Your Neurons Are Glitching: We'll Be Watching (And Hearing) Tarik Barri + Monolake Tour

Robert Henke’s new album is out this month, and definitely counts among our anticipated albums of 2012. But what has not gotten wide coverage is the visual element of this upcoming performance, which will accompany the surround-sound tour of the show in audiovisual splendor from Slovenia to Portland. (We’ll be catching up with Robert, I […]

Your Neurons Are Glitching: We’ll Be Watching (And Hearing) Tarik Barri + Monolake Tour

Robert Henke’s new album is out this month, and definitely counts among our anticipated albums of 2012. But what has not gotten wide coverage is the visual element of this upcoming performance, which will accompany the surround-sound tour of the show in audiovisual splendor from Slovenia to Portland. (We’ll be catching up with Robert, I […]

InvisiBall: Play Tennis with Sound, Blindfolded – or Blind

Trust your ears. It seems a simple instruction, in the teaser video for this project by Stockholm-based producer/composer HÃ¥kan Libdo. But for those of us used to having vision, focusing in on one sense – even the sense on which we rely for music and sound – can be an extraordinary experience. If digital interface […]

MidiPads is a Versatile iPad Drum Pad Controller, Controlling Everything from Modulation to Traktor

The iPad as a controller is at its best when it plays to its strengths, letting you use that continuous finger control do something useful. So that makes MidiPads worth a look. It’s a strikingly-versatile drum pad controller with all of the kinds of features you might want, and with a major version 1.5 release […]

Plays of Shadow and Light, into Digital Topography: New ANTIVJ Work

French-born, Bristol UK-based artist Joanie Lermercier is one of the names most associated with projection mapping. But in a new video, the artist – who goes by the name ANTIVJ, which doubles as his audiovisual label – expresses just how he conceives these tricks of perception, as plays of shadow and light. The work itself […]

What Mountain Lion will Probably Mean to You as Pro, Creative Users

Despite how it might seem to some, Apple probably isn’t turning its back on the Mac – even if it’s dropping the “Mac” from the name of its OS. Photo (CC-BY-SA) Shane Doucette. See a significant correction below; an earlier version of this story claimed incorrectly that Windows on ARM would be limited in how […]

Steinberg Padshop, Coming Soon, Granular Synthesis for the Rest of Us? Handy Intro Video Explains

Let’s get straight to it: granular synthesis, and the various processes based on the principle, is one of the coolest things about making music with computers. With the ability to take sounds and stretch, mangle, and reshape them into new textures, it’s one of the fundamental techniques allowing sound software and lots of terrific timbral […]

Make it Tangible: Create Physical-to-Visual Interfaces with vvvv; Book Soon

The explosion of physical interfaces for computers continues. But it’s not so much the novelty of the idea as its evolution toward really being able to express ideas physically. Connecting visual expression to hands-on control, the creators of a new book entitled Prototyping Interfaces “sketch” in both the physical/electronic and digital/on-screen realms simultaneously. Color from […]

A Massive Bundle of Game Music, the Magical Machinarium Score, and the Quiet Indie Music Revolution

As musical old-timers repeatedly sing the sad song of the supposed demise of the full-length album, a funny thing has happened. Lovers of games have taken up a growing passion for game music, and in particular the indie score for indie games. Independent game publishing and independent music composition – from truly unsigned, unknown artists […]

Making Digital One-of-a-Kind: Inside Icarus’ Generative Album in 1000 Variations

Even the artwork changes. This is my personal copy – #148. Digital: disposable, identical, infinitely reproducible. Recordings: static, unchanging. Or … are they? Icarus’ Fake Fish Distribution (FFD), a self-described “album in 1000 variations,” generates a one-of-a-kind download for each purchaser. Generative, parametric software takes the composition, by London-based musicians-slash-software engineers Ollie Bown and Sam […]