Germany to Detroit: Good Listening from DJ Koze, Juan Atkins [Mixes, Release, Reading]

Switch off that negative talk: vibrations between musical scenes continue to resonate and grow. Here we have two artists, each somehow evergreen and still blossoming, making the link from past to future feel secure. And speaking of good vibrations, I can think of no better way to get the summer vibes going this weekend than […]

Convertible PCs Could Transform Windows Music Software, But Many Models Won’t Stick

What if your computer could do what tablets do – without having to kludge together multiple devices? That question probably doesn’t keep ordinary people up at night. But with music makers unusually ravenous users of touch software, they might just be at the vanguard of new convergences of creative computing. Picture this scenario. Your computer […]

RD4, Groovebox for Android, the Studio to Beat; Q+A on Audio Performance

Choices may be scarce on Android, but there’s a unique amount of passion behind this platform. Choose a high-quality app and the right device, and you can get low-latency audio and even cool features like USB host mode that let you connect a mouse, keyboard, joystick, or MIDI keyboard. (Well… sort of. See disclaimers below.) […]

Acer Hopes Music Making Will Propel Touch Tablets, Ultrabooks; Report from Taipei

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 […]

New Kinect Windows SDK Coming; Microsoft Opens Up Pre-release Developer Access [Timeline]

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 […]

We Want to Know How You Read; Days Left Until Google Reader Shutdown

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 […]

Redefining Architecture, in a Dance of Lasers

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 […]

Imagine a Musical Interface, Mirror it on Your iPad: Max + Mira

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 […]

iLok Issues Plague Pro Tools, Plug-in Users for Weeks; Anti-piracy Solutions Remain Mixed

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 Makes Grids Color, Open, Controls Robots and Lasers; Final Hours of Funding

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 […]