Composing/Arranging Familiar Songs in Choir with GarageBand

This practical multi-stage project description demonstrates to teachers how they can engage students in arranging and composing music related to the choral curriculum by using Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) like GarageBand

Features of using digital audio workstations designed for creating electronic music in conditions of informal adult education

У статті наголошено на важливості самоосвіти і саморозвитку дорослих для здійснення ефективної життєдіяльності в сучасному інформаційному суспільстві. Розглянуто можливості застосування аудіо робочих станцій для музичної самоосвіти і саморозвитку особистості дорослих. Проаналізовано основні характеристики і функціональні особливості цифрових аудіо робочих станцій. Описано основні переваги й недоліки використання цифрових аудіо робочих станцій у музичній самоосвіті дорослих. Проведено порівняльний аналіз найпоширеніших у всьому світі цифрових аудіо робочих станцій. Аналіз здійснено на основі вивчення спеціальної літератури, практики використання цифрових аудіо робочих станцій, сайтів розробників цих програм і власного досвіду використання цифрових аудіо робочих станцій. Наразі цифрові аудіо робочі станції є тим інструментом, за допомогою якого створюється більшість електронних музичних творів. Саме тому вміння користуватися секвенсором стає основною вимогою до музичних продюсерів, аранжувальників та звукорежисерів.In the article it is highlighted the importance of self-education and self-development of adults to perform an effective vital activity in the modern information society. It has been considered possibilities of application of audio workstation for musical self-education and self- development of adults. Analysis of basic characteristics and functional features of digital audio workstations is given. The basic advantages and disadvantages of using digital audio workstations in musical self-education of adults are presented. A comparative analysis of the most widespread in the world of digital audio workstations is given. The analysis was carried out by examining of special literature, practical use of digital audio workstations, sites developers of these programs and the experience of using digital audio workstations. At present digital audio workstations is a tool for creating an electronic music. That is why the ability to use the sequencer becomes the main requirement for music producers, arrangers and sound engineers.В статье отмечается важность самообразования и саморазвития взрослых для осуществления эффективной жизнедеятельности в современном информационном обществе. Рассмотрены возможности применения аудио рабочих станций для музыкальной самообразования и саморазвития личности взрослых. Осуществлён анализ основных характеристик и функциональной особенности цифровых аудио рабочих станций. Описаны основные преимущества и недостатки использования цифровых аудио рабочих станций в музыкальной самообразованию взрослых. Проведен сравнительный анализ наиболее распространенных во всем мире цифровых аудио рабочих станций. Анализ осуществлен на основе изучения специальной литературы, практики использования цифровых аудио рабочих станций, сайтов разработчиков этих программ и собственного опыта использования цифровых аудио рабочих станций. Сейчас цифровые аудио рабочие станции является тем инструментом, с помощью которого создается большинство электронных музыкальных произведений. Именно поэтому умение пользоваться секвенсором становится основным требованием к музыкальных продюсеров, аранжировщиков и звукорежиссеров

TINA as a virtual market place for telecommunication and information services: the VITAL experiment

The VITAL (Validation of Integrated Telecommunication Architectures for the Long-Term) project has defined, implemented and demonstrated an open distributed telecommunication architecture (ODTA) for deploying, managing and using a set of heterogeneous multimedia, multi-party, and mobility services. The architecture was based on the latest specifications released by TINA-C. The architecture was challenged in a set of trials by means of a heterogeneous set of applications. Some of the applications were developed within the project from scratch, while some others focused on integrating commercially available applications. The applications were selected in such a way as to assure full coverage of the architecture implementation and reflect a realistic use of it. The VITAL experience of refining and implementing TINA specifications and challenging the resulting platform by a heterogeneous set of services has proven the openness, flexibility and reusability of TINA. This paper describes the VITAL approach when choosing the different services and how they challenge and interact with the architecture, focusing especially on the service architecture and the Ret reference point definitions. The VITAL adjustments and enhancements to the TINA architecture are described. This paper contributes to proving that the TINA-based VITAL ODTA allows for easy and cost-effective development and deployment of advanced end-user and operator services, and can indeed act as the basis for a virtual market place for telecommunications service

Operating-system support for distributed multimedia

Multimedia applications place new demands upon processors, networks and operating systems. While some network designers, through ATM for example, have considered revolutionary approaches to supporting multimedia, the same cannot be said for operating systems designers. Most work is evolutionary in nature, attempting to identify additional features that can be added to existing systems to support multimedia. Here we describe the Pegasus project's attempt to build an integrated hardware and operating system environment from\ud the ground up specifically targeted towards multimedia

Maximising the potential of ICT to provide authentic summative assessment opportunities

This paper reports on elements of a study that was conducted in Western Australia to explore the potential of various forms of digitally based external assessments for senior secondary school courses. One problem that needed addressing was how to provide students with authentic assessment opportunities, particularly in subjects in which performance is an integral component. Traditionally, assessment in many of these subjects was by way of a three-hour paper examination. This established a dichotomy for teachers in which the pedagogy of the subject was very different from the method of assessment. In wanting to maximise their student’s potential for success, many teachers taught to the examination, consequently sacrificing a practical performance approach to the subject for a more theoretical form of delivery

The Original Beat: An Electronic Music Production System and Its Design

The barrier to entry in electronic music production is high. It requires expensive, complicated software, extensive knowledge of music theory and experience with sound generation. Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) are the main tools used to piece together digital sounds and produce a complete song. While these DAWs are great for music professionals, they have a steep learning curve for beginners and they must run native on a user’s computer. For a novice to begin creating music takes much more time, eort, and money than it should. We believe anyone who is interested in creating electronic music deserves a simple way to digitize their ideas and hear results. With this idea in mind, we created a web based, co-creative system to allow beginners and pros alike to easily create electronic digital music. We outline the requirements for such a system and detail the design and architecture. We go through the specifics of the system we implemented covering the front-end, back-end, server, and generation algorithms. Finally, we will review our development time-line, examine the challenges and risks that arose when building our system, and present future improvements

An Architecture For Creating Hosting Plug- Ins For Use In Digital Audio Workstations

Although modern software-based DA Ws (Digital Audio Workstations) offer the ability to interconnect with plug-in effects, they can be restrictive due to their architecture being largely based on hardware mixing desks. This is especially true when complex multi-effect sound design is required. This paper aims to demonstrate how a plug-in that can host other effects plug-ins can help improve the sound design possibilities in a DAW. This hosting plug-in allows other effects to be “inserted” at specific points in its internal signal flow. Details are given of a “proof of concept” plug-in that was created to demonstrate that it was possible to create plug-ins that can host other plug-ins, using Apple’s AU (Audio Unit) format. The proof of concept is a delay effect that allows other effects plug-ins to be inserted in either the “delay path”, “feedback path” or both. This Audio Unit has been extensively tested using different DAWs and has been found to work successfully in a variety of situations. Finally, details are given of how improvements can be made to the plug-in hosting delay

POWER-SUPPLaY: Leaking Data from Air-Gapped Systems by Turning the Power-Supplies Into Speakers

It is known that attackers can exfiltrate data from air-gapped computers through their speakers via sonic and ultrasonic waves. To eliminate the threat of such acoustic covert channels in sensitive systems, audio hardware can be disabled and the use of loudspeakers can be strictly forbidden. Such audio-less systems are considered to be \textit{audio-gapped}, and hence immune to acoustic covert channels. In this paper, we introduce a technique that enable attackers leak data acoustically from air-gapped and audio-gapped systems. Our developed malware can exploit the computer power supply unit (PSU) to play sounds and use it as an out-of-band, secondary speaker with limited capabilities. The malicious code manipulates the internal \textit{switching frequency} of the power supply and hence controls the sound waveforms generated from its capacitors and transformers. Our technique enables producing audio tones in a frequency band of 0-24khz and playing audio streams (e.g., WAV) from a computer power supply without the need for audio hardware or speakers. Binary data (files, keylogging, encryption keys, etc.) can be modulated over the acoustic signals and sent to a nearby receiver (e.g., smartphone). We show that our technique works with various types of systems: PC workstations and servers, as well as embedded systems and IoT devices that have no audio hardware at all. We provide technical background and discuss implementation details such as signal generation and data modulation. We show that the POWER-SUPPLaY code can operate from an ordinary user-mode process and doesn't need any hardware access or special privileges. Our evaluation shows that using POWER-SUPPLaY, sensitive data can be exfiltrated from air-gapped and audio-gapped systems from a distance of five meters away at a maximal bit rates of 50 bit/sec