Alchemists of Sound

Everything you ever wanted to know about the legendary BBC Radiohonic workshop! Even if you never wanted to know anything about it in the first place, do yourself a favour and watch this six part documentary. It´s an hour well spent!


Part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 and part 6

Meek

The Strange Story of Joe Meek

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BLIP On My Radar

I am currently fiddling around with Blip.FM. Since I never bothered to follow anyone on Twitter, this new social music site passed me by. After playing around with it a bit, I must say that it is a much easier way to find music than on the deceased Muxtape.

I signed up this afternoon and I am now collecting a track list that is deemed to become very eclectic.
Make sure to drop by at StellaVista´s Outer Base. Slip into something comfy and pour yourself a drink.


The server seems to be quite slow and overpowered at times. You also have to wonder about the legal aspect of the whole thing. As soon as you upload anything you are practically committing a crime. I am expecting Blip.fm to be shut down in Germany pretty soon (now, that I have found it...)

Ballard Beat Box

No, this is not the new Pet Shop Boys sleeve!

It´s taken from a funny and technically amazing viral ad-gimmick that turns you into a human beat-box. You can chose between four templates, upload your (or any) portrait and within a minute your avatar will perform some wicked things to your face.

Since we here at StellaVista Towers have no great entertainment value with a pot warmer on our heads, I tried to upload pictures of some iconic friends.
Both, Liberace and Warhol didn´t work that well. Once morphed by the progeam they looked like Thunderbird puppets. It´s amazing how exchangeable they look when their hair/wig is hidden by a hat.


Anyway, it was much more fun to use a J.G. Ballard picture and it worked surprisingly well. Click here to see and hear JG Ballard aka MC Crashbox putting a donk on it!

MC Crashbox

Well, it´s in b/w but the morphing program is very picky and it was impossible to find a usable colour portrait of the man.

Andy MC


Then I had the smashing idea to use a (fake) image of the Damien-Hirst-Diamond-Skull. But again, the program wouldn´t accept the picture. I tried to modify it several times, but it didn´t work. Too bad, it would have been such a great contribution to this great Hirst-bashing project. Thanks to Jocko for bringing this great Jimmy Cauty project to my attention.

Last try was a screenshot of Kraftwerk´s "Musique Non Stop", since I wanted to see how an early, literally beatboxing CGI would look make the transition.
Boing Boom Tshack

Below you can try your own thing. It´s mostly in German but I think that it is possible to navigate the site anyway. Enter your birthday and location and it will play the Kraftwerk-video. If you want to start your own creation, click on the bottom left "werde Beatologist".

Bus Slogan Generator

Generate your own bus slogan and hit the streets!

Minimal Light Orchestra

I woke up this morning convinced that I was Philip Glass. Must have been the effect of diddling around with Auditorium last night.

Auditorium is a new flash-based game that -at first glance- appears to be pretty esoteric.

The aim is to solve animated, geometric "puzzles" by diverting a "flow" of "audio visual particles" in order to "energize" targets, or "audio containers" which play sequenced music when they are hit by the matching colour of the particles. What?


Anyway, it is very intuitive and hypnotic! Things get amazing as soon as you reach the second "winter"-level, where you have to deal with three or four "audio containers". The sequences build on each other and while you try to divert the "flow" you suddenly become the conductor of a pearly, minimal composition. It is a mixture of a riddle, abstract painting and a sequencer.
At level 2.5 it gets quite tricky...


According to the website, the game is still in demo-mode and the soundtrack composed by Dain Saint will expand with the game.

Try it!

Mux Nixed

As reported here Muxtape has been shut down by the RIAA.
It took longer than I thought it would, but Mux are confident that they will re-open soon.
Let´s hope for the best.

...it plays a little melody.

Love at first sigh: The Korg Kaossilator is one of those gadgets a music geek like me just needs!
Conceived as a quick-to-use-dj-tool, it is actually a hand-held, battery-powered, pocket synthesizer which sticks its glitchy middle finger to the i-pod.

The dominant yellow colour is not the only thing that is reminiscent of Kraftwerks "Computerworld"-sleeve. The sound this little "pocket calculator" produces was clearly designed after the record that predicted machines like these 27 years ago.


The Kaossilator (how will ex-eastgermans like that name?) is the latest in a series of small powerful Korg DJ-tools which more or less make up a full set-up for aspiring electro musicians who are more into sound and fx than into complex melodies.

Put the Kaossilator next to the fantastic KP3, the mini KP and the Electribe and you have a mini-studio that looks totally science fiction! Miles away from the keyboard racks of yesterday and it´s more sexy than all those hunchbacked geeks cowering behind their Macs.

After its release last november, the Kaossilator was alledgedly sold out in Japan within minutes. At a price for only € 150,-- you can forgive its small contras, such as limited rhythm-lengths and no proper saving device.

Some presets tend to be a little bit too trance-y for my taste, but it IS a DJ-tool after all.

What this little thing is capable of can be checked on a free downloadble album, The Yellow Album which was recorded straight out of the Kaossilator, and a ton of Youtube clips.

Bachelor Pad Muzak: The Hobnox Audio Tool mk2

Exactly a month ago I posted a piece about the great Hobnox Audio Tool.

David Noel, one of the guys (or maybe the only one?) behind this sexy flash simulation wrote me a comment that the legendary Roland TR-808 would be added soon to the line-up.
Mmmh, the 808! The sound of pure aural geek sex!
A sound that is so pure, powerful, yet tender, organic and totally artificial at the same time. It´s no wonder that the (reported) first use of the 808 in a studio recording was on Marvin Gaye´s "Sexual Healing", a record that set the template for every R&B track that followed. Marvin can croon and swoon as much as he likes (and he likes it a lot) but - without a doubt - it´s the flowing, pulsating and percolating rhythm of the 808 that is repsonsible for many babies who were conceived to its warm groove which was programmed by Japanese technicians.
They should have never given one to Phil Collins, though.

So, now we have the 808 next to the 909 and two 303 simulators and two new effect-boxes.
To make it short: It´s the BOMB! The 808 sounds are as pristine as the other instruments and the f/x work very well. I can listen to this for hours without end.

It´s still not possible to save anything you do, but the Hobnox-guys are busy working on it. Maybe on June 12 I can make another update.

Get it NOW!

The illustration was done with my gimmick-du-jour

2 after 909: Hobnox Audio Tool Emulator

Remember the nifty Roland TR-909 Drumcomputer simulation I wrote about a while ago?

The Hobnox Audio Tool will take it to the next level.
In its momentary demo stage you can program a simulated TR-909, two TB-303´s, put them through a combination of nine effect-boxes such as flanger, reverb, equalizer and delay and then you can plug all of this into a mixer! If you think this sounds great in theory, wait until you hear it!


The 909 has five pre-programmed patterns but you can program many more. The two 303´s are also pre-programmed. If you press play on the bottom of the page you will only hear the 909. You will have to plug in the 303´s by clicking their output jacks and drag the appearing cable into the input of the mixer or you plug them into the effect-boxes, which you can interconnect as you wish. Make sure to scroll around the site to see everything. I found the mixer on top of the page quite late.

In it´s post demo-stage you will be able to save your creations. A TR-808 simulation is also in the works and the possibility to jam online with other users sounds like a great idea.

Download the demo here, but be warned: It´s highly addictive and you´ll find yourself spending hours in Acid-heaven.

EDIT: The Audio Tool is updated! Read more about it!

Click & Stick

Are you fed up that you never find your USB cable to hook up your camera-(phone) to your computer? Life is hard these days! But cheer up and get "Eazzzy", a slick USB digital camera! Just take your pictures and stick the tiny camera into your computer.:No strings attached...

The idea and design is by Sung Woo Park, who has more brilliantly simple ideas in store. I have no idea if some of the stuff he invents is already in production or if its just a study.