Interesting use of a MacBook
This unique use of the Macbook to compose music as individual instruments to create a orchestra intrigued me. The salad bowl speakers are a nice touch as well. What do you think? You can read an excerpt of the article from Apple’s website.
Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk): Musical Macs
By Dustin Driver
When composer/researcher/programmer Ge Wang looks at a MacBook, he sees more than a computer. He sees a versatile platform for creating custom electronic instruments-the perfect tool for transforming lines of code, user input, and even gestures into music.
Wang is the man behind the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk), an ensemble of student computer scientists and musicians that uses 20 MacBooks to compose and perform new music. It’s an experimental fusion of portable computing and live performance that harnesses the notebook’s plug-and-play compatibility, state-of-the-art sensors, and raw processing power.
SLOrk director Ge Wang conducts the ensemble.
“We use the MacBook itself as an instrument,” says Wang. “We tilt the notebook and use its built-in accelerometer to expressively control sound. We use the trackpad as a kind of violin bow. We use peripherals like USB game pads and even Nintendo Wii Remotes. Sometimes we modify code directly to generate sound and musical gestures. You can make some wild, diverse music with the MacBook.”
SLOrk generates an avant-garde synthesis of sound: computerized clicks, chimes, and bleeps dance over the drone of string instruments, square waves, and clean electronic tones. Wang conducts the orchestra, leading his musicians through acoustic landscapes as they perform electronic chamber music and compose freestyle melodies.
The music fits right in at the Stanford University Center for Computer Research in Music (CCRMA), the orchestra’s home, where Wang is an assistant professor. “Our goal here is to figure out what computers can enable people to accomplish musically,” says Wang. “With SLOrk, we’re pushing the boundaries of how people make electronic music. For us, the MacBook is at the center of that goal. It enables everything we do.”
Smule
Wang has begun experimenting with music-making applications for the Apple iPhone. In 2008, he co-founded a company called Smule to explore sonic applications on the device; the first product, Sonic Lighter, is now available via the iTunes App Store.
“One of our newest apps, Ocarina, lets you play an ocarina on the iPhone by physically blowing into the microphone, using multi-touch to control fingering, and leveraging the accelerometer to modulate the sound. Furthermore, there is a globe visualization that allows the user to listen in on people playing around the world in real time. We aim to push the boundaries of what’s possible on the iPhone with sound and interaction.”
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