Posts tagged speakers

From zedequalszee:

Nomadic Sound Systems: Think marching band, but with bass, mid and treble speakers instead of instruments. Instant dynamic site-specific music piece!

These remind me of Russolo’s intonarumori (substituting speakers for various mechanical contraptions), but even more of this line from Sousa’s “The Menace of Mechanical Music”:

Shall we not expect that when the nation once more sounds its call to arms and the gallant regiment marches forth, there will be no majestic drum major, no serried ranks of sonorous trombones, no glittering array of brass, no rolling of drums? In their stead will be a huge phonograph, mounted on a 100 H. P. automobile, grinding out “The Girl I left Behind Me,” “Dixie,” and “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

This is an RFID-based system that uses the location of two speakers to trigger music samples. By picking up and moving around the speakers, you make some rudimentary mashups. My only quibble is that it wouldn’t be too hard for this system to have the samples be beat-matched in something like Ableton, and the end result would be a lot cleaner. (That is, assuming there isn’t some failed beatmatching going on.)

What I really like about this project, however, is the way it redirects attention to the speakers, reinforcing the connection between the sound and its technological source. Modern conceptions of reproduced sound frequently treat the speaker as a faithful conduit, rather than a sound producer in its own right. By connecting playback to the manipulation of speakers themselves, I think this project pushes back on the idea that speakers are neutral/transparent/natural reproducers.

(via designboom)

Not only is the Ritmo Advanced Sound System a music player for your unborn baby, it is also a surround sound music system for your unborn baby. (At least according to the ad copy. Doesn’t look like 5.1 to me, unless I don’t want to know where the subwoofer goes.)

(via NOTCOT)

From technabob:

Fils Sound Film is a flexible, light transparent sound technology which can be used to create speakers pretty much anywhere you’d ever want. The speakers are actually […] piezoelectric film which can produce sound waves when electrical current is applied. Sound quality isn’t stellar, since the low-end drops out at 200Hz, but the highs range all the way to 25kHz.

Hello everyone, the future is here, and it has no low end.

(via technabob)

The Audio Guillotine is a sculpture/installation by Benoit Maubrey, and it basically is just what the name sounds like: a guillotine for speakers. Pretty badass. (Although is that actually what a guillotine looks like? I want a big shiny blade!)

(via Califaudio)