Boing Boom Tschak Youzakk
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Surely an ‘interactive 24 hour music generator’ could only be from someone like Kraftwerk and ‘ye gods’ it is! Kraftwerk have launched their own iPhone app (also available as an iPad app which is what we have been playing with) called ‘Kling Klang Machine No 1‘ which (wait for it) creates audio based on your surroundings.
Developer Norman Fairbanks told us “It’s a novel system that creates music and sound based on realtime data depending on your location that are continuously fed into the app, meaning the ‘Kling Klang Machine No 1’ can’t be compared with other generative music apps which mostly utilise pre-programmed algorithms. There are some nice ways to manipulate sound and store personal preferences. For now the functionality is still kind of basic but the original concept will be more and more implemented in future updates and releases”
Kling Klang is of course the private music studio of the band Kraftwerk. The name being taken from the first song on the Kraftwerk 2 album. The studio was originally located at Mintropstrasse 16 in Düsseldorf, Germany, but during 2009 was relocated to a new location in Meerbusch-Osterath, around 10 kilometers west of Düsseldorf.
Whilst the app is novel it is still very basic and we don’t think it is worth the USD 8.99 (or equivalent it is being charged at) – better we think for it to be free now and as it is improved for it become chargeable. However for those interested in music and music generation it’s probably worth a play.
Probably of more use to the music venue folks like Mood Media and ImageSound is the solution called Youzakk which we saw recently at #musichackday in New York that uses Foursquare check-ins and Hunch to help venues figure out which music to play in order to please their clientele.
If people don’t mind checking in on Foursquare their taste can control the music playing at a public venue (of course if you care more about your privacy than using Foursquare) your taste won’t be included.
Boing Boing Boom Tschak, Boing Boing Boom Tschak, Peng, Peng Zong, Pssh as the boys from Düsseldorf would say.
Both the Ding Dong Machine No 1 and Youzakk are ideas we will be keeping an eye on.
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