via DaveSegue.

Edit: Who makes embed videos auto play? That’s just obnoxious. Changed to Youtube

[tags]videos, beatboxing, oddities, beats[/tags]

It’s not Ableton Live by any stretch of the imagination, but Verizon has commissioned an interactive app built in Adobe Flash that lets you remix the sound of some top beatboxers. Featuring samples from Antoinette “Butterscotch” Clinton (international female beatbox champion), Masai Electro, max b, rahzel (also a member of The Roots), and click, the app gives you a basic MPC-style interface and sequence timeline on which you can create and share mixes. Watching the video clips at top is sort of fun as you play, and this does demonstrate that all kinds of creative musical apps could be built in Flash (and made more sophisticated than this one, if you like):

Verizon Beatbox Mixer

… now, if there were just some samples from former Verizon spokesperson James Earl Jones, this would be really cool. You can read through clunky marketing prose about how these artists are using the “online community space” (I’m guessing you already know what the Internet is good for if you’re here); instead, skip straight to mixing your own stuff and check out these very talented beatboxers. There’s a live performance planned this week in New York as part of the Digital Life expo.

The best link here is max b’s own beatbox tutorial site, including video tutorials to take on your PSP or iPod:

beatbox.tv

At first, I thought this might be faked, but it does appear to be the real thing, and having known a few parrots, these birds will do far stranger things vocally. Via Signal to Noise, via GoogTube.

If human beatboxers are more your speed, the supremely talented Kid Beyond will be in Austin, Texas, this time doing a full-on gig rather than the shorter tech demo for Ableton he did at NAMM in January. Beatboxing parrots are a novelty; Kid Beyond makes beatboxing a serious instrument; he’s a real vocalist, and an utterly awesome musician. I got a chance to interview Kid Beyond this summer and should have that interview for you soon. In the meantime, a video from VH1 plus gig details:

Here’s Kid Beyond proving that he’s far cooler than Sebastian Bach, as if you didn’t already know that. (These kids and their reality TV …) Via the CDM forums from some time ago.

And via the Ableton email list, here’s the gig in Austin. Wish I could be there, but I’ll be in Chicago and not at NAMM. July 15 should be a big date, as Ableton says they’ll be announcing something at NAMM. I’ll leave you to figure out what that is. Gig details:

Pop-electronica singer/beatboxer Kid Beyond will bring his stunning
vocal skills to Austin on July 15. The show falls right in the middle
of 2006 Summer NAMM; attendees are encouraged to join the fun and see
the show.

A beatboxer for more than twenty years, Kid Beyond is a legend in the beatbox world 14and his recent “live-looping” work is gaining him impressive national attention. Looping and multitracking his voice on stage to create his own live backing tracks, Kid Beyond layers his transcendent singing voice over his own beatboxing and vocal instrumentation. The result is a riveting brew of pop-electronica that has drawn comparisons to Gorillaz, Moby, Fatboy Slim, Thievery Corporation and M.I.A. Ed: I don’t think he sounds anything like these largely unrelated artists, but he does sound great, so let’s leave it at that! -PK

Kid Beyond, with DJ Chicken George, Cherubic & Whatamelon
Saturday, July 15, 2006
La Zona Rosa: 612 W. 4th Street, Austin, TX
Showtime: Doors 8 PM, Show 9 PM; tickets USD 10 cash
http://www.lazonarosa.com/