IK Multimedia this week is shipping both their SampleTank virtual instrument and iRig hardware MIDI interface for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It’s not the first software instrument for iThings, but it is arguably the first appearance of a major, conventional computer soft synth in mobile form. MIDI interfaces, likewise, would require a comparison of […]

It’s a DIY, open source slider. A “pocket dolly.” Motion control hardware, ready for your next DIY special effect or stop motion animation, made free, open, and hackable. The work of Stefan Kohler, camSlider is in self-described “alpha” phase, but already looking wildly promising for a new generation of animators and creators. Doing an open […]

As projection mapping moves from technique or novelty into genuine medium, one terrific place to look for the progress of state of the art is the Mapping Festival. With backing from a visual developer – Modul8 and MadMapper publisher GarageCUBE – but extending to live visual work in general, Mapping puts live visuals front and […]

Photo (CC-BY) Mark Anderson. The generation of people who defined modern computing seems to be passing this year. Following Max Mathews, another Bell Labs titan is lost to us: Dennis Ritchie is the man who created the original C programming language (again at Bell Labs) as well as co-developed the UNIX operating system. President Obama […]

Light-up grids of buttons are nearly commonplace, but the BlipBox is something different: its array of lights is also a sensor, making it both X/Y controller and light-up grid. And it’s designed to be completely open — firmware, hardware, schematics and documentation are all fully GPL-licensed and open source. For those of us who aren’t […]

It had to happen — button triggering, as popularized by the monome, here meets a conventional two-channel DJ mixer. But the layout I must say is quite spare and lovely, the work of the Japanese-based PICnome project. Furthermore, it’s Open Source Hardware, covered as I have recommended by a ShareAlike Creative Commons license (with no […]

In celebration of our extensive look at the music (and working habits) of Dkon, formerly Deceptikon, here’s the video for “Broken Synthesizers.” Any further comment would be superfluous. Check out the music side of things over at CDMusic: What You Don’t Need to Make Music: With A Poly 800 and Renoise, Dkon Talks Music Making, […]

In celebration of our extensive look at the music (and working habits) of Dkon, formerly Deceptikon, here’s the video for “Broken Synthesizers.” Any further comment would be superfluous. Check out the music side of things over at CDMusic: What You Don’t Need to Make Music: With A Poly 800 and Renoise, Dkon Talks Music Making, […]

Deceptikon morphs into Dkon — and talks to us about doing more with less. Photo courtesy the artist. Artist Zack Wright, for a handful of followers of what we used to call IDM, will be a blast from the past. Recording as Deceptikon on labels like Merck and Daly City Records, Zack is back. His […]

This update I believe is worth a second post, as it makes visible the otherwise-mysterious algorithms producing music in our previous post. And yes, I believe this is “music,” naysayers aside. Whether it’s good music is in the ears of the listener, but if you can describe this much sound with this little code, imagine […]