Interview: Anika, Working with Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, Makes an Album You Don’t Have to Like

Perhaps it’s something of an irony, here on a site that heralds shiny technology, but there is a longing among many musicians to return to something raw and unvarnished in music. There’s discontentment in the ranks of the techno-futurists, enough to sow the seeds of rebellions. If that feeling could be given a voice, Anika […]

Eclectic Method Remix Charlie Sheen

This was pretty much inevitable. A/V duo Eclectic Method (“UK via Brooklyn”) have worked their magic with a Charlie Sheen remix. (Assuming they still work in Sony Vegas for their tight edits.) What happens when you mix audio and visuals, as we so often advocate here on this site? Bi-winning. Sound and image. You win […]

Intricate Live Audiovisuals by Idiron, Now in Tutorials and Patches for Max for Live

Live visualists and electronic musicians still explore how to make the computer a live performance instrument. But going one step further, fused visuals and sound can become the real-time, dynamic substance of a performance. Artist Idiron (aka Gilbert) writes to share his technique for live audiovisuals. It’s a ground-up, handcrafted process that begins with raw […]

Video Diversion: Poking Fun at Point-and-Shoot Camera Modes

I always knew Sony was actually trying to kill me. With all this talk of serious matters, programming, and such, it seemed the right time for a diversion. No further comment. The project is the work of Sheep Films.

Cooking up Sounds, with One Synthesizer Every Day

John Keston of Audio Cookbook sends in a fascinating project: he’s producing one sound each day from a different synthesizer. Sounds like a great way to build up a library of sounds. He writes: On January 5, 2011 I started a new project on AudioCookbook.org called “One Synthesizer Sound Every Day”. It’s in the vein […]

HDMI Now on iPad, iPad2, and Android Honeycomb; HDMI Tablet VJ, Anyone?

Tablet? Check. HDMI output? Check. Mixer? Fail. Apple’s new Digital AV Adapter, announced today [see Apple Store link], is pretty darned near perfect for the iPad performer. It might just be better news for the readers of this site than the iPad itself. At US$39, it includes both HDMI and USB ports – meaning you […]

There Will Never Be Another Music Production Platform. Ever.

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 […]

Apple Gets Into iPad Music with $5 GarageBand

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. […]

Imagining a Tablet Synth: Developer Christopher Penrose Shows Us SynthTronica for iPad

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 […]

Kinect in Teaching: Playful Puppets, Terrains, Lighting, and More Breakthroughs

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 […]