Ocarina makes beautiful music on an iPhone
We live in interesting times, especially when it comes to technology. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us 10 years from now.
I’m also gratified to know that I really won’t have to wait 10 years to see some pretty amazing stuff.
There’s always something new and exciting happening right now and just around the corner.
This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which was in Las Vegas in January, teased some new innovations scheduled to hit dealer shelves this year.
In the meantime, there’s something pretty amazing on the iPhone and there’s a major buzz about it. I’ve been practicing on it for a few weeks now and I get big reactions from anyone who’s seen and heard me playing it. Ocarina is an application that converts your iPhone into a wind instrument.
Music on the iPhone isn’t news, because it’s already a very cool mp3 player. And there are several apps that let you play things such as a miniature piano keyboard so you can bang out some synthesized music and such. But they were never intended to be anything with which you could be serious.
Ocarina takes it to that next level by transforming the iPhone into something that’s close to a real musical instrument.
I guess it’s all in how you actually define a musical instrument. If it’s something you can just pick up and play without any practice, chances are it’s not a musical instrument.
Of course, there are always exceptions, such as the triangle, cymbals, maracas and other similar percussive instruments.
An instrument that plays notes usually requires lots of practice, and Ocarina certainly falls into that category.
The app is named after the little wind instrument that produces a hauntingly beautiful, rich monophonic tone.
It sports little holes that you cover and open with your fingers. By blowing into the ocarina, you can control the volume as well as a tremolo or quavering effect.
The Ocarina app on the iPhone does one heck of a job simulating the real thing.
Ocarina’s imaginative and creative programmers are to be commended for using iPhone abilities in a way that was never intended.
For example, the iPhone’s little microphone intended for speech is now used to sample the intensity of your breath. As you blow into the microphone, the Ocarina app translates how hard or soft you are blowing into a corresponding volume.
The harder or softer you blow, the louder or softer the sound. This allows you to add expression or “feeling” as you play, just as you can do with the real instrument.
Modulating your breath will also produce a tremolo. Using the accelerometer, you can also tilt the iPhone to change vibrato rate and depth. The screen shows four “holes” you manipulate to produce notes on a chromatic scale allowing you to play most any tune one note at a time.
As you play the sounds, the screen depicts an animation of intersecting, expanding sound waves that correspond to what you are playing, making the observer’s experience both aural, visual and hypnotic.
You can also select alternative musical modes that produce different types of scales.
As if that weren’t enough, you can select a screen that displays an animated image of the globe where you can actually hear others playing their Ocarinas!
If you find someone who’s really good, you can bookmark them for future enjoyment. Additional options let you configure the Ocarina’s hole positions and shape, and choose to share your playing with others or keep it private until you become a virtuoso.
You can set up an account on the Smule website to view fingering diagrams for a wide variety of songs and more.
Or just go to the Smule website to hear a quintet of ocarinas playing along with a guitarist performing “Stairway to Heaven.” It’s wonderful.
As a musician myself (I play the piano), this has given me many hours of enjoyment and entertainment. And while I’m still not very good on it, the reactions I get from those seeing me play my cellphone are priceless.
Most amazing of all is that it sells for just 99 cents.
Now go out there and blow them away.
For more details, go to www.smule.com.
Craig Crossman is a national newspaper columnist writing about computers and technology. He also hosts the No. 1 daily national computer radio talk show, “Computer America,” heard on Business TalkRadio Monday through Friday, 10 p.m.-midnight. For more information, visit his website at www.computeramerica.com.
2011, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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