Peter Drescher

Peter "pdx" Drescher is a musician and composer with more than 25 years of performance experience. He has produced audio for games, the Web, and mobile devices, using his "Twittering Machine" project studio.

Recent Posts | All O'Reilly Posts

Peter blogs at:
http://oreilly.com/blogs/

Prognosticating the Future of Mobile Audio

November 27 2011

Seven years ago, at Project BBQ, I predicted a "convergent technology" device that would be a phone, a camera, an iPod, and a web browser -- two and a half years before the first iPhone was released. read more

FMOD for Android

June 19 2011

FMOD for Android is like peanut butter and strawberry jam, together for the first time! read more

Kinect Voice Recognition and Motion Capture Musical Instruments

March 08 2011

Eventually you'll see a new genre of software synthesizer emerge, one that blurs the line between music performance and dance. read more

Generating Audio UI for Android

February 24 2011

I just want reality to sound a bit more like science fiction ... read more

My Credo

June 19 2010

"I Promise Never To Program A Computer To Play Something I Can't" read more

Game Audio In The Cloud - Part 3 (Conclusion)

June 03 2010

Gameplay parameters are sent up to the server, the application running in the Cloud mixes the appropriate beeps and booms into the audio output buffer, which then streams the game soundtrack to your device. The data being transmitted up is small, the server has all the CPU power, memory storage,… read more

Game Audio In The Cloud, Part 2

April 10 2010

When I talk about The Cloud (Capital T, Capital C), I'm talking about a currently fictional technology. Despite advertising claims and vaporware demonstrations at trade shows, The Cloud (as I envision it) does not yet exist ... but when it does, it will dramatically change the way we do business,… read more

Game Audio In The Cloud

March 26 2010

In 2002, at the International CES trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mark "the Red" Harlan, then Chief Evangelist for a scrappy little start-up called Danger, Incorporated, demonstrated an early version of a wireless internet device called the "hiptop" (later known as the T-Mobile Sidekick). He explained that it was… read more

The Myth of Music Ownership

December 26 2009

The idea that you own your music is a MYTH, promulgated by the record companies to ensure their continued profitability! But soon, all that's going to change, because Cloud services will dramatically change the way you listen to music. read more

CarTunes

November 16 2009

Green Technologies and Interactive Audio are two fields not generally considered related, but a new trend may change that: "Generated Sounds for Electric Vehicles", aka "EV Audio", aka "CarTunes". read more

Apparently, The Implants ARE Removable ...

October 31 2009

A little over a year ago, I uprooted my life of practically 30 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and transplanted it to Seattle's Puget Sound (which, if you're an audio guy, has a nice ring to it) ... read more

Resistance Is Futile, I Have Been Assimilated

August 10 2008

On February 11th, 2008, my life changed. It started out like any other Monday: I got up, made coffee, checked the news and Doonesbury, then logged into the network to get my mail ... and BLAM! Microsoft Acquires Danger read more

Generating Audio UI

May 20 2008

every time i do linear audio (i.e. create a quicktime soundtrack), i always have the same reaction: "this is SO much easier than doing interactive audio!" ... but it got me thinking about how to generate an Audio UI that sounds more like the ones in the movies. read more

why i hate the iPhone

April 12 2008

i got a Mac Plus in 1986 because it had an interface device unlike anything i'd seen before ... a mouse. i got an iPhone for the same reason -- but now i hate it! here's why ... read more

top 5 ways to annoy an audio guy

April 03 2008

my brethren in interactive audio are an interesting bunch: intelligent, educated, and musically talented, but also funny, crazy, outrageous ... and easily annoyed. read more

earpods (can you iHear me now?)

December 24 2007

it all started with Vernor Vinge's keynote address at Austin GDC 2006. this fascinating lecture discussed current technology trends and probable future developments ... and got me thinking about the future of mobile audio. read more

ok, now you're just showing off!

July 16 2007

that's right, it's my blog, and i say what i want! (and hey, if i don't, who will?) so, here's a few odd places my work has shown up in recent popular culture: 1. Night At The Museum i'm particularly... read more

Loopy Tunes (part 3) - Why iTunes Previews Make Perfect Ringtones

June 25 2007

Loops OK, so, my relationship with loops is, uh, complex ... on the one hand, they've saved my professional ass on many occasions, enabling the delivery of lots of music and sound effects in a minimum amount of space. they... read more

Random Notes From GDC07

March 15 2007

I love the Game Developer's Conference! the lights, the cameras, the action, all the best and brightest coming together for meets and greets and foods and drinks, it's exciting, exhilirating, and completely exhausting! This year, the conference was SO... read more

Loopy Tunes (part 2)

February 08 2007

Can Someone Please Explain To Me Again Why I Can't Loop An MP3 File!? When I sat down to write Part 2 of my rant, I discovered it had been 7 years to the day since my article "Songs in... read more

Loopy Tunes (part 1)

January 30 2007

Looping! looping audio, looping midi, loop the loop, i'm tellin' ya, it's makin' me loopy! looping is one of those little industry tricks that seems so elegant and simple and useful, and yet has the almost overwhelming tendency to jump... read more

THE Homunculonic AEStheticator

November 05 2006

It is my honor and privilege to announce a breakthrough in audio technology, a miracle of modern science, and the most important thing to happen to game music since MIDI got promoted to General -- introducing the Homunculonic Aestheticator, an... read more

how to trap a monkey

October 15 2006

SO there's this thing called Project Bar-B-Q, which i will be attending again this year, to my great delight. last year was the 10th anniversary, so "this one goes up to 11" as they say; i expect it will be... read more

how to trap a monkey

October 15 2006

SO there's this thing called Project Bar-B-Q, which i will be attending again this year, to my great delight. last year was the 10th anniversary, so "this one goes up to 11" as they say; i expect it will be... read more

could digital rights management BE less cool!?

September 27 2006

There's 3 three things that annoy me about DRM (well, to be honest, there's puh-lenty of things about DRM that annoy me, but let's stick with these for the moment): 1. This is how i feel about any technology designed... read more

GAC(k!)

September 19 2006

i recently spoke at the Game Audio Conference in Austin, Texas, and i gotta say, Austin's a pretty nice town if you're a musician doing game audio. Not only do they have an amazingly vibrant game developer community (everything from... read more

has anyone ever needed LESS bandwidth!?

July 16 2006

i used to be a Wang programmer [ok, stop laughing, i know that sounds funny, but you wouldn't be reading this if it weren't for An Wang, inventor of magnetic core memory and founder of Wang computers, which kept me... read more

how many freakin' ringtone formats do you really need!?

June 30 2006

this (for me) has got to be the number one, top of the list, first and foremost, craziest, stupidest, and by FAR most annoying interactive audio issue in the wild and whacky world of ringtones. right now, there are *at*least* fifty (50!) different ringtone formats being sold to consumers on… read more

how many freakin' ringtone formats do you really need!?

June 30 2006

this (for me) has got to be the number one, top of the list, first and foremost, craziest, stupidest, and by FAR most annoying interactive audio issue in the wild and whacky world of ringtones. right now, there are *at*least*... read more

welcome to the annoying audio blog!

June 14 2006

hello, peter drescher here, i am currently sound designer at danger, inc., makers of the hiptop wireless internet device (aka the T-Mobile Sidekick), and o’reilly has been kind (and brave) enough to let me speak my mind (unedited! holy crap, batman!!) on interactive audio technologies, with an emphasis on the… read more

Recent Posts | All O'Reilly Posts

Peter Drescher