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Output’s AI-powered software automatically generates music sample packs from text prompts
Music-creation software company Output just launched an AI tool that generates sample packs based on text prompts. These packs are not sourced from other musicians but from the company’s in-house library.
YouTube Music debuts Samples, a TikTok-style feed for music discovery
In the last few years, basically every platform of consequence has made its own take on TikTok's signature scrolling feed of vertical videos. YouTube Music is the latest. Today, the app will get a vertical video feed called Samples that YouTube describes as a one-tap way to quickly sample and find new music.
This free plugin uses AI to generate music samples from text prompts
The devs behind AI-based sample editing software Samplab are back with a free VST3 plugin that generates samples from text prompts. The appropriately-named TextToSample is a plugin that opens inside your DAW, allowing you to type, say, “bubbly synth melody” to create a, well, bubbly synth melody.
Splice CoSo enlists AI to help you create music quickly with samples
Splice, the popular music production service with millions of samples, has just unveiled a new way to find inspiration from those sounds.
Porsche's 'Soundtrack My Life' delivers custom music based on your driving
Porsche has developed a prototype system that plays custom, original music to your driving, whether you're on the open road or stuck in traffic.
Japan's space agency shows off samples collected from asteroid Ryugu
Japan’s space agency JAXA has opened the space probe Hayabusa2’s recently-returned sample capsule and found that the mission did succeed in collecting material from the asteroid Ryugu.
Amazon ends creepy program that sent samples based on purchase history
It's normally a bad thing when companies take freebies away, but you might not mind quite so much in this case. Amazon is ending a Product Sampling program that sent free samples of cosmetics, protein bars and other goods based on your shopping habits. While the company didn't explain why it was closing the machine learning-based program in a statement to CNBC, it did say the initiative would shut down sometime in 2020. It's not hard to see reasons why Amazon might shutter the program, mind you.
Merlin and Dubset strike a deal to help indie artists monetize DJ mixes
Last August, Sony Music made a deal with Dubset, a company that helps rights holders identify samples in songs to ensure they get paid. Apple and Spotify also connected with the licensing company for the streaming services' unofficial mixes, too. Now, indie label Merlin has struck a new deal with Dubset that will hopefully help independent musicians monetize their own samples.
Trap Studio helps you create your own music on any iOS device
Trap Studio (US$2.99) is a music creation app that includes more than 350 samples created by Prime Loops. Along with that, the app features dual Oxford Synthesizer Company (OSC) Synthesizers, and you can import samples and apply many effects to them to create a unique sound. Sounds from Prime Loops have been featured in chart-topping tracks from artists such as Skrillex, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, and Grammy Award winning producers including RedOne & DJ Frank E. Samples are categorized as Drums, Bass, Synth and SFX, and you can apply effects like distortion, echo, flanger and more to your samples as well. There is a virtual keyboard so you can enter your own compositions. Use your iOS device built-in microphone to add vocals or other audio, and then saved tracks can be uploaded to SoundCloud or shared via email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare. Files are saved in uncompressed .wav format and Trap Studio includes complete documentation. I tried creating some background tracks and it was pretty easy to do even without looking at the help files. You can overlay tracks, of course, and edit their in and out time. I was able to save a project and come back to it later for additional work without any glitches. Trap music originated in the early 2000s from Southern hip hop. More recently, music producers have re-energized the genre by putting elements of Trap into their music. There is an amazing amount of useful technology crammed into Trap Studio. It's a testament to how far iOS has come and how useful iOS devices are as solid content creation platforms. Putting a Digital Audio Workstation on a phone would have have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Trap Studio is reasonably priced, and was solid in my testing. My music skills never got much beyond playing the trumpet in high school and college band and orchestra, but Trap Studio is easy to use and powerful. For those who need to create, Trap Studio is an inexpensive purchase. In the hands of a good musician, it's a powerful tool. The Trap Studio website has more info and some demo videos and songs. Trap Studio requires iOS 7 or later, and it is optimized for the iPhone 5.
De La Soul can't sell their old music online yet, so they're giving it away for one day only
While internet music services promise limitless shelves full of songs for purchase from iTunes and Amazon or streaming from Spotify, Pandora and the rest, there are a few holes in the catalog. De La Soul's unique brand of hip-hop is among the missing tracks -- even after long holdouts like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles have gone digital -- owing to label and sample clearance issues, but that problem is about to be fixed. The group tells Rolling Stone that its entire catalog will be available for download tomorrow, for 25 hours starting at 11AM ET. According to group member Posdnous, "Its been too long where our fans haven't had access to everything," despite a "trying" journey to wrangle all the clearance details. Serving as a celebration for the 25th anniversary of its debut album 3 Feet High and Rising (and timely promotion for the upcoming EP Preemium Soul on the Rocks and album You're Welcome,), it should help fans fill in the hole left by long-discarded CDs and tapes. The tracks will appear on wearedelasoul.com, set the bookmark and your alarm now for a mid-Valentine's Day present to your ears tomorrow.
Sony Alpha A99 DSLR sample shots and video, plus comparison with the RX1 full-frame compact
Sony's A99 marks the first time in years that the company has built a full-frame pro rig to compete with the big boys from Canon and Nikon. The hardware impressed when we got our hands on one a month ago, but the proof, as they say, is in the pudding -- or in the photos in this case. So, we jumped at the chance to spend some time shooting with an A99 equipped with a 24 -70mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar T Zoom Lens. Want to know how Sony's latest and greatest performed? Head on past the break to find out.
Sony Alpha NEX-6 sample shots and video
Sony's fourth member of the acclaimed NEX family of cameras, the NEX-6, predictably slots in between the 5N and 7 in its mirrorless product lineup. We've seen the 6 hardware a few times, and now we've gotten to take some pictures with the thing. Want to know how its 16.1-megapixel APS-C sensor performed? Check out our gallery below and head on past the break for a video sample and our impressions.
Sony Cyber-shot RX1 sample images and video
When we first got our hands on Sony's full-frame compact camera, the Cyber-shot RX1, we were allowed to touch it, but we couldn't use it for its stated purpose. Today, however, we got to put its 35mm image sensor and Zeiss Sonnar T* 35mm f/2.0 fixed prime lens to the test at a Sony event in San Francisco. Join us after the break to see a bit more of the City by the Bay and learn how the RX1 performed shooting stills and video.
Engadget Primed: digital audio basics
Primed goes in-depth on the technobabble you hear on Engadget every day -- we dig deep into each topic's history and how it benefits our lives. You can follow the series here. Looking to suggest a piece of technology for us to break down? Drop us a line at primed *at* engadget *dawt* com. Digital audio. There's a very good chance that you've enjoyed some today. It's one of the more universal aspects of technology. In fact, perhaps the more relevant question would be, when was the last time you listened to an analog format? The truth, for many, will be quite some time ago -- vinyl purists and the odd cassette fanatic aside. Yet, despite its ubiquity, there's a lot of misunderstanding and confusion about digital audio. Some believe it'll never match analog for true fidelity, some assert quite the opposite. Many lament the lack of a tactile format, while others love the portability that comes with zeros and ones. In this installment of Primed, we take a look at the history of digital sound, as well as provide an introduction to some of its key components, with the view to helping us understand it better. Wondering what bitrate to encode your MP3s at? Or whether you should choose a 96 or 44.1KHz sample rate? We thought as much. By the time we're through, these questions should no longer lay heavy on your mind, and you can enjoy that latest Knife Party, or Britney track as much as its bit depth allows. What's bit depth you say? Well, read on to find out...
Nikon D800 studio samples posted at DPReview (update: 5D Mark III studio sample added)
Nikon faced some backlash following the announcement of its D800 DSLR, due both to the camera's potentially excessive 36.3-megapixel resolution and its relatively limited top sensitivity of ISO 25,600. Then, less than one month later, Canon revealed its own mid-range full-frame cam -- the 5D Mark III -- with a 22.3-megapixel sensor, and an option to shoot at ISO 102,400. Both models appeal to the same market of professional photographers, but with vastly different specs, which is the better pick? Low-light shooters will likely base part of that decision on high-ISO capabilities, and after reviewing samples from both cameras, there appears to be a winner.DPReview spent some time with the D800, and we took the Canon for a spin last week. We scaled the D800 sample down to 22.3 megapixels to match the 5D, then pasted a 300-by-400 1:1 pixel section from each camera side-by-side in the image above. The D800 JPEG (on the left) appears to be the noisier of the two, which seems logical, considering that Nikon opted to boost the camera's resolution instead of its sensitivity. Still, the cam's top-ISO is quite usable, and if you plan to shoot in a studio setting or can live without a six-digit sensitivity, the D800 will likely suit you just fine. Hit up our source link for samples shot at the full ISO range, including full-res downloads, to make that call for yourself.Update: We've replaced the Canon sample with a studio shot from DPReview, which provides a more accurate comparison. You can find images from both cameras at our source links below.
Nokia 808 PureView first sample shots -- feast your eyes (update: GigaPan them!)
This is it. Here's an exclusive first look at some sample shots taken with Nokia's freshly minted 808 PureView imaging powerhouse -- and wow, just wow! The collection contains photos taken at different resolutions in various conditions that show exactly what the 41-megapixel camera is capable of. Feast your eyes in our gallery below -- we'll have a ZIP file with the original pictures for you to download shortly. Also, stay tuned for our upcoming interview with Damian Dinning, program manager for imaging at Nokia. Update: Our very own Andy Yang of Engadget Chinese slapped a few of these shots on GigaPan for your zooming pleasure -- check it out after the break. You can also grab the originals (a 31.8MB download) from Nokia Conversations.
NASA developing tractor beams, no plans for Death Star... yet (video)
Fully functional LightSabre aside, a tractor beam has to be high on most geek wish-lists; lucky for you NASA has started working on one. Before you drop your sandwich (or whatever that object in your left hand is), this won't be for sucking up star cruisers, but the more modest task of sample and space dust collection. The basic concept has already been proven, but now NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist has given boffins $100,000 to make the dream a reality. Three potential methods are already on the table, which in lay-terms resemble laser tweezers, a light vortex and a conceptual rippling beam. Once developed, it could signal the end of traditional mechanical sample collecting -- and just plain luck -- consigning robotic arms to the history books. Check the video after the break for science-tastic mock up of how it might work.
Panasonic GF2 crashes the Engadget reader meetup, collects a gallery of memories / sample images
Our reader meetup this past Friday in San Francisco was infiltrated by a somewhat unusual assailant, Panasonic's GF2 Micro Four Thirds shooter. Sporting a new, significantly thinner, pancake lens primed at 14mm with a maximum F2.5 aperture, this eminently portable camera managed to sneak into the building while concealed inside one of our editors' jacket pockets. As we've said before, the major difference between the GF2 and the GF1 for us is that the new model really feels like a compact point-and-shoot, to the point of making us forget that it has a DSLR-sized sensor within it. We've put together the following galleries, which were mostly shot in the fully automatic mode, to give you a taste of how Panasonic's latest handles the challenges of a poorly lit nighttime scene, on the one hand, and a gorgeous sunny day, on the other. Enjoy! %Gallery-117921% %Gallery-117923%
NVIDIA announces quad-core Kal-El SOC, promises it in tablets by August (video)
So it turns out that NVIDIA roadmap we saw last month was as true and pure as driven snow. The barely conceivable quad-core Tegra chip that it listed has now been made official by none other than NVIDIA itself, with the company also informing us that the new silicon is already sampling out to prospective clients. Known as Kal-El internally, this will most likely turn into NVIDIA's Tegra 3 as and when it's ready to enter the consumer market. Tonight NVIDIA whetted our appetite for what's to come with a demo that can most fittingly be described as an exhibition of unadulterated computational muscle. A 2560 x 1440 stream was being decoded on a developmental device, scaled down to that slate's native 1366 x 768 resolution, and additionally displayed on a connected 30-inch, 2560 x 1600 monitor. That entire voluminous workload was being handled in real time by Kal-El and we saw no signs of it struggling. By NVIDIA's own estimation, the quad-core newbie provides roughly double the processing power of Tegra 2 and triple the graphics-crunching prowess. In the second demonstration of the evening, we saw an instance of Great Battles Medieval -- ran at 720p with 650 enemy soldiers on the field -- on both a Tegra 2 and a Kal-El platform, which showed the baby superhero handily dusting its still very new brethren. This was in large part down to the full dozen GPU cores contained within Kal-El, though before you freak out about battery-draining insanity, NVIDIA claims things are much, much more efficient as well -- up to 12 hours of HD video playback are promised under the right circumstances. It's a big fat wedge of awesome boasts we've heard from the GeForce maker today, however the company's given us a schedule to hold it to as well. The "August timeframe" is when the quad-core Kal-El is expected to land in tablets, while smartphones will have to wait until the holiday season to benefit from what's likely to be a slightly downgraded variant. Skip past the break to eye the future Tegra roadmap for the next few years plus video of the wildly impressive demos we were witness to. %Gallery-116789%
iTunes' 90-second song previews go live on select songs, US-only for now
Apple's flipped the switch on extending iTunes preview clips to the totally revolutionary length of 90 seconds. Only songs that last for two and a half minutes or longer and a limited number of artists are benefiting from this change -- which seems to be of Apple's unilateral doing -- and it's only effective in the US iTunes Store. Trust us, we checked our UK accounts and were met with those mediocre, entirely unsatisfying 30-second previews on everything. We reckon there's still a little more intrigue left in this tale, particularly when it comes to propitiating the record labels and securing international deals, but we'll leave those negotiations to the well shaven dudes in expensive suits -- for you and us, there's a whole load of Black Eyed Peas and Kanye West stuff to go and preview.
