Transcendental Glitchy Drones, as the Standuino Crew Assemble an Ensemble of Electronics [Videos, Gallery]

Standuino π [pi] synced with frauAngelico + microGranny from standuino on Vimeo. Once the stuff of noise art oddity — isolated electronic experiments staying mostly on the test table — the DIY instrument is starting to find friends and form ensembles. And so it is that Czech instrument design mad scientists Standuino have assembled a […]

Livegrabber: Crazy-Easy Sync Between Music, Visuals [Ableton Live + VDMX]

4 ways to sync VDMX and Ableton Live from Studio Rewind on Vimeo. Frequently asked question? Maybe incessantly-asked question. Live performers simply want a way to have more intimate relationships between music and visuals onstage. That means whether they’re working solo or with a live visualist, being able to get useful signal between music and […]

Surprise! Animoog from Moog Shows Up on … BlackBerry Z10

In the exciting world of Things That Aren’t An iPhone, Moog Music have announced, out of the blue, a version of their popular Animoog synth for BlackBerry Z10. Animoog for BlackBerry Z10 In a tweet to CDM, Moog Music reflected, “The more creative tools artists have the more music the world will have.” I couldn’t […]

LUME: Real-World Patching with Big, Physical Modules

What if patching, as on screen, involved physical unit generators you could connect with cables? KK Chau sends this project that answers that question. It’s modular at the lowest possible level – each box with one or two knobs, doing just one thing. And the sound? The sound is … uh, awful, actually. In a […]

From Light, Lasers, and Smoke, Solid-Looking Sculptures in the Air [OpenFrameworks]

Call it laser mapping. Melbourne-based artist Jayson Haebich has rendered in thin air, literally, architectural forms in color. He uses custom software to map lasers through particles to produce an ephemeral sculpture of air. The results are gorgeous – frozen digital motion. From his description: These are a series of static light sculptures that have […]

Arpeggionome for iPhone Makes Amazing Patterns in Arrays of Pulsing Circles [App, Music]

Out today, Arpeggionome is the iPhone follow-up to an iPad grid instrument, making lovely, elegant cascades of notes from a screen full of circles. The work of San Francisco-based electrical engineer Alexander Randon, it’s especially nice to see not just the app itself, but the music the developer makes with his own tool. Watch the […]

Vezér Lets You Control Anything with Timelines – Without Being Overly Hard to Use [Mac]

Take your visual app. Take a parameter. Now control it with timelines and automation – anything, anywhere. The appeal is clear for visualists, particularly with built-in options sometimes limited. Now, sequencing control – clocked to MIDI – can take on powerful new dimensions. Vezér isn’t the first app to go this direction, by any means. […]

In Berlin, Mixing Learning with Hacking and Jamming, All With Free DIY Tools

CDM and yours truly team up with Berlin arts collective Mindpirates next week for a learning event we hope will be a little different than most. The idea behind the gathering is to combine learning in some new ways. The evenings begin with more traditional instruction, as I cover, step-by-step, how you’d assemble beat machines, […]

Space Oddity, Made in Space, is Kind of Ridiculously Awesome

Canadian Col. Chris Hadfield, aboard the International Space Station, has done what you would probably want to do if aboard the high-flying orbital outpost: make a music video for David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” And he works “Soyuz” into the lyrics. (Thankfully, he refrains from making it “Colonel Chris.” The only complaint: a shame it can’t […]

With Beatguide, Listening Connects to Live Events: New Electronic Music Startup

If it’s music events, what your calendar really needs is a play button. A funny thing happened on the way to the online music world. Roughly a century after the music recording revolution, we’re all newly concerned with getting into venues with other human beings. The problem is – and there’s no nice way to […]