The feverish media response to the recent ’swine flu’ outbreak inspired me to make this little comedy number the other week. After posting it on YouTube, I noticed there were already a few other videos entitled ‘Swine Flu Blues’, so now I’m thinking of changing the title to ‘Piggy Bug  Blues’ instead [edit: done]. If you like it, please rate it on YouTube (you can now sign in with a Google account). Also, it’s up on FunnyOrDie.co.uk (here), too – so if it makes you laugh, I’d really appreciate a ‘funny’ vote there as well – thanks. (Geeks among you may also be interested to know I made the backing track using the iPhone app ‘Band’, from MooCowMusic.)

Um trio austríaco tem feito sucesso com sua banda. Até ai nada de inusitado se não fosse o fato de a banda ser “formada” por iPhones e iPods.

Marina nos vocais, guitarra e piano, Seb na bateria e Roger na guitarra, baixo e xilofone. Os iPhones e o iPod têm instalado um aplicativo da MooCowMusic, que permite a emulação dos instrumentos musicais, apesar da qualidade sonora ser um pouco duvidosa.

Posso parecer antiquado, mas eu ainda prefiro instrumentos de verdade.

Para conhecer mais sobre a iBand, acesse o site www.iband.at

Via Overdubbing.

What will they think of next for drummers? I’ll tell you what… a drum machine that sits on your iPhone.  – Check it out:

Drums For Your iPhone

 Here are some demo videos for the iPhone Drum Pad. The creators of this are Moo Cow Music. Pretty creative bunch of cows I’d say!

Siamo sempre in attesa del rilascio, e dopo avervelo presentato in questo articolo, eccovi un video molto ben fatto che descrive tutte le caratteristiche i Band by MooCowMusic!

Ho letto su TouchPodium che MooCowMusic ha annunciato l’imminente uscita di BAND: un programma all in one che include oltre alle famose applicazioni già rilasciate in passato, anche uno Scratcher (attendiamo sempre la prima release di MixMeister…), una console per mixare i brani e un Basso!

Spettacolo!

Inoltre si potrà configurare gli strumenti a proprio piacimento, regolare i volumi, registrare e riprodurre i brani realizzati con Band.

Qui alcuni sreenshot e l’elenco delle features.
Purtroppo Moo non ha ancora detto quando uscirà il programma, ci toccherà aspettare con ansia la prima release!

Feature List

Multiple instruments
- MooCowMusic:Band places no restrictions on instrument type. Drums, bass, guitars, keyboards can all be played and recorded into one song from the same application.
- There is also no limits on the instrument interface graphically, enabling not only standard instruments but also unusual, outlandish, or completely novel instruments to be created.

User-designable instruments
- All instruments in MooCowMusic:Band are defined as properties text files, making it easy to create your own instruments to use within the app.
- Each instrument comprises:-
- A full-screen image to use as a backdrop for the instrument.
- A number of Wav file samples.
- Additional (optional) images to use as overlays to show that a key is being pressed.
- A properties file defining a number of “Triggers” (rectangles of the screen) that will play a sample and display an overlay when pressed.
- Instruments are packaged into a folder, making it simple to share them with others.
- Each instrument can have up to 50 Triggers, making complex interfaces possible.

Recording and Playback
- Any instrument can be recorded, or overdubbed onto a previous recording.
- The only limitation is note polyphony (a maximum of 20 samples playing concurrently).
- Each instrument has an overlayed panel at the top of the screen containing all the common controls for recording and choosing an instrument.
- Via a settings menu, the user can erase any mistakes by:-
- Erasing the whole song.
- Erasing the currently selected instrument from the song.
- Erasing the last 10 notes recorded.
- Erasing the last note recorded.
- After erasing, the user can go back and overdub replacement notes onto the track

Metronome
- To aid in timing, a metronome is available which can be enabled or disabled during recording.
- The metronome tempo is configurable, as is the number of “beats per bar”.

Advanced audio engine
- Up to 20 note polyphony.
- Samples stop when you lift your finger, allowing more expression via sustain.
- Configurable Attack stage of playback allows samples to fade in gradually.
- Configurable Release stage of playback allows samples to fade out when you release the note.
- Samples can be defined to loop for as long as the key is pressed.
- A global volume control for the application allows you to mix the sound with other sources.
- Each instrument has a separate independant volume control that can be modified while the song is playing.
- Each instrument can be independantly muted.
- Each instrument can be “soloed” (mute all other instruments and just allow this one to play).

 

Got a number of things about which I want to blog. Many of them in notes/outline form. Might have to wait a bit.

But one thing which keeps coming up is the notion of playfulness. Been blogging about it a bit over the years,  especially since this February 2006 post which was connected with my teaching. The next day, I was posting a short entry in French about playfulness in music. Music playing in the strongest sense. Free play.

That was over two years ago. Flies are being timed.
Still thinking about playfulness quite a bit. In music, learning, technology…
What I mean by playfulness is rather simplistic, but it works: free, undirected, aimless, open behavior. Acts of playfulness, in my mind, appear not to be goal-oriented nor competitive. Extremely low stakes. Failure isn’t even registered. No evaluation whatsoever. The opposite of performance, to go back to performance theory which inspired part of that first entry.
Of course, my notion of playfulness might be different to that of many of the people who work on and “play with” games. Some people conceive of fun as embedded in competition. As I’m personally not very competition-driven, my conception and perception are different.
I’m neither a game theorist nor an avid gamer. At best, I’d be labelled as one of those “casual gamers” game developers are finally trying to reach. So: I’m no expert. But I do enjoy discussions of playfulness facilitated by those who work on game. Thanks in part to the video game industry, playfulness is making its way into the technology/education confluence as well as in corporate circles.
Some recent things I’ve thought about in terms of playfulness.
Playing music on Touch devices or other handhelds. My French post on “easy musicking” mentioned Electroplankton. Other forms of handheld musicking:

• Nanoloop
  • Presented by Eric Skiff at BarCampAustinIII
• Bhajis Loops
  • Used it for a while on a Clié NX70V
• Jam Sessions
  • DJ Champion and His G-Strings
• MooCowMusic
  • iBand

Can’t help but think that handheld music can really “spring up,” especially in terms of casual musicking. With the release of the software development kit for Apple’s Touch devices, there’s mindshare for handhelds as ultimate interface.

Of course, music games are gaining attention and people are jumping on the bandwagon. After all, music games may mean big business. Usually, I blog about music at Critical World or at my ethnomusicology course blog. Here, I’m mostly thinking about playfulness. And music games aren’t really playful in my sense of the term. Too competitive.

In terms of playful learning, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about “playing with data.” In part thanks to Gapminder, that I just discovered through Google Spreadsheets (even though Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software has been acquired by Google over a year ago). In my mind, Hans Rosling’s 2006 and 2007 TED presentations about Gapminder really capture the spirit of playful learning. Especially in connection to critical thinking, open-mindedness, creativity, and cultural awareness. (Anthro FTW!)

Now, if I could only get paid to do a project on using Touch devices for playful musicking in learning contexts…

Dopo Drummer e Pianist è arrivato il momento di:

Guitarist!

MooCowMusic sta sfornando delle splendide music-applications, e questa volta migliorando una vecchia conoscenza chiamata PocketGuitar

Guitarist non è ancora stato rilasciato perchè in ancora in fase di test, ma Moo conferma che in uno o due giorni al massimo sarà disponibile al download! 

Infine per restare in tema vi segnalo una prossima uscita in tema di music-applications:

MixMeister Scratch!

Io sto già sbavando, e se volete farlo anche voi… gustatevi il video!

Cito dal sito MixMeister: