Microsoft RIFFF

Our first collaboration as a team was an Innovative web-based interactive music experience while we worked at MSN, integrating cutting-edge technology for its time, such as AudioActive interactive music engine and Future Splash (which became Macromedia Flash) to create interactive content--music, editorial and imagery collaborations with a wide variety of musical artists.

Collaborators

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
Robyn Hitchcock
Sarah MacLachlan
Jane Siberry
Sir Mix-A-Lot
Alan White (YES)

Philip Glass
Herbie Hancock
B.B. King
Blondie
Cyndi Lauper
Graham Nash
Paula Cole
Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart)
Mark Mothersbaugh (DEVO)

“A blast to navigate and offers an energizing glimpse at the Web’s full interactive potential...The number of variables is impressive and encourages experimentation.”

— MATTHEW MIRAPAUL, New York Times

"Millions of different variations that never repeat"

“Music is a particularly fertile area for complex interactivity, as MSN's Rifff has shown with a program that allows users to alter a musician's original work, hearing millions of different variations that never repeat.”

— ROBERT LEVINE, WIRED Magazine

"The most exciting use of sound on the web"

“This was the most exciting use of sound on the Web. Users on Rifff could choose different moods, music styles, instruments and voice to make up their own interpretation of the piece, with excellent sound rendition.”

— SOPHIA CHAUCHARD-STUART, The Independent

"Even Philip Glass said the graphics were very sexy"

"We also wrote the sound files using Philip Glass's music and made it self-generating within the parameters we created. Each time you logged on you would get different music, and even Philip Glass said the graphics were very sexy."

— ALEX BOYESEN, The Independent