Beamz New Technology Turns Hipsters to Bros; Will Destroy Music; Eat Hot Pockets

Beamz by Flo 2 Minute Commercial from Static Free Films.com on Vimeo. Update: See the video on the official Beamz by Flo Rida site, as apparently the creators don’t believe the old adage “no press is bad press.” (The Internet: Making Fun of Beamz Videos since 2008. See the earlier video below.) I am regularly […]

Kinect Goes Analog: Oscilloscope and Digital Depth Map Meet

Rutt Etra Meets Kinect from i.m. klif on Vimeo. There’s a beautiful fusion of analog and digital imagery in comments on yesterday’s story on easy Kinect software solutions. “Post digital” gets bandied about, yes, but really this to me is the perfect example of focusing on the materials of a project without any particular regard […]

Some Easy Ways to Get Kinect Controlling Music, Visuals on Mac and Windows

While we wait for Microsoft to send the new Kinect – yes, we’re on the list for one here at CDM HQ – there’s still plenty to be done with the current generation of Kinect. And it’s likely that you’ll find even more of these on the cheap when there’s new hardware out there. The […]

Playlist: 21 Hours of Music, on the Eve of a Female-Organized Fest in Berlin; Sarah Farina Mixes

There’s talking, there’s showing, and there’s doing. And there’s listening, too – but we’ll get to that in a moment. When female:pressure put some numbers behind the relative absence of women in festivals, the long-running discussion about the role of females in the scene was accelerated. Suddenly, the entire music press seemed to be talking […]

Armin van Buuren DJ Boombox a Pale Imitation of the 80s; A Look Back at Real Ghettoblasters

In the latest megarich DJ – electronics manufacturer collaboration, we find Dutch giant Philips with Armin van Buren. (In fact, you might begin to wonder if these guys are just competing over the Forbes highest-paid DJs list.) This time, what you get is an all-in-one iPad dock with DJ control surface with speaker. That in […]

Digital DJing: Serato Scratch Live is Dead; Long Live Serato DJ [In Depth]

Serato DJ With DVS is Here from Serato on Vimeo. Let’s not mince words: Serato’s DJ offerings had gotten confusing, and updates and compatibility lagged. This week, the company has changed the tune: there’s one Serato to support everything, and it’s coming soon. For controller users, that means being ready to go in October, thanks […]

Bubbles and Light, in an Interactive Costume, Integrated with Music

Coded Environments from Jekka on Vimeo. Big EDM stage shows aside, in the realm of more intimate electronic performance, there seems tremendous untapped potential in combining wearable technology with performance. There, the immersion speaks to the player – essential, as in computer music much of what the performance artist does and imagines is invisible. Jekka, […]

Audiobus for iOS 7 Update is Already Here

Audiobus’ developers have already pushed an update to the inter-app framework, in advance of Apple’s upcoming operating system: With iOS 7 just around the corner, we’ve just released an update to the Audiobus app that addresses some issues. We highly recommend updating now to stay compatible with our community of apps. We’ve been working hard […]

Surprise: Korg Brings Back the Old School Rhythm Machine, in Pocket Form

Back in the day, rhythm machines were push-button affairs, not elaborate step sequencers. Press a button, get a backing rhythm, play along. Just one problem: these old-school machines were huge and expensive. But they helped launch the electronic fortunes of companies like Korg and Roland, and were the predecessors of today’s far more programmable drum […]

Novation Releases $99 Launchpad Mini Grid, $99 Triggers and Knobs [iOS, Mac, PC]

Here’s this week’s theme from Novation, in a nutshell: Stuff that costs US$99 (street). Stuff that’s ultra-mobile/portable. Stuff that works with Mac, PC, and iPad. CDM readers already worked out that they weren’t done, watching the video for the $99 Launchkey mini keyboard, which also fits this theme and combines pads, knobs, and keys. Looking […]