NOISEPLUG from smider on Vimeo. The art of making sound software and the art of making electronic music can be closely bound with one another. That means tools that embody a certain compositional idea. You can choose to use them or abuse them – or simply gain some insight into the sonic imaginations of the […]

Media Browser – Loading and Organizing from Vidvox on Vimeo. VDMX5 from Vidvox has really demonstrated what a semi-modular visual tool can be, with an open-ended set of live visual tools and powerful support for Mac features like Quartz Composer. It can be daunting to really wrap your head around, but once you do, it’s […]

MIDI in Ardour – and now, Ardour suddenly becomes viable for a wide swath of users. If a free and open source DAW sounds like a tall order, it is. And so it’s little surprise that Ardour 3, the biggest upgrade to this solid music production workstation, has been a long time coming. What might […]

While the object of both vigorous praise and criticism, music games have helped people see music and musical interfaces in new ways. Masaya Matsuura (PaRappa the Rapper) is known as the father of that genre. With a new title, you can try out his latest music gaming concept for free, on iPod touch and iPhone. […]

Retro chip music appeal and the occasional Super Mario Bros. game aside, you probably think of the Nintendo NES and Famicom system as something collecting dust at garage sales. You probably don’t think of this NES running as a self-contained music production workstation, syncing to MIDI and Android, or exploiting new software for producing elaborate […]

Ishihara – English version from Yoav Brill on Vimeo. In an exquisite short film, animator Yoav Brill of Tel Aviv, Israel, tells a story entirely with dots. “Ishihara” draws its name and inspiration from the visual tests used to detect color blindness. The story becomes a poignant reflection on difference. The film was just translated […]

Made In Iron 2 from Matti Niinimäki on Vimeo. Matti Niinimäki of Finland has combined a common household chore with music control. He transforms an iron and ironing board into a wireless music controller, capable of generating wobble bass, slicing beats, sampling, and anything else he might devise. The ironing board itself is self-contained, sensing […]

I’ve begun to dread the appearance of iPad jams in my inbox; you may feel the same way. When affordable digital synths were new in the 80s, there were various embarrassing videos as vendors like Casio showed off the new capabilities. Listen! Who needs a real trumpet when you can use a keyboard that sounds […]

Procrastinatus Part I from procrastinat.us on Vimeo. Procrastinatus Part II from procrastinat.us on Vimeo. A/V crew Procrastinatus send us their latest: it’s over an hour of a live set, fusing stylish silver-and-monochrome abstract visual loops with tightly-composed sounds. The project is the work of Emil Bardh, Olof Schröder, Emmanuel and Jonatan Moreno, working in the […]

Photo (CC-BY) JD Hancock. We users may sometimes gripe, but music technology gives us an impossibly wide variety for which to be thankful. From free (as in beer, as in freedom) to high-end and spendy, from software plug-in to acoustic instrument to solid-state electronics to toy, you’d run out of time and money long before […]