Roland’s AIRA will be public this month, and you can bet CDM will have all the details we can get from the company. But through its various teasers, the picture of AIRA is already pretty clear. The new line reflects a new approach for the company, one that would seem to show, paradoxically, both greater […]
Music
Learn VDMX in Your Skivvies: Online Tutorial on Powerful OS X VJ Tool
There’s nothing like the comfort of your own home. The comfy feel of underwear instead of annoying … clothes. The absence of … other people in the same room. Yes, if you’ve ever dreamt of learning the lovely semi-modular, powerful VJ tool VDMX, now you don’t need to wait until experts in the tool come […]
Robert Henke Hacklab + RA Exchange: Hard Work, Solving Creative Crises, and Lasers
We get to continue the conversation around Robert Henke’s process and his magnum opus laser-show that closed CTM Festival on Sunday. Will Lynch from Resident Advisor joined us in the MusicMakers Hacklab to sit down with Robert. Here, Will talks to Robert about his music, his approach, and how he tackled the challenge of making […]
Inside BeatStep: $99 Step Sequencer and Controller Looks Compact, Versatile [Q+A, Videos]
Every new season brings new music tools. Some of these designs, of course, are splashy and grab headlines. Some just look like no-brainers that will see heavy use in your work. Arturia’s BeatStep stood out at the recent NAMM trade show as just an insanely-great use of a hundred bucks, in a tiny box that […]
Play a Great-Sounding Theremin in Your Web Browser: Distraction of the Day
If you want an explanation for why you’d want to build sophisticated audio into the Web, maybe it’s just because you don’t like fun. Fun is what you get out of this Web Audio Theremin toy, the work of one Luke Phillips of Femur Design. The web audio theremin is a touch friendly & responsive […]
Two Pacemaker – Spotify Screenshots That Show For Serious DJing, Downloads Are Here to Stay
Sometimes, images say it all. Pictured below is what happens when you try to use Pacemaker’s Spotify functionality on the iPad without an Internet connection. Tracks simply don’t play at all. Even though Spotify Premium users have offline access to their tracks when listening one at a time, you won’t be able to DJ that […]
Mixing Spotify with iPad, Pacemaker Might Be DJing’s New Killer App for the Masses [Hands On]
It’s been a while since digital DJing has seen a bona fide major hit. Traktor continues to dominate the scene. But Traktor is still software molded for the professional DJ, and particularly those in the club scene. When Traktor came to the iPad, it saw a significantly-streamlined interface, but the underlying functionality remains geared for […]
Animating in Light, Hand-Carved Creations: The Stunning, Glowing Effects of Marilyn Myller
MARILYN MYLLER – Mini Making: Light Effects from Mikey Please on Vimeo. Mastering today’s digital media often means expertly melding optical and digital. One of the films that launched modern digital animation as we know it, ironically, developed its signature look primarily via optical effects. And resonances of that film, Tron, are certainly here. The […]
A Naked Man Plays Robots and Finds Love; A Quadriplegic Finds a Voice in Music
Man & Machine: A Naked Robotic Love Story from Jesse Roesler on Vimeo. Making music with machines, we all become somehow more than human. We are people, augmented by technology. Those technologies strip us bare, expose us as naked emotionally … sometimes, literally. Through the eyes of one filmmaker, here are two parallel images that […]
A Digital Label and Online Radio With True Depth – Talking Shop With Dewtone
Turn your radio on. In an age saturated with a tyrannical quantity of choice, tuning into something consistently inspiring matters more than ever. Our resident sound seeker Matt Earp looks into one channel that’s providing just that. Dewtone is a fantastic place to go for a range of music, so much so that it’s worth […]