Yet another toy for Last.fm: MoneyCalc.

Using data from Last.fm and Amazon, MoneyCalc tries to figure out how much it would cost to buy the top 50 records of your Last.fm profile. For each record the price at Amazon is queried. The result is presented in a list which shows each single price as well as the final sum.

» read on!

It’s always great to see when people take things and give them a new meaning. This time: The controller of Nintendo’s new console Wii (“Wii Remote” a.k.a. “Wiimote” with the extension “Nunchuk” - what great names) as a musical instrument including visualization.

In different modes, Wiimote and Nunchuk can be used to play drums or piano (or probably any other midi instrument). There are several videos showing the system in action at the project website.

» wiiwiiwiiwii

The system is based on a Mac running Max/MSP and Reason to generate the sounds, linked to a PC running vvvv (the toolkit in which we created our interactive music video installation) to render the 3d visualizations.

wiiwiiwiiwii seems to be the thesis of Claudio Midolo, Edgar Castellanos, Natan Sinigaglia and Pedro Mari. Unfortunately, the website does not provide much information about the thesis itself.

(via Erik via Kreativrauschen.de)

The Personal Orchestra is an installation which allows everyone to slip into the role of the conductor of the famous Vienna Philharmonic.

» read on!

“Headbanging” describes a way in that rock music enthusiasts consume music not only passively, but strive to gain a more intense musical experience through rhythm-abiding nodding and shaking of their heads.
(Laszlo Bardos, translated by me)

If headbanging is such an established instrument for enhanced musical experience, why not use it to create music in the first place?¹

» read on!

Whoever considered the dot matrix printer a strange musical instrument, take a look at this tesla coil:

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Any given thing will sooner or later be used as musical instrument. Even dot matrix printers, you ask? Even dot matrix printers. Paul Slocum hacked the firmware of his 1985 dot matrix printer to let it print in different frequencies.

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A little extension to Last.fm generates Charts of your personal listening habits. In contrast to the official Last.fm-Profile-Charts, it doesn’t rank artists by the number of times that you listened to their songs, but by the time you spent listening.

» Last.fm Normaliser

» read on!

Some time ago, I visited the Museu d´Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). Most exhibited artworks could only raise limited interest in me, but there was one exception: The music installation „Opera for a Small Room“ by Janett Cardiff and George Bures Miller. Unlinke our interactive music installation Dave, this installation is not interactive, but it is nevertheless impressive.

» read on!

Searching for new music is still a tricky business. In Discover New Music That’s Perfect for You, I once presented a few recommendation systems which adopted to the personal taste of the user.

Critical Metrics walks a different path. It systematically spiders through music reviews in various media. The collected recommendations are then presented at the website. This way, you do not find music recommendations which are selected for you personally, but good music in general. Filtering the music to your personal taste remains your job.

You can listen to the music suggestions directly at the site (for free of course). All recommended songs are provided via a flash player in good quality and full length. You can’t download the songs, but there are links to various online shops where you can buy the music if you like it.

You can search the musical repertoire of Critical Metrics in different ways. Right at the top of each page is a menu where you can choose different sources for recommendations. You can also choose how up-to-dateness. Besides that, there are search functions and browsing by the providing source (like iTunes). There seems to be functionality for organizing play lists, but I didn’t test it.

Personally, I’m having difficulties finding the right music for me at Critical Metrics. This might be the fault of my weird musical taste. :) Nevertheless, I like the idea of this platform.

» Critical Metrics

Earmaster Pro is an e-learning program for musical ear training. It is supposed to help you perceive intervals, accords and rhythms more accurately.

» read on!