Computer Music

Not many know that computers (essentially signal processing) can be used to synthesize music. Computers have been used to evaluate music performances, compose music, participate in orchestra, etc. And is a fun area to work in.

Check

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_synthesizer for electronic music instruments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_music for larger scope of computer music.

I have not seen much work in synthesizing Indian musical instruments like Santoor, Sitar, Veena, Ghatam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghatam), Tabla, etc. Much of this work is doable.

How do you test whether your synthesized ‘Ghatam’ program is as good as real ghatam? Send  it to Carnatic music experts and ask them to evaluate the performance. If human experts cannot differentiate synthesized ghatam from real ghatam, you have achieved the basic solution. After that one can look at improvising the instrument further.

There is an annual Computer Music Conference. Check

http://www.computermusic.org/

for latest work in this area.

Create your own comic strip!

I got this from JonStar, a site where you can create your own comic strip.

And this is the strip I created in about five minutes :-).

Have Fun!!

This is our life by Rajneesh Kapoor

One of my favorite hobbies is to keep track of cartoonists. This might have started right from my days with Time of India – R. K. Laxman all the way to some of the best cartonists in the world.

Recently, I came across Rajneesh Kapoor’s cartoons.

He brings out day-to-day aspects of ‘Indian life’ very well. He puts in quite a different/cynical/sarcastic yet humourous view.

Have Fun!