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A New Kind Of Heist: Six Apps For Free

Those crazy MacHeisters are at it again, and this time the deal is even harder to resist.
The first ever MacHeist Nano won’t cost you a penny. You can download, without charge, fully licensed copies of ShoveBox, WriteRoom, Twitterific, TinyGrab, and Hordes of Orcs. If 500,000 people take part (which I think is a pretty safe [...]

Getting More iPhone Home Screens – And Keeping Them

A couple of weeks back, I wrote Temporarily Get More iPhone Home Screens Via Cunning Bug Exploit, but had heard staying away from the iTunes Applications tab within my iPhone was probably a Very Good Idea. Reader Larry Pressnell noted that since the most recent iTunes update, his extra screens have been accessible in iTunes.
Since [...]

Cult of Mac Favorite: MobileStacks Is the Best Reason To Jailbreak. Period.

I really like Stacks on my Mac. Stacks makes it fast and easy to find files, folders and apps right from the Dock. It makes managing a Mac pretty slick with all sorts of little UI tricks. That’s why I recently gave MobileStack a go on my jailbroken iPhone.
I must say that it lives up to the [...]

Gallery: Behind the Scenes From Two Classic Apple TV Ads

Is this Steve Jobs driving a tank in a classic Apple TV spot from the late 1990s? That was the rumor at the time: Jobs was making cameos in Apple commercials.
Ken Segall, the TBWA ad man responsible for naming the iMac and Think Different, reveals the truth after the jump. He also shares some rare [...]

Turn Your iPhone into an Ocarina

1:30 pm, November 6th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar

Today, Stanford professor Dr. Ge Wang and his company, Smule, introduced Ocarina, the first and only app that transforms the iPhone into an expressive musical wind instrument.

The app synthesizes sound in real-time, just like a regular instrument, based on actual gestures including wind input, tilt, and finger placement over the four holes overlaid on the multi-touch pad. Unlike other iPhone audio apps, the sound is not pre-compiled but is generated by the notes, gestures and nuance of the individual performer. As a result, it allows an iPhone user to explore and master the musical sounds of an entirely iPhone-native version of an ancient flute-like instrument.

Smule’s audio engine (CHiP) and the Smule Sonic Network make it possible to hear live performances around the world. With the globe view, you can hear performances, and see the origin of that performance.

Dr. Wang, in addition to being CTO of Smule, is director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra, and the author of the Chuck audio programming language.

Formation of the first iPhone Philharmonic cannot be far behind. Perhaps one day, iPhone music will be its own category at the Grammys.

Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Music, News, Software, iPhone | Comment on this article

About the author

Lonnie Lazar

Lonnie Lazar is a writer, musician, web designer attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.

Email the author | Read more posts by Lonnie Lazar.

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7 comments

    I’m pretty sure, if you play zelda’s “song of time” on it, the awesome power of the iPhone will actually take you back in time :p

    John, on November 6th, 2008 at 1:35 pm

    [...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptTurn Your iPhone into an Ocarina November 6th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar Today, Stanford professor Dr. Ge Wang and his company, Smule, introduced Ocarina, the first and only app that transforms the iPhone into an expressive musical wind instrument. The app synthesizes sound in real-time, just like a regular instrument, based on actual gestures including wind input, tilt, and finger placement over the four holes overlaid on the multi-touch pad. Unlike other iPhone audio apps, the sound is not pr [...]

    Turn Your iPhone into an Ocarina, on November 6th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

    [...] CultofMac / Smule addthis_url = [...]

    Ocarina will turn your iPhone musical | Your articles stop, on November 7th, 2008 at 1:46 am

    [...] | Cult of Mac Condividi questo [...]

    Simule trasforma l'iPhone in un'ocarina | 0.2, on November 7th, 2008 at 2:39 am

    [...] auch Noten (Kumbaya scheint ein unausweichlicher Feature-Song zu sein) und einen Noten-Generator. (via) Autor:Datum:Kategorie:Tags: Richard Joos, Chefredakteur07.11.2008, 12:26 [...]

    iPhone-Okarina: Flöten mit dem Handy » MACNOTES.DE, on November 7th, 2008 at 3:38 am

    [...] CultofMac / [...]

    Ocarina will turn your iPhone musical | Mobile, on November 10th, 2008 at 1:24 am

    [...] know we’ve covered Ocarina here before, but I’m a latecomer to it and I’m so blown away, I had to have a rant about it. [...]

    Opinion: The Astonishing Accomplishment Of Ocarina | Cult of Mac, on November 19th, 2008 at 12:03 pm