On this blog I've talked about Music Hack Day here, and here in the past. Seriously, this is a concept/conference that just keeps giving!
For those who aren't familiar with it - Put together music nerds with computer nerds, give them 24 hours to hack together a music related application/program, and you have... Music Hack Day.
The winner of the top prize for Music Hack Day NYC is really mind blowing (okay, I said that about other Music Hack Day creations, but it's all so true!), and it's called The Invisible Instrument. Created by Tim Soo, it combines the responsiveness of real instruments, the programmability and portability of digital instruments, and the fun factor of air guitar! Just watch the video, and you will want to try it yourself. The program is in development though, so if you like what he is doing, help fund the project by going here!
Showing posts with label music hack day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music hack day. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
TrackDropper - Geocaching with Music!
Ahh... Music Hack Day. What a wonderful concept. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can check out my blog post on it here. Here's a really cool idea that came out of Music Hack Day London 2010: TrackDropper.
As I'm sure many of you net savvy readers are aware, geocaching is one of the neatest things to catch on in the last decade. With the advent of cheap GPS devices and the internet, the nerdy scavenger hunt has become an accessible and fun way to discover things about the places you go to - whether that is your local neighborhood, or somewhere in a foreign country. It lets you be just a little more connected to your surroundings, to your fellow human beings in a way that is strangely personal.
And then comes Trackdropper, created by Andrew Bruce, Chris Lowis and Yves Raimond. The concept is very simple: instead of just sharing music online to anyone who has an internet connection, this app associates a specific location with the music file. In other words, you have to actually go to the location to download the music. Geocaching....with music!
Yes, it's illegal, and it's piracy with a twist... but the potential to make this something extraordinary makes this really exciting.
By associating a specific location with your music, a musician could write a song that is specific to that place. You could dictate the surroundings, the atmosphere, the noise and smells that a musical piece is associated with! And because you have to go there personally to get it, that strange sense of being "personal" could be experienced by the listener. Imagine singing a song about a specific scene, a part of a river, a famous building.. and you can have the listener actually see the real thing as they listen. On a more practical usage, You could also easily release a song at a specific location to be timed with a public performance/signing, or other publicity events.
The app is currently limited to the Android phone, but isfree for download here. Go re-discover your own neighborhood!
As I'm sure many of you net savvy readers are aware, geocaching is one of the neatest things to catch on in the last decade. With the advent of cheap GPS devices and the internet, the nerdy scavenger hunt has become an accessible and fun way to discover things about the places you go to - whether that is your local neighborhood, or somewhere in a foreign country. It lets you be just a little more connected to your surroundings, to your fellow human beings in a way that is strangely personal.
And then comes Trackdropper, created by Andrew Bruce, Chris Lowis and Yves Raimond. The concept is very simple: instead of just sharing music online to anyone who has an internet connection, this app associates a specific location with the music file. In other words, you have to actually go to the location to download the music. Geocaching....with music!
Yes, it's illegal, and it's piracy with a twist... but the potential to make this something extraordinary makes this really exciting.
By associating a specific location with your music, a musician could write a song that is specific to that place. You could dictate the surroundings, the atmosphere, the noise and smells that a musical piece is associated with! And because you have to go there personally to get it, that strange sense of being "personal" could be experienced by the listener. Imagine singing a song about a specific scene, a part of a river, a famous building.. and you can have the listener actually see the real thing as they listen. On a more practical usage, You could also easily release a song at a specific location to be timed with a public performance/signing, or other publicity events.
The app is currently limited to the Android phone, but isfree for download here. Go re-discover your own neighborhood!
TrackDropper from Yves Raimond on Vimeo.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Music Hack Day
Put together music nerds with computer nerds, give them 24 hours to hack together a music related application/program, and you have... Music Hack Day.
It's a marathon coding session that encourages programmers to come up with new, innovative ideas about the way music can interact with computers. So far it's been a great success in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Boston and Stockholm. Upcoming events are going to be held in San Francisco and Amsterdam. At the end of the event they showcase their apps, which can then be downloaded on their official website.
According to their homepage: "The main goal of Music Hack Day is to explore and build the next generation of music applications. It's a full weekend of hacking in which participants will conceptualize, create and present their projects. Music + software + hardware + art + the web. Anything goes as long as it's music related."
Apps range from things that apply to social networking sites such as myspace and facebook, to music streaming services such as soundcloud and last.fm, as well as standalone apps and websites. As you can expect, the products are not incredibly refined - but the ideas that come out of these events are sometimes really impressive.
Take a look for yourself at musichackday.org. If you click on the past dates you can see the prize winners from past events etc.
It's a marathon coding session that encourages programmers to come up with new, innovative ideas about the way music can interact with computers. So far it's been a great success in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Boston and Stockholm. Upcoming events are going to be held in San Francisco and Amsterdam. At the end of the event they showcase their apps, which can then be downloaded on their official website.
According to their homepage: "The main goal of Music Hack Day is to explore and build the next generation of music applications. It's a full weekend of hacking in which participants will conceptualize, create and present their projects. Music + software + hardware + art + the web. Anything goes as long as it's music related."
Apps range from things that apply to social networking sites such as myspace and facebook, to music streaming services such as soundcloud and last.fm, as well as standalone apps and websites. As you can expect, the products are not incredibly refined - but the ideas that come out of these events are sometimes really impressive.
Take a look for yourself at musichackday.org. If you click on the past dates you can see the prize winners from past events etc.
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