M-Audio, Freshly Parted from Avid, Already Has a New Line of Axiom MIDI Controllers [Images]

Well, it didn’t take M-Audio long to get over that breakup. The world’s most ubiquitous brand of USB MIDI keyboards is out this summer with a refresh to its Axiom line of USB MIDI keyboards, hot on the heels of announcing they’re no longer part of Avid. They’ll now share branding with A.I.R., the German […]

Fusing Sound and Visuals with TouchDesigner and Ableton: One Behind-the-Scenes Video

As artists continue to seek out new, richer connections between audio and image, the marriage of Ableton Live and TouchDesigner becomes increasingly popular. Here’s a detailed look at how that connection can work, courtesy a detailed technical video revealing the process for one audiovisual collaboration. Description: A behind the scenes look at the collaboration between […]

Bio-interfacing Meets Music: Journal, Berlin Opening, and Get Started with Open Hardware Right Now

To understand the relationship between computer and musician, you have to first understand the relationship between computer and human. For many years, that interaction has primarily involved some gesture – the click of a mouse, the swipe of a finger – and an accompanying interface abstraction. But now, from phones to desktops, computers are not […]

Glowing Geometry Illuminates a Canvas Off Ireland's Coast: Lightscape, 53.0581° N, 9.5275° W

53.0581° N, 9.5275° W from Lightscape on Vimeo. On a tiny island at the westernmost frontier of Europe, artists used projected light to bring a hand-drawn, geometric canvas to light. In an abstract reinterpretation of the island’s terrain, scrawled just before firing up the projectors, they produced an electrified virtual animated world. It’s a particularly […]

Glowing Geometry Illuminates a Canvas Off Ireland’s Coast: Lightscape, 53.0581° N, 9.5275° W

53.0581° N, 9.5275° W from Lightscape on Vimeo. On a tiny island at the westernmost frontier of Europe, artists used projected light to bring a hand-drawn, geometric canvas to light. In an abstract reinterpretation of the island’s terrain, scrawled just before firing up the projectors, they produced an electrified virtual animated world. It’s a particularly […]

Centuries of Electronic Music, Now At Last Making Facebook Timeline Useful: Bleep Compilation

In case you’ve missed it, the project opens like this: “Bleep’s Guide to Electronic Music starts on 25th March, 1857 – the day Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville receives French patent #17,897/31,470 for the phonautograph.” The Facebook Timeline may seem just a tool for naval-gazing or privacy violation. But then, suddenly, you’re dialing back to the […]

Bitwig in Staged Beta; Video Reveals Features Up Close, Strange Song Lyrics

Live performance DAW Bitwig Studio is now moving forward with their beta, and a video demo this time provides a clearer look at what the software actually does. Ableton Live users, just be prepared for more of a sense of deja vu all over again: “Bitwig Studio has two views: the Arranger View, and the […]

Nature, Through a Window: Moon, Fire, Water, in Light and Engravings, by Craig Dorety

Realizing the materiality of Earth and the Moon in new forms, artist Craig Dorety is rendering natural forms in light and engravings. For the Moon, he turns to carving techniques to mirror new data about the lunar surface – and, thanks to an SF Awesome Grant, he’s got some spare change to upgrade his CNC […]

Vintage Clap Trap Synth, Now a Unitasker iOS App; I Love the 80s

Here’s an iOS app antidote to those desktop plug-ins that do everything, to elaborate virtual synths with eighteen separate modulation envelopes. It’s an app that just … makes clap sounds. And it brings your iPhone or iPad boldly into the 1980s. The handclap sound you hear in so much electronic music, particularly that originating from […]

Multi-Player Music Installations and Moldover’s Jamboxes [Video]

The Drum Machine. Warning: may materialize on unfriendly alien planets, or just in UK rock quarries. Musical tradition is, by definition, often “multi-player.” From people playing in bands and strin quartets to families getting together to sing, live performance is often shared. But while you can drop a computer player into an ensemble, the computer […]