The Revolution of Greed and the Music Industry

Hi to all this is my first post in 2 weeks, why? let me explain to you what happend .
First my laptop was stolen with all my info, songs, projects, media, masters you name it, and ive been trying to get the data back (no luck on that) ive been posting posters in my area tolding what happened but like i said before (no luck).
The second its ive done a huge effort to give a workshop of circuit bending and that wasted all my time, it was two long days of work, but it was successful i will posting some pictures soon.
It was two long weeks, with some depressing stuff in between, with brings me back to the topic of this post, if you like electronic music and some of its genres you sure have heard Sublight Records (venetian snares, enduser, donna summer, richard divine and so many others)well its going to close.....and why the hawser its right here.
""The Revolution of Greed and the Music Industry
By: Benn Jordan

A decade ago, while being an amateur musician and daytime computer technician, a tech-savvy friend of mine called me raving about MP3s. He even sent me some files on my painfully slow dialup connection. He spoke of groups on BBS systems and IRC that were ripping and trading albums. I eventually figured out what they technically were, and how they worked. The technology impressed me, but I didn’t worry about it either. I thought to myself:

“Surely nobody is going to spend 40 hours downloading an album at a horrible audio quality.”

Of course I didn’t speculate how advanced the internet would become 10 years later. Terabytes, iPods, wireless networking, and broadband internet…I just didn’t have the foresight. Those who did either fought it or became millionaires.

Now before you start getting excited about being part of a “music revolution”, I’m going to share my rendition of it, which isn’t going to be inspirational in the least bit. The point of all it all is, well, that nearly everyone involved is unethical and greedy. From the largest corporation all the way down to the consumer.""

Read the rest of it

Labels: laptop, mp3, music, sublight records

Workshop Circuit Bending

Olá a todos, no próximo dia 14 e 15 de junho na Z.D.B a info segue em baixo, despachem-se porque as inscrições são limitadas.

Workshop Circuit Bending
Circuit Bending é a criação de som através da manipulação de dispositivos áudio electrónicos de baixa voltagem, tais como pedais de guitarra, brinquedos de criança ou alguns sintetizadores pequenos, com o intuito de criar novos sons e gerar novas aproximações à estética musical.
Enfatizando as técnicas de randomização, o Circuit Bending é normalmente associado á música de ruído (noise), embora hoje em dia seja utilizado por muitos compositores de música contemporânea. A sua facilidade de execução permite aos seus executanes uma imensa liberdade criativa na criação de novos sons, sem necessitar de profundos conhecimentos em electrónica.

14 Junho: das 14h00 às 21h00
15 Junho: das 14h00 às 18h00

Coordenação: Ricardo Costa

Material necessário: ferro de soldar, chaves variadas, pilhas AA, alicates variados.
Material para bending disponibilizado pela organização.

Informações e inscrições:
Ricardo Costa: 93 3737246 | ricardo_costa@vianw.pt
ZDB: 21 3430205 | muzique@zedosbois.org

Valor da inscrição: 50€.

Z.D.B
Ricardo Costa

Labels: circuit bending, workshop, Z.D.B

Electronic Musician's Emergency Adapters

Or the Electronic music aid.
Ive post this because last night i was playing in a small club here in lisbon and i forgot two cables that are indispensable (i wish i had the EMEA :), but everything went well after that problem, but its a good thing to have around specially when you are playing live.
"When Radio Shack is closed, you'll feel confident that you can handle any venue's crazy sound system setup with this thorough set of audio adapters chosen specifically for the needs of the electronic musician. From the ubiquitous 1/8" to RCA adapter common to almost every laptop set (laptop headphones out to club mixer in) to the less-common-but-still-essential XLR adapters (for dealing with stage breakout boxes), you can feel confident that your sound will reach the people, no matter what the promoter or sound guy has overlooked."

Electronic Musician emergency adapters
Horsa Musician survival kit

Labels: adapters, Electronic, emergency, kit, live, music

Show me your homemade instrument

I found this incredible post on youtube, this guy is asking for people to post homade instruments and so far he as got a lot of replies and there are some quite good, you have to see all the follow ups to see all the instruments so im going to link some of my favorites.

fav 1
fav 2
fav 3
fav 4
fav 5

Labels: homemade, instruments, music, youtube

Microsoft Surface

Theres a new kid in town and its name is Surface.
Microsoft announces today this interacting table (a little like rec table and others)
First it will be put on the market mainly for restaurants,hotels, retail, but im thinking about music and entertainment markets will be a quick step.

"Surface computing is a major advancement that moves beyond the traditional user interface to a more natural
way of interacting with digital content. Microsoft Surface™, Microsoft Corp.’s fi rst commercially available
surface computer, breaks down the traditional barriers between people and technology to provide effortless
interaction with all forms of digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects instead of a
mouse and keyboard. Although customers will be able to interact with Surface in select restaurants, hotels, retail
establishments and public entertainment venues by the end of the year, the product has been years in the making
at Microsoft.
An Idea Inspired by Cross-Division Collaboration
In 2001, Stevie Bathiche of Microsoft Hardware and Andy Wilson of
Microsoft Research began working together on various projects that
took advantage of their complementary expertise in the areas of
hardware and software. In one of their regular brainstorm sessions,
they started talking about an idea for an interactive table that could
understand the manipulation of physical pieces. Although there were
related efforts happening in academia, Bathiche and Wilson saw the
need for a product where the interaction was richer and more intuitive,
and at the same time practical for everyone to use.
This conversation was the beginning of an idea that would later result
in the development of Surface, and over the course of the following year, various people at Microsoft involved
in developing new product concepts, including the gaming-specifi c PlayTable, continued to think through the
possibilities and feasibility of the project. Then in October 2001 a virtual team was formed to fully pursue bringing
the idea to the next stage of development; Bathiche and Wilson were key members of the team.
Humble Beginnings on an IKEA Table
In early 2003, the team presented the idea to Bill Gates, Microsoft
chairman, in a group review. Gates instantly liked the idea and
encouraged the team to continue to develop their thinking. The virtual
team expanded, and within a month, through constant discussion and
brainstorming, the fi rst humble prototype was born and nicknamed T1.
The model was based on an IKEA table with a hole cut in the top and
a sheet of architect vellum used as a diffuser. The evolution of Surface
had begun. A variety of early applications were also built, including
pinball, a photo browser and a video puzzle. As more applications were
developed, the team saw the value of the surface computer beyond
simply gaming and began to favor those applications that took advantage
of the unique ability of Surface to recognize physical objects placed on the
table. The team was also beginning to realize that surface computing could be applied to a number of different
embodiments and form factors.
Over the next year, the team grew signifi cantly, including the addition of Nigel Keam, initially software
development lead and later architect for Surface, who was part of the development team eventually tasked with
taking the product from prototype to a shipping product. Surface prototypes, functionality and applications were
continually refi ned. More than 85 early prototypes were built for use by software developers, hardware developers
and user researchers.
T1 prototype
“Tub” model prototype"

Surface website with videos, news and a press release

Labels: computers, interaction, microsoft, surface