Tested: MS-20 Mini versus Original MS-20, in the Studio [Discussion, Audio, Photos]

MS-20 mini, on the left, next to the original, on the right. Photos: Peter Kirn and Benjamin Weiss for CDM and DE:BUG. It’s the news collectors of vintage synths on eBay probably didn’t want to hear. For $599, Korg has made a new MS-20 that the company says has “perfectly reproduced its circuitry” for an […]

Hands-on with Korg MS-20 Mini: Exclusive Review, Q&A, Images, Video

Even as technology rolls forward, sometimes the old is more cherished than the new. Perhaps this should come as no surprise in music. Musical relationships span many years – the records you love, the hours you spend practicing and producing. And so it is that we’ve heard a common refrain from electronic musicians: with many […]

Guitar Innovation, Then And Now: Paul Vo Reinvents Fretless, Acoustic Guitars [Videos]

Imagine any acoustic instrument able to act as a synth, and you begin to appreciate the potential instrumental pioneer Paul Vo may be about to unlock. As we reported last month, music-technological innovation can absolutely involve guitars, not just synths with keyboards. So, it’s fitting that we tun now to a lover of keyboards and […]

Ableton Gives Dates: March 5 for Live 9 Release, Push Pre-Order

If you’re eagerly awaiting Live 9, we now have solid dates from Ableton. The Berlin developer will release Live 9 to the public on March 5, available for immediate download. Their new Push hardware should be available shortly thereafter; from March 5, you’ll be able to preorder. CDM will have a full hands-on review of […]

Crisp Beats from Iceland’s Magnoose, Free to Download, with Videos

Is anyone in Iceland not a musician/producer? Given the island nation has an absurdly-tiny population, there must be some explanation that so much music pours out. Well, we’re going back there again. This weekend’s selection is the lovely music of Magnoose, aka Magnus Skarp of Reykjavik. This little-known producer is putting out some really fine-quality […]

Sailing Digital Seas: Exquisite Audiovisual Etudes Made in a Free Game Engine

30 seconds or more 07 – Will I ever make it home? from Victor Morales on Vimeo. Set to the music of Norway’s Pål Asle Pettersen, Victor Morales has created surreal digital landscapes made of textures that vibrate and transform in time to sound. And he’s being quite prolific. Working primarily with Crytek’s CryENGINE game […]

Make a Pd Patch, Run it on Android, iOS, Right Away: Two Free Solutions

Now that tablets and phones have the computational power our main studio machines did just a few short years ago, there’s every reason to look to these gizmos for music. For a person patching in Pure Data (Pd), the free graphical sound environment, it means you can liberate the stuff you’re making from your computer […]

Poems in Light, Sound, and Facades, in the Land of Goethe [Videos, Call for Proposals]

As we trace the spread of audiovisual culture and architectural mapping practice, here’s the latest episode. Weimar is planning the second edition of their projection=centric digital media festival Genius Loci Weimar. There, in the land of Liszt and the country of Goethe, they reimagine the city’s landscape in light and sound. The centerpiece of the […]

Interfacing Music with Light, A Musical Instrument Makes Performance Mysterious, Surprising

24 light sensitive sensors ‘lightefface’ – arduino + max/msp from kaziem on Vimeo. One of my earliest memories is of the piano. We’ve become so accustomed to this contraption, that it’s easy to lose sight of the pleasure of touching the apparatus of the keys and hearing sound. So, perhaps the endless experimentation with sensors […]

Musical Physics, Baby! A 3D AV Sequencer Box, Physics Resources for Max

The Box from Mike Todd on Vimeo. Knobs and faders, we love you on hardware. But when it comes to the unlimited possibilities of the computer, we know how to get the party on: “Add some physics bodies.” (See below; that’s really a quote.) Mike Todd, whose work we’ve seen before on CDMotion, sends us […]