Live Artists as Free Ableton Live Artist Packs, Via Puremagnetik

I love the idea of artists translating their work into interactive packs of sonic exploration – like releasing an album for fellow electronic musicians. If you’re enjoying our exclusive 808 “less cowbell” Live Pack for Ableton Live and want more sound goodness for free, good news. Puremagnetik has released a set of entirely free “artist […]

Free Exclusive Ableton Operator Download: “Less Cowbell” 808 Sounds, New EP

The simple interface of Ableton’s Operator belies some truly lovely soundmaking capabilities. Our friend Francis Preve, a principle Ableton sound designer who has contributed hundreds of presets since 2004, has a new single out that makes use of some of those sonic possibilities, combining Operator with juicy spectral and granular effects in Live 7. As […]

Resolume Avenue 3 Arrives: Live Audiovisual Performance Tool, Mac+Windows

Resolume Avenue 3 Getting Started from Resolume on Vimeo. It’s officially shipping: Resolume Avenue 3 is a new live audiovisual performance tool for Mac and Windows, a complete, ground-up successor to the legendary PC-only VJ app Resolume. In fact, Resolume Avenue 3 demonstrates why the term “VJ” should become a relic of the past. Resolume […]

How to Datamosh with Free Video Tools, "Datamosh" is the Wrong Word, David O'Reilly is Also Wrong

In which this humble author, with tongue sometimes planted in cheek: 1. Shares a how-to video on datamoshing. 2. Forbids the use of the word datamoshing in future. 3. Challenges obscenely-gifted motion artist David O’Reilly to a rumble. Here’s the story so far: there’s a compression artefact created when videos are compressed improperly, which causes […]

How to Datamosh with Free Video Tools, "Datamosh" is the Wrong Word, David O'Reilly is Also Wrong

In which this humble author, with tongue sometimes planted in cheek: 1. Shares a how-to video on datamoshing. 2. Forbids the use of the word datamoshing in future. 3. Challenges obscenely-gifted motion artist David O’Reilly to a rumble. Here’s the story so far: there’s a compression artefact created when videos are compressed improperly, which causes […]

How to Datamosh with Free Video Tools, “Datamosh” is the Wrong Word, David O’Reilly is Also Wrong

In which this humble author, with tongue sometimes planted in cheek: 1. Shares a how-to video on datamoshing. 2. Forbids the use of the word datamoshing in future. 3. Challenges obscenely-gifted motion artist David O’Reilly to a rumble. Here’s the story so far: there’s a compression artefact created when videos are compressed improperly, which causes […]

Crowdsourced Vocal Synthesis: 2000 People Singing “Daisy Bell”

Bicycle Built for Two Thousand from Aaron on Vimeo. The song “Daisy Bell” has a special place in computer history. Max Mathews, who had by the late 50s pioneered digital synthesis using IBM 704 mainframe, arranged the tune in 1961 for vocoder-derived vocal synthesis technology on technology developed by John Larry Kelly, Jr.. Kelly himself […]

Instructable: How to Build a Music Studio in an Apartment

“Building an apartment studio” to many of us means adding a laptop, clearing off a desk, and donning some headphones. But Brooklyn-based Katherine Belsey Davis, who does all sorts of wonderful (non-musical) things in wood, glass, fabric, and other materials, had lofty plans for a NYC studio job: Since this studio was built for mixing […]

Body Imaging to Skeleton Animation: Convert Medical Scan Images with Irfanview

On Monday I had a CT scan. If you haven’t already, every visualist should go for a ride in a computed tomography machine. It’s the best mix of futuristic medicine and video geekness I’ve ever encountered. As happens with most medical imaging these days, I came away with both a collection of printed films and […]

Host Windows VSTs on Mac? (Yes, But Not as Easily as on Linux)

Now that Macs run Intel processors, what was once unimaginable is suddenly possible. There’s certainly no shortage of plug-ins available on Mac OS, but users may still have Windows plug-ins they miss. Released as beta today from SM Pro Audio, VFX is an app that lets you host your PC plug-ins on your Mac: VFX […]