Ron Paul as a Wizard, Steve Jobs as a Paladin. That’s dorky, and yet I am strangely drawn to quote it…and wonder how Kraka would fare against a fighter/barbarian.
“The Force is my ally, sucka!”
Did you hear about the new compression codec technology put out by the University of Rochester’s Mark Bock, Xiaoxiao Dong and Mark Sterling. If you follow that link you’ll be able to compare an MP3 file and a WAV re-recording that sound very similar.
Here’s how it works:
The team then set about creating a virtual player for the virtual clarinet. They modeled how a clarinet player interacts with the instrument including the fingerings, the force of breath, and the pressure of the player’s lips to determine how they would affect the response of the virtual clarinet. Then, says Bocko, it’s a matter of letting the computer “listen” to a real clarinet performance to infer and record the various actions required to create a specific sound. The original sound is then reproduced by feeding the record of the player’s actions back into the computer model.
It is 1000 times more powerful than an MP3. A MIDI file is 32K of the 20 second clarinet solo. With this Bock way of doing it, it’s less than 1K. (And much smaller than the MP3 and WAV.) It’s reproducing the musician, not the music. Craziness.
Much props, Rochester! Even if you did treat Jane Eyre like pajunk.
On the topic of pajunk:
New Kids on the Block just announced a reunion tour, I guess. (Thirtysomething=musical midlife crisis)
Tune back in to the Today show on May 16 to hear the live concert from their new album (and some of their old stuff, too).
I remember being in 6th grade and my friend telling me that the way to pick up girls was to dance the NKOTB routines and sing in falsetto.
Nope, still a dork.
The Haiku
Using new codecs
scientists have captured sound
and boy bands weep
Semi-related posts:
Man, I never realized that Stephen Hawking’s player was such a power-gamer.
I know. You would have never guessed Twink.