As pundits lament the loss of the album or conventional musical roles, it might be easy to miss a barely-hidden revolution in the craft of sound. Pieced together from the simplest of found acoustic instruments and strange electrified sonic organisms, fashioned with the most sophisticated of digital tools and computer music production machines, artists open an ocean of new musical and sonic discovery. The new venues and patrons proliferate, ranging from interactive installations to so-called “sonic branding,” sound design for games and motion spots and television, and yes, somewhere in there, even produce an album now and then.

Just ask Simon Pyke. As a solo artist, sound designer, composer, and through his sound design and music shop Freefarm, he’s a one-man Renaissance for the ears.

Simon, who tells us he’s a long-time reader, shares a short documentary behind his work. A beautiful short film takes you inside his Brighton, UK studio, a toybox of great musical toys that looks a bit as though someone was granted a wish and got to render the archives of this site in the real world. But it’s not so much the tools as the unabashed discovery of sound. That is to say, I find it impossible to watch this film and not want to immediately drop everything and get to making some sounds and music.

What’s equally impressive is that Mr. Pyke has produced for himself sonic fingerprints, even across varied work, sounds that are whimsical but always modern. It’s a kind of retro-futurism that sometimes draws from musical expressions that nod to everything from folk to Philip Glass.

As a sound maker, it’s easy to thrill at his show reel, but look, too, to a charmingly-personal instrumental EP on Bandcamp entitled Collisions. (In fact, you’ll notice what’s missing in all of this: a label. Instead, Simon does just fine running his own business in boutique sound and music, and releasing his own music to people who care about it.)

Have a look at his work; I know it’ll be inspiring my work this weekend. Thanks, Simon! Keep reading!

http://freefarm.co.uk/

Speaking of sound design, here’s a nice weekend diversion for you: “140 dB” is an experimental short film, combining sonic acrobatics with digitally-synthesized motion spectacle, that meditates on the “interaction between sound and physical bodies. The main idea is to show how sound can change objects form and structure including human mental state.”

Thanks to the flexibility and media-agnosticism of the computer, all the work – art direction, animation, and sound design – come from one person, Tadas Svilainis. It’s a tantalizing teaser; I’d love to see the idea expanded. Tadas, you’re one multi-talented maker.

Of course, as for the content, one man’s torture is apparently another man’s party. I can see a few friends seeing these kinds of sounds as a nice way to unwind. Richard Devine, looking at you.

Found via @TheFilmo and @SoundPlusDesign.

America, enjoy your 4th of July holiday weekend. (I’m in the Netherlands; hopefully I don’t create any fireworks of my own, like accidentally plugging in a non-universal power adapter… again.)

Shop Vac from Jarret Heather on Vimeo.

Jonathan Coulton is nothing if not a hero for the age of Internet music. The Brooklyn-based troubadour inspires worldwide adoration from fans, not least in the form of music videos made spontaneously for his songs. “Shop Vac” by Jarrett Heather is easily one of the cleverest music videos put out this year, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with professional, higher-budget, commissioned videos. (And in a year full of clever gimmicks, that’s saying a lot.) It also does more than just show off visual flash: it’s got some actual wit.

More info from the creator:

A kinetic typography music video for Jonathan Coulton’s Shop Vac. Created using After Effects, Toon Boom Animate, Illustrator, Photoshop and Premiere.

As such, I almost put it under the “motion” heading, but for one important cameo: in the best appearance by music notation in a music video in recent memory, there’s a kick-a** notation “solo” in the middle. And yes, music notation is still damned sexy after all these centuries.

Jarret says he made that flourish with LilyPond, the brilliant, fully open-source notation engraving standard about which I raved early this year.

Not that it matters. I’d take any excuse to show this video, or watch it again. And remember, comment trolls, say what you like – I’ll just turn on my Shop-Vac.

Thanks, Wheat Williams, for the tip!

Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. from Chris Cairns on Vimeo.

Marvin Suggs and his Amazing Muppaphone was just way, way ahead of his time. But if you haven’t already seen it making the rounds, you owe yourself a little video watching break to check out Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs, Inc., an audiovisual dreamscape in which disembodied heads form electronic drum heads and spin on turntables. The work is produced by Chris Cairns of Partizan Lab, who has a striking resume of commercial spots and worked with folks like Lady Sovereign.

The good folks of Motionographer get the scoop on the production background, and interestingly note that the music is scratching away in Scratch Perverts’ weapon of choice, Serato. Be sure to spot that story, as well as the official film site:

Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. [Motionographer]
http://www.neurosonicsaudiomedical.com/

If you have any interest in video turntablism, you won’t want to miss dj rndm’s detailed review of the Video-SL by Serato, which allows fluid scratching of video from the Serato digital DJ solution. Thanks to Todd, Josh Randall, and everyone else who sent this our way.

And yet no one has really produced modern Muppaphone technology. Shame. (Hint: get some friends, some socks, and don’t forget googly eyes.)

Voltage from Bam Studio on Vimeo.

Oh, sure, it’s all fun and games until your modular robots have a little too much fun and your rig erupts into a fireball.

But then, modular synthesis fans – you understand, nonetheless.

William Paiva sends us his work as one of the animators and writes:

Hi everybody. I’m a reader of both Create Digital Music and Create Digital Motion, and I’ve just uploaded to Vimeo and to YouTube a short animation film about robots and synths. I think you might like it. Reards.

And you have crazy, crazy dreams, man. Brilliant work. Here’s the team:

Directed by:
Filippe Lyra e William Paiva

Produced by:
Barros Melo Animation Studio

Director of photography:
Filippe Lyra e William Paiva

Animation:
Filippe Lyra
William Paiva
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
Leo D.
Tony Farias

Design:
Filippe Lyra
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
William Paiva
Natalia Franca

Illustration:
Filippe Lyra
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
William Paiva
Natalia Franca

Editor(s):
William Paiva
Leo D.
Filippe Lyra

Sound:
William Paiva e Leo D

Music:
William Paiva e Leo D

Just like modular synthesizers, people connect with each other in order to achieve diverse objectives. In Voltage, robots, half-human and half-synthesizer, powered by a huge amount of energy, connect to each other in an electric and chaotic trance.

Be sure to check out William’s blog. [in Portuguese, which may get named as 2009's Language of Awesomeness on CDM.]

I enjoyed this enough that I was curious if readers could spot nods to other spots (the UA logo is in there, for one):

From an Age Before CG: Justice Video Recalls Vintage HBO Motion Graphics [Create Digital Motion]

Now, with all of those, erm, words in this video, I’m sure fans will soon be labeling various body parts and doing their own videos.

Tonight here in New York, I’ll be presenting a free workshop on detecting and visualizing motion from camera inputs, which may be of interest not only for those of you eagerly anticipating the new Create Digital Motion site, but also anyone who’d like to use cameras as controllers for music. Full details after the jump.

If you’re not in New York, don’t fret; I plan to organize this stuff and have online examples/tutorials in the near future. But if you are there, say hi! And yes, I finally plan to deliver on my New York CDM get-together promises in June; my schedule will finally allow that.

Still from a recent performance with Eric Dunlap and Mare Hieronimus at Eyewash, the visual performance series in NYC.

DETECTING AND VISUALIZING MOTION: Mechanics and Design Possibilities
by Peter Kirn

THIS THURSDAY, May 11, 6:30pm
Harvestworks
596 Broadway, #602
New York, NY 10012
Broadway at Houston Street

Please note that space is limited to approx. 15 people – please come early!

PETER KIRN presents methods of translating live camera inputs into digital visuals and control data, using Adobe Flash 8 and Max/MSP/Jitter (applicable to some other tools, as well). He will use examples from his own work, following a residency with choreographer Christopher Williams at Dance Theater Workshop and a performance via DTW and Boston CyberArts at Ideas in Motion in Cambridge. Looking behind the scenes at the mechanics of analyzing video and infrared photography, he’ll explore both the mechanics of these methods and how they might be applied to other projects, and how attendees can learn and explore some of these evolving techniques on their own.

Stephen Schleicher has a great tutorial at Digital Media Net for
recreating those slick moving arrows in Apple's iPod Shuffle Ad.
Basically, you need Adobe After Effects and a working knowledge of
paths. See Stephen's site for more AE tutorial goodness.

Tutorial Part I

Tutorial Part II

Which brings up an interesting question — how many of you are doing
your own motion graphics / VJ work for your performances? I've been
getting into it gradually; expect some reports this summer.