Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of traveling to Taipei, Taiwan for Computex, where Acer was promoting its latest touch hardware. Normally, I’d ask whether there was reason for musicians and DJs to care. But this time, the computer maker is hoping the passion around music will be a factor that woos users to […]

Whatever is going on in the new Kinect Microsoft unveiled recently, it’s doing more than its predecessor. It appears vastly more precise, smarter about telling people from objects, better at telling people from other people, and more responsive to gestures. And there’s another difference: this time, at last, Microsoft appears to be hitting the ground […]

Reading matters for musicians. It’s a source of essential information about tools and artists, inspiration and knowledge. It’s how a lot of us find music and the ways we make music. Your feedback in eight and a half years of CDM has told us that. So, with Google Reader shutting down, maybe it’s a good […]

We live in an age in which the art of architecture and the art of light have come into close duet. One such example is the 2012 project Blau, receipient of a 2013 Ars Electronic nod. As the creators describe it, time here enters three dimensional architectural space, lasers outlining a close choreography of sound […]

I heard David Zicarelli once describe Max as a blank sheet of paper – a canvas on which you can imagine any musical creation. Until now, though, there’s been no way to touch those creations directly – other than with a mouse. Mira is a lovely solution to that idea. As users “patch,” visually creating […]

Many users of software employing the popular iLok copy protection product are finding their licenses invalidated. A server glitch is to blame, but fixes have now taken since earlier in June and still appear to be at least partially incomplete. New installations and a process called “synchronization” can have the impact. iLok developer PACE has […]

BHOREAL gets ready from MID New Media Design on Vimeo. It’s been almost a decade since the monome first began making appearances. Now, grids are everywhere – and that raises the question, where will the next innovation come from? What’s exciting about Bhoreal is that, far from simply cloning the monome, it realizes potential frontiers […]

Propellerhead Reason, imagining a virtual rack of gear inside the computer, wouldn’t be successful if the instruments it contained were lacking in personality. Producers like this package partly because of the feeling of using something distinctive. Thor is one of the favorite instruments from that package. Now, it’s more mobile and a lot more touchable. […]

A color grid you can carry in one hand, with physical controls and full RGB – and the option of wireless and batteries, so you can walk around while adjusting lights or projection? Oh, and it’s modifiable, available fully made or as a kit, and completely open source hardware? Yeah, that sounds about perfect. On […]

Apple’s devices have earned praise from developers for consistently supporting multiple fingers in predictable ways. But to go further with expression, one developer made use of the size of contact area on the screen. Any time a developer goes beyond “public” or official APIs, there’s a chance Apple will eventually balk. We knew this was […]