You’ll want superb music on loop, because it may … take some time to get out of this puzzle. Musicians and artists now have the power to fuse visuals, sound, and interaction, to make a spectacle, an album, and a game all at once. But with the blank canvas of three different media before you, […]

Nosaj Thing Visual Show Compilation Test Shoot from Adam Guzman on Vimeo. Designing visualist work is often a baroque process of iterating through more and more layers, ornaments, and complexity. But it’s stunning, sometimes, how people respond to simple, elegant ideas. Adam Guzman‘s collaboration with Taiwanese-born, LA-based designer Julia Tsao yields this beautiful sequence of […]

The tracker is back. Piano rolls and fake multitrack tape turn out not to be the only way to conceptualize how music is put together in digital form. And Renoise is a terrific way to learn a ground-up approach to production, because you get the quick workflow of the tracker without having to sacrifice so […]

Alongside our Renoise + Indamixx netbook-optimized production competition, I’m kicking off this week a series of CDM and guest tutorials on working with Linux audio tools, Renoise, and more. First up, here’s a basic look at how to route the free-as-in-beer linuxDSP effects toolkit into the powerful, modern, open-source DAW Ardour. Correction: I implied that […]

Speaking of Processing, Rhizome at The New Museum (based here in New York) has an interview with Casey Reas and Ben Fry, the creators of Processing, authored by Dan Shiffman, my dissertation mentor and a major contributor himself to the community. My favorite answer comes from Casey Reas. It’s fashionable to talk about how constrains […]

I want to highlight a comment from a recent story in which I was reflecting on how to approach Processing, and – in a larger sphere – design simplicity. Tom writes: My opinion – the problem with Processing is that is not part of a software ecosystem. Flash is aligned with Illustrator and After Effects […]

At work in Renoise. Photo (CC) Federico Reiven [blog]. If you’re ready to show your skills creating digital music, we want your work. UPDATED! New contest entry page, new deadline (10/25): http://www.renoise.com/competitions/indamixx/ Plus tips, tracks, and more to give you additional inspiration: More with Less:”Efficient” Renoise Music Tracks and Tips Renoise, the "bottom-up" music production […]

All kinds of fun. Prolific German/New Zealandish artist The Rainbowmonkey unleashes Google Image Search on to Okyo, to spectacular effect. “Monster” by okyo from The Rainbowmonkey on Vimeo. This was basically my first attempt at motion-tracking. Heaps of masks made out of random google images. Some inaccurate tracking and rough motion do show the piece […]

All kinds of fun. Prolific German/New Zealandish artist The Rainbowmonkey unleashes Google Image Search on to Okyo, to spectacular effect. “Monster” by okyo from The Rainbowmonkey on Vimeo. This was basically my first attempt at motion-tracking. Heaps of masks made out of random google images. Some inaccurate tracking and rough motion do show the piece […]

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo. At the World Science Festival in June here in New York, specialists – including musical specialist Bobby McFerrin – gathered to ask what in music we humans hear universally, versus what is culturally specific. Is our […]