Mind-Boggling Power, as note~ Adds Timelines, Piano Roll, Notation to Max/MSP

Introduction to note~ for Max from Musikforschung Basel on Vimeo. For musicians, this could be the Max external to end all Max externals. Max has long been a powerful, open-ended environment for creation. But sometimes you want a piano roll, or a score, or a timeline. Efforts to do that in the past have been […]

ArKaos Officially Enters Mapping Game With MediaMaster 3.0 [Mac, Windows]

If mapping wasn’t already a horse race, it is now. ArKaos adds significant mapping technology to version 3.0 of their high-end media server, MediaMaster Pro, out now and shown at the UK’s PLASA show this month. Now, of course, here at CDM, we’re eager to see the next phase of ArKaos’ mapping strategy, which involves […]

Frag’mnts – An Enig’matik Records CDM Sampler, Ethno-step Diversity to Hear [Free Listening]

Forget the adage about “dancing about architecture” – talking about music is important. But talking about music is made more meaningful by listening, the real reason we do what we do. And so, we’re pleased to follow our profile of Australia’s Enig’matik Records with a collaborative sampler. It’s a diverse selection of tracks that lets […]

Portishead’s Adrian Utley Tours His Synth Collection – And New Arturia MiniBrute [Video, Analog]

Simple, hands-on synths are sometimes chided for being overly simple, cut-down versions of the infinite possibilities of modulars or digital instruments. And they might even seem anachronistic, throw-backs to old instrument designs. But if you need someone to explain the appeal of these instruments, you could do worse than Adrian Utley of Portishead, seen here […]

Propellerhead’s Figure for iPhone, No Longer an Island: Sync, AudioCopy, Free Scales

Reinventing music software for a handheld is no minor challenge. Make it too much like desktop software, and you wind up with something crammed with features that feels awkward and overly heavy in a mobile context. Pare down too much, and you’ve got something that behaves more like a toy and can’t hold up to […]

Radio in an Online Age, Made Tangible: Skube Are Smart, Last.fm + Spotify Speakers

Computers give you sophisticated ways of connecting to online music. But do you ever miss that physical object of the radio? Or wish that a speaker could be just as smart when, with a sigh of relief, you’ve pressed the laptop lid shut? Skube is a design experiment from Copenhagen focused on making portable devices […]

Thrift is Knowledge: A Radio from a Tube Map, Navigating Sound and Design with Yuri Suzuki

Designers in Residence 2012: Yuri Suzuki from Design Museum on Vimeo. Amidst an onslaught of disposable, impossible-to-repair electronics and waste, the best weapon to fight back can be know-how. That’s the message in a beautiful short film that paints a portrait of sound artist and designer Yuri Suzuki, a resident of London’s Design Museum. (Via […]

Modulation-o-rama: Rack Extension Tutorial with FXpansion Etch Might Make Knees Wobbly

Over the summer, a slew of new Rack Extensions has opened Reason’s modular, patchable rack to a variety of developers. I have to admit, I’ve been astounded by the quantity and variety, given this is just one host – it seems there was pent-up demand for Reason modules, and that Propellerhead made things developer-friendly. FXpansion […]

Magic Pockets: In Short Scenes, Live Music Construction With An Obscene Amount of Gear

Rusty’s Revenge from magicpockets on Vimeo. Music making, like a finely-tuned kitchen workstation arranged by a master chef, might come down to a few, carefully-selected tools, sharpened to make quick work in minimum… Oh, shove it. Let’s watch live music made with so much gear it looks like one act stole everyone else’s flight cases […]

NI Combines 2-Channel Mixer, Control Surface; Pondering a Category of Tools

Well, you have to give some credit to NI – they’re teasing a new product on a day when people’s attentions may be turned elsewhere, electronics gadget speaking. The “sneak preview,” in the fashion of some previous previews, actually reveals a whole lot about what they’re doing. It’s a 2-channel mixer that can evidently operate […]