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 […]

Future Cities, Augmented Dystopias, in a Visionary City Competition

Augmented City 3D from Alpha Ville on Vimeo. “Visionary Cities” is described as “an international moving image competition in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery, Vimeo, FilmDirecting4Women.” The competition, hosted on Vimeo, will close voting at the end of this week from five top picks that imagine cities of the future. Through Friday, “Like” one of […]

Novation Returns to Virtual Analog Hardware Legacy with $699 UltraNova

UK-based Novation are known these days mainly for making MIDI controller keyboards for computers, but the company first made its name in synths. Novation’s virtual analog synths were beloved for their distinctive sound, accessibility – both in price and ease, and compact design. And some of that legacy, frankly, has been missing in recent years, […]

Artist, Software Maker, monomist makingthenoise, Talks His New Album

mtn, at work in his bedroom studio, in medium-format film glory. All photos courtesy the artist. Artists and engineers, coders and musicians – maybe once these were perceived as separate cultures, but today, you can find people tap-dancing across the categories with ease – people like Adam. Adam Ribaudo, aka makingthenoise, is known in the […]

First Look: Minimoog Voyager XL, Now Official, is a New Monster

The 40th anniversary of the Minimoog hits this year: that’s four decades since the original reshaped the very notion of what a synthesizer looks like. Moog Music has answered with a real beast. It returns the core of the Minimoog Model D, but with the Voyager’s stable oscillators, patch storage, signature X/Y touch surface, pot […]

In/Out Preview: Sounds, Sights, Thoughts, and Free Protofuse Download

Rosa Menkman (NL) re-imagines her digital self; part of the visual lineup for In/Out in New York next week. What is essential or new to the craft of fabricating electronic music? Who are we, today, as digital artists? As a certain natural sameness descends on some computer-based music performance as the medium matures, artists at […]

Apple iOS Updates: Key Restrictions Removed, New Library Access and DJ Apps

(CC-BY) Yutaka Tsutano. In a surprise update, Apple has made significant changes to its developer agreement, coinciding with the release of OS 4.1. It would seem that Apple is in fact responding to widespread criticism of vague language and specific restrictions. I expect much will be made of what this means for Flash, but I […]