EVP Maker is an interesting piece of free software. It comes out of left field and it’s lack of orientation to what are the dominant musical and compositional concerns are what makes it shine.
It is designed to generate recordings for use in studying EVP or Electronic Voice Phenomena. This is a field of paranormal studies that is interested in the voices of ghosts or spirits that can be tapped into using electronic devices.
The author has included a number of unusual features for creating chaotic randomisation of the edit process, including combinations of bitmaps, random numbers generated live by scripts on websites, unrelated audio signals and values extracted from the envelope of the source signal. Top stuff.
On this page Stephan is mashing his EVP ideas with the capability of Speak Jet a solid-state allophone generator that is worthy of investigation separately there is a forum here.
You can record all this back as wav files to your computer and analyse them to hear the voices of the dead. Or to make contributions to the Utter project.
Maximum respect to Stefan Bion for having the unique vision to create this wonderful software and then sharing it for free to anyone.
If you would like to go deep into his free thinking on these matters look at this page where he describes how to make an EVP generator with crumbled carbon and a cork! (In German) http://www.stefanbion.de/tonbandstimmen.htm
Image illustrating this weblink by S. Bion Download for free and read more about EVP Maker here
Filed under: Art , edit, random, speakjet, voice
Social media has only just taken off says media analyst Jeremiah Owyang — and his Future of the Social Web report says social networks and marketers will have to change their strategies. He projects forwards five years and comes up some pretty radical points. He is mainly writing from a marketing perspective but this can be transposed to a creative industries focus. Three points that peaked my interest are;
- Sites themselves will become less relevant as brands deliver content based on social network identities instead of requiring consumers to surf and search.
- Social networks will no longer be destinations as much as they will be “aggregations” of communities unattached to individual sites.
- The successful brands, Owyang says, will be the ones that “let the most popular content spread to the community and the customer[s] where they exist.”
The executive summary of Jeremiah Owyang’s report can be found here.
I first saw this report mentioned on a Customer Relations Management website here
Filed under: Media , culture, future, shared, social media
I am on the panel of judges for the ‘We are what we share‘ competition as part of the Ideas festival at the State Library of Queensland 28th March. We didn’t want to have a prize of money so I thought a hand made object would be better.
Here’s what I have come up with. Its a Swift Whip hand powered cake mixer atop some melted letters from a speaking toy.
For me it’s been a nice reminder to experience what it’s like to come up with an idea, bring it into the world, become attached to it and then to give it away. Ahh the bitter sweet joy of shared culture.
Filed under: Art , culture, shared
February 16, 2009 • 9:29 pm
Here’s my latest circuit bent toy sound maker based on a Super Talk Barbie doll voice circuit.
It’s super simple and lots of fun! All I’ve done is added a power starve control, a trigger switch and a reset switch to recover from crashes.
Unlike like the more conventional unbendable ‘black blob’ talking toys of this era that simply played one shot samples this kind of toy gets pretty quickly into complete gibberish and phoneme tone loops. I think the circuit is particularly susceptible to disruption by reduction of supply voltage because the microchip plays a sequence of random phrases to construct the output. Starve the voltage and the data address lines go crazy %~)
Tip: Clear plastic lunch-boxes with resealable clip lids make excellent quick D.I.Y. project boxes, easily worked, light, sturdy and stylish.
From a Barbie bending idea shared with me by Nick Wishart from Toydeath
Listen to a sound clip at sound sharing site pool.org.au
Good backgrounder to circuit bending here
Filed under: Art
October 27, 2008 • 1:27 pm
I am getting right back into listening to Short Wave radio broadcasts.
It’s a backlash against so much time I spend in the world of online audio I guess.
- It’s also because nothing sounds quite as romantic and evocative than any signal that has been subjected to the shifting, phasing noise of travelling half way round the the world’s ionosphere.
There are plenty of good net resources on the topic of Short wave one of my favorites is Shortwave Music.
I am in the process of researching and building antennas for better DX reception and also as part of Rod Cooper’s “Vessel” project. My assignment for that has been to evoke the sound of sea navigation. I think the phasing hiss and chatter of the Tropical bands may fit the bill nicely.
This is my latest antenna it is from a design here
Filed under: Art , antenna, shortwave, vessel
August 23, 2008 • 11:47 pm
I thought one glitching Fuby as enough, but David Cranmer has really gone one step beyond with his Furby Gurdy. He is a really amazing DIY bender and has four Furbies talking gibberish to each other in his wacky Furby Gurdy. For more of his wonderful creations check out his website at
http://www.nervoussquirrel.com
furby gurdy under construction
Filed under: Art
Don’tcha love that pale blue box with the chunky red buttons?
The longer that piece of classic tech sits gathering dust, the better it will look when some one finally ebay’s it.
If you’re like me you’ll enjoy reading Jason Savitt’s blog Vintage Tech Collector.
I first heard about it over At NPR’s feature on dotmatrix printers making music
Filed under: Uncategorized
Filed under: Uncategorized , diy
Filed under: Art , case, diy, lego
