“Last Night a Hipster Saved My Life”: Mapping in the Dominican Republic + Modul8

We could almost use a feature that tracks projection mapping projects around the globe. We’ve seen Mongolia; this lovely project comes to us from an opposite part of the world, in the Dominican Republic. The smartly-titled “Last Night a Hipster Saved My Life” is a mapped audiovisual performance with Modul8, featured at the twenty-sixth National […]

Making the Invisible Visible – And Audible – as House of Radon Visualizes Networks

It’s a creative spot for a company – Ericsson (the network folks, not to be confused with Sony-owned Sony Ericsson, the mobile phone company). But it’s worth mention here for a few reasons. One is, it’s nice to see clever design and match moves, yes. Two, the message of the vendor in this case – […]

Subcycle, Insanely Futuristic 3D Music Interface, Reaches New Levels of Pattern and Sound

Compare the complex model of what a computer can use to control sound and musical pattern in real-time to the visualization. You see knobs, you see faders that resemble mixers, you see grids, you see – bizarrely – representations of old piano rolls. The accumulated ephemera of old hardware, while useful, can be quickly overwhelmed […]

Augmented Dancing: Musion Eyeliner + vvvv + Kinect

In the latest example of what people are doing with open source Kinect tools and movement, PRICKIMAGE sends a performance that works with the Windows-based vvvv. It’s still a work in process / proof of concept, but I’m really enjoying seeing experiments with this technology. There’s definite potential to be explored. The artists write: I […]

Remixing a Playground in Ableton Live

Sonic and musical inspiration are never far away, especially with a microphone in hand. For the latest example, Ableton Live meets a local playground. Jason Richard, aka “bassling,” used field recordings in the park to compose a track. He writes: I’ve been recording playgrounds and remixing the sounds in Ableton Live to create tracks. To […]

What Really Makes Rhythms Human? New Research Investigates Perception, Preference, Tech

Machine rhythm: the steps on a Roland TR-808. Photo (CC-BY-SA) Brandon Daniel. What makes rhythm human? Music technology has introduced machine rhythms, perfectly-calibrated to electronically-perfected grids, yet we know that natural playing is more organic. Or, that is, we know we have certain intuitive preferences. How do those preferences and rhythms really work? And what […]

"This Medium of Light": Movement and Flickers in New Mapping Fest Trailer

Presenting a moving (and moving) snapshot of what the emerging field of live visualism is all about, the new trailer for the Mapping Festival might just give you a shiver. Thanks to Jerome Monnot, the trailer’s director, for sending this our way – and for the fine work. mappingfestival.ch Remember, you’re fast approaching the deadline […]

“This Medium of Light”: Movement and Flickers in New Mapping Fest Trailer

Presenting a moving (and moving) snapshot of what the emerging field of live visualism is all about, the new trailer for the Mapping Festival might just give you a shiver. Thanks to Jerome Monnot, the trailer’s director, for sending this our way – and for the fine work. mappingfestival.ch Remember, you’re fast approaching the deadline […]

TouchAble for iPad, in Update, Comes Closer to Controlling All of Ableton Live; in Action

There are simpler, more minimal interfaces, and more tangible interfaces for Ableton Live. But when it comes to all-stops-pulled, touch-everything control of the full depth of Ableton Live, it was already hard to beat TouchAble for iPad. Now, with an update, that app closes even more of the gap between what you can do on […]

Ozone 5 Arrives: More Visual, Space Age UI, and Updated DSP in Mastering Tool

Let’s get straight to it: Ozone has already established itself as a do-everything mastering tool. It’s a suite of interconnected modules handling frequency and dynamics, designed to work together in an integrated interface. It does so much, in fact, that it’s hard for an upgrade to do more, but Ozone 5 promises new sound and […]