For some, there’s the step sequencer you dream of. Maybe it has a massive array of buttons for patterns, capable of spreading musical ideas across a lit grid. Maybe every last rhythm is visible, maybe it juggles layers and patterns with ease. Ryan B just went and built what he wanted. Under the moniker RNInstruments, […]

We’re not worthy. Japanese site Digiland has published a review of KORG volca keys. And when they do sound demos for their review, they go a little crazy. This video is the result: it’s a cover of Die Roboter (“The Robots”) by Kraftwerk that’s spookily-good. (Actually, it almost improves upon the original.) The synth sounds […]

Augmenting keyboards with additional expression is a tradition that goes back nearly a century. Inventors have tried keys that bend and wiggle, add-ons from pulleys to ribbons, wheels and pressure sensors, and more – anything to extend the piano and organ beyond their on/off playing methods. But now, the Web has accelerated the ability to […]

Even Paris’ famed Centre Pompidou, it seems, has discovered apps. But you can bring some of that glitch art to your fingertips — for once, Android-only rather than exclusive to iOS. Hungarian-born, Berlin-based artist David Szauder (pixel noizz) has made a rather beautiful art app, extending glitch image modification to finger painting on the Android […]

Even Paris’ famed Centre Pompidou, it seems, has discovered apps. But you can bring some of that glitch art to your fingertips — for once, Android-only rather than exclusive to iOS. Hungarian-born, Berlin-based artist David Szauder (pixel noizz) has made a rather beautiful art app, extending glitch image modification to finger painting on the Android […]

In calm reflections on life and nature, the Quiet Ensemble lets flora and fauna compose their own ambient etudes, following their movements and tuning in on electrical frequencies. Mice running in wheels play music boxes; light and sound trace the slimy path of snails. Fruit charge up thick, glitchy bass, as goldfish perform an audiovisual […]

Our cup runneth over. And just as we’re adding our favorite stories to read to the new Reading List feature, we bring you some of our favorite listening. This is what’s playing through my cans as I’m working and meditating. Releases Ras G – Back On The Planet is, simply, out of this world. Forget […]

Camera input is at last going from waving your arms around in front of the screen to some genuinely compelling ideas. And the more designers use the camera in fluid ways, the more expressive video may be as a means of interaction. Croatian designer Marko Dugonjić demonstrates a proof-of-concept implementation of typography that responds to […]

When KORG’s Tatsuya Takahashi is involved in a project, you can expect some hackability. KORG surprised the music tech community by releasing filter schematics for its monotron and designing the boards for the monotron and Monotribe in such a way that opened them to modifications – like adding much-needed MIDI capability absent on those first […]

KORG’s volca line of affordable analog instruments isn’t yet available everywhere, but they’re slowly, slowly trickling into the world. KORG hasn’t yet sent any to CDM, and we’re generally hearing “September” from most retailers, but Japan has got a few. One of those was store-bought and brought back to Berlin, and I got to play […]