“Open” Kinect Tools Go Closed and Dead, Limiting Artist and Hacker Options; Call for Help

The narrative around Kinect and how hackers and artists has always been a little oversimplified. You may have heard something like this: thanks to a bounty, creative individuals “hacked” Microsoft’s Kinect camera and made it open. That’s true, but it isn’t the whole story. While there is a “hacked” Kinect toolset, most of the creative […]

Play a Retro-Sounding Commodore 64 Emulation in a Browser with WebSID

Dirty, low-fidelity digital sound comes to your shiny, high-fidelity digital device. Yes, WebSID is a beautifully-grungy emulation of the legendary SID synthesis in the Commodore 64. Because it runs in a Web browser, it’s also stupidly-simple to use. On computers, the keys are cleverly mapped to your keyboard, so you can jam by typing. On […]

Avid Delays Financial Reporting, But Promises Brighter Future, Including Pro Tools and Sibelius

Avid, makers of Pro Tools, Media Composer, Sibelius, and other products was on Tuesday suspended from being traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange because of a failure to issue timely financial statements. And the company by the admission of its own chief executive faces a changing industry. However, our earlier report included inaccurate information from […]

Multitude, Amazing Gated Delay for Mac, Now On Sale, Benefits Ukrainian People

So much of the world of tool-making for musicians remains the work of impassioned individual developers, making a labor of love. Sinevibes is a perfect example of this kind of fine-crafted software, combining ingenious interface ideas with rich, musical sonic invention. As Ukraine erupted into chaos in recent weeks, I watched the updates from Kiev-based […]

Avid, Maker of Pro Tools, Now Delisted from NASDAQ

We have an updated, more complete and accurate story on the issue, including commentary from Avid. Read the full feature In it, we look at the NASDAQ delisting, some ongoing concerns (SEC, DOJ, and a shareholder suit remain issues), but also Avid’s strategy and the response from the company on how they intend to move […]

MWM is 3D Savvy, Next-Generation Mapping Tool; Here's Why It's Big News

If your computer can visualize massive three-dimensional worlds inside your computer, why can’t it be just as savvy in multiple dimensions on output? That’s the question asked by MWM. Like other mapping software, the idea is to get beyond just a single rectangle as output, supporting multiple outputs and 3D surfaces and warping. What’s unique […]

MWM is 3D Savvy, Next-Generation Mapping Tool; Here’s Why It’s Big News

If your computer can visualize massive three-dimensional worlds inside your computer, why can’t it be just as savvy in multiple dimensions on output? That’s the question asked by MWM. Like other mapping software, the idea is to get beyond just a single rectangle as output, supporting multiple outputs and 3D surfaces and warping. What’s unique […]

The Curious Digital Modular: Watch aleph bees in Action

aleph bees introduction from tehn on Vimeo. It’s like having a roomful of modulars inside a mysterious magic box. It’s like using Max/MSP with the control interface of an Etch-a-Sketch. It’s … okay, really hard to describe. But aleph bees is certainly unlike digital hardware we’ve seen before. Using just knobs and text, and silky-smooth […]

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford vs Ableton Push

This is … real. This is really the famed “crack-smoking” mayor of Toronto, laying down a beat live with Ableton Live and Ableton Push. And it’s definitely not an official Ableton artist endorsement, nor is Rob Ford a certified Ableton trainer. (Though if he does want to consider another career…) Well, some people do find […]

Synthesizing Sound and Image: A Conversation with a Creative Duo from Korea [unrender]

From deep in Seoul’s underground, Maxqueen (Kloe) and Chang Park have forged an intimate audiovisual collaboration, in a rich dance of minimal, generated geometries in live music and image. Spanning Korea, Baltimore, Maryland, and now Berlin, they’ve played some of the biggest tickets in live techno (for Maxqueen) and digital media art (for Chang). We’re […]