Earliest known recording of the human voice surfaces

A recent discovery of a phonautogram in France’s patent office reveals what seems to be the earliest recording of a human voice.  Created by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville in 1859, the “recording” — a collection of sound waves transcribed on paper — is of a woman singing “Au Clair de la Lune.”

The full story of the discovery was featured in a front-page story in the New York Times today, and the recording itself may be heard at:  http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/.

DRAM and Macs

DRAM has had some reports about Mac users having difficulty with Quicktime and DRAM. If you are a Mac user and find yourself unable to stream music from DRAM, or if your browser crashes after closing the pop-up player window, you might need to download a different version of Quicktime. See DRAM’s announcement for details and fixes for this problem.

More on Naxos for Mac users

Earlier, we encouraged Mac users to download the flip4mac utility to reduce problems with using Naxos. Now, flip4mac seems to be causing its own difficulties, specifically simultaneous playback of tracks when more than one track is selected. Naxos recommends installing Windows Media Player 9 for Mac and disabling flip4mac. Here’s how to disable flip4mac:

As always, please let us know if you have problems with Naxos or any of our other products.

And in further instrument news…

Today’s issue of The Independent includes an article on a new instrument developed by Yamaha and media artist Toshio Iwai that is part sequencer, part performance art.

Tenori-On

A tablet with lights on both the front and back, the Tenori-On was developed in Japan and already has a host of fans, including the Tenorions, a group that works exclusively on the Tenori-On. The article includes a range of perspectives on the instrument’s learning curve. According to Peter Peck, Yamaha’s Tenori-On spokesman:

I don’t need to know anything about music, I’m just pressing lights and buttons. Anyone can walk up to it and make something happen, and be inspired. With a guitar you don’t get that instant reward. But after that initial bit of inspiration, there’s also a huge curve of musical development to learn on the Tenori-On if you really want to get the most out of it.

Visit Yamaha’s Tenori-On site for more details about the instrument, including demos. So far, the Tenori-On is only available in the UK.

For the musician who has everything

One of Luigi Colani’s “Pegasus” Grand Pianos, designed in consultation with Schimmel Pianos of Braunschweig, Germany, is up for sale this month.

Colani “Pegasus” Grand Piano

This piano represents one of only fourteen that were originally built. According to automorrow.com, this instrument is “For sale by the original owner, and kept in pristine condition in their private residence.” Gizmodo provides a few more details about the history of the design and more pictures.