The Machine Orchestra explodes the idea of a laptop orchestra, building a full-blown machine ensemble of the future. We turn to guest writer Jordan, a member of the ensemble, to look behind the scenes in a couple of articles. Rejoin us for part two later this week. -Ed. Welcome to the world of Dr. Ajay […]

Beat Kangz, the upstart drum machine maker out of Nashville, has been cooking up a new device for some time. That creation, the Beat Thang, is finally nearing production. It may not have a nameplate like Akai or Roland, but I can testify that this independently-designed gadget may nonetheless be one to watch. The hardware […]

Behold, the power of GNU! Photo (CC-BY-SA Demet. I love Windows. And by “love,” of course, I mean “tolerate grudgingly.” After all, good as Mac OS X is, running Windows means the ability to get the latest-and-greatest graphics drivers, run-on-anything hardware capabilities, promising new multitouch laptops, terrific gaming, wonderful visual tools like vvvv, quick-and-dirty video […]

Ms. Pinky Revised from Mastah Lee on Vimeo. What should DJing in Ableton Live look like? How could conventional vinyl cueing and scratching be integrated with the Live environment? Serato and Ableton gave us one possible answer to that question last week with The Bridge. Their solution: use your Serato DJ set normally, and simply […]

Through my adventures with the Herovision project and Game On (previously on CDMo), I’ve posted a bit about Rock Band and rhythm gaming. Alongside the recent public beta release of Rock Band Network, Peter posted a QA with some more technical details on how the process works. As digital creatives and performers, I can imagine […]

Album artwork by Pau Cabruja (www.pauk.org) . Artists and creators around the world have been moved by the suffering of Haitians in the wake of last week’s earthquake. There are ways we can help, like giving to relief organizations to give them the capacity to respond wherever needed. The next crisis could be halfway across […]

Compact cameras like the Kodak Zi6 (or my shiny, new, optical image-stabilizing HD Zi8) sure are convenient. They also do some weird things with their video and audio encoding. ffmpeg to the rescue. Image (CC-BY) Ofer Deshe. I freaking love ffmpeg. This command-line utility, backed by one of the most versatile video engines anywhere, can […]

Dave’s got a new keyboard, and the headline gives it all away: it’s a Mopho, but adding keys and more control, all for $800. There’s a myth out there that the computer music user and hardware synth lover are two different people. Au contraire, mon ami. Thanks, indeed, to Dave Smith himself, the computer and […]

Photo (CC-BY-ND) Matt McGee. Video editing on Linux can work — I’ve seen some terrific stuff. The trick is figuring out the proper configuration. Before you say, “ah, yes, you’ve just terrified me into never touching Linux again” — this post isn’t for you. For you, the idea is for us to research some of […]