Well, it’s official – the fact that you can beatbox with Google Translate has gone completely viral. I’ve even heard it crossing over into mainstream media (like the BBC mainstream). This also says to me that the Web could be fertile ground for creating musical toys that distract people from work. (Hmmm… okay, that may […]

Photo (CC-BY-ND) Atomic Sprinkles. A man named Don Waugh, friend of a CDM reader, is facing some serious challenges. He’s just lost his wife, and faces severe, possibly life-threatening health problems. There’s a campaign underway to get him a liver transplant. But Don doesn’t only want to fight for his health: he wants to make […]

Photo (CC-BY) magma666 / Scott. What’s truly wish-worthy? Is it a manuscript paper notebook? An iPhone app? A glitched-out hardware effect? A DAW? A sample library? A CD or book? Before we put together some of our own suggestions for this year’s gift guide, we want to hear from you. You can add to your […]

Kinect Skeleton Test from CADET on Vimeo. Kinect hacking, worldwide, continues unabated, taking the tool from proof-of-concept depth tests to something that could actually prove the basis of real media. The killer app, it seems, will be interactive art, as Kinect’s ability to interact with someone in space is ideal for the kinds of interactions […]

X Racer from Gadget Gangster on Vimeo. The Propeller Platform is open-source hardware with a mighty 8-core Parallax Propeller chip as its brain. Like the Arduino, it comes as a simple protoboard. But unlike the Arduino, the Propeller board is loaded with I/O pins and can output video and audio without much modification. It also […]

Chronome Prototype from FlipMu on Vimeo. The monome is defined as much by what it isn’t as what it is: it’s monochromatic, it uses only on/off binary buttons, and that’s part of its beauty. But what if it weren’t that? What if a monome could do color, and velocity sensitivity? As both engineering problem and […]

Google Translate’s pronunciations may or may not impress you, but the thing’s got some beatboxing skills. Reddit user harrichr notes a fun result: 1) Go to Google Translate 2) Set the translator to translate German to German 3) Copy + paste the following into the translate box: pv zk pv pv zk pv zk kz […]

Hardware workflows can be musically productive and rock-solid reliable. But why choose between hardware and software? Combine them. DirectEMX is a VST Editor for a Korg Electribe MX. Now, why would you want to drag a mouse around when you have physical knobs? DirectEMX has a number of answers to that. You can copy and […]

TuioKinect from Martin Kaltenbrunner on Vimeo. Post hacking, Kinect is starting to look like it could be a do-anything controller in the mold of Nintendo’s Wii remote. Martin Kaltenbrunner, of ReacTable fame, has already posted a convenient application that maps gestures from Kinect to TUIO. (TUIO is a lightweight set of message specs atop OSC, […]

Reasons to be thankful: it seems we’re at the beginning of an explosion of projected digital imagery as medium, with the best yet to come. And some of the most compelling work right now deals with the most elemental qualities of this medium, how light and space interact. Take the work of hc gilje. He […]