Fun with Sound
The New York Public Library has an album of soundscapes for everyone missing the city.
Each track uses a combination of sounds to create familiar, ambient canvases on which mini stories are placed: a glass breaking in a bar, a dance performance on the subway, an overly enthusiastic baseball fan. Missing Sounds of New York reminds us of what makes New York so special for so many people.
Citizen DJ is an open-source project that allows you to use over 3 million sounds archived in the Library of Congress to makes beats, music, and sonic compositions. The interface has these sounds set up in a sequencer with classic hip-hop drum machines. You can even download what you make in a WAV file.
The Citizen DJ project invites the public to make music using the free-to-use audio and video collections from the Library of Congress. By embedding these materials in hip hop music, listeners can discover items in the Library's vast collections that they likely would never have known existed.
Typatone is an interface that attaches musical notes to each letter you type on your keyboard. Here is what the designers say about it:
The act of writing has always been an art. Now, it can also be an act of music. Each letter you type corresponds to a specific musical note, putting a new spin to your composition. Make music while you write.
You can even send the music to people. Let's give this a try. I've pasted the entire text of this update into Typatone. You can click here, close your eyes, and listen to the melody of this update.
Status Board
Reading: Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino, which you can read a review of here.
Writing: The end of the semester push has brought most writing to a stop for the moment, aside from some internal letters connected to tasks and committees. But those pieces can be good practice too, especially for how quickly you can get it done.
Listening: Little Dragon's new album New Me, Same Us. The first single "Hold On" is groovy and up tempo -- most definitely deserving of some remixes released on 12-inch. Better yet, the group streamed a live performance earlier this week. Catch it while the replay is still up.
Making: Found a bit of time to chop some samples and lay down some cuts. I present to you, "Slinker".