Just because you have computers doesn’t mean you have to stop drawing and painting. It’s an obvious revelation, but merging physical and virtual technologies is an art in itself, one that’s just beginning to blossom. To bring environmental messages to life and illustrate the profound connection of the city of San Francisco to its watershed, […]
Music
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Music December 27, 2024
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Music Stories December 26, 2024
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Music December 24, 2024
Multi-Player Drumming: Handheld Open-Source Music for Nintendo DS
It’s drumming, the multi-player game. The Drummer is an open-source application for the Nintendo DS handheld, developed by Andrea Bianchi and Woon Seung Yeo and presented alongside a paper earlier this year at the NIME Conference (The International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression). As with any Nintendo homebrew software, you’ll need a special […]
Love and Modular Synths: Animation Behind the Scenes
Voltage from Bam Studio on Vimeo. For another way to visualize sound, over the summer Brazil’s Bam Studio sent us an animation imagining modular synths connecting to one another in an electrical, energy-filled trance. The animation is fantastic and injects plenty of traditional techniques into the digital work. Co-director William Paiva has added a making-of […]
Epic Projection Mapping: Theatre Facade Augmentation with OpenFrameworks
Eloi of playmodes sends in this beautiful, extended (20 minutes) projection mapping performance, for the Ingravid Festival, in Figueres, Spain. Telenoika Audiovisual Mapping @ Ingravid Festival, Figueres 9/2009 [FULL] from Telenoika on Vimeo. Created by Telenoika, this performance is a tour de force of established projection mapping techniques and styles: Virtual lighting, 3D augmentation and […]
Livid Block: Open Grid Button Controller Adds Knobs, Faders – and Choice
The grid is in. While the monome remains the standards bearer for hardware with grids of buttons on it, arrays of buttons are suddenly everywhere, in the commercial Akai APC40 and Novation Launchpad, and, from Livid Instruments, the Ohm64 and now the Block. I think it’s a real compliment to the monome’s creators – and […]
PlayBox and PlayLive: Multitouch Control of Ableton Live and Beyond
As computer music practice – part composition, part instrumental play – spreads, the idea of software interface as performance tool is becoming second nature. Putting those opposable thumbs and sensitive fingertips to work, multitouch controllers are growing in number, variety, and sophistication. Berlin-based artist Marco Kuhn shows off his beautiful creation, the PlayBox multitouch hardware, […]
Eigenharp Details: MIDI, High-Res Protocol, and Open Source Plans for the Space Bassoon
The Pico model may lack the impressive array of keys on the flagship Alpha, but when it ships next month it’ll cost well under a grand. And even the Pico promises high-resolution touch, velocity-sensitive keys that you can “bend” as well as press, and high-resolution breath input. The “space bassoon” Eigenharp seems to have landed […]
Handmade Music Spreads to Austin, Teaches You Awesomeness, Andromeda-Style
Autonomous bassline generators? Wireless, modular, infrared sync? Tiny drum machines networking together? Welcome to Texas, and the minds of Eric Archer, Bleep Labs, 4ms Pedals, the Church of the Friendly Ghost, and Andromeda Space Rockers. One look at a floor full of blinking circuits, and most ladies and gentleman might assume they’ve stumbled upon some […]
Handmade Music: Cybernetics, Wireless Beats, and Ingenious Sonic Circuits
four tiny drum machines from ALH84001 on Vimeo. Cybernetics is poised to make a comeback. The theory is, everything from electronic circuits to plants and animals can be understood in terms of feedback loops, as organisms – mechanical or organic – respond to input from their surroundings. The father of modern cybernetics, MIT mathematician Norbert […]
Details of SONAR 8.5, and the Dystopian Future in Which You Use It
What happens when you mix technical chatter on the Cakewalk forum, Samuel Beckett, and The Matrix? I’d wager you get something like the surreal video above. Prompted by the posting of technical details for a new update to Cakewalk’s SONAR production software for Windows, and empowered by a strange, new tool that generates eerie virtual […]