Computers can only do a few very simple operations consisting of flipping electrical switches on and off. You can represent numbers in patterns of the on-off states of sequences of switches. By flipping switches on and off in particular patterns, you can perform simple mathematical operations on the numbers. You can do more complex mathematical [...]
Friday, February 26, 2010
The vast majority of music that I hear is recorded, and if you’re reading this the same is probably true of you. Most people don’t have a clear idea what the recording process is like, especially using computers. Here are my adventures in recording. I grew up in the eighties. Cassette recorders were just starting [...]
Filed in Autobio, Composition, Hardware, Improvisation, Music, Recording, Software
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Also tagged analog, audio, audio editing, autotune, electronica, hip-hop, Improvisation, looping, mashups, Music, pro tools, Recording, remixes, revival revival, Sampling, sequencing, synths, tape, tape editing, visualization
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This PBS Independent Lens documentary on sampling culture is a good one, and you can watch the whole thing on Youtube. Their resources and links page includes my Biz Markie blog post. Thanks Beautiful Decay for posting the videos. Part one:
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Music Business, Politics, Sampling, Software
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Also tagged a tribe called quest, audio editing, beastie boys, biz markie, clyde stubblefield, copyright, dance, dj, eighties, george clinton, hip-hop, Improvisation, james brown, jeff chang, looping, mashups, memes, michael jackson, Music, pro tools, public enemy, Recording, remixes, rock, Sampling
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See a followup post about female remixes of “A Milli” Lil Wayne and I have some differences of style and taste: about facial tattoos, about drinking cough syrup recreationally, about jewelry on one’s teeth. But we agree about music. He brags constantly that he’s the best rapper alive. I think he makes a pretty good [...]
Filed in Composition, Improvisation, Key Musicians, Music, Recording, Sampling
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Also tagged america, anxiety, autotune, class, cole porter, comedy, drum machines, Evolution, hip-hop, Improvisation, irony, kanye west, lil wayne, memes, michael jackson, minimalism, natalie portman, natural selection, Recording, recursion, remixes, Sampling, snl, Social Media, t-pain, white people
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See a followup post on the Gregorys’ breakout hit, the “Bed Intruder Song.” The Gregory Brothers (including a sister-in-law) are musicians here in Brooklyn who have a series of videos called Auto-tune The News. Here are a selection of their better episodes as of this writing.
Filed in Composition, Key Musicians, Music, Sampling, Software
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Also tagged anxiety, audio editing, autotune, comedy, Evolution, hip-hop, joe biden, katie couric, martin luther king jr, mashups, Music, Music Theory, news, Politics, pop, rnb, steven mithen, tv, youtube
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I found this picture of Herbie Hancock on a stranger’s blog. There was no caption or any other context. So I posted it on my Flickr with a note asking if anyone could identify the computer Herbie is sitting in front of. A couple of days later my friend Mike responded with this video of [...]
Filed in Hardware, Interfaces, Key Musicians, Math, Music, Software
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Also tagged drum machines, eighties, electronica, Emotion, funk, herbie hancock, interface, jazz, keybs, Music, quincy jones, sequencing, sesame street, synths
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Like this sentence, computer programs and songs can refer to themselves. Many computer programs and songs are made of loops within loops within loops. Self-reference gives computers their extreme versatility. It also makes for richer, more interesting music.
Filed in Composition, Music, Software
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Also tagged audio editing, fugees, hip-hop, looping, Music, programming, recursion, remixes, Sampling, self-reference
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Writing a song is a lot like writing a computer program. They both require clever management of loops and control flow. The simplest sheet music reads as a straightforward top-to-bottom list of instructions. You start on measure one and read through to the end sequentially. That’s fine unless the music is very repetitive, which most [...]
Filed in Composition, Math, Music, Software
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Also tagged chameleon, computer science, electronica, fractals, herbie hancock, Improvisation, james brown, looping, mandelbrot, Math, Music, music notation, programming, recursion, visualization
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Update: this was written before I ever touched an iPhone or iPad. These devices are major improvements over the desktop metaphor GUIs I complain about below. When you grow up playing video games, like I did, the primitiveness of office software user interface design comes as a shock. The desktop metaphor was a brilliant stroke [...]
Filed in Interfaces, Software, Video Games
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Also tagged apple, desktop, eighties, interface, metaphor, microsoft, nintendo, recursion, super mario bros, visualization, windows
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When you learned division in school, the teacher probably brushed off the issue of dividing by zero in one sentence: you can’t do it, moving on. You might feel like you got shortchanged by that explanation. Why not? What happens when you divide by zero?