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Max/MSP visionary David Zicarelli is fond of saying that Max/MSP is really about numbers. You might hear music, but it’s number crunching that makes it all happen. Understand how to make the numbers work, and you can make your music and visuals do what you want. (Happily, this does not require a whole lot of math acuity, or I wouldn’t be able to do it. Instinct and imagination seem to be the best hallmark of Max masters.)

Lest you believe numbers can’t really make music, though, there are always bizarre and unusual examples of sources for Max projects. The latest comes to us from reader Stanley Ruiz:

Here is a clip of my audio-visual work presented at the 4th Asia-Europe Art Camp in Helsinki, Finland (June 2006).

I used the Philippines’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP per capita) as source to create sounds and manipulate video. GDP values were converted to MIDI data using a gesture-based sensor interface (the data is being sent as I move my hand). Converted MIDI values are then processed in a custom program written in Max/MSP. I used MIDIsense as sensor interface.

The output is an algorithmically composed music, as well as manipulated video (in this instance the video’s frame rate and contrast were manipulated).

… from Stanley’s blog.

(For more on sensor interfaces and MIDIsense, see our previous story.)

Okay, you can’t quite sing along, but Stanley is working on sonifying the GDP of other countries. Eventually, it should make the differences in affluence come alive in a way they might not on a bar chart. Got some unusual ways of working with numbers for music and motion? Let us know.

art, installations, math, Max/MSP, oddities, patching, sound art, synesthesia, visualization, world events

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Hot Chip are kinda on the unimpeachably hip tip. and just in time for their recent Dj - Kicks mix they've put together an equally eclectic mix for Allez-Allez. Woah wait a minute - you have not heard of Allez Allez before? Oh boy are you in for a treat! Hot lil mixes from an incredible line up of djs - Four Tet, Philip Sherburne, Paul from Franz Ferdinand & tons more! - Source Site:http://www.allez-allez.co.uk/

Does your brain filter out all elements of the world around you not directly related to electronic music? Do conversations from significant others, business associates, and the like tend to dissolve into “blah, blah, blah …” while you dream of synths and programmed beats? Do you wish your search engine would stop returning lots of irrelevant stuff and accept your major obsession and first love?

Morgan Sutherland has been playing with Google Co-op, a search engine construction technology, and came up with this:

Electronic Music Search

It searches over a hundred sites related to music technology, from music sites to sites like CDM. And, okay, I’m exaggerating: the engine works well for other stuff, too. Because it’s a cooperative engine, you can even contribute to make it better. Give it a spin and let us know what you think, and pass along any custom search engines you’ve got yourself.

electronic music, Internet, research, Web

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Ah, the blame game. Users want their stuff to work, and they want it now. (Well, can you blame them?) When it doesn’t, as in the case of some hardware and software on Windows Vista, the blame often gets transferred to third-party developers and not the operating system developer (ahem, Microsoft). Sure, Microsoft gets blamed for other issues with Vista, but when a driver or app isn’t compatible, it must be the third party’s fault.

I’m not interested in assigning blame. And OS compatibility delays are par for the course, on any platform — especially with serious audio and music work, which demands glitch-free, real-time performance. I’m just curious to know what the real situation is on the ground.

(...)
Read the rest of Developers: How Goes Developing Drivers and Software for Vista? (599 words)

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28th June 2007: Extreme Sample Converter has been updated to 3.1.5. Changes: Added: Multi selections of audio files and samples. Added: Converting of selected audio files to context menu of sample "Convert selected...

Michael Moore's Sicko turned me on to another great moment in Ronald Reagan. In 1961 The American Medical Association hired the Gipper for a viral marketing campaign dubbed I kid you not, 'Operation Coffeecup.' Doing his part to scuttle the arrival of Medicare Reagan lays down an 11 minute rap explaining how Socialized Medicine can only lead to an America where men are not free. This record was then mailed out to the 'ladies auxiliary' (doctors wives) of the AMA in each county.
Was it this little record that kept Medicare from being signed into law until July 1965? Is this why we still don't have Universal Health Care? Give a listen: Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine (mp3)

For more on Operation Coffeecup here is a history lesson from the Huffington post (link) and some more archival material from the TexasBestGrok site (link)

Man, I wish I had a wallet like my friend the anonymous DJ has a wallet!  Here's the wallet.  Who's the anonymous WFMU DJ that owns it?

Winner gets some FMU swag.

And here's your bonus mp3, just for playing, or looking.  [mp3 for download, 4.2 megs]

And here's who the wallet doesn't belong to:  Trouble \ Joe Belock \ Hatch \ Diane Kamikaze \ Irwin \ Fabio \ Bryce \ Maria \ Bill Zurat \ Liz Berg \ Stork \ Scott \ Billy Jam \ Charlie \ Rich Hazelton \ Mike Lupica \ Bronwyn \ Vicki \ Gaylord Fields \ Monica \ Brian Turner \ Ken \ Andy Breckman \ Kenny G. Who it does belong to must at some point have had a regular show on WFMU.

28th June 2007: Apple has released Pro Applications Update 2007-01 and updates for Soundtrack Pro (v2.0.1) and Final Cut Pro (v6.0.1). Pro Applications Update 2007-01 includes fixes to underlying frameworks and share...

28th June 2007: Leftover Lasagne has released version 1.2 of PushTec 5+1A, its Windows VST plug-in equaliser that was part of the KVR Developer Challenge 2006. As Leftover Lasagne does not have a homepage you can dow...