I just picked up a $280 Asus netbook and installed Ubuntu on it. ReBirth seemed a perfect addition; its compact-sized UI, lightweight processing and memory requirements, and simple functions are the ideal companion to a netbook. And, thanks to Propellerhead, it also happens to be free. If you stick with Windows, just download and go. […]

Moognify II from Combo Square on Vimeo. Here’s an antidote to the trend toward virtual knobs, touchscreens, and mobility: a big-ass, tangible knob bigger than your head. That may be a slightly impractical idea, but behind it is something absolutely practical: a simple, open source OpenSoundControl to Control Voltage interface. Unlike MIDI’s standard Control Change […]

StepPolyArp for iPad controlling an Oberheim FVS from Logan Mannstrane on Vimeo. Logan Mannstrane sends in this lovely video combining an iPad MIDI step sequencer — with an Oberheim FVS. It’s a striking intersection of analog and digital technology. But I wanted to ask Logan to explain why he’d use the iPad in this case […]

cloud.data app from aaajiao on Vimeo. There’s something to be said for presentation. For cloud.data, a meditative, ambient particle and music application for iOS, simple gestures in fluid “cloud water” are treated inside various frames. In different iterations of the work, originally coded in Processing, the clouds have found themselves on scattered screens, in proscenium-style […]

The Canadian Broadcasting Centre, viewed from above. Photo (CC-BY-SA) Benson Kua. To me, a license is a tool: it’s a means to an end. But that means that the tool ought to be doing the job you chose for it. After news broke that the Canadian public broadcaster CBC was moving away from Creative Commons, […]

I’m late in posting this, but it’s too good to pass up – our friend Troels Folmann sends us his latest sound design experiment, this time with bees. Better audio: Bees by Tonehammer Specs: 200-230 wing flaps per second (hence the tone) Top speed: 15 mph. Compound eyes with thousands of tiny lenses plus simple […]

The Moog app sits on my iPod touch, next to its analog predecessor Moogerfooger. Yeah, okay, I still like the knobs better, but it is fun, and the Moogerfooger doesn’t fit in my pocket unless I wear really silly-looking overalls. Moog Music, they of the normally analog-only gear, have built their first iOS application. We’ve […]

It’s a little mind-boggling to me, but artist Sebastian Pirch has managed to use free, graphical patching environment Pure Data (Pd), with its graphical extensions Gem, to build a graphics engine. The Salzburg-based artist explains on the Pd forum (to incredulous Pd patchers): hehe…not kidding…honestly only pd-extended + gem modelling and texturing and particleFX in […]

Minimoog, photo (CC-BY) Ricardo Hurtubia. The Moog Minimoog has turned 40 years old. I got to write the cover story for this month’s Keyboard Magazine, following the history of the keyboard. I chronicled the details of the original Minimoog’s evolution largely through the accounts of Bill Hemsath, the man who built the first prototype of […]

I’m able to use this particular image as CDM is itself under a Share Alike license. Photo (CC-BY-SA) Andy Melton. I have no problem with copyrighting music. So I’ll be blunt: my ongoing impression of Creative Commons licensing is that you should either choose a license that allows for commercial use, or opt for traditional […]