Game controllers have some serious advantages for music: they're simple, flexible, fun, and because they're shipped in volume, often cheaper than DIY or even manufactured music products. Our friend Chris O'Shea has an ongoing roundup of game controllers as instruments: Part I Part II He wants more help: if you see some he missed, drop […]

This is no VJ mixer. The Edirol CG-8 is a high-res 3D motion graphic synthesizer, taking synthesis concepts from audio and applying them to video. Integrate with music: You can use audio to trigger video live, with VLINK/MIDI connections for further music integration, especially tight integration with Roland and Edirol gear. Sample motion: Grab video […]

While Edirol takes the synthesis approach with its new video box (at least from a marketing standpoint), VJ gear rival Korg is going the sampler route. As reported here earlier, the Kaptivator is a video sampler with a 4×4 Akai-style drum pad grid. Now that we're not reading in Japanese, we've got some more details: […]

The Mignon Game Kit lets you build your own portable game boy system, with a stunning 7 x 5 pixel resolution. (No, that's not a typo, but those individual red lights look gorgeous!) The kits come with different amounts of components, price EUR 29 – 69 plus shipping (no distribution outside Europe as near as […]

Berklee student Rian Souleles brings CDM this report on the state of surround, straight from the mouths of some of the greatest engineers alive. Recently, on a Friday afternoon, about a hundred music technology students crammed into the hot sweaty live room of Berklee College of Music's Studio A just to get a glimpse of […]

Want intuitive in an interface? Can't get much more intuitive than this: now-defunct interactive world-rhythm band D'CuCKOO (1986-1998, superceded by RhythMix) built the MIDIBALL: a helium-filled balloon packed with wireless triggers so that the audience could trigger sounds and images. D'CuCKOO also built bamboo trigger sticks, marimbas and drums and even a giant interactive 3D […]

Rob Read from Edirol tells CDM that, while the announcement of the new CG-8 video synth is hours old, we can expect some video samples on the site soon. Better news: Edirol hopes to show off this gear in person in New York, possibly as soon as this summer. New Yawkas, I'll see you at […]

This week's understatement of note: "Sometimes I am self-driven to do some weird stuff. I have no idea why." Indeed, Troy Errthum. Like turning an old upright piano into a 20-gallon pianoquarium, complete with live fish. (via hackaday) The piano itself is no longer playable (guess that's what happens when you replace the soundboard with […]

Now in public beta (form required) but launching in August, Digitalmusician.net is an ambitious one-stop-shop for online collaboration. No, it's not just new-fangled live collaboration; it's the whole package: Interactive VST collaboration: Send audio and MIDI via a VST 2.0 plugin live to and from anywhere, with high-quality audio (256 kb MP3 max, stereo), on […]

Tom Erbe of Soundhack fame has finally brought his old Mac utility Instant Player to OS X. (download the beta from his freeware page) Option-click a sound in the Finder, and it plays instantly — no mucking about in the multi-column view required. Insanely cool for quick sound browsing, so give it a shot! Updated: […]