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Hi guys, more of a discussion than a question...

Just watched a great little documentary "When Bjork met Attenborough". Was a Channel 4 programme here in the UK. Not sure if it'll be available to those outside the UK but it's on 4oD here. Thought I'd mention it in case anyone had missed it; it's a perfect little programme for us soundies!!

Essentially talks about how nature and the science of sound inspired Bjorks 'Biophilia' album and has some discussion of sound and nature between her and David Attenborough.

There are some really interesting 'experimental instruments' used on her tours, such as pendulum-driven harps, and a tesla coil used to create a bassline. Bjork also had some aps developed to go alongside the album as a way of teaching and exploring sound and interacting with her music.

Has anyone encountered these Biophilia aps, or used them in any sound design work? Anyone created their own bizarre sound-making machines?! Would love to know if anyone's created some device that they use regularly in their sound design work!

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  • Audio signal processing is not that "special" really, just saying. It's well defined and grounded in mathematics and some theories in physics. As isn't the use of "unconventional" sound sources for making music/sound. Sound design is by the general definition a creative activity, not scientific or technical.
    – Internet Human
    Commented Jul 28, 2013 at 18:46
  • @Internet Human Maybe the 'science of sound' bit in the title is a bit misleading, I'll remove it! Not sure where I said ASP was "special"..?! I believe you're in the UK, did you watch the documentary? I was just saying I found it interesting and inspiring, particulalry the custom instruments that were made / used in it. Trying to tie this all in to the subject of sound design, I'm interested to know if anyone uses some odd DIY creation regularly in their own work. For example, made some contraption out of parts of a corkscrew and stapler to use regularly in gun-handling Foley work etc.
    – Skarik
    Commented Jul 29, 2013 at 12:16
  • i use folktek instruments often in sound design work as well as other DIY synths and modified ethnic instruments. i don't know what else to offer to this thread though except..yea, pretty cool mate. :)
    – Brad Dale
    Commented Jul 29, 2013 at 14:51
  • @Skarik "The science of sound" is misleading, true. What I meant by mentioning ASP and criticizing "the use of unconventional sound sources" is that many times people are astonished/amazed by things that they don't understand. I.e. in this case we COULD BE amazed by "experimental instruments" or "science of sound" or "custom apps" or whatever, but once you realize that those are the reality and a convention, then it's "not something special to be amazed of" in an almost mystical sense, more clearly the things are then just interesting/enjoyable/surprising etc.
    – Internet Human
    Commented Jul 29, 2013 at 15:31

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