In the as3 last.fm api provided over at google code, there is no classes provided for the radio API, which appears to be a fairly recent addition to the last.fm API. The radio API requires 2 key steps. First step is the radio.tune method, where you submit the station URL. For example lastfm://artist/radiohead/similarartists will tune you in to a station which returns Radioheads similar artists. I wrote my own radio class (in a similar style of the other classes provided) which looks a bit like this:

package
{
import KeyValue;
 
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.net.URLRequest;
import flash.net.URLRequestMethod;
import flash.net.navigateToURL;
import flash.net.URLVariables;
 
public class [...]

A large part of my application is the use of the last.fm API to generate customised music listening to replace the radio generated playlist. I have been making good use of actionscript 3 last.fm api over on google code. It has been a huge help in getting last.fm data in to Flash. However, it seems to be an early version, as certain methods are far from complete, including the auth method used to authenticate users.

I have rewritten parts of the auth method so that it is called correctly. Particularly the current requestToken() parameter was a little clunky as it involved [...]

I have suffered a bit of a setback, due to the fact that the streams the BBC offer are not compatible with flash. I contacted James Cridland, who is the head of future media & technology at the BBC (formerly head of digital at Virgin Radio). James writes a regular blog on the radio industry which is fascinating, I urge anyone who has even a mild interest in radio to have a read. Anyway, he kindly got back to me and explained that the BBC only provide two external links to their streams, .asx to play in windows media player, [...]

I finally managed to get my project finished and sorted out a few of the problems i was having. The presentation went pretty well, i managed to get across the reasoning and research behind my project. I also ran the app and had a few very abstract conversations in front of everyone. There are a few key areas that i would need to improve on if i was to take this further. Firstly, i used [recod~] and the [buffer~] object and then wrote the buffer contents to disk. I could have [...]

A few weeks back i ordered a usb number pad, along with a usb voip handset. This was to help simulate the effect of a telephone, with the idea of somehow integrating it using my sketchy electronics knowledge into an actual telephone. After a disappointing trawl of the local charity shops yesterday to find a nice classic 1970’s retro phone i cracked and ended up heading over to Argos. Credit to them, i picked up a perfectly working new house telephone for £4.99. Sweet!

Mind, it was only perfectly working for a [...]

My patcher is now nearly completed. It is looking pretty complicated (click the thumbnail for a closer look!). Having now played with it quite a bit it works really well, achieving most of the aims i set out to explore. It allows any user to have a conversation with users in the past. The samples selected at random create a disjointed and abstract conversation which provokes the user into many different responses. The strength of the experience is really based on the content that gets recorded. To help stimulate [...]

This fairly rock and roll sounding header reflects the intense sessions i have been spending in the labs at uni. I have pretty much been the last to leave in the evening along with my colleague Ben Reynhart, getting kicked out by the security guards. I have been plowing ahead with my patcher making great progress. Over the past couple of days i have integrated some key elements into my patcher. The first of these is the implementation of the playback once the user has finished talking. I have used a period of hangover time, the inspiration for which came [...]

I am really pleased with my progress over the last few days. I have been spending all my time in the Labs at uni working in Max/MSP. I have been building some of the core functionality of my application. One of the difficulties i have had is writing the contents of a [buffer~] object automatically with a dynamic url. Essentially a write message connected to a buffer will bring up a save file option. Saving a file automatically with no need for the user to get involved has been a bit [...]

Having spent some time playing with buffers, microphones and the [record~] object in Max/MSP, i have got a patcher that records speech through a microphone, which can then be played back to listen to using a [groove~] object. However, trawling the internet once more, i discovered this range of Max/MSP patchers and externals by a guy who calls himself Snot Wong.

The one in particular that grabbed my attention was the auto talker backer, which plays back your speech as soon as you stop talking into [...]

I have been searching around for various sound projects which i could use as inspiration for my own. I stumbled across this interesting installation by Mohri Yuko. It is an exploration of speech degrading over time. It uses two computers which have speech synthesis and speech recognition software. A piece of text is read out by the first machine, which is then analysed by the second machine and read out again.

The first machine then picks up this speech, analyses it and reads it out and so on, creating a continuous loop. Over time [...]