Vibrations and how they get to your ears.
Noise for airports is a blog about culture, sound, music, and technology.
You can filter the posts to see just things I wrote or made.
Updated (sometimes) by Nick Seaver.
So he didn’t fool the panelists on I’ve Got a Secret, but that gave Jean-Jacques Perrey the time to demo many of the instruments on the Ondioline. He can even do the banjo!
See the first part of the video over at the WFMU blog.
And if you haven’t seen Jean-Jacques Perrey’s personal web page, you owe it to yourself.
(via WFMU)
The RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer (1955): The Synthesis of Music (“Blue Skies,” by Irving Berlin)
This clip is from a series of 45s released by RCA to accompany the announcement of its then-new Electronic Music Synthesizer. In it, the narrator guides you through the creation of a synth version of “Blue Skies,” by Irving Berlin. It’s fun to hear someone talk about synthesizers from a time when the technology was so new. (So new, in fact, that the tunes on it were still sequenced using a player piano-like roll.)
What I find craziest about this is how fragile the song sounds at the end, like the oscillators are always about to fall out of tune, and the rhythm is about to come undone. With so much talk about the objectivity and precision of machines, it’s nice to hear machines sounding so close to the edge of failure.
You can listen to mp3s of the whole box set here.
(via Chris Ariza)
Did I say blatant synth porn? Added bonuses in this video: analog synth gear called the MANIAC and the Kaleidophon.
Synthesizers have problems, in that you start out with very square waves, in both senses of the word.
(via AudioLemon)
Because this blog needed some blatant synth porn, enjoy this video of someone twiddling the knobs of a Buchla oscillator module.
“Look Around You” is always good for a laugh, and I hadn’t seen this one about music! Watch at 2:40 if you’ve ever wondered how synthesizers work.
(via the music of sound)
