Ever wished you could pack the sonic goodness and programming power of a soft synth into a hardware box? Dreamed of software that lived in a road case and had the stability and power-on capability of your outboard gear? You’re certainly not alone. That meant many of us were intrigued when soft synth emulator house […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]