It is SrutiBox's 2nd birthday in the App Store!
You, my beloved readers, carnatic fans and droners, have bought nearly 3000 of them!

I just uploaded SrutiBox 1.3 for approval in the App Store - this version runs in the background as well it should under iOS 4.0.
The only thing is, the accelerometer gets turned off in the background ( it's something that happens with Wind Chimes too ...) so the pumping feature doesn't work there, but otherwise, it's really useful.
Also, I ported over the base frequency fine tuner from Droneo: so if you are using SrutiBox with a "real" instrument that has its own peculiar tuning, you can get it pretty close with this convenient slider.

As a side effect, I noticed that the AppStore no longer is interested in apps that will run under 2.0. I had to bump it up to 3.0. Sorry, impecunious and cautious early adopters!


Droneo is also getting an update, but it's more ambitious, because Droneo is where the real drone research is going.

see the NYT's Bit's blog article at:This link

"...but is it art?" - them's always fightin' words!

December 4, 2009, 7:57 PM
An iPhone Can Make Music, but Is It Art?
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER AND MIGUEL HELFT
Is music still music when the instrument is an iPhone?



Computer based music has been around for decades, and an iPhone or iPod Touch is a great way to bring these ideas and techniques about musical composition, timbral quality, microrhythms and non trivial real time manipulation of sound out of the lab in into the pockets of millions of people. Smule's apps are very popular - and get a lot of publicity as well - and the iPhone is joining forces with the already extant 8Bit subculture as a popular digital folk instrument. That the 'phone is being used in more traditional concert situations is also encouraging: Dr. Pauline Oliveros, recognized with the 2009 Schuman Award for a lifetime of musical achievement, will be using my iPhone app, SrutiBox as part of a concert in March 2010 at Columbia University's Miller Theater to honor her work.

I've submitted SrutiBox v 1.2.2 ... mostly to fix a bug that probably nobody gets yet, but may crop up in a future OS.

Version 1.2.2 fixes some minor bugs and tweaks the available timbres a bit.
- the base frequency can be set down to 0.01, which is good for impulse experiments.
- new Impulse 2 timbre
- faster building vocal timbres.
- bug having to do with non-scrolling Instructions fixed.

Extra fun:

Poking about in my stats, I see that more than 2,000 SrutiBoxes have been sold!

Thank you, customers and droning fans!

I am now using a business card with a picture of the Srutibox Screen on it.

See you at Kingston Digital Corridor Nite at Keegan Ales (Kingston, NY).

Noted composer Pauline Oliveros is on tour in Europe and she's using SrutiBox in a number of interactive pieces!

This is coming soon!

Pauline Oliveros at Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music ? Droniphonia with iPHONES, Spatialization, Streaming environments and Multiple Instruments (2009) :: May 16, 2009;7:30 pm :: SARC, Harty Room and the Whitla Hall, Queen?s Unversity, Belfast.

Droniphonia is based on the iPHONE application Srutibox by Henry Lowengard with environmental streams from Locus Sonus. Concept by Pauline Oliveros. Droniphonia has polytonal drones continually morphing timbres, volumes and fundamentals moving in space. Networked musicians (Belfast, Banff and Troy NY) listen to the drones and develop gradually overlapping improvised sounds and phrases - first solo and then between two or three players at a time in a slowly growing density and texture. Different musical characters appear unexpectedly from time to time out of no where on a one time basis. Finally all players weave their way in and out of the droneophony sharing the unknown finale.

Players: Pedro Rebelo - iPHONE/piano :: Franziska Schroeder - soprano saxophone :: Gascia Ouzounian - violin :: Manuela Meier - accordion :: Justin Yang - saxophone :: Pauline Oliveros - iPHONE/bandoneon :: Doug Van Nort (Troy NY) - laptop :: Chris Chafe (Banff. Alberta) - iPHONE/celleto :: Spatialization and mix by Chris Corrigan.


If YOU have used SrutiBox, Droneo, Wind CHimes or Lake Piano in performance or in public... send me a note about it! And if you actually like these programs, a nice review is always appreciated!