‘So, you want to make a contact microphone? Whether you want create noise music by banging on scrap metal, cheaply and easily amplify your acoustic instrument, or just play with wires, you’re in the right place.’

The Hum.

‘For some time now there appears to be certain people who have sensitive hearing that can hear a low frequency humming noise late at night or in the early hours of the morning. The problem appears to be all over the North Shore of Auckland. We don't know the origin of the generic hum which appears to be world-wide.’

From the first EP to the soon-released LP, how it all happened.

Makes nice little wooden voice recorders.

“I am an artist. I like sound. I build things. I grew up in the country. I now live in the city. I believe everyone’s voice should be heard. I like wooden toys. I like electronics and technology. I hold hope for the future. I believe in experimenting. My interest in expanding how we experience and control sound has led to my developing prototypes intended to reinforce musical instruments as collaborative, sociable objects to be experienced in community.”

“All the words in the world pronounced by native speakers.”

“I set myself a half-day project to write music specifically for shuffle mode — making use of randomness to try and make something more than the sum of its parts. Over an hour or so, I wrote a series of short, interlocking phrases (each formatted as an individual MP3) that can be played in any order and still (sort of) make musical sense.”

The reference points here to electronic music (glitch and dubstep, obviously) are interesting, as are his integration of skipping noises as percussive elements and how the skip itself can be used as a musical device. Hat-tips to and reminders to look further into the work of pioneers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Brian Eno, and John Cage.

“The piece is by Mathias Delplanque. Titled ‘Call Center,’ it’s recent a stereo reduction of a sound installation of his from several years back. It was part of an exhibition titled ‘Bombay Maximum City.’ The sounds, he reports, were ‘recorded during the summer of 2006 in a call center in Gurgaon (suburbs of New Delhi).’ The result is a half hour of sound that flirts with narrative, but also manages to transform the everyday into something sonically complex. That the source of the audio is itself such a quintessential emblem of technology, of globalism, of communication services, and of interpersonal mis-communication only adds to its impact.”

Great free releases. Post-pop, lo-fi, experimental, etc. etc.

Fantastic collage/ambient label whose releases are mostly free.

A fun tenori-on sort of musical instrument.

A great selection of VST and AU audio effects plugins for free download.

This is absolutely beautiful. "Brilliant Noise takes us into the data vaults of solar astronomy. After sifting through hundreds of thousands of computer files, made accessible via open access archives, Semiconductor have brought together some of the sun's finest unseen moments. These images have been kept in their most raw form, revealing the energetic particles and solar wind as a rain of white noise. This grainy black and white quality is routinely cleaned up by NASA, hiding the processes and mechanics in action behind the capturing procedure. Most of the imagery has been collected as single snapshots containing additional information, by satellites orbiting the Earth. They are then reorganised into their spectral groups to create time-lapse sequences. The soundtrack highlights the hidden forces at play upon the solar surface, by directly translating areas of intensity within the image brightness into layers of audio manipulation and radio frequencies."

Small MIDI controllers. Glorious.

"Adaptable, minimalist interfaces." Oh. My. God.

Very neat MIDI controller iPhone apps.

Because I keep forgetting where this is.

Advice on samplers, audio interfaces, drum machines, etc.

For future reference?

Just like the good old days.

What to do if you're robbed.

"Now, it's very uncool to fall out in someone else's pad."

"Equalizing the balance causes your brain to reorganize the tones, so that you hear two smooth melodies instead."

"Best known for touring the country spreading the good word of D.I.Y. electronics with uniquely playful performances and Circuit Bending Workshops."

Kieran explains the importance of ideas, process, computers, and the mastering of technology that works when it comes to creating music. Loaded with great technical and system setup details.

Pressure from hearing charities and internal company concern has led Apple to patent a technology that would calculate how long a listener had been listening at high volumes and automatically turn the volume down.

With a rundown of each slider.

Works very well.

Incredibly awesome. Ahhh!

"The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focuses only on sound, not songs."