Tascam’s New $99 Portable Stereo Recorder, with Pitch Control

There was a time when Tascam was associated with cheap, solid mobile gear for recording, like the Portastudio. The handheld DR-03 could be a landmark for a more digital age. It’s just US$99 for a microSD recorder with built-in stereo mic in a package Tascam describes as “smaller than an energy bar.” It’s designed to […]

SoundCloud + TuneCore Get Your Music Sold Online; Hear Some Artists

Whether or not the ability to use TuneCore as a way to get an iTunes Ping page piqued your interest, if you’re generally interested in selling your music online, here’s some more interesting news. SoundCloud has teamed up with TuneCore to allow you to sell singles and albums in a variety of online stores, including […]

Want to Get on iTunes Ping? TuneCore Artist Ping Pages Go Live

Look, it’s not Katy Perry! Yes, individual artist pages are possible on Ping. TuneCore can help make the process easy. Shown here: singer/songwriter Andrew Belle, who helped TuneCore document the process. Check out his artist page in iTunes. What’s a social network for music discovery if there aren’t any artists? As covered previously, Apple’s Ping […]

Inter-App Visuals on Mac: Syphon API Opens Up Visual Collaboration

Syphon Teaser from vade on Vimeo. In the audio realm, piping audio and MIDI between apps is commonplace (see ReWire, JACK, Soundflower, IAC MIDI, etc.). But imagine if you could take textures and frames from one app and share them, live and real-time, with another app. That’s the vision of Syphon, a Mac-only, open-source framework […]

MapMapMap: Projection Mapping Made Easy, for Modul8

Mapping projections to shapes other than rectangles should be an essential technique, but while live visualism and VJing are all about being improvisatory, the process can be laborious. Enter an elegantly-designed tool that makes the whole job easy, distorting your projected image to any shape you like with the aid of keyboard and mouse shortcuts. […]

Drawing Sound: Crazy Touch Interface Sound Experiments with Usine, PC

The quickest route to expressing an idea remains the gesture of a hand. That gesture may be crudely interpreted through today’s touch displays, but the immediacy remains. Presumably because of some of the device’s limitations, a lot of the experiments with the iPad have involved controllers that operate independently from sound software, like a remote […]

CDM in Stockholm, Android for Music and Visual Apps, Call for Swedish Artists

(CC-BY) Stefan Lins. I’ll be in Stockholm the week of 27 September, speaking at Stockholm’s Android Only conference Wednesday/Thursday 29-30. I’m particularly excited by the lineup, because it emphasizes pushing the envelope of Android and cross-platform development. I’ll talk about how Processing for Android can allow “sketching” audiovisual apps on mobile. Martin Roth of RjDj […]

Video Hands-on: Livid Ohm64 Controller + Resolume Avenue Software

Trigger, mix, effects… there are certain things you need to do as a visualist, and the combination of buttons with faders and encoders on the Ohm64 controller from Livid was clearly designed by visualists. The monome-style grid does indeed lend itself well to triggering, but you also need parameter control for mixing different channels and […]

Faderfox 4midiloop: True, Four-deck, Four-effect Traktor Control

Let’s face it: a lot of people ignore the four-deck features of Traktor. But for those who exploit that power, and who are willing to invest in a high-end, boutique design, here’s the controller for you. Faderfox has long been respected for making boutique-quality MIDI controllers for DJing and Ableton Live performance. The previous Faderfox […]

New Compact USB MIDI Keyboards from Alesis, KORG, and a Plea

The svelte compactness of a laptop poses a challenge for computer musicians: how do you play the thing? A typically-sized music keyboard kills the laptop’s portability and small footprint. That makes a compact keyboard a no-brainer. This month, both Alesis and Korg have new compact offerings, each USB-powered, small, and cheap. And as a side […]