DITNB: Ambiencello, Gamelan, Electronica, and More Great Online Music

We welcome back Cris atariboy Pearson, the Melbourne-based musician and plasq developer/artist, for another installment of Dithered is The New Black. He’ll be checking in weekly with great independent music, much of it free, for taking your playlists to new places: Hey all. Welcome back to the second edition for this new column. Thanks for […]

Music + Activism: African Artists Team Up for Sudan

Online music not only offers new opportunities for spreading new independent music, but new music activism as well. I’m really excited to have the chance to pass along this email; some of my favorite Afrobeat artists involved here. Politics aside, it’s music I personally enjoy more than a lot of the Live8 stuff. And getting […]

CDM on the Road in Boston!

Now off on my whirlwind travels, including a day in Boston at Macworld Expo. For a glimpse of bloggers complaining about how boring the show is, see TUAW. But say hi if you’re at my session! More on the iUke and other things if I can post . . . then boatloads of content stacked […]

Thereminy Game Scores: Destroy All Humans!

Composer Gary Schyman has a rich, tongue-in-cheek score for the Xbox/PS2 game Destroy All Monsters; his homage to classic scores like The Day The Earth Stood Still earns him an interview on NPR: Schyman on Weekend Edition Plenty of tracks to download; via Theremin World, where you can find reviews, more links, and more sounds […]

Plug in Your Turntable: USB and Preamp from ART

Who doesn’t have a kink for vinyl? If you’re plugging in a turntable, you’re going to want to amplify it properly. Unless you want a $500 tube amp, something like the US$60 ART DJ Pre II should fit the bill. Aside from the new name (its predecessor was called the “Phono MicroPRE” but I guess […]

Music From Flashlights: RGB

Could that Maxlite at your side be a musical instrument in disguise? With up to 9 audience participants, viewers of the RGB project can control sound and visuals using colored flashlights, in a performance installation by Tomas Dvorak (CZ), Alessandro Capozzo (IT) and Matous Godik (CZ). The team used the free PC-only software EyesWeb, passing […]

Cubase SX/SL 3.1: Hardware Integration, Dolby, Pro Features

Want proof that you can’t keep on top of which DAW is best? Updates are now nearly round-the-clock, and point-one updates can bring serious features. Hot on the heels of MOTU’s free 4.6 upgrade to DP, Steinberg has over 50 new features in Cubase SL/SX 3.1, coming as a free download in August. Some of […]

Visualizations: Four Silver Knobs and a PowerBook

Okay, aspiring VJs: not happy with the pre-coded solutions out there? Wish you could code your own stuff via a free tool? Check out Processing, a free cross-platform tool. The pay-off: how about 1680×1050 imagery, running at 20-40fps on a lowly PowerBook G4? Robert Hodgin is featured doing just that, armed with four silver USB […]

Games + Music: Preloaded Visualizer Game for Xbox 360

While we’re on the subject of visualizers, Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox 360 console will be preloaded with a trippy music visualizer game. Unlike the iTunes visualizer, it’ll be completely interactive, too. Inspired by the 1984 game Psychedelia, Neon is a visualizer for the year 2005. Check out the interview with creator Jeff Minter of UK developer […]

iUke: Digital USB Ukulele at Macworld

[Updated: More Details on iUke] I’ve had to delay my arrival at Macworld Expo until Thursday. Look what I’ve missed: a USB-enabled ukulele. iGuitar custom-built the instrument for Mac personality and notorious uke player Andy Ihnakto. (Thanks, TUAW!) I’m guessing the USB carries only audio, not control — the company’s iGuitar.USB uses USB for audio […]