/d/c/ |
“G7″Bc d/e/ c | “E”B>A ^G/A/B/G/ | “F”F2 A2 | c2 FE | “Dm”D2 F2 | “G”B2 e2|
“Am”e2c2 | “Dm”f2 “G7″f/g/ e | (“C”e4| “Dm”e2) “G7″f/g/ e | (“C”e4|e2) z2 |]
The mobile question is especially interesting to me; it may be that you need non-JavaScript, “native” SVG libraries, but porting that shouldn’t be impossible either way. I’d love to have a mobile Android sketchpad, especially since my Droid has a keyboard. I’ll look into some testing.
View full post on Create Digital Music
Android 2.2: Badly-needed Improvements to Audio, Touch, More; What’s Missing (UPDATED)
May 21st
Yes, I admit it’s getting better. And that could mean more choices for creative music software makers. Photo (CC-BY) Pittaya Sroilong.
Android 2.2 boasts enormous boosts to performance in Java, JavaScript, and the browser, plus nice end-user features like tethering and tons of developer goodies. But developers interested in pushing the multimedia capabilities of the OS have been eager for some specific good news – particularly with Android a candidate for tablets and new embedded platforms (think new, Android-powered DIY music gadgets).
2.2 isn’t likely to satisfy all those concerns, but it is a step forward. There are some subtle but key aspects you might miss, since they aren’t quite headline news for most gadget sites. Apologies for an atypically technical post, but this stuff is important if the platform has a future for readers of this site. And if anyone doubts this is news, let me tell you – talking to music developers from a variety of backgrounds, I hear both immense desire to look at Android, and some significant skepticism about the limitations, many of them specific to performance.
What’s improved:
Audio gets a separate priority. Changes to AudioManager mean that audio can gain focus. Currently, audio processes on Android often get preempted by other processes, so that literally, another service syncing data can screw up your sound. What I can’t tell here is whether the audio focus helps successfully prioritize sound – or if it just helps mix sound with other apps. At the very least, it should avoid other apps cutting into a music performance app without you wanting that. If we’re lucky, Google has also improved audio performance, so that audio apps can set shorter buffer times without adding clicks and pops. (I’ve found disabling data sync stops sound from skipping, but that’s not how it’s supposed to work – not even close.) It’s possible these issues could be positively impacted by improvements to the Java virtual machine (in fact, it’s almost a sure thing).
Android 2.2 blog post, full revisions; NDK changes on the NDK site.
Media recording APIs are finally set up right. As Google puts it, “New APIs in MediaRecorder for specifying audio settings for number of channels, encoding and sampling rates, sampling rate.” Or, as I’d put it, less charitably, “MediaRecorder API no longer involves pain.” This is also a big deal for Android applications that take audio input, including in-progress ports of free synthesis environments Pd and SuperCollider, and Jasuto, whose developer got tripped up on this very problem.
MotionEvent has been improved, for better multi-touch event handling. Developer Luke Hutchison has had to manually write code that works around some unreliable multitouch processing. Google promises better reporting in the new version. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll know until this build ships; this can only be tested on devices.
Better storage. Flexibility in storage is a key advantage of Android (cough, Apple) in some areas, but needed work. Now, the ability to (finally) install apps to the SD card means that music-rich apps or interactive music albums become possible. And automated data backup could be a boon to people using Android as a creation device.
A smarter NDK. Debugging. ‘Nuff said. And that’s something native developers (see, again, SuperCollider and Pd) can download and use right now, today.
By the way, motion fans should be happy with doubled camera preview FPS and YUV support in OpenGL, among other tweaks.
Now, the bad news.
What’s Missing
JIT (Just in Time) compilation for Java translates to vastly improved performance, so you can’t wish for more. But there are still things musicians could use.
Everyone’s been writing open letters to Steve Jobs. Let’s make this an open letter to Google.
Why should Google care about musicians? How about because Google threw down the gauntlet today on its comparative “openness,” compared life with Apple devices to 1984, and prides itself on its Linux heritage?
No, actually — let me put this better: don’t you want Android to be a rock star, Google?
- Native audio access. This NDK added still more support – native access to image buffers, which will help people writing graphics apps. But with that and OpenGL finished, audio should be next on Google’s list. Android devices all appear to use Linux audio standard ALSA. There’s really no reason native DSP code shouldn’t talk directly to the audio output. Google: pay attention. Audio apps have been some of the biggest hits on Apple’s App Store; Smule alone has made ocarinas, AutoTune, and Glee fandom cultural phenomena on the iPhone. Android really does need improved audio performance to compete. Unless a miracle has happened on the Java side, that means providing the NDK as at least an option. And it’s self-selecting: the only programmers who would even try to write their own DSP code and ALSA interfaces would be the ones who already know what they’re doing. You’re not going to get stupid questions about this on IRC like you do with people who haven’t read the UI documentation. Get it?
- Reach out to better multitouch hardware partners. I’m beginning to think that waiting for OEMs to stop sucking at multitouch on phones and tablets is a losing game. So, Google, you’ve got the biggest tech brand power on the planet now. You’ve got smart people. Find a way to hook up your mobile partners with the people who can make touch hardware and firmware work, and the whole platform wins.
- Hardware support (question mark). The Droid already supports USB host mode – so why isn’t it a standard? And why shouldn’t Android benefit from the Linux kernel and provide external hardware support in the API? Help the device live up to the “open” hype you keep espousing; it doesn’t make for a flattering comparison if the iPhone OS has more hardware features for developers than Android, especially with tablets on the horizon. So why a question mark? It looks like good stuff is happening here. Tablets show promise, and the announcement of Google’s TV product suggests not only video out but USB, too. So the key is, will developers be able to use those features? It’s not really an “open” platform if the answer is no. It just seems at this point like we’re waiting on standard APIs and documentation. TV video out is a safe bet when Google’s promised TV SDK appears early next year. But by then, Apple may have a similar offering – and it’d be unfortunate if Google didn’t extend capabilities to their whole line, rather than slice up the platform.
Specific as these things are, they could be the detail that makes a (pardon the word) “magical” app for the platform. And hey, that’s also mean some rockstars using Android. That can’t be too bad, can it?
I’m hopeful. And I think the vision of the platform could be extraordinary. Imagine an Android phone that connects to a music rig onstage, an audiovisual app that makes the audio output really shine, or an interactive album you can watch on an Android-powered TV accessory from your couch? On that last question, imagine people listening to albums in their entirety, blissing out to specialized generative visuals? (Return of the psychedelic prog rock album cover!)
Users, take all of this with a grain of salt, because I still want to test 2.2 to evaluate real-world performance. But it’s worth saying, because the fact that we have 2.2 means Google’s talented Android team is already moving on to the next thing.
Updated – More from I/O, and Native Audio Access
Here’s one major difference about developing for Android – developer events aren’t under an NDA, and you can find out about what’s happening to a platform in advance and respond. You can share information, follow open bug reports, and see as they’re changed. This shouldn’t be rocket science; it’s certainly a given in the free software community. But it is a marked difference relative to something else beginning with ‘A.’
Accordingly, while I couldn’t be at I/O, I do get to talk about it. And notes from a session on Advanced Audio Techniques suggests the 2.2 changes to audio are significant – and are accompanied by an upcoming hook for doing native audio.
From the roadmap notes, OpenAL and OpenSL may be the ideal native hook to the audio buffer. OpenAL itself leaves a bit to be desired for musical applications; it’s a fairly primitive API, not really a direct analog to OpenGL. But if well-implemented on Android, particularly in how it talks to the audio output, it could solve many of the problems Android users now face; it’s all in the implementation. What’s coming:
- OpenSL native API to provide audio track stuff in native code
- OpenAL support. Has a shim over OpenSL. should help port games.
- Add autio effects processing
- Expose more low-level APIs.. a Java api that lets you build the player graph in your application. If you have a streaming support that we don’t support, previously there hasn’t been access to codecs.
- WebM support. VP8 + Vorbis
- FLAC decoder
- AAC-LC encoder for device that don’t have hardware support
- AMR-WB encoder
(encoders will be open sourced)
You can read those notes from the session here, thanks to an attendee; I’ll post a link once this goes up on YouTube:
https://wave.google.com/wave/#restored:wave:googlewave.com!w%252B3kgmObZwQ
Via Bug 3434
Also very awesome – hardware-accelerated processing.
NDK FPU and SIMD NEON support means that Android applications can now take advantage of the floating-point and specific hardware acceleration features of the ARM-based hardware architectures underlying these devices. If there was any doubt that Android could become a major solution for embedded musical hardware, this should change that. (The iPhone/iPad will reap some similar benefits, so this is as much about the iron underneath as it is the OS.)
ARM claims 60-150% performance gains as a result. (Thanks to Martin Roth for the tip!)
I expect I’ll be talking to developers more at Droidcamp this coming week in Berlin.
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2010 NAB Show Highlights – 3D TV is Here – Read More
May 13th
NAB Blog 2010
The annual National Association of Broadcasters show was again held in Las Vegas April 10-15th 2010. This was the second NAB show I attended. The first show was during the dotcom boom around the year 2000. The theme of that show was HDTV. I remember looking at the HDTV monitors and cameras and thinking ‘wow this is cool’. The theme of this years show was 3D television and technologies. Again I was like a kid in the candy store. I have always been interested in 3D TV.
I remember when I was young and watched this show called “That’s Incredible”. They showed a demonstration of 3D video that did not require the use of 3D glasses. They promised that 3D television was right around the corner. Well the 3D demo was less then spectacular and 27 years later 3D TV was just a dream. That’s up to now. Well I am happy to announce that 3D TV is finally here in full force at NAB. The exhibit took up 3 major exhibition halls in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Beside the usual exhibits of just about every major video hardware / software manufacturer, the show also hosts seminars on emerging technologies such as recording audio for your DSLR production, video encoding and journalism classes. Here is a quick review of the coming technologies. If 3D content delivery was the main attraction, one of the sideshows was the exploding world of using your high end DSLR camera as a production camera, but more on that later. One of the first pavilions that I visited was Sony. They had the entire lineup of semi professional and pro broadcast cameras. One item that caught my eye was the new NXR-NX5U NXCAM This camera is the little sister to EX1 / EX3 line of cameras. The list price is $4950.00 USD http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-broadcastcameras/cat-nxcam/product-HXRNX5U/ Sony had a full line of 3D cameras and editing suites. For TV’s they had a nice display of the Bravia 3D TV line. They require special glasses from Sony that are expected to run around $75.00 a pair for the glasses.. The picture quality was amazing. Once Sony gets a hang of the pro line, they are expected to release consumer versions of the 3D camera. This may even extend into the digital photography world as well.
One of the more impressive items I saw was the Panasonic 3DA1 camera. The camera expected for release in September of 2010 with a list price of $21,000 USD. This camera allows users to record high definition video in 3D. The demo cameras focused on a fixed set of people painting arts and crafts models. The video showed four different planes of 3D. Plane 1 – Background that consisted of paint cans and shelves. Plane 3 – The subjects – artists painting arts and crafts Plane 4 – finished painted models in the forefront. The camera uses a dual camera / lens system to record the effect. Basically it is two video cameras combined to one unit. The data is recorded on dual SD cards. Time code is synced up so editing is time locked. A $400.00 plug will be available for both Avid and FCP. To edit the video all you need to do is edit the right side track and the plug in does the rest. The feed was displayed on a BT-3DL2550 monitor using special polarized glasses. I must say the picture quality was spectacular. When I looked at the monitors without the glasses, the image almost looked 2D. Hardly any of the distortion you see when you remove the glasses with traditional 3D encoding. Learn more about this camera Panasonic 3D Video Website http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/3d/ag-3da1/index.html
According to Panasonic, the camera must be at least 10 feet away from the subject. To focus the camera you use the parallel focus wheel that focuses both lenses at the same time. The focal depth for the camera is about 100 feet meaning that all subjects must be within a 100-foot plane to correctly display the 3D effect. The mock studio used for the camera demo was only about 30 feet in depth. The listed price for this camera is $21,000 USD. I expect that lots of experimenting will be done in the upcoming time on what will produce the best 3d effect, but I think Panasonic was heading in the correct direction. Controlled situations such as studio applications will be utilized at first, but they will quickly move into the outside world for princible photography. Ok now that I highlighted the highs, the lows about this camera is that it seems to be proprietary technology meaning that you must you must use the Panasonic BT-3DL2550 monitor – cost $10,000 USD. For now this is the only monitor that Panasonic is offering. You must use this monitor for picture acquisition, editing and playback. It you want to project the image then you must use the Panasonic projectors, and then lets not forget the special glasses. After all is said and done this is great but expensive technology. 3D projectors were also being displayed. Vizrt’s display used two Christie DLP HD8K projectors. Each projector handled the left and right prospective. The HD8K projectors have a 1920×1080 picture resolution. The picture quality was top notch.
It seems that everyone has jumped on the 3D bandwagon, each vender with his or her own formats. Some exhibitors were displaying 3D using the old anaglyph method. Anaglyph uses the traditional red and blue 3D glasses, think 1950’s Others were using polorized glasses, while others used the active shutter types. So the downside is that there is no universal 3D format. I am sure that one will emerge as a dominate format. Either Active shutter or polorized . Other 3D technologies included the use of two Sony EX3’s set up on a rig at 45-degree angles. A special half mirror is used to split the picture. The cost for the rig is $45,000 alone not including the cameras. Ok now that we have all this 3D hardware, where is the content? A few major networks such as ESPN and Disney have pledged to start broadcasting in 3D Sony also announced that it will form a 3D channel the Discovery networks and IMAX. What is coming soon to a VJ venue near you? Besides the 3D projectors, how about 3D led video walls. Sony had a huge 3D led video wall. Of course you had to wear the polarized glasses, but the effect was worth it. The 3D effect was really pronounced and it just a matter of time until some big name artist or innovative act employs this technology just as soon as the prices of the glasses come done to a disposable price. Ok now that I spouted out the wonders of 3D, back to the sideshow. The DSLR market has exploded over the last year. I looked at some footage from cameras like the Nikon 5D and yes the footage looked nice, All sorts of companies were selling camera stabilizers and mounts for DSLR cameras.
The show was also filled with all type of venders like Varicam with camera stabilizers, KinoFlo showed off the led lights – no more burning your fingers with a hot bulb. Need some precise camera control? The Kessler camera control system was very cool. It gives you complete camera motion control using a joystick. The movement was very smooth and the joystick fit like a glove. I don’t remember the full price, but it is worth checking out if your production calls for such an item. The most surprising booth that I saw was a supplier selling analog tape. After seeing all that high tech, it just seemed out of place. In summery I think that NAB show was very successful As far as what 3D technology will prevail, it is hard to say. I guess that it will be a similar format war over 3D technologies as we saw over the betamax and VHS. This is Sean signing out from the desert of Los Angeles. Yes Los Angeles is considered a desert, strange but true. In case you want more – 3D digital videos I created about 15 years ago. – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkii4TZmFgo Sean Fleck was not contacted or compensated by any companies to review any products. |
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