MHD+

In addition to our usual hacking session, and with the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the Music Hack Day initiative, this year we are organizing some special activities at our MHD in Barcelona within the Sónar+D Festival.

One of the activities we are preparing for this celebration is an exhibition within the space @ Sónar+D) of some of the best hacks in MHD since its first edition in London 2009. The list of best hacks was carefully selected by a group of MHD veterans and experts and is as follows:

CloudChamber by Iain Butterworth & Christian Baker and sponsored by SoundCloud (London - 2011)

A service to reverbize your sounds using SoundCloud and the reverb chamber at the National Physical Laboratory UK. You submit a SoundCloud track and it will play in a chamber designed for perfect reverb, get recorded and send back to you when it’s done.

Dj Spotify by Yuli Levtov (Cannes - 2014)

The hack gives users the ability to play full DJ sets, including beat-matching and effects, with Spotify as the content source. A second instance of Spotify is hosted in a virtual machine allowing two consecutive streams.

TourrentPlans by Ben Fields (Cannes - 2012)

Which artists are popular where according to illegal downloads, then use concert planning service Songkick's data to outline the perfect tour for an artist in a given city. A solid attempt at a tool to help artists monetize their pirating fan base. Still gets attention a few years later.

Huesound by Robert Kaye, Anton Stroganov and Madhavi Jagdish (San Francisco - 2011)

This hack is a well executed exploration of alternate modes of discovery. By browsing via album art cover color some really fun serendipitous music discovery can occur.

Free(CC) it! by Frederic Font (Barcelona - 2012)

Free(CC)it! is a music system that frees any copyrighted music from their authors rights. You just have to select a song and Free(CC)it! will create a license-free version for you to use anytime anywhere! Free(CC)it! rebuilds any song using Creative Commons content from Freesound.

Jamming invasion by Aimar Gonzalez, Alfonso Pardo and Javi Aranega (Barcelona - 2012)

This hack is an app called 'Jamming Invasion' inspired by the classic videogame 'Space Invaders'. Our starting point was creating a simple app using the data from any song you choose from SoundCloud. In the game, the enemies appearing in the screen correspond to the frequencies of the song in that precise moment (at the left the low-frequencies and at the right the higher ones). It is also possible to play with friends by pluging an instrument or a microphone and fighting in real-time against his screaming!




Exhibition of Neuro hacks at MHD+

Together with the selection of the best hacks, people visiting the MTG stand in the MarketLab will also have the chance to try new interactive musical interfaces based on brain activity. Two applications developed within the Neuro-track in last year's MHD will be expanded both in technological and business aspects. The two selected applications are Play your Mood, a music explorer based on the users' emotional states, and P300 Harmonies, a musical interface for patients with locked-in syndrome. The goals of this residency is to boost the development of these projects, and to promote the entrepreneurial spirit.

These two projects will be technologically supported by Starlab, whereas Barcelona Activa and the crowdfunding platform Seed&Click will provide business support to the selected creators. This initiative is promoted by KiiCS, and the Observatori de Comunicació Científica (OCC) of Universitat Pompeu Fabra.