Virtuoso coder and prolific digital artist Kyle McDonald is at it again, here in collaboration with similarly expressive and skilled coder Arturo Castro. Together, working in openFrameworks, they make use of a face tracking library to turn the image of a face into new, terrifying visions once imagined only in science fiction. Here, going beyond […]

In Toronto this Friday, we’ll be connecting with InterAccess Gallery in a celebration of DIY, adventurous music making, and blipping synthesizers. It’ll also be the first public debut of the new MeeBlip micro, a pocket-sized version of our MeeBlip open source hardware synth. Part of why I’m excited to be hacking away with the fine […]

It’s finished … but Dubspot will have follow-up video of the event soon. Streaming live from Dubspot in New York, Martin Kaltenbrunner and I are talking about interface design and music, in the context of his Reactable tangible interface. Join us, ask some questions, and stay tuned for more video after the session is done. […]

Cyril Stoller shares this project, for a variety of multitouch devices (Mac / Windows / Linux / Android, screens and projection) through the also-free-and-open-source Kivy framework. It’s inspired by the brilliant Haken Continuum fingerboard, but whereas that more tactile controller is hard to get, this runs cheaply all over the place. (It could also be […]

Visualist Charlie Visnic is making beautiful, compact short films, mixing meticulously-constructed, delicate music with stunning imagery. The visual side always ventures into ephemeral realms, unseen worlds and micro-photography. For instance, behold Jared Smyth’s series Morning Music + Coffee Consumption, shot here by Charlie. That’s not just advice to the viewer: the series is shot in […]

SodaSynth runs natively in Chrome. With soft synths a dime a dozen, how do you set yourself apart? Defying conventions is a pretty good start, and a team of developers who built the Mixxx open source DJ tool are doing just that. SodaSynth from Oscillicious is a soft synth with a different approach. With no […]

Here’s a software release I don’t think most observers saw coming: Roland has new software for computers and iPads that lets you edit visually. The underlying VariPhrase technology is familiar from other Roland products, though combined here with something Roland calls V-Remastering. The upshot is this: you begin with a heat map-like visual of a […]

It’s small, but I think it’ll be pretty huge. We’ve seen plenty of guitar audio interface adapters out there. Here’s the dirty little secret: they’re pretty awful. Because they connect to the audio jack of the iPhone or iPad, there are issues with impedance matching and noise / signal-to-noise. (Read: they don’t sound great. I’ve […]

3D projection mapping seems to be exploding in its commercial potential, as big-impact, architectural-scale visuals themselves become a medium. We’ve followed the work of German-born, Italy-based artist Roberto Fazio before. Here’s the latest example, which is not only documented but includes some behind-the-scenes insights into production. Lots o’ details below, plus a showreel:

MOTU’s MachFive sampler, while perhaps not getting the kind of attention rivals from NI and Steinberg have, has had in its history some compelling features. Those features were in a multi-window interface, though, that not all of us loved – while I can’t find the review, I know when I covered it for Keyboard, I […]