Supposedly this computer and the idea of a QWERTY keyboard are dead, but you may have to pry them each out of someone’s cold, dead fingers in order to get them back. Photo (CC-BY) Tobias Carlsson. The question of whether there will ever be any music apps for any non-iOS mobile platform is apparently bothering […]

For everyone who imagined something just like this, here it is. Apple is getting into mobile music production with a US$4.99 version of GarageBand that runs on iPad. It looks very impressive for a $5 app – which could be bad news for other music developers trying to set higher pricing for more serious apps. […]

What can a new digital synth be in 2011? How will it work and sound? And given access to so many excellent tools, how can it stand apart? In place of a press release and some marketing-speak, developer Christopher Penrose (Leisuresonic, Cosmovox) sent us an extended essay explaining his thinking behind his just-released SynthTronica synth […]

Teaching has its moments of reward and frustration in equal measure, but I’m of the belief that there are no limits to the new ideas that can grow out of groups of engaged students. In fact, it’s often in the first draft, the first experiment, the first time a student has tried something that I […]

Saturn Never Sleeps, the band and label, released a new free compilation late last night to send love and thanks to DJ Kool Herc, the pioneering Jamaican-born DJ who gave birth to the hip-hop age in the West Bronx, New York City. I’m honored to have been part of the compilation along with a broad […]

The futurists are on the side of 3D, even with silly-looking glasses and 19th-century stereoscopy, while luddites rail against it just because they don’t know any better? Think again. A good, long look at Super Mario Brothers might just change the way you think about time in media – seriously. The advent of photography and […]

The futurists are on the side of 3D, even with silly-looking glasses and 19th-century stereoscopy, while luddites rail against it just because they don’t know any better? Think again. A good, long look at Super Mario Brothers might just change the way you think about time in media – seriously. The advent of photography and […]

Looking to recollection for inspiration, the artist Adam Young, aka Direwires, has a new LP for Moodgadget. Photo by Melissa Upfold; used by permission of the artist. Somewhere at the boundaries of “ambient” and “experimental,” there’s a great deal of wonderful music being made these days. Even with great labels behind them, it’s the sonic […]

Shared dreams, indeed: welcome to Hollywood. And in 2011, the music and soundscapes of blockbuster films suddenly seem very much like the future of our dreams, from ground-breaking surround sound to interactive music to scores combining low-fidelity and high – and one breaktakingly-terrific score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that stands on its own. […]

In our monster MeeBlip round-up the other day, I mentioned the stunning enclosure Michael Roebbeling made for his DIY synth kit. But that’s not all Michael has built. He’s also created a lovely, simple step sequencer with Arduino. It’s a beautiful combination of all open-source hardware, MeeBlip and Arduino. Surprisingly, it’s his first try at […]