The First Synth to… In case you missed it, Sonic State is running a video series on The Top 20 Greatest Synths of all time. About once a month they put up a video featuring three synths from the countdown. As you can imagine a few controversial pieces came up including the E-Mu Proteus, and […]

I think we’ve reached a geekdom singularity. Nintendo Wii controller + physical computing + OpenSoundControl + Mac + Kyma granular synthesis = Star Wars lightsaber sounds? Nicely done, Matteo Milani! More details from these Kyma sound synthesis experts at Unidentified Sound Object, which also has lots of resources on sound design in general on the […]

Open Sound Control (OSC), an open protocol that can be used in place of MIDI, isn’t the right tool for everything. Hooking up a 4-octave keyboard with some knobs, for instance, makes a whole lot more sense in MIDI, and MIDI is widely supported. But I like OSC’s open-ended message structure for devices like the […]

The wireless, Bluetooth-based Wii controller is fast becoming the music control hardware of choice. The latest addition: Yann Seznec’s Wii Loop Machine, a free, Wii-controller looper for Macs. The software is built in Max/MSP using my current favorite way to interface with the Wii controllers, the free aka.wiiremote external for Max. Load in any samples […]

I had hoped to have Wii Remote control over at least part of Resolume happening for my gig on Friday night, but didn’t have time to setup the various MIDI messages in glovePIE. If only I’d googled it first. Erm, so not an “I feel lucky” search, but the second result is this thread on […]

antivj have cooked up a fantastic Wii-to-MIDI tutorial — and a very pretty feature image to go with it! (Nice!) Much of the focus for the Wii controller has been on the music and VJ side, but they’re equally compelling as live visual controllers. Our friends at the uber-hip French visualist blog antivj have translated […]

In case you missed this in comments, CDM reader Trademark has rigged a quick demo of how scratching with the Nintendo Wii remote might work. To manipulate the audio, he’s using the open source Mac/Linux audio programming environment SuperCollier: If you think of this as a replacement for vinyl, you’ll naturally be disappointed. (The same […]

Could the Nintendo Wii remote liberate DJs from wired hardware, freeing them to wave their arms around and make embarrassing dance moves? DJ ! hopes so. DJ ! (read “DJ Shift 1”) has devoted himself entirely to the Wii controller for DJing, in what he calls WiiJing or “wireless DJing.” This “mashup DJ” says he […]

Game consoles as visualist tools? Sign me up! Nintendo doesn’t make it easy, as usual, but it looks possible to turn the Wii and perhaps even the GameCube into homebrew gaming, interactive visual, and video devices. My Wii is now on its way, so I look forward to giving Flash a try. Best resource so […]

While music manufacturers struggle to create “integrated hardware solutions”, enterprising DJs and VJs are picking up US$40 Nintendo Wii remotes and having a blast. Here, the controller gets assigned to audio filters on the computer (I’m guessing the Max/MSP/Jitter external may be at work as it’s on a Mac), and controls glitchy visuals. I’ve been […]