#tunescape

[tina-rs]

Bounty Hunter Level 1 Ian Taylor RuneScape

[tina-rs]

Stratosphere Ian Taylor RuneScape

[tina-rs]

School’s Out Ian Taylor RuneScape

[mitch-allen]

Notes given to me by one of the people that enjoyed the #Tunescape installation at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival this year. Very grateful for the feedback and time taken to fully appreciate the installation.

[mitch-allen]

#Tunescape

Two soundscape installations form part of the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival for 2014. Both installations explore the use of augmented sound to reinterpret two very different acoustic environments for different outcomes. The two soundscapes are to be installed at location 9 & 36 on this map.

If you're in town, please come along and have a listen. Both installations use the hashtag #tunescape to track feedback and user interaction. Please let me know what you think!

Location 9: Left Bank

Left Bank is one of the main Festival venues. The building is located fronting a main arterial road of Ubud and backs onto a luscious jungle view of Campuhan Ridge. 

Two microphones are set up at high level on each facade of the building to capture the disparate acoustic environments. These captured sounds are then mixed together and processed in real time to resonate at the harmonic frequencies of the traditional Balinese Slendro tonal scale. The low to mid frequencies of the soundscape have been duplicated and the tuning shifted to produce the beating effect purposefully implemented in Balinese Gamelan tuning.

This generative soundscape is then fed to two wall mounted loudspeakers within a semi-reverberant canopy down the side of the building. People attending the festival are invited to reflect upon the symbiotic relationship of the diverse acoustic environments across Ubud and Bali.

https://soundcloud.com/mitchallen-1/tunescape-left-bank

Location 36: Hubud

This installation is a generative soundscape, reproduced binaurally in a listening station within a conference room at Hubud coworking space. The room is fairly acoustically vibrant with road traffic noise entering via the facade and flanking noise from the adjacent open plan area contributing to the overall ambient noise level within the space.

One microphone is set up at the facade to capture and isolate road traffic noise, another XY microphone pair is set up by the listening station to capture the general ambient soundscape of the room. Both captured sounds are again processed in real time to respond to changes in the acoustic environment. Open backed headphones are used to to maintain an aural connection to the space in addition to a subtle mix of unprocessed captured sound from the XY microphone pair.

Subtle additional layers of binaural beats and isochronic tones are also fed to the headphones and have been tuned to a relevant beating frequency to promote learning and concentration. A pilot study will be conducted subsequent to the Festival testing cognitive function within the conference room and the listening station.

https://soundcloud.com/mitchallen-1/tunescape-hubud

If you made it this far...thanks for reading the detail. Please let me know your thoughts: #tunescape.

[mitch-allen]

More testing for second soundscape installation to be installed at Ubud Writers and Readers Festival tonight!

[mitch-allen]

Late night testing for upcoming soundscape installations as part of Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2014.

[indiegamesxbl-blog-blog]

Tunescape

The first indie game I downloaded was Techno Kitten Adventure because the title alone made me crack up. Ninety-two obsessive game purchases later, there is only one game that I consistently come back to on a daily basis: Tunescape.

If you have been wondering why it takes me forever to get these reviews up, it's likely because I am playing Tunescape. All I really needed to see was "But beware of Meteors and Black Holes!" in the description, and I was sold. I will play any game that has anything to do with space. I love sci fi. I would actively try to lucid dream so I could turn my subconscious into a scene from Battlestar Galactica (it didn't work). So, space games are my only realistic option, save becoming the next Sally Ride.

Only, Tunescape winds up not being very space-oriented apart from the few topical facets... so why is it yet another example of an independent game that blows most boxed releases out of the water? Even it its simplicity it is far more intoxicating than games with mind-blowing graphics. 

You control a small orb, collecting multicolored shapes and the occasional star that emit from a large black semi-sphere that moves around the perimeter of the screen . You are to avoid red meteors and large black holes (which, even I have to admit, I'm not exactly sure what they do to you). As you collect more and more, lines within your orb grow more and more solid, indicating your level for each "power". "Blue" gravitates all shapes and stars toward you. "Yellow" provides a temporary shield. "Green" is a speed boost. 

The music, provided by Kevin MacLeod, ranges from addictive trance to soothing Soundscapes channel fare. The levels vary in difficulty, sometimes adding new variables to make it harder; meteor showers, having to control your orb by dragging it on a chain from a smaller orb. You can play with own music. You can even play the credits. 

It's simple, yet it's anger inducing. When I came within a few points of the third diamond on Gamma, the string of curses used likely originated in the depths of one of those black holes. Multiplayer is great, and is the only way I can get through some levels. The music, even if you play for an hour straight, doesn't feel repetitive. Your orb flies about smoothly and the flying asteroid shapes provide a satisfying cereal crunch.

One detrimental flaw is that it seems impossible to use the custom music function.  I get an error every time. I do not know if it is the track (only have one saved to HD for space purposes) because I haven't bothered to investigate as I tend to enjoy the already included tunes. 

The only way to improve this game is to make it free, even though 80 MSPs is much less than this impressive game ought to be. 

Rating: A full crack of the whip Pros: Unique, addictive and challenging.  Cons: I STILL cannot get the hang of the chained orb usage.