Roland’s Messe show announcements include two releases that caught my eye. I’ll be honest: some of Roland’s recent gear, while it sells really well, just doesn’t reach me emotionally. But these new announcements strike me as having two key ingredients: afford ability and that elusive fun factor. There’s a (mercifully) cheaper, more compact shoulder-mounted keyboard, […]

Elektron, those Swedish makers of the fabulously-beloved Machinedrum drum machine, have a range of new announcements this morning. They herald the power and appeal of digital hardware, gear made for people who have grown up with computer. The biggest news, of course, is the announcement of the Octatrack. Coming later this year, but shown in […]

With full-blown computers as competition, how do you make sequencing with buttons irresistible? While I was in icy Stockholm last month, I got a look inside Teenage Engineering’s studio, where their upcoming OP-1 instrument continues its gestation. The (literal) garage workshop is the sort of thing a lot of us dream of having: a room […]

There’s the music player, the device in your home or your pocket on which you listen to the album. And there’s the concert experience, where you have a couple of longnecks and get sweaty and dance with your friends to live musicians. But wait a minute – now the musicians are using computers and music […]

Insert “Paparazzi” song here. A Bay Area photographer, gone to the dogs. Photos courtesy the artist. Technologies come and technologies go. But when media themselves become out of date, as with film stock, an entire form of creative expression is threatened. The same mass-manufactured magic that enables modern, high-tech art can also take away the […]

Numerology 2.3 & the Launchpad : Demo 1 from Five12 on Vimeo. Remember the sequencer? There seem to be thousands of ways of firing up an FM synth or sampled keyboard, but when it comes to the process of actually assembling musical patterns – you know, the stuff music is made of – your choices […]

Spin the wheel, get an app! The Adobe wheel of icons, as realized (CC-BY) Charles Williams. When Adobe announced 64-bit After Effects in the fall, they listed a number of benefits users would reap from the transition: Performance for high-resolution formats, like working with 4K images from the RED camera. (They even went so far […]

Could busking – street music performance – be a tool for social change? It’s an idea I’ve heard artists mull before. Here’s one opportunity to do just that next month, in April, in support of building badly-needed school facilities in southern Zambia. And yes, digital musicians can participate, thanks to terrific, affordable, battery-powered amplification. I […]

Lovely layouts, but it raises the question: will we increasingly see software that simply looks like this, so that the touch controller and soundmaking software are one and the same? The iPad could have its first killer controller app, if you like the looks of midipad. While just a series of screenshots at this point […]

Austin is whirling with South by Southwest excitement, so why not make some swirly radio noises? Yes, Handmade Music Austin does have a big blowout party in the midst of South by, with a huge music lineup. Wish I could be there, gang, but I’ll be staying here in NYC. On the docket: FREE performances […]