Tag: Mobile Music

Mobile Studio

One idea that has been knocking around in the back of my mind for ages is about having a “studio” if you like that is completely mobile. The first thing I need to do of course is define what I mean by this. Of course, there are many devices that claim to be a “mobile studio”, but you would need more than a single device I think.

At the core of the idea would be:

  • The ability to create music on the go with minimal restriction
  • The ability to record live sounds / vocals
  • The ability to mix synthesised sounds and live sounds
  • At least basic multitrack facilities

There probably needs to be more, and I’ll add to this as I think about it more.

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Devices for mobile music making

I was thinking about this earlier. At present my experience of mobile music making is restricted to a limited number of devices or device types. Let me explain:

Device I own / or have owned:

  • Various Palm OS devices
  • Various PocketPC / Windows Mobile devices
  • MadPlayer (weird device that generate music via algorithm)
  • Laptops in general

Devices I am aware of / would like to own:

  • Nintendo DS
  • GameBoy
  • PSP

Of course, what is left is the stuff I don’t know about, and of course that I can’t comment on.

I did have a little sniff around for any interesting apps running on Symbian, but I could find almost nothing.

I’d be really interested to know of other platforms or devices that are useful for mobile music making.

Mobile Music Technology Workshop 2007

I posted on this before, but I’ve now been contacted by someone involved in the 2006 workshop. It made my day today. The workshop next year is in Amsterdam I’m told, and I think I’ll do my best to attend it. More on this soon.

Category: Mobile Studio

This is where you’ll find all my posts on the mobile studio idea:

Libretto Using the Libretto in the mobile studio

Computer Music Feature on mobile music making Some initial comment on the feature in Computer Music

Portable Speakers About having speakers you can carry with you

Mobile Studio Current state of my mobile studio, in Sept 2006.

Devices Different devices you can use for mobile music making

Malleable Mobile Music: Social Computing driving New Content Forms

Interesting stuff here. It seems a bit old, but never mind, maybe something will come of it.

http://www.csl.sony.fr/~atau/mobilemusic/

Why make music on a palm device then?

It is a question I can see in people’s heads when I tell them that that’s how I make music, or how I use my PDA. They look at me with that “Why would you want to do that look”, and it is a good question I suppose.

Put simply it is easier for me to be able to carry around my entire studio in one place rather (my bag), and make music wherever I am, and whenever I want.

Having children means you spend a lot of time sitting in a car waiting for them at some party, activity, club etc. That time always used to be a creative wasteland for me. Now it isn’t. I can use it even if I only have 15 minutes I can work away quickly and quietly and still pack up in time to pick up my children. It makes sense.

Of course, it is not like it is a field that has a huge following. It is somewhat isolating, but it does serve me.

Mobile Music Technology Workshop 2

I read some of the materials from this site. It is quite academic, and really aimed at simple end applications for mass markets. Not that that is a bad thing of course.

One of the applications discusses mobile music making collaboratively. I’ve always liked the idea of real time collaboration using mobile media. There was an interesting proof of concept on the Bhajis Garden site (click the title for the link).

The idea was to have a bluetooth transport within Bhajis Loops that would allow users to collaborate and interact. Sadly this never made it into a build of Bhajis Loops.

But would people use it? Is it a killer app? I don’t think so. I just can’t see how it would work, especially with essentially non-musical types. If it was a killer app then people would have found a way to do it already.

Mobile Music Technology Workshop

http://www.viktoria.se/fal/events/mobilemusic/

This sounds like it might have been a very interesting event to be at. In hindsight I should have made the effort and tried to get along to it, but never mind.

Although schoolarly I find it intriguing as to the academic directions that are being taken in mobile music making, and in fact the sheer number of people involved.

In many ways it represents an opportunity to encourage interest in the palm platform as a mobile music OS.

I think I shall be digging in more detail into this site and doing a bit of networking at the same time.

Music on the train

Yesterday I spent two hours on the train between Croydon and Brighton. I like long train rides, and although this was only an hour each way it is long enough to get something done.

I spent the time working on some tracks that have been hanging around for a while. Mainly stuff that I’ve done from field recordings.

The other thing I did was tested the final beta of NotePad 1.4. The new features make it much more usable than before. However, my favourite new feature is the keyboard control from the Treo 650 keyboard. When I first looked at it I thought it was going to be difficult to use. But, after only a few minutes it all made perfect sense.

NotePad 1.4 will probably be around in a few days. It is really worth a look.

What’s this about then?

For many years I’ve been interested in using handheld devices to create music. Simple.