Music 'hackers' unleash new generation of instruments

[anigbrowl]

Dreadful article - as someone in the comments said, the only 'hack' here is the person named in the byline. Surprisingly, the writer completely overlooked the growing popularity of open source/open hardware instruments, ie fully formed devices with functionality equivalent to a commercial product that you can build yourself. If you're no good with a soldering iron it's easy to find people who'll help with the physical build. Here's a (very partial) list:

Meeblip - http://meeblip.com - a small but aggressive substractive synthesizer, very affordable as a starter project.

Sonic Potions - http://sonic-potions.com - the LXR has often been desribed as a 'poor man's machinedrum'

Midibox Seq - http://ucapps.de - probably the most advanced pattern-based hardware sequencer in existence other than the Cirklon, but commercial resale/licensing is extremely restrictive and the project owner's DIY ethic is so strong that kit options are fragmentary.

MIDIsizer - http://midisizer.com/ <- this guy is also lead engineer at Evernote. No word on whether you will be able to send emails with your guitar any time soon, though :-p

Mutable Instruments - http://mutable-instruments.net/ - a variety of instruments, without outstanding documentation and beautifully engineered source code.

Special mention ofr Bruno's Nord Modular G2 open source editor, which works a treat and provides access to several incomplete models that are not accessible from the official editor, like a modelling oscillator, as well as developing tablet implemtation: http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48872&postord...

[anigbrowl]

BTW the above should have said Mutable Instruments stuff comes WITH outstanding documentation, not without outstanding...you get the idea.

[Ryanmf]

I love Mutable Instruments so very much.

And somehow I'd missed the SP LXR, thanks for the link.

[sitkack]

I thought it was pretty excellent for CNN.

[rhizome]

I'm much more excited about live-coding environments that foster new structural forms, like Extempore and its siblings, over Tesla coils and triggering techniques that are much, much more in line with traditional innovations.

Machover's Biomuse is over 20 years old and dot-matrix Star Wars is at least 10, and I don't really see those progressing beyond gimmickry, or at the high end engendering loop-pedal and sample-trigger (MPC, et al) artists that tend to hew to standard forms. Sadly, the heretofore promises of computer environments such as MAX/pure-data and even Ableton (when stretched) have caught their more experimental practitioners in a vortex of randomness, likewise let's-see-where-this-goes algo composers under compiled environments like SuperCollider. I'm all for the death of the author, but the book still needs to be legible.

Of course, all of this speaks only to my own preferences. None of us can predict the future.

Suffice it to say that I think the most meaningful musical statements tread a line between tool-exercise (because-I-can sound generation) and songwriting, and playing AC/DC with a Tesla coil really doesn't say much in that context. Now, treat a Van De Graaf generator like headphones so that the person touching it can experience the sensations of static electricity as a component of music, as a frequency-oriented tactile instrument, and I might start turning my ears (and hair) toward the welder-tunes crowd.

[gtani]

A couple i might consider buying:

Seaboard: https://www.roli.com/seaboard/

EMR pickup: http://zvukolom.org/instruments/elektrosluch/

and from Stanford a Flowbee: https://www.yahoo.com/tech/ge-wang-who-has-the-most-high-lev...

https://ccrma.stanford.edu/groups

____________

(these are all interesting, but I'm going to stick to piano, clarinet, mandolin and cello, i think)

[winestock]

Then there's the Eigenharp.

http://www.eigenlabs.com/

[e7mac]

jordan rudess of dream theater is really into the seaboard

[e7mac]

what do you think of the flowbee?

[Ryanmf]

The Soundplane from Madrona Labs[0] certainly merits a mention here. Pairs exceptionally well with their software synths Kaivo (physical modeling and granular synthesis) and Aalto (the closest thing to a Buchla in VST form).

I kind of assume at this point that most people who have an interest in this sort of thing know about monome[1], though I was surprised that there hasn't been more interest from HN in their most recent release, aleph[2], a (mostly) open source sound computer that can interface with just about anything that produces sound, cv, or bits.

[0] http://madronalabs.com/

[1] http://monome.org

[2] http://monome.org/aleph/

[anigbrowl]

Aleph is massively overpriced. For the same money you could get a laptop, a knobby controller, and a copy of Max/MSP or Reaktor, or Reason. Or a bunch of Eurorack modules of similar capabilities, or [fill in one of many blanks]. I think it would have to get under $700 to sell well; further more the tiny form factor is actually a negative because it doesn't give you a whole lot of hands-on control, nor is it suitable for performance ergonomically. The reaction I've heard from other electronic musicians has been essentially 'a solution in search of a problem.'

While Monome were among the first to innovate in this area, the steep price premium isn't justified when you can get similar or better functionality for less than half the price for most of their offerings.

[timc3]

Not sure why this is news worthy, it has been happening since the beginning of making music.

Every instruments has come from a “hack” of sorts..

[sp332]

And it ignores earlier, similar instruments like Futureman's "drumtar", a keytar with the guts ripped out and replaced with MIDI keys (usually configured with drum samples). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Man

[analog31]

I wonder if music itself is a "hack" of our sensory and cognitive apparatus.

[Volscio]

Also see NYU's Interactive Telecommunication Programs course, NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression):

http://itp.nyu.edu/nime/

[e7mac]

Jeez that's such a confusing name to pick. NIME (http://www.nime.org/) is an annual conference in music tech!