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How To Make (And Record) Explosive Sounds Using Common Household Chemicals
September 17 2012
Sound designers love to blow things up, for the same reason DJs love big thumping bass beats. When the frequency of a sound is low enough and loud enough, it ceases to be heard with your ears, and becomes something you feel in your gut ... But what if you're… read moreCloud Music: The Zombie Dinosaur Report
May 20 2012
Last year, a bunch of really smart people got together at a haunted mansion outside of San Antonio, Texas, to discuss audio trends and mobile technologies. Our group wrote a report describing a Utopian vision of what cloud music might look like. read moreThree Beeps = Cell Phone Dial Tone
May 16 2012
"Cell Phone Dial Tone" is an oxymoron, like "jumbo shrimp". Dial tones are analog, cell phones are digital. A dial tone signals an open connection to a landline telephone network. A cell phone sends packets of voice data back and forth via wireless network. The technologies don't intersect ... except… read moreThe Secret Yanni Technique, with key changes
April 02 2012
What if the game's audio engine kept track of what key was playing, and generated bonus sounds to match? I wanted to demonstrate this approach, and so wrote a game for the Android platform called LandSeaAir that uses the FMOD Interactive Music System to do just that. read morePrognosticating the Future of Mobile Audio
November 27 2011
Seven years ago, at Project BBQ, I predicted a "convergent technology" device that would be a phone, a camera, an iPod, and a web browser -- two and a half years before the first iPhone was released. read moreJune 19 2011
FMOD for Android is like peanut butter and strawberry jam, together for the first time! read moreKinect Voice Recognition and Motion Capture Musical Instruments
March 08 2011
Eventually you'll see a new genre of software synthesizer emerge, one that blurs the line between music performance and dance. read moreGenerating Audio UI for Android
February 24 2011
I just want reality to sound a bit more like science fiction ... read moreGame Audio In The Cloud - Part 3 (Conclusion)
June 03 2010
Gameplay parameters are sent up to the server, the application running in the Cloud mixes the appropriate beeps and booms into the audio output buffer, which then streams the game soundtrack to your device. The data being transmitted up is small, the server has all the CPU power, memory storage,… read moreGame Audio In The Cloud, Part 2
April 10 2010
When I talk about The Cloud (Capital T, Capital C), I'm talking about a currently fictional technology. Despite advertising claims and vaporware demonstrations at trade shows, The Cloud (as I envision it) does not yet exist ... but when it does, it will dramatically change the way we do business,… read moreMarch 26 2010
In 2002, at the International CES trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mark "the Red" Harlan, then Chief Evangelist for a scrappy little start-up called Danger, Incorporated, demonstrated an early version of a wireless internet device called the "hiptop" (later known as the T-Mobile Sidekick). He explained that it was… read moreDecember 26 2009
The idea that you own your music is a MYTH, promulgated by the record companies to ensure their continued profitability! But soon, all that's going to change, because Cloud services will dramatically change the way you listen to music. read moreNovember 16 2009
Green Technologies and Interactive Audio are two fields not generally considered related, but a new trend may change that: "Generated Sounds for Electric Vehicles", aka "EV Audio", aka "CarTunes". read moreApparently, The Implants ARE Removable ...
October 31 2009
A little over a year ago, I uprooted my life of practically 30 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and transplanted it to Seattle's Puget Sound (which, if you're an audio guy, has a nice ring to it) ... read moreResistance Is Futile, I Have Been Assimilated
August 10 2008
On February 11th, 2008, my life changed. It started out like any other Monday: I got up, made coffee, checked the news and Doonesbury, then logged into the network to get my mail ... and BLAM! Microsoft Acquires Danger read moreMay 20 2008
every time i do linear audio (i.e. create a quicktime soundtrack), i always have the same reaction: "this is SO much easier than doing interactive audio!" ... but it got me thinking about how to generate an Audio UI that sounds more like the ones in the movies. read moreApril 12 2008
i got a Mac Plus in 1986 because it had an interface device unlike anything i'd seen before ... a mouse. i got an iPhone for the same reason -- but now i hate it! here's why ... read moretop 5 ways to annoy an audio guy
April 03 2008
my brethren in interactive audio are an interesting bunch: intelligent, educated, and musically talented, but also funny, crazy, outrageous ... and easily annoyed. read moreearpods (can you iHear me now?)
December 24 2007
it all started with Vernor Vinge's keynote address at Austin GDC 2006. this fascinating lecture discussed current technology trends and probable future developments ... and got me thinking about the future of mobile audio. read moreok, now you're just showing off!
July 16 2007
that's right, it's my blog, and i say what i want! (and hey, if i don't, who will?) so, here's a few odd places my work has shown up in recent popular culture: 1. Night At The Museum i'm particularly... read moreLoopy Tunes (part 3) - Why iTunes Previews Make Perfect Ringtones
June 25 2007
Loops OK, so, my relationship with loops is, uh, complex ... on the one hand, they've saved my professional ass on many occasions, enabling the delivery of lots of music and sound effects in a minimum amount of space. they... read moreMarch 15 2007
I love the Game Developer's Conference! the lights, the cameras, the action, all the best and brightest coming together for meets and greets and foods and drinks, it's exciting, exhilirating, and completely exhausting! This year, the conference was SO... read moreFebruary 08 2007
Can Someone Please Explain To Me Again Why I Can't Loop An MP3 File!? When I sat down to write Part 2 of my rant, I discovered it had been 7 years to the day since my article "Songs in... read moreJanuary 30 2007
Looping! looping audio, looping midi, loop the loop, i'm tellin' ya, it's makin' me loopy! looping is one of those little industry tricks that seems so elegant and simple and useful, and yet has the almost overwhelming tendency to jump... read moreTHE Homunculonic AEStheticator
November 05 2006
It is my honor and privilege to announce a breakthrough in audio technology, a miracle of modern science, and the most important thing to happen to game music since MIDI got promoted to General -- introducing the Homunculonic Aestheticator, an... read moreOctober 15 2006
SO there's this thing called Project Bar-B-Q, which i will be attending again this year, to my great delight. last year was the 10th anniversary, so "this one goes up to 11" as they say; i expect it will be... read moreOctober 15 2006
SO there's this thing called Project Bar-B-Q, which i will be attending again this year, to my great delight. last year was the 10th anniversary, so "this one goes up to 11" as they say; i expect it will be... read morecould digital rights management BE less cool!?
September 27 2006
There's 3 three things that annoy me about DRM (well, to be honest, there's puh-lenty of things about DRM that annoy me, but let's stick with these for the moment): 1. This is how i feel about any technology designed... read moreRecent Posts | All O'Reilly Posts
