I mean, come on, these are laptops

Date:September 5, 2007 / year-entry #331
Tags:non-computer
Orig Link:https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20070905-01/?p=25253
Comments:    2
Summary:Last year, Weekend America (co-hosted by former Seattleite Bill Radke-we miss you, Bill!) did a story on the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, which calls itself PLOrk. It's an interesting experiment, but computer music doesn't really move me. It's not the computer-ness that bugs me (I was fascinated by music played on Gameboys, after all) but rather...

Last year, Weekend America (co-hosted by former Seattleite Bill Radke—we miss you, Bill!) did a story on the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, which calls itself PLOrk. It's an interesting experiment, but computer music doesn't really move me. It's not the computer-ness that bugs me (I was fascinated by music played on Gameboys, after all) but rather the lack of traditional musicality.

That said, the chord that opens the piece on online gambling creeps me out. Not because of the piece itself, but because it is dangerously reminiscent of the chord played at the Tulalip Casino, a steady synthesized triad played at low volume so you can barely hear it. And after a while, you simply stop hearing it, and then you have to whack yourself on the head and make yourself hear it again because allowing it to sink into your subconscious means that they've won.


Comments (2)
  1. Mr Cranky says:

    What is this semi-audible chord you speak of?  I’ve never been to a casino, nor do I expect to anytime.  

    When I first brought my new noise-canceling headphones to work, I was surprised to find out there was a considerable level of white noise going on that I’d never noticed.  A coworker told me it was done because it reduces the perception of crowd noise in our converted-warehouse office building.

  2. gerrard says:

    i saw a presentation by the leader of the group a few months ago and I was completely underwhelmed. I’ve seen people make great music with two sticks and a piece of string, or with random bits of electronics, but this was really technology for technology’s sake. After the presentation someone asked (completely reasonably IMO) for the leader to hum the tune of one of their pieces and the guy pretended not to understand the question. yawn.

Comments are closed.


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