One of the funkiest albums ever recorded is The Clones Of Dr Funkenstein by Parliament. Even if you never listen to it, you’ll get funkier just by looking at the cover. There’s much to love about this album beyond its joyously ridiculous science fiction theme. There are the deft, bebop-flavored horn charts by James Brown’s [...]
Filed in music
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Also tagged bernie worrell, book, eighties, funk, hip-hop, moog, nice and smooth, parliament, royksopp, sampling, seventies, synths, talking heads
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Here’s a live rendition of Imogen Heap’s song “Hide And Seek.” It’s introduced by Zach Braff, but don’t let that dissuade you from watching.
Filed in music
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Also tagged authenticity, autotune, book, brian eno, electronica, harmony, imogen heap, improvisation, interface, midi, music, pop, remixes, sampling, synths
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This is a picture of my electronic funk-soul-R&B band doing a show. From left to right, it’s Nicole Bishop, me and Barbara Singer. We were the whole band for that show. I did all the beats, samples and keyboards from my computer using a video game controller. Here’s a screenshot of the program that the [...]
Filed in autobio, hardware, music, software, video games
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Also tagged book, composing, electronica, hip-hop, improvisation, interface, mapping, max/msp, midi, programming, reason, sampling, sequencing, synths, video games
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Thursday, August 20, 2009
Hip-hop artists love Prince. Like them, he blends drum machines, live jazz-funk musicians and samples of other songs.
Filed in hardware, music
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Also tagged book, drum machines, eighties, george clinton, guitar, pop, prince, remixes, rock, sample maps, sampling, synths
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Saturday, August 15, 2009
My parents and stepparents loved music when I was growing up, more as spectators than participants.
Expanding on “Learning Music Theory With Autotune” If you’re a science geek and you find yourself in San Francisco, the most fun thing to do there is to go to the Exploratorium.
Filed in hardware, math, music, science, video games
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Also tagged audio editing, book, coltrane, exploratorium, giant steps, india, lego, midi, music theory, pitch, pitch shifting, sequencing, tetris, tuning, video games
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One of the greatest weirdnesses of electronic music is the sampling keyboard. You press a key and any sound recording you want pops out, at whatever pitch. The recent passing of John Hughes made me think of the scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when Ferris samples his coughing and puking on an E-mu Emulator [...]
Filed in hardware, music
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Also tagged audio, beatles, book, eighties, ferris bueller, grateful dead, jazz, john hughes, mellotron, midi, music, reason, recording, recursion, sampling, synths, tape, yello
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I found this picture of Herbie Hancock on some dude’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, math, music, science, software
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Also tagged book, computers, drum machines, eighties, electronica, emotion, funk, herbie hancock, interface, jazz, music, quincy jones, sequencing, sesame street, synths
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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 [...]
Filed in autobio, hardware, music
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Also tagged analog, bbc, book, delia derbyshire, doctor who, eighties, electronica, 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 [...]
Filed in hardware, music, science
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Also tagged book, electronica, envelope filter, funk, guitar, harmonics, jimi hendrix, metal, overtones, physics, physiology, pop, resonance, rock, seventies, sixties, soul, speech, wah pedal
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