Archive for category code
SoundEchoCloudNest
Posted by Paul in code, data, events, Music, The Echo Nest, web services on September 28, 2009
At the recent Berlin Music Hackday, developer Hannes Tydén developed a mashup between SoundCloud and The Echo Nest, dubbed SoundCloudEchoNest. The program uses the SoundCloud and Echo Nest APIs to automatically annotate your SoundCloud tracks with information such as when the track fades in and fades out, the key, the mode, the overall loudness, time signature and the tempo. Also each Echo Nest section is marked. Here’s an example:
This track is annotated as follows:
- echonest:start_of_fade_out=182.34
- echonest:mode=min
- echonest:loudness=-5.521
- echonest:end_of_fade_in=0.0
- echonest:time_signature=1
- echonest:tempo=96.72
- echonest:key=F#
Additionally, 9 section boundaries are annotated.
The user interface to SoundEchoCloudNest is refreshly simple, no GUIs for Hannes:
Hannes has open sourced his code on github, so if you are a Ruby programmer and want to play around with SoundCloud and/or the Echo Nest, check out the code.
Machine tagging of content is becoming more viable. Photos on Flicker can be automatically tagged with information about the camera and exposure settings, geolocation, time of day and so on. Now with APIs like SoundCloud and the Echo Nest, I think we’ll start to see similar machine tagging of music, where basic info such as tempo, key, mode, loudness can be automatically attached to the audio. This will open the doors for all sorts of tools to help us better organize our music.
Tour of the Music Hackday Boston site
Posted by Paul in code, events, fun, Music, The Echo Nest, web services on September 24, 2009
The Boston Music Hackday is being held at Microsoft’s New England Research and Development Center (aka The NERD). Jon, Elissa and I took a tour of the space on Tuesday, and I must say I was very impressed. The place is tailor made for hacking. There’s open space big enough for 300 hackers to gather to show their demos, there’s plenty of informal space for hacking, there are small and large conference rooms for break out sessions, there’s wireless, there are plenty of power outlets, kitchen facilities, soda coolers and great views of Boston. This space is being donated by Microsoft – and I must say that my opinion of Microsoft has gone up substantially after I’ve seen how generous they’ve been with the space. Plus, the space is simply beautiful.
Informal hacking space at the NERD
More hacking space at the NERD
This hackday is shaping up to be something special. I’m pretty sure that we’ll hit our 300 person capacity, so register soon if you want to guarantee a spot.
Hacking space at the NERD
Open space at the NERD
Meeting space at the NERD
Boston view from the NERD
More hacking and chilling for the Hackday
Berlin Music Hackday presentation videos
There are a bunch of videos of presentations and demos from the Music Hackday berlin: http://qik.com/digitalwaveriding:
Photos from Berlin Music Hackday
Posted by Paul in code, events, The Echo Nest on September 19, 2009
"I am a jelly roll"
There are some nifty photos coming of the the Berlin Music Hackday. Here’s a slide show.
What is a Music Hackday?
Hernik Berggren put together a nifty slide deck along with some video to show people what a Music Hackday is all about. Check it out on Henrik’s blog: Music Hackday Revisited.
Hacking on the Echo Nest at the Berlin Music Hackday
Posted by Paul in code, data, events, remix, The Echo Nest, web services on September 16, 2009
The Berlin Music Hackday is nearly upon us. Ben Lacker (a.k.a. DJ API) will be representing the Echo Nest at this wonderful event. If you want to maximize your hacking time during the hackday there are a few things that you can do in advance to get ready to hack on the Echo Nest APIs:
- Get an Echo Nest API Key – If you are going to be using the API, you need to get a key. You can get one for free from: developer.echonest.com
- Read the API overview – The overview gives you a good idea of the capabilities of the API. If you are thinking of writing a remix application, be sure to read Adam Lindsay’s wonderful remix tutorial.
- Pick a client library – There are a number of client libraries for The Echo Nest – select one for your language of choice and install it.
- Think of a great application – easier said than done. If you are looking for some inspiration, checkout these examples: morecowbell, donkdj, Music Explorer FX, and Where’s the Pow? . You’ll find more examples in the Echo Nest gallery of Showcase Apps. If you are stuck for an idea ask me (paul@echonest.com) or Ben – we have a list of application ideas that we think would be fun to write.
At the end of the hackday, Ben will choose the Most Awesome Echo Nest Hackday Application. The developer of this application will go home a shiny new iPod touch. If you want your application to catch Ben’s eye write an Echo Nest application that makes someone say “woah! how did you do that!”, extra points if its an application with high viral potential. Check out the list of hacks created at the London Music Hackday to get inspiration.
The Music Hackday Comes to Boston
Posted by Paul in code, events, fun, Music, startup, The Echo Nest, web services on September 11, 2009
<W00T!> -The Music Hackday is coming to Boston. Set aside the weekend of November 21 and 22 for the Boston Music Hackday being held at the Microsoft New England Research and Develpment Center (aka NERD). The Music Hackday is a place where folks can gather for a weekend of nearly uninterrupted hacking on music. Expect to see (and hear) all kinds of music hacks: from web-hacks, iPhone apps, analog noisemakers to cool visualizations. Anything goes as long as it is music related. The Boston hackday is being organized by Dave Haynes (SoundCloud), Jon Pierce (Betahouse) and myself (The Echo Nest). We here at the Echo Nest are pretty excited to be involved. It should be really fun.
If you hack music and are going to be within a day’s drive of Boston on the weekend before Thanksgiving, you really should be planning to attend the hackday. Registration is free, but space is limited. To guarantee a spot register early and be sure you tell us how you want to hack music (because of the limited number of slots, we give preference to music hackers).
Event: Boston Music Hackday
When: November 21, 22
Where: NERD
PRICE: $FREE
Register: http://musichackdayboston.eventbrite.com/
Looking for hacking inspiration? Check out all of the music hacks that were built during the London Music Hackday:
- LonelyHarps won 7digital prize
- Music Zeitgeist won BBC prize
- iPhone Music Visualiser won The Echo Nest prize
- pythoniphication of SoundCloud API won Gigulate prize
- MusicBore won Last.fm and Be Broadband Overall prize
- trackmap won Songkick prize
- SoundCloud playlist sampler won SoundCloud prize
- Percussion Machine won RjDj and Tinker it! prize
- SpaceBass won LOLCODE prize
- TrippyAudioWaves
- Music Feeds
- Record Label Website and Data Access
- Cantarino
- Danzen Party MIX!!!
- iPhone Music Visualiser
- Pix n Mixer
- IRC Duckestra
- BotTalk
- SoundCloud AS3 Wrapper
- TwinkleStarduino
- Music Price Comparison
- Outcast
- CloudPost
- Gig news
- LONCYN
- MP3 music news blog plugin
- last.fm Events on iPhone
- SoundCloud Dropbox Manager
- MakeMyMixtape
- Bass Race RjDj Scene
- 7digital and Guardian news mashup
- YouLoop
- CitySounds.fm
- RFID objects with a taste in music
- Amenator
- Theremag
- ookoi_ShakeNRoll
- Soup.io SoundCloud import & Radio alpha
- Bass Race RjDj Scene
- JAEZZESiZER
Music & Bits
Developers at Music&Bits
The music hacking events just keep on coming. On October 21st, the second Music & Bits will be held in conjunction with the Amsterdam Dance Event. Music & Bits will provide a venue for people in the music industry, bloggers, press, developers, hackers entrepreneurs and music enthusiasts to get together to focus on trends and opportunities in the online music world. Music & Bits will have two tracks – a traditional conference track with speakers and representatives from startups. and a music hacker track following the model of the music hackdays where hardware, software and music hackers can do their thing without having to listen to some PR guy talk about how he will leverage the synergies of the music 2.0. (Actually, the spring Music&Bits had some rather awesome speakers, so I expect that they’ll do the same for this event too).
Music Hack Day Berlin
Posted by Paul in code, data, Music, The Echo Nest on September 1, 2009
On the heals of the very successful London Music Hackday, comes the Berlin Music Hackday which will be held on September 18/19/20 at the very cool Radialsystem V in Berlin Germany.
Site of the Berlin Music Hacday
The hackday is totally free for participants but is limited to 150 participants. (and if this is organized like the London hackday, if you want to attend, be prepared to describe how you hack hardware, software or music – not just anyone can fill one of the 150 slots).
The London hackday was such a great event, I’m glad to see that it is being repeated in different parts of the world. Look for more Music Hackdays coming to a city near you.
Hacking music at the London Music Hackday
Music Machinery 