Music Technobabble

It's Technobabble time! It's also me birthday,

but I don't want a big deal out of it, OK? Let's go!

So, here's what's coming up on today's birthday bonanza show.

Kim's back and she's showing us about her world of gaming...

-Ready?

-I'm ready.

-Minecraft.

-Yeah!

-Uh!

..Marcus has gone all musical...

FUTURISTIC KEYBOARD PLAYS

..and Jana's here, and she's storytelling.

Today, I'm going to show you my favourite apps that will help you

bring your stories to life.

Did I mention it's my birthday?

Guys, stop making a big deal out of it. It's getting embarrassing.

It's just a birthday. Let's not get carried away.

BIRTHDAY KAZOO SOUNDS Nicky and Sammy, don't let me down.

Hello, Technobabble. Guess where we are?

We're at CBBC Live And Digital, Hull.

I'm outside the Technobabble tent and here

we're going to see the micro:bit, which is a tiny, small computer with

loads of LED lights, and you can use it in so many ways

it's unimaginable.

Look, it's Marcus!

I'm trying to get Nicky to work but he found a game console.

I've broken it because it's just spinning around in a circle.

Pudsey, it's Pudsey. Pudsey, can I have a hug? Ah!

Don't let go. Still, don't let go.

-We're with Dangermouse!

-Yey!

-Yey!

OK, I found the Doctor Who tent

and my inner fangirl cannot contain itself.

You can play the Dalek game... Doctor Who, make a game?

OK, I can't wait any longer. Let's do this.

# We're about to go on stage! #

Oh, do a selfie! I want a selfie!

So, that is the end of our Technobabble vlog.

We hope you enjoyed seeing behind the scenes of CBBC Live And Digital in Hull.

We've had an amazing time in Hull. We've met so many of you guys.

It was awesome. So, back to you, Vlogster.

So, what terrible name have I come up with this week for the message app?

Vlog's Log!

Oh, that's worse than I remembered.

Vlogster, what is the future of music?

Sound question. I love music.

# Happy birthday to you

# Congratulations Celebrate good times, come on. #

There's loads of great music out there. Marcus is me man for this.

Say "cheese" Marcus! What are you up to?

Hey, Vlogster. Well, it's a lovely morning, so I thought I'd go for a

little stroll, take a few pictures, try out my new camera.

Yes, I'm liking this bit of kit.

I look GOOD from this angle.

Well, one of your better sides, Volgster. If you had sides, that is.

-So, what have you got for me today?

-One of our babblers wants to know

what the future of music is going to be like

-and you ARE music, my man.

-Music? I love music.

I've even got my own radio show. Once, I even interviewed...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Off you trot, then.

Quicker than an epic dubstep drop.

I'm sending Marcus to an exciting London design company who've

been working on a new kind of musical instrument.

He's going to meet their top dog, Roland Lamb,

to discover everything this is to know about their radical keyboard.

So, this is a Seaboard, then? Sounds pretty exciting.

What exactly does it do?

Instead of having all those old school separate keys,

you've got this one continuous, wave-like surface.

So, we took the keys of the keyboard

-and made it into this waves of a Seaboard.

-Right.

Um, how do you play it?

We've come up with these five different dimensions of touch.

-Right.

-So, the first dimension is how you strike.

-I can strike gently or I can strike it hard.

-Right.

Then, secondly, you can control how you press after

you've, like, had your strike.

Then you can glide to the left or the right,

or you can slide up or down on the key.

And then also, how you lift off, you can change the sound.

That is so cool. Um, how does the technology

behind this actually work?

The Seaboard has like a huge array of sensors underneath

this soft surface, so it can detect exactly how you're touching it,

and where you're touching it - all those dimensions of touch.

And then the electronics read that information,

and they turn it into data that can be read

by our software, and then our software turns that data into sound.

So, what does this tech mean for the future of music?

Well, I think it's going to make it much easier for people to make

all the different possible sounds that different instruments can

make with one instrument.

So, it makes it easier for people to make music at home,

or in their bedrooms, because instead of having to like learn

all these different instruments, they can learn the Seaboard

and access this huge palette of possible sounds.

I'm really excited about this. Can I, please, have a go?

Absolutely! Yeah, we have one set up in the studio.

-Why don't you come and take a look?

-Thank you.

-Alright.

And to help you, Marcus, is a virtuoso called Marco.

-Can you should me how to play...

-Sure.

-..a Seaboard Rise, please?

-Let's say we can play in C...

-I see what you did there, C.

-LAUGHS

-C. Then G, we go...

And then C again. So, we can play...

-Every note is cool.

-Alright. So, if you do the low bit

-and I'll do the high bit.

-OK.

-Let's go.

THEY PLAY

I've never played an instrument like it. I love it.

-Thank you very much, Marco.

-My pleasure.

Tell you what, Vlogster, after all of that talk about music,

I'm RIGHT in the mood for a bit of karaoke.

Marcus, I thought you'd never ask!

# Never gonna give you up Never gonna let you down

# Never gonna run around and hurt you. #

Maybe something...a little more up to date, Vlogs?

Hey, I can do modern.

How about a piece of music you can hold in your hand?

A company in New York has developed tech that transforms

sound into a sculpture you can see, hear, feel and touch.

Making an object out of music?

That blows my mind a little bit, Vlogster.

A bit too abstract for you, young Marcus?

Well, how about this? Music straight from your brain.

-My brain?

-Maybe not your brain. A slightly more brilliant brain.

American artist Lisa Park makes music using a special headset

that reads her brain's electrical activity and minuscule eye movements.

Then, clever computer software translates her

brainwaves into sounds and vibrations to make thought music!

-I think that's awesome, like totally.

-Tortilla, did you say?

Well, here's another slice of hi tech genius - music you can eat.

-What?

-That's right.

Dwight Chia from San Diego has taken the humble flour tortilla

and turned it into a playable record using a laser etching machine.

It takes half an hour for the laser to cut the track's grooves

into the tortilla, then the record will play for about 30 seconds.

As ideas go, Vlogster, that's hard to burrito.

Sorry, Marcus, let's call that a wrap! Ha!

"It was not the first time someone had forgotten his birth.

"He sat alone at the table and blew out the candles and sighed.

HE SIGHS Why him?

Oh, sorry, viewers. I was just remembering a story.

Anyway, here's Jana to do it better.

Hey, everyone. Aren't stories great?

Anything can be a story. Whatever your story is,

today I'm going to show you my favourite apps that will help

you bring your stories to life and have a lot of fun doing it.

First up is Coosi Box.

This app will make your little

doodles come to life in animation.

So, all you have to do is create

a little drawing using shapes

and colours, and it can be as simple

or as complicated as you'd like.

The app will then take your drawing

and create an interactive animation based around your drawing.

Little Story Creator is a great app for storytelling

because it's really customisable.

There are so many things you can add

to each slide, from drawings to

pictures, to texts and emojis.

So, you can use all of these tools

to share really cool stories with your friends.

If you love cartoons and animation, this next app is for you.

Easy Studio teaches you have to

make your very own animation

out of different shapes

and it's so easy to learn.

All you have to do is move the little

shapes around, however you want,

and there are a lot of themes to choose from.

Make a snowman come to life

by moving around two white circles.

And an orange triangle,

for the nose, of course.

So, what are you waiting for? It's time to get creative.

Thank you, lovely Jana. Ooh, she's got me a birthday card. How kind.

What kind wishes has Jana sent? "Don't download apps without

"permission and that includes the in-app purchases.

"Oh, yeah. Happy Birthday, as well."

Never has there been a truer birthday card sent.

Right, back to Vlog's Log. Oh, that's just wrong.

Hey, Vlogster, is there a chance I could live forever?

Ooh, deep. Let's see.

Some people who want to live forever choose to have their bodies,

or even just their heads, frozen using liquid nitrogen.

This is known as cryonic suspension.

By super-cooling things down this way, bacteria can't multiply,

so cells in the body can survive much longer,

but as yet no-one has ever been successfully unfrozen.

And though the clever cooling people are hopeful it will happen

one day, they don't think that will be any time soon.

There's another problem with cryonic suspension -

you need to have popped your clogs first.

So, even if you could be successfully thawed out, you'd have to be

brought back to life too after, potentially, a few hundred years.

Australian scientists have been doing tests on mice to rebuild

the broken cells and muscles that cause ageing.

They've been able to restore a two-year-old mouse back to the

health of a six-month-old.

That's the same as making your grandma as fit and as active

as she was when she was 25!

Tests on humans are now taking place and some scientists think that,

one day, all you'll need to do to stop from growing old

is take a few tablets.

Although, that could set you back £20,000 a day.

Other life-preserving boffins from around the world are working

on a map of the human brain called The Connectome.

By better understanding how memories are made, researchers hope to make

a computer model of the brain that can store and recall old memories.

In the future it might mean that your grandchildren could

see your memories well after you've gone.

The next step would be for people to make

a copy of their brain on a computer.

Then, by uploading it into a robot,

humans could essentially live forever.

Whoa. Forever is a mighty long time.

Hey, Kim, show me your life.

Hi, there! So, I've been asked to show you guys

what the life of a YouTuber

is like and have you follow me around today

while I get to business.

So, here we are in Yog Towers,

which is a fancy name for our office, really.

We're really lucky in that we have editors to help us with our work.

This is my desk. This is where some of the magic happens.

Here, I've got all my lovely fan art from fan members

who've sent it all in.

-This is Duncan.

-Hello!

-He's my partner in crime.

We're going to go and film some Minecraft, now. You ready for this?

-I'm ready!

-You ready?

-I'm ready!

-Minecraft!

-Yeah!

-Uh!

I've got the Satyr...uh, fire it!

-Wooh-hoo-hoo-hoo.

-I'm at the Dinosaur Pens, I don't see you.

Like, over the other side.

So, this is our art team.

They're working very hard on posters at the moment.

Adrian and I have been working on a Minecraft series that I'm

hoping to get set up on my channel.

'Captain's Log, Supplemental.

'We're currently in orbit of the planet, Miranda,

'making minor repairs to the ship.'

Well, it's been a pretty long day and I'm back in the car now,

ready to head home. Doesn't mean I'm done though.

I need to go home and do some uploading.

So, there you go.

I hope you enjoyed getting a look at a slice of life as a YouTuber.

Thanks, Kim. Well, just before I head off and celebrate me

birthday in the wormhole, we just have time for a quick Babblebuster.

I keep forgetting, did I mention it's me birthday?

16 gigabytes today. Ooh!

B is for birthday, but it's also for Bluetooth,

and I'm not talking about the latest dragon to join

Hiccup on the Island of Berk.

Bluetooth is a wireless link that lets you send

data between your devices without needing them to be physically joined.

It was named after Denmark's 10th century king

Harald Blatand Gormsson,

who was so fond of eating blueberries that they stained his teeth blue.

Harald wouldn't believe what Bluetooth boffins are creating now,

like a medical device that monitors your body's vital statistics

to check your health,

just like Dr McCoy's Tricorder in Star Trek.

And that's your lot. Birthday byes!

Next time on Technobabble...

Mia steps into an augmented reality...

I'm a penguin! Woo!

..Eva's got some Easter eggs...

Chocolate not included, though do feel free to bring your own.

..and Little Jake's back and he's got some cool phone games.

Let the destruction begin.