Visualist Conversations: Joakim Faxvaag, Touring Lighting Designer and Visualist for Phoenix

After the madness of The Edge launch, I can now get back to doing some of the CDMo things I’ve been neglecting. One of which is actually talking to visualists who are touring around the world. Tonight I’ll be getting back to that, speaking to Joakim Faxvaag, who’s currently touring Australia with Phoenix. Joakim comes […]

Jaymis at The Edge: Webcast Live Today with Dot.AY, DZ, Simulcast

I’ve been reasonably quiet of late, and for that I apologize. I hope, though, that when you hear the reason, you’ll find it in the cold technological cores of your beings to forgive me. My government has seen fit to create an enormously amazing resource and incubator for technological artists. It’s called The Edge, and […]

A Plotter Draws Pictures of Guests, Through the Magic of Computer Vision

Old technology can take on new meaning, once injected with the intelligence of today’s software. And so it is that the plotter – the specialist printing gear invented in a decade past – is being given a new lease on life. With computer vision software, the free and open source OpenCV library, and the free, […]

Fast Fingers: Video, Mappings Shows You Pad Drumming on MPC, Ableton, Beyond

How to do mpc pad finger drumming from Brandon Murphy on Vimeo. Composer, musician, and drummer Brandon Murphy has put together a how-to video on playing and programming beats with a 4×4 grid. One reason to pay attention: he’s a real drummer, and had been just as skeptical about the value of all this as […]

US$50 Bliptronic 5000 Gets Monome Conversion, with Code

The monome meme continues to spread virally through your music gear. With some custom code (made freely available) and a little assistance from the free Arduino platform, Philly-based hacker Wil Lindsay has converted the $50 Bliptronic 5000 device from ThinkGeek into a monome. That gives you full compatibility with the community-made patches that support the […]

Generative Urbanism, Voxel City, via the Game of Life: Built in Processing

Take voxels (a way of representing volumes in pixels), add a little of John Conway’s legendary Game of Life system, and make architecture. The result: crazy-delicious generative urbanism, built in Processing. Like its precedent, Voxopolis begins with a set of conditions and variables that, when implemented, require no further human input for its subsequent generations. […]

Livid Builder: Modular DIY Music Controller Hardware System

Tired of needing xx more knobs or yy more pads or a specific feature in your control hardware? Ready to dive in and build your own? You’ve had a variety of options for some time that can help get you started, but Livid’s new Builder set of modular platforms is uniquely well-suited to the kinds […]

Scenes from Amsterdam’s Music Inventors: When Circuits, Code, and Concept Meet

Making your own instruments may not be for everyone, but getting to witness the bleeding edge of musical DIY can give real insight into how electronic music performance can work, and what matters in sound. Last week, the famous sound research center in Amsterdam STEIM generously hosted an edition of Handmade Music, inviting inventors to […]