rth labs

RTH Labs Calls for Rock ‘n Roll Video Game Proposals

Nov 102008

You may have read that the surving Beatles and the dead members’ spouses have signed off on the creation of a Beatles video game planned for release by Christmas 2009. The big Beatles fans in RTH Labs’ R&D department were briefly excited. Then we remembered how unimpressed, on a rock ‘n roll level, we’ve been by Guitar Hero and Rock Band, two groundbreaking rock video games that are for all purposes Dance Dance Revolution for the fingertips.

What key elements from the rock ‘n roll experience are missing from today’s rock video games that RTH Labs could provide in a new rock video game? We would like your input, Townspeople, on designing the perfect rock ‘n roll video game. You’ve witnessed the development of Strat-o-Matic Rock ‘n Roll. Now help us push into new frontiers!

Don’t worry: any suggestion you make here is fully protected by copyright and patent laws. By reading this post, you have acknowledged that RTH Labs will allow you to keep a small portion of the future earnings from your ideas. Thank you, Rock Town Hall!

RTH Labs Tone Exercise, Part II — Bringing It All Forwards Home

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Oct 302008

Here’s a follow-up message I received from RTH Labs Senior Analyst Milo T. Frobisher this morning:

Greetings, Hrrundi!

Well, I see that the pale and pasty residents of the Hall have acquitted themselves surprisingly well on our most recent laboratory challenge. Nevertheless, I suspect many will be surprised when they hear the songs that continue to mystify them — once they hear them “forwards.” Would you be so kind as to post the collage I sent, in “forwards” mode?

Thank you again for your dedicated service to the scientific pursuit of rock and roll.

Sincerely,

Milo T. Frobisher
Senior Research Analyst
RTH Labs

Milo’s wish, as always, is my command. Here’s the file in question.

HVB

RTH Labs: Tone Exercise, Part I — Please Backwards Please

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Oct 272008

Milo T. Frobisher, Senior Research Analyst at RTH Labs, sent along the following, asking for your assistance:

Greetings, Hrrundi —

I wonder if you’d be so kind as to post the attached file on Rock Town Hall at your earliest convenience. It may help address the issue of “instant recollection” that some claim is possible upon hearing a few distinctive notes played on an elctric amplified guiitar. Our goal in assembling the audio sampler I’ve forwarded is to determine whether the notes are what is being recognized by RTH’s over-educated rock nerds, or the “tone” of the guitars in question. I for one have my doubts about the possibility that “tone” on its own is sufficient to generate recollection, but, with the help of RTH’s membership, we shall see.

Here is the file in question.

You’ll note that all the audio samples in this collage are backwards. This should have no effect upon tone, but ought to do a reasonable job masking the musical phrases in question. I assure you all of the tunes in question, when played “forwards,” ought to be quite easily recognized by the basement-dwelling, mac-and-cheese-eating, pock-marked denizens of the Hall. To make matters easier, the RTH Labs have selected only the first second of all the songs being sampled.

If, as I suspect, few of the sampled songs are recognized, please post the second file I’ve attached, which features these same songs, played *forwards*. And please make it clear to those Townsmen with recording facilities enabling them to “flip” these tunes on their own, that doing so would run counter to both the spirit and technical purpose of this exercise.

Thank you once again for your service to the advancement of science in rock and roll, Hrrundi. You are a great asset to these halls, to be sure.

Sincerely,

Milo T. Frobisher
Senior Research Analyst
RTH Labs

Cookie Monster Sings the Hits… Sorry, the Hit.

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Sep 272008

While undertaking some fascinating online research for RTH Labs recently, I came across the following song, from a collection of tunes I’m sure every RTHer is familiar with. I ask you: was there ever a more clueless cover than this one?

Here’s the FULL VERSION of the song.

A further challenge: see if you can listen without busting out laughing. I confess I cannot.

I look forward to your responses.

HVB

Proposal for Rock Town Hall Labs: Songs in the Key of Man

Posted by KingEd

Mar 172008

Despite quadrennial proclamations in the media of the Year of Women in Rock, rock ‘n roll has remained a male-driven art form. However, the commercial end of the genre requires a broader scope. As any local rock band can tell you, to build an audience, you’ve got to get the ladies in the door and near the stage. For every woman a rock band (male or female led) attracts near the front of the stage at its shows, three dudes in the club pull themselves away from the bar or back of the room and get closer to what’s actually the Main Attraction that night, any night.
Continue reading »

I SUMMON HOMEFRONTRADIO TO FURTHER DISCUSS MATTERS OF COMPRESSION

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 122008

No disaster here!

In last week’s Carl Newman thread, our passionate and highly knowledgeable friend Homefrontradio, the Thunder Down Under, wrote about his disgust with modern-day dependence on compression. Among other things he wrote:

Basically, as you play the song loud, there’s a random noise field being generated on top of the song that’s a is physically-disturbing to how our ears are designed to hear music.

A digital waveform representation of Billy Corgan’s Look?

Maybe that’s not his most representative comment from this thread, but it struck a chord with me. It reminded me of our ongoing examination of Lou Reed…as his music was meant to sound! Seriously, I highly recommend going back and checking out what Townsman Homefrontradio has to say on these issues of compression. It’s great stuff that musicians and fans of new and old music can get into. And learn from. And trust me, Homefrontradio’s displayed a gear geek side, but he’s got a sense of humor about his quest and he’s what we call Good People!
Continue reading »

Where Was INXS When I Needed Them?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 242008

Yesterday I heard the following song on the radio for the first time since it came out and was part of a popular album owned by college freshman girls I might have been trying to date. In fact, I’m certain that I tolerated the playing of this album in my presence a half dozen times for the greater good of enjoying the company of the young woman in whose dorm room I was sitting. The singer’s voice was good for this kind of stuff, but still…

This audio-only clip should give you a fair idea of what I heard in the car yesterday. You won’t be distracted by any annoying ’80s video slo-mo techniques and asymmetric hairdos.

For the good of Rock Town Hall, I made myself listen to this Yaz song, “Situation”, yesterday, with no college freshman riding shotgun. (You’re welcome.) As the stereo synth tricks settled down and the song got underway, I thought to myself, Where was INXS when I needed them? Had I entered college a few years later, that college freshman may have been playing me her INXS album instead of Yaz.

Do you see how the structure of this Yaz song is so like the structure of any INXS song? As a songwriting template this is a recipe for ’80s MIDI-mediocrity, but INXS always had the good sense of satisfying the streak of Rockism that was already settling deep within me. By putting some Roxy Music-based rock arrangements into the ’80s equivalent of dimestore garage rock song structure, I could hear this type of boring song without feeling so antsy in that college freshman’s room, without wanting to drive off the side of the road while listening to the Yaz song just yesterday. Can RTH Labs develop a program that runs just about all ’80s synth-pop through the INXS Rockist Cow-Tow Filter?

Older Entries Newer Entries