Silophone

Remember Tank-FX? Here’s another one in the same category, and this one has been around for more than ten years already! For those of you who don’t know it already, this is the idea: go to www.silophone.net and upload a sound file.

The file will be send to the speakers in a huge empty silo - the Silophone - somewhere in Montreal, then the sound gets broadcasted back to you via the website. Sadly that last part didn’t work for me, as the stream didn’t seem to work. 

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The Sound of Wood

While creating new and experimental instruments using technology is great, sometimes it is good to be reminded of where our musical instruments originate. In a big forest for instance, where a huge tree is growing for many years.  

The Sound of Wood, a short movie by Anthony Edels, makes us aware again of the process of the creation of a great instrument, handcrafted with love. 

 (via Danny de Graan)

Traffic

My brother Michiel asked me for some sonic support for his motion graphics experiments. So first I gave him a rhythm to sync his motion to, and afterwards I added the sound effects. 

A nice case of sound design under pressure, as I didn not have much time to spend on it. Looking for the right sounds for the falling blocks I dug up a pack of old macaroni and threw it on the floor. After some layering and pitch shifting, it works quite well. 

Sometimes it's good to let go of perfectionism, just give yourself a few limitations in time and resources and do something fun with it. Let us not stop playing!

Tank-FX: a huge tank for natural reverb

Why try to emulate the reverb of a space if you can have the real thing? Tank-FX is a website where you can upload a sample and have it played back in a huge 11m high former water tank. The sound gets sent back to you immediately, including the natural reverb from this tank:

On their website tank-fx.com (German only for now) you can upload a sample from an Akai S-2000 style interface. You can set the desired output file format (flac, ogg, mp3), and the dry/wet ratio. Your sound will be played through a set of JBL speakers and recorded by a matched pair of Røde NT-5 microphones, providing a good quality recording. I was expecting to hear a huge reverb tail and I found the result a bit disappointing the first time, but it actually sounds very good. Try it yourself or get an idea by listening to the examples on their website.

Photo by tank-fx.com