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What's new. What's hot. What they're saying. |
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What ARE they Singing, Anyway? It's not always your ears that need work when you can't pick out the words of an opera. It's the way sopranos hit the high notes that turns syllables into mush. Researchers at the University of New South Wales recently conducted some experiments to investigate "the soprano effect." What they found is that to hit the highest, loudest notes, a singer opens her mouth wide and adjusts her vocal tract in such a way that all vowels sound pretty much the same. "Hard," "hoard," "who'd" and "heard" became indistinguishable in their lab tests. The singers "put their vocal tracts in a shape that is right musically rather than right for speech," according to scientist Joe Wolfe. The effect is most pronounced when they must sing very loud. One article reports that the best can match the decibel level of a jet engine (though perhaps not its subtlety). Read the AP article (in USA Today) or the original summary from the scientific journal Nature
Meanwhile karaoke continues its conquest of popular culture. Fast Company reports that Microsoft's Xbox video game unit now can support karaoke, thanks to XboxKaraoke.com. Described as "the ancient Japanese art of belting out forgotten Neil Diamond songs," the karaoke "corporate team-building rage" is now more portable, with songs downloadable to the Xbox's hard drive. However, the Xbox system does not come with screen and audio speakers, and the songs are relatively expensive. One positive feature is the ability to strip away singing from most CDs, making for on-the-spot karaoke material. Fast Company itself tested the new Xbox system and the premise that "any team comfortable enough to karaoke together can accomplish great things," while at a recent editorial retreat. Their conclusion: "You'll happily do any task for any colleague so long as they never bring up that karaoke incident in public." Visit XboxKaraoke.com Read the Fast Company review "Sadly, This Doesn't Fix Tone Deafness" or their account of their own retreat test of the Xbox karaoke system, "Songs that Bind"
As if there weren't already an (over)abundance of karaoke opportunities in the world, Motorola revealed that the new cell phones it is offering in China are preloaded with a karaoke application. The V730's color screen display's lyrics to follow the downloaded music. To the company's report that the product will not be offered in the US, Forbes magazine editors attach the headline, "Thank Goodness." (Qualcomm has offered a k-phone in Japan since 2001.) Learn more about Motorola or Qualcomm phones
A more creative if somewhat more technically demanding way to make a cell phone distinctively annoying is to craft a custom set of ring tones. They are available for purchase, of course, but Electronic Musician magazine recently published a complete how-to guide for high-tech performers to create their own. Learn to program tones in Electronic Musician article, or visit a typical vendor of ring tones. |
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