Technorati Tags: beatboxing

via dnbscene

Spoox.org has some interesting thoughts on possible ways to embed watermark information into MP3 files. We’ve covered this issue before on here and use our own custom watermarking technique to track files. Good summary article.

A few ways of “watermarking” mp3 files

(update: seems their server is down, I therefore host the article on this site until backup)

Technorati Tags: watermarking, mp3, id3, frame, header

I’m surprised way too often by the naivity people see themselves in regard to the way they interact with the world. Though there definitely is quite a difference in the extent you’re storing different experiences (depending on your current physiological and emotional state and the situation you’re in), in general you as a person are the product of the weighted sum of experiences you have made in the past (plus some genetical factors). It therefore is straightforward to assume that every action you take, every boulevard paper article you read, every clownstep tune you listen to will inevidently shape you.

Take this as a critic on the power of the media. Many people don’t realize how deeply they’ve already been influenced, still they claim to be aware of it. Like a strange drug. With less a kick though.
Music in this context is something special, as the human brain heavily works both in an associative way and influenced by your emotional state. This means that you’re more likely to be able to recall a situation or object you’ve linked a strong emotion to in your mind. Music, as a very emotional thing, therefore deeply gains importance when examined in terms of mind-shaping.
Just think of that annoying pop song that circles in your mind all day long. When trying to figure out where I got this from, I often find that it has been that very radio song I’ve been waking up with and which since then resides in some active memory area of my brain. (In German, there is a word for that principle, which translates to the well-fitting name “ear worm”.)
Why am I talking about this?
As with most principles, it’s easy to get passive about it, accept it and thus find an excuse for a habit. Couch-potato-stylee. Becoming aware of its power, you can become pro-active, using the ear-worm for your own purposes, i.e. for learning tasks.

More specifically for the music producer case, there is a hidden principle which almost everybody applies automatically (and which seems so straightforward that I’m almost afraid to mention): The more you listen to a certain style (i.e. producer, label, genre), the higher is its influence on you and on the way you express yourself in producing your own music.

I’m listening to a lot of non-DnB, and so do many people from the circus. I just came to think of how this has shaped me over the last couple of months. Once in a while I become aware of i.e. some Trentemoeller pattern in a tune I’m working on. It almost feels like brain-washing, but with a very positive hint. This may also be related to the emergence of certain new micro-sub-genres: You experience something new, listen to it again and again, and by that, become one of “them”.

Listen to a lot of Jazz, and you’re likely to incorporate a more abstract style. Techno parties all night long? Be sure to double check your soon-to-come booking to Russia ;)
It’s a constant process. Your past shapes your future.

Technorati Tags: memory, shape, mind, experience, emotion, learning, music

Kompoz is a collaboration website, which allows musicians to work together on a project by setting up basic properties (BPM, …) and adding audio data. Seems way too limited to me in comparison with desktop applications, but I like the idea. (Must admit that I’ve been thinking about something more substantial for some time now…)

Technorati Tags: collaboration, service, music, audio

Blade Runner has to be one of the most influencial movies for DnB of all times, especially in terms of samples count. It therefore makes sense to post the following link to a “making of” documentary (52min) freely available on the net, which includes interviews and nice background info, as well as visual aspects like showing the area the movie’s street scenes are shot on. Being a fan, I really enjoyed it, and so may you.

On the edge of Blade Runner

Technorati Tags: blade runner, documentary, movie, video, making of, sci-fi

Mathematics is full of miracles. Therefore music, being closely related to both emotions and mathematics, is covered by some of these miracles. One thing I’ve stumbled upon more than once in the past is the golden section resp. golden ratio/proportion, which basically represents a measure of relationship between two metrical elements: Two lines are considered to be in “golden proportion”, when the the length of the shorter line relates to the longer one in exactly the same ratio as the longer to the sum of both, which can be computed to be ~ 1:0.618 (that constant .618 is named phi).

What’s so interesting about this “phi thing” is that is can be found all over, from face proportions widely accepted as being perfect, to patterns in leaf proportions and finally to mathematical topics, for example the fibonacci numbers or the series of prime numbers (the quotient of which converges to phi).

Today, I’ve found an interesting post on the way the golden proportion appears in musical patterns, as the author speaks about the famous Zelda game and its music, which seems to relate to phi. I’m curious whether there are similar pattern in DnB or club music in general, or whether there may be an opportunity to embed it. Let me know!

Technorati Tags: phi, golden, ratio, propertion, mathematics, music

After coming to a agreement, U3R and us decided to get the download links up again:
n.phect & dizplay – Nanodust

n.phect & dizplay – Stripshow

Have fun!

Technorati Tags: free, download, DnB, Neurofunk

For those interested and by request, here is my master thesis (in computer science) on audio fingerprinting (aka song detection based on inherent song content) resp. monitoring. I deeply regret not having it written in English, so sorry, it’s completely German. Please note that the thesis was rated 1.2, which is pretty good ;)

The thesis contains a detailed introduction to digital audio processing, multimedia frameworks and audio fingerprinting in its various algorithmic approaches. The rest of the document comprises of architecture and implementation details resp. testing of a software solution written by me, which allows for flexibly and visually connecting standard and specialized audio fingerprinting/classification DirectX plugins, thereby greatly enhancing the possibilities to preprocess and thus enrich audio signals prior to audio fingerprinting, ultimately resulting in improved detection/classification quality.

Ein generisches Monitoringsystem für akustische Datenströme (2005)

Interestingly, audio fingerprinting has been in the news recently, as Youtube is about to integrate a software to detect copyright fraud.

Technorati Tags: audio fingerprinting, master thesis, multimedia, framework, classification