New Year’s Resolution: hands off that mouse / trackpad. Let’s get more physical with our production. If you’re not eager to wait for Ableton’s Push hardware, or you’re just a fan of traditional pads or a Maschine owner, combining Maschine with Live can be a great choice. Native Instruments quietly updated Maschine control integration with […]

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of physical control of a step sequencer for immediate, musical results. But you’d be forgiven for thinking there isn’t much more you can do with the concept. Think again. New step sequencers demonstrate how to get more with less, using clever tricks to maximize the musical variations you can […]

You know those science fiction episodes where someone’s personality gets transferred to the computer? Imagine if an artist could do that with a drum machine, and you get the idea behind Dam-Drum. Bleep Labs’ John-Mike Reed of Austin, Texas has a unique talent for engineering fun music electronics. His work is sonically adventurous – always […]

Now, here’s the way to do an analog noise generator oscillator: use grains of sand. As falling sand interrupts the flow of a laser to a light-sensitive sensor (a photodetector), the circuit produces random oscillations of sound. It’s the latest brilliant creation of mad Dutch scientist Gijs Gieskes, the industrial designer-turned-musician whose inventions often center […]

Arcade Showreel 2013 from Arcade on Vimeo. If the world seems in need of more dynamic screens and augmented imagination, the new London studio Arcade is poised to make it happen. It’s a beautiful illustration of how to create an effective showreel. Description: Arcade is an interdisciplanary design studio. We work at the intersection of […]

Moog has revealed the innards of the synth they’re launching later this month, and it looks like a cute but sonically-rich analog monosynth: two-octave keyboard, no display, plenty of knobs. What’s best is, we get not some strange Web teaser or blurry cropped photos, but a walkthrough of the prototype with none other than Herb […]

When Thom Yorke starts a new superband – and adds the Chili Peppers’ Flea, Radiohead producer and multi-instrumentalist Nigel Godrich, and percussion from both Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M.) and Brazillian virtuoso Mauro Refosco (Chili Peppers, David Byrne) – you can bet people will pay attention to the music. Spoiler alert: the first single has the […]

When Thom Yorke starts a new superband – and adds the Chili Peppers’ Flea, Radiohead producer and multi-instrumentalist Nigel Godrich, and percussion from both Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M.) and Brazillian virtuoso Mauro Refosco (Chili Peppers, David Byrne) – you can bet people will pay attention to the music. Spoiler alert: the first single has the […]

It’s hard to believe it’s been 12 years since the introduction of Korg’s influential KAOSS Pad. Now, Dutch developer Victor Bergen Henegouwen gives a nod to the Korg hardware with a new iPad app. And Victor writes CDM to let us know it’s hit the iTunes Store now. Like the original KAOSS Pad, you can […]

NFOP SESSIONS #13: Phantom – Albuquerque from Tonje Thilesen on Vimeo. Far from being an icy presence in front of an unmoving operator, the laptop has quietly become second nature. As tools mature and musicians gain comfort, music software can at last become another instrument. So, let’s get comfy and close with some musicians who […]