Build Your Own MIDI Hardware: Engadget Tutorial, or the MidiTron Shortcut? [Updated]

Our informal “DIY day” continues here: Fabienne Serriere follows up her how to get started with Csound tutorial with a walkthrough on how to build your own MIDI hardware, complete with custom sensors. It’s quite nice, but the aesthetics are a wee bit on the unfinished side (think raw, open breadboard). Now we need her […]

More on Fabienne Serrier, Sound Hacker Extraordinaire

Now that this time I actually did my homework, more on Fabienne Serriere, the talented sound hacker who’s given us the two-part tutorial on custom MIDI control and Csound (see previous post.) From whatthehack.org: “multichannel audio specialist and futurist fabienne serriere (aka fbz) is a franco-american software, hardware and embedded interaction designer. she believes in […]

All About Dub: New Instant Dubstation (Mac/Win), Dub History [Updated]

For fans of dub, there’s just nothing like a delay loop, with feedback cranked up and echoes going going going going going going going . . . okay, you get the idea. Our friends at Audio Damage have just created a US$39.95 plugin that gives you all you need for trippy dub effects: Audio Damage […]

Acoustics on the Road: Phase Cancellation and Your Car Muffler

Two things most people don’t care to understand: physics and how the heck your car works. But you’re different. Why, you probably already know that phase cancellation occurs when a sound source is delayed slightly (by a real-world reflection, or in recording and mixing), so that two coherent waveforms of opposite phase are superimposes and […]

Hip Musical Flash Movies and How to Use Your Head as a Mallet

Tokyoplastic’s Flash animations have won them widespread acclaim, including a Sundance Online award for their film drummachine. Their animation is hip, sexy, and centers around fabulous sound design with dramatic musical cues. Don’t miss the drum machine in particular — because nothing can compare with watching someone use their head as a mallet. To find […]

Sound Lab Mini-Synth and Other DIYs

MAKE:blog reports on a build-your-own synth project that could be just advanced enough to be interesting, just simple enough that you’ll get through it without a disaster: Sound Lab Mini-Synth [Music from outer space] Looks perfect — a simple but capable design. And if for some bizarre reason this is too easy for you, you […]

Live Mac Mini Rig, Pt. II: Logic Environment for Live Performance

Christopher Scheidel has been hard at work cleaning up his sophisticated Apple Logic Pro Environment template, which he uses to manage his guitar + keyboard + Mac Mini rig while performing. He’s been nice enough to share it with us: Logic template [Download] See Christopher’s site for further information. He promises more soon, including a […]

Mindprint Trio: Audio Interface/FX Good for Mobile Music?

A USB audio interface these days is about as exciting as a pair of knee socks, and unlike the latter, you don’t really need multiples. But this particular box is actually interesting. Trio USB [Mindprint] First, the Trio delivers all the hardware effects you’d need in a channel strip: mic inputs, low-cut filter, “vintage” 2-band […]

More Digital String Installation Things!

Régine of Near Near Future has some more interactive strings, along the lines of last week’s laser harp: Interactive strings (Cellists out there are probably wondering why the idea of “interactive strings” is new. Well, clearly you don’t und. . . um . . . okay, you’ve got me.) Anyway, this stuff is big business. […]

Les Paul Headlines Music Player Live Conference, NYC October

MusicPlayer Live is coming to NYC, headlined by no less than the inventor of the solidbody electric guitar, Les Paul: Music Player Live Conference [Music Player] The event is quite a convergence: aside from seminars by writers for Music Player publications (like yours truly, on behalf of Keyboard), there will be the usual music tech […]