Via @elejansen

Junkshop/steampunk social-network-enabled automatic music machine:

Cybraphon consists of a number of instruments, antique machinery, and found objects from junk shops operated by over 60 robotic components, all housed in a modified wardrobe. Its emotions are shown on a 100 year old school galvanometer; a motor-driven crank drives the bellows of an Indian classical instrument modified with 13 robotic servos; a switched fan pumps air through a Farfisa organ retro-fitted with robotic keys; 12 chimes are struck by suspended solenoids; numerous percussion instruments are hit by beaters attached to motors, including a cigar box with an integral spring “reverb”; and a purpose made vinyl record is cued robotically to play through antique brass gramophone horns. In addition to these musical components, Cybraphon has several internal light sources that are controlled on four fader channels, and infra-red motion detectors to monitor people watching it.

All these elements are controlled by a hidden computer via MIDI, DMX, and Arduino boards. And wire. Lots and lots of wire.

The computer runs custom software (coded in Python and MAX/MSP) to monitor the web and update Cybraphon’s emotions according to the rate at which its popularity is changing over time. All mentions of Cybraphon online that are indexed by Google are noted, as well as activity on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, MySpace, and this very website. (cybraphon.com)

Via Grand Text Auto

Tenori-on is an electronic musical instrument, designed and created by Japanese artist, Toshio Iwai and Yu Nishibori of the Music and Human Interface Group, Yamaha Center for Advanced Sound Technology. It consists of a screen, held in the hands, of a sixteen by sixteen grid of LED switches, any of which can be activated in a number of ways to create an evolving musical soundscape. The LED switches are held within a aluminum frame, which has two built-in speakers located on the top of frame, as well as a dial and buttons that control the type of sound and beats per minute produced. There is also an LCD screen on the bottom edge of the frame. Using the connection function, it is possible to play a synchronized session, or to send and receive songs between two of the devices. (Wikipedia)

Breakfast TV video of Little Boots playing her Tenori-on:

See also: Monome

Andre Michelle’s Tone Matrix is a simple but Flash-based music sequencer. You can copy-paste sequences by right clicking (or option-clicking on a Mac). By opening several Tone Matrices in multiple tabs on your browser, you can actually create some pretty amazing tracks…

More: Andre Michelle Laboratory.

John Maus is a master. If you like “Maniac,” check out “Tenebrae.” It is Easter Sunday, after all.

More Maus vids here.

I think the albums-as-applications concept will probably go a lot further than just a simple track-mixing app like this one by electronica artist Deadmau5, but this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Deadmau5′s iPhone app ($3 on iTunes) lets you load any of 10 quantized Deadmau5 tracks into its dual-track playback engine, which works pretty much like professional DJ software while being easy enough for anyone to experiment with.

You can change BPM, control up to four concurrent effects, skip to the next phrase or back to the last one, loop a phrase, and cross fade between the two tracks, or from one to the next. When some albums cost $18 on CD, a $3 album that includes the ability to remix it each time you listen seems like a pretty good deal. And since the tool is so easy to use, it lets anyone DJ a dance party by plugging their iPhone or iPod Touch into a stereo and letting ‘er rip. (wired epicenter)

(See RIAA, it’s all going to be all right… just a little less linear and with a lot less packaging to throw away.)

This is what I want for Christmas. Talk about old-skool drum machines!

In the early days of silent motion pictures, it was realised that background music had a great influence on the audience. Before movies had sound, many picture theatres had special ‘player pianos’ to reproduce music mechanically from piano rolls. The music was meant to accentuate the mood of the film. Some player pianos were elaborately extended, with pipe organs and sound effects installed in adjacent side-cabinets, so that the accompanist could create sounds to match the action on the screen. Several of these mechanical music makers — called photoplayers – were produced and the Fotoplayer brand was one of the most popular. Fotoplayer was a trade name used by the American Photo Player Company. From a location in the front stalls or orchestra pit, the operator of a Fotoplayer would follow the action on the screen while pulling cords and pushing buttons to make sounds that brought ‘life’ to the film. The cords activated such dramatic sound effects as a pistol shot, steamboat whistle, bird chirp, cymbal crash, bass drum and wind, while the buttons activated thunder, the horse trot, telephone bell, Klaxon horn, and other strange noises. The Fotoplayer, it can be truly said, comes with bells and whistles! And all this before electronics. (powerhousemuseum.com)

S’il y a eu ce Cahier d’un retour au pays natal en littérature, Radwan pourrait bien en composer la partition musicale. C’est à la suite d’un retour en terre natale libanaise que son obsession pour la pop arabe prend toute sa signification et son ampleur. À sa rentrée au Canada suite à ce périple, il donnera un corps sonore à toutes ces influences avec son projet Jerusalem In My Heart. (onf.ca)

The Trons are an all-robot band, composed of little machines named Ham, Wiggy, Swamp and FiFi. They have a MySpace page and play gigs in their native New Zealand. Here’s a poster featuring them from an upcoming show:

Since its launch in March of ’08, Muxtape has become ridiculously popular. I’ve made a mix that you can listen to here. Some background:

There’s nothing like making a mix-tape for that special someone, but when was the last time you actually bought a blank cassette and put in the two hours to actually do it? Or a mix CD for that matter? Well, as the times change and digital slowly snuffs physical media, it’s good to know we can still whip one up. Thanks to Muxtape.com, your mix can be compiled without desperately searching for that lost glue stick. Despite some by-passable restrictions — a 12-song maximum per identity — the service only requires a quick registration before you can dig into your computer’s crates and craft your comp. With a simple yet savvy interface and a flourishing community to trade with, Muxtape makes life easier for that enthusiast looking to share the latest finds or woo a crush. (Exclaim! Magazine)

The Absolut Quartet is essentially a marimba played by rubber balls that fall on to the keys after having being shot into the air by 50 miniature robotic cannons. You can “interact” with the quartet using an on-screen keyboard.

But if you think that sounds cute and no big deal, think again.

First, the quartet doesn’t just reflect back what you keyed in. It “creates” its own music based on your composition, and plays that back.

What is more, the music you and the rest of the world hear and see on screen isn’t just the video and sound of the marimba being “played” by flying rubber balls – the quartet’s other no less bizarre instruments are also played at the same time.

They include a number of percussive, drum-like sound-producing devices, and a set of spinning wineglasses rubbed by robotic fingers.

Dan Paluska and Jeff Lieberman are the two US robotics, artificial intelligence and contemporary music developers who built the quartet for Swedish vodka company, Asbolut.

They are seriously off-beat characters, both previously postgraduate students at MIT’s famous artificial intelligence and media labs. Since graduating both have been involved in projects blending art, music and technology.

Paluska, for example, attracted attention with his Holy Toaster, a device that is said to “miraculously produce a perfect imagine of holiness on every piece of toast that emerges from it.” (smh.com.au)

[The Absolut Quartet is available for interaction and viewing online between the hours of 9AM and 11PM EST at http://www.absolut.com/absolutmachines.]

The fact that Radiohead debuted its latest album online and Madonna defected from Warner Bros. to Live Nation, a concert promoter, is held to signal the end of the music business as we know it. Actually, these are just two examples of how musicians are increasingly able to work outside of the traditional label relationship. There is no one single way of doing business these days. There are, in fact, six viable models by my count. That variety is good for artists; it gives them more ways to get paid and make a living. And it’s good for audiences, too, who will have more — and more interesting — music to listen to. Let’s step back and get some perspective. (Wired)

Looptracks is an interactive music video. Many websites use interactivity as a means of accessing non-interactive content. In this website the interactivity is the content. (looptracks)