learningIT

If you are a musician (or wish to be one) who learns by playing along with a CD or mp3,  Capo may be for you. It lets you slow down your favorite songs, so you can hear the notes and learn how they are played (49USD).

The same company also has TapeDeck, which “…is a powerful and fun new audio recorder for Mac OS X Leopard. It’s just like your old analog tape recorder, only better. A lot better.” (25USD)

Next, you have searched for your Creative Commons photos on Flickr for your presentation or video. Why not go all the way and use creative commons music for the soundtrack? “ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want.” You may view a list of other ccMusic sites here.

School Drama Production? 55 Great Websites To Download Free Sound Effects (via Hongkiat)

Create some music on the go: The best music-making apps on the iPhone (via Music Radar)

Numerology is a modular sequencing environment designed for performing musicians. It works by giving the user an organized workspace within which they can quickly create and connect together a variety of highly functional sequencing and MIDI event generating modules. As a fully modular environment, the user can construct sequencing instruments that fit their own unique and twisted requirements. Download a 14 day trial (119USD to buy).

Finally, have a look at this article to get inspired for all the above: 7 Places to Find Inspiration for Songs (via AudioTuts)

UPDATE: also check out 25 Free Digital Audio Editors You Should Know

A few days ago, The Art Teacher’s Guide to the Internet made a post about Sound Art. A friend passed on the following clip to me (thanks Brian D). I love it when the universe comes together like this. From the site:

This incredible machine was built as a collaborative effort between the Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the Sharon Wick School of Engineering at the University of Iowa. Amazingly, 97% of the machines components came from JOHN DEERE Industries and More.. Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft, Iowa. YES, farm equipment!

It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment, calibration, and tuning before filming this video, but as you can see, it was WELL worth the effort. It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian.

UPDATE: (June 16) Is the above a hoax? Read here. Thanks Andrew.

If you like Beethoven, you are probably smart. If you like L’il Wayne, you are uh…dumb apparently.

Hey, don’t get angry at me! This is according to SAT scores. Have a look at how your favourite musical artists could get you labeled and stereotyped here.

“If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way; if you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”

- Frank Banks

Click here for 24 Motivational and Inspirational Quotes to help you get out from being labeled as intelligently challenged (is that correct grammar?).

Instead of music, how about listening to an audio book?

The digital generation has sparked a revival in Britain’s love of audiobooks as figures from the BBC show there have been one million downloads of spoken word titles.

And since we’re on the topic of music, here’s a bit of a promo teaser for the Gorillaz documentary coming out soon. I wonder where they fit on the intelligence spectrum? WARNING: The video contains an expletive around the 36 second mark.