Facebook Plunges Again
Tumblr 101: Tips And Tricks To Get Started
Teach kids music with Hyperscore
I remember the Miracle piano system for the Nintendo when I was a kid.
Lots of promise about teaching music, but it really was just a lot of fun to play with. Hyperscore won't teach you notation, but it will definitely allow kids to
create listen-able music compositions with little effort. Made in the MIT Media
Lab, Hyperscore uses a visual approach to creating songs. You create little riffs, called "motives" in
separate windows, then blend those together in a larger composition window. What's brilliant (and here's that MIT
magic): the app can build good harmonies, progressions, and other auditory delights into those basic compositions. It's
automated, but just to the point where you don't have to sweat the details. It's a lot of fun to play with, no matter
how old you are. And naturally, Hyperscore will be bundled with MIT's $100
laptop.Another twist involves using Hyperscore to create ringtones. To promote the software, and music in general, WIRED has the story of the MIT Ringtone Competition. Not content to pitch Hyperscore to 10 year-olds, MIT has an entire site, H-Lounge, dedicated to older users. Classic quote from the Edge regarding this emerging form of music entertainment: "Ringtones are a legitimate branch of pop music..." Go go Crazy Frog!
Comments
1
Subscribe to commentsj. adamFeb 1st 2006 4:29AM
a surprising number of people have never thought of this or just wouldn't know how and i thought it was applicable:
if your phone can browse the web, there's a big chance that you can create your own ringtones for your phone and send them to yourself for free. it's really, really easy.
NOTE: this does involve running a server on your computer that will open up a potential line of attack on your pc, however unlikely it is that someone would ever try to exploit it. The possibility is there and i just feel like i should mention that.
1. create your ringtone. you can use any of the free tools you like, or of course a commercial offering. http://www.hitsquad.com/smm has a huge selection of wave and midi editors. for a RealTone (or whatever), just create a clip and a 24 or 32 kbps mp3 file. for a polyphonic, just create a short midi file off of one you downloaded from the net or wrote yourself.
2. download freeware Abyss Web Server and install it. http://www.aprelium.com/abyssws/ - again, any web server will work just fine, including your website's if you have one. AWS is pretty easy to use though. really useful in general, really, to keep stuff that might be too big for an attachment availible from work or a friend's. and you can add aliases to things like your mp3s or downloads or even my documents, if you feel it's worh any potential risk. but that's another story.
3. optionally, register your IP address at http://www.dyndns.org/ for an easy to use domain name (gets you a "yourname.dyndns.org" - they have many domains to choose from)
4. upload your ringtone or save it to the Abyss Web Server's web root folder (X:/Program Files/Abyss Web Server/htdocs by default).
5. finally, just navigate to the file with your phone and save it when it asks you what to do.
and there you go. your ringtone can now be -anything you want- and for free (minus web access fees). some phones may need a special type of file and this won't work - i don't know. has worked on all of my nokias and motorolas though.