Latest music technology PodPosts...

I recently discovered a very interesting (but entirely unnecessary) laser projector which can be used to provide a full size QWERTY keyboard for any bluetooth enabled device. The unit projects a keyboard onto any opaque flat surface, and uses an invisible infra-red layer to detect keystrokes…

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The number of quality music technology resources readily available on the Web remains remarkably low; for example, a search for ‘music technology’ on Technorati usually reveals no pertinent results on the first page of posts. Switching over to the ‘blogs’ tab for this search, many of the results are ‘splogs’ (spam blogs) of considerable sophistication (in spam terms) but absolutely no value…

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Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine have published results of a survey designed to analyse the brain’s circuitry for event segmentation. To do this, they asked subjects to listen to several symphonies by William Boyce. These works were chosen because they are relatively short, and feature well-defined movements…

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As battery technology struggles to keep pace with the rapid development of portable electronic devices, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) in Erlangen are working on a possible solution – using our own body heat to power our mobile gadgets…

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The power of Flash has expanded considerably in recent times; the introduction of Flash MX about five years ago (aka Flash 6) saw the program implement viable full-motion video support. This functionality has now been extended to such a degree that one can actually edit audio and video in a Web browser…

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Ever tried to use an Internet Search Engine to track down a song that you half-remember hearing once at a great halloween fancy dress party about five or six years ago? Chances are you didn’t meet with much success – typing a description of how the song sounded is likely to lead you down some very dark Web alleys indeed.

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Although it is not essential that an electronic musician be able to read sheet music, such an ability is a great advantage – particularly when creating music for film or TV. In fact, the more comprehensive your understanding of music is, the more sophisticated your work can potentially become. Modern music software gives everyone the chance to sit down, tweak a few filters, scatter a few notes in a matrix and drum up a new tune in a very short time; however, the detailed application of knowledge and experience is what makes raw ideas listenable and interesting.

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Only a decade ago, data storage capacities for a typical home computer were measured in Megabytes. Nowadays a typical hard drive capacity is hundreds of Gigabytes, and the newest models are breaching the Terabyte range. Considering the rate at which we are moving up through our storage nomenclature, how long will it be before our current list of denominations becomes inadequate?

Joseph Pisano has made such a list, which presents the volumes in terms of a stack of Compact Discs. This is an entertaining and informative way of explaining the exponential nature of our measurement system, and clearly illustrates that we won’t have to worry about running out of prefix multipliers for quite some time…

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I previously posted an article about the dangers of high SPL music listening, in connection with the ever-increasing loudness of commercial recordings. If you are already experiencing hearing loss, however, there are a number of high-tech solutions currently available that can do more than simply boost ailing auditory organs.

The Oticon Epoq provides ambient sound amplification, as is to be expected of such a device; however, it also posesses the ability to stream audio directly from a mobile phone or mp3 player. This transforms it into a bluetooth wireless hands-free headset. Also bringing hearing aids into the 21st Century are Phonak, the manufacturers of the Audeo. Whilst boasting cutting-edge amplification technology, the device is smaller than a guitar pick and fits snugly behind the ear. It also comes in a range of designs and colours, but it doesn’t come cheap: expect an Audeo to set you back $3,000 to $4,000 per ear. Perhaps a bit much for a hearing aid; but probably just about right for a customised personal communication assistant.

Seattle Pi has an article about how the boomer generation are taking advantage of such technologies to help them compensate for damage sustained from Remarkably Loud Concerts…you can read it here.

Having been away in Finland for the past week or so, I haven’t had the opportunity to post my usual music technology news updates. However, I have been working on a new music theory section for the Podcomplex DAW Guide, as well as an introduction to the physics of sound – both of which will appear on site shortly.

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