DJ site DJ TechTools continues to create their own hardware, augmented by custom mappings to popular software, with the Midi Fighter Twister. From the early days of their 4×4 arcade button controller Midi Fighter, things have gotten a bit more sophisticated. The Twister keeps the compact housing and 4×4 matrix design, but swaps those on/off […]

Utter brilliance to wind up our week: Berlin techno legend Ben Klock gets the infamous audio-redub “shreds” treatment on YouTube, normally reserved for rock bands. It helps if you’ve watched the live streams of Boiler Room, the multi-city Internet-broadcast, invite-only dance party that turns the cameras on DJs and audience alike. But even if you […]

Want to relive the sweet sounds of the classic Fairlight instrument, because you love the 80s? Want to reskin Ableton so it doesn’t offend your aesthetic sense or blind you and bathe you in blue light when you’re onstage? Do you want a different reverb from a master sound designer and patcher? Do you just […]

FLIGHT. from a TWiN thing. on Vimeo. What makes this motion effect work is what you experience when you close your eyes. In a clever short film, the directing team TWiN (Jonathan & Josh Baker) imagine shoes that take on a life of their own, as though channeling forces from Tron. Directing that virtual, digital […]

advection | robert seidel | projection on a water fountain | lichtsicht biennale 2013 from Robert Seidel on Vimeo. This goes far, far off the screen. Light dances across water droplets, disappearing into mists, images rippling on reflections on the pond’s surface. Projecting onto a fountain means some seriously-powerful projectors, but armed with that, the […]

From top: Tristan Perich’s new piano with 1-bit masterpiece, Lesley Flanigan surrounded by her creations. All images courtesy the artists. Sound may be invisible, setting the air around us aquiver with little visible evidence. But the objects that make sound are physical, and no electronic music is virtual. Composer/musician/sound artists Lesley Flanigan and Tristan Perich […]

A standalone grid musical instrument? Done. And it can be a new way to venture into the worlds of harmony. Marc “Nostromo” Resibois is back with another clever Raspberry Pi hack. We saw him last fall, beating KORG to the punch with his own – digital – MS-20 mini, using the Pi. It’s still appealing, […]

Light-up colored grids are hardly news in the controller scene. But what makes original, boutique hardware worthy of the name “Digital Warrior” is the unique take it brings to DJing and live remix – pushing the envelope with Native Instruments’ Traktor (all the while perhaps making even Ableton Live a little bit jealous). The new […]

We give you news of the thing. Then we give you a virtual thing that helps you with the thing. Then we give you a virtual thing for when you don’t have the thing with you or want a taste of the thing before you get the real thing. Or something. And we’ll keep this […]

In the box, inside the world of the computer, sound has few limits. It’s clean, it’s pristine; mimicking perfectly-miked drum kits or high-fidelity sounds is as easy as dialing in the gigs of samples you’ve assembled. But … wait a minute. It’s too clean. There’s something beautiful about a digital circuit, screaming and crunching as […]