Akai was one of the music manufacturers that stole the show at this year’s NAMM trade conference. The simple reason: the APC is a rare combination of a whole mess of colored buttons with a whole bunch of faders and knobs. Now, the APC’s big selling point is its out-of-box experience with Ableton Live. Contrary […]

DIY 3D Scanner from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo. Kyle McDonald sends us a hacked-together 3D scanner. I love that it’s slightly inaccurate in aesthetically-pleasing ways, I love that it’s something you can put together using stuff you already have at the ready, and I love that it’s powered by Processing. The applications could range from […]

Fore? Photo: Dan Perry. Folks, we have a lot of work ahead of us. To wrap up the thread I started, the plot in US politics, in the space of a few short weeks, has gone something like this: 1. A new Administration could bring new vision to making the arts part of the economy. […]

It’s called “Handmade Music,” but I’m hopeful CDM’s ongoing DIY party in Brooklyn will start to add more visualists. Jay Smith of Livid has made an appearance, and most recently we were able to feature the wonderful, circuit-bent Nintendo console motion art of noteNdo (Jeff Donaldson), pictured above. We have a lovely projector ready to […]

AntiVJ, that projection mapping luminary, has shared some behind the scenes video of a live painting and projection mapping performance in December 2008. AntiVJ – Live Painting: Shackleton from AntiVJ on Vimeo. It’s fantastic to see this kind of process stuff, and a beautiful reminder that projection mapping doesn’t need to be paired with 3D […]

Enough of the empty cheerleading. Web-only networking can have a dark side, too — and the music community can do better. Playing devil’s advocate this week to one-dimensional Web 2.0 optimism, we welcome Dave Dri, musician, producer, and founder of Segue. -PK I write a column for a weekly street press magazine in Australia. The […]

Nothing digital here, but for any fans of sound exploration, there’s still plenty to inspire, regardless of the level of tech you’re using. It’s time again for Handmade Music, the party – musical performance – science fair geek-out for musicians and the musi-curious. We’ve got an amazing lineup this month if you happen to be […]

This time tomorrow (6PM AEST, 8AM GMT, 3AM New York), I’ll be streaming live with AV turntablist Sampology from the Game Over party at the State Library of Queensland. Following on from our previous Game On Set. Sam will be kitted out with Serato’s Video-SL (review on CDMo), and I’ll be bringing a brace of […]

After our previous performance at Game On, Sampology and I have been asked to return to the State Library of Queensland to wind up the Game On exhibition with a bigger, brighter, geeklier AV turntablist set, which we’ll be streaming live tomorrow night. You’ve already seen what Sam can do with Serato Video-SL (as reviewed […]

Following GarageBand has long been a good way to follow what improvements might be in store for Apple’s flagship Logic. And many Logic users use GarageBand as a sketchpad for bigger sets – Apple, of course, hope that GarageBand is a gateway drug to their delicious higher-end studio. GarageBand ’09 is no exception. New Models […]