Brainpipe Interview: Creators of Trippy Indie Game Talk Interactive Sound

Funny, I’m usually able to “acheive” that most days. Ummm… art imitates life? Brainpipe is a psychedellic journey down the neural pathways, a long, strange trip into the minds of an unusual band of independent game designers. And while some games demand muscular graphics cards or brilliant flat panels, this is one that requires playing […]

Video Tutorial: Make Audio-Reactive Graphics with Flash, GrandVJ

Motion graphics / Web designer by day, VJ by night? Flash artist, looking for some way to put those coding skills into something that you can actually use in a live set? Or just trying to find a way to escape all those endlessly-looping videos to do something more connected with the music? The possibilities […]

Advanced Ableton Live Tutorial: Modular-Style Unlinked Envelopes, Effects

iproducer #4 – Unlink and Conquer + Bonus from Gustavo Bravetti on Vimeo. Exclusive to CDM (and Vimeo), Live guru Gustavo Bravetti offers a deep tutorial in sound creation in Ableton using “unlinked envelopes.” He assembles quasi-modular routings of effects into one another to create some unusual sounds. I think there are some inspiring techniques […]

Super Cute: Indie Rock Coloring Book

Super Cute Thursday (unplanned) continues, with an adorable indie rock coloring book. It’s hardly the first. STS9 and recently the lovely Riceboy Sleeps limited edition by Sigur Ros’ Jonsi and Alex came with coloring books. Perhaps inspired by musicians entering parenthood, it’s all the rage. If you can’t be pressured to select just one band […]

An Adorable Singing Note as Musical Instrument: Maywa Denki’s Otamatone

What’s the cutest conceivable musical instrument? It’d be tough to top an anthromorphic musical note, complete with eight-note flag, whose smiling face opens when it “sings.” Boing Boing Gadgets (by way of Tokyo Mango) gets the story on this latest creation of art group Maywa Denki and lead creative instigator Novmichi Tosa. The Otamatone is […]

Next Projection Frontier, Going 3D? Head Tracking, Stereoscopy

3D lovers will always have a special place in their hearts for the red and blue. Photo (CC) Zach Manchester. It’s time to enter a new dimension …the third dimension. With 3D engines easily able to handle multiple cameras, inexpensive systems for head tracking, and the growing ubiquity of not only red/blue stereoscopic glasses but […]

FL Studio 9 Arrives: Better Performance, More Toys, More Editing

Click through for FL’s infamous Giant Screenshot of FL 9. See, it’ll look perfect on your 40″ flat screen. Update: Despite discussion in comments, Image-Line assures us this is an image of FL9. We’ll have more shots once we try out the software, of course! “Fruity Loops” has long proven that not all music making […]

Pro Tools Bundles: $99-129, Hardware for Vocals, Recording, Keys

For people looking to get into music recording and production on a computer, for the first time, there’s a bundle that says “Pro Tools” on the box that costs correction: as little as just $99. It really is Pro Tools software; it’s certainly streamlined (some basic track limits, no multitrack recording), but still with a […]

Pro Tools Essentials and the Big Picture

A young, aspiring musician walks into a consumer electronics store. (Let’s call it Big Buy, and imagine people wearing… red polo shirts.) They wander into the game aisle and muse at the latest music games in the video game section – $60-100 in price. But there’s an endcap with something else: a box of Pro […]

Short Lapse, Time Remap: Ecological Apple and Simple Ideas

Simple, original ideas are wonderful. The vast majority of videos that “go viral” are based around a single, simple idea. The idea may be “anesthetized kids are funny”, or it may be “time-remapping a rotting apple makes it look magical:” Ecological apple (experimental short) from Andreas Soderberg on Vimeo. It´s a regular timelapse that i […]