The most popular music tech attire …
The Echo Nest Sweatsedo in the Thumbplay video
Naturally, if you are reading this you’ll want one of your own. But there’s only one way to get one.
Hacking on the Echo Nest at Boston Music Hack Day
Posted by Paul in code, events, fun, The Echo Nest on October 13, 2010
Kind of Blue
Kind of Green
If you are going to the Music Hack Day Boston this weekend, you may want to consider creating an hack based on the Echo Nest APIs. The Echo Nest is offering a prize for the best hack that is built based upon Echo Nest technology. The prize is the much coveted Echo Nest Sweatsedo. The softness, the coolness and the ‘blueness’ of this casual attire is unsurpassed by the clothing offered by any other music technology company. However, we realize that not everyone can wear the sweatsedo with proper style. For those, who are not cool enough to wear the Echo Nest sweatsedo, they can opt for the alternate prize of $1,000 cash. So your choice is for a prize is a Kind of Blue, or a Kind of Green.
But, wait! There’s more. Since we are unveiling two new APIs at Music Hack Day weekend, we are going to offer not one, but two prizes, one to each of the two best hacks that use the Echo Nest APIs. If you create one of the two best hacks that use the Echo Nest, you will get to chose from the ‘Kind of Blue’ or the ‘Kind of Green’ prize. So get hacking!
Hardware hacking at Music Hack Day Boston
There will be some opportunities for organized hardware hacking at this weekend’s Music Hack Day Boston in the form of afternoon workshops. All the details are on the Music Hack Day Workshops page. Here’s just a teaser to wet your appetite.
Electric Eels Workshop by Noah Vawter with Justin from Burnkit 2600. This project introduces a mobile platform for melodic and percussive electronic music instruments. It encourages playing them more like traditional instruments- electrical energy is produced on a note-by-note basis from its players’ movements.
Atari Punk Console Workshop – Jimmie Rodgers will lead a workshop on building Atari Punk Consoles. The Atari Punk Console is a simple synthesizer with a wide range of sounds. It is so named because the sounds generated are similar to those of the early Atari consoles.
Atari Punk Consoles
Pen Plotter & Chiplotle workshop – While not exactly hardware hacking, it is definitely old school. Douglas Repetto and Brian Whitman will show you how to plot your beautiful music visualizations or whatever else on quite possibly the sexiest of all paper output mechanisms — early 1980s HPGL pen plotters!
The sexiest of all paper output mechanisms
Programmable Audio Effects in a Sketch Environment with LeafLabs’ Maple – by Okie Williams. In this 2 hour workshop you will learn how you can use Maple with a little extra circuitry (op-amps, resistors, capacitors) to program your own audio effects in an Arduino-like sketch environment and focus mainly on programming effects instead of hardware.
Audio and Guitar effects on Maple
What happens at a Music Hack Day?
So what is a Music Hack Day really like? Here’s a quick rundown of some of the things that will happen at the Music Hack Day.
9AM – 10AM Saturday morning – Registration – hackers start to arrive between 9AM and 10AM for registration.
Welcome to the Microsoft NERD
You get your badge, wander around the venue (which is graciously provided by Microsoft) have a muffin and a cup of coffee and meet up with old friends and / or make new friends.
Smiling faces greet you at MHD Registration
Informal hacking space at the NERD
This is a good time to start scoping around for hacking partners if you think you might need some help building a hack. If you want to get a head start in connecting with other hackers consider posting to the Ideas page on the Music Hack Day Boston Wiki.
Group hacking
Meet interesting people at Music Hack Day
10AM – Opening remarks – someone will walk you through the weekend, and give you an idea of what to expect, and tell you all the important info like where the bathrooms are.
Dave Haynes kicks of Music Hack Day London
10:15 – Lightning pitches – a big part of the Music Hack Day is the sharing of knowledge about various music-related technologies, whether it’s an API, a library, technique, hardware gizmo. During the lightning pitches, everyone who has a technology that they’d like to talk about gives a 60 second description of their technology.
Getting ready for the lightning rounds
11:00 Morning Workshops – The morning workshops are 15 to 20 minute overviews of a particular technology. There may be be 10 to 20 workshops run in a two hour period. Depending on the number workshop, there may be more than one track, so pay attention during the lightning pitches to figure out which workshops you’d like to attend.
Waiting for the workshops to start
Some companies offer prizes to the best hack that uses their technology. If you want to try to win something cool like a concert tickets, an iPad, or some cash, pay attention to the workshops to see who is giving out prizes.
The Echo Nest workshop
The Songkick workshop
1:00PM Lunch time – lunch is free – but don’t let it stop you from hacking.
Eat or hack?
2:00PM Hacking commences – after lunch – formal hacking begins. You have 24 hours to build something cool that is related to music. Hacking will finish up at 2:30PM on Sunday.
Hacking commences
2:00PM Afternoon workshops – In the afternoon, there are some in-depth workshops where you can learn how to build or do something. The workshops (as with everything at the Music Hack Day), is optional, you can chose to attend a workshop or find a quiet spot and work on your hack. Some of the workshops may be scheduled on an ad hoc basis (anyone can put on a workshop, just post a note on the ‘workshops board’). There are 3 hardware oriented workshops, at the Boston Music Hack Day that will give you an opportunity to build or interact with hardware (a rare thing for many of us software types).
Pen plotter & Chiplotle workshop Douglas Repetto and Brian Whitman will show you how to plot your beautiful music visualizations or whatever else on quite possibly the sexiest of all paper output mechanisms — early 1980s HPGL pen plotters! You’ll learn how to use Chiplotle, a Python bridge for live HPGL drawing control, and we’ll have a a few plotters on hand for everyone to use. Plus, there will be plotters available for hacking after the workshop.
More info:
- http://music.columbia.edu/cmc/chiplotle/
- http://www.flickr.com/groups/chiplotle/pool/
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T20-KcCGokU
Electric Eels Workshop
“Electric Eels” workshop – by Noah Vawter – This project introduces a mobile platform for electronic music instruments. It encouragesplaying them more like traditional instruments. The new techniques this project introduces extend the role of electricity generation – Electrical energy for every note comes from its players’ movements.
Atari Punk Console workshop
Jimmie Rodgers will lead a workshop on building Atari Punk Consoles. The Atari Punk Console is a simple synthesizer with a wide range of sounds. It is so named because the sounds generated are similar to those of the early Atari consoles. In this workshop you will learn the basics of the timing circuits used to make these crazy sounds. You will also learn how to solder, and how to change the the sounds with your fingers as the contact, or even using light to make a simple light Theremin.
Jimmie's workshop
All parts and tools included in the costs. Additional parts will be available, so you will be able to customize your APC with lights, touch contacts, photo resistors, etc. You are encouraged to find a fun case for your APC and bring it (cigar box, mint tin, Mr. Potato Head other plastic toy, etc), anything hollow that can hold a deck of cards would do. If you do not have a case, then Altoid tins will be available at the workshop.
Hardware hacking
6PM – Dinner – At 6PM the pizzas arrive. Get a slice or two and some soda (the beer comes later), and get back to your hack. Remember, eating and sleeping is for the weak
Eating is for the weak
9:30 PM – Leg stretching time. – Hacking continues until around 9:30 PM when the Microsoft NERD will close. At that point hacking shifts to the Echo Nest (a few T stops away).
Onto the T to get to the Echo Nest
10:00 PM Hacking Continues at the Echo Nest
The Echo Nest offices
The venue for overnight hacking is at the Echo Nest in Davis Square – 4 stops away on the T from the main venue. At the Echo Nest there will be some beer, some live music provided by Javelin, and plenty of comfortable hacking space for the hardcore hackers.
Late night hacking
Overnight hacking is where all the magic happens.
Overnight hacking in London
Overnight hacking at the Echo Nest
8AM Sunday Morning – On Sunday morning, hacking finishes up at the Echo Nest and will return to the Microsoft NERD at 9AM, where you’ll find some more coffee and light breakfast. Hacking continues thorough lunch.
Remember, eating is for the weak.
2:30 PM Hacking finishes. By 2:30 PM you should have information about your hack posted to the wiki. Only hacks included on the wiki by 2:30 PM will be included in the final presentations.
Last minute hacking
3:00 PM – Final Demos – This is the time to show your stuff! Once all the hacks are complete, everyone will move to the big room for the hack demos. We’ll be joined by about 100 non-hackers who are here to see all the demos. During the demo time, everyone who managed to get a hack listed onto the hacks wiki by 2:30 will get 2 minutes to present their hack.
Giving a demo - Flight of the bumble bee on guitar
There will be people from the music industry, the press, and the tech world in attendance so it doesn’t hurt to try to make your 2 minutes in the spotlight memorable. We should have two projectors setup so each hack presenter should have 2 minutes to setup and then 2 minutes to present.
Demoing the big piano
Ben demos the roomba recon
Giving good demo is fun
We will be ruthless with the timing. When your 2 minutes are up, we’ll start the next demo, so make sure you get to the point quickly
5:00 PM – final awards – At 5PM the panel of judges will gather to pick the winners of the prizes, and present the awards. But of course, everyone is a winner.
Announcing the prize winners
6:00PM – After all is done, we will find a local pub to get some refreshment.
Time for a beer
It is sure to be a good time.
Photos from flickr photographers: Elizabeth Thomsen, Dave Haynes, Thomas Bonte, Ben Reyes, Brad Searles, aroscoe, habber, David Noël, imelda, James Wheare, narq,
My Music Hack Day t-shirt …
Of course I wasn’t eligible for the Music Hack Day tshirt design challenge. But that didn’t stop me from making one anyway. Here’s my non-entry. I made it on Zazzle, so I guess you could actually order it if you want to.
Music Hackday Boston t-shirt design challenge winner!
We received a dozen or so entries in the 24 hour challenge to design a t-shirt for next week’s Music Hack Day Boston. There were some really fantastic submissions. We’ve chosen a winning design:
The design was created by Jocelyn Petko, a designer from Alburtis, PA. Jocelyn specializes in print, illustration and packaging. Jocelyn’s design life started as a sandwich artist:
If I learned anything from my humble beginnings as a sandwich artist, it is that to craft a successful sandwich, you need the proper ingredients. One can say the same for a successful designer. You start with a dash of talent and skill. You add a dollop of creativity and imagination. Top it off with a generous portion of persistency, with a side of bacon, and you’ve got yourself one delicious designer.
Jocelyn in one of her quieter moments
Thanks to everyone who participated in the challenge. All the designs really were fantastic.
Some like it loud …
Posted by Paul in code, The Echo Nest, web services on October 6, 2010
One of the nifty features that we’ve rolled out in the last 6 months here at the Echo Nest is an extremely flexible song search API. With this API you can search for songs based upon all sorts of criteria from tempo, key mode, duration. You can use this API to do things that would be really hard to do. For example, here’s a bit of python that will show you the loudest songs for an artist:
from pyechonest import song as songAPI
from pyechonest import artist as artistAPI
def find_loudest_songs(artist_name):
artists = artistAPI.search(artist_name, results=1)
if artists:
songs = songAPI.search(artist_id=artists[0].id, sort='loudness-desc')
for song in songs:
print song.get_audio_summary().loudness, song.title
Here are the loudest songs for some sample artists:
- The Beatles: Helter Skelter, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
- Metallica: Cyanide, All Nightmare Long
- The White Stripes: Broken Bricks, Fell in love with a girl
- Led Zeppelin: Rock and Roll, Black Dog
We can easily change the code to help us find the softest songs for an artist, or the fastest, or the shortest. Some more examples:
- Shortest Beatles song: Her Majesty at 23.2 second
- Longest Beatles song: Revolution #9 at 8:35
- Slowest Beatles song: Julia at 57 BPMs
- Softest Beatles song: Julia at -27DB BPMs (Blackbird is at -25DB)
I think it is interesting to find the outliers. For instance, here’s the softest song by Muse (which is usually a very loud artist):
We can combine these attributes too so we can find the fastest loud Beatles song (I feel fine, at -7.5 DB and 180 BPM, or the slowest loud Beatles song (Don’t let me down, at -6.6 DB and 65 BPM).
The search songs api is a good example of the power of the Echo Nest platform. We have data on millions of songs that you can use to answer questions about music that have traditionally been very hard to answer.
Music Hack Day Boston tee-shirt design challenge!
We love the Music Hackday Tee-Shirt. But we need a new design! So, in the tradition of the Music Hack Day you have 24 hours to hack the tee-shirt and come up with a new design. If we chose your design we’ll give you credit on the Music Hack Day Boston web site and you’ll have the joy of seeing 200 hackers wearing the fruits of your labors.
Here are the requirements:
Create a one or two-color design and submit it as an EPS by email to paul@echonest.com by 5PM EDT October 6. If you have any questions, just leave them in the comments here.
Update: Here’s an EPS of the Music Hack Day Logo.
Update 2: Dave points to even more logo resources
Using bad reviews to sell stuff
Posted by Paul in recommendation on October 5, 2010
Here’s a ‘sponsored link’ purchased by Amazon on the popular social news site Reddit. The text of the ad is a excerpt from Roger Ebert’s scathing review of the movie Caligula (the review opens with “Caligula is sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash” and it goes downhill from there).
I found it a bit curious to see Amazon using such a horrendous review in an ad, but those folks at Amazon are clever. The ad has over 300 comments by Reddit readers meaning that many thousands have probably clicked on the ad to see which movie Ebert was talking about. Hundreds of comments, thousands of visitors all from a 10 word excerpt of a scathing review of the movie. Not too shabby.
Update – the commenters point out that the sponsored link is not purchased by Amazon but by Reddit user qgyh2 who makes money via Amazon’s affiliate program. As Dan says – “he picks headlines that are likely to encourage people to click on the link and then he makes money from whatever they buy while they are at Amazon.” So, qgyh2 is the clever one (but Amazon gets cleverage points for encouraging this kind of stuff via their affiliate program).
Update 2 – flx points out that qgyh2 actually works for Reddit. Here’s more info – ‘He’s helping us experiment with new ways of supporting the site. We weren’t really ready to announce this one yet, or even decide if it’s going to be a permanent fixture. When we do, there will be a blog post about it.’
Music Machinery 