In a Hollywood overrun with remakes, a new Tron has quite a daunting challenge. The original film may be a cult hit for its 80s arcade cool, but it also was a seminal moment in the evolution of computer animation, at the nexus of obsessive-compulsive optical effects that came before and digital effects that came after. (Google Perlin Noise, if you must.) But where the bits of the effects look uneven or dated alongside the brilliant, it’s nearly impossible to top the genius of Wendy Carlos’ score. Her deft blend of choirs, orchestras, organs, and rich electronics wasn’t just forward looking: it’s fresh today, an alternative to some of the signature sameness in today’s games and films.

Perhaps Tron Legacy will do what other belated sequels have not: express love for the original. With Daft Punk helming the score and a reverent, inspired crew ready to make Tron live again, the trailer last week was the real sleeper hit of Comic-Con.

If that’s not enough layers of fandom, though, head to GearSlutz for a lesson in film scoring and a recreation of the trailer in Reason, custom Reaktor patches, and Ableton Live. This is not much of an infomercial for Live: because Ableton’s arrange view doesn’t quite understand frames, scoring with Live is a bit of a beast. (Live 9, anyone?) But it’s a great example of love for the movie and its original score. And hey, everyone need a source of joy, even a film.

Ableton Live for Sound Design :Tron Legacy [GearSlutz forum]

Stripped the original audio and redid all of the sound from scratch using Reason/NI Reaktor/Ableton Live 8. An M-Audio Axiom 49 was used to perform the Lightcycle Engine Oscillations

Wendy Carlos, if you’re out there, we get it. You revolutionized film scoring and electronic orchestration, and we’re all in your debt. It’s not so much that you switched on Bach or switched on Moog or even switched on Kubrick and guys in glowing skin-tight outfits. You switched on sound, and nothing has been quite the same since.

Now, we just have to hope 2010 can show us a good time, too.

I know what I want for Christmas.

Accordion Hero II [Shadenfreude Interactive GmbH]
via: Accordion Hero makes you want others in the genre [Make:blog] and MITer Cati’s blog Architectradure. (Nope. Can’t pronounce that, Cati.)

Come on, you know this was your first thought when you saw the original Guitar Hero. (I know it was mind. I also wondered about maybe Contrabassoon Hero.) And check that double-bellowed controller. Perfect for playing the song lineup:

• Leichtensteiner Polka, Traditional
• The Bowling King, Those Darn Accordions
• Can’t Touch This, M.C. Hammer
• Ya Ya Wunderbar, Frankie Yankovic
• Pictures of Matchstick Men, Status Quo
• In Heaven There Is No Beer, Traditional [Ed.: Whoo! My favorite!]
• Ride The Lightning, Metallica [Don't Fear the Reaper could sound good on accordion, too.]

I have touched the Future

All of this xxx Hero and Rock Band and Harmonix stuff does raise the question: how will we listen to music in the future? Will we have new interactive platforms for music that turn us from passive listeners into active. What will that platform be like? Some of you expressed, to put it kindly, a healthy dose of skepticism when I said I thought a new Harmonix-developed game for the iPod suggested new possibilities for mobile, interactive music.

Now I understand why. The real interactive platform for music could turn out to be a marker and your hands (if you, like me, weren’t one of the 7 million people who found this on YouTube, just wait until about halfway through for it to get interesting):

See also Daft Bodies, though that’s strangely less successful.

…Do[es] anybody make real shit anymore?
Bow in the presence of greatness
Cause right now thou has forsaken us
You should be honored by my lateness
That I would even show up to this fake shit
So go ahead, go nuts, go ape-shit
Especially on my best stand, on my Bape shit
Act like you can’t tell who made this…

“Stronger,” ft. substantial elements of Daft Punk’s “Harder Better Faster Stronger”

Before I clicked on the link I’m about to share with you, I was a hardcore, devil-fist-throwing Daft Punk mega-fan. After the link jump at the end, I had to reluctantly join the melancholy ranks of jaded music fans who’ve seen through the hype to the source, eventually admitting that what I had admired was blatant plagiarism.

The success of Daft Punk’s ground-breaking single “Around the World” cemented my once-marginal interest in the then-peripheral disco/electro-house scene. Adding to that was the time I spent in France taking in the provincial culture while attending French raves and parties France-style (and loving the music video featuring robots as protagonists). In the scene circa ’98-’99 in major French cities, you’d hear a Daft Punk track or a French facsimile about every fourth track, and where it was appropriate, the place would go sweaty-wild with glee. Hipster fashion boutiques, shoe stores, and taco joints alike were a-bump with the Daft Punk spinoff Stardust’s hit “Music Sounds Better with You.” At every turn, it seemed as if DP’s tracks staked an uncontested cross-genre claim in the minds of many.

My unconditional love persisted well into the 2000s when DP dropped not only an extended music video / Anime feature (Interstella 5555), and then followed up their success with Homework. They introduced “Robot Rock” as a single that infiltrated many robotic / electro / rock playlists across the country. Not content to rest on their laurels they joined Lollapalooza this year, setting off diverse crowds that freaked out to dance-extended versions of their hit, “One More Time” on live sequence mode.

And as if they weren’t already mega-stars in their own right, they’re now being exposed to an entirely new segment of the popular-music-listening populace: hip hop fans. Kanye West’s “Stronger” track features a slowed down, rearranged version of “Harder Better Faster Stronger.”

But the funny thing is that Kanye is sampling a sample! The groovy riff from “Harder” is lifted straight from Edwin Birdsong‘s 1979 funk track “Cola Bottle Baby.” Sure, Daft Punk gives Birdsong a co-writing credit in the liner notes, but it’s a bit of a letdown. I don’t know how to phrase this.. ugh. It’s like, you attribute a certain technical and musical ability to one artist and then realize they don’t have that technical and musical ability, they are just pretending they do.

I don’t use samples in my own work because it feels like cheating, in a way. If I create a groove and the dancefloor goes wild, I would feel better about it than if it was lifted from another track. My boyfriend is just getting started with making his own music, but he chooses to sample guitar riffs and hooks from rock songs of the 70s and 80s and make them into dance tracks, and even though I’ve warned him about sample clearance, he says he’ll never release anything so it’s ok. I think closely studying tracks that you really like is an excellent exercise in learning about song structures and composition, but lifting hooks and calling them your own is… cheating. If you really like a groove, figure out why you like it and do your own version of it. This is just my opinion and I know lots of people who create and admire music would be up in arms at the idea of telling people not to use samples in their work.

So if you’re ready to face the truth and retract a bit of Daft Punk’s technical and musical genius-aura, behold the Daft Punk sample sources:

Sample Wednesday 27: Daft Punk [Palms Out Sounds]

Ed.: So, CDMers, what do you think? Has sampling dampened your enthusiasm for some electronic music, Daft or otherwise? Or do you say, bring on the remix-mash-sample-share-ups and license everything Creative Commons for open-source music? And can we get the sense of originality back in music? (Or did it ever leave?) We let Liz get her rant out; now’s your turn. -PK

Daft Punk is on a mind-blowingly cool tour. Aside from, you know, being Daft Punk, they’ve assembled dazzling futuristic visuals, slick leather jumpsuits, and sophisticated, animated LED helmets.

What? You want to tour with LED helmets, too? It’s easy, outlined in a PDF by the creators. I can make the steps even more brief:

1. Cast your face and make a bust of the face and clay models of all the parts.
2. Modify a motorcycle helmet for the electronics.
3. Design your own LED display and controller board.
4. Glue in LEDs … one … at … a time … and connect three feet of wiring per LED.
5. Build another custom PC board for a control keypad on the armband. (Hey, step #3 was easy enough, right?)
6. Custom manufacture all the exterior plastic and finishing.
7. Paint

The best way to experience all of this is in person, naturally, but here’s a roundup of some terrific coverage.

Daft Punk Concert report and lots of technical details, via our friend Chris O’Shea / Pixelsumo (who points to all the details on the visuals and costumes)

Word of an Upcoming Daft Punk Movie, from our friend and CDM contributor Quantazelle (Liz McLean Knight)

Many, many, many Daft Punk videos on dailymotion.com

Brilliant black-and-white snaps backstage on Flickr from leather jumpsuit designer Hedi Slimane

Alien, futuristic action figures — because they can.

Gobs of videos of the pair in action:

The utter rockness of Daft Punk:

Want more style when dancing to Daft Punk? Just bend the fabric of space and time to warp your dancing moves. Or, um, video it and then do it in post, as this young woman does (via the lovely EtherBomb blog):

And the upcoming movie trailer:

No YouTube round-up of Daft Punk would be complete with out Music thing’s “visual aid” to the samples used in the songs:

See Tom’s blog entry for full discussion.