I wish my inbox were more like Tom's at Music Thing. The latest news from France via MT: a super-digital-modular synth control surface virtual instrument. As if that weren't weird enough, the thing looks like Don Buchla teamed with Playskool Toys, and this may be the only device on the planet that claims to be […]

Before the invention of radar, you'd need a large dish or horn to track sounds of your enemy. "Acoustic radar" (aka "acoustic locators" or "sound mirrors") captured sound via large dishes or walls, or steerable horns not unlike the cones on early record players. Douglas Self has a reference guide to this curious technology with […]

This is a first: it almost looks like a company just ripped off an imaginary mock-up made by a zealous Mac user. (Just coincidence?) While Apple's been busy intimidating website writers over its non-shipping Asteroid audio interface, M-Audio's been developing its own hardware for GarageBand. And while the Asteroid was rumored to be an audio […]

Make no mistake about it: M-Audio's new iControl is custom-tailored to GarageBand. From the fake-wood sides (very cute, M-Audio) to the knob and button layout, this box is perhaps the first economy control surface to be designed entirely around a single program's interface. (Meaning, regardless of the discussion MusicThing says they've been hearing, there's absolutely […]

Edirol reports the CG-8 video synth will be available in July and will cost (you may want to sit down) US$5295. So, yes, those of you who aren't living off an enormous trust fund or VJing in your spare time while you pull in six figures at your day job might want to go the […]

While we're looking at cool interfaces and video hardware this week, we can't miss Pioneer's DVJ-X1 digital video turntable. The DVJ-X1 has been out for about a year, but in case you missed it, this amazing virtual turntable spins high-quality video and audio simultaneously. DJ Eldorado got his hands on it at the Winter Music […]

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 […]