“The Radiophonic Workshop has always broken new sonic ground, from the Doctor Who theme to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Now they’re at it again — this time using the internet as a musical instrument,” reports the Guardian. “The band includes composers from the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which created soundtracks for most BBC shows from the 60s to the…
Tag: musical
The Eerie AI World of Deepfake Music
Artificial intelligence is being used to create new songs seemingly performed by Frank Sinatra and other dead stars. ‘Deepfakes’ are cute tricks — but they could change pop for ever. From a report: “It’s Christmas time! It’s hot tub time!” sings Frank Sinatra. At least, it sounds like him. With an easy swing, cheery bonhomie, and understated brass and string flourishes,…
92-Year-Old Songwriter Tom Lehrer Releases All His Lyrics Into the Public Domain
Marketplace reports: Songwriter Tom Lehrer became a star in the 1950s and ’60s writing and performing satirical songs that skewered just about everything… Lehrer, 92, announced Tuesday via his website that he’s effectively putting everything he ever wrote into the public domain. That means his lyrics and sheet music are available for anyone to use or perform, without having to pay…
NASA Asks: What Would You Pack For a Trip to the Moon?
AmiMoJo quotes SlashGear: We’re still many years away from casual consumer trips to the Moon, but it’s easy to fantasize about such trips. NASA is getting in on the fun with a new campaign presenting the public with a simple question: what would you pack if you were taking your own lunar trip? NASA is encouraging anyone interested to share a…
Google Introduces Song Matching via Humming, Whistling or Singing
Google has added a new feature that lets you figure out what song is stuck in your head by humming, whistling or singing — a much more useful version of the kind of song-matching audio feature that it and competitors like Apple’s Shazam have offered previously. From a report: As of today, users will be able to open either the latest…
Bringing a power tool from math into quantum computing
The Fourier transform is an important mathematical tool that decomposes a function or dataset into a its constituent frequencies, much like one could decompose a musical chord into a combination of its notes. It is used across all fields of engineering in some form or another and, accordingly, algorithms to compute it efficiently have been developed—that is, at least for conventional…
Is Streaming Music Worse For the Environment?
“The environmental cost of music is now greater than at any time during recorded music’s previous eras,” argues Kyle Devine, in his recent book, “Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music.” The New Yorker’s music critic writes: He supports that claim with a chart of his own devising, using data culled from various sources, which suggests that, in 2016, streaming and downloading…
639-Year Organ Performance Changes Chords for the First Time in Seven Years
“Fans have flocked to a church in Germany to hear a chord change in a musical composition that lasts for 639 years,” reports the BBC. “It is the first change in the piece, As Slow As Possible, in seven years.” The Guardian reports: The performance of the composition began in September 2001 at the St Burchardi church in the eastern town…
Bronze Age Brits turned bones into instruments
During the Bronze Age, our ancestors would sometimes turn the bones of their relatives into musical instruments. While in the modern age it is not unu… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/339198/bronze-age-brits-turned-bones-into-instruments…
A Third of TikTok’s US Users May Be 14 or Under, Raising Safety Questions
If Microsoft or another company buys TikTok before President Trump bans the Chinese-owned video app on national security grounds, it will acquire a giant community of devoted fans and a lucrative platform for selling ads. It might be buying something else, too: a big population of users ages 14 and under. The minimum age for using TikTok is 13. From a…