People had been playing electric guitar for decades before Jimi Hendrix. Mostly they used it as a louder, less effortful version of the acoustic guitar. Jimi was one of the first musicians to think of the guitar amp as a musical instrument unto itself, an early analog synth, with the guitar as a very sophisticated [...]
Also filed in Interfaces, Key Musicians, Math, Music, Physics
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Tagged analog, electricity, electromagnetism, electronica, feedback, guitar, harmonics, harmony, interface, jimi hendrix, Music, Music Theory, recursion, remixes, resonance, tuning, wah pedal
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When I was in third grade, my mom and stepfather went on academic sabbatical to London for six months, taking my sister and me with them. I guess I’m grateful for the chance to experience another culture and everything, but it was a rough six months. I missed my dad, school, New York, the Muppet [...]
Also filed in Key Musicians, Music, Recording, Sampling
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Tagged analog, bbc, delia derbyshire, doctor who, eighties, electronica, keybs, multitracking, scifi, sixties, synths, tape editing, tv, uk, vocoder
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Say “oooh” as in “noodle.” Then say “aaah” as in “park.” When you say “oooh” your mouth is more closed, with less resonating space and a smaller opening. This configuration blocks the higher overtones of your voice. When you say “aaah” your jaw and lips open, creating more resonating space and letting more high overtones [...]
Also filed in Music, Physics
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Tagged electronica, envelope filter, funk, guitar, harmonics, jimi hendrix, keybs, metal, overtones, Physics, physiology, pop, resonance, rock, seventies, sixties, soul, speech, wah pedal
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Humans are animals. Our tools are extensions of our bodies into the environment, like beavers and beaver ponds, coral and coral reefs, plants and oxygen. We’re unusual in the extent of our bodies’ impact on our environment, but plenty of other organism shape their environment to suit their needs. Technology is part of our extended [...]
Also filed in Evolution, Technology
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Tagged big bang, biology, chemistry, e-waste, Evolution, green, memes, petroleum, Physics, richard dawkins
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Do computers think? Is the brain a computer? We use computers as metaphors for the brain and vice versa. Is the comparison apt? Brains and computers can imitate each other in limited ways. Deep down, how much similarity is there?
Engineers describe a system whose input and output behavior are known and whose inner workings are otherwise mysterious as a black box. Bruno Latour describes the black box as: the way scientific and technical work is made invisible by its own success. When a machine runs efficiently, when a matter of fact is settled, one [...]
Also filed in Interfaces, Software
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Tagged abstraction, attention, black box, brain, computers, Evolution, microchips, neuroscience, recursion, transistors
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The parts of the computer that do the “thinking” are mostly made of little electronic switches called transistors. If you connect two wires to a transistor, you can use the voltage on one wire to control the voltage on the other. What’s especially handy for engineering purposes is that the presence or absence of a [...]
How do you get sound in and out of a computer? There are two steps. You have to turn the sound into electricity, and then you have to turn the electricity into numbers. Turning sound into electricity At the physical level, a sound is a rhythmic vibration of air molecules. Your ears can detect subtle [...]
Also filed in Math, Music
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Tagged audio, audio editing, binary, electronica, imaginarynumbers, Math, Music, perception, pro tools, Recording, visualization
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