Intentional | Audio Identity Blog

Keeping it light this week as we tackle the big to-do list that precedes most holiday breaks.

Our friend and Chicago-based sound designer Joseph Fosco pointed me recently to Auditorium, a Flash-based sound discovery game that’s worthy of your attention for at least an hour of your time (preferably sometime later this week, post-Turkey and cranberries, when you’re not billable or accountable to others).

Auditorium is created by Philadelphia’s Cipher Prime. Happy exploring.

– Noel Franus

NPR’s weekend programming has picked up a bit on the music front. I find myself listening and pulling breakfast together for the family and then stopping in my tracks — standing there waiting to grind the coffee, but I can’t because it’ll drown out the radio for even just a few seconds. It’s a ‘driveway moment’ in the middle of my kitchen.

One of their latest stories features Todd Machover at MIT’s Media Lab. He’s making composing accessible to the least likely of creators—people with chronic illness and very limited movement.

“One of my students made an interface so Dan [Ellsey] could use his head movements and the infrared controller on his head to actually draw the lines and colors that we use for our Hyperscore software. He wrote a piece that was transcribed for symphony orchestra and is absolutely dynamite.”

“He changes the sound of the piece; he changes the emphasis; he changes the texture; he changes the accents; he changes the color of the piece,” Machover says. “When he’s playing the piece, he’s a different person.”

The implications are certainly intriguing. Guitar Hero, Wii Music and Machover’s Hyperscore all point to a future in which the act of creating music is becoming drastically more accessible than it’s ever been.

We may not be creating works of genius. And some friends of mine with heavy music credentials may argue that we risk suffering from the oversimplicity dumbing us down to some degree. (Along the lines of Is Google Making us Stupid?) But if this enables a shred of creativity and play for folks who otherwise just wouldn’t go there, it represents a portal of opportunity that hadn’t been there before. And that’s a very good thing.

Happy reading/listening. I’m off to grind the coffee.

– Noel Franus

BRAND BUILDING New Dimensions is a new book featuring two of my articles on sonic branding and identity / audio branding and identity. (Got my print copy yesterday — the tactile feel of page-flipping and the unmistakable smell of print make it seem more real. Go figure.) The book also features a mix of branding ideas and case studies from around the world. Published by ICFAI University Press. Happy reading.

– Noel Franus

For those of us in the US, the race is finally almost over, and the polls close tomorrow. Gasp. Exhale. Let’s assume ‘your guy’ wins. You’re having an election party to celebrate and can hire any musician or band to play. Who do you hire, and what’s the first song they play?

For those of you in the Bay Area, here’s one of our favorite topics—sound and hybrids. We think the company that solves this problem will reap the benefits associated with branding the entire category. In other words, if Chevrolet (for example) can define ‘the sound of hybrids,’ then all hybrids will be associated with Chevrolet. Not a bad score for the engineering, design and brand teams that can work together to tackle this challenge.

And now, from the CCRMA Hearing Seminar mailing list:

Please join us for CCRMA colloquium on Monday, November 3rd. Lawrence D. Rosenblum will be giving a presentation entitled ‘Avoiding the Impact: Testing the Audibility of Hybrid Cars’.

With the growing number of hybrid and alternative fuel cars on the road, blind individuals are increasingly concerned with the lack of audible cues these cars typically provide. These concerns have prompted consideration of both federal and state bills to investigate the issue. In this talk, research will be presented showing that some hybrid cars, when traveling at slow speeds, are in fact dangerously quiet for pedestrians. Other research will be discussed indicating that we are all dependent on sound for avoiding oncoming hazards, so that the quietness of new cars could pose a threat to us all.

– Noel Franus