Going ultra-mobile: Korg’s nanoKEY controller plus a svelte, two-and-a-half-pound netbook running Linux and energyXT. Laptops for music are nothing new. But better versions of Linux make no-hassle music production easier and more powerful – and new netbooks make it cheap and ultra-portable, too, for times when even that 15” laptop feels clunky. Netbooks aren’t for […]

Guitarist/composer/musician Christopher Willits is on faculty for the dubSpot series. Photo (CC) Buzz Andersen. dubSpot, the West Coast + East Coast music technology training center is doing an eight-city tour of the US to talk about Ableton Live 8 and the Akai APC40 controller. They’re enlisting some of my favorite people to do the workshops. […]

Photo: Sascha Pohflepp (bottom), watz (top). I’m now headed to Newark Airport to fly to Portugal for the amazing OFFF conference. Don’t be jealous, though, if you can’t make it – expect plenty of coverage for both CDMs. (My talk Saturday will actually be more music-focused than visual, though as you know, the lines are […]

Putting complex political issues into the form of art sometimes falls on its face. But art’s unique power to personalize and make big issues specific can be a powerful asset. We were already big fans of the animation work of Beeple, but the latest, hand-animated digital creation is especially poetic. It’s an essay on consumption, […]

Commercial music producer Benn Jordan (recording as The Flashbulb) stumbled upon David Attenborough’s 1984 documentary series that was, in the creator’s words, “more in touch with nature than any other.” Along with the BBC he and his crew geared up for the endeavor–and they would risk their lives and careers to do so. The result, […]

The pocketable DJ tool Pacemaker is now available here in the US at $499. That price is considerably more realistic than expected pricing earlier on, though it still fits in a funny sort of slot: it’s not quite the equivalent of pro DJ gear, which costs much more, but it’s still pricier than your run-of-the-mill […]

It’s easy to forget how deeply strangers can be connected by music in recordings and performances. Sadly, we too often take this connections for granted until we lose someone. When Telefon Tel Aviv’s Charlie Cooper passed away earlier this year, the loss sent shockwaves through the electronic music community. Because his work was influential for […]

D-func, one third of German DVJ trio Weissgold.TV, picked up a Lemur [on CDMo, on CDMu] a couple of weeks ago, and has put together a fantastic custom interface which controls VDMX [on CDMo] over two machines. VIDVOX Forums – I finally found my perfect set-up! VDMX’s UI customization is one of its biggest strengths, […]

If you hate modern samplers with all their supposed fidelity, longing instead for the glitchy digital distortion of samplers past, a DIY project has brought you the sounds you love. “Where’s the Party At?” has been inspiring tingly sensations in digital lovers since I first wrote about it in September. Now, the kit version is […]

There are always more events than we can post for a site with global readership. We’re working on an interactive CDM event calendar – suggestions welcome. But in the meantime, here are a couple of events that I hope some CDMers can attend and document for the site, because I wish I could be there. […]