Entries associated with the tag "Technology":

I never quite understood how people could fall in love with objects--like really fall in love in a fully serious and mature way with inanimate things--until I discovered the Allen & Heath Xone:V6 club mixer. I want to . . . I think I want to marry that thing. The rotary controls, the tube preamps, the plethora of meters, the blue LED cue lights--they're doing something weird to me that no mixer has ever done to me before.

I'm just not sure that it wants me back. The V6 has been around for five years or so, but still sells for almost five grand. "Xone:V6 is an echo of the earliest days of pro audio, when idealistic individuals created outstanding products free from cost or time constraints. Such creations were never cheap," says the copy on the Allen & Heath site (emphasis mine), which makes me think the V6 is way out of my league.

Radiohead just announced that it's running a fan-created remix contest at radioheadremix.com, where you can listen to remixes of "Nude" from In Rainbows, vote on your fave, and post your own.

I actually have a column coming out in a couple days on the benefits of artists going open-source with their music and encouraging fans to get creatively involved with it through things like remixing, so I like that Radiohead's going there. I just think the way they're going about it is a little off.

To remix the song you have to buy its "stems," as they're referring to the component tracks--i.e., vocals, drums, strings, etc. They're available as DRM-free MP3s for purchase through iTunes for 99 cents apiece, and if you buy all five stems you get an access code for a GarageBand-compatible project file. (Strangely, buying all five together costs you a dollar more than buying each separately.)

I think that if musicians expect their audience to work for them for free--which, when you break it down, is what's happening here--they shouldn't charge for the privilege, especially if they're the ones who made such a big deal out of releasing the actual album in a way that encouraged free downloading and trading. 

Of course Radiohead has the kind of fans who will buy anything the band tells them to, and considering the number of remixes that have already been uploaded to the site, plenty of people aren't bothered by the situation.

Say you're a computer-stuff company, one with an extraordinary-sounding product that can translate recorded speech from one language to another while retaining the original speaker's voice. Maybe you see a potentially lucrative application of this product--the translation process is time consuming, so it wouldn't be practical for face-to-face conversations across language barriers, but it could be used to tailor English-speaking American pop music for non-English-speaking markets. Which artist are you, the computer-stuff company, going to get for your premiere release and proof of concept? How about one half of an insanely talented but commercially unpopular rap duo who just got sent to prison for three and a half years? You genius!

Although part of me is rooting for Voxonic, not only for having what appear to be giant balls of steel but for holding it down for Prodigy, this plan looks like a disaster in the making. Do Urdu speakers really want to hear Prodigy rap at them in their native tongue? UCLA anthropology professor H. Samy Alim thinks not:

"Who wants to hear a poorly translated version of their favorite American song?" he said.

Besides, he added, "How do you translate 'fo shizzle' in a way that retains its creativity and humor for a global audience?"

I do think there's something decidedly Rosebud-ish about the whole trend of reproducing and/or updating extinct consumer electronics components, but then again I like being reminded of a time when the Internet hadn't yet stolen my soul with MySpace and when I had no idea what yiffing was. The cassette-styled USB thumbdrive that's been making the blog rounds recently is a little too heavy on the John-Cusack-with-feelings tip for me. I tend to like my gear like I like my women: obnoxious, loud, heavily styled up, and too expensive for me to afford.

Based on their High Performance Portable Music System—basically a giant, iPod-compatible boom box—I'd say Lasonic is right there with me. Though I'm somewhat disconcerted by the whiff of vaporware from them using an illustration rather than an actual photo of the thing, I am smitten with its retro-futuristic color scheme, the plethora of buttons, the sorta-superfluous volume meter, and the built-in echo on the mic input. Also, according to the details, the thing weighs in at a reassuringly heavy 15 pounds.

The more refined part of me—he's the guy who's been ripping Glenn Gould CDs to my iTunes—is drooling over the upcoming reissue of Grundig's Audiorama speakers. Not only do they look hella cool, they also project in 360 degrees, which would definitely help in my apartment. Due to the layout of my living room, the sweet spot for my primary speakers is on the floor underneath one corner of my coffee table. The only drawback that I could see in owning the Audioramas—other than shelling out $820 to do so—is that they are so much nicer than anything else in my apartment that I would probably, out of a sense of duty, upgrade the rest of my furniture and decorations. I could see that turning out badly, transforming my living space to a place where real grown-ups would hang out doing grown-up things, rather than laying in aural bliss on the floor underneath the coffee table.

There was a time in the early 80s when software was available on cassette tape. In the UK, a tape-based system called the Sinclair ZX Spectrum became popular enough to inspire a few bands to incorporate Spectrum games on their albums. Adam Kempa at kempa.com has an overview of the phenomenon and reviews of some of the games, complete with links to playable online emulations. I've played a few, and though they're all utter shit, they're kind of interesting. For instance, the Thompson Twins Adventure is a terrible text-input adventurer, but hasn't it always been your dream to tell the Thompson Twins what to do?

Better and more obscure (at least in the States) is the game designed for Welsh rockabillyist Shakin' Stevens. The concept is simple: in Kempa's succinct description, "The goal of 'The Shaky Game' is to drive Shakin' Stevens' car to the center of a maze while avoiding bats, who bite you." But the real treat is that when you do get bit by a bat, a heavily pixelated Shakin' appears on the screen and says, "OH DEAR!! a bat bit you." This is a really good idea for a tattoo.

via Boing Boing