The Bridge for Serato and Ableton: Public Beta, Manual Available

This image, via The Bridge 1.0 manual, reveals the “Ableton Panel,” by which Live appears as a sort of virtual device inside the Serato DJ app. We’ve known since January that Ableton Live, the live production software, and Serato Scratch Live, a leading virtual vinyl and DJ app, were to be connected with new software […]

DJ Control: Details on Denon, NI, Novation, And, Oh Yeah… Practicing

Great music vendors think alike? Denon also aims for the all-in-one DJ market, and those ready to drop a grand on one piece of kit that solves everything. Photo courtesy Denon. This week, DJing is in the spotlight as DJ Expo, a significant trade show, hits Atlantic City, New Jersey. So it’s a good time […]

Milkymist One, All-in-One Open Source VJ Workstation

Milkymist One is an all-in-one visualist workstation with a permissive open (Creative Commons) license. (The license note says, “Commercial use within the terms of the license is encouraged” — emphasis theirs.) The design is still in-progress and not available for sale, but it looks promising, with complete MIDI and DMX support, plus integrated video input […]

Visualist Controllers: Codanova's Drool-Worthy V64, Beer-proof Active8

Somehow in May, I missed the introduction of Codanova’s VMX V64. With a huge jog wheel in the center, button grid, and lots of faders and knobs, it presents an interesting, visualist-friendly MIDI controller alternative to Livid’s Ohm64. Like the Ohm64, it takes the square button trigger design cue from the monome, but eschews that […]

Visualist Controllers: Codanova’s Drool-Worthy V64, Beer-proof Active8

Somehow in May, I missed the introduction of Codanova’s VMX V64. With a huge jog wheel in the center, button grid, and lots of faders and knobs, it presents an interesting, visualist-friendly MIDI controller alternative to Livid’s Ohm64. Like the Ohm64, it takes the square button trigger design cue from the monome, but eschews that […]

NI Traktor Kontrol S4, Integrated DJ Hardware

As expected, Native Instruments has announced Traktor Kontrol S4, an all-in-one integrated hardware controller and software system for digital DJing. The hardware does look extensive. Highlights: Integrated audio interface Four-channel mixer section Full support for looping, effects control, browsing for tracks in the library Sample Decks, controlled from the hardware, allow beat-synced sample manipulation, with […]

SoundPrism – Colorful, Playable iPad App – and Organizing Tones and Harmony Visually

The iPad may be the catalyst, but look beyond the platform, and you’ll see a reinvigorated examination of how to think about musical interfaces. If you’re looking to relax and make some musical noises on your iPad, check out the videos above. It isn’t actually necessary to fully understand the design work behind the interface […]

Morning Reflections: Create () Music and Digital; Free ISO50 Music Mix

Digital memory, circa 1960s NASA, would be unrecognizable to us today. But it is digital. Photo contrasts an Apollo memory core (back) with modern avionics circuitry. Photo (CC-BY) Steve Jurvetson. The always-thoughtful Marc Weidenbaum of Disquiet picks up on my tongue-in-cheek comment, in which I question my own wisdom in dubbing this site “Create Digital […]

When Code and Visuals Meet Music: Ghostly International Collaborative at Eyebeam

Visual Music Collaborative 2010 from Aaron Meyers on Vimeo. Aaron Meyers and Aaron Koblin, each with their own background in expressive code and the connection of music and visuals, offered a terrific workshop last month at the Eyebeam research center here in New York. They involved Ghostly International, a label that has enlisted designers, interactive […]

New Music Listening, Free and Pay-What-You-Will: Shigeto to Squarepusher to Ambienteer

Squarepusher plays Rome in April of last year. Photo (CC-BY-ND) funkoolow. To take us into the weekend, here are some favorite online music releases this week to download, stream, and enjoy. Be sure to click over to the site if you’re on RSS for the included players if they’re not appearing.