With its touchscreen input, compact size, internal Nintendo-style synth, and wireless Internet connection, the Nintendo DS has a lot of appeal for music use. The challenge is how to hook it up to a computer. TheRain has a hardware hack called DSMIDI: with a little soldering and hacking, you can connect the DS to a […]

Tobias, the talented creator of the NitroTracker homebrew software for Nintendo DS (see our DS homebrew roundup), sends us a new project: wireless MIDI control. The MIDI implementation is pretty clever: tap keys with the stylus to play them, and get vibrato/modulation by rubbing a key. You can send MIDI data from the DS, which […]

Wireless control has major appeal for VJs and live visualists: control visuals in different locations wirelessly, move about while performing, and, erm, grab a cocktail during your set. (Well, at least I occasionally want to do that last one. All without performing my dynamic performance, mind you.) There are commercial options like M-Audio’s wireless adapter, […]

We were already very excited about the DS-Xtreme (“DS-X”) when we first saw it. In brief, why the DS-X makes us drool: DS storage Play media files Run homebrew software Connect directly to a computer via USB No weird hardware sticking out of the back of your DS that could get broken (Previously: DS-Xtreme, Plug-and-Play […]

Homebrewers continue to dream up new ways of making music with mobile game systems. Sometimes the results are useful as actual tools, and sometimes they’re more of a fascinating novelty. In the latter category is the truly unusual Soundcells, a virtual “ukelele” inspired by the grid-based music interface of Toshio Iwai’s Tenori-On. The interface looks […]

The Wi-Fi link on the Nintendo DS makes it possible to harnass the game unit as a software controller, made more appealing by the DS’ two screens and touchscreen/stylus. In one very cool student project at the University Of Applied Science Hagenberg, a three-person team (Matthias Zauner, Ralph Windischhofer, and Martina Karan) has developed a […]

Homebrew compatibility and a USB port, on a DS Lite: pure heaven. Photo: Gizmodo.com “grope”. (Lucky bastards.) Homebrewed software is the key to making the Nintendo DS a platform for electronic musicians and not just mainstream gamers. The challenge, though, is getting homebrew software to work; unfortunately, piracy concerns have made the hardware somewhat less […]

Europeans tired of hearing the rest of the world talking about the imaginative music exploration game ElectroPlankton, now you can get your hands on it. Creator Toshio Iwai just got his European edition, as seen on his blog. He’s also taken the lovely photos of the packaging of the different editions shown. He deserves it: […]