In this short film for secondary schools, web developer Chloe Watts meets musician and beatboxer Beardyman to hear how his new groundbreaking music production system the Beardytron 5000 uses code to create complex dance music.
Social media phenomenon Beardyman has coded a computer system, which enables him to produce live dance music as fast as he can think of it.
He explains that layers and layers of code support the Beardytron 5000 to manipulate his voice; it is the fastest music creation system in existence.
The sounds from his voice are captured as audio clips and stored as binary numbers. The samples are processed to create any sound he likes, with as many simultaneous layers as he wishes.
This short film is from the 鶹Լ series, Coding: The Future is Creative.
Teacher Notes
This short film could be used to illustrate how sound can be represented and manipulated digitally in the form of binary digits.
A potential activity could be the use of sound recording and software manipulation to demonstrate the recording of analogue data to binary data and comment on the process.
This might inspired a class discussion on how hardware and software components communicate with one another and with other systems.
Curriculum Notes
This short film is relevant for teaching computing at KS3 and KS4/GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 4/5 or Higher in Scotland.
The topics discussed will support OCR, Edexcel, AQA, WJEC GCSE in England and Wales, CCEA GCSE in Northern Ireland and SQA National 4/5 and Higher in Scotland.
More from Coding: The Future is Creative:
Coding and digital art. video
In this short film for secondary schools, web developer Chloe Watts meets a visual artist who creates large installations and events using code, including a digital firework display that the public can interact with.
Coding and fashion technology. video
In this short film for secondary schools, web developer Chloe Watts meets fashion technologist Benjamin Males at a ‘fashion laboratory’ that merges the worlds of computer programming and fashion design.
Coding and games design. video
In this short film for secondary schools, web developer Chloe Watts visits a game development company to meet games designer John Beech. It was learning to build games and sharing his content online that landed John his dream job.
Coding and games development. video
In this short film for secondary schools, web developer Chloe Watts meets BAFTA ‘Breakthrough Brit’ and games developer Mitu Khandaker to see her first game Redshirt™ in action.
