Building a Better Soundtrap
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After centuries of guesswork, architects have a high-tech way to hear the acoustics of buildings they haven't yet built.
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This week in my random survey of activity on the mail-lists for Linux sound &amp; music software I'll look at two very different software drum machines and a keystroke macro that enters LilyPond music notation into an Open Office text document. And if that isn't enough I've included four thrilling screenshots and links to three entertaining audio files to entice and maintain your interest. Read on for more...
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QWould you please speak to the astonishing noise levels in cycling studios? This blare from "music" can also be found in any group classes (at least at my gym: Sport & Health at Tysons). I would like to take part but not for the price of damaging my hearing.
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Broadband Instruments, a stealth company first covered here, launches its Slacker music ecosystem soon. In Listening Post.
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A tiny portion of the inner ear has apparently ensured that we&#39;re wired for sound. Researchers have long sought the missing link in the ear&#39;s conversion of sound waves into electrical signals that the brain can recognize as distinct sounds.
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Chris Hartjes has posted the first part of a series on the "rebirth" of a component that was contributed to the Zend Framework - Zend_Service_Audioscrobbler (to interface with the Audioscrobbler service from Last.fm).   Many moons ago I set out (along with my friend Derek) to make a contribution to Zend Framework in the form of an add-on to let people easily access the Audioscrobbler web service. We worked really hard, implemented all the features of the web service at that time. Imagine our surprise when it got accepted as part of the 1.0 release of Zend Framework! Awesome! It even has it's own entry in the manual and everything.   He admits, though, that the code is not all that it could be and cites some examples as well as ways he would make it all work so much better.
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You can train Bose's new system to play songs you like. Is it worth the price?
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There is a rough science to choosing performance-enhancing music.
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Looks a bit Blakes 7 though... JVC has developed what it claims is the "ideal sound source" loudspeaker. Well, almost - the company described its "pulsating sphere" system as "very close" to its goal of creating "a natural, near-perfect sound field".â¦
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KGuitar is powerful KDE-based music tabulature editor with support of guitar, drums, classic note scores, MIDI synthesizer output, chord, scales, modes, melody and rhythm construction and analysis tools, lots of tab effects, Guitar Pro files import.   After a long period of silence, I'm pleased to announce KGuitar 0.5.1 - a major bugfix release that covers most of issues for the last few years :)      * Compatiblity fixes: added support for autoconf 2.61, automake 1.10, gcc 4.2. Removed last bits of qt2->qt3 transition deprecations. Internal structures refactoring.     * Added zoom level (Ctrl Minus, Ctrl Plus), introducing multiple bars per row, automatically tuning to available window width;     * Finally introduced new exception-based framework for converters load/save. Makes converters much more bullet-proof and easier to write and debug.     * Guitar Pro import undergone major rewrite. Now it properly loads all gp4 files I have. Guitar Pro v3 and v5 formats are coming next. Anyway, Guitar Pro loader is now much more helpful about what errors it gets and less crash-prone. It detects and helps debug problems it encounters.     * Lots of displaying, mouse and keyboard control, printing fixes and prettifying. Track pane now has a header and it's synchronized with track list. Melody editor now has trapezoid and shark fin inlays.     * New QMap-based API for song metainformation - stores not a fixed number of fields, but key=value pairs.     * Misc things: project transitioned to Subversion.  As always, comments and especially bug reports are welcome. Also keep in mind that KGuitar is now registered at http://www.ohloh.net/projects/8959?p=KGuitar - so, take a look there too :)
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In the coming weeks and months you'll probably see me writing about issues of podcatchers here, because I'm working on one. It's the third one I've written, so this time maybe I'll get it right.  A lot of things have changed since I wrote my first podcatcher back in 2001. 1. Back then there were no podcasts, so it was a proof of concept, a chicken without an egg (or an egg with no chicken), a step in a bootstrap. Today there are lots of podcasts. An embarassment of riches. 2. Back then implementing a podcatcher was simple, there was exactly one format to support, RSS 2.0 with enclosures. Today, luckily, it's still fairly simple, as far as the format goes. The only variability is the iTunes namespace, which complicates things, just a little.  3. Today there are enough users to make it possible to support lists of podcasts published by fans, and instead of just subscribing to the podcast feeds, you can subscribe to lists of feeds. I will publish one of these lists, in OPML 2.0 format, as a proof of concept.  4. The first version of this new podcatcher will run in the OPML Editor because that's where all my software runs at first. But the goal is to port it to run in other environments, some with millions of users. I want to provide a popular alternative to the one that Apple publishes which currently dominates the market. (Note: I'm generally pleased with the way Apple dominates, they've been very fair about allowing users to export their subscription lists. But if we want to create the opportunity for others to innovate in the area of podcast players, there has to be choice at the podcatcher level. That's my main motive for revisiting this area.) There probably are some other changes, and I'll write about them as the project moves forward. Now.... To people who say that Apple has the market sewn up, I say Bah! I think iPods are great, but they're designed to play music, not podcasts. Every bit of music is something you want to keep forever, a podcast loses almost all its value after you've listened to it once. You have to pay for music (in theory at least) but podcasts are free.  Podcasts beg to have a player that can download them without synching with a desktop computer. Okay that's something podcasts have in common with music.  I buy Apple products all the time. I've gone from resenting Apple so much that I wouldn't buy their products, as recently as 2005, to today when not only do I only use Macs, but I'm constantly telling people why they'd be better off using Macs. I can't help but evangelize the products, I think they're that much better than Windows PCs.  But as much as I love Apple (can't believe I actually said that) I still don't trust them with a whole medium. We need them to have competition. The rest of the tech industry seems to think they're immune to it, that creates a huge opportunity with someone with enough chutzpah to think they can do it. Yours truly, Dave Winer
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It seems like a cool idea â-unglasses with a built-in digital music player and speakers. No headphone cables to untangle as with most portable players.
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In this final section I'll present some MIDI-specific troubleshooting tips, along with a brief description of the setup here at StudioDave, a few closing remarks, and of course some links to the Linux music-maker du jour.  read more
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Judging by the number of hits tallied for Troubleshooting Linux Audio Part 1 it seems the topic is of interest to many readers. Alas, I must apologize to everyone waiting for the next parts of the series. Various events have kept me from completing it in short order, but you may rest assured that it will return in my next installment. Meanwhile, this week we'll look at two excellent applications that are coming into greater use here at Studio Dave, the LiVES video editor for Linux, and Reaper (yes, again), a native Windows audio/MIDI sequencer running under Wine.
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Hard drive-based audio player will get a new look and a lower price.
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Your PC's noise is easy to ignore, but tuning it out still takes mental energy. What are the options for those who want the sound of silence?
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The portable stereos that ruled city streets in the 1980s aren't shipping in high volumes anymore. But some sound artists are finding new ways to incorporate the devices into performances and ad-hoc radio networks. By Elizabeth Biddlecombe.