Thursday, January 17, 2013

Band in a box

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1XZAdEV54w

Band in a box

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1XZAdEV54w

Music Term Reference Sites

Here are some sites explaining the kind of music terminology we'll be using if you all want a refresher/want to learn something:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols (use this is a glossary, there's a lot more here than we'll need)

http://datadragon.com/education/reading/

http://www.musicawareness.com/basics.html (a little more advanced theory)

http://www.wikihow.com/Read-Music (this has a bit more information than you may need and is kind of wordy, but a good all around explanation on how music is put together, some of this will be real important when we start to program how to turn a visualization into sheet music)

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

8bit composing website

beepbox.co

I like the easy visual layout, and how you can choose the scale you want to use, which forces you to sound good. It also has the set rhythm which you can't really stray from.

Songsmith..

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/

Songsmith

exactly what we;re doing but oh so horrible


Slightly off topic but here's an amazing audio editing software.

Audio Tools for turning voice input into sheet music

I'm thinking Logic is the best software out there for musicians who want to record actual notes and turn them into sheet music, though it's accuracy isn't always great.  Here's an idealized usage of it:

For this one, he does an indepth tutorial of what I was trying to do, check it at 5:30:



Sibelius is a good example at looking at how to deal with rhythm input without any backing track.. flexitime tries to guess your tempo.. or if you try to play with sibelius's metronome, you have to preset what kind of notes you want it to put in so that it's more accurate...  (note: it's using MIDI so you don't need to worry about pitch detection) start watching at about 1 minute, but he actually inputs notes at 3:25 or so (to a click):

So how to input audio information to sibelius with pitch you ask?  Audio Score Ultimate 7 is the plug in you need to buy: http://www.sibelius.com/products/audioscore/ultimate.html
http://www.neuratron.com/audioscore2.htm


Sibelius's competitor, Finale, only allows mic input from woodwind or brass instruments (which is definitely easier to figure out than voice)
                                                                                                                       

Garageband..

hahah I can't believe no one posted this before but garage band on the iPad is a good reference of how to make music for non musicians in a somewhat musical way...

specifically the smart guitar functions to play riffs or chords, see like 20 seconds in:
A general overview of ipad garageband:

I have this on my iphone if anyone wants to try...

Minim Sound Lib for Java

Those are the place I learn about FFT and basic knowledge like averages, minim lib is a cool interface into java
http://code.compartmental.net/tools/minim/manual-fft/
http://code.compartmental.net/2007/03/21/fft-averages/
http://code.compartmental.net/tools/minim/

Sound Shapes

Not quite in the direction we're going, but Sound Shapes (a game for PS Vita and PS3) shows how you can make music editing fun and relatively simple. It's a platformer where everything makes sounds and it's quite simple to make something that sounds relatively good.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Snibbe Interactive

So we visited Snibbe last week, and this app he developed for Bjork is an amazing interactive music program.


And Here's some of the stuff he did with Phillip Glass, also pretty amazing



If anyone has any interest, the guy who made these apps is in San Francisco and was interested in hearing about the project we're working on.  He's definitely an interesting guy to hear speak, because he views the future of music as entirely interactive.

More resources for learning FFT

Here are a few more resources I found for learning more about fast fourier transforms.

The Fourier Transform (An Overview): http://relisoft.com/Science/Physics/sound.html
Mastering the Fourier Transform in a day: http://www.dspdimension.com/admin/dft-a-pied/

Figure for iPhone

Jam with Chrome


I had a lot of fun of playing Jam with Chrome with my friend this winter break , it's quite easy to start and learn basic knowledge about different instruments, chords and rhythm, also, I love this UI design for instruments.
Auto accompany is cool, and play online with your friends or invite someone accompany for you is also interesting!At least we can take reference of this UI design~!
Try it here~~
http://www.jamwithchrome.com/webapp

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Some iOS Music Game and Instrument References

Here are some music games and Apps that I find interesting:

Smule Auto Rap:
Interesting app that reads voice input and turns it into auto-tuned rap like songs. 

Smule Magic Piano:
A really fun way to "play" piano in a sort of music game.  Nice simple art style.  Also has a freestyle piano playing feature.

A kind of collection of all of smule's music performing apps.

Ok last smule one, I promise!!
Smule Magic Guitar:
A magic-piano-like app.   

Ok now on to the iOS games:

Flea Symphony:

Interesting art style and game concept.  Mostly rhythm focused, and not super musical in the end.  




Groove Coaster:
Pretty addictive and fun game by the people that brought you space invaders.  Simple but effective visual style, and game mechanic of just tapping the screen anywhere. 


Tap Tap Franchise:
Rock Band-like game play, but it utilizes the accelerometer and swiping gestures.  Again, like the previous examples, you're not really creating music, just playing it back.  



Theatrhythm Final Fantasy:
Another iOS game themed to the Final Fantasy franchise.  Nice art style, simple game play.  Creative level up and character choosing RPG dynamics.  




Tuesday, January 8, 2013