Slashdot Mirror
MIT Students' Audiopad Mixes Electronic Music
nicodemus05 writes "Grad students at MIT's Media Lab have come up with an innovative control device called the Audiopad to run their digital music studio. The Audiopad, '...is a composition and performance instrument for electronic music which tracks the positions of objects on a tabletop surface and converts their motion into music.' It's practical, but more importantly it looks really, really cool."
if you happen to have 12ft ceilings and a video projector to spare, otherwise its nothing more than a university toy
needless to say it's very cool, just need to integrate it into a table with the projector pointing up onto say a translucent surface rather than down onto a surface
But can I play Chopsticks on it?
...um...like...a sig...
and the sounds I got were:
Pop, pop, pop-up, pop-up, zoooooom, flash!, pop, vrroooom, crash, thud!
And then:
It appears your application has crashed. Would you like to mail a copy of the dump to Microsoft?
-
Someone gets sued by the RIAA for arranging the objects in their cube the wrong way?
Remember the days when Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility?
I've actually seen this device in action and I was amazed. I think the way it interacts with the user/musician is something a lot of people are looking for. Let's hope some manufacturers of musical devices take note of this project and incorporate some of it's ideas in products that can be made available for a broader range of people.
They could sell a million of these. I love the sample selection interface. I didn't see any details on the FX loop, but it's still really, really cool.
"your Senators (you have two, you know that?"
Me... I'm not sure. I only have two balls. Why would you equate Senators to balls? No one complains that I've got two balls. I'm not uncomfortable having two full balls. Maybe you don't have them, so you just post as an Anonymous Coward?
Anyone else have problems running the .mov? Even on my iMac it refuses to run.
BTW: That is one sick device!
See the forbiden post Here
Really, is this anything else than your regular loop arranging sofrware (read E-jay, MMM...) but with a different interface? A cool interface, I guess, and it does open up some interresting performance possibilities.
But is it useful for other kinds of creation than synching timetretched chunks, predetermined snippets and drumloops? It seems I wouldn't have any control over the details of the music.
...um...like...a sig...
Good try but wrong article for that troll. You couldn't wait 24 hours for Fritz Hollings (D-Disney) to open his mouth?
...but since I can't access the page, I'll just say that if they can make a similar device to convert the death throes of a webserver into digital music, we could have some real fun during slashdottings :)
But I bet the thing will be expensive to produce. You need a video projector, a computer powerful enough to handle high frame rate 2D graphics, and DSP circuitry to locate the source of multiple radio signals in a 2D space. Talk about a big chunk of cash.
I haven't had time to see the site in action, probably due to the slashdot effect.
From the description, other than using a tabletop as its active surface, i'm wondering how different it is to Korg's Kaosspad in functionality.
http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?A_PROD_NO=KP2
These days, with the DRM and the DMCA, it's tough getting a music file without DRM crap. What I'd like the MIT folks to do is this:
Get some objects on a table to dance, based on the music! And then we can have another Audiopad to capture the music from this dance - non DRM MP3....breakthrough!
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If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Oh, I gettit, you mean microsoft software is crappy, so it would crash with Internet Explorer. HAHAHA LOL
Get it? Microsoft is crappy?
I could care less, but not without a lobotomy
May as well plug the line out of something(DiscMan, computer, etc) into the line in of something(computer, minidisc recorder, etc).
I guess that could become illegal/regulated too though, like we don't allow random people to use lock picks, because making digital copies of music is equal to breaking into someone's house and deserves equal protection.
OK everyone, throw away your Prophet 5s, your DX7s, TB-303s, Jupiter 8s and TR-909s. This has made them all obsolete.
This is just another one of those MIT projects that makes it to slashdot. Just as you seem to have chain effect in 'peer review' processes, it's not because it is spectacular that it gets published, but mainly because it is from place X or Y.
Loads of universities create student projects but they basically give it the attention it deserves: they are student projects; practical definately, revolutionary, not by far. Their main purpose is to give students a direct experience with real life toy projects. Real life, because in those projects, several aspects from real systems are included. Toy because students do not have the time to really do the advanced design and testing a profesional project requires.
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
If you want to wave your arms around to make music, you still can't beet a Theremin.
P.S. They will probably still end up making millions.
-Look lively. LOOK LIVELY!!! --Mr. Shmallow
This reminds me of this. It is called Mixed Reality Pong.
Mixed Reality Pong is a mixed reality version of the classic "Pong" game. The aim of the game is to score goals by hitting a virtual ball over the other end of the game area protected by the opponent player. The game counts the goals the players have scored, and they can agree to play either for a limited amount of time, or until either of them has scored a certain amount of goals.
The players can play the game with their hands or other real-world objects. The game physics simulate the behaviour of a real ball, except that the virtual ball doesn't slow down at all.
Max/MSP and Pure Data have been doing stuff like this for years. The only thing "unique" here is the fact that they aren't using a mouse, and that's just a bunch of standard Max/MSP and PD externals. Bleh.
sig.
I've been looking over the tech specs for all the TI calculators, and
I can't argue that these calculators are spectacular. They are the
most ingenious pieces of equipment for school use and such. However,
they're hardware is very inferior. The hard disk so to speak only is
about 30K. The processor runs at 6MHz? It only has an assembly
language, not something better? My gosh, on today's technology, hd
space is 6 *cents* a meg? And hard drives are the size of a TI calc.
If u shrink down the hd to that of a mini cassette, and put it in the
TI, u could get about 1/3 a gig. And you could probably do better,
because I've seen a mini cassette for the computer that holds a gig,
and the drive it goes in to is only 1 cm bigger on each side. And the
chip? The 486 chips are like $30 bucks nowadays, and they run at
66MHz. AMD chips are $75 for a 133MHz version. And the display screen.
I've seen sony watchman that were smaller and they have a color screen
at 320x200.
Basically, what I'm saying is with today's current technology and its
cheapness, TI could probably come out with a calculator that could
outperform my computer (mine is a 486 DX2-50) for the same price as
their 92, and I don't know why they aren't trying.
I'm not Seth.
All those "this changes music" "all instruments are obsolete" etc posts...
There is NO synthesis in the video... it's all from prerecorded loops, that they probably didn't even make themselves.
IE. Pure gimmick!
This spring, I attended a presentation by Dr. Andy Schloss. A musician who maps instruments and sounds to his three-dimensional electronic sensor that he invented in the 80s, he does quite a few live performances and has thought of many applications for his instrument outside of the music world. More Details
As it seems the MIT site is slowly being slashdotted... here is a different site with a demonstration video.
what's really neat is the interface... being able to move sounds around in a 3d space and manipulate the samples/loops with a completely uncluttered interface. This is the main problem with vst/softsynths, being able to use them in real time w/o a midi controller. The ideas is to get as close as you physically can to the music be made and computers.Audiopad does this thru least one computer to do it's job and radio tagging of the objects being moved around the table. The reason something like this won't go commercial for a long time is b/c there are no real new ideas as far as the actual sound manipulation is concerned. See ableton live for example or jeskola buzz.
we got it re-engineered , we would see it's just another way to play music with digits.
KOS-MOS
Never mind all the fancy stuff, I think the basic problem is students and fairly clear table space.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
It's practical, but more importantly it looks really, really cool.
You work for Microsoft, don't you?
I think its pretty cool. I've always liked stuff the MIT media lab was producing, especially CSound. True, its been many years past since Barry Vercoe was an MIT grad student, but damn, it made the MIT media lab famous. Took a long time to download the demo, and while I don't think its terribly groundbreaking, its nice to see electronic instruments with 3 dimensional control of rhythm, amplitude, and timbre with such simple movements. Overall, I think its a good idea, with definite possibilities for mass appeal. I want an audiopad now....
I'm not sure how modular their controllers are, but a wireless/optical synthesizer could be changed to create all kinds of controllers. For example, if you needed a controller for a security system. All you would need is the interaction table and some of those discs. If you update the system, the software shoul automatically add new options to the display/controls. If you add more cameras, the software should be able to add new control areas - you don't have to buy a whole new console.
Lastly, the system doesn't run on electrical contact between moving parts, so you don't have the same degree of wear and tear.
Looks like those crafty MIT kids built a device that can slashdot a webpage by tracking moving objects on a table. :)
stuff |
visit earth2willi.com!
Didn't I see this at Disney Orlando (C) (TM) (R)
15 years ago?
Oh, and yeah, its incredibly cool.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Singing his ode to Daisy.
Infuriate left and right
Oh come on, the interface is everything to an instrument. Instruments vary in only two ways, firstly the sound they produce, and secondly the way they have to be manipulated to produce those sounds.
This instrument may be similar to the device you reference, however its novel and easy to manipulate interface will allow completely new sounds to be woven into compositions. I'd wager that an experienced artist could make music with this device that he couldn't do with any other instrument - but I'd need to read more about it first.
So to argue more directly with your point: The user interface would be the whole point if it actually helped the user achieve something in a more efficient fashion... but it doesn't do anything that doesn't already exist. The interface is the whole point and it does help the user either make music more efficiently, or to make completely new types of composition. I'd say both, but I expect you'd have to ask someone who's made music with it.
I couldn't get thru to the link to see if there is anything
original in it, but it doesn't sound like an improvement
over Max Mathews Radio Baton. ( Mathew's is one of the
pioneers of electronic music -- see
http://www.csounds.com/mathews/
or search google for more info. )
The radio batons had small FM transmitters in their heads.
A base plate had several FM receivers to calculate x,y & z
position of the 2 transmitters -- tuned to different freq. to
distinguish between them. The (x,y,z) were turned into
midi control streams and used to control a synth. He also
had a number of novel programs. Conductor played a
preset song, but controlled the tempo, vibrato and balance
via the wand. He sold a few to singers who could control
a computer accompanist track. Someone also built a larger
version where the transmitters were attached to dancers
and the receivers were in the dance floor. ( This is memory
dump from a Max Mathews talk I head YEARS ago, so
check the link for more accurate info. )
Andy Schloss didn't invent it.
He's a user.
It says developed at Bell Labs.
The inventor is Max Mathews.
http://www.csounds.com/mathews/
As anyone who has seen Revenge of the Nerds knows, Louis and Gilbert
invented this thing to help the Tri Lambs win the Greek Games. I would expect everyone on Slashdot to know that one.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
Everytime there's a news story based on something done at MIT, you get all the I'm-jealous-of-MIT-trolls coming out...
seems like a crazy idea and how much does something like this cost...what happend to just putting a cd in your player HAHA
Earlier this year at a Boston concert, Tod Machover showcased Beatbugs http://www.media.mit.edu/hyperins/projects/beatbug s.html
Concert staff were telling everyone that Beatbugs would be available for sale this Christmas through a major toy manufacturer.
That's great for getting music into the hands of kids at an early age and also for breaking through the classism that plagues intellectual music, but is the "music" that's being created really something that anyone (other than grandma) wants to listen to?
Does anyone have a mirror? Oh, and if you could tar or zip one of the video files I'd be even more happy! Our proxy filters out vid and sound files.
saw something like this at the London Architecture Association (avant-garde architecture school) in 1997.
I did use it in a music festival (SONAR) in Barcelona, and I can tell you it's really really cool! It really feels like a regular instrument and you can create very nice patterns. I think if they improve it, it can be a great sucess.
First of all, to me this project was more about creative user interfaces than necessarily a new way of making music.
Secondly, how many times have you done something like this with, say, three other people and no one else?
Don't knock someone else's work needlessly.
+++ATH0
MIT invents dookie! film at fucking 11!
MIT has ceased to be anything special.
hell, the world left the universities
in the dust when the cost of decent tech
left the upper atmosphere and came down
to where we mere mortals could afford
it.
I write, compose, and listen to many forms of "electronic" music now to the not so bright people who have an natural born hatred of electronic music I would just like to say 90% of the music you listen to these days is a form of electronic music, i.e. it has recorded, reorganized, and re-mastered in some electronic or digital way. Aside from that I love many forms of "electronic" music such as smooth expanding melodic "trance" and I must say the AUDIOPAD is AMAZING in the way it allows a musician or performer to interact with their music - this is one useful and beautiful instrument and these two guys have really made making it to MediaLab something I must really strive for just to have a chance to work, interact, and create with such intelligent and creative minds.
Looks like they've reinvented the wheel. There's nothing
... how do I get on this course?
fundamentally new here.
Avant garde composers were doing stuff like this way back
in the 60's. The ideas, if not the technology have been
around even longer.
People walking around a happening triggered photocells
wired to electronic musical devices thus creating a
changing 'musical' event.
These guys get a grant to do this 'research'??
Gravy train city
siggy played guitar
Mirror Here.
Am I the only one who has realized the incredible potential to take this interface and apply it to the exciting field of mathematics known as Bistromathics? Think about it! Instead of acrylic pucks interfacing with a synthesizer, you could have plates, teacups, and olive forks interfacing with a mathematical engine! It could revolutionize mathematics. Of course, all the mathematicians in the world may end up dying of obesity, but it will be a worthy sacrifice.
Standing at the very edge of my imagination, I peered into the inky void and realised -- I couldn't think up a new sig.
would you like some fries with that dick you're
sucking?
w0nk
Behind the platform-screening "Media Checker" webpages is a RealVideo movie of the KP2.
--
make install -not war
After watching the video I really really want to play air hockey on this thing.
Music wants to be free.
Last year I saw a demonstration of some ixi software programs. If you think the Audiopad is cool, check them out. The Audiopad interface immediately made me think of some of their music tools.
would you like some dick with the fries you make at mcdonalds all day long?
Its good that you point out the large margins of music today that is electronic, because its so unarguably true. Almost all pop music is heavily synth-based, (although electronica, well trance anyway, is arguably more focused on the melody) yet people seem to object to the concept of electronic music - as unconventional, uncool, untrendy, well whatever I like it so thats enough ^_^