With this in mind, GUO is proud to present Banjo Hangout’s own Gontii performing Yakety Sax (aka. The Benny Hill Theme).
Note: If the HTML5 embeded music player below doesn’t show for you, try this link. Also note that this track is a bit on the loud side..
Check out more from Gontii and many others, all for free, over at BanjoHangout.org. I mean, they’re having a drawing to win an electric banjo for cryin’ out loud! How could you not visit?
Also, there’s such a thing as an electric banjo!
That’s right, All The Sounds!
GlobalSoundScapes.org is the pet project of one Dr. Bryan Pijanowski, a soundscape ecologist (Yeah, I dunno either, but Wired seems to think it’s a real thing) with Purdue University. Dr. Pijanowski’s dream? Gotta catch ‘em all! Sounds, that is.
The good doctor explains his latest plan in an interview with Wired:
“I’ve been on a campaign to record as many ecosystems as possible, but there’s only so many places in the world I can be. I thought about how I could get more recordings into a database, and it occurred to me: We have a couple billion people on this planet with smartphones!”
Enter the Global Soundscape Project and its associated smartphone app, the Soundscape Recorder.
By crowdsourcing the work of recording and geotagging Bryan hopes not just to categorize the world’s soundscapes, but create a living database that will provided scientists with mountains of information about various ecosystems and their dynamics as well as a historical record that could be used to track changes to those ecosystems.
Even if you’re not looking to chip in on the project, why not take your ears on a vacation around the world, three minutes at a time, using the Global Soundscapes interactive map. This being GUO and all, I’ll just refer you over to the happy sounding trains in Osaka, Japan.
“We should get a sense of whether and how we’re making this a noisier planet, which I think we’re doing,” Pijanowski continued. “And it should increase awareness of sounds. Hopefully it will make people stop and listen.”
That’s sound advice!
What do you like on your pizza? Extra cheese and peperoni? Well, duh. What about computer generated Japanese pop stars? Hey, you never know ‘till you try!
Domino’s Pizza in Japan has teamed up with Crypton Future Media to deliver more than just the best kind of pie to your door. They’ve created their very own augmented reality app for iOS devices that allows you to not only order pizza and track its creation in real-time, but take pictures with the #1 virtual idol herself, Hatsune Miku. Need more amazing, CG, blue haired fun? You’re in luck! Point your app equipped iDevice at the pizza box top and enjoy a special “Pizza Stage Live” performance right on top of your dinner.
Not in a Japanese delivery area for Domino’s? No worries, you friends over here at GUO have got your backs. Download the app from iTunes Japan here. To unlock a special pose for the camera and to enjoy your very own Miku concert use the image below (Thank you, Domino’s web site!). For best results, you may want to print it out or use a screen that can lie flat, like a tablet.
Here’s the materials list:
The results? Magical!
Check out the journey to create this DIY paper violin here.
Read more and listen for yourself at MuseumOfLondon.org.uk.
Soon to be performing in a coffee shop near you, give it up for Your Brain!
This is the 30 second performance of Subject A (a 31-year-old woman) at rest.
And this lively ditty is 30 seconds of Subject B’s (a 14-year-old girl) brain at rest.
Subject C (a 2-year-old female) would not rest and instead responded with a song that went something like “But I don’t waaannaaaaa!”
For the full, educated explanation as to the science and methodology behind this experiment or to download MP3s of this mind made music, check out the full article on PLOS ONE.
Two subatomic particles walk into a bar. What do you think they put on the jukebox? Maybe it’s this little ditty!
The above tune is the work of composer and particle physicist Domenico Vicinanza who has taken CERN’s data plots gathered by the Large Hadron Supercollider concerning the existence of the Higgs-Boson particle and set it to music! Vicinanza explains:
And just like that, Domenico created what may very well be the nerdiest piece of music ever! For more on the method behind the melody, check out his interview with PRI’s The World.
Benjamin Doyle further reinterpreted Vicinanza’s basic melody and created the following expanded composition:
The original version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was actually a radio mini-series broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 1978. Revolutionary for it’s time, H2G2 was the first radio comedy program to be broadcast in stereo. Featuring innovative use of music and sound effects, it would go on to win a number of awards and was the only radio production ever nominated for a Hugo.
Now, in 2012, after book, television, and movie adaptations, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is returning to its roots. Sort of. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show-Live!, an on stage adaptation of the the original production, is going on tour across The United Kingdom. Featuring the original radio and television cast (including the unforgettable performance of Stephen Moore as Marvin The Paranoid Android), H2G2-Live! begins showing June 8th in Glasgow’s Royal Theatre. 21 other show locations across England have been revealed with more to come.
Check out the whole list of dates at the official site. The original radio series is still available via Amazon
Epyion over on 8tracks.com has put together a spectacular playlist featuring 24 of the themes from the biggest anime shows in the past couple of years. All of your new favorites are here. Be it the peppy Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood into, the beauty of Clannad After Story, or the hauntingly apocalyptic outro of Madoka Magaica, there’s something for every J-Pop fan in here. Take a break from Jingling the Bells with this awesome audio aside of anime.
Free, legal, and complete with links to iTunes so you can pick up your favorites forever, I’ve embedded this wonderful playlist below for your convenience.
Also, the original Portal is free on Steam if you pick it up before September 20th. This is a great time to try out Valve’s innovative first person puzzler if you haven’t already. Now on Macs, too!
Good Smile has begun taking international preorders for the latest in its line of charity figures to benefit the disaster struck communities of northern Japan. This month’s release is the Support version of everyone’s favorite CG J-Pop star, Hatsune Miku. Exclusive features in this set include a cheerful “support” face, pom-poms, and a Cheerful Japan! flag. It also includes singing and smiling faces, leeks, and the microphone w/stand from the original Figma release.
Cost of the figma Miku Hatsune: Support ver. is ¥3,000 (about $38.20 USD) with ¥2,000 shipping ($25.47 USD). ¥1,000 ($12.74) of each sale will be donated to relief efforts. Figures are made to order and expected to be delivered late November.
You are not gonna believe what I just stumbled upon! Well, you will if you read the title, but still! It’s like this crazy fusion of a half-dozen posts from this month with a fresh coat of originality and talent!
It’s like GUO’s own Double Rainbow!
Wanna build your own Hatsune Miku without spending a dime? Boy, oh boy, do I have a deal for you!
There is an open source project that, just like Yamaha’s Vocaloid software, pieces together a sound bank based on the human voice and allows your PC to sing like the synthetic diva it always dreamed of becoming. You can get the shareware software direct from the author’s blog here (fully functional, no expiration, donations appreciated).
There is one tiny little catch: It’s all in Japanese. Don’t Panic!™ Internet’s got your back! Google can translate the site just fine and tireless fan Onkr over at Utau Wiki has translated the user guide into English.
Utau Wiki also contain repositories of voicebanks, character art, and tips for rolling your own virtual idol. Now if we could only get the word out to all those people signing over their dreams to Piapro and Crypton Future Media.
I’m also rather fond of ERock’s reimagined Pokemon theme!
No arguments, no pampering, no special needs, no embarrassing tabloid stories. The reasons for corporations to switch from people to programs as spokes models are legion. Here is one more:
Here is the Miku that set Japan on fire:
…and here we have some images Toyota was proud enough of to post on their website and Facebook pages. This first one is the banner on http://www.toyota.com/corollamiku/
And this one is is a “special collectors edition print of Hatsune Miku” being offered with select magazines:
One last gasp to round out Virtual Idol Week! Here is a fVisiON 3D display prototype. This table provides a glasses-free 3d Mini Miku ready to perform for your Star Wars figures and shot glasses.
Singer and anime voice actress Yuu Asakawa provided the voice samples used in the construction of the virtual idol Vocaloid2, Megurine Luka. Behold the spectacle as Yuu confronts Project Diva, an arcade video game full of Vocaloid hits… and doesn’t know any of the songs sung using her voice.
Eguchi stars in a 15-second commercial for Ezaki Glico's Ice no Mi sweet. You can view it at Glico's website here as well as the making-of video.
To think that people complained about celebrities creating an impossible image to live up to before! Now we can combine celebrities or just whip them up from scratch. Seriously, who looks through the AKB48 roster and says, “Ya know, there just isn’t one here I like. Let’s Frankenstein up a new one.”
Gwilym Gold has released the first single for the radical new music system Bronze. Bronze is a music player application that plays specially prepared Bronze music files. Bronze in an attempt to remix the selected track in new ways every time it is played. One play through may feature a strong drum beat, where as the next play thru may feature no drums at all.
The Bronze player and the first Bronze single, Flesh Freeze, are both available for free to Mac users right now. The developer states that future releases are coming for PC and mobile devices.
